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The founders of The Black Lives Matter Movement Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi will be receiving the Sydney Peace Prize. Sydney, as in Sydney, Australia, a country whose reputation includes the colonization of its Aboriginal population.

Similar to the Nobel Peace Prize, the University of Sydney awards individuals who have made marked contributions towards world peace through human rights activism and combating injustice. I couldnt think of anyone more deserving of this awardand humbled by it, than these three amazing black femmes.

The trio has remained pretty low key since they founded BLM in response to the miscarriage of justice that was the Trayvon Martin trial. A wise move considering the speed which the rallying cry Black Lives Matter instantly resonated worldwide. They encouraged the statement black lives matter to stand on its own volition, and theyre certainly aware that not everyone will appreciate, respect, or accurately report on the work theyre doing.

Related: Southern Poverty Law Center To Classify White Lives Matter As A Hate Group Because They Deserve it

Although BLMs decentralized leadership approach has allowed its founding members a level of protection from the senseless scrutiny from the conservative media and our government (which has a history ofgunning down our leadersin their sleep) the lack of a central figurehead vocalizing BLMs goals has led to the commercialization of the movement as well as misinterpretations of the motives of the organization. Some folks have run off with the name printing it on shirts, writing it on walls. More dangerous, some critics, out of sheer spite, have actively sought to muddy BLMs agenda by labeling it a hate group and calling for BLMs disbandment.

By virtue of all this, the general public is misinformed. Even French Montana shouted black lives matterfor a reason unbeknownst to all of us. And, make not mistake, the reasons why black lives matter activists use that specific phrase are important.

So with this celebration near, I would like to take this opportunity to remind you all of the ways BLM is actually a peaceful organization.

Consider, firstly, the inclusiveness of the movement. If you visitBLMs official siteand click on theguiding principleslink, you will find a clear list of all the things BLM is, all the variations of blackness and marginalized identities BLM embraces. From unapologetically affirming inter-generational, queer, non-binary and transgender identity to centering the unique struggles of disabled black communities, and so many others.

Unlike its predecessors, such as the Civil Rights Movement, BLM does not have an exclusionary nail in its foundation. The founding members understand that for black lives to matter, all categories of black identity must be recognized. They understand that as a Black person shouting Black lives matter, you are subscribing to the fact that all lives will not matter until ALL Black lives matter. Not just the lives that are related to you; not just the lives of Black people like you, or who hold your values. But, all Black lives. The Black lives you appreciate and the Black lives you cant quite get are deserving of equal respect, without issue.

Consider, secondly, the kinds of events BLM sponsors. Take a look at thislist ofongoing events and initiatives which are actually sanctioned by BLM.

What about supporting black mothers, hosting nationwide teach-ins, or deepening higher-ed curriculum with BLM-themed readings translates to hate and violence? Nothing. Peace, true peace, demands this kind of work. Its essential and timely.

Lastly, consider BLMs trained instinct for self-criticism. Using an intersectional lens to frame the contemporary struggles of Blacks, BLM was the first movement to call out even the most well-meaning Black activists for their phobias, just as Kimberle Crenshaw, the founder of intersectional feminist theory, called out her white women counterparts.

People affiliated with and sympathetic toward the black lives matter struggle know that they are called upon to embody the goals set forth by Cullors, Garza and Tometi. They are required to do more than exclaim Black lives matter or add a #BLM to their Twitter bio. They are required to option transformative love and reconciliation over hate, as avenues that lead to real peace.

Real peace is only possible when we draw attention to the invisible worlds that made BLMs now famous rallying cry necessary. We come closer to its quarters when we take seriously what the name of this struggle has been trying to get across to people of privilege for years: We matter! Please dont kill us, someone will mourn us!

Those who truly understand what the BLM movement is about will continue to work on behalf of the goals discussed above. Furthermore, awarding the founding members the Sydney Peace Prize affirms the goals and the work accomplished by BLM so far have been crucial to any modern peace-building initiative.

To reiterate a point I made earlier, given Australias history of colonization and violence towards Aboriginal people, it is refreshing to witness their support of BLM.

But, why stop here? Our question now is, hey Nobelwhere you at?

Read the original here:
Black Lives Matter Just Won Sydney Peace Prize. It's Time To Stop Calling It A Hate Group. - Wear Your Voice

The Black Lives Matter movementwill receive the Sydney Peace Prize, an award given by the Sydney Peace Foundation part of the University of Sydney and be honored at an event in the city in November, the foundation announced this week.

