Thursday, March 25, 2010

Stacey Muhammad's new film will be screening in NY on Friday March 26th!


INTELLIGENTNEWZNET
INFORMING the HIP-HOP COMMUNITY

New York Get Ready!!!

Stacey Muhammad of Wildseed Films will be in Brooklyn, NY on Friday, March 26th @ The Spike Lee Screening Room at Long Island University

Spike Lee Screening Room at Long Island University
1 University Plaza
Brooklyn, New York

Time: 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Doors open promptly at 7:00 pm
Screening starts at 8:00 pm

In Celebration of Women's History Month, the IFNY (Independent Film New York) will highlight the contributions of Women filmmakers to the independent film community. At this month's IFNY Premiere Screening Series, we're going to highlight and premiere the following works;

UNTITLED by Natasha Ononogbo

Out of Our Right Minds, Trauma, Depression and the Black Woman by Stacey Muhammad The official trailer can be viewed at http://www.vimeo.com/8067851

TRIBES produced by Sonya Wells

Baggage by Sonya Malfa

Amazon Women by Kiara Jones

and a surprise premiere for all of you.

There will be a $10 doanation at the door

Panel to follow screening of films.


Stacey is an activist with a commitment to healing through film and media. Last year she released the short documentary film, I AM SEAN BELL, black boys speak which won the Best Short Film of the year award from the REEL SISTERS of the Diaspora Film Festival and Lecture Series.

You can watch I AM SEAN BELL here... http://vimeo.com/2691617

For more information about Stacey Muhammad and Wildseed Films hit up http://www.wildseedstudios.com and you can follow her on twitter @ http://twitter.com/Wildseedfilms

For all interviews, features, and lectures please contact:

Carl Wharton Director of Public Relations
INTELLIGENT MEDIA GROUP
484-472-3745
www.wildseedstudios.com
www.intelligentglobal.com
press@intelligentglobal.com

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Texas Education Board Approves Conservative Curriculum Changes By Far-Right


INTELLIGENTNEWZNET
INFORMING the HIP-HOP COMMUNITY

Texas Education Board Approves Conservative Curriculum Changes By Far-Right

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/12/texas-education-board-app_n_497440.html


***UPDATE*** Think Progress flags some of the more eye-opening revisions the Texas Board of Education approved for its social studies curriculum and textbooks:

- The Board removed Thomas Jefferson from the Texas curriculum, "replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin."

- The Board refused to require that "students learn that the Constitution prevents the U.S. government from promoting one religion over all others."

The Texas Freedom Network live-blogged the debate over the changes. Read more here.
April Castro, ASSOCIATED PRESS

AUSTIN, Texas — A far-right faction of the Texas State Board of Education succeeded Friday in injecting conservative ideals into social studies, history and economics lessons that will be taught to millions of students for the next decade.

Teachers in Texas will be required to cover the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers, but not highlight the philosophical rationale for the separation of church and state. Curriculum standards also will describe the U.S. government as a "constitutional republic," rather than "democratic," and students will be required to study the decline in value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the gold standard.

"We have been about conservatism versus liberalism," said Democrat Mavis Knight of Dallas, explaining her vote against the standards. "We have manipulated strands to insert what we want it to be in the document, regardless as to whether or not it's appropriate."

Following three days of impassioned and acrimonious debate, the board gave preliminary approval to the new standards with a 10-5 party line vote. A final vote is expected in May, after a public comment period that could produce additional amendments and arguments.

Decisions by the board – made up of lawyers, a dentist and a weekly newspaper publisher among others – can affect textbook content nationwide because Texas is one of publishers' biggest clients.

Ultraconservatives wielded their power over hundreds of subjects this week, introducing and rejecting amendments on everything from the civil rights movement to global politics. Hostilities flared and prompted a walkout Thursday by one of the board's most prominent Democrats, Mary Helen Berlanga of Corpus Christi, who accused her colleagues of "whitewashing" curriculum standards.

By late Thursday night, three other Democrats seemed to sense their futility and left, leaving Republicans to easily push through amendments heralding "American exceptionalism" and the U.S. free enterprise system, suggesting it thrives best absent excessive government intervention.

"Some board members themselves acknowledged this morning that the process for revising curriculum standards in Texas is seriously broken, with politics and personal agendas dominating just about every decision," said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, which advocates for religious freedom.

Republican Terri Leo, a member of the powerful Christian conservative voting bloc, called the standards "world class" and "exceptional."

Board members argued about the classification of historic periods (still B.C. and A.D., rather than B.C.E. and C.E.); whether students should be required to explain the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its impact on global politics (they will); and whether former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir should be required learning (she will).

In addition to learning the Bill of Rights, the board specified a reference to the Second Amendment right to bear arms in a section about citizenship in a U.S. government class.

Conservatives beat back multiple attempts to include hip-hop as an example of a significant cultural movement.

Numerous attempts to add the names or references to important Hispanics throughout history also were denied, inducing one amendment that would specify that Tejanos died at the Alamo alongside Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie. Another amendment deleted a requirement that sociology students "explain how institutional racism is evident in American society."


