A VIDEO EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH!

ANOTHER REASON WHY OPRAH WINFREY IS "THE MOST POWERFUL WOMAN IN MEDIA"

Oprah Winfrey getting her own TV network
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer Tue Jan 15, 9:39 AM PST
Oprah Winfrey is getting her own TV network.

Discovery Communications and Winfrey announced a deal Tuesday where the Discovery Health network will be turned over to Winfrey next year, becoming OWN -- the Oprah Winfrey Network.

The cash-free transaction involved Winfrey turning over her Web site to Discovery, while the communications company makes her chairman of the network, which is currently seen in 68 million homes, said David Zaslav, Discovery Communications chief.

"The focus of the channel will be the focus of Oprah's brand, which is the educate and inspire people to live the best life they can," Zaslav said.

Some of Winfrey's stable of regular contributors could be expected to be part of the programming, he said. Winfrey's current talk show, as well as rights to use of reruns, is spoken for until the end of the 2010-11 season.

Besides hosting syndication's top-rated talk show, Winfrey puts out her own magazine.

BROOKLYN'S RHA GODDESS IS MAKING HER OWN REVOLUTION

The Revolution is To Be Well
By JLove

Brooklyn’s Hip-Hop Artivist Rha Goddess believes that the new revolution is to be well…physically, spirituality, financially, and emotionally. With her ground breaking solo piece Low, Rha sheds light on the enormous issue of mental health in our communities, bringing special attention to communities of color. With many of our returning troops falling prey to deep depression and the increase in teen suicides, Rha punches through the silence surrounding these deep-seated issues. The time has come to listen and to speak out. Follow this powerful journey, and allow it to inspire you to action.

Tell us about your name, Rha Goddess.

My name comes from the Khemetic (Nile/Nubian) lineage. In that lineage it is pronounced Ra-at Enterrrt and it is translated to mean “light supreme”
I fasted for 86 days in order to “step into” my name. It for me is a responsibility
I carry vs. some marketing “gimmick”

What compelled you to look at the subject of mental
illness as a subject of your piece?

Around five or six years ago there were a number of people in my life
very close to me who were severely diagnosed. I witnessed my own
ignorance and powerlessness first hand as I attempted to provide support.I was shocked at how little I knew about mental illness
and I was even more shocked at the limited capacity of the health care system
to respond compassionately to people in need.
Nobody would talk about it. No one in my family, my community-it was like this deep dark secret that had to be avoided at all costs.

In April 2003 my dear friend and mentor committed suicide-nobody even knew he was ill and at his funeral, tons of people eulogized him, but no one was willing to acknowledge what happened- that for me was the tipping point.How does poverty and access to treatment, nutrition, and basic security are contributing factors toward mental illness?

One of the questions we pose in the study we created (as part of the Hip-Hop Mental Health Project) to examine the impact of the work is: Where does mental illness come from? There are many theories: genetic inheritance, neurological/chemical imbalance, severe stress & trauma etc..

In LOW, I chose to explore the question: To what degree DOES our environment contribute to our ability to be well? I believe that the experiences of poverty, shame, humiliation, alienation, and isolation have a significant impact on our mental, spiritual, physical and emotional states.

In this society as in many other parts of the world we have created a culture where certain people are deemed to be “expendable” there is often very little rhyme or reason to how these people are chosen-there is almost a sense of complete disregard for their humanity-they are simply the products of a larger social construct that must have somebody on the bottom in order to have others at the top thrive.

I believe the acceptance of this kind of ideology is one of the most profound forms of “illness” we experience as a society.


The scandalous way in which so many of our soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress that is systematically being denied by the government has also brought mental illness center stage. A young Minnesota soldier
recently committed suicide after complaining about this. Your comments:

Unfortunately, even those brave men and women who have served this nation fall prey to the societal ignorance about these issues and to the lack of comprehensive healthcare being a priority. Yes, it is deplorable. We know the health care system in this nation must be changed, we know it is going to require greater resources and greater partnership and collaboration with national, state and local agencies and those they serve.


My hope is that LOW can help forward this dialogue and encourage greater resources and support for those who are suffering with mental illness and for those who have been impacted by the suffering of loved ones.

As Cincinnati CityBeat said, "There's a lot of Hip Hop culture reflected in these powerful words, and Rha's performance over a gripping 75 minutes is impressive and memorable."

In Rha’s powerful hands, audience members are able to understand mental illness on a new level where judgment and criticism have no place. Low inspires us to break the taboo of silence and do something. What are you doing to be well?

LOW is now playing off broadway in NYC until January 20th. Check her website for more information: www.rhaworld.com

FOX NEWS USES RACIAL SLUR ON LIVE TV!!THIS IS AN FCC VIOLATION!!