Black Lives Matter was chosen for allegedly building a powerful movement for racial equality, courageously reigniting a global conversation around state violence and racism. And for harnessing the potential of new platforms and power of people to inspire a bold movement for change at a time when peace is threatened by growing inequality and injustice, the foundations website states.

Giving a peace prize to a group that foments violent demonstrations would be enough to give irony a bad name.

Western Australian Labor senator Pat Dodson and former winner of the Sydney peace prize told the Guardian newspaper that Black Lives Matter as a movement stands against ignorance, hostility, discrimination, or racism.

Defenders of law enforcement against the often-violent, racially charged and hateful rhetoric of the Black Lives Matter movement, which often openly advocates for violence against police, expressed disapproval.

Giving a peace prize to a group that foments violent demonstrations would be enough to give irony a bad name, said William Otis, a professor of law at Georgetown and a former federal prosecutor.

Still, I could see it if black lives actually mattered to Black Lives Matter, Otis told LifeZette. But if that were so, BLM presumably would want to suppress the thing that poses the most danger to young black lives murder.

We know how to suppress murder, because we did it for an entire generation, from 1991to2014, Otis continued. And we know how we did it: more police, more aggressive and proactive policing, more restraint on nave sentencing, and more use of incarceration to keep criminals away from law-abiding people, said Otis.

Tragically, these crime-suppression measures are precisely the things BLM has made a point of opposing, said Otis

As the BLM program of reducing incarceration for crime and putting restraints on police has spread, so has murder. In 2015 and 2016, for the first time in decades, murder increased in the United States for two consecutive years, Otis said. The victims are disproportionately African-American young men.

Heather Mac Donald, Manhattan Institute fellow and author of The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe, attributes the decision to grant Black Lives Matter an award to the naivet of western elites.

Cultural elites in the Western industrialized world outside the U.S. are as committed as American elites are to the myth of ubiquitous white racism and to their own virtue-signaling, Mac Donald told LifeZette.

It is therefore no surprise that the left-wing Sydney Peace Foundation has chosen Black Lives Matter as this years peace-prize recipient, Mac Donald said.

The selection is galling nevertheless. Far from bringing peace to high-crime urban neighborhoods, Black Lives Matter has brought increased violence and death, as the police understandably back off of proactive enforcement under the relentless charge of racism, Mac Donald continued.

Homicides in the U.S. rose in 2015 by the largest one-year increase in nearly 50years; the additional victims were overwhelmingly black, Mac Donald said. Nine hundred more black males were murdered in 2015 than in 2014, bringing the black homicide total to 7,000, 2,000 more black victims than all white and Hispanic homicide victims combined. Their killers were not the police, but criminals.

The real irony, says Mac Donald, is the tragedy of violence that grows in inner-city communities as police retreat or are forced to pull back.

"The rise in street violence has continued into the present, taking the lives of innocent children as well as of gangbangersto not one peep of protest from Black Lives Matter activists," Mac Donald said.

"BLM-co-founder Patrisse Cullors tells The Guardian that high-crime communities do not 'need police.' We are testing her claim at this very moment as police decide to stay in their patrol cars rather than getting out to question a known drug dealer loitering on the corner. The results of this tragic experiment are unequivocal: When the police back off in high-crime areas, black lives are lost," said Mac Donald.

More here:
'Black Lives Matter' Movement to Be Awarded Peace Prize - LifeZette

Kiki Smith, Tidal (1998), on view as part of Off the Shelf: Modern & Contemporary Artists Books (2017), The Baltimore Museum of Art (photo by Mitro Hood)

Fog enveloped Phan-Xi-Pang, Indochinas tallest peak, in an ocean of vanilla milkshakes. You could drink the air with a straw.

Touring Vietnam during the past two months, I eagerly anticipated painting and drawing the mountains I found pictured online. Unfortunately, clouds and fog often hid the range like the closed covers of a book, day after frustrating day. Frustrating, that is, until I embraced the mystery of what was there Robert Ryman on swimmy steroids rather than longing for what wasnt.

Shortly before leaving the US, I had a related experience. I was at a press preview for a show called Off the Shelf: Modern & Contemporary Artists Books at the Baltimore Museum of Art, where being unable to see all that I wanted to see played first a troubling role, then an enticing one.

Artists books tend to be rare and fragile. They need to be protected. Hence the vitrines, which, along with closed covers and fixed, double-page spreads, prohibit a full read. It is, however, a treat to see any part of these inventive objects.

