HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE

Green Guerrillas Bus Shoot

Green Guerrillas have been hard at work since the Winter Solstice working on our backlog of 2008 interviews and other footage (all available now on our You Tube Channel) and a new film, Green Guerrillas Blockumentary v.2.5 on alternative and sustainable transportation.

Watch Out World... here we come!

Well… we are finally emerging from MONTHS of editing (yikes!), and are ready to ride the Summer Solstice wave downhill toward exciting activities and opportunities ahead!

We celebrated Juneteenth by participating in the Wellbriety Journey for Forgiveness: Healing the Legacy of the Boarding Schools 1879-2009.  On May 16th 2009, White Bison began a 40-day, 6800 mile cross-country journey to present and former Indian Boarding School sites.  The goal of the journey is to promote awareness, dialogue and forgiveness among Native peoples for the historical trauma of the Indian Boarding School Era which began in 1879.  The Journey concludes on June 24th at the Musuem of the American Indian in Washington, DC.

We also celebrated the first Green Guerrillas high school graduation since the start of our program in 2006.  We have three more to go before June ends.  CONGRATS to all our graduates and their families.

GG Graduate

The party continued on Saturday, as a small cadre of Guerrilla Griots shared in a community-building Solstice ceremony with our Indigenous brothers inside the prison walls.  We participated in traditional dancing and drumming, shared powerful stories from our communities, and encouraged each other to look ahead to the future as empowered people.

Prison Industrial Complex

Speaking of the future… Green Guerrillas will conclude our week-long celebration of the Summer Solstice with more exciting activities (including the three graduations we mentioned earlier).  First, thanks to the generous support of an Anonymous Donor, we will start receiving/unpacking HD equipment in preparation for filming and photographing our next big project.  Second, we will be taking some of our new HD equipment on the road to Chicago, Illinois… where we will hook up with the caretakers of the Black Oaks Center for Sustainable Renewable Living…

Black Oaks Center for Sustainable Renewable Living

learning more about their vision and the inspiration for their healing work in the Savannah of Pembroke Township.  While at Black Oaks, we intend to offer our first “sneak preview” pre-release of our v.2.5.  We look forward to premiering our latest work in the near future… stay tuned for details… we will keep you posted!

Green Guerrilla(s) Griots “MediaCamp” at Pyramid Lake

Emerging Indigenous Leaders Institute 2009

May 28 – 31 Green Guerrilla(s) Griots conducted its second bootcamp training—a four-day intensive media making workshop—at the Pyramid Lake Reservation outside of Reno, Nevada for the Emerging Indigenous Leadership Institute (EILI).  EILI is a program of the Indigenous People’s Council on Biocolonialism.

Emerging Indigenous Leaders Institute 2009

Making Good Strong Leaders… EILI is a five-month leadership development program for a young Indigenous people (ages 18-30) from the Paiute, Shoshone and Washoe Tribes in Northern Nevada.

Emerging Indigenous Leaders Institute 2009

EILI cultivates a new generation of leadership committed to the protection and perpetuation of the rights, culture, and lifeways of Indigenous peoples.

EILI is founded on the principle of Indigenous-centered education and creates the opportunity for young Indigenous peoples to ground themselves in their own Indigenous knowledge systems, and utilize their culture as the foundation for learning and knowing.

Emerging Indigenous Leaders Institute 2009

S.T.A.M.P. was both excited and honored to support EILI students (for a second year)  in their creative efforts to define themselves and their futures!  Four powerful, personal documentaries were produced which highlighted the importance of land, language, and culture in the Indigenous communities from which these new leaders emerged.

Ewuare X. Osayande on Hip Hop

How do racism, sexism, and capitalism work together to systemically attack the integrity of Black life and culture? Activist, author, and organizer Ewuare X. Osayande highlights the history of African resistance on Turtle Island and the impact of marketing masculinity through hip hop on Black youth.

This is the latest in GG shorts recently released by Green Guerrillas Youth Media Tech Collective.  The teen who editied this piece has been a part of our Collective for less than two months! By connecting the dots between the same ideological approaches which criminalize immigrant communities and pollute the air, water, and soil we all collectively need for survival, these young people are non-traditional leaders who are setting a powerful example for an entire community.

Happy Earthday Mumia!

Awakening of Mother Earth

Green Guerrillas celebrated Earth Day by honoring all life with the Piscataway Indian Nation at Moyaone Burial Grounds on the Potomac River (Accokeek, Maryland).  Chief Billy Red Wing Tayac led the Piscataway’s annual Awakening of Mother Earth Celebration.

