rochester jazz festival

enjoyed hot club of detroit at the jazz festival – have never seen anyone play the accordion quite like that! vijay iyer is here. love rochester jazz.

hot club of detroit
hot club of detroit

Free Jalil!

Yesterday (June 12, 2014) at 3:00 pm, we gathered at the corner of South Ave and Byron St in order to walk across the street to the Rochester regional parole office to deliver petitions and a statement demanding parole for Jalil Muntaqim.

free jalil rally
free jalil rally
mara ahmed - free jalil rally
mara ahmed – free jalil rally
free jalil rally
free jalil rally
free jalil rally
free jalil rally

Free Jalil Muntaqim!

Rochester friends, activists, people of conscience, pls join us for this v imp protest on June 12 at 3pm sharp, at the Rochester Parole Office at South Avenue and Byron Streets:

After 43 years and seven parole denials, enough is enough! On June 12 at 3pm at the Rochester Parole Office, supporters of Rochester Free Jalil will deliver a petition with over 800 signatures from people across New York State demanding that Political Prisoner Jalil Muntaqim be paroled. They will not be alone. Citizens across the state (from New York City, Albany, and Buffalo) will take part in a coordinated effort for justice. Jalil’s supporters are tired of the racist and political parole denials that keep Jalil in Jalil in jail and are tired of New York State wasting their tax money to keep him there.

Who is Jalil Muntaqim? Jalil Muntaqim (formerly known as Anthony Bottom), is a Black Panther and victim of the FBI’s COINTELPRO program. He is also one of the longest held political prisoners in the world. In 1971, when Jalil was only 19 years old, he was arrested and accused of murder as part of the San Francisco 8. Later, it was discovered that Jalil was a victim of J. Edgar Hoover’s illegal COINTELPRO program. COINTELPRO was an effort to “neutralize” and “disrupt” social movements working for justice and human rights including the Black Panthers, the American Indian Movement, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Lawyers’ Guild, groups protesting the Vietnam War, and many others. Jalil is currently incarcerated at Attica Correctional Facility in Western NY. He is now 62 years old and has earned a BS in Psychology and a BA in Sociology. He was twice awarded for preventing prison riots, has taught computer literacy courses, founded a men’s writing workshop, written countless articles, several books, and is a son, brother, uncle, father, grandfather and great-grandfather.

The FBI and numerous police departments have since apologized for the massive illegal campaign against social movements that left dozens dead and hundreds behind bars. Despite these apologies, the victims of these campaigns are still incarcerated, torn away from their families and communities more than 40 years later. Jalil spending more time in prison away from his community will do nothing to restore justice. Even the son of one of the victims (Waverly Jones Jr.) has expressed his strong support for Jalil’s release. “I was hoping that the Parole Board would look into it and realize that these men have indeed done their time and done everything the state sentenced them to do,” said Waverly Jones Jr. Jail’s release would be a first step in healing the wounds of America’s violent and racist past. Forty-three years is well past time for release for a political prisoner from the Civil Rights Era. People across NY state are telling the parole board to stop wasting NY taxpayers’ money and release Jalil to the community, where he can make a positive impact and take a community leadership role.

For background information, check out www.FreeJalil.com

FREE JALIL
FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS
PAROLE REFORM NOW
FREE ALL COINTELPRO PRISONERS

free jalil now

an evening in williamstown

last week we spent an evening with my friend jim and his family. they live in williamstown, ny. they grow a lot of their own food. they use geothermal and solar energy to heat their house and do their laundry. mary makes the most fragrant and delicious rye bread on the planet. they recited a wonderful jewish blessing before we started to eat. both husband and wife are artists. they don’t own cellphones. jim says they’re addicted to farming their land – it’s the miracle of seeing a tiny “thread” bloom into a perfect strawberry or cabbage. what a down-to-earth, simple and beautiful way of life. not a bad thing to be addicted to.

Gandhi Institute presents Women of the Silk Road

Women of the Silk Road [3 Films from Pakistan, Turkey and Iran] showing on May 7, 14, and 21 at the Gandhi Institute, 929 South Plymouth Avenue, Rochester.

