damali ayo • gazing through big black eyes

Hello Everyone!!!

It’s that time of the year again....yes indeed. The leaves are getting ready to turn, the Summer harvest is in, Columbus is just about to “discover” “America” and we are taking to the streets to panhandle for reparations!

Last year over 70 people in 20 states sat out on street corners with homemade signs, cups, and banners and collected and distributed hundreds of dollars in reparations.

“It was panhandling, it was performance art - and it was a political statement about the legacy of slavery and reparations for black people.”
- The Associated Press on the 2007 event

This year we are doing it again.
OCTOBER 10, 2008
Any corner you pick.
Any time you pick.
Take Pictures and send them to reparations@damaliayo.com

Sign up now, get your Panhandling for Reparations Kit, t-shirts and much more at http://reparationsday.com

Tell your friends!!

Catch Me If You Can!
damali’s Upcoming Speaking Engagements


Autumn has arrived full throttle in Portland and has me excited for a new year of talks, presentations and workshops. I can’t wait to get on the road and see all of you from the stages and classrooms of your communities.

A few highlights:

September 6th I will be speaking at the Portland Creative Conference, on the genius of fashion and my personal creative process as a designer, artist and creative thinker. You can attend the conference at a discounted rate because you know me. Just enter the code SPEAKER for your registration and you’ll get $30 off your fee. ($69 for the day). The day proves to be worth it with a host of amazing speakers inspiring you about the creative design process.

Bitch Magazine has asked me to kick of their inaugural season of the “B-word” speaker series. That talk will be at PSU on September 30th. Should be damali at her most open. Definitely worth catching.

I’m also excited to speak at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Februrary. More details on that as the date approaches.

But mostly, I’m excited to find out where else I can go this year, meaning to you! I would really love to re-visit some of the campuses I’ve met over the last few years and bring new talks and energy to your communities. I’d also love to visit some of the places and people on this list that I haven’t met yet. This year starts a new relationship between me and SpeakOut.org as well as a return to self-representation which means I have a lot more flexibility with my schedule. Please drop me a note if you are interested in having me come for a visit.

Below are some topics that I’d love to bring to your community.

PRESENTATIONS

The Good Fight:
My life as a Social Change Artist
damali shares her inspirational journey through her many creative solutions to societal problems. This talk gives you living flaga sense of how all issues are connected, from the US revolution, to racial issues and reparations, to fashion and eco living. This talk shows each member of the audience that there are many ways to make a difference in their world. It is truly an entertaining and inspiring evening.

Change You Can Wear:
The Economy’s First Sliding Scale Clothing Company
Why create an eco-friendly clothing company that sells clothes on a sliding scale? What kinds of challenges do you face in this process? Is it possible to create social change through the capitalist economy? Is fashion radical or is it oppressive? Is community real? damali examines all these questions as she shares her path to creation of CROW Clothing, a truly 21st century business that challenges all the rules.

Living the Green Life
damali shares her user-friendly strategies for living a life that is gentle on the earth, easy on the budget, and rewarding to the spirit. Not your typical take on “green talk” damali shows, from racism to recycling, why “living right is living well” in all aspects of your life.

TRAININGS

I Can Fix It! Speaker Corps
damali passes the race-relations torch by training new speakers to give her talk on 10 practical solutions for how to create healthier, more productive racial interactions. Trainings will include a kit with all needed powerpoint slides and audio. First training is October in Portland, OR. Apply Now You can also arrange for a Speaker Corps Training in your community.

How to Make Conceptual Art
Participants design their own conceptual art projects through this interactive team-oriented workshop.

Yoga
In addition to giving a talk to your community, damali shares her love and ten-year practice of yoga in an hour long class. damali welcomes all interested parties as she leads you through a basic yoga practice that will leave you feeling more energetic, stretched, refreshed, and centered.

More info on all of these presentations and more at damaliayo.com

I’d love to see you.
To bring damali ayo for a presentation or training please contact:
damali@damaliayo.com
OR
programs@speakoutnow.org

Speaking Engagements

September
6- Portland Creative Conference: Fashion Keynote, Portland OR
30- Bitch Magazine Feminism and Pop Culture Series, Portland State University, Portland OR

October
(tba)- I Can Fix It Training Corps, Portland, OR apply now
21- Rockford College, Illinois

February
9- National Underground Railroad Museum, Cincinnati, OH

Next up...Your School or Center. Let’s work together to bring me to you!

We’ve seen in the last primary cycle some ugly tactics used to created doubt in the mind of the American public. I actually saw an interview on 60 minutes where one man said “i heard that Obama doesn’t know the National Anthem, won’t put his hand on a bible and is a Musilm.”

The tactics and rumors are absolutely absurd and patently racist. The saddest part is that Americans are particularly prone to falling for that kind of deception.

The interviewer just looked at the man and said “You know that none of that is correct, right?” When asked about it, Obama had the same response....”Did you correct him?” His approach, though it may fail ultimately, is to opt for the honest truth and the real story. He refuses to play these spin-games and his supporters admire him deeply for it. The thing that scares me the most is that these are the leaders we have systematically destroyed over the course of our history. (I just watched an amazing documentary of Bobby Kennedy in action during the Universty of Alabama desegregation).