Of course, there are many works of art beset by obstacles that limit our viewing experience. We stand far below that colossal, every-page-visible-at-once picture book known as Michelangelos Sistine Chapel. Who wouldnt like a more optimum look at the narratives muscling their way across a vaulted heaven? Who wouldnt like to get up close and personal with Adam or Eve, or to bite into an apple from that tree in their garden? We cant. But we take what we can get.

Compare this to the thwarted desire to leaf through the pages of the publisher Ambroise Vollards 1931 edition of The Unknown Masterpiece (Le Chef-dOeuvre Inconnu) by Honor de Balzac, the first book I was drawn to upon entering Off the Shelf. Six of the etchings by Pablo Picasso that accompany this tragic literary classic about art and seeing, which hang directly above the book. The illustrations can be treasured independently, as can the French authors words. But when a great story and great images merge, its magic.

With one exception (a promised gift), all the works in Off the Shelf are from the BMAs collection. Rena Hoisington, Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, curated wisely, as well as helped design the individual displays and overall galleries. On monitors in an adjoining room, viewers can scroll through numerous books from the exhibition, allowing for a more start-to-finish eyeballing (albeit virtual) experience. One of my scrolling favorites is Paul Verlaines once-banned, sapphic Side by Side (Paralllement, 1900), sinuously illustrated by Pierre Bonnard. In what is considered by many to be the first modern livre dartiste (artists book), the artists rose-sanguine marks echo the look and spirit of Verlaines words, which were printed on cream-colored pages in a fluid, Renaissance font designed by Claude Garamond.

Bonnards sprawling lithographs sometimes corral and always counter the boxy boundaries of italicized type. Often, it seems as if the women he portrays are being coaxed from, or are dissolving into, the papers humid sensuality, nude figures sparely drawn here, detailed there. Like a storm cloud, in a section entitled Sappho, a sweeping arc of dark, braiding hair from two embracing women further exhilarates their impassioned moment.

Off the Shelf is an intimate exhibit of small gems. The works spring from inspired painter/writer pairings of showstopper sensibilities, including Grace Hartigan/James Schuyler; David Hockney/The Brothers Grimm; Susan Rothenberg/Robert Creeley; and Jasper Johns/Samuel Beckett. With few exceptions, like the over-sized and weighty My Pretty Pony, a steel-covered undertaking by Barbara Kruger and Stephen King, these editions are not what, 30 years ago, my then-three-year old daughter would have referred to as two-handed books. But despite their mostly midsize proportions, these images and objects have a king-size impact, partly because creative combos are sharing the more private but no less profound sides of themselves. And we get to peek.

Few of the more than 130 artists books and related prints in this show are ever seen in public, yet they are decidedly social in nature. Visual artists team up with other visual artists, as well as with poets, novelists, fairytale writers, book designers, typographers, typesetters, and publishers.

Hands down, the biggest social event of Off the Shelf takes the form of 1 Cent Life (1964), a celebration of art and poetry that brought together the disparate styles of abstraction and Pop. Walasse Ting and Sam Francis invited 28 blue-chip artists, ranging from Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol, to James Rosenquist, Joan Mitchell, and Tom Wesselmann. The boisterous affair included 172 pages filled with 62 lithographs and 62 poems (written by Ting).

In this exhibition, pages turn, hang, separate, and fold. When unfolded, the accordion books, Tidal (1998), by Kiki Smith, and Ed Ruschas Every Building on the Sunset Strip (1966), reveal elegant, elongated proportions with sleek, unique formats.

With computer screens replacing paper pages, a show like Off the Shelf is timelier than it would have been less than a decade ago. It remains to be seen whether tactile books become less important due to their cost and the diminishment of their practical necessity, or more important through their physicality and personality. Big money is on the former. I hope its the latter.

* * *

Another show currently at the Baltimore Museum of Art isTimeless Weft: Ancient Tapestries and the Art of Louise B. Wheatley. Anita Jones, the museums Curator of Textiles, installed weavings from Wheatleys more than 40-year career alongside a series of ancient Egyptian Coptic fabric works. The historical conversation that unfolds between the contemporary weavers works and the time-old textiles enriches them both.

