KPFT Notes

Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Traces of the Trade tells the story of first-time filmmaker Katrina Browne’s New England ancestors, the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. At Browne’s urging, nine fellow descendants of her prominent family agree to journey with her to retrace the steps of the Triangle Trade.

Slavery was business for more than just the DeWolf family — it was a cornerstone of Northern commercial life. The family travels from Bristol, Rhode Island where the family business was based, to slave forts in Ghana where they meet with African-Americans on their own homecoming pilgrimages, to the ruins of a family-owned sugar plantation in Cuba. At each stop, the family grapples with the contemporary legacy of slavery, not only for black Americans, but for themselves as white Americans. Browne pushes them forward as they delve into the debate about reparations. They also come face-to-face with their love/hate relationship to Yankee culture and privilege, and struggle with how to take public action given all that they now know.

The issues the DeWolf descendants are confronted with dramatize questions that apply to the nation as a whole: What, concretely, is the legacy of slavery — for diverse whites, for diverse blacks, for diverse others? Who owes who what for the sins of the fathers of this country? What history do we inherit as individuals and as citizens? How does Northern complicity change the equation? What would repair — spiritual and material — really look like and what would it take?

Traces of the Trade was completed in June 2007 and will be released in early 2008, the Bicentennial year of the U.S. Abolition of the Slave Trade (abolition of trade went into effect January 1, 1808). The distribution of the film will include a national television broadcast, foreign sales, educational distribution, home video, and a possible theatrical release.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Film distribution will be accompanied by a comprehensive national outreach campaign for the 2008 year. A National Outreach Director is being sought to lead these efforts. The use of the film in the aforementioned contexts is an opportunity to use the power of story telling and the impact of film and television to inform and mobilize diverse communities around the difficult social issues explored in the film. We are especially targeting white Americans.

Through the creation of national and regional partnerships that reach into local communities, outreach efforts will bring people together to address race relations and racial/economic justice in a frank and constructive way. Activities will include screenings/dialogues in community groups, religious congregations, race dialogue groups, museums and historical societies, professional associations, conferences and workplace diversity trainings.

We have especially strong partnerships with religious denominations that are committed to the work of truth, repair and reconciliation. In order to connect viewers with “action steps” we will link with activist/public policy efforts on issues that the film addresses: 1) the many legacy of slavery in the U.S.; 2) international efforts to end modern day slavery. Resource materials will include organizing kits, discussion guides and teacher’s guides, media packets and additional online resources.

KEY DUTIES

- Work closely with senior project staff and advisors to refine the priorities of the outreach campaign, taking into account best practices in the various fields relevant to the project, and key unmet needs in the area of race/ethnicity, identity and equity in the United States.
- Complete the process of selecting national and regional partners.
- Provide oversight and coordination for work with partners on all outreach campaign plans including: event organizing; the development and dissemination of discussion guides and curricular materials; implementation of teacher and facilitator trainings; linkages with relevant activist/public policy campaigns; web site development and management; etc.
- Play lead role in creating division of labor and information flow with distribution partners (broadcaster; possible theatrical distributor; DVD distributors) to create coordinated time-line of platformed film release and outreach plans that maximizes impact.
- Coordinate with Producer/Director, other family members, PR firm, and Beacon Press (publishing book by other family member) on how to maximize family availability for speaking engagements and press work in relation to outreach campaign priorities. “
- With partner organizations, develop a long-term strategy for the on-going use of Traces of the Trade in schools and community groups nationwide after the main efforts in 2008.
- Oversee the development and implementation of an evaluation plan.
- Prepare & administer outreach budget; monitor finances & financial reporting for budget.
- Work with other senior staff on grant proposals and grant reporting related to outreach.
- Work with other senior staff to determine appropriate staff for project; oversee training, supervision, and evaluation of outreach-related staff and/or volunteers.

