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

Professor Leonard Jeffries " Holds A Teaching Clinic" & His Bio

Written by RBGStreetScholar on

From: rbg-street-scholar-multi-media-e-zine.blogspot.com

Linkback to blogger for video / Professor Leonard Jeffries dispels claims of anti semitism on the Dennis Prager show.

(Text extracts from the "Meet the NEWARKERS" article from The NEWARKERS publication)

His Early Years

Leonard Jeffries was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, educated in Newark Public Schools, graduated from Sussex Avenue School in 1951, after completing Roseville Avenue School which he attended up to the 6^th grade.

He was born on January 19, 1937 at the Women and Children's Hospital on Central Avenue and 10^th Street.

They say, "It takes a whole village to raise a child." And Newark provided that experience. Newark was made up of many African villages or sections of our city. His special village was the 14^th Street neighborhood in the Roseville Section. All of the families took care of one another.

He lived on 14^th Street across from the Spelmans (the late Rev. Dr. Harry Spelman, his son and Dr. Robert Spelman), The Fosters (the late Dr. Albert Foster), the Olivers, the Chrenshaws, and many others. His mother's family lived on 13^th Street and his father's family lived on 12^th Street.

Most of the families and youth went to the church down the block—Mount Sinai Baptist Church. All children developed a sense of self-worth and race pride. As a teenager, Lenny sensed he was on a mission. He was interested in the formation of our young men and women. His formal education came from the Newark Public School system were he became President of his graduation class at Sussex Avenue School, January 1951. His later schooling was at McKinley Jr. High School and Barringer High School where he graduated with honors.

Develops an Interest in Africa

Jeffries had heard about the [Crossroads] program a few years early, but listening to Dr. Robinson that day in the chapel of Lafayette College (in Easton, Pennsylvania he was a student) he was "transformed." "Listening to this man talking about the need to work with Africa…tears came to my eyes. It was as if he was talking to me!", remembers Jeffries.

The following summer, Jeffries took his first trip to Africa with Crossroads. His apparent leadership abilities and proficiency in French made him as asset to the program. He was brought on the Crossroads staff, and by the summer of 1962, was the group leader of a trip to Senegal. By 1964, he had traveled to Africa a dozen times. To date (though he has stopped counting) he has traveled to Africa more than 40 times—usually leading groups of young people whose lives might be as touch by Africa as his was.

His experiences in Africa shaped his academic ambition and, ultimately, his career. He switched from a budding lawyer to a political scientist, left law school and sought a master's degree in international affairs.

Develops an Interest in Black Studies Programs

Later, he worked on his Ph.D. in the Ivory Coast. Studying economics and politics. He was struck by the extent to which African studies, as taught in the educational institutions, was from the imperialistic view.

It was not long before he began challenging the "authorities" on Africa in intellectual circles.

His lectures, writings, and the single class he was teaching at City College (prior to a Black Studies Department) put him in contact with his peers at the time; and in 1969, he and historian John Henrik Clarke established the African Heritage Studies Association. That same year, his friend James Turner was called to Cornell University, and Jeffries to San Hose State University in California, to set up their first Black Studies programs.

Thus, Jeffries began to build on firm ground his own vision of a curriculum based on the "African world focus."

His program objectives were:

community oriented
reach overseas to Africa
reach out to the Caribbean.

He was to break with previously structured master and Ph.D. programs—his goal being to link academic activities to the community, and root Black history to its existence prior to slavery.

Dr. Jeffries has stated, "Africaness is not something that limits you to a corner of humanity…it expands you universally."

Please See:
The Leonard Jeffries Virtual Museum

http://www.zimbio.com/portal/RBG Afrikan- Centered Cultural Development and Education/log/rss

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