By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. “A long time ago, in a thatched house snuggled in a valley between the flamboyant-covered hills of Haiti, there lived a girl whose greatest ambition was to bring home the cleanest water in all the world….” (English | Portuguese)
Continue reading →Interview of Carlos Gomez with Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. “SOPA/PIPA was meant to protect rights that corporations should not be allowed to have. Copyright laws were developed to protect the livelihood of authors — not the corporations that buy the right to an author’s work…. There is no sense to a copyright outliving its author, since no amount of incentive would entice that author to further efforts.” – C. Gomez
Continue reading →By Aaron Swartz | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. “The world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations….” – Swartz
Continue reading →By C. K. Hickey, Oakland North | YouTube | Haiti Chery. The opening up of Oakland airport to Havana represents a unique cultural and political connection between Cuba and the US’ Bay Area. “Culture cures: culture leads to communication between countries, and communication leaves everybody better off than before.” – William T. Martinez
Continue reading →By Fred E. Foldvary, The Progress Report | Ah, ça ira!: Lyrics by Ladré, music by Bécourt, Chansons historiques de France, YouTube | Edith Piaf, YouTube. July 14 is celebrated as Bastille Day in France. The Bastille was a prison in Paris that the people stormed and seized in 1789, starting the French Revolution that toppled King Louis XVI and the aristocracy. (Lyrics and videos included)
Continue reading →By Staff, RT. Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement ACTA received a knockout blow from the European Parliament as MEPs voted overwhelmingly against it, with 478 votes against and only 39 in favor. There were 146 abstentions.
Continue reading →By Georgi Gotev, EurActiv. A European Parliament Committee rejected the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on June 21st despite pro-business lobbying by Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht, who insisted that Parliament should not decide before the European Court of Justice gives its opinion. A final vote in the full Parliament is expected on July 4th.
Continue reading →By Katherine Dunham, Doubleday 1969, University of Chicago Press Edition 1994 | YouTube | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. In 1936, Katherine Mary Dunham, a brilliant and adventurous young woman torn between dance and anthropology, went solo to Haiti to study primitive dance and ritual. Videos include Dunham in the dance sequence of Stormy Weather and in a 1962 interview.
Continue reading →Press Release, La Quadrature du Net. The “International Trade” (INTA) committee of the EU Parliament will adopt its draft report on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), on Thursday June 21. Under pressure from the EU Commission and industry lobbyists, members of the committee could decide, potentially in a secret vote, to call for the adoption of ACTA or postponement of the final vote for years. Citizens participation is crucial to ensure the Parliament follows the general interest and votes a clear rejection of ACTA.
Continue reading →By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. So many superb blues for bad girls! This was a tough choice. In the end, I picked Etta James’s marvelous rendition of Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Don’t Start Me to Talking,” and one of Koko Taylor’s many excellent versions of her own song “Stop Watching Your Enemies” because they are an excellent commentary on the week’s news about France’s possible role in Rwanda’s genocide and UNASUR’s decision on a slow military withdrawal from Haiti.
Continue reading →By Josefina Ortega, Granma | Haiti Chery. During a 1932 visit to Cuba, George Gershwin struck up a friendship with the musician Ignacio Piñeiro and took some musical notations of his works. The ideas for the Cuban Overture were thus born.
Continue reading →By Staff, Protestbarrick. As the opening date approaches for the Dominican Republic’s Pueblo Viejo mine, controversy around this mega-mine has continued to grow. According to the president of Maimón’s municipal committee, the funds Barrick has transferred to the municipality are less than the costs of the damage it has caused. Community members complain that the workers in the mine are overwhelmingly foreigners. Recently Barrick was accused of blocking the performance of the protest song “De Pascua Lama” (video included) at a Dominican Festival.
Continue reading →By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The dance: a poem inspired by a conversation, the birds, and Bach’s little fugue in G minor.
Continue reading →By Tiken Jah Fakoly | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Tiken Jah Fakoly originates from the Ivory Coast and describes as his mission, “to wake up the consciences.”
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