alternatefuturisms

[alternatefuturisms]

So for anyone who doesn’t keep up with nz politics, which i’m assuming is most of you, our new radical right government have decided one of their main aims of their term will be to re-interpret the Treaty of Waitangi.

The Treaty is an agreement between Maori and the Crown, now the NZ government. It is the founding document of new zealand and is recognised as a constitutional document today; it is the only treaty of its kind/time still honoured, and it is the steps we’ve taken through the Treaty to provide restitution and build an ongoing relationship with Maori and their iwi (tribes) that has allowed the relationship between Maori and the government to thrive where other indigenous groups have struggled to achieve recognition of their rights.

This is going to be entirely undone. Not only is this issue inflammatory and a threat to race relations in Aotearoa, leaked documents show the proposed “reinterpretation” wants to negate pretty much the entirety of the legal rights provided to Maori under the treaty. For example, the treaty article that guarantees land rights for Maori will be reinterpreted to guarantee land rights for “all New Zealanders”. Which means this article would be essentially meaningless for Maori.

By removing Maori from the context they are trying to put Maori on an “equal footing” with all New Zealanders; they are riding the idea that Maori have special rights and privileges above that of the average New Zealander. Obviously this is bullshit but it’s effective rhetoric and there’s a grain of truth to in that the extent of Maori rights hadn’t been clearly defined due to the ongoing nature of the process. So this has got a lot of people with a poor grasp of the issues very upset and baying for change.

There is a hui (meeting) being held today for all the iwi to begin discussions of how Maori will respond to this. New Zealand politics isn’t very interesting usually, but our progress on indigenous rights, until now, has been absolutely ahead of the field. If you care about indigenous rights globally, you should care about this, because in the same way Australia’s referendum loss has spurred on this action, the loss of rights here will spur other right wing governments to be similarly bold to their own indigenous groups.

Indigenous rights in New Zealand are under attack. They are meeting today to discuss it, and New Zealand will be listening, but I want the world to be listening. Because our government needs the shame of being called out by more than just the people who they’ve already decided don’t vote for them.

Maori have a long and proud history of fighting for their rights, and they’ll do it again here. And I’ll be on the pickets beside them, but there’ll be plenty of my own pickets to attend, because this government is radical in every sense of the word.

So please, even if you’re very far away, stand behind them in this. Keep your eyes on us. Amplify their voices. Don’t let the racism drown them out.

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I just want to remind everyone how affordable buying food from indigenous tribes is. I live in a major city and I was able to purchase and ship (15) pounds of fish from back home to myself for cheaper than I could buy it from a grocery store here in the city. Yeah, shipping has its own environmental factors but I was able to support an indigenous owned business while also getting my groceries at a lesser cost. (Buying in bulk is always a good idea if you’re planning on having something shipped to you)

Some tribal owned grocers that ship:

Bow and Arrow (Ute Mountain)

Native Harvest (White Earth)

Red Lake Fishery (Red Lake)

Wozupi (Mdewakanton Dakota)

Ramona Farms (Gila River)

Tanka Bars (Oglala)

Indian Pueblo Store (Pueblos)

Twisted Cedar Wine (Cedar Paiutes)

Ute Bison (Ute)

Seka Hills Olive Oil and Vinegars (Yocha Dehe Wintun)

She Nah Nam Seafood (Nisqually)

Sakari Botanicals (Inupiaq)

Honor the Earth (? Anishinaabe)

Nett Lake Wild Rice (Boise Forte Anishinaabe)

Passamaquoddy maple (Passamaquoddy)

BONUS: coffee :)

Yeego Coffee (Navajo)

Spirit Mountain Roasting (Yuma Quechan)

Birchbark Coffee (Anishinaabe)

Thunder Island Coffee (Shinnecock)

[alternatefuturisms]

Love how tumblr has its own folk stories. Yeah the God of Arepo we’ve all heard the story and we all still cry about it. Yeah that one about the woman locked up for centuries finally getting free. That one about the witch who would marry anyone who could get her house key from her cat and it’s revealed she IS the cat after the narrator befriends the cat.

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sick of “scottish independence” this and “irish reunification” that

theres 3 of us and 1 of england

i say we just kick the english out the uk

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#trailer

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#videofilia

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Now Anybody Can Take an Online Version of Tananarive Due and Stephen Barnes’s ‘Get Out’-Inspired College Course

READ AT IO9.COM.

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Danny Trejo FINALLY Gives Update on ‘Machete Kills Again…in Space’!

Click here to watch the trailer at Dreadcentral.com. Here’s another preview:

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Tezcatlipoca: a short animation hosted by FNX First Nations Experience

LINK: Animating an Aztec Myth with the Music of Tchaikovski

[alternatefuturisms]

This is not the apocalypse

This is not the apocalypse for the U.S.

The apocalypse happened in 1492 when Christopher "genocide" Columbus arrived. The apocalypse happened in 1619 when the first African slaves landed on this shore. The apocalypse happened in 1848 when northern Mexico was violently stolen.

People of color have been successfully living in the post-apocalypse for centuries. White people: listen to their strategies for surviving, follow their leadership, and support their actions and causes. If you want to reshape the post-apocalyptic landscape, take your cues from those who already know how to navigate cataclysms, those who have strategies for building a future that addresses the underlying inequities that characterize this moment. Trump is just another cycle of ongoing violence that started centuries ago.

This is not the apocalypse for the U.S., but it is an opportunity to reshape our post-apocalyptic present.

[alternatefuturisms]

[alternatefuturisms]

The Art of Lighting Dark Skin for Film and HD 

by Cybel Martin

“Every shade and hue offers its own unique challenges and glorious opportunities for the Cinematographer to create art. Anyone with a basic knowledge of lighting can get a decent exposure when filming non-white skin. I want to discuss “the art”.

