[Globetrotting]: Tour of Bwaise, Uganda

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.

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The Editor

What Happens When 33,000 Young People Show up to Talk Politics?

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.

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The Editor

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

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

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The Editor

Can Rape Culture End with Art?

Artist Suzanne Lacy is at it again with her anti-rape campaign titled “Three Weeks in January,” based off her original landmark 1977 project “Three Weeks in May.”

Location, location, location. This time around, Lacy’s map was installed prominently on the LAPD’s main campus downtown, outside the Deaton Auditorium. It was one sign of the major support Lacy was given by the city officials.

Her original project centered around an L.A. city map on which she stenciled and stamped the word “RAPE” wherever one was reported within that three-week timeframe.

Lacy plans to continue this project, however, she admits that the social context has changed dramatically since her original project.

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Terin

I See You Strapped Up…

I see you strapped up
ready to let your pistol loose
Jump out boys
In the black navi taking pictures
Life’s a marathon
young soldier, not a race.

What you need to do
is slow down your pace
and just listen
Ya missin the whole world
Settling for chump change
That shyt is Crumbs
And what’s even more strange

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CJ