Herman and Iyaluua Ferguson. Photo: NC State African American Center
[Community News]
1. FREE 10 WEEK SATURDAY SCIENCE ENRICHMENT COURSE AT JOHN HENRIK CLARKE HOUSE IN HARLEM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS (10th to 12th Grade) Of African Ancestry, INTERESTED IN CAREERS IN HEALTH SCIENCES. Course will run from February 1 to April 5, 2014
Parent or Caretaker Guardian must call 347-907-0629 before Jan 19, 2013 to receive instructions regarding, application and registration and admission. This is not a remedial course. Only 10 highly motivated students will be accepted Parents are welcome to attend all sessions.
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2. Sunday January 19, 2014 BEPAA MASTER CLASS AT JOHN HENRIK CLARKE HOUSE IN HARLEM
“Examining Sisters’ Relationships in Today’s Society” By Liz Hender
The Board for the Education of People of African Ancestry will host a unique panel to examine and discuss black female/male relationships in today’s society. The venue, being held at the Dr. John Henrik Clarke House, 286 Convent Ave. HARLEM, NY on Sunday, January 19th, 2014, at 3:00 P.M.will provide compelling testimony from Sisters who have lived and experienced the most popular areas of relationships, that is, married, single separated, widowed or divorced. Under the title “Sisters Hold Up Over Half the Sky.” Stacey Yearwood, M.D.,Psychiatrist, Sister Lisa Noble, Retail Executive, Sister Sharon Maynard, Administrator and Atty. Moonyene Jackson-Amis will begin an ongoing dialogue to help young women and men unravel the tangled circumstances involved in the development of meaningful personal and family relationships. The forum will be facilitated by Dr. Adelaide Sanford and Sister Betty Dopson . Participants will explore living a single life, single parenting, marriage and divorce from their personal perspectives, including how each handled adversity, challenges and opportunities.
The often disturbing problems facing young and not so young black women today are the questions of companionship, partnership and meaningful relationships. Living in a society that rubber stamps the most aberrant behavior of celebrities, no matter how reprehensible, creates particular problems for Sisters who hope to develop serious relationships based on trust and understanding. Challenges relating to where and how to meet possible mates in a supportive environment can be a daunting, even overwhelming effort.
Statistics indicate that more than one half of all marriages now fail. Often couples that stay together do so almost solely for the benefit of their children. Not only are black women faced with the ratio of 100 black women to 87 black men, black women are aware that the pool for desirable companionship is diminished by men who simply do not want the responsibility of marriage, or are drug abusers, or who have embraced a homosexual life style, or who prefer the companionship of woman of other races, a combination that could threatens the continued existence of the race.
In spite of statistics pointing to the disparity in numbers between black men and women, most black women prefer to marry within the race. It must be pointed out that black men express some of the same frustrations as women. Dr. Adelaide Sanford indicated “I have spoken to young black men who express frustration in finding desirable female companionship. I have invited them to join in the discussion. Men are invited and urged to attend.
As serious as the matter is, far too few discussions are taking place with the aim to understand current serious circumstances. The forum will be based on exploration of ways in which changes of gender expectation, life style modification and various realistic forms of adjustment can improve possibilities for meaningful and fulfilling relationships. The public is invited to hear and participate in this free forum.
Call 212 283-7287 for additional information
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3. SPECIAL SUNDAY BOOK PARTY AT CEMOTAP
FOR BROTHER HERMAN & SISTER IYALUUA FERGUSON
CEMOTAP, 135-05 Rockaway Blvd., South Ozone Park, New York
Presents: An Afternoon with the Fergusons
A Homecoming, a Book-Signing and Presentation of
The Bio / Memoir
“AN UNLIKELYWARRIOR”
“Herman Ferguson, Evolution of a Black Nationalist Revolutionary”
By Iyaluua Ferguson with Herman Ferguson. The iconic couple comes back to Southeast Queens to share their experiences of exile in Guyana,
Malcolm X, Evolution into Black Nationalist Revolutionaries, what happened in Rochdale Village in the 1960s – and much more.
Join CEMOTAP and the Fergusons on: Sunday, January 19, 2014 Time: 3 – 6 PM
Place: CEMOTAP Tel. (718) 322-8454
135-05 Rockaway Blvd.