Content, color, texture, and technique represent visible connections between the two bodies of work. And then there are invisible links that become an evocation of time. The Coptic weavings have missing invisible parts, which have been lost over the centuries. Ive always been a sucker for fragments, where the harsh blade and the delicate patina of centuries reconfigure shapes and dimensions, add subtlety to surface, and glaze the beauty of age across pristine colors. Fragments lead to fantasy. What could have been depicted in the no-longer-visible parts surrounding the stylized hares racing through several borders of an Egyptian 10th-11th-century silk and linen textile? The fragment adorns a wall not much more than a vitrine away from its contemporary counterpart, Wheatleys Rabbit (2014). From threads to shreds and back again, in my imagination I complete the story.

Although some of Wheatleys finely crafted weavings are large, many are about the length of a long finger. But even the artists tiniest textiles deliver with the might of a fog that can erase a mountain, as we see in both her portrayal of a gangly insect, Walking Stick (c. 1995), and a biblical hero, David (c. 1991), as he kneels (in one panel of a pocket-size triptych) to look for the stone with which he will defeat Goliath.

One of the larger wall hangings, Fruits of the Spirit (c. 1991), struck me initially as being dominated by three vertical strips of flat black. The central strip backs a charming, light-toned portrait of a pear tree that grows on the artists farm in Maryland. Turns out, the dark strips arent black at all, or flat, for that matter, but rather as a close inspection reveals a blend of deep tones, textures, and colors.

This tapestry does with shade what another of her works, Egg Collection(2005) does with shine. Here, variations in the figure/ground relationships, the finely spun warm and cool off-white ovals, and the quivering grid containing the now-you-see-them-now-you-dont eggs create a slow, playful bounce to this fragile yet solid work. Its as if the artist took a bunch of eggs, shook them up, and not only did not a one of em crack, they all seem to revel in the delicacy of the dance of their white-on-white invisibility.

Wheatleys range of subjects is impressive. With heft and weft, she is equally expressive formally, psychologically, and spiritually at addressing pear trees and eggs, darkness and light, bugs and the bible.

* * *

For merging words and images, these are red-letter days on Baltimores Art Museum Drive. In a third show at the BMA, Front Room: Adam Pendleton, the words are the images. In Pendletons case, his ABCs are white, gray, and black not red sometimes spanning the walls from floor to ceiling.

Several works feature variations of the rallying cry Black Lives Matter, which has a trenchant meaning in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Grey. Gestural, sprayed, dripped, printed, broken, cropped, layered, rotated, and wiped-away, the letters simultaneously weave information, emotion, frustration, and hope into a powerful humanistic, social, and political message.

Like the BMAs books, Wheatleys textiles and Pendeltons mixed-media ventures pack a punch (actually, hers is more of a lingering touch). With her, you dont see it coming; with him, you can feel the vibrations down the block. Her mists/his missiles, resounding, both.

Off the Shelf: Modern & Contemporary Artists Books continues through June 25; Timeless Weft: Ancient Tapestries and the Art of Louise B. Wheatley continues through July 30; and Front Room: Adam Pendleton continues through October 1.

All three exhibitions are located at the Baltimore Museum of Art (10 Art Museum Drive, Baltimore, Maryland).

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Books, Wefts, and Black Lives Matter at the Baltimore Museum of Art - Hyperallergic

Chris Costa and NEWS CENTER , WCSH 11:50 PM. EDT May 24, 2017

By admitting to a charge of disorderly conduct, 17 protesters who were arrested during a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Portland avoid going to trial.

PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- A judge's ruling sets the stage for another attempt at restorative justice between a group of Black Lives Matter protesters and Portland Police.

Cumberland County Superior Court Justice Lance Walker on Wednesday denied a motion by the State of Maine to seek a new solution after a plea deal with protesters fell apart.

"We feel good about that," said defense attorney Tina Nadeau, who represents some of the protesters. "We had strong arguments in the hearing. The judge obviously spent quite a bit of time reviewing testimony and thinking about the issue, and rendered a pretty thoughtful opinion."

Cumberland County district attorney Stephanie Anderson said the order was "well-reasoned," as well.

However, the judge wrote in the order that, unless the plea agreement is amended, both parties will still have to participate in a restorative justice session.

During a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Cumberland County district attorney Stephanie Anderson said the State has no plans to pursue any restorative justice session. She said that if the protesters came to them and wanted to have a conversation, they would be amenable to it.

"They've had three opportunities to discuss their grievances, and they haven't wanted to do that," said Anderson. "We've decided to let the whole restorative justice conversation go because we don't think it will be fruitful. Everything that I've seen indicates that they did not want to have a conversation. I still don't know what their beef is in Portland or against the Portland Police Department and there hasn't been anything that's happened since July 15 to give me any indication to what it is."

