www.alkebulan.org The Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement would like to thank the hundreds who came out to pay due honour to our Eminent Prophet and King at the Omowale Malcolm X observance on 22/02, also streamed live on Galaxy 102.5FM. The commemorations don’t stop there. This Kuumba-day (Fri) 27.02.15 sees the first ever OMX Storm – an event “bringing the best in Konscious Edutainment,” in honour of Omowale Malcolm X. Taking its inspiration from the Mosiah Storm event (now in its tenth year), OMX Storm similarly seeks to reconnect the music with the Movement as typified by forebears like the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and even the Garvey inspired Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and the Rastafari Movement. Hosted by ShakaRa, OMX Storm boasts a stellar array of talent including Swiss (So-Solid), Empress Imani, Mikel Ameen, Eyesis Star, JJ Bola, Souljah MC, with music supplied by Natural Mystic. The takes place at details: the Karibu Centre, 7 Gresham Road, Brixton SW9 7PH on Fri 27th Feb 2015, doors open 6pm. Then a mere three days after OMX Storm on March 2nd is the National Black People’s Day of Action (NBPDA), hosted by the interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament (iNAPP). Also taking place at the Karibu Centre, the community have named and claimed March 2nd as an Afrika UK public holiday for the community is encouraged to take the day off work & university; take our children out of school & college and close our businesses to emphasise this day as a national cultural imperative. This will be the 34th anniversary of the original NBPDA (1981), and iNAPP invites you to a convention at the Karibu Centre, 7 Gresham Rd, Brixton SW9 7PH; 1:00pm-7:00pm. Under the theme, ‘Our Eyes on the Future – Mobilising Black youth for Nation Building,’ The event – which will also honour Malcolm X (50th anniversary of his assassination) and the centenary of the birth of Claudia Jones – will feature some of our finest, most conscious and talented youth, including: Raspect Fyabinghi, Empress Imani, ShakaRa & SoulJah MC, to name a few. There will also be presentations from leading Afrikan (Black) institution builders. Those invited are Bro Damba Nambago (Afrikan Cooperative Union), Sis Matilda Macattram (Black Mental Health-UK), Dr Kehinde Andrews (Organisation of Black Unity), Student Min Hillary Muhammad (Nation of Islam); with a keynote address form iNAPP’s youth (yNAPP) and updates on iNAPP’s forward plan. The NBPDA commemorates two of the most important historical events in the Afrikan nbpda 2015 copypresence in Britain: 1) the worst tragedy to afflict our community (the New Cross Massacre – 18th Jan 1981 – a suspected racist fire bomb attack on a 16th birthday party at 439 New Cross Rd, killing 14 young people); and; 2) the greatest expression of Afrikan unity, solidarity and power potential – the NBPDA, March 2, 1981 – where 25,000 ‘Black’ people marched the streets of London for 9hrs, protesting ongoing racial violence and state complicity (government, police, media, etc). Hence the NBPDA was mandated (i.e. we ‘Name it and Claim it’) as an ‘annual observance’ and ‘national public holiday,’ which would be primarily youth focused, connecting the New Cross Massacre and the state’s response with the current challenges facing them. We emphasised: 1) taking responsibility to identify and implement the solutions to our problems and; 2) agreeing a programme of action aimed towards empowerment and nation building. This led to the founding of INAPP as the vehicle towards fulfilling this purpose. But this vision cannot be fulfilled without your involvement and support. Not only has the original NBPDA, but also the uprisings that followed it either that year or a few years later firmly been placed within a political context. Interestingly, there appears to not yet be a coherent body of work seeking to characterise the uprisings of 2011 in a similar way. So we ask the question: Are young people interested in nation building? Did you be attend/listen to the Omowale Malcolm X observance yesterday? How did you find it? Will you be attending OMX Storm on 27.02.15? Will you be “naming it and claiming it” and attending the National Black People’s Day of Action on 02.03.15? Does today’s ‘Black Movement’ have the capacity to inspire and conscientize our cultural artists? What does nation building actually mean? Is there anything in the life and legacy Omowale Malcolm X that can inspire young people today? Has enough attention been paid to the political context of the 2011 uprisings?

• published: 06 Mar 2015
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