Friday, 10 October 2008
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Saturday, 6 September 2008
Back to 1987 - Jumping ship (part 2)
Back then, Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá had a shop at the Hotel Pelourinho in the historic district of Salvador, which sold beads and all the other items that Orisha worshippers require. I went there straight after my first meeting with Mãe Stella and asked for Oshun beads. They asked me, which kind? I had no idea. Was my Oshun young or old? I didn't have a clue. So I decided to go for the colour that "spoke" to me. I have always liked yellow and yellow-brown stones - cat's eyes, brown and yellow topaz and amber, so I chose the dark amber beads and later had them "washed" with herbs to make them sacred. Otherwise, they'd just be a necklace. I found out soon afterwards that I'd made the right choice.
At some point during my wanderings that day, I stopped by the fort (now the Capoeira Fort) in Santo Antonio Além do Carmo. GCAP was closed for the day, but João Pequeno was sitting alone in his school right below it, on the ground floor. I walked through the door that gave onto the courtyard and greeted him, telling him of my decision to stay. I don't remember his exact words, but the idea behind them was clear - I had to stay in Bahia and help develop Capoeira, for myself and others.
So I stayed on, training three times a week, with "rodas" on Saturdays and Sundays. I've been asked about those training sessions, so I'll try to describe them - we formed rows and did certain moves over and over and over again, individually at first, then in pairs. Practicing the negativa that way was good for me because it built up my upper arm strength - something that is generally a challenge for women in Capoeira. It's the move that allows you to keep low to the ground while someone's foot or leg sweeps over you. Your arms take your weight as you lower your entire body to the ground, so you can spring up and smoothly move into a counterattack.
Training at GCAP was very different from learning the Regional style, which generally involves set sequences of defensive and offensive moves. We learned our Angola moves one at a time and only put them together in the "roda." We also practiced handstands, backbends and aus (cartwheels) - but the slow low style, not the high flashy Regional "star".
I'll never forget that, when I met up with Paris in São Paulo that year - the last time I'd see him, as it turned out - he asked if I'd finally learned the au. It was the one thing I thought would be easy and turned out to be impossible - at least, in LA. He was impressed when I said I finally had - but unfortunately I couldn't show him because we were in a busy bus station at the time. So the method worked. I also learned to walk on my hands and do front flips (but never back flips) and continued to play in the "roda" until I was seven months pregnant in 1988. (To be continued...)
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Nice to be included
http://www.capoeira-connection.com/main/content/view/192/1/
Sunday, 31 August 2008
Saturday, 26 July 2008
Fox petition delivered
On Wednesday, Fox got a taste of what can happen when folks who care about racial justice come together and push back. The seconds you took to sign the Fox petition helped create a major story in the mainstream media. Here's how it unfolded on Wednesday:
1:00 p.m. Your signature was printed off at a New York City Kinko's along with 620,126 others--filling 19 big boxes.
2:00 p.m. The signatures were piled in front of Fox's national headquarters at 6th Avenue and 48th Street.
3:15 p.m. Hip hop star Nas (whose new album had just risen to #1 on the Billboard charts hours earlier) joined over 100 ColorOfChange.org members and delivered the petitions to Fox on behalf of ColorOfChange, MoveOn, and Brave New Films.
3:30 p.m. Fox refused to accept the petitions. (Sometimes, the truth hurts.)
4:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. News of Fox's racism and the star-studded petition delivery made its way around the world--with stories in Vibe, Rolling Stone, Billboard, USA Today, Associated Press, Reuters, Bossip, Huffington Post, MTV, OpenLeft, and over 200 other places.
11:30 p.m. Stephen Colbert welcomed Nas as his guest on the Colbert Report and dedicated over half of his show to Fox's racism. The boxes containing our signatures were stacked prominently on Colbert's set in place of his normal interview table and chairs--and he conducted the entire interview surrounded by petitions! Then, Nas performed his new song "Sly Fox," which is all about Fox's racism.
Since then, our poweful message to Fox keeps spreading, and they're sounding desperate. True to form, Fox responded with a racially insensitive statement comparing our partner MoveOn to the Klan -- yes, the KKK! It's outrageous -- comparing an organization that works everyday to engage citizens in politcs to a hate group that hunted and murdered Black people in a reign of terror. It's another example of how far Fox will go, but it also shows that they can't address the real issue -- their racist attacks -- because they have no defense.
But the fight's not over. This week, we changed the conversation about Fox and we'll keep bringing the heat -- watch for a message for us in about a week for next steps. But for now, enjoy the video of Wednesday's petition delivery and the video of Colbert. Both videos are at this link:
https://secure.colorofchange.
Thanks and Peace,
-- James, Gabriel, Clarissa, Andre, Kai, and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
July 26th, 2008
P.S. You can listen to Nas's new single "Sly Fox" on the Colbert video at the link above. If you like it and want to buy the full album, it's available here:
http://colorofchange.org/nas/?
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