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Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Afro Colombian Heritage Week: May 19 through 23 in Cartagena,
Colombia
By Karen Juanita Carrillo With the slogan, "Our Territory is also Our Culture" the Gavilaneo wants to emphasize
their local community's Afro Caribbean culture and show that  it is an integral part of the rich diversity of Colombia. "May 21,
2008 will mark the 157th commemoration of the legal end of slavery in the Republic of Colombia,"
write the historian Alfonso Cassiani Herrera and the anthropologist Jesus Natividad Perez Palomino in response to a questionnairepresented
to the Cabildo Afrocaribeño "Gavilaneo" about the week of celebrations.
"This
date was declared by law in 2005 as national Afro Colombian heritage day. This all came about because of the struggles and
efforts made by our well-organized African descendant communities who, among other successes, got the government to sign Law 70 (Ley de Negritudes/Law of the Blacks) of 1993. One major part of Law 70 recognizes Black communities as a distinct ethnic group and establishes procedures
for recognition of the community's ancestral lands. read more
Monday, May 19, 2008
WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Finding Malcolm X's Grandson Malcolm Lateef ShabazzAliya S. King of News One/Giant has written a profile/interview with
Malcolm Lateef Shabazz, the grandson of Malcolm X. The piece allows the
much maligned young man to speak for himself about his life and his dreams for the future. "I am Malcolm X's first grandchild," Malcolm Lateef states in Finding Malcolm X's Grandson Malcolm Lateef Shabazz. "His first grandson. And his first male heir. I've read and been told that he always wanted a boy. He had six daughters,
including twins that were born after he passed away. No boys in the Shabazz family until me. "When
I was much younger I thought Malcolm X was actually my father. And when I asked about him, my mom would show me pictures of
her dad and tell me that he was my father. I didn't find out the truth until years later. "I can't talk to my mom about him. Nothing in-depth. She acts like she doesn't know about him.
It wasn't until I was about 9 or 10 that I began to discover what it meant to have this man as my grandfather. And it
wasn't until I ended up in prison that I truly discovered the impact that my grandfather had. Ironically, I ended up discovering
Malcolm X the way so many Black men do-in jail."
10:39 pm edt
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Visit www.afropresencia.com to find listings and links to areas where you can find out
about upcoming events, as well as links to articles, photos and videos on Life in the Black Americas.
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The Sound of My Footsteps: Narratives of Migratory Jamaican immigrants
Interviews with over 30 Jamaican immigrants on their
pre-migratory perceptions of New York and England Click
here to view and purchase the book.
The Afro-Latin@ Reader:
History and Culture in the United States
 The Afro-Latin@ Reader focuses attention on a large, vibrant, yet oddly invisible community
in the United States: people of African descent from Latin America and the Caribbean. The presence of Afro-Latin@s
in the United States (and throughout the Americas) belies the notion that Blacks and Latin@s are two distinct categories
or cultures. Afro-Latin@s are uniquely situated to bridge the widening social divide between Latin@s and African
Americans. At the same time, their experiences reveal pervasive racism among Latin@s and ethnocentrism among African
Americans. Offering insight into Afro-Latin@ life and new ways to understand culture, ethnicity, nation, identity,
and antiracist politics, The Afro-Latin@ Reader presents a kaleidoscopic view of Black Latin@s in the United
States. It addresses history, music, gender, class, and media representations in more than sixty selections, including
scholarly essays, memoirs, newspaper and magazine articles, poetry, short stories, and interviews. Click here to view and purchase the book.
African American History Day by Day: A Reference Guide to Events by Karen Juanita Carrillo The proof
of any group's importance to history is in the detail, a fact made plain by this informative book's day-by-day documentation
of the impact of African Americans on life in the United States. One of the easiest ways to grasp any aspect of history
is to look at it as a continuum. African American History Day by Day: A Reference Guide to Events provides just
such an opportunity. Click here to view and purchase the book.
The
View from Chocó: The Afro-Colombian past, their lives in the present, and their hopes for the future by Karen Juanita Carrillo The View from Chocó: The Afro-Colombian past, their lives in the
present, and their hopes for the future is an introduction to the lives of Blacks in Colombia. Afro-Colombians
live in a resource-rich yet remote region of Colombia. They only recently won recognition as one of that nation's
distinct ethnic groups. But Colombia's on-going civil war has led many Afro-Colombians to reach even farther than
their nation's borders for recognition: many have made their way to the United States as refugees and as political
activists working for peace in their homeland. The View from Chocó introduces the lives and struggles of a too-long neglected community of Colombian Blacks. Click here to view and purchase the book.
Raise Your Brown Black Fist is a collection of essays
written by Kevin Alberto Sabio during his time as a Contributing Writer  for an online magazine.
The book combines his two article series, "Black
vs Brown" and "Black Thoughts: A Political Ideological Perspective
for Afrolatinos" into one volume, plus three other miscellaneous entries. The book
is currently available through his publisher, AuthorHouse. Click
the logo above to view and purchase the book.
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