Mediaboss Marketing

Observer

Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Pushing Feds to Let 50000 Haitians Remain in the Country Observer Elected officials and Haitian leaders rallied in Foley Square for the extension of Temporary Protected Status for 50,000 Haitians in the United States. Madina Toure/Observer. Opal Tometi, co-founder of Black Lives Matter and executive director of the ... and more »

Read more:
Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Pushing Feds to Let 50000 Haitians Remain in the Country - Observer

The production, written by a Ball State duo, is part of IndyFringe's OnyxFest, which spotlights black playwrights.

"Black Lives Matter (Too)" is one of the plays on the 2017 slate for IndyFringe's OnyxFest.(Photo: Photo provided/Dena Toler)

When Angela Jackson-Brown and Ashya Thomas wrote their play "Black Lives Matter (Too)," they set some goals.

They wanted to infuse thework which comprises scenes, poetry and music with human connections. They wanted to plant hope that triumphs in even the most difficult situations.

And when the play premieres this weekend, they want to use black people's stories from slavery through the present to unpack a term that has seen controversy. The work will be part of IndyFringe's OnyxFest, which spotlights work by black playwrights.

"A lot of these vignettes are going to be difficult to sit through, and that's intentional," Jackson-Brown said.

"We want to take people to uncomfortable places because so often we don't really talk about race in a constructive way. So we thought through the theater, oftentimes, people can be reached in ways that they can't through politicians or through lectures."

IndyFringe Executive DirectorPauline Moffat makes a habit of waiting until the festival itself to see the plays, but she is familiar with the strengths ofJackson-Brown. Her work has been part of IndyFringeandDivaFest, which highlights women playwrights.

Jackson-Brown "has such an incredible understanding of life and death, and ... the way she treats death is incredibly moving," Moffat said.

For "Black Lives Matter (Too)," Jackson-Brown, who is an assistant professor in the English department at Ball State University, teamed up with Thomas, who just graduated from the school. The two began collaborating on the play after Thomas turned in a particularly strong project, Jackson-Brown said. The OnyxFest work is Thomas' first play.

The darkened theater offers anonthreatening space to understand what Black Lives Matter means, Jackson-Brown said.The "(Too)" at the end of the play's titleclarifies the unspoken understanding that black people aren't saying they're the only ones who matter, she said.

ART:Fountain Square tattooists take Spike TV's Ink Master challenge

MUSIC:Janet Jackson will make good on postponed Indy date

RACING:Indy 500 crowd on pace to surpass 300,000

"It's simply a matter of, we've made too many strides to go backward," Jackson-Brown said. "So let's all remember what we came through during the '50s and the '60s, and let's not try to do things that are going to move us back to that place."

While race and relationships between black men and womenare part of the characters' journeys, Jackson-Brown said they sought an emphasis on self-love and a balance of storiesthat allowed characters to show their strength.

"We're not just exposing issues related to white and black, but we're also looking at issues related to black folks in general, problems that exist within our own community," Jackson-Brown said.

Meet the playwrights: Q&A from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday.

"The Quilting": Mijiza Holiday.8 p.m. Saturday,7 p.m. Sunday and4:30 p.m. May 20at IndyFringe Indy Eleven Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair St.

Black Lives Matter (Too): Angela Jackson-Brown and Ashya Thomas. Produced by Jackson Brown Entertainment. 7 p.m. Friday, 6 p.m. Saturday and9 p.m. May 19at IndyFringe Basile Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair St.

Truth The One Man Show: Ryan Bennett. 7 p.m. Sunday, 7 p.m. May 19 and9 p.m. May 20at IndyFringe IndyEleven Theatre.

Cost:$15 at the door, $18 online (including fees), $13 students and seniors.

Call IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at (317) 444-7339. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/2q61NrU

Read more:
'Black Lives Matter (Too)' play aims to unpack the term ...

As various movements have sprung up like flash mobs to march and protest President Donald Trumps election, a question gradually occurred to me: Wheres Black Lives Matter?

