Saturday, October 12, 2013

Success! We Canvased the Neighborhood to Pass out Fliers for Event

Today, UNIA members assisted Masjid Al-Taqwa in passing out fliers for their upcoming event on Saturday, October19, 2013. This is the Grand Event -- 1st Aunnal Community Pride Cookout!. So we hope to see lots of faces from 2:00pm-6pm. There will be free food, music, spoken word, games, and more.

In addition, UNIA-ACL will have its African Market with Masjid so look for vendors of all kinds.

We were able to pass out all of the fliers for our targeted area. It was a wonderful experience, meeting community residents and all working together for a common goal -- a successful event. One of the most wonderful results was building relationships even though we all had so many different spiritual belief systems. What was most important was working toward a common goal -- improving the community through building relationships with those who live there.

May Peace and Blessings be upon us all.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Details from our weekly Thursday Meeting -- October 10, 2013

UNIA-ACL will walk through the community with  Masjid Al-Taqwa Saturday 12, 2013 around 11:00am to inform everyone of the 1st Annual Community Pride Cookout on October 19, 2013 from 2-6 pm at Masjid Al-Taqwa 5403 Virginia Ave. Contact Glenn Simmons, Jr. (615) 375-6445 / (318) 636-1215 for more information.

Hope to see you there.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Black Star Radio

Hello Bueatiful People,

Today, a small group of UNIA members were able to do a test run of our blog radio show, which we have titled, Black Star Radio. Improvement is the keyword of UNIA. We all felt that the test run was a success and, dare I say, we thought the test was good enough to share, acknowledging that we are beginners so please be kind and forgiving.

We introduced ourselves, our interests in UNIA and community improvement. We discussed the need for our show and a need for community radio in general. We mentioned the local restaurant Payne's Kitchen and reviewed briefly the 11 aims and objectives of UNIA.

It was a really wonderful experience -- one we would like to share. We hope that we will get more input when we really get serious. We will discuss the next show at the weekly meeting on Thursday, October 10, 2013 at 5403 Virginia Ave. next to Blalock's Beauty College at 6:30pm.

For now, to all of you Beloved people,
Blessings

Saturday, October 5, 2013

No Need to Wait on the FCC

It may be disappointing to hear of the news of the FCC shutdown. We had planned on applying for a license to operate a community radio station, but the process involves applying online; however, the FCC website has been shutdown as of October 1, 2013. We all know that the government will become operational again so it seems feasible to persist with our preparations for obtaining that license.

Think of the programming that a community-based station could have:

  • Jazz hour
  • Children-created workshops for Pre-K on up
  • Talk shows to discuss issues
  • Theater hours
  • Spoken Word
  • Local Musicians
  • History Programs
  • Featured shows for local small businesses
  • Features of Community-based organizations
  • etc.
With as much as possible done on a volunteer basis, we could ensure equanimity for all so that the programming remains as free-flowing and creative as possible so that the voices of the community are heard from as broad a perspective as possible as long as general standards are met. My goodness, this could really bring people away from the margins and out front. People could begin to feel valued and really begin to express themselves. We would discover all sorts of hidden potential. It's exciting isn't it?

Again, I say, there's no need to wait on the FCC. We can use the internet to get started right now.

These two websites will be a big help:
Prometheus
Colorofchange.org

Blessings

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Update for UNIA-ACL Meeting Thursday, October 3, 2013



The meeting tonight was a great success. We have a more permanent meeting place thanks to Glenn and Shirdell Simmons. Starting next Thursday, we will be meeting at Masjid-Al-Taqwa 5403 Virginia Ave., Shreveport, LA 71108. This is next to Blalock's Beauty College.

The 1st Annual Community Pride Cookout! will be held at Masjid-Al-Taqwa on October 19, 2013 beginning at 1:00pm. In conjunction with the cookout, UNIA-ACL will have its African Market there. Wow! This is going to be fun so we hope to see you there.

At the meeting tonight, we gave an update on expanding our media presence to internet radio. We will have more news on that, later. We also discussed community radio. Colorforchange.org has a campaign promoting community radio broadcasting. They have some effective ideas that we are exploring. One of them includes gaining a license through the FCC; however, due to the federal government shutdown as of October 1, 2013, all applications are now placed on hold. We had hoped to take advantage of the October 15, 2013 opportunity to submit an application for licensing. Thank goodness there is always more than one way to skin a cat. Internet radio is still a viable option that we intend to use.

Well, that's it for the update. Thanks for reading. Blessings.