RBG Afrikan- Centered Cultural Development and Education

RBG Street Scholars Think Tank's Purpose:
This Educational Program and Research Project is Dedicated to Further Building the Hip Hop--Black Liberation Movement Connection by Integrating Conscious Digital Edutainment with A Scholarly Self Directed Learning Environment.

Welcome to one of the baddest EduTainment Resources on the Web. A one-stop-shop for education,consciousness raising, entertainment and liberation. And the nicest thing about it is that you can become a contributor. Just start out by reading this overview and learning how things work. You can play a video right within this start page and even browse to it's music. Or turn on an audio playlist to facilitate your browsing. Tons of other options, too numerous to mention here are also right at you finger tips. Ride it however you like, it's all good. Once you get going, check out a Multi-Media Article that interests you and make a comment. I, RBG Street Scholar-Your Zine author, editor and guru will respond. The aforementioned approach is a kol gateway to doing bigger and better things in and with the Communiversity.

WHAT IS RBG STREET SCHOLARS THINK TANK AT ZIMBIO ALL ABOUT?

It's about creating and maintaining the best "Afri-Conscious Cyber EduTainment Portal / Communiversity on the Web".

It's about saving time doing study, learning / teaching together and having madd fun doing it.
The merticulously researched choice of links can be thought of as our votes in the popularity contest that is the "Best of the Best in Black Internet" . The intention is to provide a diverse and concise starting point for you to begin your quest for whatever information you are looking for from a progressive/radical/revolutionary Black perspective . As most of these sites have vast links sections of their own, so do the sites they link to, and so on, and so forth—starting from these links, you can delve further into whatever area interests you.

You got a myspace, youtube, odeo, website etc.
Add your Stuff Folx--and let's learn from each other, build together and teach the world

Our Zines are intended to help us develop and maintain a resource for scholarly research, build together and learn about any subject / topic related to what we're already about: Namely, the "Africentric Idea of Education" let's take the learner from G.E.D. to Ph.D in the contemporary liberal arts and sciences;

Including:
> computers & information technology,
> history and cultural development,
> religion and spirituality,
> sociology,
> political science,
> creative productions/ entertainment,
> education,
> health promotion and disease prevention
> economics and
> psychology
A one stop shop using all forms of media to interactively showcase our ideas of relavent education, unification, collectivity and self definition.

They say " Black Folx Can't Unite, I say they're a lie" Let's show the world our truth and culture; all under the umbrella of Black Nationalism> PanAfrikanism> Scientific Socialism> Revolutionary Change>Afrikan Internationalism.

Browse existing content in any of our four Zines and you will discover that they are all concentricly integrated, thus providing you with a most rich and wholesome interactive learning experience.

Help RBG Street Scholar, your Resident Guru, build our school with your good works.

Rate each others work as to keep us on point.

I'VE STARTED US OUT WITH SOME SOLID CONTENT. NOW WE MUST CONTINUE BY BUILDING TOGETHER. A GOOD WAY TO START IS BY FIRST SIGNING UP AND THEN BROWSING EACH FIELD IN THE TABLE OF CONTENTS PANE TO THE LEFT AS TO GET QUICKLY ORIENTED. A LINK BELOW TO "RBG STREET SCHOLARS THINK TANK RULES OF ENGAGEMENT" WILL TAKE YOU DEEPER STILL.

THE FOLLOWING IS A GUIDING SYNOSIS TAKEN FROM THE COMMUNIVERSITY PROPER:
With strick attention to developing our student’s basic education skills in the context of the highest standards of academic excellence, suitable for one to confidently sit for high stake exams(ie. SAT/ACT and MCATs, LSATs), we simutaneously advance the psycho-emotional healing and spiritual upliftment of our people by providing KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM AND OVERSTANDING of the historo-cultural, socio-political and psycho-educational experiences of Africans in America in away that RADICALLY REAPPRAISES EDUCATION from the pained and angry perspective of the oppressed black community.

