Climbing PoeTree~ WE SURVIVED [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]

Various Atrists - Freedom (Theme From Panther)

Angela Davis and Assata Shakur's Lawyer Denounce FBI's Adding of Exiled ...

Simone - "Keeper of Nina's Flame"

Feeling Good - Nina Simone (1965)

You'll Never Walk Alone - Nina Simone

Listen to this rendition for the exquisite instrumentation.  We all must remember that Nina Simone was originally a gifted pianist who studied at Juliard and played in night clubs to pay for her training.  This offering shows her talent and musical skill and experience to the  highest of heights.  She was never appreciated for the fullest extent of her prodigious gifts.  She sang only because she was required to do so by those who hired her, but that produced the inimitable gifts she  gave the world.

Nina Simone - Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair

NINA SIMONE on DAVID BOWIE, JANIS JOPLIN and singing STARS( Live at Mont...

Nina Simone: To Be Young, Gifted and Black

Simone Style -Love Me Or Leave Me- The Peach Voice.Nina Simone.

The Music of Nina Simone - North Sea Jazz Festival 2009

This production is by Nina Simone's daughter, Lisa Simone, who is well qualified to sing her mother's own songs.  More power to her.  She is here in Durham today and Ron and I missed her, but we attended a Black Conference instead and were well satisfied.  We have not learned how to be in two places at once yet --- but we're working on it . . . .

Nina Simone: Take Me To The Water

Nina Simone: Go To Hell

Lisa Simone, daughter of Nina Simone, releases first album

Nina Simone interview with Mavis Nicholson

Nina Simone Interview

NFL players bail out college student detained by ICE for 3 months after reading poem in public

NFL players bail out college student detained by ICE for 3 months after reading poem in public

Josh Norman

Jose Bello, a 22-year-old college student and farmworker who was imprisoned for 89 days at the Mesa Verde Detention Center in Bakersfield, California, was released on Monday. The decision by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to hold Bello on $50,000 bail—a sum Bello could not possibly afford to pay himself—seemed closely tied to Bello’s reading of a poem titled “Dear America” at a public forum on California’s Transparent Review of Unjust Transfers and Holds (TRUTH) Act held on May 13 by the Kern County Board of Supervisors in Bakersfield. Two days after that reading, Bello was arrested by ICE agents and held until National Football League players Josh Norman of Washington and Demario Davis of the New Orleans Saints paid for his bail.

Americans. If he was detained for reciting a peaceful poem then we should really ask ourselves, are our words truly free? This is America right? Where the 1st Amendment is freedom of speech unless I missed the memo somewhere. He was exercising that right."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California has filed a lawsuit on Bello’s behalf, calling ICE’s detention of Bello a retaliatory act infringing on his civil and free speech rights. Bello has been receiving pro bono legal support from the United Farm Workers Foundation. The UFW has been offering its resources to many immigrants targeted by Trump’s racist policies and ICE’s Gestapo-like assaults.

According to The Washington Post, Bello was arrested in May 2018 by ICE agents and accused of being a part of a local street gang. A federal immigration judge ordered Bello released on a $10,000 bond in August of that year. Then Bello was rearrested this January on a misdemeanor DUI charge, but not held. It was not until two days after Bello read his poem that ICE showed up and arrested him for the misdemeanor DUI—four months later.

The football players who helped pay Bello’s bail are members of a group of players who banded together two years ago to point out American injustice and help in any way they could. The group is called Players Coalition.

You can watch Bello read his poem “Dear America” below the fold.

"Dear America" by Jose Bello

Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am - Official Trailer

Beyoncé - SPIRIT (From Disney's "The Lion King" - Official Video)

                                             

In this video Beyonce expresses her love for Africa, the land, the flora and fauna, the terrain, the attire, the heart, the dance,the music and Africa's actual people in her inimitable manner of distinction.  Thank you Beyonce.  You always have astounded me with your unexpected nod to the causes, the culture, and the credit to your own people.  Look at Information for a start and Spirit for a finish to this point in time.  We await what you will bring to and inspire from and in us as a people.