LOCATION/DURATION

This position will last approximately 1.5 years, beginning full-time and possibly shifting to part-time after one year. We seek to hire someone to begin in late 2007 or early 2008. The production company, Ebb Pod Productions, is based in Boston, and strong preference is for the Outreach Director to be located there. We will consider other locations depending on the candidate.

QUALIFICATIONS

- Personal commitment and demonstrated leadership in efforts to improve race relations and equity in the United States; sensitivity to the internal and external work this requires.
- Substantial senior management experience in some combination of the following fields: anti-racism/race relations, civic dialogue, film/television outreach, grassroots community organizing, political campaign work, non-profit/public interest program management. “
- Excellent planning, administrative and organizational skills; the ability to provide structure and leadership to the overall campaign; previous experience working on multiple projects, in multi-institution, multi-city collaboratives or coalitions preferred. “
- Excellent interpersonal skills and collaborative leadership style; the ability to foster communication and teamwork among staff and partners working in various locations. “
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills; the ability to articulate the project’s mission and effectively engage diverse audiences.

COMPENSATION

Competitive salary for nonprofit sector, commensurate with experience and qualifications.

HOW TO APPLY

Please submit resume, with letter of interest and salary requirements by mail, fax, or email to: Ebb Pod Productions P.O. Box 302236, Boston, MA 02130 Fax: 617.349.0021 info@TracesoftheTrade.org.

This note, from Pacifica Affiliates Coordinator Ursula Ruedenberg, underscores some of the efforts Pacifica is making in regard to the Federal Communications Commission’s recent noncommercial full-power license filing window. Check out more on the campaign at radioforpeople.org.

From October 12 to October 22, 2007, over 200 local community groups across the country submitted applications to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for building new community radio stations. They applied when, after much anticipation, the FCC lifted a freeze since 2000; on filings for Noncommercial Educational (NCE) radio Licenses.

The NCE frequencies, residing on the left side of the FM dial between 88.1 MHz and 91.9 MHz, are granted by the federal government to nonprofit organizations free of charge. “This is the last free spectrum,” said FCC attorney John Crigler, who helped community radio applicants. “This is the last opportunity to have a fight about values and how public spectrum ought to be used. There will be social consequences.”

Media democracy groups, who believe that this filing window was one of the last chances to obtain noncommercial frequencies for community radio, organized nationally in a coalition called Radio For People, to promote and help applications for community radio. Their motto was “Be the media!” They focused on helping community activists, grassroots organizations, Indigenous Tribes, schools, colleges, and progressive religious groups.

Coalition members include the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, Native Public Media, Common Frequency, Prometheus Radio Project, Public Radio Capital, Pacifica Radio, Free Press, Future of Music coalition, Democracy Now, as well as FCC attorneys John Crigler, Michael Couzens, and Alan Korn, consulting radio engineer Michael Brown, and other radio professionals.

Pacifica Radio participated in the Radio For People Campaign by helping to fund an initial study of available frequencies and by doing extensive national outreach and providing support for applicants. Pacifica hosted a weekly drop-in support meeting via conference call, where applicants were able to talk with experts and also give each other encouragement and information. Special efforts were made for outreach to the Midwest and the Deep South.

Pacifica received a grant from Public Radio Capital to help develop applications in communities throughout the South. Two field workers, David Beaton and Christopher Maxwell, traveled from Virginia to Mississippi, working with community groups. Fourteen applications were filed as a result of the Pacifica project called Radio South. Applicant groups were located in Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Arkansas. Atlanta affiliate WRFG (Radio Free Georgia) partnered with Pacifica in this effort.

“As an early founder of community radio in America, Pacifica is obliged and privileged to help this new generation of community radio,” said Ursula Ruedenberg, Pacifica’s Outreach and Affiliates Coordinator. “These applicants are modern-day heroes in a very competitive media environment.”

The FCC opened the recent filing window since establishing new and fairer regulations for resolving competition between applicants. Radio for People Coalition and other media activists had called upon the FCC to establish regulations that give local community groups fairer opportunities for competing with national broadcasters who dominated NCE applications in the past.

