my lower case

Dubbed Chimurenga, which means “revolutionary...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 15:13:09 -0400

Dubbed Chimurenga, which means “revolutionary struggle” in Zimbabwe’s Shona language, Edjabe’s creation is an award-winning, pan African literary magazine that addresses and embraces the continent’s diversity, with a focus on “the complexity of life.”

“Discourse on Africa is geared towards simplicity,” explains Edjabe. “Everything must be simple, ‘he’s a poor black man, he’s a victim,’ like there has to be a simple story, in a way this is what signifies Africa and global consciousness,” he adds.

“The moment you bring a degree of complexity to it, it kind of throws people off, they just don’t know where to look anymore, it’s like, ‘what’s going on?’ So Chimurenga in a way does not try to maintain the superficiality of this narrative — we engage with life, we try to present life as complex as it really is.”

The Afro-fusion quartet from Nairobi greets the morning birds...

Thu, 31 May 2012 08:42:00 -0400

The Afro-fusion quartet from Nairobi greets the morning birds and joggers on the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge in Austin, Texas, with a version of its recent single “Love or Leave.” via NPR

Love it! They should come perform in Minneapolis sometime. Next year’s African Summer at the Cedar, perhaps?

-Nekessa

How welcoming is Minnesota to newcomers? That’s the question...

Sun, 20 May 2012 22:30:47 -0400

How welcoming is Minnesota to newcomers? That’s the question being posed by The Advocates for Human Rights. This year and next, the Minneapolis-based nonprofit is monitoring, documenting, and assessing the experiences of immigrants and other key communities against international human rights standards. It’s part of a project called the One Voice Minnesota Network, an effort to build more welcoming communities statewide by providing tools and resources and promoting collaborations.

Next Wednesday, May 30, the public will have an opportunity to learn more about the Advocates’ work and how to utilize the Twin Cities Daily Planet and various social media tools to become better connected, more effective immigrant rights advocates. “Welcome to Minnesota: A Conversation about Immigration and Human Rights” is a free event, co-hosted by the Twin Cities Media Alliance.

This will be the first in a series of community events organized by the Twin Cities Daily Planet, with support from the Bush Foundation. Last year’s series of “New Normal” articles and community conversations definined challenges Minnesotans face in the current economic climate and identified possible solutions. This year the focus is on action steps. Between now and November, the Daily Planet will co-sponsor community meetings with approximately 20 organizations that emphasize civic engagement as a key element of their work.

Immigration will be the subject of three of those meetings. Other topics are education, work, environment, health care, and transportation.

The meetings will allow organizations like The Advocates for Human Rights to introduce themselves, describe their work, and identify ways the public can mobilize and become more involved. Twin Cities Media Alliance staff will present on how citizens can use new media to particiapte more fully in conversations and take action on the issues most important to them. Ample time will be provided for mingling and networking.

The Advocates provide several ways for people to plug in and be involved, including: becoming a cyberlobbyist, sending postcards, organizing workshops, showing a film, starting a book club, or monitoring media. Involving volunteers in research, education, and advocacy is a key way the organization builds broad constituencies in the United States and select communities globally.

Promoting civil society and reinforcing the rule of law through working to implement international human rights standards has been a core mission of The Advocates for Human Rights for over 25 years. In addition to immigrant rights, the Advocates focus on human rights in the United States, international justice, and women’s human rights.

- Bruce Johansen

via
tcdailyplanet

I cannot help myself…. these girls are adorable.

Sun, 20 May 2012 22:28:55 -0400

I cannot help myself…. these girls are adorable.

Spokesman Recorder’s Dwight Hobbes interviewed me last...

Sat, 12 May 2012 16:40:00 -0400

Spokesman Recorder’s Dwight Hobbes interviewed me last month for Women’s History Month.

-Nekessa

A couple of boys playing chess draughts (checkers) using found...

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:50:00 -0400

A couple of boys playing ~~chess~~ draughts (checkers) using found objects, mostly rocks and twigs, outside the Brian Coyle Center in Minneapolis.

