By Sacha Howarth at Million Person Project

I woke up at 5 a.m., surrounded by mosquito netting. In the bunk below me, Heather shifted in her sleep and the netting pulled a bit where her feet pushed up against it. Outside, a rooster crowed, despite it still being pitch black outside, and I realized I was not going to be able to fall back asleep.

It was my first morning in Uganda, and as I lay there and contemplated surrendering to the jetlag by opening my book, I heard a strange sound coming from just outside my window: sshh sshh sshh. The window overlooked a modest courtyard between the main house and the guest house in the back. There was a small patio and a well kept loose gravel path leading between the houses, and where ordinarily there would have been grass, there was dirt, of the rich, red kind you find here in Uganda. I peeked through the window to spy a man – the night watchman –raking the dirt. Sshh sshh sshh sshh.

I thought this was just the weirdest thing. Raking the dirt? There weren’t even any trees around to produce leaves that could fall on the dirt and therefore necessitate it being raked. Also, it was 5 in the morning. Was this even part of his job?

Later that afternoon, sitting on the porch, I told Heather what I had heard.

“He must have been so bored,” she said. “What else is he going to do? He’s just been sitting there all night.”

“Welp, I’ve got this rake,” I laughed. “I guess I’ll rake something…”

We shook our heads at him.

Two days later, we were in the capital city of Kampala and crammed into the back of a mutatu, a 14-seat van into which the drivers commonly pack 20 or so hot, sweaty passengers. We were headed for Bwaise, the largest and worst slum in Kampala, with our friend Mohammed, who leads tours of the slum in order to fund his community empowerment organization.

The slum was unlike anything I have ever seen. Ever since I had stepped off the plane, I felt like I had been observing poverty through a screen, as though the window of the taxi was a television tuned to some PBS documentary. That detachment abruptly ended once we passed the row of houses at the exterior of the slum.

The pervading smell was of charcoal or garbage. There were no roads, only dirt paths that led behind shanty houses made of rusted pieces of corrugated iron leaned up against hastily-assembled walls of clay or scrap wood. Tiny canals ran through the slum, but held only milky puddles of moisture and they appeared to serve more as giant waste collection troughs, or latrines.

Apparently every time it rained, these canals would overflow and the neighborhood would flood. Everywhere there were piles of raw sewage that roaming chickens would climb over and peck at. Emaciated and mangy cows used their noses to rummage through the garbage for something edible. Children would call to us, “Ay, muzungu!” and when we looked over would wave and smile sheepishly, while their mothers sat glumly on the dirt in front of their houses, watching. We saw few men, but the ones we passed would leer or scowl. We were glad to have Mohammed with us.

We were shown where Mohammed’s organization meets, as well as the free elementary school he runs and supports. We met a woman who takes care of the babies that sex workers abandon at the door of Mohammed’s office. Near the end of the tour, we greeted an old woman who sat in her doorway, holding a baby, while two older children toddled around the dirt in front of the house.

A deaf girl with burns all down one side of her face ran up to Mohammed and hugged him around the middle. Mohammed explained that the old woman was a pimp; she rents her room out to people who want to use her bed for sex, and Mohammed’s organization gives her condoms to distribute to the sex workers that use her room. We stood there and gave the woman a bag of rice we had brought and we talked about what this woman would do for money if she stopped renting out her bed, and suddenly, floating out over the top of the corrugated iron wall at the side of the yard, came the sounds of a choir singing an African hymn.

There was a church just over the fence, and they were practicing. I looked at the deaf girl and I looked at the old female pimp and I looked at the dirt and the strip of cloth that covered the doorway, and I listened to the hymn and I felt that documentary feeling again. It was too much. The music didn’t deserve to be the soundtrack of this depraved place and this desperate scene, and these people didn’t deserve to be the witnesses.

Back at our hostel in Kampala, Heather and I sat facing each other. Shell-shocked, we hadn’t really been able to talk about what we’d seen until now. We stared at our pizza and stared at our wine and mustered up an appetite. We began trading memories from the afternoon, focusing on the visit to the old woman pimp and the deaf girl. “What do you do?” Heather asked. “What do you do when that’s what you live in and you don’t go to school and you don’t have a family and you don’t have anywhere else to go?”

It was as if the words fell out of my mouth on their own: “I guess you rake the dirt,” I said. And we just stared at each other.

We’ve been talking a lot about how the Million Person Project seeks to recognize the shared humanity in all of us. We all find ways of passing the time; we all have that thing that we do that takes our mind off of things or alleviates boredom, or that is comforting or habitual. It’s why Heather and Julian founded this project that reaches out to all kinds of people and reminds us that above all, we are all just people who are each in pursuit of love and happiness. And if your home is a one-room clay shanty and the door is a torn piece of cloth; if your color palette is limited to browns and grays; if all you have to do is turn your head to catch a whiff of urine or burning charcoal – if you’ve never seen a flower – you do what you can to that bit of dirt in front of your house.

The mainstream media is going to have to change its narrative. How can you say that we’re apathetic and lazy when 33,000 tune in to watch the president address the nation?

