2011 Year of the French Overseas Territories

The Year of the French Overseas Territories, or in French "2011, année des Outre-mer", is almost halfway, but there are still some mayor events on the agenda.

The Year of Overseas Territories is a celebration of France and its diversity. The focus is on the "identities" of the twelve overseas departments and collectivities in all areas: culture, institutions, education, environment, economy, tourism, fine art, etc.

For more information about the French Overseas Territories and the upcoming events see http://www.france.fr

Video of the official kick-off with Marie-Luce Penchard, the minister of the Overseas Territories


And an interesting documentary about the history of the Overseas Territories.

Video: French singer Joko releases debut album “Joko”

French singer Joko (born in Cameroon) released her debut album "Joko" on 6 May. It's an album with a subtle mix of French music, urban groove, soul jazz and an Afro-Latin atmosphere.

Joko isn't new to the scene, she already made her mark with her performance in the clip "Tous Unis pour l'équipe de France”, which celebrated the French national football team.

But know accompanied with two talented composers her journey has begun

Labo Ethnik - World fashion event in Paris (17 to 19 June 2011)

The international fashion event "Labo Ethnik" will celebrate its fifth edition during 3 days in June in the Espace des Blancs Manteaux in the Marais in Paris France.

This event will bring together the cream of the young generation of black fashion designers from Africa, the Caribbean and France, but also designers from Korea, China and other backgrounds.

It could be called the "World Fashion in Paris." Since its first edition in 2007, the Labo Ethnik is a unique event of its kind: a real laboratory for trends in the world. This year some fifty international brands will again be present at the event with ready-to-wear fashion, accessories, shows, sales fairs and workshops to discover.



Young artists

With more then 10,000 visitors each year since its inception, the Labo Ethnik is a revolution in the world of fashion. Yvette Tai, the organizer of the event: "We know Paris is a vital passage for any fashion designer. But these designers can not afford large lounges and expensive catwalks. So it is important to gather them on one platform, which is cheaper, and present them to the press and professionals. "

Tribute to Nelson Mandela

Five promising and internationally recognized designers from the African continent, will show their collections in Paris for the first time. South African David Tlale will present some of his new collections in tribute to "Madiba Nelson Mandela. 92 models will symbolize each year of his life.

The other top designers are Thula Sindi from South africa, Ituen Basi from Nigeria and Cairo-based Soucha from Tunesia And last but least Nigerian Deola Sagoe, who may count Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith as her fans.

Date and Place: Le Labo Ethnik, from 17 to 19 June 2011, at l’Espace des Blancs Manteaux, 48 rue Vieille du Temple - 75004 PARIS

Festival: Rue Créole at la Villette in Paris - 12-15 May 2011

Festival Rue Créole at la Villette in Paris from 12-15 May

A cultural festival with music from Guadeloupe, Martinique and France. With Akiyo a cultural music group from Guadeloupe, Kali a reggae group from Martinique, and Dédé Saint-Prix a Creole group from France who plays the music of Creole European dances of the eighteenth century.

See more information at www.villette.com

French racial quotas for black and Arab football players

A news report that top French soccer officials were considering racial quotas to limit the number of black and Arab players in national training programs has set off a furor in France. Officials have denied the report by investigative news site Mediapart, which quoted what it said were minutes from a Nov. 8 meeting that discussed setting a limit of 30 percent on nonwhite players.

The technical director of the French Football Federation has been suspended by the sports ministry pending an investigation.

The national team coach, Laurent Blanc, who played on France's 1998 World Cup champions, has denied that quotas were being considered. That team was called "black, beurre, blanc" for its successful racial mix of black, Arab and white players -- and led to some criticism from right-winger Jean-Marie Le Pen that it did not represent France.

The racial issue surfaced again last year when France crashed out of the World Cup tournament in South Africa after a training field strike. Black players and a white convert to Islam were blamed as the ringleaders and suspended from the national team. They were heavily criticized as unpatriotic and ungrateful.

Some of the alleged discussion at the November meeting centered on assuring that players shared the same "values" and avoiding investing in players with dual nationality who might go play for their parents' homelands. Read the full story at TheRoot

The styles of “Jeunes Parisiens” (Young Parisians) - Photo book by Hugues Lawson-Body

“Jeunes Parisiens” (Young Parisians) is the first book of Parisian photographer Hugues Lawson. In his book he tried to caputure the different styles of the Parisian youth. It took him 3 years to complete his project and his photo book was released in December 2010.

Hugues Lawson also worked for various companies such as Nike, Ikea, Orange, Kinder Bueno and collaborates with various magazines like Time, L'Equipe Magazine, GQ and Elle. Lawson is born in Togo and lives and works in Paris France.