According to Michael Brown, of Brown Broadcasting Inc., “In the last 15 years probably 80% of the applications for noncommercial stations have been by conservative religious national broadcast groups. Our emphasis was with the community groups whose main goals were secular progressive programming.”

“Community radio is extremely important,” FCC attorney Couzens said. “It’s a means for getting people the information they need to make judgments about news and public affairs and have entertainment options that aren’t provided by giant chains of non-local broadcasters.”

On the eve of the filing window, community radio advocates gained a victory when the FCC set a limit of 10 applications per group. The Commission explained that “our examination of the record confirms our concern that failure to establish a limit on the number of NCE FM applications that a party may file in the window would lead to a large number of speculative filings, creating the potential for extraordinary procedural delays.”

The applications from the recent filing window have not yet been published on the FCC web site (fcc.gov), but are expected within days. It is anticipated that thousands of applications were made for the NCE licenses and an unprecedented volume of information appears to have been submitted to FCC during the recent filing window.

Community radio applicants plan to build radio stations for addressing local cultural and social needs in their areas. “We plan to use the radio to benefit ordinary citizens,” said applicant Diane Brown in Fort St. Joe, Florida. “Now we have a chance to talk about what kind of future we want.”

Some plan to feature local music and theater, and oral histories, as well as indigenous languages at tribal stations. Other stated goals include emergency warning systems and relief aid, environmental protection, cooperation between rural communities for farmers’ rights, activities for disenfranchised youth, education for civic participation in local politics and policies, and on-air public discourse over policies and laws.

“We will hear the pulse beat of the people themselves,” said Charles Sherrod, applicant and civil rights organizer in Albany Georgia. “The officials say they hear people saying one thing and we say we hear them saying something else. But with a radio station, people can say it for themselves.”

Brett Gordon, in Iowa City, Iowa summed up why building community radio continues to be important. “Now is the time to imagine a citizen media that monitors and deconstructs,” he said, “that opens the phone lines to listeners and lets us in the Hinterlands chew, swallow and digest our own information and listen to our own pundits. We are participating in democracy itself and doing what our founding fathers said must be done if democracy is to flourish.”

Citadel Classic Rocker KQRS Minneapolis will air an apology for remarks made on Tom Barnard’s morning show last month associating high teen suicide rates in Beltrami County, MN, with “incest” among American Indians on two reservations in the county.

During a September 18 discussion of a Minnesota Health Department report on teen suicide rates, the Bemidji and Red Lake Indian Reservations were mentioned, then morning co-host Terri Traen suggested the problem might be “genetic” due to “incest” on the reservations.

Barnard also reportedly said the Shakopee Sioux, who own a casino in the area, don’t contribute to the support of the tribes on the reservations.

Clyde Bellecourt of the American Indian Movement called the remarks “ignorant” and compared them to the notorious comment about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team that got Don Imus fired earlier this year. Bellecourt also said the Shakopee tribe has given nearly $4 million in grants to the Red Lake Reservation since 2004.

Along with the apology, KQRS will devote airtime to positive Indian community issues, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports, and will invite members of the Shakopee and Red Lake tribes to appear on the morning show. The station has also agreed to work to hire American Indian interns and to continue to air PSAs for a suicide hotline.

Source: RadioInk

The powerful Computer & Communications Industry Association has gone on record opposing immunity for telecommunications firms participating in the warrantless surveillance activities initiated by the Bush Administration. The CCIA letter is below.

Dear Speaker Pelosi:

The Protect America Act of 2007 made significant changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and presents serious concerns about increased federal government acquisition and use of personal information about private American citizens. As you consider new legislation to address these concerns, while facilitating surveillance and tracking of targeted terrorists, I urge you to adopt safeguards against unnecessary intrusions into the lives of ordinary Americans by the U.S. Government.

Specifically, I write in support of the House Judiciary Committee’s approach to retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies who may have supplied customer information and records without a warrant, subpoena or other official certification from the Justice Department, possibly in violation of FISA.

