<html><head></head><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:12px"><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84021"><span></span></div><div class="qtdSeparateBR" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84022" dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84035">"It's wrong to think that those organizations just sprouted from one brilliant messianic leader and a bunch of followers, which is pretty much how it looks in this film. The real Black community was important in making Turner's planned rebellion actually happen"</span></div><div class="qtdSeparateBR" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84022" dir="ltr"><font face="Helvetica Neue, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div class="qtdSeparateBR" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84022" dir="ltr"><font face="Helvetica Neue, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84392"><span style="font-size: 13px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84391">I'm sure that's true. For the first nearly 200 years of American history, the Appalachian barrier could not be crossed in any numbers, and slavery was largely confined to a relatively narrow strip along the eastern seaboard. Slaves could be and were bought and sold, but most often to neighbors no more than a few miles away. Family ties were not necessarily broken, and local African-American communities could develop and persist across generations.</span></font></div><div class="qtdSeparateBR" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84022" dir="ltr"><font face="Helvetica Neue, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div class="qtdSeparateBR" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84022" dir="ltr"><font face="Helvetica Neue, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84780"><span style="font-size: 13px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84779">It was only at the very end of the 18th Century that significant numbers of settlers began to move west, and really not until the 1820s-30s, as the indigenous tribes were subdued, that there began large-scale development of the interior South -- Alabama, Mississippi, etc. -- which required huge numbers of slaves. An enormous -- and enormously profitable -- internal slave market came into being. Being sold suddenly meant never being seen again, and the by-then ancient slave communities in places like Southampton County were being devastated precisely at the time of Turner's rebellion. I have to think there was a connection.</span></font></div><div class="qtdSeparateBR" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84022" dir="ltr"><font face="Helvetica Neue, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font></div><div class="qtdSeparateBR" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84022" dir="ltr"><font face="Helvetica Neue, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><br></span></font><br></div><div class="yahoo_quoted" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84032" style="display: block;"> <div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84031"> <div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84030"> <div dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84029"> <font size="2" face="Arial" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84028"> <hr size="1" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84027"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Stuart Levy via Peace <peace@lists.chambana.net><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> Irenka Carney <renny.carney@gmail.com>; "Storm, Rachel Lauren" <rstorm2@illinois.edu> <br><b id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_85163"><span style="font-weight: bold;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_85162">Cc:</span></b> Peace Discuss <peace-discuss@anti-war.net>; C. G. Estabrook <carl@newsfromneptune.com>; Peace <peace@anti-war.net>; occupycu <OccupyCU@lists.chambana.net><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, October 11, 2016 10:35 AM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [Peace] [OccupyCU] upcoming events: "Birth of a Nation" w/panel tonight...<br> </font> </div> <div class="y_msg_container" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84311"><br><div id="yiv5583460976"><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1476157767757_84310">
[I started by omitting the Peace list, but hope the below brings
enough new information that I'll copy Peace too for now. But
please, try to keep arguments off the Peace list - it's intended for
announcements.]<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
tl;dr summary --<br clear="none">
* Artists may make great art. They may also do things that are
repellent, or criminal. The one does not excuse the other.<br clear="none">
* Despite the limitations of the "Birth of a Nation" as a film,
and the cloud over its director/lead actor, it's an important
film. I<b> hope especially that many white people will see it, and
come out wanting to know more.</b><br clear="none">
* You can read Nat Turner's Confessions, made in prison after he
turned himself in. Lou Turner, on the panel on Sunday, recommends
them. Text is on line here (and likely many places): <a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" target="_blank" href="http://www.melanet.com/nat/nat.html">http://www.melanet.com/nat/nat.html</a><br clear="none">
* Many many thanks to the panelists on Sunday! <span class="yiv5583460976m_-59601605961966121974n-j"></span><span class="yiv5583460976m_-59601605961966121974n-j">Robert King, </span><span class="yiv5583460976m_-59601605961966121974n-j">Gus Wood, </span><span class="yiv5583460976m_-59601605961966121974n-j">Malaika Mckee-Culpepper,</span><span class="yiv5583460976m_-59601605961966121974n-j"> Charisse Burden-Stelly, </span><span class="yiv5583460976m_-59601605961966121974n-j">Lou Turner, Sundiata Cha-Jua.</span><br clear="none">
* Glad Paul Mueth worked to make an audio recording - I hope it
turns out to be usable.<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
I have to agree that "manufactured outrage" is an unfair dismissal
of a real issue. St. Clair deserves to be criticized for putting
it that way. Thank you, Rachel.<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
At Sunday night's panel, there was a good deal of discussion over
the accusation against Nate Parker, and over artists (male) with a
history of sexual bad conduct - Woody Allen, Vladimir Nabokov, it's
too easy to name others.<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