Ever since the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter was born after a jury acquitted a neighborhood watch volunteer in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012, the loosely formed movement has turned up repeatedly to protest fatal shootings of unarmed black men and other racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

But since President Trumps election, we have seen new eruptions of racially suspicious police incidents, but not of major protests.

Last week, for example, we saw a suburban Dallas police officer charged with murder for allegedly firing his rifle into a car full of black teens, killing a 15-year-old boy.

Last month we saw the stunning video of police officers in Grand Rapids, Mich., holding a group of black children at gunpoint - ranging in age from 12 to 14.

Yet as much as these disturbing stories made national news, they did not spark the major protests we have seen elsewhere. Why?

A Washington Post reporting team came up with one answer after interviewing what they described as more than half a dozen leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement.

The movement has entered a new phase, they were told. It is focused more on policy than on protest, all in response to the election of President Trump.

There are less demonstrations, Alicia Garza, one of three women credited with coining the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag, told the Post. People are channeling their energy into organizing locally, recognizing that in Trumps America, our communities are under direct attack.

Indeed, that makes a lot of sense at a time when Trumps election seems to have changed everything about how we Americans view the world.

But I think the energy and enthusiasm for Black Lives Matter street protests peaked out sooner than that. I think it happened last July when five police officers in Dallas were killed by a sniper at a Black Lives Matter protest. Ten days later, three more police were killed in Baton Rouge, La., after street protests over the shooting of another black man.

No, I dont believe it is fair to blame peaceful protestors for the shootings any more than I think it would be fair to blame Republicans for every deranged right-wing shooter who also happened to vote for their party. Still, its a little harder to criticize President Trump for his various inflammatory remarks if you dodge accountability for any anti-police tone in your protests.

Loosely organized flash-mob movements with weak leaders and vague agendas have become a trend in the Twitter age. But they tend to lack control over their members, their message and their momentum.

Lack of organizational discipline leads to embarrassments like the foolish protesters from St. Paul who chanted, Pigs in a blanket, fry em like bacon, while marching behind police officers at the Minnesota State fairgrounds two years ago. Conservative commentators still replay that video as though it was yesterday.

Everybody seems to have an opinion about what Black Lives Matter should do with itself. Heres mine: I think its time for the movement to move up from protests to planning, policies and programs. Protests have a lot of romantic appeal but theyre no substitute for an agenda, firm goals and a plan to get there.

Conservative media have pinned all manner of racist beliefs on Black Lives Matter, yet the movement has not put much of a priority on appointing official spokespeople to push back.

On the contrary, todays young self-styled woke (politically conscious) generation, I have found to my chagrin, too often thinks it is beneath them to arm themselves with knowledge and employ the simple art of persuasion to win people to their side. Its not my job to educate you, I have been told by some righteous activists in a form of intellectual snobbery that is bound to lead to failure.

Indeed, a lot of people find it easier to call for dialogue than to actually engage in one. Thats changing. Some Black Lives Matter activists have organized a formal agenda and leadership development programs, just for starters. Leaders matter. Whether things go right or wrong, somebody has to be where the buck stops.

Clarence Page is a member of the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board. Readers may send him email at cpage@tribune.com.

View post:
Can Black Lives Matter move up in the age of Trump? | Newsday

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. --The local black lives matter group is fundraising to bail out women for mother's day.

Inside the walls of the Pulaski County Jail, there's about 150 women and mothers behind bars.One group is hoping to reunite black mothers with their children, just in time for Mother's Day. "We planned on bailing out 3 women, and now we will be able to bail out about 6-8 women," says one of the organizers, Zach Miller.

Miller says the goal was to initially raise about $1,500. Through online crowd funding ,they've been able to raise twice as much. "The black community is a community and anytime our women are taken away from us, the community as a whole suffers," says Miller.

Dee-Ann Newell - with Arkansas Voices for the Children Left Behind- says she's seen the long lasting effects on children whose parents are locked up. "When you start looking at ethnicity, it's 1 out of 8 children of color has experienced the loss of a parent to incarceration," says Newell. Newell says many children with parents behind bars suffer trauma- even well after they reach adulthood. "It's not easy to let go of that stigma and the kind of shame that goes with it," says Newell.

