VERVE! Pride Slam 2009

Hey Y'all, I didn't do too much photography shooting, but I have a hand full of pics from VERVE! Pride Slam 2009. The event was really spectacular and held at it's regular and beautiful space called Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture located at 53 Prospect Park West in BK (Brooklyn)!! BK, y'all! U betta recognize! LOL! The VERVE! series (this was number 5!!) that started late last year, is an event series that is filling a niche that is missing within the Black same gender loving community; a sophisticated, almost cabaret style of musicianship created by us and for us!

Trust me, if you're tired of the same ol' club and bar scene and wanna head out for a night of entertainment by yourself, with a date or maybe a crew of friends with a powerful session of grassroot artists along with a pre and post-receptions (yeah, there's food, too! LOL!) with a social networkings and "man musings" (LOL!) component then VERVE! is da spot. It really is original and it's produced by The Well Entertainment Group which is spearheaded by Mr. Joseph Tolton and Germono Toussaint. A serious shout out to these two bruthaz and the rest of the staff for really putting on a spectacular show. Das wassup!

Here's the pics! Enjoy...

All Photography © 2009 ROD PATRICK RISBROOK

VERVE! Pride Slam Host Cornelius Jones, Jr. (FLAG BOY)

Brutha Ty, Resident Videographer

Sean360x
Brutha Man Always Has An Outfit For Us! LOL! :-)

Sean360x & Urban spiRitual

Eddie, A Qool Brutha

Music Artist Dy'Ari
Doin' His Thing and Promoting His New Album.

And YES, Dy'Ari Signed My Copy of the Album!
Check Out Dy'Ari's Website

Dy'Ari is Definitely Sexy

The Jena 6 Are Free -- How We Made It Possible

Dear Rod,

Yesterday (Friday, June 26th, 2009), nearly two years after more than 320,000 of you stood up to protect them from Jim Crow justice, the Jena 6--Jesse Ray Beard, Carwin Jones, Robert Bailey, Theo Shaw, Bryant Purvis and Mychal Bell--are all now free to move ahead with their lives. We should all be proud.

The five remaining Jena 6 cases were brought to conclusion on Friday¹ when Jesse Ray, Carwin, Robert, Theo, and Bryant pleaded "no contest" to misdemeanor simple battery charges.² They will spend no time in jail, serve seven days of probation, and pay relatively minor fines and court fees.

It's an incredible outcome given that the young men were originally charged with attempted murder in small-town Louisiana and had neither the funds nor the connections to get high-quality representation or attention for their cases.

Luckily for the Jena 6, hundreds of thousands of you got involved, and the power of your participation changed the game. An amazing team of lawyers worked tirelessly to achieve Friday's outcome. Our staff helped recruit them, and your financial contributions--over $275,000--provided the bulk of the funds for their work. Jim Boren, the coordinating attorney, said this about ColorOfChange members' contribution: "None of this would have happened without you."

But it wasn't just lawyers and money. Over 300,000 of you wrote to Governor Blanco and District Attorney Reed Walters. On September 20th, 2007, more than 10,000 of you went to Jena. Members who couldn't make it to Jena held more than 150 rallies and vigils across the country, and made more than 6,000 phone calls to elected officials in Louisiana. And a few weeks later, ColorOfChange members sent almost 4,000 complaints demanding an inquiry into the DA's actions.

Your actions offline and online helped put Jena on the map and resulted in critical coverage in every mainstream news outlet. You started a movement that made it impossible for Louisiana officials to support the status quo.

Today we offer congratulations to these young men and their families, and we say thank you to the entire ColorOfChange.org community. We're also so thankful to the attorneys who took these cases but chose to stay out of the limelight. They and several others³ are the unsung heroes of this story.

As the young men of the Jena 6 close this chapter of their lives, we wanted to give you an opportunity to wish them well. Click the link below to leave a personal statement for the young men of the Jena 6, or to listen to the voicemail from Jim Boren thanking the ColorOfChange community for our work:

http://www.colorofchange.org/jenaresolution/?id=2316-147103

While this is a great moment, it's important to remember that if it were not for the extreme nature of this case, most of us wouldn't have known about it or gotten involved. The reality is that there are countless Jena 6's: young people--often Black and male--who are overcharged or unduly criminalized, and whose plight is unknown to most of the outside world.

It's the reason our work cannot just be about identifying and fighting for individuals railroaded by the system, but about creating systemic change in criminal justice in America. We are truly grateful to have the chance to do this work with you, and we're hoping for your continued engagement and support.