Lesson I'd want to take: artists may make great art. They may also
do things that are repellent, or criminal. The one does not excuse
the other.<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
[In another field: the astronomer Geoffrey Marcy has done
groundbreaking work in discovering planets around other stars over
the last several decades. He is also, it was revealed, a serial
sexual harasser of his female graduate students. His scientific
work remains valuable, but that doesn't mean he should be allowed to
have anything to do with students. UCBerkeley didn't respond well
until they were pushed hard. In another case, Christian Ott, Cal
Tech did much better.]<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
One comment from Sunday: Nate Parker has been involved in several
feature films, but the focus on the accusation of rape against him
is brought up strongly now - when he has made a film about a black
rebellion. A few years ago he was prominent in a popular - but
non-threatening - film, Red Tails, about Black pilots in the US air
force. Were people suggesting boycotting that film, or other
Hollywood movies he's been in, over Parker's past? Here's the
double standard David Green mentions - a legitimate claim which
seems to be selectively used to distract from the substance of the
film.<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
There were plenty of complaints in Sunday's panel about the
substance of the film as presenting historical events -
opportunities missed (from what people said that evening, there is
still plenty of room for <i>better</i> historical films about
Turner's slave rebellion!). For example: there were frequent small
rebellions happening everywhere in the years around this time,
though most went no further than a single family. All the great
rebellions - including Toussaint L'Ouverture's in Haiti - were led
by people who were mobile. (L'Ouverture was a livery driver, and
the French colonizers had lots of parties to display their
wealth!) Mobile people could gather information, and organize
people, and quietly plan and build an organization, over years of
work. Turner's preaching travels must have been opportunities for
organizing as well. How did movements get built? How did people
come to know each other well enough that they'd trust one another
with their lives? We don't see anything like that here.<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
It's wrong to think that those organizations just sprouted from one
brilliant messianic leader and a bunch of followers, which is pretty
much how it looks in this film. The real Black community was
important in making Turner's planned rebellion actually happen - a
date of July 4th had been set, but Turner got cold feet. The
community pushed him to go forward, and the actual uprising came in
late August. How were those tensions expressed?<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
The grievances against the slaveowners look personal in the film -
brutality, rape - but they had an economic foundation as well. A
depression had started in agricultural prices in 1819 - the bursting
of a banking bubble! (Grievances against those same bankers were
important in the 1830s rise of Andrew Jackson, populist and scourge
of the Native Americans.) Slaveowners responded to the loss of
income. Some sold their slaves south to Georgia. Some hired
brutal overseers to squeeze more labor out of their slaves, as the
film does show. <br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
Some curious facts are preserved in the film: there <i>was</i> an
actual annular solar eclipse, taken as a sign that the time had come
- in February of the year of the rebellion, 1831, and Southampton
County VA was nearly on its center line. Turner, who had
(pre-rebellion) escaped and fasted in the wilderness, had visions
during his fast, including of blood coming from the corn, and of
black and white angels wrestling in the sky.<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
Lou Turner, on the panel, recommended to us Nat Turner's
Confessions, dictated in prison after he turned himself in. They
became maybe the first American best-seller book. (Text is <a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" target="_blank" href="http://www.melanet.com/nat/nat.html">on line here</a> and
surely elsewhere.) The film doesn't try to show anything about
them. And it only hints at the great influence Turner's rebellion
had going forward.<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
It really was a wonderful panel (whose good comments the notes above
don't begin to summarize). Thanks to all who took part! Paul
Mueth made an audio recording - I hope it turns out to be usable.<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
And even with its limitations, this looks to be an important
film. I hope people, especially white people, will see it.<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
<div class="yiv5583460976yqt7251310139" id="yiv5583460976yqt88394"><div class="yiv5583460976moz-cite-prefix">On 10/10/16 2:44 PM, Irenka Carney
wrote:<br clear="none">
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">I couldn't agree more, and that is spectacularly
well put, Rachel!</div>
<div class="yiv5583460976gmail_extra"><br clear="none">
<div class="yiv5583460976gmail_quote">On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 2:38 PM, Storm,
Rachel Lauren via Peace <span dir="ltr"><<a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:peace@lists.chambana.net" target="_blank" href="mailto:peace@lists.chambana.net">peace@lists.chambana.net</a>></span>
wrote:<br clear="none">
<blockquote class="yiv5583460976gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div lang="EN-US">
<div class="yiv5583460976m_-5960160596196612197WordSection1">
<div class="yiv5583460976MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;">“Don’t let
the manufactured outrage about what Parker may or
may not have done as a teenager deter you from
seeing this liberating film.”</span></i></div>
<div class="yiv5583460976MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv5583460976MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;">I’m
disappointed by this endorsement of a message/an
op-ed that dismisses concerns about violence against
women as “manufactured outrage” on a listserv
allegedly concerned with anti-violence and
peace-building. I think we need deeper conversations
about gender and race-based violence and a
recognition that we can’t separate war and
structural violence from interpersonal violence.