WHY WE NEED TO DO THIS:
With the present day high rates of Black on Black homicide, suicide, and imprisonment and a rise in single-parent homes, rampant police brutality, unprecedented unemployment, and Blacks use of popular (ENEMY) culture (through music, video games and popular movies) to celebrate "anti-intellectualism, ignorance, irresponsible parenthood, drunkenness, dope dealing, weed smoking, cocaine, x-pills, loose sexual behavior and criminal lifestyles / thuggism"; we have chose to design a curriculum that, rather than getting caught up in the entertainment / BLACKPLOTATION aspects of hip hop/rap, will use hip hop/rap within a historo-cultural, socio-political and psycho-educational framework to address these various death walks forthrightly. Our new methodological style is intended to get our young people to begin to think critically about themselves, their world and their role as people of Afrikan descent.

WHERE WE ARE AND WHERE WE WANNA GO:
This work is a comprehensive (but only a core framework) sequenced survey of subjects and topics that have confronted Afrikans in America throughout our 246 years of chattel slavery, 100 years of aparthied and only “one generation of freedom” here in America. I like to describe the school as a “cultural development and leadership training communiversity”. From our research, we have determined that the idea of Sankofa, which means "We must go back and reclaim our past so we can move forward; so we understand why and how we came to be who we are today", really encompasses the whole Afrikan-centered ideal. Nonetheless, as this is a work in evolution and always under construction, we have chosen to focus our teaching/learning journey most directly on the past 45 years of our struggle for human and civil rights—

THE THEME “THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THINGS STAY THE SAME, WE NEED A REVOLUTION, THE SYSTEM AIN’T GONA CHANGE UNLESS WE MAKE IT CHANGE”.

The content and character of the curriculum is Afrikan-centered and the goal is academic excellence in persuit of black power. We tease out the social, political, economic and moral imparatives of black power in the 21st century by zooming in on two povital questions throughout our course of study:

“WHAT IS BLACK OPPRESSION IN AMERICA AND WHAT IS AFRIKAN LIBERATION.”

RSS

RBG Street Scholar On Web 2.0 Education & Social Networking

Written by RBGStreetScholar on

Link to RBG Tube to Ride the Video Version of this Guide

ICE BREAKER VIDEO
Dr. Akbar & Dr. Hilliard on Voices From the Village - Part 3 of 3

"A Curriculum Overview Booklet"

RBG'z Web 2.0 educational environments refers to a confluence of second generation web-based communities and public hosting services—including social-networking sites, webpages, wikis, forums and blogs—which aim to facilitate academic collaboration and sharing between teachers / learners.
The purpose of this brief guide is to help the learner / teacher overstand what one should look for in reading, listening to, viewing and critically analyzing the audio, video, pictorial and textural contents of RBG'z various curricula. We mean for you to pay particular attention to the interaction between images, lyrics, rhythms and spoken word.
You will quickly notice that RBG Street Scholars Think Tank flows seamlessly across websites and social networks. Presently, we have 20 websites comprising over 5000 RLOs (Reusable Learning Objects) and media assets all concentricly integrated and linked to hundreds of robust Afrikan-centered websites.
The Zine pilots enable you to access and navigate everything without ever having to leave the college. The various integrated curricula that comprise the communiversity represent learning assets which are delivered via electronic dialogue between us (self-directed co-learners and expert tutors / facilitators of Afrikan descent). We all share a common purpose, depend upon each other and are accountable to each other for the collective's and the school's academic success. We are an interactive groups in which everyone actively communicates and negotiates higher learning activities with one another within a contextual framework facilitated by online tutors / experts / elders and ancestors. The entire school is about us, by us and for us--Afrikan Peoples Development / socially, politically, economically, educationally and morally.

In keeping with the spirit of Sankofa ("return and get it" a West African Symbol of Adinkra Wisdom representing the importance of our learning from the past) you should keep in mind that in the societies of our Afrikan ancestors and current kinsman the oral tradition was / is the method of choice in which history, stories, folktales and spiritual beliefs were /are passed on from generation to generation. Webster's dictionary defines "oral" as, "spoken rather than written," and it defines the word "tradition" as, "transmittal of elements of a culture from one generation to another especially by oral communication." It is the power of the Afrikan oral tradition integrated with written documentation that lays at the core of our trailblazing teaching / learning methodology.