Thanks and Peace,

-- James, Gabriel, William, Dani and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
June 27, 2009

Help support our work. ColorOfChange.org is powered by YOU -- your energy and dollars. We take no money from lobbyists or large corporations that don't share our values, and our tiny staff ensures your contributions go a long way. You can contribute here:

https://secure.colorofchange.org/contribute/?id=2316-147103

References:

1. "Plea Bargain Wraps Up 'Jena 6' Case," 9-26-09
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/26/national/main5116800.shtml

2. The sixth teenager charged, Mychal Bell, pleaded guilty to battery in juvenile court on December 3rd, 2007.

3. Thanks are due to Alan Bean, Tory Pegram, and King Downing, who dedicated months to working with the families and getting the story out, and to our friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center who played a central role in putting together and supporting the legal teams. Without any one of them, our work would have been hampered, or in some cases not possible at all.

ROD's POST REFLECTIONS:Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network TOPIC: Same-Sex Marriage & Pre- Marital SexPart II

Ooookaaaaay...! Where do I begin.. and end...!

This is an update and post-reflection to the original posting I made

First, let me say that I was really expecting to have large turnout with a rational and conducive discussion around the planned "Same-Sex Marriage" topic at National Action Network (NAN). I mean, after all, this was a discussion primed around ourselves as a Black community which was the appealing point of interest for me; the larger Black community and the Black same gender loving community coming together under the same roof and exploring the complex dimensionalities of this topic; unlike the Proposition 8 firestorm in California which in my mind was a largely white gay agenda from the get-go. And further, this is Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network: House of Justice headquarters, and so I expected, as I alluded to before, a meaningful and conducive discussion among Black folks.

Well, nothing could be further from the truth because quite frankly, the discussion was (excuse my language) a FUCKING MESS to say the least. There was a TOTALLY UNBALANCED PANEL with 2 moderators (NAN Executive Director, Tamika Mallory along with the National Director of Membership, Dominique Sharpton, who is Sharpton's daughter) and 4 religious zealot homophobes armed with their christianity and spewing hate far and wide but in a midleading sweet smelling and benevolent apple pie style). Psssf!! Trust me, they would have easily qualified and fit right in for a role in Bill Mahr's Religulous (2008) documentary film; how clergies of the church use religion to justify their ironclad hatemonger views. However, the laughable subtitle in this case would have been, "Religulous: How to Further Divide the Black Community With Out-dated & Non-sense Archaic Religious Views While Hating On Black Homosexuals While Drinking Your Juice In Da Hood"

Unfortunately there was absolutely nothing funny about the "soliloquy" (I'm quoting my friend and human rights activist, Joe Pressley) the panelists ran on about successively (one after the other) for at least 45 minute and more before audience members were able to say anything at all. The overall genesis of these monologues, because it wasn't a discussion, from the panelists were at best disgusting and at worst a homosexual bashing to the absolute max.

One knew something was wrong from the very beginning when the topic started one hour late!! Apparently Reverend Sharpton was making a press statement or some announcement about the passing of Michael Jackson at another location. Michael is my boy and I love his music, but delaying a topic that Reverned Sharpton wasn't even scheduled to participate in left some shaking their heads.



Second, the headquarters had 15 people in attendance which included the videographer recording the religious zealots monologues.



Third, after all four panelists introduced themselves (two of them were Reverends Keyshawn Whie and Darren Ferguson) the tone of the conversation was set when one of them mentioned marriage as a "holy matrimony". That set-up the male/female relationship dynamic as the default and ONLY proper way of people living and conducting their lives... things went down hill from there.

Sister Tamika, put a disclaimer out to the audience and panelists that the topic came together literally two days ago! This tracks correctly because I got the email from NAN on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 and had to e-blast it out immediately because the event was happening, Thursday, June 25th! Ouch! A two day pre-notice is far from cute NAN people! And no doubt the reason there were only 15 people in the whole building for this meeting!!



The religious zealots went on with their "between a man & woman 'holy matrimony' " rhetoric and tieing in a reaching and dubious notion (in their minds) of homosexuality no longer being categorized as a mental illness; it was considered an illness until scientifically overturned as mental and emotional disorders by the American Psychiatric Association (ASA) in 1975. They think the ASA was wrong in that assessment, by the way. And they went on about the church being in danger and under attack with being forced into granting marriage ceremonies to same-sex couples because of legislation being put forth in the state of New York.

The panelists suggested a devious spiritual connection between depressed people, suicidal people, homosexuals as examples. The devious connection was if any of these people with these attributed "symptoms" are within proximity of others or touching others, then you'll miraculously become depressed, suicidal or homosexual, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc. etc... yeaaaaaah, okay!!