</span></div>
<div class="yiv5583460976MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv5583460976MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;">See the film,
sure—but rather than dismiss outrage as
“manufactured” and sexual assault allegations as
dismissible because of a lapse in time or worse yet,
because Parker was a “teenager,” understand that
sexual assault survivors are frequently disbelieved,
blamed for their own victimization, and failed by
the criminal justice system. Parker’s victim,
clearly suffering from trauma both from the assault
and the aftermath, took her own life after no one
was held accountable for the harm she experienced.
As people committed to anti-war, anti-violence, and
social justice— we must be able to hold our own
accountable.
</span></div>
<div class="yiv5583460976MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv5583460976MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv5583460976MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1f497d;"> </span></div>
<div>
<div style="border:none;border-top:solid #b5c4df 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in;">
<div class="yiv5583460976MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;">
Peace [mailto:<a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:peace-bounces@lists.chambana.net" target="_blank" href="mailto:peace-bounces@lists.chambana.net">peace-bounces@lists. chambana.net</a>]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>C. G. Estabrook via Peace<br clear="none">
<b>Sent:</b> Sunday, October 09, 2016 7:58 PM<br clear="none">
<b>To:</b> Stuart Levy<br clear="none">
<b>Cc:</b> Peace Discuss; occupycu; Peace<br clear="none">
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Peace] [OccupyCU] upcoming
events: "Birth of a Nation" w/panel tonight...</span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="yiv5583460976MsoNormal"> </div>
<div>
<div class="yiv5583460976MsoNormal">[A good note on Birth of a Nation
from the editor of CounterPunch, Jeffrey St Clair]</div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="yiv5583460976MsoNormal"> </div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="yiv5583460976MsoNormal">Styron’s Historic Libel<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
I never took to William Styron’s writing. He aspired
to be Virginia’s William Faulkner, but Styron never
had the master’s heart or humor. Behind those
ornate, fractured, Cubist sentences, Faulkner was
a writer who was haunted the barbarities of his own
nation’s history and he had a deep feeling for those
on the losing end: the blacks, the poor, the
dispossessed and, especially, the women, all
straining under the cruel shadow of the debased
Southern aristocracy. Check out Light in August, a
searing testament to Faulkner’s extraordinary
empathy.<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
By contrast, William Styron seemed obsessed by the
failures of his own mind, which can make for
powerful fiction in the hands of Dostoevsky. But
Styron was no Dostoevsky, either. Styron’s
self-loathing is projected onto his characters,
nowhere more morbidly than in his book The
Confessions of Nat Turner. Styron’s portrait of
the black revolutionary is depraved. His Turner is
almost subhuman, a kind of black Caliban driven by
animal instincts and wild emotions that overwhelm
his intellect and sense of morality. This is
white fantasy, since we know very little about the
man himself, except for the brutal treatment he
received from the Virginia slave masters. Styron’s
own family were slaveowners and the most generous
reading of the novel is as a kind of psychological
exercise to purge those ancestral demons, at the
expense of one of the most heroic black figures in
American history.<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
My familial roots grow deep into the Virginia
piedmont country and I went to school in DC, where I
got to know many Virginia writers–novelists,
essayists and poets. Few had any respect for Styron;
some were embarrassed for him. Styron later blamed
the hostile reaction toConfessions from black
writers and intellectuals, such as Cecil Brown, for
the onset of his crippling episodes of writer’s
block, which seems like one more case of blaming the
victims. Once Styron was considered one of the three
Great White Male Hopes for the American novel, along
with Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer. Now Styron
is regarded, if at all, for Darkness Visible, his
rather austere chronicle of his battles with
depression. Perhaps there’s a measure of cold
justice in that fate.<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
Alexander Cockburn used to bump into the Styrons,
Bill and Rose, when he lived on Cape Cod. He adored
Rose and spoke glowingly to me of their dinner
conversations. Alex claimed that Bill was
usually plastered by 4 pm, babbling incoherencies
deep into the evening.<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
Nat Turner’s life and fiery uprising against the
slaveowners has been redeemed from Styron’s libels
