2012 African Cup Of Nations- Allez Les Elephants-Go Cote d'Ivoire

You haven't seen a real soccer fan until you've seen an Elephant supporter

Ayub Ogada- Spendid

I listened, again, this morning to Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina’s “How Not to Write about Africa” and this time I was pull into this piece by the background music.  I wondered how I had not first said OMG, who is this.  Well, it’s Kenyan musician Ayub Ogada.   He is splendid.  Listen.

The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth; Kick It With A Geek

If you’re a fan of Will.i.am, of the Black Eyed Peas, you know he is a technology fan. That’s why I wasn’t surprised to learn that he is even a bigger fan of promoting young people to explore the sciences and make their own inventions. Listen to following video to learn more.

Here is a link to learn more about the science program I Am First: http://iamfirst.dipdive.com/


And here is a great scholarship opportunity from Goggle for those interested in computer science, software development or computer technology in general.

As part of Google’s commitment to advancing computing and technology, they are providing scholarships to support students in their study of computer science.

The Generation Google Scholarship is a new program for aspiring computer scientists to excel in technology and become active role models and leaders in the field. Selected students will receive $10,000 USD (for those studying in the US) or $5,000 CAD (for those studying in Canada) a year for up to four years (or until graduation, whichever comes first) so long as they maintain criteria for renewal. Recipients will also be invited to attend Google’s Computer Science Summer Institute (CSSI) in the summer of 2012.

Who Should Apply?
Applicants must be high school seniors and meet the following eligibility criteria:
• Intends to be enrolled in or accepted as a full-time student at a university in the US or Canada for the 2012-2013 school year
• Intends to be enrolled in or accepted for enrollment in a baccalaureate Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, or related program
• Exemplifies leadership and demonstrates a commitment to and passion for computer science and technology through involvement in their community
• Strong record of academic achievement
• A student from an underrepresented group in computer science (African American, Hispanic, American Indian, Female, or a Person with a Disability)
• Demonstrates financial need.
For complete details, visit the Generation Google Scholarship site.
Deadline to apply: Monday, February 20, 2012 Questions? Email us at generationgoogle@google.com

For more information about student opportunities at Google, check out www.google.com/students

The Versatile Blogger Award- Sojo’s Trumpet ?

I'm the girl with the bows. I'm with my family in my grandfather's village in Cote d'Ivoire. It's all about memories.

We have all read books that have moved us forward in some important way and made us wonder about the world and our place in it.  After Gandhi: One Hundred Years of Non-Violent Resistance by  Anne Sibley O’Brien and Perry Edmond O’Brien is one of those books that made me want to go out and  change the world for the better because it gave examples of people who did just that.  Here is my review of this book almost three years ago. This is the best gift you can get to inspire a young person in your life to see the possibility of one’s actions making a real, moral difference:  http://trumpetworld.blogspot.com/2009/05/after-gandhi-one-hundred-years-of.html

I am revisiting this book today, because recently Ms. O’ Brien was kind enough to nominate me for the Versatile Blogger Award.  I thank her and here is a link to her blog- Coloring Between the Lines;  Reflections  on Race, Culture and Children’s Books  http://coloringbetween.blogspot.com/

The Rules

1. Thank the award-giver and link back to them in your post.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass this award along to 5  blogs you enjoy reading.
4. Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know about the award.

Seven things you didn’t know about me

1.       I am one of the 55 finalists for the 2012 Knight Foundation Arts Challenge/Philadelphia.   More than 1200 people applied.

http://www.knightarts.org/community/philadelphia/55-finalists-named-in-knight-arts-challenge-philadelphia

2.      I am from the Baoule ethnic group in Cote d’Ivoire and one of my heroines is Queen Pokou:
http://www.pascalmpeck.com/Paintings/Queen-Pokou.html

3.       I am now a major fan of Junot Diaz  and his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97336132

     4.       I am also a major fan of  French tennis player Gael Monfils:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW9zKEiy77A

      5.      I am also a Philly girl and no one represents us better than Jill Scott: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QCXr79Rkcw

6.      I support the honesty and goal of the new film Pariah. Go see it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbBiTlGhrPY

