Europe

Feb 7 2013

The huge festival opens today

The 12-year-old wears neat pigtails. Her dry, black skin seems to match the barren surroundings of her village, which is void of vegetation with the exception of a few weeds and battered corn stalks that resemble plant fossils against the backdrop of a doom-colored sky.

Gregg Reese  |   OW Staff Writer
Jan 31 2013

The war on drugs moves to the Motherland

“In the 19th century, Europe’s hunger for slaves devastated West Africa. Two hundred years later, its growing appetite for cocaine could do the same.” —Antonio Maria Costa, executive director, U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime
 

Feb 17 2011

She fled to continue her music

“Red Hope? the Blacklisting of Hope Foye,” which is nominated for best documentary at the Pan African Film Festival, tells the story of how soprano Hope Foye, was forced to live in exile because of the McCarthy-era interrogations she endured by the House Un-American Activities Committee. An early activist who fled to Mexico and later Europe, the 87-year-old Foye will be at the festival during the screenings of the Constance Jackson documentary on her life: Feb. 20 (6:15 p.m.) and Feb. 22, 1:30 p.m. at the Culver Plaza Theatre.

Feb 10 2011

Festival showcases international movies

The 19th annual Pan African Film and Arts Festival (PAFF), America’s largest Black film festival, scheduled Feb. 16-21, will showcase more than 150 new movies from Africa, the United States, Europe, the Caribbean, the South Pacific, South America, and Canada. This event, established in 1992, also features 100 Black fine artists and craftspeople, poetry readings, fashion shows, free forums, and panels.

Juliana D. Norwood  |   OW Staff Writer
Jan 27 2011

Annual conference to meet in L.A.

The International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD) preserves and promotes dance by people of African ancestry or origin, and assists and increases opportunities for artists in networking, funding, performance, education, audience development, touring and advocacy.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.