South Ozone Park, New York
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4 . 18th Annual Dinner Tribute to the Families of our Political Prisoners & Prisoners of War
In Honor of Herman and Iyaluua Ferguson
Saturday, January 18, 2014
3 to 7 p.m.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Labor Center
310 West 43rd Street
Dear Freedom-Loving Community,
We bring good news! The Malcolm X Commemoration Committee will host a very special 18th Annual Dinner Tribute to the Families of our Political Prisoners & Prisoners of War in honor of our Beloved and esteemed elders, chairman emeritus and “Dynamic Duo”, Herman and Iyaluua Ferguson.
This event – co-sponsored by the 1199 SEIU Activists – will take place on Saturday, January 18th 2014 at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Labor Center, 310 West 43rd Street (between 8th & 9th Ave) in Manhattan (validated parking available) from 3pm-7pm – dinner served at 4pm.
We who know and Love the Ferguson’s have long recognized them as a Dynamic Duo who exemplify what long distance commitment, revolutionary Love, courage and resistance looks like. Herman Ferguson, a revolutionary Black Nationalist, former exile/political prisoner due to the united states targeting and Cointelpro crimes against Black/New Afrikan freedom fighters and the Black Liberation Movement and Iyaluua Ferguson, educator, revolutionary, wife and comrade who left the u.s. to join her life partner in exile.
After 19 years in the Caribbean nation of Guyana, the Ferguson’s returned to the states where Herman was immediately captured and unjustly imprisoned by the NYSDOC for a period of seven years. Thankfully, the late great honorable Judge Bruce Wright granted and demanded his parole back to his family/community. Upon his release from prison, Herman got right back to his life’s work of serving and defending Black people’s right to self-determination, self-defense co-convening the Jericho Movement for Amnesty & Recognition of u.s. held PP/POWs, fighting for the freedom of our unjustly imprisoned Black/New Afrikan freedom fighters, visiting them, co-founding MXCC, co-authoring his autobiography, “An Unlikely Warrior, Herman Ferguson: Evolution of a Black Nationalist Revolutionary” with Iyaluua and a long list of revolutionary struggles.
It is these reasons and more why we pay tribute to this Dynamic Duo; their contributions and many sacrifices to the Black Freedom struggle are the examples many across the Afrikan diaspora aspire to. It is because Iyaluua said it was her personal experience of living with the ‘sheer terror’ of having a Loved one captured behind the wall as a PP/POW that led to the first Dinner tribute. That was 18 years ago, and today, we remain firm in our solidarity and support of the sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, husbands and wives and other family members of our PP/POWs.
This Dinner Tribute has become our collective response to Iyaluua’s call that we NEVER forget the decades-long sacrifices and commitment our unjustly imprisoned freedom fighters and their families have made to the Black Freedom struggle.
So on Saturday, January 18th, 2014, we invite and look forward to your support and participation in this timely and well-deserved tribute not only to the families of our PP/POWS, but to our very own “Dynamic Duo,” two of the greatest and most exemplary examples of revolutionary Love and Struggle.
Your donation continues at $40 in advance and $45 at the door. We ask that if you cannot attend that you please make a donation as all proceeds go to the commissary accounts of our PP/POWs represented by family. The larger your community support, the larger our donation to our captured freedom fighters.
On behalf of our PP/POWS and their families, we say Asante Sana for making this annual fundraising Dinner Tribute a much valued community institution.
FREE THE LAND!
Let’s “Pick up the Work” to Educate, Agitate & Organize to Free our Political Prisoners & Prisoners of War Malcolm X Commemoration Committee
déqui kioni-sadiki & Mani Gilyard, co-chairs
“What you and I need to do is learn to forget our differences … We have a common oppressor, a common exploiter, and a common discriminator…. once we all realize that we have a common enemy, then we unite on the basis of what we have in common.” — Malcolm X “Message to the Grass Roots”
Watch a Slideshow of the 2013 MXCC Dinner by clicking here!
SIGN THE JERICHO COINTELPRO PETITION!
