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Picture of a news article with a black and white photo of Aretha Franklin at the top

When The Movement Was Strong And Culture Was A Weapon: From 1970’s Aretha to 2012 Beyonce | Kamau

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1970's news article on Aretha Franklin's heroic gesture to pay bail for then recently arrested Angela Davis has been circulating on facebook. Aretha offered to pay bail stemming from the capture of Angela Davis in New York after a massive FBI woman hunt in 1970. Ms. Davis was charged with murder, kidnapping and conspiracy for allegedly supplying weapons for an attempted courtroom escape led by Jonathan Jackson to free his brother and revolutionary leader George Jackson. Angela Davis already well known for her battles with then California Governor Ronald Reagan over her right to teach in California Universities after being identified as a communist sealed her image as a revolutionary icon in the Black movement. The article has caught the attention of many because of Aretha's striking and unapologetic stance in offering bail towards Mr. Davis release.
Photograph of 2 black people standing near a table being set for a meal

You Gotta Work the Culture If You Wanna Change the Politics

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I was at the Sundance Resort in Utah recently, attending the annual Creative Change retreat that the Opportunity Agenda hosts for people working at the intersection of arts and social justice. Lots of interesting discussions took place about the purpose of art, the differences/similarities in artistic process and political process, and what makes good/effective political art—or if there is even such a category.
Yellow treated black and white photo of a woman bending over near a body of water

(Photo Story) Violence Against Women: Walter Astrada’s Global View of A Global Problem

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Walter Astrada doesn’t view his four-chapter project, Violence Against Women, as a story about a serious problem for women. Though it is. “It’s not a woman’s problem. It’s a societal problem” said Mr. Astrada. “If 50 percent of a country can be beaten, raped, killed or tortured, then it’s not a free country, it’s not a democracy, no matter how developed it is.” Mr. Astrada started the project in 2006 in Guatemala, where over 600 women were murdered that year. He then documented sexual violence in war torn Congo, where hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been brutally raped. In India he focused on the low status of women and on female infanticide