According to the lifestyle magazine Mail Movement, Hugues Lawson was interested in today's youngster, totally different from those of his generation.

Those that we pass everyday, that we stare, we're trying to understand the attitude, the codes, forgetting that each of us have been there before Hugues Lawson put himself in our place and tried to know more, to do a portrait without scratchs of this new generation, which mixes, tangled and often stay in groups.



"I was surprised by these teens, dancing on African music in their hall, in a city of the 20th district, and obviously, I'm getting old," he explains. "I wanted to learn more about this generation and my work forced me to document myself. Some meetings have resulted in others, some funny ones, crazy, rich... And my one-day models were interested in my approach, and have often seen me as one of their own.



Despite my limited slang and my age, they never treated me as an intruder. I wasn't expecting much naturalness and spontaneity from them. My city, Paris, is cosmopolitan and contrary to popular belief, all the Parisians are not white!

I tried to capture this reality," he continues. "In these tribes, I tried to identify: the leader, the origin, the appurtenance to a movement, the style, and then the details: the fringe in common, metal objects, tattoos, piercings, religious symbols, pointy-toed shoes and some platforms of some of them..."



Published by 19/80 Editions, "Jeunes Parisiens" (Young Parisians) isn't a collection of photos, or one of those famous books compiling the fashion outfits of foreigners crossed in the street. "The fashion balance exists in this book, but it doesn't thunder like on the fashion blogs or magazines.



This book is not a "Fashion" dictionary, it's a book about today's "Young Parisian" concludes Hugues Lawson. Indeed, the book contains some notes and texts by Mark Beauge, William Klein and Oxmo Puccino." (Source: Mail Movement)

An interview with Hugues Lawson


Some links:
http://jeunes-parisiens.tumblr.com
http://next.liberation.fr
http://www.ideabooks.nl

Les Nubians releases New Album "Nu Revolution"

The Grammy nominated Les Nubians, consisting of Paris-born sisters Hélène and Célia Faussart, released their third album, "Nü Revolution" on April 19th 2011.

The 14 track album will feature special guest appearances by Manu Dibango, Eric Roberson, Freshly Ground, Blitz the Ambassador and John Banzaï. According to Hélène, "The main difference between this album and the others is that Nü Revolution is more uptempo. This album is a celebration of life! We wanted to bring and spread this energy, this joy in a time of uncertainty."

Very creative, diverse and fresh new music from the Afropean soul sisters.

Les Nubians - Afrodance

Video pick by Mavis G from North Carolina


And a bonus: Les Nubians - Les Gens (People) ft. Blitz the Ambassador

Via http://hiphopiscoolagain.com

France Honors Poet Aimé Césaire At The Panthéon

France honored late Martinican poet and politician Aimé Césaire Wednesday at the famed Panthéon in Paris. The French government paid tribute to the grand man of letters in a national ceremony nearly three years after his death at the age of 94. The Panthéon pays homage to France’s greatest intellectuals.

Césaire was one of the founding fathers of the "Negritude" movement that celebrated black consciousness. In Paris in the 1930s he helped found the journal Black Student, which gave birth to the idea of “negritude,” a call to blacks to cultivate pride in their heritage. Among his more famous works of literature are Notebook of a Return to my Native Land and Discourse on Colonialism.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy presided over the tribute to the Martinican poet that was attended by more than 1,000 persons inside the Panthéon. Among those present were family, friends and dignitaries. Césaire died April 17, 2008 in Martinique. President Sarkozy dedicated a plaque in Césaire’s memory at the Panthéon. Source Suite101

See pictures of the event at fxgpariscaraibe - "Césaire au Panthéon"

Speech of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, part 1


Part 2

Meemee Nelzy - "L'essentiel" - Neo Soul from Guadeloupe

"L'essentiel" is one of the soulful tracks of the album "Âme Nouvelle" ("New Soul") of Meemee Nelzy.

Meemee Nelzy was born in Paris, France and is a native of the French West Indian Island Guadeloupe.

She is influenced by Hip Hop as well as jazz and Caribbean music, and she is part of the new French wave of neo soul.

Nelzy released her first album "Âme Nouvelle" in 2009. In French and Creole she sings about love, human relationships and struggles in life.

"L'essentiel" live on TV on Guadeloupe 1ère (2011)

French Hip Hop: Suprême NTM - "Qu'est ce qu'on attend" ( "What are we wating for")

The song "Qu'est ce qu'on attend", "What are we wating for.. to set everything on fire" (1998) of the former French Hip Hop group Suprême NTM is probably one the most controversial songs in the history of French Hip Hop.

This song was accused among others by some politicians to have contributed in unleashing the social riots that France has known in October 2005, according to wikipedia.

Rappers Joey Starr (born Didier Morville who is of Martinican origin) and Kool Shen (born Bruno Lopès) founded the Suprême NTM. Their six albums were released by Sony Music Entertainment.

