Last year’s Hip-Hop for Palestine was a thoroughly engaging and inspirational experience – this year’s will be no less! MC’s, activists, students, and community members gathered at The Rotunda in West Philadelphia collectively in support of the Palestinian people’s fight for self-determination and human rights. Sponsored and organized by Temple University’s Students for Justice in Palestine, a diverse array of hip-hop artists, poets, dj’s, and musicians from New York, D.C., Baltimore, Palestine, and elsewhere across the globe performed for an audience of over 300 people on a Wednesday night. This year’s edition will definitely be an event worth coming to – for the music, the people, and the cause!

Baltimore based rapper Son of Nun is one performer who’s still ringing in my head from last year.

[from www.sonofnun.com] “…a Baltimore city high school teacher, organizer, activist, and poet, son of nun (s.o.n.) doesn’t just entertain his crowds he empowers them. s.o.n. has performed at universities, activist conferences, demonstrations, rallies ­ such as the Sorry State of the Union in front of the U.S. Capitol, and at nightclubs in Baltimore, DC, New York, Pennsylvania, and Chicago to name a few. He’s opened for Mr. Lif, Akrobatic, Buck 65, Odd Jobs, Roni Size & Reprazent, and performed with Adam F., Diesel Boy, DJ Die, DJ Krust, and others… s.o.n.’s range extends from hip hop, to spoken word, to drum ‘n’ bass, to freestyling with a live band. An active member and organizer in various social justice movements, s.o.n. brings a fresh, thought provoking, and much needed perspective to an art form plagued with violence, materialism, and sexism… earlier this summer the song “Fight Back” from s.o.n.’s full length cd ­ Blood and Fire – was selected from over 500 submissions to appear on the second volume of the renowned Peace Not War cd compilation with artists such as Anti Flag, Ani DiFranco, The Evens, Sonic Youth, and others to benefit antiwar groups.”

Saturday December 1st. 8PM.

The Rotunda

4014 Walnut St.

Philadelphia, PA

SJP and organizers need help. You can…

SHOW UP
VOLUNTEER
RENT A TABLE to SELL ART and CLOTHES or HAND OUT INFO
SPREAD THE WORD
DONATE PICTURES

Cost: Sliding scale $10-$20
(No one turned away for lack of funds)

We need VOLUNTEERS the night of the event. If you can help, set up, break
down, run tables etc. Please email hiphop4palestine@gmail.com with VOLUNTEER
in the subject line.

If you would like to RENT A TABLE for $30 to sell product or give out
information Please email hiphop4palestine@gmail.com with TABLE in the
subject line.

If you have any PICTURES from Palestine please email
hiphop4palestine@gmail.com with PHOTOS in the subject line and
descriptions

Last year, in the endless magic hour of the Icelandic summer, Sigur Rós played a series of concerts around their homeland. Combining both the biggest and smallest shows of their career, the entire tour was filmed, and now provides a unique insight into one of the world’s shyest and least understood bands captured live in their natural habitat.

The culmination of more than a year spent promoting their hugely successful ‘Takk…’ album around the world, the Icelandic tour was free to all-comers and went largely unannounced. Playing in deserted fish factories, outsider art follies, far-flung community halls, sylvan fields, darkened caves and the hoofprint of Odin’s horse, Sleipnir*, the band reached an entirely new spectrum of the Icelandic population; young and old, ardent and merely quizzical, entirely by word-of-mouth.

The question of the way Sigur Rós’s music relates to, and is influenced by, their environment has been reduced to a journalistic cliché about glacial majesty and fire and ice, but there is no doubt that the band are inextricably linked to the land in which they were forged. And the decision to film this first-ever Sigur Rós film in Iceland was, in the end, ineluctable.

Shot using a largely Icelandic crew (to minimise Eurovision-style scenic-wonder overload), ‘Heima’ – which means both “at home” and “homeland” – is an attempt to make a film every bit as big, beautiful and unfettered as a Sigur Rós album. As such it was always going to be something of a grand folie, but one, which taking in no fewer than 15 locations around Iceland (including the country’s largest ever concert at the band’s Reykjavik homecoming), is never less than epic in its ambition.