by Nathan Parker’s powerful new film,Birth of a
Nation. Don’t let the manufactured outrage about
what Parker may or may not have done as a teenager
deter you from seeing this liberating film. Watch
the movie and judge it on its own merits. I bet
that, like me, you’ll leave the theater uplifted
with a joyous anger, rather than depressed, which is
exactly the way revolutionary art should make you
feel.</div>
</div>
<div>
<div class="yiv5583460976MsoNormal"> </div>
</div>
<div class="yiv5583460976MsoNormal"> </div>
<div>
<blockquote style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt;">
<div>
<div class="yiv5583460976MsoNormal">On Oct 9, 2016, at 1:33 PM,
Stuart Levy via OccupyCU <<a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:occupycu@lists.chambana.net" target="_blank" href="mailto:occupycu@lists.chambana.net">occupycu@lists.chambana.net</a>>
wrote:</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<div class="yiv5583460976MsoNormal"><b><br clear="none">
7pm Sun 10/9 *tonight* - "Birth of a Nation"
</b>film at the Art Theater, <br clear="none">
with panel discussion to follow. (The film
is showing at many other times too over the
next couple of weeks, but this is the only
panel.)</div>
<div class="yiv5583460976MsoNormal"><span class="yiv5583460976m_-59601605961966121974n-j">Nate
Parker's acclaimed film about Nat Turner's
slave revolt addresses U.S. history and
revolutionary violence, and raises several
necessary specters of discussion - on &
offscreen.</span><br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
<span class="yiv5583460976m_-59601605961966121974n-j">More
info: <a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" target="_blank" href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.arttheater.coop_the-2Dbirth-2Dof-2Da-2Dnation_&d=DQMFaQ&c=8hUWFZcy2Z-Za5rBPlktOQ&r=qrCrurDpof7mX6mA8TYygcKOyBgPI419CfXxtOtcR_s&m=1CkqDiXcsARDC7d6RLvCevvBfm38FfABeXR3nihqGeo&s=bgJpqIjk-Vgbs6ZfsOY5Yf_oTgFdL8hagBPXM73GTFM&e=">
http://www.arttheater.coop/ the-birth-of-a-nation/</a>
</span><br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
<span class="yiv5583460976m_-59601605961966121974n-j">Post-show
panel:</span><br clear="none">
<span class="yiv5583460976m_-59601605961966121974n-j">Malaika
Mckee-Culpepper (Department of African
American Studies, UIUC)</span><br clear="none">
<span class="yiv5583460976m_-59601605961966121974n-j">Charisse
Burden-Stelly (Department of African
American Studies, UIUC)</span><br clear="none">
<span class="yiv5583460976m_-59601605961966121974n-j">Robert
King (Men Against Rape and Sexual Assault
and the Breakfast Club)</span><br clear="none">
<span class="yiv5583460976m_-59601605961966121974n-j">Lou
Turner (Department of African American
Studies, UIUC)</span><br clear="none">
<span class="yiv5583460976m_-59601605961966121974n-j">Moderated
by Sundiata Cha-Jua (Department of
African-American Studies, UIUC)</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div class="yiv5583460976MsoNormal"> </div>
</div>
</div>
<br clear="none">
______________________________ _________________<br clear="none">
Peace mailing list<br clear="none">
<a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:Peace@lists.chambana.net" target="_blank" href="mailto:Peace@lists.chambana.net">Peace@lists.chambana.net</a><br clear="none">
<a rel="nofollow" shape="rect" target="_blank" href="https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace">https://lists.chambana.net/ mailman/listinfo/peace</a><br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
</blockquote>
</div>
<br clear="none">
<br clear="all">
<div><br clear="none">
</div>
-- <br clear="none">
<div class="yiv5583460976gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">
<div style="font-family:arial;font-size:small;"><font face="arial black, sans-serif"><b>ɪ'rɛn.</b><b>kə</b></font><font face="Lucida Sans Unicode"> </font><br clear="none">
</div>
<span style="font-family:georgia, serif;"><b>ɪ</b>: like in </span><b style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;background-color:rgb(249,249,249);font-family:georgia, serif;">i</b><span style="line-height:19.200000762939453px;background-color:rgb(249,249,249);font-family:georgia, serif;">t</span><br clear="none">
<span style="font-family:georgia, serif;"><b>rɛn</b> : like a </span><b style="font-family:georgia, serif;">wren</b><br clear="none">
<div><font face="georgia, serif"><b>kə</b>: like in <b>cu</b>t</font></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote></div>
<br clear="none">
</div></div><br><div class="yqt7251310139" id="yqt13653">_______________________________________________<br clear="none">Peace mailing list<br clear="none"><a shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:Peace@lists.chambana.net" href="mailto:Peace@lists.chambana.net">Peace@lists.chambana.net</a><br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace" target="_blank">https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace</a><br clear="none"></div><br><br></div> </div> </div> </div></div></body></html>