▌#DMV ▌ Empower DC, Child Care & Head Roc

My appreciation of this organization grows deeper every day. Support EMPOWER DC, tonight and Wednesday, May 5th as they continue to represent and advocate for the issues directly impacting the people of DC. Make sure there are no more cuts to Child Care in DC and make your voice heard at the John A. Wilson Building.

  

No More Cuts!

Save Our Safety Net!

JOIN US as we lift our voices in protest to more cuts in safety net services with the Fair Budget Coalition and Save Our Safety Net DC!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

RALLY

11:30 AM – 12:15 PM

Visit Council Offices

12:15 – 1:00 PM

Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave, NW

Close to Federal Triangle (orange/blue) and Metro Center (red, orange/blue).

Our safety net is already in tatters after

$100 million in cuts in the past two years.

We can't afford any more cuts!

Mayor Fenty released his proposed budget and it is once again full of cuts to DC’s safety net, including the child care subsidy program, adult literacy, job training, mental health services, and the rapid housing program. NOW, we have only a short time to make sure OUR councilmembers vote against the Mayor’s proposed cuts and commit to Save OUR Safety Net! Join us on Wednesday to send a clear message: NO MORE CUTS! In a recession, it is more important than ever to protect programs that support all DC’s residents. If one of these programs is one of your priorities, please join us and make sure it is a priority for your elected officials!

PLUS…

SOS MAYDAY PARTY!

with Special Guest Head-Roc

a.k.a. The Mayor of DC Hip Hop

Get a preview of his upcoming release The Empower DC Project!

TOMORROW, Saturday, May 1

7 – 10 PM

The District @ 2473 18^th St. NW (in Adams Morgan)

Suggested donation: $10, no one will be turned away

(proceeds help to send low-income community advocates to the US Social Forum in Detroit)

What is SOS? Save Our Safety Net is a campaign to protect the crucial city services that vulnerable DC residents depend on. During this recession, the city has made big cuts to programs like homeless shelters, childcare vouchers, and affordable housing, just to name a few. So instead of cutting more services, we are challenging City Council to raise the money by making sure the wealthiest among us pay a fair share. http://www.saveoursafetynet.com

Come out tomorrow night to join the SOS campaign, sign the petition, volunteer to get involved, and raise your voice for a fair income tax that supports critical services like the Child Care Subsidy program!

▄▌PREMIERE▐▄ M.I.A. and Romain-Gavras present "Born Free"... (DangerPOW!)

Whoa.

Fam.

I'm speechless.

I can't dabble in the theoretical right now. Need to recover first. Just know this is def a GET WOKE special. Born Free...whewww...

M.I.A. and director Romain-Gavras present, "Born Free," likely the first single from M.I.A.'s as of yet untitled forthcoming album. If you were looking for a shell-shocker, here's one. 

Please note: this video is graphic. If you are not mature enough to handle nudity and extreme violence, do not watch. YouTube has already removed the video from its server, citing violations of its posting policy. Before it was removed, M.I.A. warned that this might be tagged suitable for 18-and-older.

If you can't claim that, leave it alone or find an adult to interpolate. Read what MTV had to say about the YouTube posting broo-ha-ha and the video itself here.

Watch all 9 minutes and 5 seconds of the video aqui.

▌BIOPICS ▌Turnaround: Don Cheadle as Miles Davis (via @shadowandact)

Once the dust settles from the Iron Man 2 gig, prepare to see the Don [Cheadle] as woodwinded great, Miles Davis.

Cheadle will star and direct in the pic about the man who got Pearl Cleage readers a dash past peeved in 1990 (and forward!), but whose sound is unapologetically epic in the halls of jazz.

How does one treat a respected, revered, fundamentally and brazenly flawed legend--and not piss people off? Cheadle tells MTV to expect the "truth," but don't look for facts. Very diplomatic answer. *Nodding my head* He also advises that this is not a biopic. Mhmmmmmmm. I'm gonna be a likkle geeked for this one. He's working on the script now.

Til' then, go try to cop those Iron Man 2 tix from @WCP and check Cheadle's full interview aqui.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

▌ADVANCE SCREENING ▌ Win passes to see Iron Man 2 - c/o Washington City Paper

Win advance screening passes to see Iron Man 2 - Washington City Paper

Visit the link above to win a preview screening of Iron Man 2 co-starring Don Cheadle and Samuel L. Jackson alongside the Iron Man, Robert Downey, Jr. Iron Man 2 opens in theaters nationwide May 7th, but see it uptown at AMC Mazza Gallerie on May 4th.

Tell WCP "thank you!" and let them know bytwenty8.com told you. Pick up this week's edition of  the Washington City Paper on the morrow at your local Metro station, and start planning a happy, well-informed weekend.