Awakening of Mother Earth Ceremony at Moyaone

Chief Tayac’s grandson, Naiche, best describes the ceremony:

Awakening of Mother Earth Ceremony at Moyaone

It’s early springtime outside.  Around this time of year, people all over the world are celebrating Earth Day.  My people have celebrated the Earth for thousands of years.

. . .

This is when we honor the awakening of Mother Earth after a long winter.  It is our time to give thanks for new life and for young people—like us!  My family and other people from my nation are going down to Moyaone (pronounced moy-OWN) burial grounds for a ceremony.  Many generations of my ancestors are buried there.  Archeologists say that my ancestors have lived at Moyaone for about 11,000 years, but the Piscataway believe that we have been here forever.  Moyaone is very special to us.

- From Meet Naiche: A Native Boy from the Chesapeake Bay Area, by Dr. Gabrielle Tayac

Green Guerrillas at The Dream Reborn… the video

On April 4-6 2008, the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Green Guerrillas participated in The Dream Reborn an amazing gathering, sponsored by Green For All, where over 1000 organizers (youth, used-to-be-youth, and elders) representing the totality of social justice issues affecting communities of color throughout the country joined forces, shared struggles, celebrated our cultures, and connected the dots to create sustainable change.

Green Guerrillas also shared in the powerful events which commemorated the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  We joined hundreds of people at the National Civil Rights Museum when Dr. Kings family addressed the crowd from the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.

As part of the Green For All video team, Green Guerrillas helped document the dreams of dozens of people, and taped several panels and workshops.  Green Guerrillas were the youngest members of the grassroots collective responsible for recording this historic event, and were very well received!

It was a powerful experience… we are still talking about it!

For more information about the conference, and its continued success, check out The Dream Reborn.

HAPPY SPRING EQUINOX… ITVS Community Cinema features TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai

TAKING ROOT... March 2009 Community Cinema film

S.T.A.M.P.’s Guerrilla Griots Human Rights Media Arts Center is one of over 40 venues throughout the United States who participate in a free, monthly screening series in partnership with ITVS and PBS.  Community Cinema creates accessible opportunities for civic engagement and public education around important social issues.

To bring in spring, Community Cinema featured TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai.  TAKING ROOT tells the dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and defend democracy—a movement for which this charismatic woman became an iconic inspiration.  On March 20th, over 100 people from the Greater Ithaca Area packed a small screening room downtown to watch the film; listen to the inspiration of TAKING ROOT Musical Composer Samite of Uganda; learn from two sisters from Kenya who participated in The Green Belt Movement; and, share local, fair-trade, and organic fare provided courtesy of GreenStar Community Projects.

The post-screening community discussion focused on Samite’s inspiration to create the music featured in TAKING ROOT, in addition to the challenges he faced being an Ugandan who only briefly lived in Kenya and who was not fluent in the native language.  Never give up… a theme he repeated constantly regarding all the magical moments which helped him surpass the hurdles in creating his first film score.  He remarked that he was “truly inspired” by the film and the work of Wangari Maathai, with whom he is friends.

Samite of Uganda with the Kamau Sisters of Kenya

The Kamau sisters spoke passionately about their involvement in the Green Belt Movement, and the power of the people to make change.  Guerrilla Griots is all about challenging the status quo, so we were in excellent company to celebrate the Spring Equinox–the energetic embodiment of change!

Green Guerrillas in good company at March 2009 Community Cinema

Refreshments for the evening (both pre/post screening) were provided courtesy of GreenStar Cooperative Market’s not-for-profit Community Projects initiative.

fair-trade and organic fare offered at Community Cinema

Elizabeth Karabinakis coordinated local, fair-trade, and organic fare for all to enjoy, with the support of Ithaca Bakery, Moosewood Restaurant, and the following family farms: Cayuga Pure Organics, Finger Lakes Farmstead, Kenyan Highland, Littletree Orchards, Lively Run Goat Dairy, Organic Valley Northeast, Remembrance Farm, and Silver Queen Farm.

GIVE THANKS to all who participated in this fabulous event!