With English subtitles


The news is that rapper Joey Starr promoted poker in a commercial.

Poet Aimé Césaire honoured at the Panthéon in Paris on April 6, 2011

Aimé Césaire the poet and politician from Martinique will be honored by the French Republic on April 6, 2011 with a national tribute and ceremony at the Pantheon in Paris.

Two years after the renowned writer and statesman passed away, a plaque will be sealed in the heart of the famous French monument dedicated to the burials of personalities acknowledged as great men by the French Republic.

According to Unesco it will be the third plaque which pays tribute to a man of African descent. Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803) and Louis Delgrès (1766-1802) were similarly honored in 1998. In accordance with his wishes, Aimé Césaire’s ashes will remain in Martinique hence they won’t be transferred into the monument.

(Alexandre Dumas, père was reburied in 2002 in the Pantheon 132 years after his death.)

On the occasion of the 2004 International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition, UNESCO awarded the Toussaint Louverture Prize to the author, in acknowledgement to his contribution to the struggle against domination, racism and intolerance.

Worldwide considered as a humanistic and universal poet, his candidature was proposed for the Nobel Prize of peace by two European universities in Belgium and Sweden in 2006.

Commemorating his death, UNESCO also paid a special tribute to the Poet of Negritude on 22 May 2008.

* Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803) is a freed slave who led the fight for Haiti’s independence.
* Louis Delgrès (1766-1802) is a revolutionary soldier who took part into the resistance while the re-establishment of slavery by the Napoleonean troups in Guadeloupe. (Source: UNESCO)

The ceremony will be broadcasted live on France 2 and the overseas network channels first (France Ô).

A tribute to Monsieur Aimé Césaire


Remembering Aimé Césaire, 1913-2008


In this video Aimé Césaire speaks about his first encounter with
Léopold Sédar Senghor in Paris in the 1930s. Alongside Léon-Gontran Damas, and Léopold Sédar Senghor, Aimé Césaire established the concept of Négritude. Négritude helped to guide Sénégal into independence with pride

Les Twins - Hip-Hop dance duo from France

Via: NEO.Griot
Les Twins are a hip-hop dance duo consisting of the identical twins Laurent and Larry Bourgeois from Sarcelles, France. Their dance style is new style, a type of house hip-hop dance. They have made appearances on various dance competitions, such as Juste Debout, Battle of the Stylez, World of Dance and Urban Dance Showcase.

"Les Twins" on Planet Funk (Speak Out)

Meet Miles Marshall Lewis - An African-American writer and music journalist in Paris

Miles Marshall Lewis is an African-American writer/editor in Paris France. He has published books a few books and has written for top magazines & newspapers like Vibe, Rolling Stone, and the Village Voice.

And he also has a great blog with stories about his live in France and with interviews with American black people in France.

Check out his blog at www.furthermucker.com, and his stories 'French like me' on his blog here.

Miles Marshall Lewis in his own words. "I was born in 1970, the year Toni Morrison wrote The Bluest Eye and Afrika Bambaataa started to deejay.



My writing life began eleven years later, when Marvel Comics published my letter to the editor of Captain America.

Growing up in the Bronx during the 70s endeared me to hiphop culture from the start, hearing Kool DJ AJ spin records in St. Mary’s Park outside my grandma’s South Bronx window.

Penning magazine cover stories about Erykah Badu, Mos Def, A Tribe Called Quest and Nas, I’ve also assumed positions at XXL (deputy editor), Vibe (music editor), BET.com (deputy music editor) and Russell Simmons’ Oneworld (literary editor) from 1998-2004. ...

As a native New Yorker, I felt the city change post-September 11 — NYPD backpack searches on the train, armed guards patrolling Grand Central Station — and pissed off over a Bush-misled America, I moved to Paris in the spring of 2004.

For over a year, I wrote about my experiences as a postmodern bohemian B-boy in a 21st-century City of Light for PopMatters.com, a column called “Paris Noir.”

My encounters with French hiphop and black culture in Paris, in addition to marrying a Martinican woman and helping raise our two sons, have led to my next book, as yet untitled.

With one foot ever in NYC, I founded Bronx Biannual in 2006 as an urbane urban literary journal full of essays and fiction from celebrated and unsung writers who share the hiphop aesthetic. "

Read the whole story at his Blog www.furthermucker.com

see a recent interview with Lewis here

Bonus
Video of a winter tour through Paris (BlackAtlas/Nelson George)

Beblack TV – New Black French TV channel

Alfred Jocksan (agence de Presse GHM)
BeBlack TV is the new black TV channel in France. The channel will broadcast black culture programs for families and young adults. The channel was launched January 20the in Paris by the founder, Guadeloupe-born and French Guianan, Gadjar Sebastian (30).