On Tuesday, the League put on #BarackTalk, our second annual State of the Union panel and watch party. From hip-hop stars to journalists, the panelists discussed some of the most pressing issues of our time in the context of the speech. More importantly, twenty-somethings from around the country tweeted at a mind-blowing rate about what the state of our union is.

From unemployment to college affordability to the prison industrial complex, you spoke up; and when 33,000 people get together, the powers that be can’t afford not to listen.

What makes politicians quake in their boots is that we don’t simply pay attention to what’s going on it our world. We vote.

(Don’t forget, if you need to update your voter registration to your new address, do it online right now).

Missed the live broadcast? Check it out here.

A word on the legacy of the activist and the recognition of America’s only holiday for social justice:

After Beyonce gave birth to daughter Blue Ive Carter on Saturday in New York City, Jay-Z has penned a song for his new daughter.

Words out – Blue Ivy was conceived in Paris. #InfantsInParis

The Empire is being built right in front of your eyes. The dynasty continues and some more shit like that. #Salute Father time a.k.a. Mr. Nice Watch. Be drops a bundle of Joy, and Jay drops off a new exclusive for our enjoyment. This timeless track was made a while back and has been preserved as a gift to his, then, unborn.

Jay-Z Glory (Ft. B.I.C) by illRoots

By Fuzzy

1. Chris Brown x Busta “Look At Me Now”

2. Waka Flocka Flame “No Hands”

3. Big Sean – Marvin & Chardonnay

4. DJ Khaled x Drake x Rick Ross “I’m On One”

5. Lil Wayne “How To Love”

Lil Wayne – How To Love (OFFICIAL VIDEO) by vjarmanisuits

By Anthony Kennedy of Cashmere Agency

As the resident video games expert, I’m providing the definitive Top 5 games of 2011. I presented these in order of release.

1. Portal 2 ( Electronic Arts, PS3/360): Simple, but addictive gameplay about using a portal creation gun to move from one area of a stage to the next, in order to get to the main computer and save the world! This game consumed my life for a week.


2. L.A. Noire (Rockstar Games, PS3/360): The annual open world game from Rockstar. Not as good as their last game, the epic Red Dead Redemption and the gameplay moves a little too slow, but the story alone is better than any game this year.



3. Battlefield 3 ( Electronic Arts, PS3/360): If you’re going to defeat terroism, this is the game to do it with. The controls were super tight, missions challenging, but fun and the multiplayer is everything that a certain other FPS was not. If you have a Sony 3D TV or NVidia equipped computer, play this in 3D!



4. Batman Arkham City (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, PS3/360) – The sequel to the 2009 Batman: Arkham Asylum lives up to its predecessor. The most authentic Batman gaming expereince has more puzzles and crazy hard boss battles. Hard difficulty setting is not for rookies.



5. Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo, 3DS): Sometimes you just wanna have fun playing video games and the newest Mario Kart, in 3D no less, provides that in spades. I have not been this animated for a win and upset at losing with any game (including Madden) more than Mario Kart. Take it online for multiplayer races to extend the fun.

Another good song from Kendrick Lamar – this one is an ode to a young woman running the streets. Reminds me of modern-day “Brenda’s Got a Baby.”

By Cierra Brown, Wisconsin League

1. God’s grace
2. My Family and my dog
3. Friends
4. Job
5. New home
6. Opportunity to attend school
7. My health
8. My intelligence and talent
9. Strength and determination to persevere
10. Having all my basic needs met

We’ve got 50 percent unemployment for young people ages 18-24.

The jobs crisis has driven our friends and family without an occupation to #Occupy cities across the country. It’s time to stand up for legislation that will jump-start the economy and get kids off the street and back to work!

#ThisIsWhatDemocracyLooksLike:

Check out the exclusive interview with Eyon Biddle, Milwaukee County Supervisor.

This week’s episode features Kwesi, our Ohio State Director. Check the vibrant conversation on inspiring young people, building power in our communities and protecting voting rights. Much love to the hosts for putting together a thought-provoking show week after week!

Join the conversation on twitter by following @OhioLeague @ellecee404 and @BrianKeith2039

According to the Burlington Free Press:

“A man was removed from a green tent where blood was evident. There is no information on whether the person is alive or dead. About a half dozen police cars were at the scene at about 2:20 p.m.

Wednesday night protesters rocked to internationally known gypsy punk musicians from Gogol Bordello. Today protesters are consoling each other.”

We’ll keep you updated as we hear more. No word on who fired the shots or the condition of the victim.

By: Cierra Brown, the Wisconsin League

There are so many black men and women trying to change and tame the texture of their natural hair. African-Americans have spent years believing that what naturally grows from their head is inappropriate for employment. However, there has been a return uprising  in the African-American culture. Much like the ’70s and the Afro fad, blacks all over are beginning to embrace their hair in the natural form. Only this time the question is: Is going natural going to crush the chances of African-Americans becoming employed?

