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Text Box: Still I Rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise

I rise
I rise. Maya Angelou __________________________________ Maya Angelou is one of the best-loved African American poets and writers. Her autobiographies have inspired millions of readers.

“Still I Rise” is one of readers’ favourite poems of hers. Maya Angelou (born April 4, 1928) is an American poet, memoirist, actress and an important figure in the American Civil Rights Movement. Angelou is known for the autobiographical writings I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) and All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986). Her volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die (1971) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and in 1993, Angelou read her poem On the Pulse of Morning for Bill Clinton's Presidential inauguration at his request. Angelou has published many other collections of verse, has traveled abroad to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and has worked as a journalist for foreign publications. She is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and Ghanian Fante. She has received numerous honors from the academy including the Yale University Fellowship. She was also named the Rockefeller Foundation Scholar in Italy. Angelou has taught at the University of Ghana and the University of Kansas and holds a lifetime chair as the Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University. Additional honors include the Woman of the Year Award and a nomination for the Tony Awards. In 2005, Angelou was honored by Oprah Winfrey at her Legends Ball along with 25 other African-American women who Winfrey considered as an inspiration. At the beginning of each academic year, she gives the opening address to all incoming freshman at Duke University. Also, she is an English professor at Wake Forest University. To buy poetry books by Maya Angelou, click here. _________________________________________________________ “The ShADow Collection” A call for urgent Unity of Humanity based on yet to be developed Model of a ‘World View’. Contingency and historicity are important aspects of the reality around us. And yet, we seem to live in a universe that is governed by laws. The question thus arises as to the explanation of these laws. But without initial conditions these laws cannot be applied. This indicates that we must also search for the explanation of the initial states from which, under the influence of the laws of evolution, the history of the universe, life and humanity have developed. Some see laws as primary, others see history as more important, while still others see laws and history as existing independent of each other. For thinkers like Spinoza, Leibniz and Einstein, chance, contingency and historicity are not of importance, while for other thinkers they are. The absence of agreement on this matter stimulates further research. Understanding most obviously means: getting a grip on a wider coherence, or, grasping the general in the specific. "Comprendre, c'est prendre ensemble." Hence a world view will have more explanatory power if it can grasp the most general structures and laws that exist in reality. Present-day technical and scientific thought faces as one of its main challenges the control of the complexity of large-scale, many-part, heterogeneous systems. In the construction of world views one finds oneself confronted by similar difficulties. How can we hope to describe the very intricate, strongly connected real world in a sufficiently economical and perspicuous fashion? Do systems research and a hierarchical structural approach counterbalance sufficiently the reductionistic-analytic methods (that continue to be needed). Are very general methods borrowed from energetics also applicable outside of physics and technology? The greater unification of humanity and the interaction between cultures, with the expansion of science and the increase of our technical capabilities, mean that our "life plans" are more and more determined by our relations to larger groups. We are confronted cognitively and emotionally with the whole universe, and with questions about the role of humanity in this greater whole. Ecological problems related to the survival of humanity on this planet have more and more become the concern of everyone. And yet, it has become increasingly difficult to elaborate a life plan, because it is very difficult to take into account the complexity of this whole. ‘Shadow’ August 2006 _______________________________ “HOPE ALONE DOES NOT MAKE A GOOD FUTURE” Saleem Gillings If Black People do not unite around certain themes and pool resources, there will be no progress...the only future for us and our children is the one we create ourselves. Our association should be a commitment to create equal opportunities for blacks and the elimination of racial discrimination in British Society. Our job now is to keep applying pressure to make sure all promises are kept and we achieved our objectives. Over the years we seem to have been obsessed with what we are against that we tend to forget what we are for and what we should be about. We must offer hope and much more to the less fortunate of our Communities—the sick and weak, the aged and the young. To make mistake is only human; to forgive is kind and commendable; to forget is unforgivable! Quoting the late Norma Manly (1883-1969), one of Jamaica’s National Heroes, “We must dig deep into our own consciousness and accept and reject only those things of which we, from our superior knowledge of our cultural needs be the best judges.” The immediate past has attempted to destroy the influence of the glory that is Africa; it has attempted to make us condemn and mistrust the vitality, the vigour, the rhythmic emotionalism that we get from our African ancestors. One Love. One Aim. One Destiny. Forward Forever. Backward never! __________________________ Saleem Gilling, of African origin, born in Jamaica, the West Indies, and immigrated to England during the 1960s, is a community activist and the farmer Chairperson of the South Hampton West Indian Association, based in the English county of Hampshire, South East England. The Association catered for immigrant migrated to England seeking jobs and better standards of living. Many were disappointed that they did not find what they sought. Others satisfied. Their young people were and are less satisfied. Their dissatisfactions is expressed in their complaints of racism and unequal opportunities. British prisons have one of the highest levels of young people from Black and ethnic communities, in proportion to the wider indigenous population. According to a government agency, the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) recent investigation into the incidence of racial discrimination in three English prisons, confirmed that there were more African Caribbean entrants to prisons in England and Wales than there were to UK universities in 2002. The figures compiled by the CRE indicated that, in 2002, over 11,500 Black Britons were sent to prisons in England and Wales, compared to 8,000 who went to universities. "For every (Black) male on campus, there were two in jail," Mr. Trevor Phillips, CRE, Chairman said in the foreword of the investigative report. Mr. Philips continued - "and even taking all ethnic minorities' communities into account, the average non-White Briton was almost three times more likely than a White Briton to enter jail rather than higher education." The prison population in England and Wales currently stands at 72,000. The CRE investigation found that, between 1999 and 2002, the total prison population grew by 12 percent, but the number of Black inmates grew by 51 percent, even though Black people represent two percent of the British population of 59 million. Mr. Phillips said the issue of racial discrimination is one that the British society "cannot afford to ignore." (Racial Equality in Prisons
(2003) 213pp. ISBN 1 85442 544 7).

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1807-2007

Britain Commemorates the Bicentenary

of The Slave Trade Abolition Act 1807.

One of the Black Community’s Contributions -

“Cries of Our Kidnapped Afrikan Ancestors”

________________

Beliefs and Commentaries

“All faith is FALSE, all faith is TRUE.

TRUTH is the shattered mirrors strewn In myriad bits; while each BELIEVES

His LITTLE BIT the whole to own.”

From “The Kasidah of Hji Abu el-Yezdi”, as translated by Sir Richard F. Burton