How Can You Get Involved with Black August?

[vivafidel]

How Can You Get Involved with Black August?


Flyer Distribution: We need the addresses, emails, & websites of Poetry Venues, Cultural Centers,Bookstores, Natural Hair Care Salons, Barbershops, Restaurants, Art Galleries, etc.

Media Outlets: Send us info on your favorite progressive radio stations,newspapers, magazines websites etc.

Volunteers: if you're interested in helping make Black August successful email: [e-mail] and someone will get back to you.

Edutainers: If you are interested in Performing, Holding a Workshop or Speaking please email your electronic press kit to [e-mail] with a bio, workshop proposal or mp3 of your music/lecture for review.


YOU: Can help today by reposting this message on your bulletin, forwarding it in an email or adding it as a blog on your site. Help us spread the word!!


The Black August 30th Anniversary Weekend will take place in Atlanta between August 14th and 16th and in Oakland between August 21st and 23rd. For more information, sponsorship or vending, email [e-mail].

Also, for our Richmond, VA family, The 7th Annual Happily Natural Day will take place on August 29th.

For more info on The Black August 30th Anniversary Weekend or The 7th Annual Happily Natural Festival, go to www.happilynaturalday.com or www.myspace.com/dragonspeaks

WHAT IS BLACK AUGUST?

Each year officially since 1979 we have used the month of August to focus on the oppressive treatment of our brothers and sisters disappeared inside the state run gulags and concentration camps America calls prisons. It is during this time that we concentrate our efforts to free our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts, and all other captive family and friends who have been held in isolation for decade after decade beyond their original sentence. Many of these individuals are held in the sensory deprivation and mind control units called Security Housing Units (S.H.U. Program), without even the most basic of human rights. Year after year, decade after decade they suffer the injustice of being classified unfit for society or even placement in general prison population based on the whim of a board comprised of ex-prison guards, officials and political appointees who's agenda is to maintain the status quo: COMPLETE CONTROL. As the decades pass relentlessly one after the other and more and more of these prisoners grow old, succumb to illnesses patently untreatable in this prison system and die, we must impress on those who commemorate Black August our urgency that culminates each year in August. While folks trapped forever behind the walls are continually denied the chance to live again, our youth are being herded like sheep to the slaughter into the bowels of the Prison Industrial Complex. The fact of this systematic assault on our impoverished communities does not go unnoticed, and it must not go unanswered. Our communities are being stripped of our most vital of resources, our youth and our elders. Without the strength, vitality and future building spirit of our youth and the time and experience endowed wisdom of our elders, our cultural existence will continue to be the brutal headline in the body count tragedies we experience daily. Black August is a focal point for unity of purpose and people. In this month out of twelve we can stimulate the effort to begin our salvation and spread it throughout the year.

Each day in the month of August is significant, but certain of them hold double meaning because of events that transpired on those dates and must be remembered in the course of moving forward. To observe and commemorate Black August each individual is encouraged to: Drink only water until after sunset from the 1st until the 31st. Eat only one meal a day after sunset. On days called flea days, 1st, 7th, 13th and 21st, fast 24 hours until next sunset. Work out an exercise routine for each day either individually or in groups. Do not use any drugs or alcoholic beverages during the entire month. Do not go to any store for anything other than medical or health related items. Do not patronize fast food establishments or vendors. Prepare for the month by shopping before the end of July. Get fresh vegetables if necessary from the farmers markets.

Black August being a time of sacrifice is also a time to fortify within oneself those principles and habits that help us to heal and grow as a people and root out those things we find ourselves doing we know are destructive to our communities. To save our children we must look to the cultures and traditions of our ancestors now faint in our memories and rebuild our families and society. For the month of Black August make a conscious effort to abstain from all negativity in thought and deed. Resist temptation in yourselves and resist the trinkets and shiny meaningless baubles that confound and lead us astray. Black August resistance!!