-Nekessa

Reflections of New Minnesotans: Celebrating this year's Nobel Peace Prize to three women

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:17:00 -0400

Reflections of New Minnesotans: Celebrating this year's Nobel Peace Prize to three women:

newminnesotans:

Its wonderful to see the Nobel Peace Prize committee acknowledge the work of women during conflict. This year’s laureates were Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, peace activist Leymah Gbowee, and Tawakkol Karman of Yemen, a pro-democracy campaigner. It is a victory in many ways: only one…

A prayer ceremony led by traditional drum groups and dancers of...

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:44:00 -0400

A prayer ceremony led by traditional drum groups and dancers of the North America, and Meshikas of Mexico and Central and South America at the Hennepin Govt Center, now known as the People’s Plaza by OccupyMn protesters.

“Indigenous peoples of North and South America [were at the People’s Plaza] to reoccupy our sacred Mother Earth. We will join together as one on this day of national mourning of the genocide of 120 million indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere, as American and the world celebrates the pirate Columbus.”

See more photos here.

Images from Minnesota’s first day of “Occupy”...

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:42:00 -0400

Images from Minnesota’s first day of “Occupy” protests at the “People’s Plaza.”

I was in downtown Minneapolis for most of the day and took close to 500 photos! Click here to get a glimpse of some of them.

Reflections of New Minnesotans: Arab American super heroine fights for justice; with olive oil

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 08:39:37 -0400

Reflections of New Minnesotans: Arab American super heroine fights for justice; with olive oil :

newminnesotans:

Kathryn Haddad’s Zafira the Olive Oil Warrior looks at what would happen if Arab and Muslim Americans were held in internment camps just as Japanese Americans were in the ’40s. In this haunting play, school teacher Vicki, played by Taous Khazem, is emboldened by her alter-ego, Zafira. I interview…

A warmer welcome in a colder state

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:14:00 -0400

A warmer welcome in a colder state:

The Economist makes the case for Minnesota Nice in immigration:

The difference may be partly because, when it comes to immigration, Minnesota is more like Canada than the rest of the United States. Being far removed from Latin America, the main source of immigrants to the country in general, Minnesota has little cause to worry about unauthorised migration.

But it is also a matter of policy. The state has been a national leader in refugee resettlement programmes since the 1980s, and its main metropolis, the twinned cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, has adopted a series of initiatives aimed at supporting refugees of all kinds as well as regular migrants.

Both are sanctuary cities, for example, meaning that police are barred from asking about migration status during the normal course of business. They have also spent money on integration. Mr Samatar’s centre, for example, specialises in helping African immigrants who want to start small businesses.

Click through title to read the article in its entirety.

-Nekessa

For Kenyan émigré, Minnesota has become home, but his heart and energy remain focused 8,000 miles away

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:53:00 -0400

For Kenyan émigré, Minnesota has become home, but his heart and energy remain focused 8,000 miles away:

I haven’t met Timon Bondo, but I have heard a lot about him from many older Kenyans who live here in the cities. Perhaps, it is time I gave him a visit. The Strib’s Curt Brown writes a heartwarming piece about this how Mr. Bondo came to the states and continued to live here while building two schools in his hometown on the shores of Lake Victoria in western Kenya.

(click through the title to read the profile)

-Nekessa

Amplifying the stories of newest Minnesotans

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 12:31:00 -0400

Amplifying the stories of newest Minnesotans:

Finding my Minnesota identity: the Star Tribune’s Curt Brown writes a nice profile of my work on his weekly column My Minnesota.

(click through title to read the story)

-Nekessa

This. Yes, this. Dear Minnesota, I hope we beat the marriage...

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 00:39:00 -0400

This. Yes, this. Dear Minnesota, I hope we beat the marriage amendment in 2012. And here’s New York to encourage us right along.

-Nekessa

photo via wr3n:

I-35W Pride

In honor of Pride weekend, the I-35W bridge lighting will be rainbow colors this weekend. Click thru to view large on Flickr.

Hard Times. Today, I met Patrick at the Hard Times Cafe in...

