“No one seems to think it  significant that upon the policemen’s arrival Kajieme Powell possibly had  reason to fear for his life and reacted in a manner consistent with his  disability.” ––Article excerpt (Aberjhani) “Democracy is not a gift of power,  but a reservoir of knowledge.” –– from The Wisdom of W.E.B. Du Bois The month of August happens to be  one in which a number of notable events in African-American history, relatively  recent in historical terms, have occurred. There are the birthdays of such  celebrated individuals as author James Baldwin (Aug. 2), President Barack Obama  (Aug. 4), and philanthropist and performing artist Michael Jackson (Aug. 29). From this point forward, people  shall also certainly recall August 9, 2014, as the day when 18-year-old’s Michael Brown’s death served to ignite a series of violent night-time protests  eerily reminiscent of similar scenes from the 1960s. The chaos also funct...

This French edition of "King, Malcolm, Baldwin: Three Interviews" by Dr. Kenneth B. Clark illustrates just influential Baldwin's writings became during the 1960s and 1970s . Editorial Note : The full post of this article by Aberjhani on LinkedIn and accessible via the link below incorporates a segment of the previously published essay The Year of James Baldwin Now in Full Classic Literary Swing Before there were human resource managers and action research teams counseling American corporations on the advantages of embracing diversity rather than vilifying it, there was author James Baldwin putting the theory to the test in acclaimed essays, novels, plays, short stories, poems, and dialogues. Social networkers in recent weeks have found occasion to quote those writings in regard to everything from a Palestinian state and gay marriage equality to Barack  Obama’s presidency and the American identity. It is true that he marched alongside ...

Author James Baldwin in St. Paul de Vence, France, 1976. (photo by Dmitri Kasterine) “It has always been much easier (because it has always seemed much safer) to give a name to the evil without than to locate the terror within. And yet, the terror within is far truer and far more powerful than any of our labels: the labels change, the terror is constant.” –James Baldwin, from  the essay Nothing Personal Members of New York City’s cultural arts community made a rare kind of decision earlier this year and the results of that decision continue to generate exceptional events and responses. They–– as in Columbia University School of the Arts, Harlem Stage, and New York Live Arts–– elected to observe The Year of James Baldwin from April 2014 until June 2015 in honor of the late iconoclastic African-American author’s 90th birthday August 2, 2014. Long before he died on December 1, 1987, millions came to recognize the indelible mark...

“It is difficult to listen to [Michael Jackson’s] ‘Do You Know Where Your Children Are’ without thinking about the ongoing #BringBackOurGirls campaign.” –Article Excerpt (Aberjhani) What television audiences experienced with the debut of “Slave to the Rhythm” was Mr. Jackson as transhumanist art in its more positive and inspiring holographic form. Anyone who finds that statement unsettling probably should not. At least one potential definition of transhumanist art is the creative representation of a person, such as in a work of visual art or literature, which utilizes advanced technologies (or allusion to such technologies) to symbolize humanity as an enhanced species closer to cyborgs or angels than to apes. In its broader philosophical framework, transhumanism is a futuristic ideology that studies both the likely pitfalls and potential benefits of employing technology to enhance the physical, intellectual, and overal...