One of the things i found really interesting in the last week was an interview i saw on Charlie Rose with three British journalists. their comment on the “Obama in Muslim dress” picture was “We wished there were pictures of more American presidents like this.” They really saw it as a wonderful and diplomatic gesture worthy of a world leader.

They also said that Europe has “Obama Fever!” that he represents everything they love about america.

If only our own citizens were as smart......

Here are two new essays on the election by my favorite white anti-racist, Tim Wise:

Tim writes:
They are my two latest essays: the first addresses white support for Barack Obama and what it does (and, importantly, doesn’t) mean about race in the U.S. The second looks at, and responds to, the increasingly common refrain I’m hearing from many whites, to the effect that black support for Obama is reverse racism (I know, I know, sigh...). It also addresses more generally the difference between black and brown solidarity and white racial solidarity, for example, which is actually an important issue above and beyond this election, and which lots of white folks seem to have trouble with.

Anyway, thanks and pass ‘em around!


Uh-Obama: Racism, White Voters and the Myth of Color-Blindness
http://www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/Obama.html

Another Batch of White Whine: Obama, Black Voters and the Myth of Reverse Racism
http://www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/Obama2.html

Thanks Tim.
Your work makes my work so much easier some days.
and thank you to the white people who have stepped up to their responsibilities and risen to fight racism. I look forward to wholly passing this particular torch to you one day.

best,

damali

Hello all!

i was on the road last week for my birthday and sent this to my email list. now that i am back, i’m able to post it on my blog.....

the one birthday present i ask from you is that if i’ve made a difference in your life, let me know. Sometimes the good news doesn’t get through as much as the challenges and criticisms.

cheers!
damali

--------

February 26, 2008


Today is my birthday and as you know, I like to send you an offering of one kind or another on this day. Today’s offering is pretty simple as I’m sick in bed (although not my own bed, I’m giving two talks this week) and finding ways to keep change going even through the muscle aches.

I gave Rent-a-Negro.com a bit of a facelift. It needed it! So with some nips and tucks, I’ve brought it current. I added some pictures from the book and fixed the broken rental form link. It’s up and running again with a fresh new attitude. Check it out at http://rent-a-negro.com. Remember to refresh your browser or clear your cookies so you see the new version.

Also, I asked my genius assistants, Heather and Grant to assemble some cross-issue links that I could send out to the list. Though I’ve been fighting racism since I was 4, my true passion is connecting races across groups and social change across issues. We have to work together and work for each other if we are going to make any real progress in this world. So here is a *start* on getting our knowledge and support cross-polinated:

They aren’t in any specific order- since our issues are all connected and overlapping, so are these links.
If any of the links fail to work when you click them- google the title and you’ll find them! Thanks!!

NewsMap : A visual Look at the news http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/newsmap.cfm

Blackademics http://blackademics.org/

Reappropriate - political and pop culture criticism blog focusing on race and especially Asian and Pacific Islander issues http://www.reappropriate.com/index.php

Expanding the news lens through ethnic media http://news.ncmonline.com/news/

Every year, with the publication of its “Top Ten” Most Underreported Humanitarian Stories, Doctors Without Borders spotlights 10 humanitarian crisis that have received little or no attention from the media. http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/topten/index.cfm

Latino Pundit http://www.latinopundit.com/

Human Rights Campaign: http://www.hrc.org/ Essential LGBT resource

Rant Collective: anti-oppression principles and practices. http://www.rantcollective.net/article.php?id=17

So you think you’re an anti-racist? 6 critical paradigm shifts for well-intentioned white folks. http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/resources/paradigmshifts_race.html

10 codes of ethnics for white people in hip-hop. http://www.daveyd.com/commentarywhitelikeme.html

Going Green:A Guide to Eco-living and Activism from an African American Perspective http://blackandn2green.blogspot.com/2008/01/eco.html

Hip Hop Caucus: http://www.hiphopcaucus.org/ Good resource that has information about all of our causes

Southern Poverty Law Center: http://www.splcenter.org/ Great resource on racism and immigration injustice, including info on current civil rights litigation and news stories about racial injustice

Sustainable South Bronx: http://www.ssbx.org/ Kick ass project in the south bronx that combines environmental justice and anti-racism

Ella Baker Center for Human Rights: http://ellabakercenter.org/ Combines racial justice with environmentalism.

1 Sky: http://www.1sky.org/ Provides info on environmental issues but also gives people ways to mobilize and participate

Of course, there are tons of more issues to include, so please don’t consider this a comprehensive list. Heather, Grant and I expand it daily. This i’s just a beginning of expanding the tree that we are all growing together. Consider it....inspiration! I’m sure you have plenty of links to add, so send them our way and we’ll keep a good list compiled. I”ll add them to my web site in a few weeks.

I hope you have a wonderful day and find a special way to pamper yourself today- give yourself a gift on my birthday!

warmly,

damali

I’ve made it to the hallowed halls of Wikipedia. I think this means that I officially exist.
Check out the Wikipedia entry on yours truly.