Your studies, analysis and evaluations should constantly ask and answer “what a given classroom / subject / topic’s content is intending to elucidate (explain) — (ie. elements and aspects of oppression or liberation); and always why and how. RBG Street Scholars Think Tank is essentially a concentricly integrated articulation of and defense for a radically progressive New Afrikan educational process. With strict attention to developing our student’s basic education skills in the context of the highest standards of academic excellence, suitable for one to confidently sit for high stake exams, we simultaneously advance the psycho-emotional healing and spiritual upliftment of our people by providing knowledge, wisdom and overstanding of the historo-cultural, socio-political and psycho-educational experiences of Africans in America in a way that radically reappraises education from the pained and angry perspective of the oppressed black community.

The content and methods of our school are meant to demonstrates how the mediums of Afrikan American music, spoken word and images have been/ are used to create incarcerated minds, bodies and spirits; and thus in turn, how they can as well be used to foster physical, mental and spiritual liberation.
Historically (particularly over the past 20 years) mainstream educators have resisted a critical analysis of urban music and culture in the form of hip-hop/rap from an Afrikan centered academic perspective, not realizing the significant positive impact this genre of music can have on the Afrikan worldview and Afrikan peoples views of the world. However, popular music and images are made by someone (corporate profiteers, with two ends in view—the propagation of white supremacy / black oppression and money). Thus, we contend that rap music/hip-hop culture can be offered in such a way that it EduTains -analyzing racism, capitalism, sexism and other manifestations of national oppression- as well as be enjoyed as entertainment. One of the communiversity's main goals is for the learner to formulate a sophisticated socio-political and historo-cultural “over-standing” of the present condition of the masses of our people and the poor-at home and abroad. Thus, you will be equipped with a cultural orientation suited for further Afrikan-centered socialization. We believe that such an academic pursuit is vitally necessary because the Eurocentric education /acculturation process, that we most frequently pursue in America for a job, more frequently than not poisons our individual and collective aspirations of national liberation and self determination as an Arikan people.

Historically poetry/ rap, literature and music have been combined to play a pivotal role in black progress and power in the Americas. It all goes back to the power and central role of the Afrikan oral tradition. For example, our ancestors communicated with drums. “Because of the perceived potential of the talking drum to "speak" in a tongue unknown to slave traders and thus to incite rebellion, revolt, resistance and revolution, in 1838 these and other drums were banned from use by African in the United States.
RBG Street Scholars Think Tank intends to serve as a premier
“New-Age Talking Drum”

Click a SnapShot to Open a Zine

There are several main reasons for the school’s audio-visual (Radio and TV driven) primacy:
1. We believe that the ultimate end of intellectual growth and development for students of Afrikan decent in 21^st America is, first and foremost, a deeper overstanding and a fuller appreciation of Afrikan peoples continuing struggle for individual and collective liberation. Reading, thinking, looking and listening with close attention to the curricula’s scholastic guidance you learn to see more, understand more and uncover more, thus preparing for a richer, more selfless and more meaningful contributions to self and kind.

2. Secondly, as music and videos use artful combinations of language and images, the essential processes of meaning-making, to formulate ideas in the minds of the participants, critical analysis can lead to a more astute and powerful use of Black music and images (espically that of the hip-hop / rap music genre ) as tools of Africentric cultural development and leadership training.

3. Thirdly, critical analysis of RBG’s audio-visual content and methods very efficiently teaches us to be aware of the cultural delineations of popular / white corporate media, including its ideological elements and psyops motivations.

4. Finally, please remember, education is not eternal and timelessly written in stone, but should be situated historically, socially, intellectually, written and read at particular times, with particular intents, under particular historical conditions, with particular cultural, personal, gender, racial, class and other perspectives at center. Through multimedia learning we can see ideology in operation. We think this new style of teaching is of particular use in an age where so many of us, sad to say, don't read, but use popular media as a sole source of information. Thus, RBGz curricula are designed to encourage and enhance critical reading, thinking and writing.

RBG4Lif

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