When the floor was finally opened up to the audience and some rebuttals incurred due to note taking by Joe Pressley and his partner Steve Williams, the ol' Black person struggles vs. homosexual struggles came up and the notion of a Black person's plight and skin color cannot be compared to the "behavioral" (choice) of someone who is homosexual. Again, the ridiculous arguments of comparison and competition and who or what is more hierarchical than the other. Well... some of us are Black and homosexual and that is inseparable.



The panel and Sister Tamika got belligerent by cutting off Joe Pressley as he was constructing his thoughts into a very rationale conversation (being objective as I can here). Joe did not receive the same courtesy when he had the microphone to express his points. Though he got some of his points out it was met with constant rebuttal interruptions from the pastors.



However, we didn't back down and caught Sister Tamika contradicting herself and she was challenged. The contradiction was that she stated half-way into this quagmire that the discussion was put together 2 weeks ago. Then she stated that the topic was to ascertain the panel's views on same-sex marriage. First, as I stated at the top of this blog entry, the email went out 2 days ago, and Sister Tamika stated at the top of her opening salutation that the topic was put together in a hurry 2 days or so ago. Clearly, with the piss-poor attendance it clear in my mind this was hastily thrown together. And when we called her out on the contradiction of the time-line she immediately got defensive and restated she meant to say "2 weeks ago". And yet still, the executive director of the NAN only got an e-blast out 2 days before the event??!!!



As far as the direction of the topic hinging on the panelists' views on same-sex marriage, that clearly was not articulated on the flyer and we lit her up for that. What could she say? Her answer was that she apologized for that not being indicated on the flyer properly. And when we called Sister Tamika out on the unbalanced nature of the panel, she stated that she called and asked some "LGBT" pastor representatives to come and that they either declined or no were available because of scheduling conflicts. Well, how could anyone commit to something when you ask them at the very last minute??? When Joe Pressley asked "Who did you call?" , Sister Tamika rebutted with a flat "that's not important" answer. All this begs a critical thinking conclusion that this was NOT put together two weeks ago as stated.

Steve Williams got so disillusioned by the disrespect, irrational and non-listening stance of the panel that he abruptly got up and walked out while shaming the organizers for this very skewed and biased discussion. Shortly thereafter it was a very contentious dynamic in the room and Joe was leaving and I packed up my camera equipment to leave. I personally was way too through with the dynamics in the room, but I was hanging around so I could hear my friends' remarks and get some pics for this post entry. Steve and Joe's friend Julius, a same gender loving brutha who is studying to be a priest remained in order to hopefully get his point across in a rational and non-combative pro same-sex couple stance.

There's no doubt that this panel was challenged by their own oratory views, and I suspect they weren't used to be challenged (especially in their respective church congregations and people just go along to get along sometimes). As Joe and I walked out I was getting these stares from other people in the room and I suspect they didn't know what to make of me and probably the way the dialog went.

More to come... maybe.

4th Annual ADODI Sea Tea Boat Ride (Sunday, July 5th, 2009 @ 6PM)Pier 40 in NYC

The ADODI New York Chapter
presents
THE 4th ANNUAL
ADODI SEA TEA BOAT RIDE
Sunday, July 5th, 2009
6:00PM to 10:00PM

Greetings Bruthaz,

Yo! We are back for a fourth-go-round with the 4th Annual ADODI "Sea Tea" Boat Ride: Ride the Rhythm of Freedom and the Waves on Sunday, July 5th, 2009 @ 6PM.

Last year was better than the first two years and we aim to be bigger this year again. Gotta keep it rollin!. Like last year, we'll have plenty of fun with a lot of bruthaz who you can meet and mingle with, some great live music with Cameron Da DJ along with a CA$H bar and a free buffet dinner.

Continuing like years past, the price remains at a low stimulus package friendly and unbeatable price of $20.00 per person!! Can't beat dat, yo!

We really look forward to seeing you on Sunday, July 5th, 2009.


Harambee (Let's all pull together)! Aché!
ADODI New York

www.ADODIintl.org

We will set sail on The Queen of Hearts from Pier 40
which is 2 blocks south of
Christopher Street and West Side Highway.

Please be advised that there is no food or drink allowed on board,
and all carry-on bags are subject to search by the boat owners.
Boarding will begin promptly at 6PM.