Present at the launch party were his team, and personalities and celebrities in the broadcasting and music business. Among them French R&B singer Lynnsha and Zouk singer Sir Wesley. See a full photo report at FXG

BeBlack TV will be available in metropolitan France (Freebox) , the French West Indies, Guiana and Reunion (Mediaserv).
Website: www.beblack.tv

Ayo is back! World Premiere On December 21st 2010

World Premiere! On Tuesday December 21st 2010, Ayo invites you to listen exclusively to her new single. Go to www.ayomusic.com

World Fencing Champion Maureen Nisima joins the champion supporters backing Annecy Olympics Bid 2018 (France)

Following on from her first individual world Epée title at the World Championships held in November at the Grand Palais in Paris, French fencer Maureen Nisima has come out behind the French bid to host the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, reports Around the Rings.

This new title adds to Maureen Nisima's already impressive record, with 2 world team titles in 2008 and 2008. The champion, already a figurehead in the fencing world, adds her name to the list of sports champions backing Annecy's bid for 2018.

Video of Nisima giving fencing lessons to a journalist


Maureen Nisima was born in Bondy France (1981) and is of Martinique origin. The French national fencing team has many fencers from the Caribbean and French Guiana.

Black French minister Rama Yade sacked after Sarkozy's cabinet reshuffle

The French government has become more white and more rightwing in a reshuffle that has included the sacking of two ministers handpicked by Nicolas Sarkozy to bring ethnic diversity to the cabinet, wrote the Guardian

Senegalese-born Rama Yade, the sports minister, and Fadéla Amara, the minister for urban policies, lost their jobs in the shake-up that also signalled an end to the French president's policy of "openness" to his political opponents and to racial minorities.

Patrick Lozés, president of the Representative Council for Black Associations, expressed his disappointment on his Blog. "November 14, 2010 is a sad day for the diversity in the Republic. Nicolas Sarkozy, announced December 17, 2008: The diversity at the bottom of the country must be illustrated by diversity at the head of the country. This is not a choice, this is an obligation." He added, "I note barely two years later that the commitment was not kept."

About Rama Yade Lozés wrote, “I particularly regret the departure of Rama Yade from the government. Her leaving is a heavy symbol for all French from visible minorities."

Filmmaker Euzhan Palcy Hounoree of the French Afro-Caribbean Arts Awards

Filmmaker Euzhan Palcy is the Honouree of the French Afro-Caribbean Arts Awards 2010

Euzhan Palcy is a film director writer and producer from Martinique, French West Indies. Notable for being the first black female director produced by a major Hollywood studio (MGM) for "A Dry White Season" the only female filmmaker who directed Marlon Brando (she brought him back to the screen).

In 2006 Euzhan Palcy was one the artists who was featured in the commercial-free presentation "Infiniti In Black", which was sponsored by Nissan Motors for the Black History Month.

The winners of "Les Trophées des Arts Afro-Caribéens" - Afro-Caribbean Arts Awards 2010 (France)

On Monday November 8the the fifth edition of the "Les Trophées des Arts Afro-Caribéens" ("Afro-Caribbean Arts Awards") was held in Paris France.

And the winners are:
Best artist: Kaf Malbar (photo)
Best album: Groove Lélé & Ernst Reijseger – Zembrocal Musical
Best clip: Youssoupha, "L’effet papillon"
Best group: Carimi
Revelation of the Year: Kim
Best essay: Mohammed Aïssaoui, "L’affaire de l’esclave Furcy"
Best novel: Léonora Miano, "Les Aubes Ecarlates"
Best documentary: Pascal Lamche, "Black diamond"
Best film: Rachid Bouchareb, "London River"
Honour Award: Euzhan Palcy

Download: Les Nubians vs. Floetry

Via Soul:UK
DJ1derful has put together a great mix for Grown Folks Music, featuring two of the best soul duos in recent memory, Floetry and Les Nubians. You can stream/download the mix below (click on the arrow to download).


TRACKLIST
Les Nubians – Makeda
Floetry – My Apology
Les Nubians – Liberté
Floetry – Blessed 2 Have
Les Nubians – Me & Me
Floetry – Fun
Les Nubians – One Step Forward
Raheem DeVaughn – Marathon (feat. Floetry)
Les Nubians – John Banzi (Feat. Lipstik) – Rendezvous
Floetry – Floetic
Les Nubians – Bebela
The Floacist Featuring Josh and Kissi B. – Life in 3D
Les Nubians – Desolee (Roots mix-demo version)
Floetry – Say Yes
Les Nubians – Temperature Rising
Floetry – Opera
Les Nubians – Princesse Nubienne
Floetry – If I Was a Bird