My Journey to Success: Part 2

Hip Hop 4 Haiti Jan 30 Stax Musuem Memphis

Please come and support this cause. Bring food, clothing, donations, and LOVE!

Sad News- Police Brutality On 18 Year OLD

PITTSBURGH – The photos taken by Jordan Miles' mother show his face covered with raw, red bruises, his cheek and lip swollen, his right eye swollen shut. A bald spot mars the long black dreadlocks where the 18-year-old violist says police tore them from his head.

Now, 10 days after plainclothes officers stopped him on a street and arrested him after a struggle that they say revealed a soda bottle under his coat, not the gun they suspected, his right eye is still slightly swollen and bloodshot. His head is shaved. The three white officers who arrested him have been reassigned. And his mother says she is considering a lawsuit.

"I feel that my son was racially profiled," Terez Miles said. "It's a rough neighborhood; it was after dark. ... They assumed he was up to no good because he's black. My son, he knows nothing about the streets at all. He's had a very sheltered life, he's very quiet, he doesn't know police officers sit in cars and stalk people like that."

A judge continued the case until Feb. 18 after the officers failed to appear at a hearing Thursday, Miles' attorney, Kerrington Lewis, said.

The police department is saying little as it investigates and isn't releasing the officers' names. Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said that the city is investigating whether the officers' actions were justified and that if they weren't, "they will be held accountable for those actions."

"The incident was very troubling to me, and we're taking it very seriously," Ravenstahl told reporters. "It seems as if there was a tremendous amount of force used."

Miles' family describes him as a studious teenager who plays the viola for a jazz band and the orchestra at Pittsburgh's prestigious Creative and Performing Arts High School.

The confrontation began around 11 p.m. Jan. 12, when the teenager walked out of his mother's home and headed to his grandmother's, where he spends most nights. His mother complimented him on the new jacket he had gotten for his birthday.

"It looks handsome," she said, smiling as he walked down the front steps.

As Miles walked up the block, he noticed three men sitting in a white car, "but I thought nothing of it," he said.

The criminal complaint says Miles was standing against a building "as if he was trying to avoid being seen." But he says he was walking when the men jumped out of the car.

"Where's the money?" one shouted, according to Miles. "Where's the gun? Where's the drugs?" the other two said. "It was intimidating; I thought I was going to be robbed," Miles said.

That's when he says he took off back to his mother's house but slipped on the icy sidewalk. Before he could pull himself up, Miles said, the men were at his back.

"That's when they started beating me, punching, kicking me, choking me," he said.

Not until 15 minutes later, when uniformed officers drove up in a van and Miles overheard their conversation, did he realize he had been arrested, he said. Initially, when the handcuffs were clamped around his wrists, he thought he was being abducted, he said.

The police believed Miles, who appeared to have something heavy in his pocket, was carrying a gun, according to the affidavit. The police say they used a stun gun on the teenager.

According to the affidavit, the object in Miles' pocket turned out to be a bottle of Mountain Dew. But Miles says he didn't have anything in his pocket and rarely drinks Mountain Dew.

"The story just doesn't make sense when you read the affidavit," said Lewis, the teen's attorney.

Miles said the family is considering suing the police department and the officers.

"I knew that he hadn't done anything wrong," his mother said. "That's just not an option for Jordan."

Pittsburgh police have reassigned the three officers and put them back in uniform while the city investigates, spokeswoman Diane Richard said. She declined to say whether racial allegations are part of the probe.

Meanwhile, Jordan Miles says he awaits a physician's approval to return to school and is suffering from nightmares and flashbacks.

Once he's done with school, he says, he hopes to attend Penn State University — and study crime scene investigation.

Source: Yahoo News
RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press

Lauryn Hill Still Got It- Performance at Raggamuffin Hip-Hop/Reggae Fest

Lauryn Hill rocks the stage at Raggamuffin 2010 Hip-Hop/Reggae festival in New Zealand. After all these years she still got it. I miss her so; The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is still in heavy rotation on my ipod. Come back Lauryn, come back!!!

Rhianna and Maxwell perform on Oprah

In honor of Haiti victims Rhianna does her rendition of Bob Marley's 'Redemption Song' and Maxwell does "Fistful of Tears" from his latest album.





You can still HELP HAITI by donating to Red Cross.

