KRS One and Stop the Violence in New Orleans

KRS One visits a "camp site" in New Orleans as part of Stop the Violence's campaign to get the Hip Hop community involved in addressing global violence through education, critical dialogue, grassroots organizing and direct action. I've always had mixed feelings about KRS One's activism similar to the ones we discussed in class about celebrity activism. However, this video is really telling of the complex issues in New Orleans where there's no one group of people to blame - rather a complex system of governmental failures, issues of poverty and gentrification, land use, and natural disaster response.



Seeing this video reminded me of TED talk that I've been reading about from Philip Zimbardo (known for theStandford prison experiment) about his book The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil (here's a nice interview from Wired). When people are put under intense pressure to survive or do their jobs, there are horrific things they'll do. While the scene with KRS One handing out money is a smaller contained example, this isn't something people would do normally but they're put in position where they're broke, homeless, hopeless, living in a city with a blind government and there's a guy handing out 20 dollar bills. What would you do?

Slavery Still Exists Week

The "Activist workshop" looks pretty interesting on Wednesday.

Slavery Still Exists Week

Because Abraham Lincoln didn't end slavery...

Information

Event Info

Name:	Slavery Still Exists Week
Tagline:	Because Abraham Lincoln didn't end slavery...
Host:	DU Task Force, CORD & THe Polaris Project
Type:	Causes - Protest

Time and Place

Start Time:	Monday, February 25, 2008 at 8:00am
End Time:	Friday, February 29, 2008 at 7:00pm
Location:	All over the world!
City/Town:	Denver, CO

Contact Info

Email:

DUTaskforce@gmail.com

Description

The Slavery Still Exists Campaign is the national grassroots public awareness program of Polaris Project on modern-day slavery and human trafficking. At the University of Denver, we will have a series of events open to all students to raise awareness on the issue of human trafficking and modern slavery, including:

Monday - Lecture: "History of Slavery" by Prof. Caleb McDaniel
Department of History
February 25 5:30pm at the Lindsay Auditorium, Sturm Hall

Tuesday - "Charcoal People"
February 26 6:00pm at the International House (2200 S. Josephine St) Sponsored by Peace Corps Week. Refreshments will be served.

Wednesday - "Activist Workshop" by Seth Donovan,
Program Director, Prax(us)
February 27 12:00pm at the Commerce Room, Driscoll Center

Thursday - Lecture: "Slavery in Colorado" by Prof. Claude d'Estree
Graduate School of International Studies
February 28 5:30pm at the Lindsay Auditorium, Sturm Hall

Friday - "Revolution T-Shirt Making Party"
Hosted by Prax(us) and Rocky Mountain Animal Defense February 29 7:00pm at Whittier Community Center (2900 Downing St)

We will also have a booth at the Driscoll Center throughout the week to provide information and conduct a photo campaign.