CCIA opposes the Administration’s push for blanket immunity for telecommunications companies that have accommodated questionable or illegal government requests for wiretapping and surveillance. CCIA encourages you to reject broad immunity provisions in favor of a better balance between legitimate national security interests and basic Fourth Amendment privacy for U.S. citizens.

Telecommunications service providers have a civic responsibility to assist lawful surveillance requests by government and an obligation to protect the privacy of their customers. It is inadvisable for the trusted carriers of free speech by our customers, protected as it is by the First Amendment, to become ongoing de facto agents of government surveillance programs. Of course, where there is clear constitutional and legal authority to require specific cooperation we would expect companies to behave in accord with such requirements. But we believe companies also have a duty to their customers and to the integrity, freedom and openness of our networks.

The technology and communications industry in particular has a unique responsibility to ensure that networks remain free of unjust superintendence. Customers have a right to expect that their real-time communications activities as well as their customer proprietary network information (CPNI) including call records, will not be disseminated or disclosed to third parties, including the government, without their knowledge. FISA procedures provide basic Fourth Amendment privacy protections. Commercial enterprises have the right to insist, as apparently one telephone company (Qwest) had done, that government requests for customer information be accompanied by appropriate legal authorization from a court or some official of the judicial branch of government.

Coerced industry surveillance will impair confidence in everyday telecommunications and online activities for business and personal use. If consumers cannot rely upon network operators to shield them from unjustified mining and seizure of their private information, electronic commerce and personal communications will be compromised.

In this age of ubiquitous digital communications and endless databases, American citizens deserve basic privacy protections against government misuse of their personal information, whether inadvertent or deliberate. Retroactive immunity breeds uncertainty that strains the resources of both national security officials and the telecommunications companies, who are reduced to guesswork about what unauthorized wiretapping or data searches might later be pardoned, due to circumstances of war or emergency. Further, prosecution of terrorists could be impaired by tainted, illegally obtained evidence. Finally, the reality that retroactive immunity for telecommunications network operators may not survive constitutional challenge is yet another reason for Congress to resist the immunity temptation.

Clearly, the civil suits that some have brought against their telecom providers alleging that certain companies turned over their personal information to a National Security Agency (NSA) eavesdropping program without a warrant partially motivate the Administration’s requested immunity language. Nevertheless, those private plaintiffs are entitled to discovery of the underlying facts and their cases should be heard, even if national security concerns require that parts of such proceedings be closed to the public.

Accountability for illegal activity is essential to the rule of law. Presently, there has been no accountability and, save for revelations reported in today’s Washington Post, there has been little disclosure regarding allegations of illegal surveillance. Without complete disclosure, no informed judgment can be made regarding potential legislative compromises about how to hold anyone accountable for alleged violations of the law.

I look forward to working with you on this important issue.

Sincerely,
Edward J. Black
President & CEO
Computer & Communications Industry Association

JOHN WARFIELD: 1936-2007
Community loses one of its heroes
Professor fought for equality on campus and off.

By Melissa Mixon
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, October 27, 2007

Whether it was teaching students in his classroom or challenging the administration at the University of Texas, John Warfield lived life as an unapologetic crusader for racial and social justice, family and colleagues said Friday.

Warfield died Thursday of Parkinson’s disease. He was 71 and had been residing at an assisted living facility in Kalamazoo, Mich.

Friends and family said Warfield left a lasting imprint on the university by helping to ease racial tensions left over from the 1960s and by igniting pride and instilling knowledge in his students.

Believing that education was the best way to derail segregation, he helped found Austin’s first black community radio station, KAZI-FM, from his living room in 1982.

“There was just something burning in him always,” said Jan Warfield, his former wife, who was married to him for 31 years. “He had the privilege of an education and someone looking out for him, so that’s something he wanted to see other African Americans have. He was just adamant about it.”

Warfield taught at the university for 26 years and was director of the Center for African and African American Studies there from 1973 to 1986.

