summer music in NYC!!

I almost just pissed my pants with excitement!!!

SummerStage is here!!! It includes Zap Mama, Femi Kuti, film screening of Music is a Weapon, a bunch of Sudanese artists, some AfroReggae, Kidjo, K'Naan, Common, Joss Stone, etc....

JJ is already looking for a place to stay in NY for the summer!!

Anyway...look out for us covering some of the events. We might have a booth too.

Music/Femi+Summer=Smiling Ariztos

Yeah...we're [music] geeks. We're just happy it's summer. This year, again, promises to be great with concerts.

Femi Kuti is on tour!!

Africa’s Storied Colleges, Jammed and Crumbling

Africa’s best universities, the grand institutions that educated a revolutionary generation of nation builders and statesmen, doctors and engineers, writers and intellectuals, are collapsing. It is partly a self-inflicted crisis of mismanagement and neglect, but it is also a result of international development policies that for decades have favored basic education over higher learning even as a population explosion propels more young people than ever toward the already strained institutions.

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No love for the big girls...at home??

Christy just sent this to me. Interesting...


African models wrestle with size schism Skinny African girls may get to strut on Western catwalks, but the fat ones have to stay at home. This is the message being delivered to the 500 or so Ghanaians who have registered with the country's only international modeling agency, Exopa.

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Africa is growing, economically!?!

African economic growth is set to reach nearly 6% in 2007, the highest in 20 years, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Overseas demand from China and other rapidly-growing nations for natural resources, including oil, has been a cause for growth, the bank said.

The data was issued at the bank's annual meeting, being hosted by China.

The region's economy grew by 5.5% in 2006, with South Africa, Nigeria and Algeria among the strongest nations.

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Perhaps this "growth" will trickle down to Africans(???)

Special screening on May 19th.

African inspire clothing at Banana Republic...

Banana Republic.

I mean, we all know a lot of these designers are getting there inspiration from Africa. It's good that some are actually saying it!

Trying to find out what was going on with this crash on the tele over the weekend. But Ms Paris Hilton's jail sentence dominated the news. Anyway, no survivors in the Cameroon crash. Sadly!

Bob Johnson: "Black Americans have a responsibility to support Liberia"

U.S. Billionaire Calls for More American Engagements

The Analyst (Monrovia)

NEWSApril 27, 2007 Posted to the web April 27, 2007 By J. Edwood Dennis

African-American billionaire, Mr. Robert L. Johnson, who led a 25-member delegation to Liberia early this week, left here wednesday with the impression of huge potentials for investment in the post-war economy.

Members of the delegation included Oscar winning actress Cicely Tyson, former Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater, scholar and educator Walter Leonard, among others.

Mr. Johnson has announced a US$30M loan program to assist Liberian-owned businesses to boost private sector investment following 14 years of civil conflict.

He said the money would be managed by RLJ Liberia Enterprise Development Fund, announced on February 15 in Washington DC at the Partners Forum.

Addressing a news conference in Monrovia before his departure, Mr. Johnson disclosed that the Liberian government has licensed his group of companies to invest in Liberia and he has already begun to receive applications from several individuals and institutions for small loan purposes.

He dispelled news speculation that his visit to Liberia is a showbiz adding, "It is aimed at helping Liberians to have access to job opportunities through investment in the private sector".

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A new Nigerian Nightmare in the NFL, Amobi Okoye

Amobi Okoye was walking at 7 months old and by 1he amused himself by pushing dining chairs across the kitchenfloor.So it seems normal to his mother, Edna Okoye, that her19-year-old "baby boy," picked 10th by Houston, would be theyoungest player taken in the first round of the NFL draft since themerger."From the time I had him he has been ahead of everything he hasto do," Edna said Sunday after the defensive tackle fromLouisville was introduced in Houston.Okoye started high school at age 12 and was enrolled atLouisville by 16. He earned a degree in psychology in just 3 and 1/2 years while becoming a leader on Louisville's defense.He lived in Nigeria until the age of 12 and didn't know muchabout football before moving to the United States.

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