DEDICATION

This month’s PANTHER NEWSLETTER is dedicated to Petrie Hendrickson (Son of Small Heath) who sadly passed away earlier this month after a long  illness.

 Sunrise:  September 8 1958

Sunset:  21 August 2010 

A son, brother, uncle, husband, Father, friend and visionary leader of our sound system Count Nyah/Leo International back in the 1970’s and 80’s; he will be sorely missed by his family and friends.  Rest in peace my soul brother Petrie.  We know your love-light will continue to shine on them and those you love the most.

Click on THE FEATURED POEM

GREETINGS & NEWS

“Plenty sits still.  Hunger is a wanderer.” 

ZULU PROVERB

 

Greetings and welcome to PANTHER NEWSLETTER ISSUE 10. 

A big shout goes out to our new readers here in the UK, Jamaica and the USA; you know the drill, ‘Welcome aboard; rock and come in.’

This month we have more or less our usual suspects; a unique SPECIAL GUEST, a special FEATURED POEM; the FEATURED ARTICLE and everybody’s favourite THE CULTURE CORNER.   Also this month check out PETRIE’S MUSICAL COA-COA BASKET dedicated to him; his favourite tunes from the vaults of the COUNT NYAH record box. 

So less chat, more reading; enjoy PANTHER NEWSLETTER: ISSUE 10

  

NEWS

  

Manchester City Council  Loses Bob Marley Tribute
Festival Court Case That Could Cost The Tax Payer
£500,000.  Check it out here…

 

Obama Strongly Backs Islam Centre Near 9/11 site.

President Obama delivered a strong defense of a proposed Muslim community centre and mosque near ground zero in Manhattan.  Read on…

A ‘T’ SHIRT NOT TO BUY

This shirt and a bumper sticker version have been circulating the past few months.  The scripture on the T-Shirt reads: Psalms 109:8-10. When you look in the Bible it reads: ‘Let his days be few and let another take his office, Let his children be fatherless, And his wife a widow.  Let his children continually be vagabonds, and beg; Let them seek their bread also from their desolate places.’

So show them that you just don’t buy and wear ANYTHING!  And that you do know what the word of God says.  Click on the ‘T’ Shirt image here…

An interesting Newsletter was posted my way this month called Yes Cuba; the official newsletter of Jamaican Youth and Elders in Solidarity with Cuba .  A fascinating read.

For those of you political, staying with Cuba, another post was delivered which give us snippets of The Reflections of Fidel Castro.  Another fascinating read.

 

OBITUARY

 

The Actor Vonetta McGee  Has Died Aged 65.

She was most famous for her roles In Blaxploitation Films in the 70’s.  More…

 

Abbey Lincoln, Bold and Introspective Jazz Singer Dies At 80.

 Abbey Lincoln, a singer whose dramatic vocal command and tersely poetic songs made her a singular figure in jazz, has died aged 80.  Read on…

 

Gap Band Star Robert Wilson Dies

Robert Wilson, bassist with funk and R&B group the Gap Band, has died at the age of 53.  Continue reading here…

 

SPECIAL GUEST

She hails from Birmingham England where she currently lives and works as the lead practitioner at Reflect Counselling and Personal Empowerment Services.   She has for many years, worked closely with Reach and through her practice (Reflect),  has done some superb work.  She is an experienced counsellor, supervisor, trainer and group facilitator,  who specializes in working with individuals, couples, adults, children and young people.

PANTHER NEWSLETTER is proud to introduce our SPECIAL GUEST this month, a unique woman KAREN MULLINGS.  I hooked up with Karen to reason with her, about her and her works.  Check out her interview with me here…

THE FEATURED POEM

 “To Petrie from all of us; them and those you loved the most.”

Sunrise:  September 8 1958

Sunset:  21 August 2010 

 

PETRIE

© Norman Samuda-Smith 2010

I prayed for you before we met,
not knowing who you would be.
I asked the Lord to send a friend,
one chosen just for me.

I asked that you would be Godly,
with the wisdom of His ways.
A friend to help and guide me,
in the troubles of these days.

So often in life, we need someone,
to listen while we talk.
Someone who will not condemn or judge,
but encourage us as we walk.

The narrow roads we choose to follow
may sometimes make us stumble.
But to have a friend to catch our fall,
teaches us to be humble.

When I asked the Lord to send a friend,
though many came and went.
He gave much more than I ever asked,
for you are the friend He sent.

“Rest now my brother man.”

 

Petrie’s musical Coa-Coa Basket

Click the links below

African Land – Carol Kalphat/Clint Eastwood; Back A Yard – The In Crowd; Balistic Affair – Leroy Smart; Be Thankful – Donovan Careless; Beautiful Rainbow – Leroy Smart; Children of the Ghetto – Senya; Gypsy Woman – Milton Henry; Jah Jah A Come – Everton Dacres; Jerusalem – Devon Irons; Jerusalem Dub; Just Like A River – Mighty Diamonds & Ranking Joe; Mango Walk – The In Crowd; Problems- Horace Andy; Samba Patti – Willie Lindo; Too Late To Turn Back Now – Alton Ellis/Augustus Pablo; We Play Reggae – The In Crowd; When Jah Come – Devon Irons; Country Living – Mighty Diamonds.