In that position, he was sometimes a controversial figure, responsible for bringing guest speakers like Eldridge Cleaver, a prominent member of the Black Panther Party, to campus, He often accused the university administration of racism, using some of his most pointed words after he was asked to resign as director of the center in 1986.

“Somebody may have gotten fed up with Warfield’s mouth,” he told the Daily Texan student newspaper after his resignation was requested.

Warfield was also outspoken about the small number of black students and faculty at a time when the university had just been integrated, said Edmund T. Gordon, a former colleague and co-director of the center..

“This was in an era of some tension and great change when there weren’t many black folks on campus, and there still was a fair amount of controversy over our presence,” Gordon said.

As a professor, Warfield helped start the Heman Sweatt Symposium, an annual summit to examine the state of African Americans in Texas. The summit was named in honor of Heman Sweatt, the first African American admitted into UT Law School. Sweatt applied for admission in 1946, but he was denied on the basis of race. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in his favor.

Warfield was also instrumental in making African and African American history a “legitimate and academic pursuit,” said Gregory Vincent, vice president for diversity and community engagement at the University.

“That’s what was so pivotal,” Vincent said. “I think that’s one of his legacies.”

Former student James Gray, who is a radio programmer at KAZI, said he first met War-field in 1981, when he took his class on black American culture. At the time, Warfield was trying to start a community radio station.

Gray said Warfield’s intention was to create a medium to educate both the black and majority communities.

Jan Warfield she and her then-husband stored radio equipment in their living room, until the station opened in 1982. She said they often paid bills for the station before paying their own.

Warfield was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in the mid-1980s, but continued to teach until 2000, when he retired.

Jan Warfield said the disease had started to take its toll.

“Eventually it did slow him down, but he was moving so fast it slowed him down to ordinary speed,” she said. “He was like lightning all the time.”

The Federal Communications Commission today announced it will hold its sixth localism hearing on Wednesday, October 31, 2007. The hearing will be held in the Commission Meeting Room, Room TW-C305, at 445 12th Street, S.W., Washington, D.C.

Along with competition and diversity, promoting localism is a key goal of the Commission’s media ownership rules.

The purpose of the hearing is to gather information from consumers, industry, civic organizations, and others on broadcaster’s role in their local communities and proposed changes to our rules.

This hearing will include a presentation by the Media Bureau summarizing the record that the Commission has received on the topic of localism, a panel presentation, and a period for public comment.

This 6 month production workshop covers both 16mm and digital video production, from preproduction to shooting and editing. Highly selective, students meet in the evenings and shoot on the weekends. Aimed at emerging artists from communities of color, low income and other marginalized groups, this workshop is entering its 31st year! Graduates include feature directors Grace Lee (“THE GRACE LEE PROJECT”), Alice Wu (“SAVING FACE”), Byron Hurt (“BEYOND BEATS AND RHYMES”) and many more. The deadline for the 2008 session applications is January 9th, 2008, and classes start in February.

For information and an application, please go to twn.org. Founded in 1967, Third World Newsreel is one of the oldest alternative media arts organizations in the United States. We are committed to the creation and appreciation of independent and social issue media by and about people of color, and the peoples of developing countries around the world.

The Prometheus Radio Project would like to express its concern about recently announced plans for the FCC to vote on changing the protections against consolidation of media ownership.

We continue to oppose the weakening of these rules, which defend the public from unchecked corporate power in media. In the 2003 lawsuit, Prometheus vs. the FCC, decided by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, the court ordered the FCC to reconsider the ill-advised changes to those ownership rules that were passed by Chairman Michael Powell.

In the time line currently being proposed by Chairman Martin, we do not believe that the Commission will be able to circulate it’s conclusions based upon the comments submitted and fully address the demands of the remanded decision. We appreciate the opportunities for public comment. However, these public hearings have been announced to the public on extremely short notice and often held in the middle of a weekday. Reflective of whirlwind Washington DC scheduling, the scheduling of these hearings has not been considerate of the schedules of most working people, employed outside the world of media policy. Despite this significant inconvenienceif not hardshipthousands of citizens have made it out to show their displeasure with the direction that the FCC has taken in dismantling these important media ownership rules.