For now, Miller hopes he's able to reunite as many families as possible, for the upcoming Mother's Day holiday. "Ultimately, I would love to bail out every single black woman, who can get bail in Pulaski County Jail," says Miller.

Read more:
"Black Lives Matter" Organizers Create Fundraiser to Bail Women out of Jail for Mother's Day - KARK

Tanisha Byron and her four kids-- photo courtesy of Tanisha Byron

When Tanisha Bynum decided to drive to the beach with a suspended license two weeks ago, she didn't know she was risking leaving her kids alone on Mother's Day. And missing her son's 3rd birthday. And skipping her daughter's kindergarten graduation.

But as Bynum, 25, drove from Alabama into Florida to head to the beach, another car ran a red light and collided with her truck, causing her to crash into a lamppost. Bynum wasn't hurt, but she was arrested for driving with a suspended license and taken to jail. She had already gotten another ticket in Florida and skipped her court date because she lived in Alabama, so the judge set bail at $10,000, with a trial set for early June. Bynum, two months pregnant and mother to four kids under 8, would have to sit in jail to wait it out.

"Those are milestones in my kids' lives," she says of the birthday and the graduation. "I didn't want to miss them because of a traffic ticket."

But on Friday, Bynum was one of hundreds of black women bailed out of jail for Mama's Bail Out Day , a Mother's Day campaign orchestrated by more than a dozen groups affiliated with Black Lives Matter. So far, social justice groups like Color of Change and Southerners on New Ground and have raised more than $550,000 to bail out black women all over the country, with $345,000 going directly to bail money and the rest spent on local organizing efforts and services for the people who have been bailed out. The Mother's Day effort is meant to call attention to how the money bail system (in which an arrested person is kept in jail awaiting trial unless they can pay a hefty bail) disproportionately affects black families and communities. These women have only been arrested they haven't been convicted of a crime.

"The money bail system in this country is unjust and punishes people for being poor," says Serena Sebring, a local organizer with Southerners on New Ground, a queer-focused social justice group. A new report from racial justice group Color of Change and the American Civil Liberties Union estimates that every day about 440,000 people are sitting in jail without being convicted of a crime, which amounts to roughly 70% of the incarcerated population. And the ACLU estimates there are eight times as many women incarcerated as there were in 1980. This is an issue that disproportionately affects black families: according to a 2017 Human Rights Watch report on how bail impacts low-income communities, black people are 6.5 times more likely to be locked up, and much less likely to be able to afford bail.

In the weeks before Mother's Day, the groups looked at local jail rosters to see who was currently incarcerated pending trial, and wrote letters to the women inside asking if they were mothers or caregivers. They also asked clergy who work in the jail system to help them identify mothers who might want to be bailed out. "We're working with local public defenders, folks in the court system, service providers and families," says Scott Roberts, senior criminal justice campaigns director at Color of Change. "If there are criteria, that's determined on the local level."

But the groups are also concerned with making sure the recently released mothers have the services and the support they need as they await trial, whether that means temporary housing or beauty appointments. "We're trying to go above and beyond to make sure they feel cared for and loved," said Ashley Green, lead organizer of social justice network the Dream Defenders in Florida. "We're taking them to get their hair done, their nails done, we're making sure they have a clear place to stay, transportation to and from jail."

"Anything that's taking parents away from their kids long term is just setting up their kids for future failure," she says.

Before her traffic incident, Tanisha worked as a nursing assistant. But because she wasn't allowed to have her cell phone in jail, she assumes she's probably lost her job because of her absence. Her kids have been staying with their father and grandfather, away from their rooms and toys in her house. The first thing she plans to do on Mother's Day, she says, is go to church. Next, she plans to "wash up our clothes, cook up some dinner, and enjoy being with my kids. We might even go to Chuck E Cheese or something."

"They have a million questions, they want to know where I've been," she says. "My mother used to tell me: 'trouble is easy to get into and hard to get out of.' I plan to tell them the same thing."

Read more:
Black Lives Matter Groups Are Bailing Black Women Out for Jail for Mother's Day - TIME