MEDIUM: Podcast
DESCRIPTION:
This ongoing series of podcasts was made to promote the BLAC Foundation’s new “rising star initiative”, a project whose aim is to unite the mind, body and soul of interested candidates. The first podcast deals with the need for such a project, the second podcast deals with Capoeira (the “body” component of the project); the third deals with umlabalaba (the mind component of the project) and the fourth with urban chi (the spirit component). Other podcasts will be forthcoming dealing with re-enforcing these component parts. Participants included 1 person from Chicago, 2 from Madison, and 1 from NJ. The Foundation is located in Madison and its target population is worldwide.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
The aim of the BLAC Foundation is the promulgation and exaltation of BLAC culture worldwide. More specifically, The Black Languages, Arts and Culture Foundation (BLAC FOUNDATION) was founded to create a greater awareness of the history and rich cultural heritage of Black peoples of the world by:
- encouraging a genuine and scholarly interest in Black Languages, Arts and Culture;
- giving interested parties (Black Scholars in particular) an opportunity to conduct research (both in the US and overseas) in areas of interest to the Foundation;
- forming a cadre of ranked blacfellows, who can (and hopefully will) acquire and disseminate quality knowledge in the Foundation’s area of interest;
- helping to publish new materials (generated by blacfellows and possibly others) dealing with the Black experience from a Black perspective;
- disseminating selected Foundation materials to the general public and /or interested parties at cost;
- matching willing donors with Black scholars, artists, musicians, and others in need of funding; and
- otherwise creating an atmosphere conducive to the realization of social justice worldwide.
In short, the BLAC Foundation seeks to affirm BLACK HUMANITY and promote a psychic conversion that creates networks and groups that foster love, care and concern for and within black communities around the world and eliminates the evil effects of racism. Just as the Chinese Republican period (1912-1948) heralded native fighting techniques as the means of rebuilding the spirits and the bodies of its citizens who were faced with the onslaught o Western athletics, so the BLAC Foundation has chosen Capoeira and Umlabalaba to help develop the bodies, minds, and spirit of Black citizenry.
BLAC Foundation aims at Serving BLACK Communities Worldwide – “Serving is different from helping. Helping is not a relationship between equals. A helper may see others as weaker than they are, needier than they are, and people often feel this inequality. The danger in helping is that we may inadvertently take away from people more than we could ever give them; we may diminish their self-esteem, their sense of worth, integrity or even wholeness.
When we help, we become aware of our own strength. But when we serve, we don’t serve with our strength; we serve with ourselves, and we draw from all of our experiences.
Episode 1: Eye of the Beholder
Episode 2: African Origins of Capoeira