On May 7 at 7pm: Silent Waters – a film about a woman caught between 2 revolutionary moments: Pakistan after Partition, and later at the beginning of a fundamentalist transformation under Zia al Haq. Following the film, independent filmmaker, Mara Ahmed, will answer questions and speak about Pakistan, the Partition and her latest film.

Silent Waters is a film by Sabiha Sumar. “Partition Stories” producer Surbhi Dewan is also one of the producers for Sabiha’s next film. Hope to see you there.

Women of the Silk Road
Women of the Silk Road

Jalil Muntaqim Is Still In Attica! by Mara Ahmed

i went to attica last month to visit ex-black panther jalil muntaqim. he’s one of the longest held political prisoners in the world. i wrote about my visit and about jalil’s case (he was arrested under COINTELPRO). that article was just published in countercurrents. here it is.

Jalil is no run-of-the-mill human being. He acquired a college education whilst being incarcerated; in 1976 he initiated the National Prisoners Campaign to Petition the United Nations to recognize the existence of political prisoners in the US; in 1997 he launched the Jericho Movement to demand amnesty for American political prisoners on the basis of international law; he has written books and maintains a blog; he’s quelled prison riots; he’s involved in literacy programs and has wonderful ideas about vocational training in prison running parallel to community programs outside so that released prisoners can transition effortlessly into them and chances of relapse are minimized. For all these efforts at organizing, Jalil is transferred relentlessly from one correctional facility to another.

Jalil understands that we have reached a racial crossroads in America. Black kids are being murdered for the clothes they wear or the music they listen to, stop-and-frisk and racial profiling have become institutionalized, books like Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow” explain how a caste system rooted in mass incarceration has replaced segregation and slavery, Vietnam War protestors and activists have revealed how they stole FBI COINTELPRO files and books like Betty Medsger’s “The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI” delineate the disturbing history, machinations and criminality of the FBI. Jalil’s concern is that this “spark” might ignite people’s anger rather than become the impetus for constructive organizing. He hopes for liberal movements to unite and coalesce as they did during the Civil Rights era. He wants to hearken back to MLK’s Poor People’s Campaign and forge links between racism and economic inequity, between Trayvon Martin and Occupy Wall Street. More here.

bonfire amid snow

my friend cat’s bonfire last weekend: crisp moonlit night, spicy pakistani and indian food, great company and a fierce fire to keep filmmakers warm. photograph by dave sluberski.

bonfire amid snow
bonfire amid snow

Global Citizenship Conference – Nazareth College

march 11, 2014: taught a class on “religion in media and pop culture” today along with andrew harrison. i focused on islam and its (mis)representation in mainstream media. the high school students in my class were bright and engaged. they understood stereotyping and labels. they could unpack the illustration of a burka-clad woman screaming “help” by linking it to the justification for western intervention. they understood patriarchy and its universality. i left them with one advice: balance ur worldview with alternative media. watch democracy now, the real news, etc. once again i come away inspired by how open-minded and smart american teenagers are. more here.

the muslims i know at suny brockport

i went to a screening of “the muslims i know” at suny brockport in order to lead a discussion afterwards and i met this wonderful young man, a graduate student in the dance department. he asked me whether the kinds of discussions about islam and muslims that we see on-screen, r also happening within the muslim community itself, whether there was a lot of soul-searching and introspection. i told him there was. since we have to constantly explain ourselves to others, we are forced to look inwards and self-question. he said: “i would like to apologize to u for having to do that and i would like to thank u for standing up and becoming a spokesperson for ur community when u shouldn’t have to.”

wow. that totally blew me away. it struck me how words spoken at one end of a room can tumble and glide and find their way to the other end, and in doing so can bridge incredible distances in the human experience. with a few simple words, we can slice through much distracting fracas and posturing and connect directly to someone else.

he came to talk to me at the end of the discussion and i extended my hand. he said “i don’t believe in handshakes” and gave me a big hug. if only all human interactions were that simple – imbued with warmth and compassion, dictated by mutual respect and acknowledgment. what a lovely gift.