The Djembe Project

Deuteronomy 8:3 Café Books & Music

Restoration Source, Inc. Restorative Justice Initiative
At Deuteronomy 8:3 Cafe Books & Music

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact Mittie Imani Jordan
(216) 376-9695
Covenant Conversation
Friday, May 19, 2006
8 - 11 p.m.
Reservations Requested

“Imprisonment is the new slavery for the black community. On average, states spend over three times as much per prisoner
as per public school pupil. What does that say about what we value?” excerpt The Covenant Statement of Purpose by Marian Wright Edleman, Executive Director, Children's Defense Fund

On Friday, May 19, 2006 beginning at 8:00 p.m., Deuteronomy 8:3 Café Books & Music proudly joins communities throughout the nation in celebration for the Covenant with Black America, by hosting a “Covenant Conversation” as a prelude to the second Thirteenth Amendment Conference Planning Team Summit to be follow on Saturday, May 20. The “Covenant Conversation” is free and open to the public, but seating is limited and reservations are requested. Refreshments will be served. Please mark your calendars and pass this information on.

In response to Tavis Smiley’s designation of May 19-21, 2006 as Celebration Weekend, individuals, organizations and institutions are being asked to host “Covenant Conversations” throughout the nation focusing on the New York Times Bestseller, The Covenant with Black America. Mr. Smiley’s charge is for communities to come together in conversation around The Covenant, and to determine how they might implement recommendations therein. Ten sites will receive a call from Mr. Smiley during the “conversation party,” and one site will receive a visit by Mr. Smiley and Dr. Cornell West.

As the prelude to our second Thirteenth Amendment Conference Planning Team Summit to be held on Saturday, May, 20, 2006, our Covenant Conversation will focus on the III and IV Covenants entitled Correcting The System of Unequal Justice and Fostering Accountable Community-Centered Policing. Discussion guides will be announced at a later date.

In the introduction to the III Covenant, James Bell, Executive Director of the W. Haywood Burns Institute in San Francisco, identifies a “cradle-to-prison superhighway (CPS) as a “network of legislation, policy practice and structural racism that has fostered blacks being incarcerated at unconscionable levels at increasingly younger ages for increasingly minor acts.” Unquestionably, all the data corroborates his claim. Indeed, the statistics are staggering:

910,000 of the 2.1 million adult inmates in state and federal prisons are African American; and “while African Americans represent 15 percent of those below the age of 18, they are 26 percent of all the youths arrested, 46 percent of those detained in juvenile jails, and 58 percent of all juveniles sent to adult prison.” (juvjustice.org) In order to achieve true equality in the judicial system, Mr. Bell challenges us to hold “every decision-maker responsible for fairness and dignity towards others with measurable actions.”

Persons interested in participating in the Conversation are asked to email us at deuteronomy8cafe@aol.com or phone us at (216) 376-9695. If you have not purchased your copy of The Covenant with Black America, ($12) and wish to reserve a copy at Deuteronomy 8:3, please do so by May 5, so that you can be prepared for the discussion.

Information regarding the May 20, 2006, all day Planning Team Summit will follow this email.

Deuteronomy 8:3 Cafe Books & Music occupies the ground floor of the Medical Associates Building at 1464 East 105th Street, between Ashbury and Wade Park Avenues, The Heart of the Historic Heritage Lane. Our routine business hours are: Tuesday, Thursdays and Fridays 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. and Wednesdays & Saturdays 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. For more information on programming call (216) 376-9695, or email us at Deuteronomy8Cafe@aol, or visit us on the web at www.Deuteronomy83Cafe.com

posted by Unknown @ 4:51 AM