Material from all four of the band’s albums is featured, including many rare and notable moments. Among these are a heart-stopping rendition of the previously unreleased ‘Gitardjamm’, filmed inside a derelict herring oil tank in the far West Fjords; a windblown, one-mic recording of ‘Vaka’, shot at a dam protest camp subsequently drowned by rising water; and first time acoustic versions of such rare live beauties as ‘Staralfur’, ‘Agaetis Byrjun’ and ‘Von’.

<www.heima.co.uk>

A free screening of ‘Heima’ will be shown on Tuesday November 20th at the International House in West Philadelphia. 8pm.

The International House

3700 Chestnut Street  (37th and Chestnut)

Philadelphia, PA

(No Advanced Seating – First Come First served)

“I’m gonna’ help em’ fry the nigger.” These words spewed from the mouth of Judge Albert Sabo, a man who over the course of his career had sentenced more men to death than any other judge in U.S. history (33 in total, 2 of which were white) during the trial of Mumia-Abu Jamal – one of the most celebrated and controversial political prisoners in the world. A renowned journalist from Philadelphia who has been on Pennsylvania’s death row for over 25 years, Abu-Jamal was convicted of killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner on December 9, 1981 and sentenced to death in a trial that Amnesty International has declared a “violation of minimum international standards that govern fair trial procedures and the use of the death penalty.”

What motivated this entry was a result of my astonishment that many people, especially young adults in Philadelphia, do not know who Mumia Abu-Jamal is; one of the most celebrated and controversial political prisoners renowned for his vigilant activism. It is all too easy to conform to a sense of apathy and disinterest in the problems of the world as a result of alienation and an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. It’s rather inspiring that for more than a quarter century, Mumia Abu-Jamal has produced some of the most potent and intoxicating sociopolitical commentaries available from a cell about the size of your average bathroom. If Mumia still persists as a thorn in the side of oppression in the face of so much adversity, let alone from a life in prison that would drive many into despair, how is it so difficult for us to educate ourselves and others? To talk about it and make a difference in our own way, to instill a sense of compassion instead of indifference?

It is not my intention to write a diatribe or synopsis of this case’s history or to expel my beliefs of Mumia’s innocence. The evidence and circumstances are so lengthy and astounding, that I feel it would be more prudent to offer a head start for someone who is unaware or skeptical about the case. The fusion of journalism and filmmaking is an incredible tool for understanding. Through literary and visual devices a message can appeal to the senses in a way that when isolated, may or may not be as effective as when combined. This is why I have enclosed several clips from a documentary “Mumia: A Case for Reasonable Doubt.” Although somewhat outdated, it still defines the basics of Mumia’s case and its injustice in a way that is not sensationalized, but in a rather sober and focused approach.

The extent of information regarding the case is so huge that I feel I’d have to write a term paper in order to explain the circumstances in a thorough and convincing context. Rather, I am merely trying to provide those of you who are unaware of Mumia’s case with a template for further research so that maybe it inspires you to be more active, compassionate, and aware. With three police officers murdered in Philadelphia just last week, do we really consider the ramifications which plague our city? The dimensions of society that motivate violence and depravity in Philadelphia are the very things Mumia Abu-Jamal fights against. Learn for yourself. Speak for yourself. Peep it, people.

Mumia Abu-Jamal is currently appealing his conviction before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia on the account of racism and corruption handling his case. If he is granted a new trial, Mumia will have the chance to prove his innocence and attain his freedom. If not, he will be sentenced to die. It is vital to educate yourself and others about the facts of this case, all of which stem from the city whose streets we walk on everyday.

MUMIA: A CASE FOR REASONABLE DOUBT (PART ONE)

MUMIA: A CASE FOR REASONABLE DOUBT (PART TWO)

MUMIA ABU-JAMAL ORAL HISTORY (PART ONE)

There are a total of 5 parts which make up the documentary in its entirety on Youtube. I recommend watching all of them – there’s no point in only getting some of the facts. If you would like a copy of the dvd, feel free to contact me. Additionaly, I have posted the first segment of another documentary which may provide a more concise yet still informative window into the climate of racism in America which influenced Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Black Liberation movement.