If the sides do not fulfill the agreement within six months, the criminal charges will be dismissed. Currently they are "filed, but inactive," according to Anderson, meaning the court would have to approve the charges to become active, but Anderson said it would only happen if the protesters committed a new crime.

WATCH: Cumberland Co. DA's office responds to judicial ruling that denied its motion to seek restoration of charges in BLM case

"I'd feel like justice was done in this case," Anderson said about if the charges were dismissed. "We wanted to understand what their concerns were. We wanted to have a conversation with them. We're disappointed that they don't want to do that, but we're fine with the way it worked out."

Nadeau believes her clients already fulfilled that requirement when they arrived at the original restorative justice session, demanding to meet as one large group, instead of in two separate sessions as the DAs had scheduled.

"Just because they didn't reach an end point or an agreement with the DA's office at the end doesn't mean that the session was a failure, it just means it was at an earlier stage than I think the DA's office would have wanted," said Nadeau.

The order states that the State was required to "perform its obligation to participate in the meeting or allow the meeting to go forward." Fred Van Liew, the restorative practices coordinator, told one attorney that he could facilitate a meeting with the entire group together.

"Participate is the key word here, and they did participate," said Nadeau. "It doesn't say complete to the satisfaction of the DA. It says 'participate,' and they made every attempt to."

"They're just protesters. They don't have a message. They don't have a complaint. They don't have nothing to say except Black Lives Matter and that's a bumper sticker," said Anderson. "I'd still like to hear what they'd like to say."

The DA's office plans to hold a news conference at 4:30 this afternoon to address the State's response to the order.

RELATED: Police arrest 18 in Black Lives Matters protest

The protest last July was part of a nationwide campaign calling for improvements in the relationship between police agencies and people of color. In order to ensure their voices were heard, protesters demonstrated in the middle of on Commercial Street in Portland, bringing traffic to a stop. When protesters refused to allow traffic to pass, police arrested 17 of them.

RELATED:Black Lives Matter ruling

To keep criminal charges off their records, attorneys for the protesters entered into an agreement with the district attorney's office. The deal required protesters to meet with police at a restorative justice center with the goal of helping both sides come to a better understanding.

RELATED: Jude to decide if Black Lives Matter protesters will face charges

But the meeting never happened, and both sides blamed the other for breaking their agreement. The district attorney's office wanted the protesters to split into two groups for the meeting with police, while protesters said they would only meet if they could all stay together. Attorneys for the protesters said they would not have agreed to the meeting if they had known there would be no flexibility.

In his review of the dispute, Justice Walker said district attorney's office was within its authority to set boundaries for the meeting. Although the protesters refused to comply, Walker said their willingness to meet under other circumstances did not constitute a total breach of contract. For that reason, Walker said the terms of the plea agreement still apply and both sides should work toward fulfilling them.

2017 WCSH-TV

Excerpt from:
State's motion denied in case of Black Lives Matter protesters ... - WCSH-TV

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

In a groundbreaking departure from tradition, the prestigious international award that recognizes peacemakers around the world for promoting human rights, nonviolence and peace with justice will not be awarded to an individual. Instead, The Guardian reports that the 2017 Sydney Peace Prize will go to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Former winners Naomi Klein and Pat Dodson hail recognition of US-founded movement that resonates

Since 1998, Australias Sydney University has honored an individual who embodied the spirit of fighting injustice with peace. This year marks the first time the Sydney Foundation has chosen a movement instead of a single person as a recipient of the prize.

Global peacemakers and past award recipients applauded the Sydney Foundations choice as bold and inspired. 2008 winner Pat Dodson, who won for his advocacy of Aborigines and Torres Pacifica Islanders, hailed Black Lives Matter as a movement that stood against ignorance, hostility, discrimination, or racism.

The Black Lives Matter movement was founded by Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi after the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman, who stalked and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Marting in Sanford, Fla. Their efforts blossomed into a global movement that fights against injustice for people of color.

The prize will be awarded to the three co-founders at a November ceremony in Sydney. Past recipients include Desmond Tutu, Noam Chomsky and Muhammad Yunus, who also won the Nobel Peace Prize for pioneering the concept of microcredit and microfinance.

In a separate announcement, the Worldwide Humanitarian International Tribunal for the Empowerment and Theft of Attention, Remorse and Sorrow (WHITETEARS) announced that it will honor All Lives Matter with the 2017 Wypipo Achievement Award.

Read more at The Guardian.

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Black Lives Matter Awarded the 2017 Sydney Peace Prize