7.      I love Korean food and my Korean language skills are coming along. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t3ch-UAbo0&feature=relmfu

  Blogs I Enjoy

1.       Coloring Between the Lines;  Reflections  on Race, Culture and Children’s Books  http://coloringbetween.blogspot.com/

2.      Africa is a Country  http://africasacountry.com/

3.      Black Girl Flow  http://www.blackgirlflow.com/

4.      Girls’ State of the Union  http://womensmediacenter.com/blog/girls-state-of-the-union/

5.      Amnesty International    http://www.amnestyusa.org/

Remember the Golden Rule- Happy New Year

The Problem We All Live With-Norman Rockwell, 1963; In honor of Ruby Bridges

Southern Justice-Norman Rockwell, 1965; in honor of the three young Civil Rights activists who were killed while trying to register people to vote in the South-James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner

Negro in the Suburbs,  Norman Rockwell, 1967; Take note how each set of kids has a baseball mitt

I want to open the New Year with a post about the power of love and how as artists our work can be influenced by who we love and how the right kind of love can make us brave.  For many older people like my grandfather, who introduced me to the work of the illustrator and painter Norman Rockwell, Mr. Rockwell was a beloved, almost iconic figure, even for African-Americans who rarely were represented in his work which appeared on the covers of the Saturday Evening Post for more than 40 years.   I learned that the Saturday Evening Post and many publications at that time had an editorial policy that African-Americans could only be presented in subservient or menial positions.  When African-Americans did show up in Mr. Rockwell’s paintings we were there just as background.  

But he found in his third wife,  Molly Punderson,  the encouragement to open his eyes and make a big leap into the kind of  artistic work that makes a statement  and takes a stand.   Mr. Rockwell left The Saturday Evening Post and joined Look Magazine where he did the kind of illustrations I admire him for. 

Please click on the images to learn more about the subjects of the illustrations and give it up for the power of love. 

The Tables Are Starting to Turn- The World Has Spoken

I recently discovered Tracy Chapman and I adore her because she uses her talent to shed light, in a subtle, powerful way, on those who are too often overwhelmed to react against the weight of their obligations and disappointments.  Two years ago, I went to New York with my mom and Miss Trudy and Tante Mona to see a play called The Things of Dry Hours.  ( Here’s a link to my review: http://trumpetworld.blogspot.com/2009/06/things-of-dry-hours-at-new-york-theatre.html  )

The title of the play is taken from a great Gwendolyn Brooks poem called  kitchenette building.  Ms. Brooks,like Tracy,  is subtle and powerful in her presentation of why people sometimes fail to dream or  keep a dream alive. 

Happy Holidays. Power to the Imagination.  Power to the 99%.  Here is Tracy Chapman singing Talking About a Revolution.

Kitchenette Building
by Gwendolyn Brooks

We are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan, 
Grayed in, and gray. "Dream" makes a giddy sound, not strong 
Like "rent," "feeding a wife," "satisfying a man." 

But could a dream send up through onion fumes   
Its white and violet, fight with fried potatoes   
And yesterday's garbage ripening in the hall,   
Flutter, or sing an aria down these rooms 

Even if we were willing to let it in, 
Had time to warm it, keep it very clean,   
Anticipate a message, let it begin? 

We wonder. But not well! not for a minute!   
Since Number Five is out of the bathroom now,   
We think of lukewarm water, hope to get in it.
 

from "Selected Poems" © 1963 by Gwendolyn Brooks.
Reprinted with the permission of the Estate of Gwendolyn Brooks

It's Our Time; It's Our World

One of my goals is to visit and study in China.  Last year I was selected as an alternate to study Mandarin in China through the National Security Language Initiative for Youth.  This program sends teenagers around the world to study critical languages such as Mandarin, Arabic, Hindi, Farsi, Russian and Korean to name a few.  It’s an intense process to get selected, but if you do, all expenses are paid and you get to open your mind and heart to another culture.  I am undeterred. I will get to China.  Here’s more information about the National Security Language Initiative for Youth: http://exchanges.state.gov/youth/programs/nsli.html

Another great organization that sends teens abroad is Americans Promoting Study Abroad. The following video tells it all:

To learn more about this summer program, visit   http://www.apsaglobal.org/

The Ron Brown Scholar Program

 I am so happy to be home.  There is no place like home.   This coming week I plan to focus on upcoming scholarship and summer programs.  Here we go. A big shout out to Ms. Murray for sharing the following:

The Ron Brown Scholar Program
This program seeks to identify African-American high school seniors who will make significant contributions to society.

