Since my first marriage I have been mindful of the possibility of my having an addictive aspect to my personality. I have, since that time, had many other indications that have privately moved possibility to probability and I have become even more guarded in the development of new habits with that potential. As the years have passed, fewer and fewer vitally deteriorating pursuits have stimulated my interest and I have became lax – let my guard down – suspended my vigilance. I took up the pursuit of my family’s origins, my genealogy – my roots. After all, it was an interesting, restful, inexpensive way to spend some casual time.

At first, I was fairly prudent. It was a hobby, a spare time activity. A little bit here. A little bit there. I organized the easy stuff; the stuff I knew for sure, and what was easily accessible through inheritance or absent minded collecting. Pictures, letters, newspaper clippings, funeral notices, diplomas, and certificates of marriage—birth and death. These were carefully placed in file folders appropriately labeled. I made index cards to reference the folders similarly labeled. I jotted notes on items I vaguely remembered or wanted to inquire about—possible sources, possible leads—and filed them appropriately. Very tidy. continue

Could you forgive a person who murdered your family? This is the question faced by the subjects of As We Forgive, a documentary about Rosaria and Chantal—two Rwandan women coming face-to-face with the men who slaughtered their families during the 1994 genocide. The subjects of As We Forgive speak for a nation still wracked by the grief of a genocide that killed one in eight Rwandans in 1994. Overwhelmed by an enormous backlog of court cases, the government has returned over 50,000 thousand genocide perpetrators back to the very communities they helped to destroy. Without the hope of full justice, Rwanda has turned to a new solution: Reconciliation.

But can it be done? Can survivors truly forgive the killers who destroyed their families? Can the government expect this from its people? And can the church, which failed at moral leadership during the genocide, fit into the process of reconciliation today? In As We Forgive, director Laura Waters Hinson and narrator Mia Farrow explore these topics through the lives of four neighbors once caught in opposite tides of a genocidal bloodbath, and their extraordinary journey from death to life through forgiveness. watch trailer

The work of Ron Davis represents a persuasive argument against the linearity of time. Influences drawn from the history of African American cultural production are communicated through the most sophisticated of technological artistic technique. The result is work that reaches both back and forth, draws from the past to illuminate the future and provides an ideal continuum for the age old art of visual storytelling. continue

"African American artists need a new dialog with one another - visual artists and writers alike. I'm often wrong, and I probably am, but our creative output seems to have become stagnant since the late 1980's/early 1990's. continue

Beautiful, provocative and rich in content, we know that you are interested in purchasing some of Ron's work so email him at upfromsumdirt@yahoo.com and visit him www.myspace.com/upfromsumdirt. Lines are open.

The importance of her work is a 100% related with the fact that Gloria Alboreda is a Colombian artist. She never forgets that while she works. Her images look beautiful at first sight but once the spectator is caught by the piece only then does he or she realize that something more powerful lies beneath the combination of elements such as acrylics, engravings, large format digital drawings and strident colours that frame the story (sometimes not a happy one).

Primera Preocupacion (First Concern) . Gloria Arboleda

Cambiando La Historia (Changing the Story) . Gloria Arboleda

Maria Carolina Baulo, of Argentina, is an Art Writer that specializes in Art History with studies in Cinematography, Photography and Theatre. To contact Maria please email her at macabaulo@hotmail.com

Raashan brings the inspiration and, dare I say, hope. But it sounds better than all that and boasts some of the most musical hip hop production heard in years.

Joe Higgs
Life of Contradiction
1973 Ojc Records

Like Bob? Like Peter? Every Master has a Mentor. Meet Joe Higgs, the man behind the sound, behind the roots, behind the throne.

If you have been lucky enough to catch the progeny of Sun Ra at a show near you, Or the streets of NYC, than you know the deal with the HBE. If you haven't then you now have only yourself to blame.

The truth hurts. The passing of George Carlin does as well. Get the album that birthed the legend. Rest in peace George.

Down for a good mystery collection of short stories? Havana Noir does not leave you wanting. More cops, more robbers, more mobsters, more death, more struggle. More smugness, more drinking, more pizza, and more pain. Guess what? The guilty always get caught but damn if the guilty do not make it difficult for the good guys to catch them. If they made it easy, it would not be good.

The image of two black Americans raising their fists at the 1968 Olympics has been duplicated the world over but many do not know the story behind it or gold medal winner Tommie Smith. No one knows he is also the only man to hold eleven world records in track and field simultaneously. Here Smith dispels rumors. First rumor, he never was stripped of his gold medal. Second rumor, he raised his fist to signify the black power movement. He did not. He had another reason and you should know it.

A posthumous publication written by Haitian Scholar and poet Rene Philoctete, Massacre River is the tale of a town on the Haitian-Dominican Republic border and the massacre that occurred there. To put it short, well told historical fiction.

At a time when China, India, Brazil and Russia are reshaping the international hierarchy, Fareed Zakaria provides an informative look at a world "in which the United States will no longer dominate the global economy, orchestrate global politics, or overwhelm cultures." Call it a preview of the 21st century, or, as Ornette would say, the shape of things to come.