Rosa Alicia Clemente is a Black Puerto Rican grassroots organizer, hip-hop
activist, journalist, and entrepreneur.
Founder of Know Thy Self Productions, Rosa has created
two successful
college/universities tours, Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win and the Speak
Truth to Power.
With an earned degree from the University of Albany and a Masters of
Professional Studies from Cornell University
she is committed to
scholar-activism and youth organizing. As an activist she has traveled
domestically and internationally to
colleges, universities, high schools and
prisons.
She has delivered lectures on topics such as African-American and
Latino/a
Intercultural Relations, Hip-Hop Activism, The History of the Young Lords
Party, and Organizing to Free U.S. Political Prisoners. Rosa has written for
Clamor Magazine, The Black World Today, The Final Call and has been the
subject of articles in the Village Voice, The Amsterdam News, the New York
Times and Red Eye Magazine.
Rosa has appeared on CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now, Street Soldiers, and
National Public Radio (NPR). In 2001 she was a youth representative at the
United Nations World Conference against Racism in South Africa and in 2002
was named by Red Eye Magazine as one of the top 50 Hip Hop Activists to look
out for.
Currently she is a co-host/co-producer WBAI's(99.5 FM/NYC) show Where We
Live, was recently published in Third World Press, Role Call: A Generational
Anthology, is a member of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, the Black
August Collective and is the coordinator of the State of Black World Youth
Caucus.
Rosa is currently writing a novel titled Siempre Palante: Young Lords and
the Legacy of Youth Resistance.
Rosa is a proud daughter of a Boricua mother and father and believes that
young people must and always pursue their right to Self-Determination,
Self-Respect and Self-Defense.
REPORTING
FROM NEW ORLEANS - Rosa Clemente dispatches from the South
After a twenty one hour drive,
we, Brad a videographer and King, arrived in New Orleans, as we crossed the
border of Mississippi we spoke to folks displaced, white middle class folks
who have not seen a FEMA or RED CROSS vehicle since the hurricane hit, many
Mexican and Honduran immigrants just wandering, one thing the Latino
brothers and sister stressed was the fear they are facing from white
vigilantes trying to "move them out the city? and ICE-the federal
immigration police who are down here in force, speaking to the white middle
class man whom lost everything he told us ,"America died to me on Tuesday Aug 30th, I voted for Bush and
that rapper was right"(:-) go KANYE! As we approached New Orleans after two
military checkpoints with M16's pointed at us we found our way to Canel Street As we went down Canel
street the damage was surreal, there was a boat in the street, toxic sludge
in the streets, what we immediately noticed, was the number of police,
military, contractors, and Blackwater mercenaries protecting property, We came up on the
Convention Center, and after all the clean up, it still looked like a
living hell, the smell of dead bodies was overwhelming, what was more crazy
and shows the inhumanity, the VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as defined by the
International Convention on Human Rights and the CRIMINAL MISCONDUCT of
these devils, and that includes, Condi and Alberto, is that there were
plenty of hotels, The Marriot, The Wyndham, The Holiday Inn, that were
completely habitable, if this fucking supreme court can take my house on
some eminent domain shit, why didnt they declare eminent domain and take
corporate property for the public good, As Brad stated "This,
the Convention center is our modern day slave vessel and our people are in
the midst of the Middle Passage" meanwhile five feet from this hell
were the castles; The Marriot, The Wyndham, Holiday Inn. If one thing I would like people to know
now is that their were four to five hotels within a one block area that were
completely intact, these hotels could have housed thousands of people, as
we were outside the Convention Center looking in, a man about the age of
40, white man, said "I cant believe they shot these young men as they
were trying to get people into the hotel,? as we spoke with him, he said
that three young black men, were trying to take over the hotels and make it
a makeshift medical center and
evacuate the elderly and babies into safer conditions, as they approached the hotel the were
fired upon and murdered, this had
not been confirmed by anyone, but we
know that this is possible, Outside all the hotels you
could see makeshift camps where people had lived, the conditions were
atrocious, as we continued to document and talk to people, we were
approached by two military people that said we had to leave now, that we
were not official, when we began to question this, and say there are all
kinds of people walking around, the entire city of N.O. they informed us we
could follow orders or be arrested, as we left we saw a few black man and
women still wandering around the city, dazed and physically exhausted, we
talked to them and asked them ?Are you leaving and they said no, this is
our only home? As we traveled into Algiers, the
destruction kept going, as much as folks want to talk about looting, we ran
into many white folks who said, "Of coursed we looted, we had to
survive,? we saw four different WINN DIXIES and WALMARTS in white
communities that were completely destroyed. We then met up with brother Malik Rahim and Errol Maitland from
WBAI, and met up with over 30 organizers that are organizing here, they are committed to staying fro three
weeks, so folks need to come and try
to spend a couple of days, every
skill is needed. Malik Rahim and his
wife Sharon are the peoples command center, in Algiers, it is amazing to
see the people helping the people, self-determination has manifested here,
they have opened up their own media clinic, there are 50 bikes that are
being given to anyone who wants them, anyone can come and sleep here, eat,
take a shower, etc., Algiers did not have to deal with the flooding but
many houses were destroyed, and in a community that numbered in the
thousands there are only five kids and about 100 adults left here, but they
are refusing to leave, the military
is trying to cajole people to leave, by telling them soon electricity will
be shut down, there is no gas, so even for the survivors they are being
forced out. Algiers is the hub for
Black people, and we need to support them, the young cats part of the
alternative media world, have set up a community media command center,
today the five young people in the neighborhood came and got bikes,
crayons, paper, and bubbles, yes bubbles because everyone who is a child
should skip rope, blow bubbles and be allowed to be a child. As New Orleans is under marshal law, last
night around 6:30pm the military informed us that anyone on the streets
would get a warning shot, and after that be shot on the spot, throughout
the night, we saw groups of white men riding around in pickup trucks,
vigilantes, along with the NOPD and the GODDAMN NYPD, yes, yes yall the
NYPD is in the house, this is the battle ground, this is the BATTLE FOR
ALGIERS, we are on our way to Baton Rouge, Houston, TX and Jackson, MI,
more to come. Lastly, I love my people, I love my people more everyday, check out these pictures even in the
midst of hell on earth, cats are
politically clear on what they want and need, many have expressed they
dont want to se no more press conference, no more marching they want action and long term strategy, GET DOWN HERE AND HELP US!
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