Move to Amend Reports

This week we talk about the upcoming US Social Forum with Move to Amend National Leadership Team member Jerome Scott, one of the organizers on the Social Forum's National Planning Committee.

Jerome Scott, a labor organizer in the auto plants of Detroit in the 1960s-70s, and a community organizer, popular educator and author in the South since the 1970s, was a founding member and former director of Project South: Institute for the Elimination of Poverty & Genocide in Atlanta, GA. He serves on the National Planning Committee of the U.S. Social Forum, is active in Grassroots Global Justice and other social justice movement organizations, including the League of Revolutionaries for a New America. He is author/co-author of numerous chapters and articles on race, class, movement building and the revolutionary process, and is a contributing editor to four popular education toolkits including The Roots of Terror and Today's Globalization. He was co-recipient of the American Sociological Association’s 2004 Award for the Public Understanding of Sociology.

For more information about the US Social Forum, visit www.ussocialforum.net.

This week features Ohio Move to Amend organizer Michael Greenman to talk with us about the Interfaith Caucus and the role of faith and conscience in the movement to amend the Constitution.

Since 2000, Michael Greenman he has focused on efforts to eliminate Corporate Personhood.  As a member of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus, Michael is the lead coordinator of the MTA affiliate: “Move to Amend – Central Ohio”.  He recently led a team of UUs who, during the denomination’s annual gathering in June 2013, obtained the denomination’s approval to encourage congregations all around the country to focus on supporting the passage of a constitutional amendment to declare that “corporations are not persons” and “money is not speech.” He is currently collaborating with MTA as Moderator of the Interfaith Caucus, bringing together other communities of faith and ethical values to form a coalition to build from our common values to restore real democracy without corporate domination. 

For information or to become involved with Interfaith Caucus, please contact Michael Greenman at: 614-439-4768 or [email protected].

REPLAY: This week features Move to Amend affiliate organizer and principal with the Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy (POCLAD), Jim Price, about his work as a grassroots organizer and how his community in Tuscaloosa organized the first Move to Amend affiliate in Alabama.

This week features clinical lecturer and our first international guest, Erik Monasterio, to talk with us about the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership and its implications for the international field of medicine and healthcare.

Dr. Erik Monasterio is currently Deputy Clinical Director and Consultant in Forensic Psychiatry and senior clinical lecturer at the University of Otago, Christchurch School of Medicine in Christchurch, New Zealand. He has research interest and publications in a variety of topics, including off-label use of antipsychotic medications, pharmaceutical industry conduct and its implication for use of medications, personality, characteristics morbidity and mortality  of extreme athletes, and the impact of trade agreements on access and equity in health care.

To learn more about Dr. Monasterio, visit erikmonasterioorko.blogspot.co.nz.

Learn more about the Trans-Pacific Partnership at ExposeTheTPP.org.

Take action to stop the TPP! Contact your members of Congress today: https://oneclickpolitics.com/promo/NS

This week features writer, author, and expert Nicolas J.S. Davies to talk about the military-industrial complex and the threat of propaganda to participatory democracy.

Nicolas J. "Sandy" Davies is the author of "Blood On Our Hands: The American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq." He also wrote the chapter on "Obama At War" for the book, "Grading the 44th President: A Report Card on Barack Obama's First Term as a Progressive Leader." Apart from writing books, he's also a contributing writer to several online publications including Alternet, Z Communications, Consortium News, and the Huffington Post.

Hip Hop pioneer and icon Asia One joins us to talk preserving and promoting the traditional dance, art, and music of Hip Hop culture through the B-Boy Summit, an annual Hip-Hop event encompassing knowledge of the history of Hip-Hop Culture with the skills of breaking or break dancing, also known as B-boying and B-girling.

Asia One is known worldwide as a Bgirl icon and Hip-Hop activist and pioneer. A visionary, trailblazer and trend-setter, Asia’s influence has been instrumental in setting the bar for high standards in the arts of Hip-Hop, with skills + knowledge being the supreme combination for personal and global transformation. As a seasoned educator, performer, host, and judge – she is known world-wide as an premier consultant on Hip-Hop lifestyle and travels the world regularly not only performing, but speaking and consulting with international ambassadors of Hip-Hop culture on the future evolution of Hip-Hop dance and culture. No Easy Props is her motto (est.1997) and non profit company, created in order to mark her world famous Bboy Summit event along with her Hip-Hop Cultural Arts and fitness program for youth entitled Hip-Hop 101.

