Online Features

Postcard from Berlin

Tavia Nyong'o

125 years after the Berlin Conference inaugurated the Scramble for Africa, Black Berliners and their allies marched through the streets of the Kreuzberg neighborhood.

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Survival

Ashley Dawson

Ever since the effective collapse of the Copenhagen Climate Summit, I’ve been thinking about how we represent survival and futurity in a conjuncture in which hegemonic ideology is so clearly bankrupt and the ruling classes in the world’s most powerful nations are so transparently unwilling to take the steps necessary to save civilization.

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"Louder Than Bombs": Art, Action, and Activism

Social Text Collective

Those in the London area over the next two months may want to check out this seven-week long series of artist residencies on the theme of art, action and activism at the Stanley Picker Gallery in Kingston.

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Water No Get Enemy

Tavia Nyong'o

I’m no native informant. But I gather that the song featured prominently in the Broadway show Fela! means something like “nobody hates something as useful as water.” Make yourself as indispensable as this, goes the implied wisdom, and any detractors you gain will just look silly. An appropriate motto for a musician like Fela Anikulapo-Kuti …

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Sea Shepherd in New Zealand

Biella Coleman

Last fall, after watching At the Edge of the World I became obsessed with the eco-radical conservation group Sea Shepherd who have been around since the 1970s trying to put an end to commercial whaling. So when I learned that I was going to New Zealand for the month of January, I was keen to find out whether Sea Shepherd was more present in the public than in the US.

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Rekindling the Radical Imagination

Social Text Collective

Each spring in New York City, Left Forum gathers intellectuals and activists from around the world to address the burning issues of our times. The theme for 2010 is “The Center Cannot Hold: Rekindling the Radical Imagination.” Find out more information, propose a panel, or register for the forum here.

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Seeing Haiti

Tariq Jazeel

There’s so much to think about, take in, and give right now in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake that perhaps a lone blog entry like this isn’t at all suitable.

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Digital Activism

Ashley Dawson

Activists are increasingly turning to online resources to help bring about progressive, grassroots-empowering social change. I recently learned of two interesting initiatives to build awareness of the possibilities for networked activism.

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Justice for Don Belton

Tavia Nyong'o

Don Belton, a professor of English at Indiana University, was tragically killed by an assailant who, many in his local queer community are concerned, may seek to use a variant of the notorious “gay panic” defense. They are also concerned that hateful, racist, and homophobic remarks have been circulating on messaging boards under articles about Don’s murder.

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The Continuity of US Imperial Discourse

Ashley Dawson

President Obama recently gave two speeches that should be seen as signposts of contemporary U.S. empire. Their continuity with American exceptionalist rhetoric of the past is striking, underlining the extent to which Obama is trapped within the paradigms of the past.

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