Today’s kinté Media Links
IM Amon Simutowe
From Wikipedia.org: “Amon Simutowe (born January 6, 1982) is a Zambian chess International Master. His 2421 ELO rating makes him the Zambian #1. He achieved his third Grandmaster norm in August of 2007, being the first sub-Saharan African to do so. [1]. Simutowe is a graduate of the University of Texas at Dallas which he attended on a chess scholarship.” See his stats at uschessleague.com.
“Japan, Ink: Inside the Manga Industrial Complex”
Once you get past the annoying, violent, barbaric advertisement at wired.com, you might see this quote: “As you may have noticed, Japanese comics have gripped the global imagination. Manga sales in the US have tripled in the past four years. Titles like Fruits Basket, Naruto, and Death Note have become fixtures on American best-seller lists. Walk into your local bookstore this afternoon and chances are the manga section is bigger than the science fiction collection.”
“Check yourself: the HHCF Chess Kings Invitational”
Zoneil Maharaj of popandpolitics.com: “On Oct 13, the Hip Hop Chess Federation held the nerdiest event in hip-hop history and the coolest event in chess history: the First Annual Chess Kings Invitational. The event featured a panel discussion on hip-hop, chess and martial arts, an eight-man celebrity chess tournament and a sixteen-student scholarship tournament with a $10,000 purse divided among the participants.”
This event reminds me of playing chess as a kid back in the 70s with dudes with big afros. These childhood experiences showed me without any typical “black power” political speech that we people are powerfully intellectual outside of a European/missionary mode of behavior.
“Women in the African Diaspora Social Network and the AESN/BWIE Website”
An earlier post here in the rasx() context lamented about a lack of Black group organization with modern tech tools. One example of how wrong I am is entitled, “Women in the African Diaspora Social Network and the AESN/BWIE Website.” I could make an excuse and say that these are Black women in Europe so they are under a certain kind of ‘pressure’ to use these tools to organize but I’m not going to do that…