For decades, women have been encouraged to relax and texturize their hair not only to better manage it, but to subconsciously or consciously conform. When working in a professional environment, people feel obligated to fit in with their fellow co-workers. When I think of a professional job position – whether it be at a bank, law firm, school, at McDonald’s, I instantly imagine people with specific uniforms, business suits, ties, clean-cut, and what America would call a “manicured” look from head to toe. In this mental image, I don’t picture people with locks, dreads, or curly Afros; instead, I see men with short cuts and women with straight hair. This is the image that people all over have been taught was expected in the professional world , but is it the only way for African-Americans to get or keep a job?

I have been natural my entire life, in the sense that I have never had any type of chemical used to relax my hair. However, to look and feel presentable, I have always felt obligated to keep my hair flat-ironed and “tamed” as some like to put it. I enjoy the look of my natural hair when it is wet, but when it begins to frizz and shrivel it’s not the best. In my opinion, it’s not the best is because it becomes difficult to manage  and style in a way that I am comfortable with. Therefore, wearing my hair straight is cute, manageable, and stylish- this is how most women view straight hair.

Especially when we are speaking about going to work. Granted, in the field that I work in, I can have pink and blue hair and it would be accepted. However, if I had a job interview for another company, I would most likely straighten my hair and be sure that it was a “normal” color. I would do this to look more professional and prepared for the job. However, why wouldn’t I just wear my hair in a cute natural curly style? Besides, it is a lot quicker than spending hours flat-ironing and burning my hair just to obtain a “professional” and “appropriate” look. I must admit that I am guilty for having a conformed mind set , but happy to say that I am realizing the errors of my way thoughts and learning to embrace myself – hair and all.

Now let’s talk about the men and women who prefer being themselves completely. Should they be treated differently or discriminated against in the workforce for wearing their hair in a less conforming manner? Of course, you answered no, but that isn’t always the case.

Employers have chosen the black chick with straight hair over the chick with the fresh locks who probably had more job experience than Ms. Straight Hair to begin with. This happens in more than enough cases because some employers believe that people with a more “manicured” look are more responsible, professional, reliable, and will probably take the job more seriously than the naturalist. This point of view is faker than a million dollar bill, but it exists.

I recently read an article about a man who was denied employment at a moving company due to him rocking his long dreads. He has now filed a lawsuit against the company for discrimination. The company defended themselves by informing press that it is in their job requirement for all employees to keep a well-kept and manicured look. Correct me if I am wrong, but since when were dreads considered not manicured? If the person wearing them keeps them neatly locked and clean, isn’t that considered manicured and well-kept in appearance?

By simply viewing this one case of discrimination, I can’t help but wonder how many other employers have the same bias against natural ethnic hair. It doesn’t matter how you prefer to wear your hair. Everything isn’t for everybody, however whether you prefer relaxed hair or kinky locks, you shouldn’t be denied the opportunity of having a job either way. Hair is hair and India Arie made that clear when she created her song “I am NOT my Hair.”

Hair is a small part of who we are and it most certainly doesn’t determine what our attributes, God-given talents, and skills are. Employment is a means for living and if you have what it takes to get the job done, then why should an employer have the right to tell you that you aren’t qualified because you don’t want to change the texture or look of your hair?

One week ago, legendary hip-hop producer, Hi-Tek, starred in our #YoungVoterLive series to talk about the importance of voting and participating in politics for our generation. He stopped by Elementz Hip-Hop Center in Cincinnati for an exclusive interview with R Streetz at Elementz and the League’s Ohio State Director, Kwesi.

Check the video below to hear what he had to say and see some local Cincy hip-hop talent freestyle:

Video streaming by Ustream
Hi-Tek’s #YoungVoterLive appearance was covered by our friends over at GlobalGrind.

GlobalGrind: You’ve been doing a lot of work with the League of Young Voters, why do you think it’s so important to vote?
Hi-Tek: At the end of the day you have to understand that people have marched and died for us to have the opportunity to vote. I feel that it is a way to voice your opinion and a way to change the country, and try to make it a better place to live.
Read the full interview at GlobalGrind.

As a kid growing up in Cincinnati, what issues and challenges did you face?
The biggest challenge was getting out of the ghetto. There weren’t a lot of people who had the mindset of making legit money who I was hanging around with. Becoming an entrepreneur and coming out of that situation, I feel like I did really well for myself, as far as having that discipline and just having the strength and being blessed to come out of a world where you are surrounded by crack, guns and violence.

Do you think that the hip-hop community has done enough to get the word out on voting and the voting process?

Definitely, there is always more work to do. I can’t speak for the whole hip-hop community because I know a lot of us have done a lot, but it’s still not enough until it’s instilled in people’s brains.

Until it’s really instilled in young people’s brains, that it’s just as important as anything else you do in your life, and then we’ll still have more work to do.

He’s got some interesting points. Is making political change all a game? Are we players in the game or are we just being played? You tell me.

Can you go wrong when you put these two talented artists together in a mash-up? Check out the latest remix from Urban Noize inside:

You’ve GOT to see this! At this year’s Put The Guns Down Festival, Dee-1 and Milwaukee’s best rappers came to Urban Underground to show off their skills.

Check out the sneak peek:

Got 10 minutes to watch the full thing?