1/26/2008 Community Gumbo

Listen | Democracy Now

• “An Opportunity to Look at Ourselves and Reorder Our Priorities”–Legendary Activist Grace Lee Boggs on the Ailing Economy, the Legacy of Dr. King and the 2008 Race

A New Civil Rights Movement is Needed in Post-Katrina New Orleans

Listen | Lance Hill, Part 1
Listen | Lance Hill, Part 2

The not-for-profit Southern Institute at Tulane University is dedicated to promoting ethnic harmony through tolerance education. Since 1993, more than 3600 teachers in more than 800 schools across the Deep South have benefited from the program. They in turn touch the lives of more than a million students a year.

Lance Hill is the Director of The Southern Institute. As a labor organizer, Hill learned how to persuade poorly-educated blue-collar white workers to consider a more tolerant, inclusive perspective on the world. Later, while organizing to defeat neo-Nazi and former KKK Klansman David Duke’s bid for Louisiana governor, Hill learned the art of political public relations, employing the negative national attention on a potential Duke governorship to help turn the election.

These days, Hill inveighs against what he claims is a broad racist sentiment to keep poor black residents from returning to post-Katrina New Orleans, and he believes that a new civil rights movement is needed to address the rights of all citizens following crises. Hill believes it’s necessary to remove the veil of civility shrouding racism, and through teaching and example, to engage the hearts and minds of bystanders into caring and action.

One of the most insidious forces preventing people from returning to New Orleans, says Hill, is the lack of health care -- and Hill argues that the rest of the nation should pay more attention.

Music Played:

Eddie Bo, Havin' Fun in New Orleans

John Lee Hooker, Early One Morning

Tuba Fats, Mardi Gras in New Orleans

1/12/2008 Community Gumbo

Listen | Democracy Now (1/09/08)

• Headlines for January 09, 2008
• In Upset Victories, Clinton and McCain Win New Hampshire Primaries
• New Hampshire Primary Results Fuel Talk of Most Unpredictable Presidential Race in Decades
• Barack Obama and the African American Community: A Debate with Michael Eric Dyson and Glen Ford

Listen | Democracy Now (1/10/08)

• Study: Of Over 2,000 Sunday Talk Show Questions to Candidates, Only Three on Global Warming

Listen | Democracy Now (1/12/08)

• Greg Palast Reports on the Battle Between Indigenous Ecuadorians and the U.S. Oil Giant Chevron

Announcements:

Plant a Tree on Arbor Day and Help Restore Wetland Forests at the
Audubon Louisiana Nature Center

When: Louisiana Arbor Day - Saturday, January 19th from 1:00pm to 4:00 pm

Where: Audubon Louisiana Nature Center, 5600 Read Boulevard, New Orleans
East (behind Joe Brown Park)

Who: Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, Audubon Nature Institute,
Entergy Corporation and Restore America’s Estuaries invites all
interested volunteers to participate in a community based habitat
restoration project at the Audubon Louisiana Nature Center in New
Orleans East.

What: Volunteers will assist the Coalition and other partners to plant over
1,000 trees in five acres to begin restoration of this devastated forest.

REGISTER NOW
Email Natalie Snider at nsnider@crcl.org or call (888) LACOAST
Please respond by Friday, January 18, 2008

The Audubon Louisiana Nature Center suffered considerable damage from Hurricane Katrina which devastated its interpretive center, exhibits and the 86 acres of bottomland hardwoods and bald cypress-tupelo swamp. The swamps were inundated with muddy saltwater for nearly a month and an estimated 75 percent of the forest was destroyed. The Nature Center has not reopened to the public since August 2005 and the resident and migrant wildlife that flourished in this area have not returned in large numbers.

Please volunteer on January 19th to help BRING NATURE BACK.

Music Played:

Chef Menteur, Trebuchet, The Answer's in Forgetting, Back Porch Revolution, 2007.

Margo Guryan, 16 Words, Pure Mint Recordings, 2007.

Al "Carnival Time" Johnson, Carnival Time, The Big Ol' Box of New Orleans.

1/04/2008 Community Gumbo

Listen | Democracy Now (1/04/08)

• Obama, Huckabee Score Victories in Iowa Caucus
• After Iowa: A Roundtable Discussion on the Democratic Race with Danny Glover, Wayne Ford and Ellen Chesler
• Peace Activists Take Action to Keep Focus on War During Presidential Campaign

Listen | Democracy Now (12/26/07)

• "Today’s Decision Would Make George Orwell Proud" -- FCC Commissioner Michael Copps on the FCC's Vote to Rewrite the Nation's Media Ownership Rules

Remembering Dinerral Shavers and Helen Hill
Listen | Kevin George, former Rabouin High School principal
Listen | Mo Lappen, creator of The Opposite Machine

This week, the new District Attorney Keva Landrum-Johnson and Police Superintendent Warren Riley announced that their cooperation has reduced the number of defendants automatically released from jail because prosecutors failed to file charges against them within 60 days.

"701" releases were reduced to just 6 in December 2007 from a high of 580 in January 2007 -- a month which began with the tragic murders of two beloved members of the New Orleans community, Dinerral Shavers and Helen Hill. Those murders spurred some 5000 people to march against violence, and to register their discontent with the city's ineffectual leadership on the steps of City Hall.

At the one year anniversary of their slayings, and with Carnival season commencing tomorrow on King's Day, today Community Gumbo remembers Dinerral Shavers and Helen Hill with excerpted re-broadcasts of previous programs with Kevin George, the former Rabouin High School principal who facilitated Dinerral Shavers desire to start a new marching band which premiered during last year's carnival season, and Mo Lappen, whose Opposite Machine in memory of Helen Hill rolled on Mardi Gras last year.

Related:

WYES TV, Channel 12, Saturday 1/04/08, 11:00 p.m. Celebrating a Life in Film. A profile of filmmaker Helen Hill. Included: clips from her animated films and comments from friends and family members.

Dave Walker, "A documentary examines murder victim Helen Hill as a filmmaker," The Times-Picayune, 1/05/08.

Laura Maggi, "Cooperation pares down prisoner releases," The Times-Picayune, 1/04/08.

Music Played:

Fred Weaver, "The Light at the Corner," Apocalypse the Apocalypse, 2006.