We also believe that the media ownership proceeding should not be resolved until the results of the localism task force are fully integrated into the ownership proposals at the FCC. A false split between ownership and localism was established in the structure of the proceeding, and that separation must be redressed in any final version of the rules.

The airwaves do not belong to corporations, entities that hold licenses allowing them to utilize the resource. The airwaves are owned by all of us. Setting a reasonable set of limitations on ownership is not a burden to those who have the privilege of operating broadcast signals for the public benefit. The only people that support elimination of these rules are those who stand to gain financially.

Though their views may seem loud and widespread to the ears of Washington, DC decision-makers, the reality is that they are by far in the numerical minority among the American people. We call on the Commissioners of the FCC, based on the evidence available and the testimony of the public, to retain the current ownership rules and devote their time to creating more opportunities for Americans in mediathrough making more low power radio licenses available, preserving net neutrality, expanding cable access, utilizing unlicensed spectrum, and through seizing other opportunities to promote the diversity of local

The Prometheus Radio Project is an activist organization dedicated to helping community groups around the world build their own community media institutions. We have worked to build, protect, and expand the low power FM radio service, to stop media consolidation with media reformers across the nation, and to facilitate the technical learning and building skills of diverse local communities, from farmworker groups to civil rights organizations, as they build their own radio stations across the United States.

The FCC is up to its old tricks again.

They want to set new media ownership rules without any public input — just like they did in 2003. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) won’t tell us exactly what the new rules would do, but every indication is that they’ll let Big Media get even bigger.

Senator Byron Dorgan said of the FCC’s secretive plan: “There is going to be a firestorm of protest, and I will be carrying the wood.”

Can you be the spark? Tell Congress to step in and demand that the public have a say in the media ownership debate.

http://www.commoncause.org/BeTheSpark

There are still a number of independently-owned television stations, radio stations and newspapers where you and I can find information and opinions that aren’t always covered by the corporate-owned Big Media outlets. But their future independence is in doubt if these rule changes go through.

The health and vibrancy of our democracy depends on a diversity of voices. We must ensure that independent voices aren’t silenced by the disappearance of independent media outlets. We can’t allow more media monopolies.

We demand that the FCC reveal their plan for media ownership to the American people. And we demand that we have enough time to review it and submit our response to it. We will not take “no” for answer.

Therefore, we are urgently calling for Congressional hearings into the FCC’s plans for media ownership and we need your help. Please contact your Representative today!

http://www.commoncause.org/BeTheSpark

We need to have public hearings in the next few weeks — before Congress leaves for holiday recess — to fully investigate and reveal the FCC’s plans for media consolidation. Time is short. Let’s do everything we can to spark that grassroots firestorm.

Thanks for all you do.

Sincerely,

Bob Edgar
President, Common Cause

Critical Somali radio boss killed
From BBC News

The acting manager of the independent Somali radio station, Shabelle, has been killed in Mogadishu.

Bashir Nor Gedi was attacked on Friday night outside his home by unknown militia armed with pistols, station employees and relatives said.

Last month, Bashir and 18 colleagues were arrested and questioned for hours by government soldiers.

The same month, government troops besieged and fired on the station and ordered Shabelle to stop broadcasting.

After a two-week closure, the station resumed broadcasts on 3 October.

Bashir Nor Gedi, also a well-known businessman, was about few metres outside his home in the Hamar Jadid neighbourhood in the south of the city, when four men shot him three times in the head and the chest.

“We heard three gunshots and someone crying out for a help, when we came out we noticed it was my brother in a pool of blood,” said his younger brother, Abdi-nasir Nor Gedi.

Shabelle has previously criticised both the transitional government in Somalia and its Islamist opponents.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has accused the transitional government of intimidating and persecuting Somali reporters.