Words of Wisdom

Let God drive, your ride will be smoother.

God Is Love,


Rev Run

How are we keeping the Dream Alive?

The first national celebration of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday took place January 20, 1986. Today is Jan 18, 2010 and we have come so far. The first black President was elected last year yet we still have many issues that plague the black community. On January 9, 2010 more than 100 men residing in Memphis, TN, the place where Dr. King took his last breath, came together to discuss the role and responsibility of black men in building our community. The Mid-South Men’s Forum touched on spiritual, educational, economical, and crime problems in the black community and ways we can solve these issues.

  

The panel included Key note speaker Student Minister Nuri Muhammad, as well as Bernal E. Smith (President of 100 Black men), Jeffery Higgs (CEO of Lemoyne Community Development), Thomas Burrell (Black Farmers Association), Reginald French (Democratic Candidate for Sherriff), Demico Booth (Author of WHY ARE SO MANY BLACK MEN IN PRISON), John Hall (Juvenile Intervention Shape Program), Grandmaster Anthony Muhammad (Chicago and National Defense Trainer), Pastor Ralph White (Bloomfield Baptist Church), Martavious Jones (School Board), Dr. A J Stovall (Rust College Professor), Dr. Leon Caldwell (Rhodes College professor), Drumma Boy (Super Producer and CEO of Drum Squad Productions), Van Tuner (Shelby  County Democratic Party chair). We also received a great self defense demonstration from Grandmaster Anthony Muhammad and a performance from rising rap star Young Phenomenon.  

Some of the economic points panel members spoke on during the program was the lack of understanding of all the access to capital there is to be distributed. Thomas Burrell dropped a gem of knowledge on the brothers by informing them that the Department of Agriculture is the only government organization Congress allows to make loans to a minor. Lack of knowledge is one of the community’s greatest dilemmas.

Demico Booth’s story was definitely one of hope to our many young men in prison or previously involved in the system. He went to prison at the age of 19 and was released at 31 only to be taken back into custody to serve another 2 years. He was affiliated with gangs and this association caused him to lose many years of his life. During his time he decided to change his life and wrote the book, WHY ARE SO MANY BLACK MEN IN PRISON. He emphasized that we are missing the black love and this is what our children need.

“There is no greater enforcement than us enforcing ourselves,” says Grandmaster Anthony. “This is our community and no one violates this, less we violate them.” Meaning we have to stand up and say we are not going to accept all the violence and destruction of the community anymore. We have to take serious action and accept the responsibility as an individual and not leave it up to anyone else to do it. We each have to take a part and make a commitment to the community in order to make a change. Like Reginald French said that day “Crime does pay, but it doesn’t pay us.” People spend billions on the court system every year and they are getting rich off of us because we make up a majority of the cases. This must change!

Knowing that Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has been fighting for us for over 55 years should be enough to motivate these men to take a stand NOW. Student Minister Nuri Muhammad spoke so eloquently and passionately about what a man is and that we should look at the Word as a script to life. He broke down the Lord’s Prayer and you had to be there to receive the knowledge he was giving. One thing that stood out to me was Daily Bread. He said a man should be working towards getting daily bread by becoming entrepreneurs. When you are working for someone else you are getting weekly or bi-weekly bread or money in other words. Opening up more black owned businesses is definitely something that would improve the black community. It is up to us to save ourselves because God helps those that help themselves.

The common theme from all the speakers was ownership. We have to take back ownership of our community if we are going to build it up. Being one of the few women in the building, made me feel like a Harriet Tubman or Sojourner Truth figure of this time because I am able to assist these brothers with their efforts and help spread the word. I’m just little ole me though Miss Conversation Piece but I am doing my part to help build our community and keep Dr. King’s dream alive. What about you?

HELP HAITI!!!

Continue to pray for HAITI and help if u can!! I can only imagine how awful the situation must be.

This footage was taken moments after the Quake hit Haiti




http://www.redcross.org/
Text "HAITI" to "90999" to donate $10 to the Red Cross

WWW.YELE.ORG Text to 501-501 YELE and donate $5!

Miss Conversation Piece Interviews Yung Kee

Words of Wisdom

It's not what you have in your arsenal that counts, it's what you use.

God is Love,

Rev Run



Failure is not an option. 

Super Live Wednesdays @ Club Visions Memphis, TN