Til next month – Everyting Bless

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*All rights reserved.  No part of these poems may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior written permission of the writer Norman Samuda-Smith.*

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FEATURED ARTICLE

Speaker snubs Church to appoint first black Vicar of Westminster -the girl from Montego Bay

By Simon Walters and Jonathan Petre

Last updated at 11:13 PM on 26th June 2010

This interesting article featured in the Daily Mail may have passed you by first time around.  Read it on PANTHER NEWSLETTER here…

NORMSKIS ARTICLE returns next month

THE CULTURE CORNER

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“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture, is like a tree without roots.”

 Marcus Mosiah Garvey (1887-1940)

Every year in October we celebrate BLACK HISTORY MONTH. Black history is with us every second, minute, hour, week, month and year. PANTHER NEWSLETTERS CULTURE CORNER will attempt to enlighten you with what they never told you in your history class. Our story will be told right here – So enjoy the journey of clarification.

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TRIBUTE TO OUR S/HEROES

Mary Fields – A Black gun-totin’ female in the American wild west. She was six feet tall; heavy; tough; short-tempered; two-fisted; powerful; and packed a pair of six-shooters and an eight or ten-gauge shotgun. A legend in her own time, she was also known as ‘STAGECOACH MARY.’

Mary Church Terrell (September 23, 1863 – July 24, 1954), daughter of two former slaves, was one of the first African-American women to earn a college degree. Mary Church became an activist who led several important associations and helped to work for civil rights and suffrage.

Alice Dunbar Nelson (July 19, 1875 – September 18, 1935) was an American poet, journalist and political activist. Among the first generation born free in the South after the Civil War, she was one of the prominent African Americans involved in the artistic flourishing of the Harlem Renaissance. Her first husband was the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar; she then married physician Henry A. Callis; and last married Robert J. Nelson, a poet and civil rights activist.

Hope Patricia Powell, CBE (born 8 December 1966, Lewisham, South East London) is the coach of the England women’s national football team.  Powell is a fully qualified ‘A’ License coach and in 2003 became the first woman to achieve the UEFA Pro License – the highest coaching award available.  As a player, Powell played 66 games for England scoring 35 goals.  She made her England debut at the age of 16, and went on to play in the 1995 FIFA Women’s World Cup, England’s first World Cup appearance. She was also vice-captain of her country. She was appointed as the first ever full-time national coach in 1998 and has led England to the 2001 European Championship, the quarter-finals of the 2005 European Championship, the 2007 World Cup Finals and the final of the 2009 European Championship.

Nathaniel “Nat” Turner (October 2, 1800 – November 11, 1831) was an American slave who led a slave rebellion in Virginia on August 21, 1831 that resulted in 56 deaths among their victims, the largest number of white fatalities to occur in one uprising in the antebellum southern United States. He gathered supporters in Southampton County, Virginia. For his actions, Turner was convicted, sentenced to death, and executed.  In the aftermath, the state executed 56 blacks accused of being part of Turner’s slave rebellion. Two hundred blacks were also beaten and killed by white militias and mobs reacting with violence. Across Virginia and other southern states, state legislators passed new laws prohibiting education of slaves and free blacks, restricting rights of assembly and other civil rights for free blacks, and requiring white ministers to be present at black worship services.

Matthew Alexander Henson (August 8, 1866 – March 9, 1955) was an African American explorer and associate of Robert Peary during various expeditions, the most famous being a 1909 expedition which claimed to be the first to reach the Geographic North Pole. Henson was born on a farm in Nanjemoy, Maryland on August 8, 1866. He was still a child when his parents Lemuel and Caroline died, and at the age of twelve he went to sea as a cabin boy on a merchant ship. He sailed around the world for the next several years, educating himself and becoming a skilled navigator.

James Cleveland “Jesse” Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the long jump, and as part of the 4×100 meter relay team.

Bobby Hutton, or “Lil’ Bobby” (1950 – 1968) was the youngest founding member of the Black Panther Party. He was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas in 1950.  His family moved to California at the age of three when they were visited by nightriders intimidating and threatening blacks in the area. He joined soon after the conception of the BPP in 1966 at the age of 16. On April 6, 1968, he was killed by Oakland Police after a firefight in Oakland, California after he had surrendered and had stripped down to his underwear to prove that he was unarmed. Actor Marlon Brando attended his funeral. De Fremery Park in West Oakland, California, has been unofficially named after him.

Here ends your history lesson for this month.

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 Log on for more CULTURE CORNER next month and remember…

“A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.”

Muhammad Ali

 

Til next month – Everyting Bless.