Guerrilla Griots have hosted four wonderful seasons of ITVS Community Cinema.  If you are ever in the Ithaca area on a Third Friday from September through May, join us!

local, fair-trade, organic fare offered at Community Cinema

raúlrsalinas… ¡PRESENTE! 03-17-34 to 02-13-08

raúlrsalinas, the author of the seminal Chicano experience poem, Un Trip Through the Mind Jail, was not only an accomplished poet but a dedicated community activist who gained a political consciousness while serving approximately 13 years inside some of Americas most notorious prisons (Huntsville, Soledad, and Leavenworth among others). While in prison at Marion he was befriended by Puerto Rican Nationalist Rafael Cancel Miranda (famed for an armed assault on congress on March 1, 1954 with fellow Nationalists including Lolita Lebron). Miranda was a major influence on rauls lifework. Imprisoned during the early Chicano Movement years he was active in the prison rights struggles of that time. His book, raúlrsalinas and the Jail Machine: My Weapon is My Pen: Selected Writings by raúlrsalinas (edited by protégé Louis G. Mendoza) highlights his struggles and victories inside Americas prison system. Including winning a landmark prisoner rights case.

After his release from prison in 1973 he dedicated his life to Chicano and Native American causes. He was a member of the Centro de la Raza in Seattle, the American Indian Movement, a co-founder of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee and various other progressive organizations dedicated to defending the rights and interests of all working class and colonized people. A true internationalist he was committed to supporting Puerto Rican independence (as well as ending the bombing on Vieques), the Cuban Revolution, The Nicaraguan Sandinistas, the Zapatistas in Chiapas and the Bolivarian Process of Presidente Hugo Chavez Frias of Venezuela among many other internationalist struggles.

After serving many years of forced exile in Washington state (where he helped defend Native American fishing rights), he eventually returned to his home in Austin, TX. Shortly thereafter he opened Resistencia Bookstore and Red Salmon Arts which continue to serve as a cultural and political hub for East Austins Chicano community.

check out the latest film shorts by green guerrillas…

we have been working on our backlog for the last couple of months… emerging with more stories from marginalized communities that challenge the status quo…

information that challenges prisons and pollution that we want to share…

highlighting our commitment to sustainability and social change… check us out on youtube and let us know what you think!

Third Annual CNY Locks Conference + Green Guerrillas Slideshow Recap

stic.man of dead prez played at castaways 10-23-08

October was a busy month… S.T.A.M.P. hosted the Third Annual Central New York LOCKS CONFERENCE, with a pre-conference panel discussion and concert featuring stic.man of dead prez and umi of p.o.w.

The Central New York Locks Conference celebrates the beauty of natural hair throughout the African Diaspora, while challenging the criminalization of communities of color… this year’s theme focused on parole in New York State and elsewhere, and featured presentations by the MOVE Organization, Daughters of Creative Sound, Coalition for Parole Restoration, Prisoners Are People Too (Buffalo), films, food, locticians, vendors, and stories from former prisoners and prison families… next year’s Locks Conference (2009) will be held Saturday, October 24th in Ithaca, New York… join us!

This slideshow was created by Green Guerrillas, and recaps some of our 2008 Summer/Fall happenings… including hanging out in the woods at the Northeast Climate Confluence, videotaping the Tutelo Homecoming Festival, checking out the Solar Homes Tour, hosting  a panel discussion on hip hop and criminalization, setting up shop at a Green Collar Job Fair, and taking a trip to Washington, DC to visit Howard University… enjoy!

green guerrillas at CR10 in oakland california

September 26 – 28, 2008: Green Guerrillas participated in CR10, a conference and strategy session to assess the successes and challenges of the movement to abolish the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) over the last 10 years.

What is the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC)? The PIC is a system that uses surveillance, policing, courts, and imprisonment to “solve” problems brought on by forces such as poverty, homelessness, racism, and sex and gender oppression.  We do not believe that the PIC solves anything, but just makes those problems worse.

critical resistance celebrates 10 year commitment to dismantle | change | build a new future free of imprisonment

Why abolition? We work for PIC abolition because we do not believe that any amount of imprisonment, policing, or surveillance will ultimately make our communities safer or more self-determined, prevent “crime,” or help repair the damage that happens when one person hurts another.  We believe, instead, that access to basic necessities like food, shelter, meaningful work that pays a living wage, and freedom from criminalization, discrimination, exploitation, and pollution — as well as alternative systems of accountability — create the conditions for healthier, more stable neighborhoods, families, and our wider communities.

Green Guerrillas participated in workshops and discussions which focused on political prisoners (Mumia Abu-Jamal, The MOVE 9, The San Francisco Eight) and COINTELPRO (the FBI’s overt and covert operation which targets domestic voices of dissent).