Anderson@Large

Penn. National Action Network Presents Jazz for Justice

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s address before the 1st Berlin Jazz Festival. In his opening remarks, Dr. King reflected on the importance of jazz:

Jazz speaks for life. The blues tell the story of life’s difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.

This is triumphant music.

Modern jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument.

It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity among American Negroes was championed by jazz musicians. Long before the modern essayists and scholars wrote of racial identity as a problem for a multiracial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls.

Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down.

On Sunday, Jan. 12, 2014, the Pennsylvania State Chapter National Action Network (PA NAN) will return to its roots and present the 3rd Annual Jazz for Justice Fundraiser.

I hope you will join us as we party for a cause and kick off PA NAN’s 2014 advocacy in action. Tickets are $20.00 and include live jazz (the Unity Band) and a fish platter.

Proceeds from the event will help fund PA NAN’s social justice initiatives, including voter protection and voter mobilization for the midterm election.

Tickets may be purchased on PA NAN’s secure website (please click this link).

For info, please call (215) 765-6181 or send an email.

Women's Equality Day

On this day in 1920, the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote became law.

Equal Pay Day

Hilary Rosen’s comment that Ann Romney “never worked a day in her life” set off a firestorm of criticism. Rosen was quickly thrown under the bus.

Today is Equal Pay Day Women who work outside the home earn on average less than men. The Institute for Women s Policy Research reports:

Women are almost half of the workforce. They are the equal, if not main, breadwinner in four out of ten families. They receive more college and graduate degrees than men. Yet, on average, women continue to earn considerably less than men. In 2010, female full-time workers made only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 23 percent. Women, on average, earn less than men in virtually every single occupation for which there is sufficient earnings data for both men and women to calculate an earnings ratio.

Whether a woman works outside the home or is a stay-at-home mother, “she works hard for the money.”

Countdown to Election Day

International Women's Day 2011

Back in my club-going days in DC, I used to dance to a go-go beat when Chuck Brown sang, “I feel like bustin' loose. Gimme the bridge now.”

That was then. Today, I will join Women for Women International on the Ben Franklin Bridge in celebration of the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day.

To find an event in your community, go here.

Gimme the bridge, y'all.

Women's History Month 2011

March is Women's History Month. This year's theme is: Our History is Our Strength.

Later this month, black women will roll out an empowerment initiative. For now, I want to share a newly released White House report, Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being, the first comprehensive federal analysis of the status of women since the 1963 report of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women established by President Kennedy.

In a statement, Valerie Jarrett, chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls, said:

The Obama Administration has been focused on addressing the challenges faced by women and girls from day one because we know that the success of women and girls is vital to winning the future. Today's report not only serves as a look back on American women's lives, but serves as a guidepost to help us move forward.

Rebecca Blank, Acting Deputy Secretary of Commerce, added:

With this report, this administration can more effectively manage programs that support women and girls and America’s families, and foster the growth of the U.S. economy.

For more info, visit Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being.

Telling Our Story: Power of the Sister Vote Briefing

A Ghanaian proverb says, “Until the lions have their own historians, tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”

Some fierce sisters are gathering TODAY to tell the story of the black vote in the 2010 midterm elections and the impact of the new political landscape on issues of importance to African American women and families.

The briefing will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., at the National Council of Negro Women Headquarters, 633 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC.

I will serve as the moderator. So “if you hear any noise, it ain’t the boys, it’s ladies night.”