Democrats did score a victory by deleting a portion of an amendment by Republican Don McLeroy suggesting that the civil rights movement led to "unrealistic expectations for equal outcomes."

Fort Worth Republican Pat Hardy, a longtime teacher, voted for the new standards, but said she wished the board could work with a more cooperative spirit.

"What we've done is we've taken a document that by nature is too long to begin with and then we've lengthened it some more," Hardy said, shortly after the vote. "Those long lists of names that we've put in there ... it's just too long.

"I just think we failed to keep that in mind, it's hard for teachers to get through it all."

http://www.twitter.com/wiseintelligent

It's NO LONGER Smart to be DUMB!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Wise Intelligent will be performing in New Orleans TONIGHT! at The Maison


INTELLIGENTNEWZNET
INFORMING the HIP-HOP COMMUNITY

New Orleans GET READY!

Wise Intelligent will be in New Orleans TONIGHT! Thursday, March 11th @ The Maison!

The Maison
508 Frechman Street
New Orleans

The show will be hosted by Truth Universal and Valery Jean

DJ EF Cuttin will be on the 1's and 2's

Doors open @ 8:00 pm

To book Wise Intelligent for shows, lectures, interviews, and features hit Born Free @ intelligentmuzik@yahoo.com

Click link below to check out the trailer of Stacey Muhammad's new documentary "Out of Our Right Minds" (The Rise of Depression Amongst Women of Color)

http://www.vimeo.com/8067851

You can follow Wise Intelligent on twitter @ http://twitter.com/wiseintelligent

You can follow Stacey Muhammad on twitter @ http://twitter.com/Wildseedfilms


It's NO LONGER Smart to be DUMB!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Stacey Muhammad/Wildseed & Block Exchange Films Presents...Out of Our Right Minds (Trauma, Depression and the Black Woman)


For Immediate Release

Brooklyn, New York, February 26, 2010 - OUT OF OUR RIGHT MINDS, TRAUMA, DEPRESSION AND THE BLACK WOMAN, produced by Wildseed Films / Intelligent Media Group, will premiere at the PATOIS International Human Rights Film Festival on March 13, 2010.

The official trailer for Out of Our Right Minds, Trauma, Depression and the Black Woman can be viewed at http://www.vimeo.com/8067851

Directed by award winning Independent Filmmaker / documentarian Stacey Muhammad, a native of New Orleans, LA, this film explores depression and the overall feeling of sadness that plagues many black women in this society of all ages, social and economic backgrounds.

Statistics regarding depression in African American women are either
non-existent or uncertain. Part of this confusion is because past published clinical research on depression in African-American women has been scarce. This scarcity is, in part, due to the fact that African-American women may not seek treatment for their depression, may be misdiagnosed, or may withdraw from treatment because their ethnic, cultural and / or gender needs have not been met

Although an alarming number of African American women suffer from depression, bipolar disorder and a myriad of clinically specific mental conditions, this film seeks to connect the state of mental health amongst women of color to the lingering effects of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome and a trauma experience that has been passed on from one generation to the next.

Women and men from all walks of life speak openly and candidly about depression, mental illness, anxiety, self-esteem, and the need to address a topic that continues to be taboo in the African American community.

“I find that there’s a shadow, a cloud of sadness amongst women of color, from all walks of life,” says Stacey Muhammad of Wildseed Films.
She continues, “It’s time to have this discussion. My commitment is to not only explore our behavior but to also examine the environment in which we’ve been embedded for more than 400 years and to encourage us to begin to examine what this environment has done and continues to do to people of color.”


Stacey is an activist with a commitment to healing through film and media. Last year she released the short documentary film, I AM SEAN BELL, black boys speak which won the Best Short Film of the year award from the REEL SISTERS of the Diaspora Film Festival and Lecture Series.

You can watch I AM SEAN BELL here... http://vimeo.com/2691617


This time around, she teams up with R.H. Bless of Block Exchange Films who serves as co-producer of Out of Our Right Minds. “Bless is an amazing cinematographer and music video director and who has done very important work in the hip hop community.”

Out of Our Right Minds features new music from Hip Hop Legend Wise Intelligent who is also Director of Intelligent Media Group; as well as New Orleans born musician, King Tut and Mr. Famous, an up and coming producer and son of hip hop legend, KRS ONE.

Out of Our Right Minds is part one of a series of films from Wildseed Films / Intelligent Media Group aimed at healing and restoring the black family. Only by confronting and exploring the tragic reality of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome and how the deadly combination of physical trauma, domestic abuse, social conditioning, racist media images, and spiritual neglect has affected the mind, body, soul of women of color will individual and collective healing take place.

The official trailer for Out of Our Right Minds, Trauma, Depression and the Black Woman can be viewed at http://www.vimeo.com/8067851



Contact:

Carl Wharton, Director of Public Relations
INTELLIGENT MEDIA GROUP
484-472-3745
www.wildseedstudios.com
www.intelligentglobal.com
press@intelligentglobal.com