Free All Political Prisoners
[email protected] • www.jerichony.org
Let’s “Pick Up the Work” to Educate, Agitate & Organize to Free Sekou Odinga & all Political Prisoners/Prisoners of War
The Sekou Odinga Defense Committee, PO Box 380-122. Brooklyn, New York 11238
718-512-5008
‘Like’ Sekou Odinga on Facebook or visit: www.SekouOdinga.com
“I am a Political Prisoner of War! What war? The war of national Liberation that has been going since Afrikans were first kidnapped and brought to the Americas and enslaved. Some of us have never agreed to be American and have struggled to free and build the Republic of New Afrika. Under international law, oppressed people have that right, the right to be free of the oppression and to build a nation that will protect their right to be free and independent. That’s what we were doing…That’s why I’m now a Political Prisoner of War.”– Sekou Odinga
write to Sekou Odinga, #09A3775, Clinton CF, PO Box 2001, Dannemora, NY 12929
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5. The Affordable Care Act is now in effect.
Find out what you need to know at an important Educational Forum on “The Affordable Care Act and You” The forum will be held on Sunday, January 12, 2014 at 3 PM at Sistas’ Place Coffee House 456 Nostrand Avenue in Bedford Stuyvesant Brooklyn.
“We are concerned about the quality of health in our community. Many issues will be discussed. What is the Affordable Care Act? Can you still get enrolled in a health insurance plan now? What about Medicaid and Medicare coverage? People must know their options,” explained April Raiford, a health care professional and organizer.
As a member of the December 12th Movement Health Committee, Raiford has led community health forums on preventive health care, single payer health care, healthy diet, breast cancer awareness, and other health issues facing our community.
“One thing is for sure, single payer health care has to be put back on the agenda. Organizing and education in our community, door to door and block by block, is an absolute necessity,” said Raiford.
Special guest, Lamont Carolina of Oscar Health Insurance Plan, will make a presentation on the Health Insurance Market Place New York. For more information call 718-398-1766.
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6. Featured below is the full text of an action alert for Albert Woodfox, released today by Amnesty International, timed to build public pressure in the days leading up to Albert’s oral arguments in New Orleans on Tuesday, January 7.
Albert Woodfox
http://www.opednews.com/Diary/Amnesty-Intl-action-alert-by-Angola-3-News-Action-Alerts_Amnesty-International_Evidence_Free-Speech-Censored-140103-217.html
In 1972 two young black men were convicted of the murder of a prison guard at Louisiana’s infamous Angola prison. Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace were sentenced to life imprisonment even though no physical evidence linked either man to the crime, potentially exculpatory evidence was “lost” by the state, and the authorities bribed the key eyewitness. Both men were kept in solitary for many years and Woodfox is currently serving his 40th year isolated in a 9 by 6 foot cell.
Woodfox and Wallace were placed in solitary confinement shortly after the murder, as was a third man named Robert King. Together Woodfox, Wallace and King make up the “Angola 3.” The men spent 23 hours a day isolated in a small cell, four steps long and three steps across. King was released in 2001. Wallace was released in October 2013 when his conviction was overturned and died of liver cancer just three days later. Albert’s conviction has been overturned 3 times, yet the Louisiana authorities have appealed every ruling in his favor. The men maintain that they were put in solitary confinement in retaliation for their work organizing their fellow prisoners against segregation and abuses in the prison.
After four decades of cruel treatment and a flawed verdict there is only one just and humane action that the Louisiana authorities can take. Tell Louisiana authorities to free Albert Woodfox today.
After four decades of cruel treatment, there is only one just and humane action that the Louisiana authorities can take. Tell Louisiana authorities to free Albert Woodfox today.
Downloads
Case Sheet: PDF Sample Letter: PDF
All Case Sheets: PDF All Sample Letters: PDF
Show solidarity with Albert Woodfox
SEND A LETTER OR A CARD
MAIL TO: Albert Woodfox
#72148 David Wade Correctional Center, N1A3
670 Bell Hill Rd. Homer, LA 71040
WRITE TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
Urge that the state withdraw its appeal against the February 2013 ruling that overturned Albert Woodfox’s conviction for murder so that he can be freed.
Call on him to see that Albert Woodfox is immediately removed from isolation and end his inhumane treatment in prison.
Attorney General James “Buddy” Caldwell
Office of the Attorney General
P.O Box 94005
Baton Rouge, LA 70804
Email: [email protected]
START YOUR LETTER: Attorney General Caldwell
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org