THEY COULD HAVE STOPPED THIS FROM GETTING THROUGH..COMPLAIN TO THE FCC ABOUT THIS!!!

NEW WRITER RUTH FERGUSON ADDED TO THE BLACK URBAN TIMES!!

Ruth Ferguson is a freelance writer and the Assistant Editor of the
North Dallas Gazette in Dallas, Texas. She is a self confessed
information junkie so can easily be reached at Info4Ruth@aol.com.
Since
2000 she has written movie and theater reviews, interviewed celebrities
as well as local news makers.

the link to her paper is here:
www.northdallasgazette.com

Obama's Historic Victory
By Joe Klein/Des Moines

Barack Obama's first words after winning the Iowa caucus were intended for history and they were gorgeous: "They said this day would never come." Perhaps he was thinking small. Perhaps he was thinking about the long days in July and August and September when he trudged along the trail, well behind Hillary Clinton — who seemed a juggernaut at that point. Perhaps he was thinking back to his childhood, to the father who barely knew him and the mother who let her parents do most of the child rearing. But I suspect he was thinking bigger, back to Martin Luther King — and King's dream that someday his children would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

That day has now come, at the highest level of American politics. A black man with a dangerous-sounding foreign name trounced his opponents in the nearly all-white state of Iowa. And he did so because, after spending months getting to know him, the people of Iowa stopped seeing his color and began to admire his character. In an election where the word "change" became an almost meaningless talisman, Iowa's triumph over race is a message to the world about the real nature of America — and a ratification of Obama's belief that this will be an election year where everything is on the table, where all the conventional wisdom can be tossed aside, where anything, including decency, is possible.

It was a night that was historic in ways large and small. The sheer size of the Democratic turnout — 236,000 people, nearly twice as many as 2004 — distorted the caucus process.

The second-tier candidates, who need 15% of the total at each caucus to win delegates, found themselves overwhelmed by armies — the very well run organizations of Obama, Clinton and Edwards. Forced to make second choices, the overwhelming majority chose Obama.
READ THE REST OF THE STORY HERE

HIP-HOP WRITER/EDUCATOR/ACTIVIST..JLOVE CALDERON JOINS THE BLACK URBAN TIMES

Here's a quick bio about Jlove Calderon, expect some great articles and commentary from her in the near future. Welcome to the team..Jlove!

JLove is an author, educator, and activist who is dedicated to the
struggle for human rights, the positive proliferation of youth and
Hip-Hop culture, and the liberation of all peoples bodies, minds,
spirits and communities.

She is co-producer of the We Got Issues! National Arts and Civic
Engagement Tour, and the co-creator, facilitator, and life coach of
the We Got Issues! Leadership Institute for Young Women, which works
to
ignite feminine centered leadership.

As an educator and counselor JLove worked at El Puente Academy for
Peace
and Justicefor over a decade, and spent six years working in teen
shelters and recovery centers. She has presented at numerous
universities including Columbia, Harvard, Pace, and UCLA. She's
been
blessed to share stages with great minds like KRS-One, Sway,
M1, Asia-One, Xzibit, Medusa, Rosa Clemente and DJ Kuttin' Kandi.

JLove is a core member of REACHip-Hop, and has co-founded numerous
events and organizations, including the B-Boy Summit, the San Diego
Chapter of Zulu Nation (SD Zulu-One), Sista II Sista, and the Active
Element Foundation. She is the author of two books, We Got Issues!
(New
World Library, 2006) and That White Girl (Atria, 2007), and
graduated Cum Laude from San Diego State University with a B.A. in
Africana Studies, and received her Masters in Education at Long Island
University.

Current projects include taking That White Girl to film, a spanking new

Hip-Hop Curriculum Guidebook due out March 2008 called Conscious Women
Rock the Page; Using Hip-Hop Fiction to Incite Social Change by JLove,
Black Artemis, E-Fierce and Marcella Runell Hall, and a brand new
anthology, Till the White Day is Done with some of the leading thinkers

and cultural creatives in the area of racism and white
privilege. Check
her out at: www.thatwhitegirl.com or myspace.com/truthlovefreedom

www.thatwhitegirl.com

Coming March 2008:
Conscious Women Rock the Page!
Using Hip-Hop Fiction to Incite Social Change
A one of kind Hip-Hop Curriculum Guidebook
by: JLove, Black Artemis, E-Fierce and Marcella Runell Hall

Check out That White Girl interviews and reviews:

just in: Right On! Magazine
www.ballerstatus.com
www.wiretap.com
www.allhiphop.com
BUST Magazine
The Ave Magazine
Rap Fanatic Magazine