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 22:42:00 -0400

Hard Times. Today, I met Patrick at the Hard Times Cafe in Minneapolis. As irony would have it, he has fallen on hard times and has been selling flowers for the past two years on the West Bank. Turns out he is a Nigerian immigrant with a masters degree in pharmacy; and lost his job two years ago. He insisted on buying me one of his roses. Pink for friendship, he said.

-Nekessa

Interactive map: Where are the immigrant youth in rural Minnesota?

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 22:09:07 -0400

Interactive map: Where are the immigrant youth in rural Minnesota?:

We learned from the 2010 Census that Minnesota’s population became more diverse between 2000 and 2010. There are nearly 107,000 more Hispanic residents in Minnesota today than there were 10 years ago. And residents who checked the box next to “Black, African American, or Negro” on their 2010 Census form rose almost as much: close to 103,000 people.

Immigrants settling in Minnesota are driving this new diversity, and as their children come of age and start their own families, Minnesota communities will likely become still more diverse.

via Minnpost.

ruralmn: Don’t miss this relentlessly charming video of a Hmong...

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 22:07:02 -0400

ruralmn:

Don’t miss this relentlessly charming video of a Hmong farming family in rural Minnesota. To read more about the family, check out video journalist Steve Date’s post at the project page for Rural Minnesota: Generation at the crossroads.

Today is World Refugee Day: Minnesota is home to over eighty...

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:21:00 -0400

Today is World Refugee Day: Minnesota is home to over eighty thousand refugees. My show last week looks at the remnants of war in Laos: the loss of life and place that continues to this day.

Channapha Khamvongsa, the executive director of Legacies of War, uses art, culture, education, and community organizing to bring people together and create healing and transformation out of the wreckage of war.

During the U.S. bombing in Laos, an American educational adviser and his Laotian colleague collected illustrations and narratives from Laotian refugees. Etched in pencil, pens, crayons and markers, these accounts are raw and stark, reflecting the crude events that shaped the reality of these victims’ lives. Only a small circle of individuals knew of the existence of these illustrations.

Decades later, they were rediscovered by Legacies of War Executive Director Channapha Khamvongsa and were returned to the Laotian-American community. Today, accompanied by historical photos, maps and other relevant documents about the decade-long bombing, they form the core of the Legacies of War National Traveling Exhibition.

Apart from the context of the covert war, Khamvongsa touches on her identity crisis growing up with the legacy of her parents memory: of a land they knew before the war; and how straddling her multiple identities pushed her towards learning more about Laos.

A local immigration attorney, Loddy Elizabeth Tolzmann, also a Laotian refugee, joined us in the Mines Advisory Group. She talks briefly about how this organization works to stabilize regions that are left to deal with bombs that are leftover:

Too often landmines, unexploded ordnance (UXO), small arms and light weapons (SALW) are left behind after conflict and remain harmful to innocent civilians even after peace is established.

These remnants of conflict kill and injure an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people a year - around one person every twenty minutes. And the devastation is much wider than physical. Remnants of conflict affect the way people live, work, and play, and prevent entire communities from escaping the poverty and suffering caused by conflict. They restrict people’s access to education and healthcare facilities, as well as to clean, safe water and land for cultivation. They hinder links between villages, preventing refugees from returning home and restricting local trade.

Check out the Legacies of War website to see the important work that they are doing. For me, one of the thrills, and the privileges of being a journalist, is learning so much about issues that I would otherwise never have known about. For many of us, war is very removed from our daily lives, it is easy to forget that even during peaceful times there are communities around the world that are continuously dealing with the consequences of war. And some of these people are our neighbors are here in Minnesota as there are many Vietnam-era refugees (and other) living here in the Twin Cities.

Today (June 20th) is World Refugee Day and, tragically, a report from the United Nations shows that there are more people living as refugees around the world today than did fifteen years ago:

there were 43.7 million refugees and people displaced within their country by events such as war and natural disasters at the end of last year.

The Guardian has a good run down on the numbers, and where these refugees live today, their return rate (return to their motherland) and their socio-economic plight. Most striking, and unsurprising, is that most refugees flee to neighboring countries, most of which do not have the infrastructure to support them.