Applicants must excel academically, exhibit exceptional leadership potential, participate in community service activities and demonstrate financial need. The applicant must be a US citizen or hold a permanent resident visa card. Current college students are not eligible to apply.

Recipients may use the renewable scholarships to attend an accredited four-year college or university of their choice within the United States.

Ron Brown Scholarships are not limited to any specific field or career objective and may be used to pursue any academic discipline. More than 200 students have been designated as Ron Brown Scholars since the inception of the Program.

Award Amount : $10,000
Deadline: Usually in January
Website/Contact Info: www.ronbrown.org/Apply/EligibilityRequirements.aspx

Reconstructing the Self- The Musical Billy Elliot

Billy Elliot


A Review By Sojourner Ahebee

Sarah Jones is a playwright and actress who has created a cast characters who come from a wide-range of economic, cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Ms. Jones, who is African-American, uses her insight and talent and becomes her characters. We, the audience, are enchanted to come into their world and listen to their stories, in their voices.

I was recently listening to a video in which Ms. Jones shared her motivation for creating her characters. She was interested, she said, by how people construct a sense of themselves given the family, the geography, the times, the gender, etc. in which they are born. How do we become ourselves? How do we invent or reinvent ourselves, especially in an environment which is constraining.

Last Thursday I saw the musical, Billy Elliot, as part of the Kimmel Center’s Broadway Presents series, in Philadelphia. My Aunt Mona had seen the New York production and had raved about this musical. So I was certainly looking forward to seeing it, and the Philly presentation, at the Academy of Music, was no let down. Billy Elliot is a must see.

Billy is a kid growing up in a coal mining town in England during the time of Margaret Thatcher’s rule and a time of economic difficulties. His family is working class and the men in his family have been coal miners for generations. My Aunt Mona, who visits England often, said it is difficult for Americans to appreciate the very rigid class structure that exists in British society. It is so oppressive as to almost dictate what your desires are and what you dream and how far you can transcend the background in which you were born.

When we first meet Billy, the coalminers in his town are on strike. His father and brother are coalminers and money is very tight. Despite these economic challenges, Billy’s father sacrifices a lot to pay for Billy to take boxing lessons, which Billy hates. While going to a boxing lesson, Billy sees a group of ballet dancers practicing in a room in the gym. He is immediately enchanted. 
The ballet instructor, Ms. Wilkinson, immediately pulls Billy into the classroom and a love affair begins with Billy and the dance of ballet.

How does a boy, in an English coalmining town, from a family of coalminers, against the background of the 1984 coal miners’ strike, become a ballet dancer? Going back to Ms. Jones, what circumstances are needed for the boy from his geography, economic background, and gender and so on to reconstruct himself as a ballet dancer?

How to knock down barriers so you can rise to grow into who you want to be is the essence of what this musical is about. Go and see it and be inspired.

Here is a link to the dates and times of the performances. The run in Philadelphia closes on Sunday, November 27th, so hurry to see Billy Elliot. http://kimmelcenter.org/events/index.php?id=4027

Happy Birthday Songs in the Key of Life

Sunday Best

Reurinkjan

In the Ahebee pantheon of gods, Stevie Wonder ranks pretty high.  It’s the 35th anniversary of Mr. Wonder’s Album-Songs in the Key of Life.  My mom actually has this album-yes album-not CD-that she proudly bought when she was 14. In my grandparents’ house, my grandfather still has this contraption called a 8 track cassette player for his Ink Spots and Nat King Cole tapes.   And yes, they still have a record player, which is the neatest thing of all.  And so, we’re blasting Stevie and singing his songs the old-fashioned way; with a lot of heart.

My favorite song on this album is I Wish.  This song is so universal.  Here is the Korean group Sweet Sorrow singing I Wish.  HappyThanksgiving!