We All Have a Story

From Angela B:

Loved the calendar story today and I found a lot of similarity with self. I am supporting the Giants for once because a Ugandan is playing in the team.

Kiwanuka Goes Home, but His Heart Is Far Away

 

By SAM BORDEN

Published: January 30, 2012 New York Times

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Mathias Kiwanuka says he does not remember how old he was when he first found out his grandfather had been assassinated. He struggles to remember the point at which he realized the true meaning of his own last name. He is not certain when he became aware of his family’s importance in African history.

But that is not important, Kiwanuka said recently, because he knows now. He read about his grandfather Benedicto Kiwanuka’s becoming the first prime minister of Uganda and heard about the plight forced upon a man trying to mold freedom out of a society stiffened by chaos. He learned about the pain and suffering Benedicto saw and felt.

And so he knows, too, about Benedicto’s being killed by the despot Idi Amin, a death foretold by some, dreaded by many and seen by experts as a development that set back progress in East Africa for years.

This week, as the Giants prepare to face the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, Mathias Kiwanuka will be the subject of countless articles and interviews. The reason is obvious: This is his return home. Kiwanuka, now a linebacker for the Giants, was born in Indianapolis. He went to Cathedral High School, a little more than 10 miles from Lucas Oil Stadium, where the Super Bowl will be played Sunday. He won two state championships.

Everyone will want to tell his story, whether it is about his old high school days or how he ended up at Boston College. Old friends will gather around, too, wanting to know about how this season went or how Kiwanuka’s brother, Ben, is doing a year and a half after a horrific motorcycle accident that Kiwanuka witnessed from his own bike just feet away. (Ben is doing well, Kiwanuka said.) Some may even want to talk fatherhood – after all, Kiwanuka and his fiancée are expecting a daughter in March.

See the full story

We all have a story to tell. We would love to publish yours here. Send it to us at info@4comculture.com

Need help getting started telling your story? The Cummunity Colleges Institute for Extended Learning has a class you can take starting tomorrow:

Writing Your Life Story

We all have a story to tell. Let’s remember, write it, and possibly pass it along. Exercises each day with prompts, reading and free writes help you write your story. class includes a bibliography of memoirs and hits on how to write a memoir.

Item: M370 Dian Zahner

1:30 pm – 3:30 pm 5 Thursdays 2/2/2012 – 3/1/2012 $36

Location:   CenterPlace, Rm: 205 2426 N Discovery Place, Spokane Valley

Contact (509) 279-6030 or 1 – (800) 845-3324

Black Heritage Day February 1

Black Heritage Day February 1

Black Heritage Day January 31

Do African Americans Walk in Spokane?

37 years ago might see an African American downtown every month or so. You would give the Black power salute and say “What’s up brother?” Since then the African American population in Spokane has increased. Now you might see an African American downtown once a week but you will never see an African American on a walk through the neighborhoods. It did not encourage me to go for a walk. But since I have been diagnosed with diabetes, wife, doctors and friends have suggested that I walk. Then one day in January 2012 my friend Robert, an African American, asked me if I would accompany him on one of his daily walks.    See where the two Robert’s walked . . . .

Do African Americans in Spokane walk? If so, where? I would like to take your walk and post the photographs here.

Black Heritage Day January 30

New Comedy Series: Key & Peele

Comedy Central is presenting a new sketch series. Check out the sneak preview this Tuesday January 31 at 10:30 pm.

Samples of the series are available at Comedy Central online:

http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=406088&title=new-sketch-series

ABOUT KEY & PEELE

Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele present “Key & Peele,” an original sketch-comedy show coming to Comedy Central in 2012. In this new series these fresh, relevant comedic actor-writers, used to being on the outside looking in, will examine life in a provocative and irreverent way, through a combination of filmed sketches and live stage segments.

Whether it’s satirizing the President, spoofing Nazis, or ordering up some soul food, “Key & Peele” will showcase their chemistry, camaraderie and unique point of view, born from their shared background and experiences growing up biracial in a not quite post-racial world.

Interview of Key & Peele on National Public Radio:

Obama, Peele goes on to say, was the best thing to happen to black nerds everywhere.
“Up until Obama, it was basically Urkel and the black guy from Revenge of the Nerds — Lamar,” says Peele. “Other than that, we had no role models. So he made us cool.”

For ‘Black Nerds Everywhere,’ Two Comedy Heroes

Carl Richardson: On Point(e)!

“Because words fail, I choose paint, ink, canvas, paper, film, pen, charcoal and/or a squeegee to five a voice to thoughts, feelings and emotions in me.”


Exhibition at Tinman Gallery January 27 – February 18, 2012
Open 10am to 6pm Tuesday through Saturday
811 West Garland Ave Spokane WA

Carl Richardson has been a professional artist and educator for 15 years. He received his Master in Fine Arts from Washington State University in 1994.

While there, he won a prestigious Rockefeller Foundation protege grant. He has participated in group and solo shows in Florida, Nevada, and Spokane. A favorite with studetns at Spokane Falls Community college, Carl is well-known for the energy and creativity he brings to his artwork. He is constantly combining media and images to find new ways of presenting the visual world. His work is characterized by expert use of vivid color, striking composition and haunting imagery.

The urban ballerinas are a clever juxtaposition of classic dance form with gritty urban forms. His previous series, Tisa, presented Maasai dance and tribal costume through ingenious screen printing techniques. Carl is always pushing the two-dimensional world to give up three-dimensional imagery.

Gallery: Carl Richardson

Black Heritage Day January 29

Black Heritage Day January 28