▌SCREENINGS ▌Welcome May in the #DMV: Sonje NOLA, Hip Hop & Juvenile Justice--OH MY!

ITVS and Community Cinema are like that.

*drops the mic and walks away*

I really could leave it there and end this post, but you MUST know what Community Cinema and your friendly neighborhood activisticinephiles are up to. (Def made that word up.) And when you go, tell 'em bytwenty8 told you!

May 4-6, 2010

Community Cinema & 2010 Big Read DC

Second Chances

AED Global Theater
1927 Florida Ave., NW
7:00P FREE 
RSVP here or call 2/387-8391


The Humanities Council of Washington, DC in partnership with the Academy for Educational Development (AED), Justice for DC Youth and the Provisions Library present "Second Chances," the backdrop against which the District reads Ernest J. Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying. [The little teacher in me is geeked.] The screenings are as follows:

May 4

7:00P

Sentenced Home 

a film by Nicole Newnham and David Grabias 

Raised as Americans in inner-city projects near Seattle, three young Cambodian refugees each made a rash decision as a teenager that irrevocably shaped their destiny. Now facing deportation back to Cambodia years later, they find themselves caught between a tragic past and an uncertain future by a system that doesn't offer any second chances. Sentenced Home was featured on the Emmy Award-winning PBS series, Independent Lens in April 2007. 

May 5

7:00P

Crips & Bloods: Made in America

a film by Stacy Peralta

In the southern portion of Los Angeles, a civil war has been raging for more than 40 years. Crips and Bloods: Made in America searches for answers by providing a historical and sociological context for the rise of the devastating gang violence. Narrated by Forest Whitaker. Crips and Bloods: Made in America was featured on the Emmy Award-winning PBS series, Independent Lens in May 2009. Q&A with Tendani Mpulubusi, Arts Commissioner for Ward 8 and Director of Programs, Helping Inner City Kids Succeed (HICKS); and Ashley Howard former gang member, youth member of HICKS. 

May 6

7:00P

Panel Discussion

At the age of sixteen, Reginald Dwayne Betts-a good student from a lower-middle-class family-carjacked a man with a friend. He never held a gun before, but within a matter of minutes he had committed six felonies. He served his nine-year sentence as part of the adult population in some of the worst prisons in the state. He's documented his coming-of-age in prison in his memoir A Question of Freedom. Betts, David Muhammad, Chief of Committed Services for the DC Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, and Shani Jamila O'Neal, Director of Justice for DC Youth give an overview of juveniles in the criminal justice system and the possibilities for second chances in a system that is long overdue for reform.

Monday, May 10, 2010

IPS' Social Action & Leadership School for Activists (SALSA) presents

Hip Hop As Mass Media 

1112 16th Street NW, Suite 600, WDC, 20036
6:45P - 8:45P 
FREE

This workshop explores the function of hip-hop as part of a larger mass media structure. The presentation involves an investigation of hip-hop history, inner-workings of the music industry, hip-hop as media and cultural expression, the historical legacy of Black image and the hip-hop underground. Much of this is done via the particular history and contemporary use of the mixtape as this original mass medium has gone from an underground phenomenon to a popular corporate conduit, as well as, becoming a potential source of emancipatory journalism and free space for ingenuity. Led by Jared Ball, professor of African American and Media Studies at Morgan State University. Jared is also managing editor of the first hip-hop academic journal from Words, Beats and Life and hosts the Monday afternoon show, Jazz & Justice on WPFW 89.3 FM in Washington, DC, 1-3pm. Dr. Ball is also the founder and creator of FreeMix Radio: The Original Mixtape Radio Show, a rap music mixtape committed to the practice of underground emancipatory journalism. He and his work can be found online at VOXUNION.COM. Please pre-register here.

Sunday, May 23, 2010 (@ Busboys)
Sunday, May 30, 2010 (@ DC Jewish Comm. Ctr)

ITVS and National Alliance of Vietnamese American Service Agencies (NAVASA)

A Village Called Versailles, by S. Leo Chiang

Busboys & Poets, 2021 14th St., NW at V St. @ 5:00P
Washington, DC Jewish Community Center, 1529 16th St., NW at Q St. @ 3:00P
RSVP village@communitycinema-dc.org or call 2/939-0794
FREE

Welcome to Versailles, New Orleans--home to the densest ethnic Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam. For over 30 years, its residents lived a quiet existence on the edge of New Orleans. But then came Hurricane Katrina, the immense garbage piles and the shocking discovery of a toxic landfill planned in their neighborhood. Watch as they fight back, turning a devastating disaster into a catalyst for change and a chance to build a better future.