DIAMOND KESAWN COOPER | CONTRIBUTING WRITER
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“We don't think you fight fire with fire best; we think you fight fire with water best. We're going to fight racism not with racism, but we're going to fight with solidarity. We say we're not going to fight capitalism with black capitalism, but we're going to fight it with socialism.” - Fred Hampton
In 2017, Why Accountability and other New York activist groups joined together to provide free swipes to commuters in the Bronx, East New York, East Harlem, and other places targeted for fare-beating arrests. Demonstrators repeated to commuters and observing police officers that “Poverty is not a crime”, and that it is entirely legal to offer free swipes to fellow commuters.
Months of work for one end-of-year extravaganza: The Afrofuturist Vampire Dance Party! Last December we celebrated the culmination of 4 years of indie film production to create “Willow: State of Emergency.” It’s from the world of Paul A. Notice II's 2013 play, “Willow.” Watch it now on Amazon Prime!
Question: Who do you think of when you think of skateboarding?
Shaw Boy: “They always mention Tony Hawk, it's not only Tony Hawk. It's the people right behind me, it’s the man over there… It’s multicultural it's not just for one person. It's for everybody.”
We had the privilege to produce the music video for Mike Bankhead’s latest Black Alternative ballad “Plantation.” Lyrics like the quote above conjure the phantoms of slavery in America, and its pervasiveness in the modern Western world.
In a 16-page report titled “Our Narrative” and published on Sunday, The Palestinian group Hamas, which governs Gaza, said it wanted to “clarify” the background and dynamics of the surprise attack it calls Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
The report addressed post-war Gaza and the other issues that led to the Oct 7th attack, and the delayed retaliation to the thousands of Palestinian civilians killed by the Israeli government over the past 24 years.
Read the full report in the link in our bio.
For the full report, follow the link here.
Closing out the 2023 Holidays, ReelWorks hosted a gathering of Alumni from each of their training courses over the years. What’s remarkable was the amount of participants from BIPOC, Queer, Femme communities. While the TV and Film industry only consists of 28.8% of BIPOC professionals, 26% women - more than 80% of the alumni participants were from these communities.
I started homecoming back in 2015, and had been slowly but surely whittling away at hundreds of hours of footage - then a robbery took away some of my most prized memories: the 100th birthday of my great-granddad, Lilbert "Buddy" Hollins. It would be the last time I would see him alive. It was hard enough to work on a documentary that unabashedly looked at my depression, survivor's guilt, and PTSD while visiting the home, but the loss had become too great.
Stay moisturized this winter season, and support a great cause! Get a tin of "Black Thoughts" from our Co-Op Capitalism program. Find out more below!
Imagine a product that people consume more of as the price rises - and vice versa. Imagine something that violates the basic law of demand in microeconomics. That’s a Giffen good. […] We became starkly aware that both Orlando and I were once - and in some respects still - considered a Giffen good. The performance transformed into a defiant act in the face of statues of YT men long dead, who once sold us on the steps of Wall Street.
Join us behind the scenes with a six-part series from Writer/Director, Paul Notice (@pinotgrig). We were recently asked onto Making Movies is Hard for a five-minute segment - check out the podcast episode in our #linkinbio - but we had more to say. So we’re sharing our full answers with you here.
Here’s a film that I’m REALLY proud of: “Release.” I co-directed, edited and DP’d (director of photography) on it. And I was smart enough to ask for help from Katrina Reid (1st AD/ Production Manager), Dominik Czaczyk (Gaffer/2nd Camera) & Sultan Ali (Grip/2nd AC). After nearly two months of pre-production, we managed to turn two days of shooting into a masterpiece.
Here's a sneak peek of "No Homo No Hetero," an upcoming documentary shot & edited by our Paul Notice and produced by Glenn Quentin , along Heru Kut & David J. Cork.
When you think of rubble, you normally don’t equate it to your personal life. It’s no secret that life comes at you fast and the only way to survive it is to stay strong in who you are, and steadfast in your beliefs.
Living with HIV is no longer a dark secret kept amongst the family. As a society, we have become more aware of the fact that HIV is running rampant within the urban community, and it is no longer a death sentence. The need for preventative and supportive measures are a necessity, and we are the generation of change.
Many people of color, women, LGBT folks, differently-abled people, and others don't the privilege to just ignore harmful beliefs, as their often times the target of those ideas being practiced in policy, or personal behavior. Here's how to engage with ideas outside of your own, even if they're fundamentally harmful to your livelihood. Presenting: Empathy Lens.
Sen. Feinstein to Gorsuch: "How do we have confidence in you that you won't just be for the big corporations?"
Introducing a dark comedy that buys Shea Butter on the corner, watches "Get Out" at the Magic Johnson theater's 125th st.., and isn't scared to show #BlackBoyJoy when it sees #BlackGirlMagic This is Insecure & Atlanta for the Millennials of NYC. This is #LostBoys
They claim they’re keeping ‘men out of the women’s’ bathroom. I am being told that I am a predator. That I am likely a rapist. That I am likely a pedophile. Of course, none of these things are true, and if anything these bills put men in the women’s bathroom by forcing trans-men to use the women’s room. Once again, my basic humanity is a subject of debate by mostly heterosexual cisgender men who know nothing of trans identity other than their own prejudice and don’t care to learn about it or to humanize it"
We’re proud of the opportunity to produce, film, and witness Just Leadership USA’s Close Rikers Campaign in action in 2016. They rallied outside the Borough Halls of Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx to pressure Mayor Bill DeBlasio and other key elected officials, to keep the commitment to close down Rikers.