Ticket Sales:
Call Eugene..... (914) 237-5262
E-mail ROD (aka "BIG ROD")..... BIG.ROD02[at]GMAIL.COM

OR

Please call ADODI's general office phone number at
718-596-0342 at extension 15
or send an email to ADODINewYork[at]aol.com
and leave your contact info.
A representative from ADODI will return your call.
THANK YOU!

TRAVEL DIRECTIONS:
Take the #1 Train to Christopher Street.
Walk 5 blocks west to West Side Highway
(by the round water foundation landmark).
Then walk approximately 1 1/2 blocks south to Pier 40

NYC: Pride in the City (August 7th-9th, 2009)A Public Service Announcement

For Immediate Release June 24, 2009

Point of Contacts:

Borris Powell – [718] 399-2550
Craig Cobb – [917] 826-7246
Rudolph H. Carn – [917] 880-8528

(PSA) Public Service Announcement
Brooklyn, New York
“Pride in The City”

Brooklyn, New York; June 24, 2009 - “Pride in the City”, a celebration for the lives and culture of Black lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual, and game gender loving individuals, will occur August 7 – 9, 2009. After a series of meetings with community members and stakeholders, National AIDS Education & Services for Minorities (NAESM) is proud to announce that plans are underway for the iconic celebration attended by thousands from across the United States and abroad. NAESM has taken on the task of ensuring that Pride in the City occurs this year.

The mission of NAESM is to educate communities of color on the facts about HIV/AIDS [education/prevention] and to make healthcare and social services available to people of color with early or advanced stages of HIV/AIDS regardless of their sexual orientation. Headquartered in Atlanta, GA, NAESM has provided HIV/AIDS services to black gay men for over nineteen years and continues to expand its services on a national scope.

The host hotel for Pride in the City is the Holiday Inn Express located at 279 Butler Street in (downtown) Brooklyn, NY (near the Atlantic Mall). Please call [718] 855-9600 and mention ""NAESM" for your special guest room rate of $139.00 per night.

Be on the lookout for more information later this week regarding partners, vending and sponsorship opportunities, and more information on the website, www.naesm.org. Additionally, we would like all community members to consider this as a formal invitation to get involved with Pride in the City!

As “Pride In The City” was cancelled in 2008, it was a loss for New Yorkers and Pride celebrants nationally. Although funding, which existed in past years, is no longer available, NAESM is committed to working with OUR community to create an enjoyable and memorable weekend. Come experience a refreshingly NEW and exciting Pride in the City celebration!

Please visit www.naesmonline.org/PrideInTheCity.html for more details.

Patrick L. Kelly
pkelly[at]naesm.org
404 691-8880 ext 14

SAVE THE DATE: 2010 National African American MSM Leadership Conference on HIV/AIDS in Atlanta, GA January 21 - 24, 2010!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO

Other Countries: Black Gay Expression Monthly Writing Workshop

Other Countries: Black Gay Expression Monthly Writing Workshop

The second June 2009 Other Countries Monthly Writing Workshop will be:

Date & Time: Saturday, June 27th from 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location:
Room 102
LGBT Community Services Center
208 West 13th Street (between 7th & 8th Avenues)
New York, NY 10011

If you plan to present work on June 27th:

• please confirm with Kevin McGruder by Thursday, June 25th at kevmcgr[at]pipeline.com
• bring 8-10 copies of your work for distribution

For those interested, we will go out to dinner afterward at a nearby restaurant.

Below are guidelines for the workshop.

Other Countries Writing Workshop Discussion/Critique Guidelines

The Other Countries Writing Workshop is a peer-facilitated workshop. In order to ensure a supportive atmosphere and to encourage constructive criticism of work please keep the following in mind:

• Before reading their work, writers should introduce it by telling about the FAP (Focus, Audience, and Purpose) for the piece as well as its genre. They should think of specific questions they want answered by the workshop, e.g. “Is this ready for submission to literary journals?” “Does this first chapter pull you into my novel’s story?” “Does this character seem too cardboard or cliché?”
• The moderator will facilitate the discussion/critique of the work
• Participants should:

- avoid cross talk between other participants while a comment is being made
- address both positives and negatives in the work;
- avoid extraneous “amen-ing” (repeating the comments) of previous speakers;
- avoid personal commentary of the writer and others;
- provide suggestions for further development of the work, etc.

BKS 1 Radio's Special Guest: Cory Zooman Miller as Prez Barack Obama

I found another video on YouTube. This guy Cory is really, really, really FUNNY! He's off da freakin' chain! Fo' real! LOL! He's the first comic that I know of to impersonate Barack and if he plays his cards right could blow up more in the future (unless he's already blown up as I don't really follow comedians).