This show aired on June 18th, 2011; click here to download.

via newminnesotans

Listen to my interview with Ahmed Sirleaf, Program Associate at...

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:17:16 -0400

Listen to my interview with Ahmed Sirleaf, Program Associate at the Advocates for Human Rights at their International Justice program.

Sirleaf is a human rights advocate and scholar, and is particularly interested in transitional justice initiatives in the world. Speaking on the ground breaking involvement of the Liberian Diaspora’s (Minnesota’s particularly) involvement in holding public hearings as part of larger reconciliation efforts, Sirleaf said:

In the history of any truth commissions or analogous bodies—current or past— this is the first time that a truth commission is systematically engaging both the people in the country where human rights and humanitarian law violations occurred (Liberia) and the Diaspora community; particularly in the United States.

With that came challenges: only victims spoke about crimes committed against them. Fear of prosecution kept perpetrators in the shadows. How then, is the Liberian community in Minnesota, and other refugees communities, dealing with post-war trauma and the very likely chance that their neighbor here in Minnesota was once a war criminal from the country from which they fled?

This show aired on June 11th, 2011.

via newminnesotans

The Differences Between the Daily Planet and Huffington Post

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 20:20:38 -0400

The Differences Between the Daily Planet and Huffington Post:

Many thanks to all of you who responded to my recent message asking you to support the Twin Cities Daily Planet by making a membership contribution. We really need the support, and many of you responded generously.

But I received one response that really caught my attention:

“Would totally make a donation once you start paying your writers.”

I replied immediately: “Actually, we have been paying our writers for years. We don’t pay for blogs and commentary pieces, but we do pay for assigned news stories and most reviews. You can find the details here: http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/contribute.”

And then I added this reminder: “If you feel like making a donation, you can visit our secure online donation page, or send a check (in any amount) to TCMA, 2600 E. Franklin #2, Minneapolis MN 55406.”

The reader was not impressed: “Guess I just don’t want to support a business model that relies primarily on unpaid/underpaid bloggers, whether it’s HuffPo or Patch or eHow.com or Daily Planet.”

Here’s the gist of my reply: “Actually, our business model is quite different… “Those other publications give priority to stories that generate the most search engine traffic. Our editorial priorities are covering under-reported stories, and giving voice to under-served communities.”

Many of Huffington Post’s unpaid bloggers felt cheated when Ariana Huffington and her investors cashed out and got $315 million dollars. We can’t cash out because we don’t own the Daily Planet. The Twin Cities Media Alliance is a non-profit, and the Daily Planet belongs to the community. We get 95 percent of our revenue from foundation grants, memberships and individual gifts, and only 5 percent from advertising.”

“We operate on a shoestring budget, and all that money goes back into the community - to pay our writers, our editors, our support staff and our rent. The staff, including myself, contributes many unpaid hours, without benefits, because we believe in the work we are doing - our award-winning journalism, free citizen journalism classes, media skills workshops and public forums, where many hundreds of Twin Citizens from diverse backgrounds have learned how to be smarter producers and consumers of media.”

And if you now feel totally like making a donation, you can visit our secure online donation page, or send a check (in any amount) to TCMA, 2600 E. Franklin #2, Minneapolis MN 55406. A contribution of any size will make you a member of the Daily Planet - and entitle you to reduced ticket prices and advance notice of special Daily Planet events. Any new or increased donations will help us earn a $75,000 matching grant from the Challenge Fund for Journalism.

Thanks,
Jeremy Iggers
Executive Director, Twin Cities Media Alliance

**********

[Twin Cities Media Alliance] [Twin Cities Daily Planet]

freshmn:

Just got this by email.

**********

What Jeremy said. I want to know when the Daily Planet is worth $315 mil. And Mary Turck would never publish any of the tabloid content that the Huffington Post is very fond of.

PS. I write for the Daily Planet; and my first attraction to them was their support for ethnic media, who are generally alienated by both the mainstream and alternative press.

-Nekessa