Your narrative will dictate how a character should appear: Ashen. Vibrant. Healthy. Exhausted. Apathetic. Enlightened. I can (and so can you) make any skin tone exude one of those adjectives. This is my process:

                                  ( Cinematographer Cybel Martin )

Once the director and I come to a consensus on how a film should look, I determine which HD camera / film stocks and lenses can achieve it and still stay in budget. My lighting scheme is based on the dynamic range and/or latitude of the HD/film stock, my “man power” (size and technical ability of my G/E crew), post production budget for Color Correct, pace of our shooting schedule and demands of the location (no windows, can’t rig from the ceiling etc)…

Here are a few of the things I consider when working with different skin colors…”

Keep reading at shadowandact.com

Find Shadow And Act at shadowandact.com / facebook / twitter / tumblr

[Follow SuperheroesInColor faceb / instag / twitter / tumblr / pinterest]

[alternatefuturisms]

‘Danger Word’ A short film directed by Luchina Fisher #POCtober

LINK: Co-written by Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due.

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         CONCEPT SERIES - 7/?: Hood Futurism

White supremacy paints the future in such a grim light. They imagine humanity as an extension of themselves – pure and clean. White. Everything is pale and modern. The world is chrome and cold. Religion is dead. Culture is dead. They imagine themselves being watched over by some evil force. Worst case scenario, a rugged white man with chin stubble and a dead wife will lead a ragtag team of black and brown bodies to death. Best case? It’s a white girl and the noble savages worship the ground she walks on. 

This future does not exist. This future is a product of the hyperactive white imagination. This future is the wet dream of every white supremacist who has ever imagine a world with black people. 

                          Real or not real?

What’s real and what’s true is a future full of black bodies. Forget every sci-fi film. Forget every sad dystopia written by misogynistic and racist white men. Focus your attention on the reality of a black future.

Meet us in the year 3000. We will be there, creating the culture and slang that used to be so gleefully stolen from us. The future will not to white. The future will feature hood girls with hologram hoop earrings and acrylics that extend and change color with a touch of button. The future will feature rap and hip-hop infused with syntho-beats that really do remind you of the Old 90′s. The future will feature neon and disco style, big fro’s and the resurgence of classic R&B.

Since  you’re already here with us, why not stop and see that our future is hopeful? We are alive and we will stay that way. Quit the mastabatory visions you have of dead black bodies piling up so a white hero can feel something. Our future is full of smiling brown faces and black babies who live without fear. Our future is brownstones outfitted with modern touches but still repping that classic Brooklyn stoop. Our future is flying cars and trips to space stations. 

The truth about the future is that no matter how hard you try to kill us, no matter how hard you try to erase us from your media, is that we will be there, Black and bold as ever.

             Black lives matter in the future too, you know.

[alternatefuturisms]

Sun-Ra and the Strange World of Avant Garde Jazz

Jazz music, a vibrant and culturally significant musical style originating from African American communities throughout the United States.

Then… there’s this

Just take your time and listen to all of it, just soak it all in. 

Welcome to Avant Garde my friends, where music theory is thrown out the window and common sense virtually nonexistent. 

Sun-Ra, born Henry Poole Blount, was undoubtedly an important figure in music, releasing more than 1000 songs during his lifespan. However, his main claim to fame was for being borderline fucking insane, claiming he was sent by aliens from Saturn to preach peace through his music, thus dropping out of college.

From then on he legally changed his name to Le Sony’r Ra, began denying any relation to his former identity and became a pioneer of Afrofuturism, but that’s a story for another time. 

From then on, Sun Ra become the leader of a band (or cult, as some people accused him of) known as the Arkestra, wearing costumes inspired by the space age and Egyptian mythology. From there, he performed such classics such as “Cosmos”, “Strange Celestial Road”, and of course, “Space is the Place.” 

Despite all of that, Sun Ra has worked his way to the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, with a talent as an experimental composer that truly left a mark on the world. Let’s give it up for Sun Ra, that magnificent cosmic bastard. 

[alternatefuturisms]

Here’s the issue:

This article was written in 2015. Which means a pilot was made and probably obscurely broadcast on a channel fans would not watch (like USA channel versus SyFy). Then at a time in direct competition with known events - not a times when Black audiences would view it. OR they put it on Netflix and Hulu and there are MASSES of Black people who get science fiction, specifically afrofuturism, that would select the TV shows viewed. So who viewed the pilot? Where the fuck is it? Buried. No one viewed it because well, Marketing doesn’t give a fuck about outreach to any Black people to hype it up. Some Kneegrows are nasty to the ones that do and that constant badgering is not worth it as an adult, I’m not going to try to get Black peepol to watch it. I’mma get Wypipo… Which means, the story has to relate to them… Doesn’t matter if you have the award winning excellent production crew and they’re all diverse and can do the job. To get average Kneegrow watchers who worship ESPN, you have to lure them with the same dumb shit as other watchers. Guess what, no metrics have been done. I just know because I’ve been around to watch long enough.

And talk was not generated. No speaking to my brands to sell the idea. In fact, I have no conversations with the Black nerds on Facebook and very little with Black nerds on Tumblr or Twitter. I’m not vocal as I use to be. But I do know that’s who the fuck you need to talk to and get them to put it out on their podcasts with incentives.  People think I’m not shit in my social media. I understand. I’m old and slower. But I’ve done REAL SHIT in my life with experience and I can get it done. Translation is not easy. Kids don’t trust shit until they live. That’s life.  But, yes.  Octavia Butler’s work should be honored on a channel that everyone watches with adult themes – like HBO. Since they killed Sleepy Hollow, the powers that be OWE US! That’s the way I see it.