Cultural activist Mic Crenshaw will talk with us about the Afrikan Hip Hop Caravan and the role of Hip Hop as a global form of expression and counterforce to all forms of oppression.

A chicago-born poet and emcee, Michael (Mic) Crenshaw fell in love with music at a young age while living in Minneapolis. His teenage years were challenging as he actively confronted white supremacist gangs that were a growing part of the hard-core music scene. He eventually chose to escape the violence and moved to Portland, where he quickly became one of the most respected artists in the Northwest, and his community efforts have had both local and international impact. In addition to his highly-acclaimed work in spoken work and hip hop, Mic founded GlobalFam, a non-profit project to create and maintain a computer center for disadvantaged youth in Burundi, Central Africa. Over 400 people have received free training, and it is now expanding, generating revenue and creating jobs. Mic also partnered with Education Without Borders (EWOB), which supports education, music and art initiatives in Portland and beyond and serves as an umbrella for the local Books For Prisoners chapter and GlobalFam itself. GlobalFam has blossomed into a music label, production, promotion, artist management, and education company providing mainstream entertainment that supports Social Justice Activism.

To learn more about the Afrikan Hip Hop Caravan, visit hiphopcaravan.net.

For more music and videos from Mic, visit miccrenshaw.com.

Artist, producer, and DJ Alisha B. Francis joins us to talk about emerging Grassroots Community Hip HopRadio Union and her work in the Giril-illa Movement, providing a platform for female creativity and empowerment within Hip Hop culture.

Alisha B hosts, DJs and reports on and from Denver’s vibrant and multifaceted Hip Hop culture as a participant, a taste-maker, and a journalist.  She appears frequently on 88.5 FM KGNU, on Denver Open Media channel 57 (xfinity) and streaming globally on internet radio; hosting DJing and producing: Girl-illa Movement, Alisha B Radio, Subterranean Stethoscope,  Co-hosting on the Eclipse Show, The Metro and Industrial Racquet. Alisha B also uses Hip Hop as a vehicle in which to interact with youth, whom she views as future stewards of Hip Hop culture and guide them to not only understand the cultural essentials but also practice cultural preservation. She has been a program facilitator for TrueStar Foundation’s Youth Magazine Program, Summer Youth Intern Coordinator for KGNU and creator/facilitator for the Girl-illa Movement and the Freestyle Fifth Element education programs. Alisha is the acting executive director of the Radio Union, a national network of urban communitunity radio dj’s producers and radio personalities united to leverage their media to propagate hip hop that is more reflective of the respective communities we live in and interacting with hip hop culture in more ways and in more dimensions  than entertainment.

In light of African American History Month, we will be focusing our programs on Move to Amend's partnership with international grassroots organization Hip Hop Congress to present What the (Bleep) Happened to Hip Hop, a public education campaign to address the corporatization of music, dance, and other art forms and shine a critical lens on race, class, and gender in contemporay American culture. This February will feature artists, activists, and organizers supporting this national campaign to raise awareness of the dangerous power corporations currently wield over culture and how it connects with their use of corporate constitutional rights.

Join us this week as we talk with Move to Amend's Program Coordinator Jessica Munger and Hip Hop Congress Executive Director Shamako Noble about the purpose of What the Bleep Happened to Hip Hop and discuss Hip Hop's relationship to the struggle of oppressed people in the United States.

This week features the co-founder and Executive Director of Creative Strategies for Change, Rachael Sharp, to talk with us about their work to bridge the social divides and engage communities on all sides by mobilizing arts and education for social justice.

Rachael is a passionate artist, activist, and educator who works in a variety of creative mediums, specializing in popular education, applied theater, dance, and movement. She holds a Master of Arts from the Gallatin School at New York University, and has completed professional training programs with Bay Area Nonviolent Communication, Dominic Barter, and the Center for Multicultural Education and Programs at NYU, where she received the Nia award for outstanding work in the arts and social justice. Through her work, Rachael has had the opportunity to facilitate innovative social justice education and arts programs for people of all ages, as well as supporting nonprofit organizations with communications, program coordination, and general operations.