"To Read" List: Desdemona by Toni Morrison.

I'm so used to not having free time on my hands. Without school, my evenings and weekends are pretty much free. I do a lot more reading than I've done in the past. For a while now I've been working on getting through, "The Complete Series of Oz." It's a lot though. I've only gotten through like five of the thirteen books. Not to mention the, literal, stacks of newspapers and magazines sitting on my floor at home and on my desk at work.

Today I learned some very exciting literary news via Goodreads. Howard University alumna, Toni Morrison, has written a new novel, "Desdemona." Yep, that's right. The Nobel Laureate has re-imagined the heroine from Shakespeare's, "Othello." In this novel, Desdemona speaks from the grave on issues of race, class, and gender. "Desdemona" is the second novel from Morrison this year; "Home" was released in May of this year.

The cover of Toni Morrison's new novel, "Desdemona."

I, for one, am very excited about "Desdemona." As I get older, I appreciate her work more and more. Now both of her new books are on my "to read" list. Hopefully, I'll get through them before the year is over.

Latinos in Media Workshop

During a lecture last week, Dr. Fredrico Subervi, professor and director at the Center for the Study of Latino Media and Markets in Texas, asked a small group of students and faculty to name the first Latino child star that came to mind. Most everyone in the room responded, “Dora the Explorer.” I found it quite disturbing that a cartoon character was the first to come to mind. Dr. Subervi then revealed that the first major motion picture starring a Latino child, playing a Latino child, was Spy Kids. Alexa Vega played Carmen Cortez. This dumbfounded me because, I thought said movie would be older; I remembered going to see Spy Kids when it came out in 2001.

Dr. Subervi used this question to illustrate the point that although Latinos are now the largest minority in the nation, they are still greatly under served. As future media professionals, it is essential for us to understand that every major city in the country now has a significant Latino population. We will have to learn the most effective ways of communicating with that population.

Dr. Subervi shared several statistics with the class. In California, over half of the children born are of Latino decent, which means they cannot be deported. This affects not only voting and electoral patterns in one a state with the highest number of electoral in the country but also advertising in some of the nation’s top markets, Los Angeles.

For me, it was eye-opening  to hear about another ethnic minority’s challenge. So often, African Americans get caught up and begin to think that we are the only minority that suffers discrimination or indignities. Other minorities face similar challenges and have the same battles to fight and win. Maybe, we  should just fight for justice together. As media professionals it is our responsibility to serve all minorities fairly.  Knowledge of the challenge is the first step. 

Click Stop: Susan Taylor!

Earlier this semester, editor emeritus of Essence Magazine, Susan Taylor, visited Howard's campus. She was the keynote speaker for an event sponsored by an organization called Women as Change Agents, or WACA. They pronounce it Waka like Waka Flock Flame; yeah, they thought it was cute.

Our first lady, Dr. Paula Whetsel- Ribeau, the leader of WACA

Anyway, I can only describe my behavior in two words, restrained groupie. I skipped my political economy class to go wallow in this woman's immense glow. She is truly amazing.

Mrs. Taylor was at Howard to speak about living fearlessly. She talked a lot about being change agents in our community. We each have a commitment to others who do not have as much as we do. She showed a video about her program National Cares Mentoring Program, formerly called Essence Cares.

All this semester I have been taking a photojournalism class. I am very interested in new media and felt like learning to take decent pictures was the first step. So, I took this opportunity to take some pretty decent pictures I think. Check them out!



The dynamic Susan Taylor herself



I took a million pictures that day. If you'd like to see the rest of them check out my picasa

Tim Burrell and Shirley Sherrod Visit HU

Throughout the school year my school, Howard University's School of Communications will be celebrating its 40 year anniversary with a series of events. One of which was a book singing with author and advertising Hall of Fame inductee, Tom Burrell. His new book, "Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority," Burrell raises questions about the phycological "propaganda" that keeps many Black people still thinking and behaving like slaves. Burrell spoke to a small gathering of students, faculty and guests about the responsibilities of blacks and whites both to heal the damage of slavery, discrimination and racism. His intelligence and wit captivated the audience.

After the lecture Burrell participated in a question and answer session with the guests mediated by Jannette Dates, the Dean of the School of Communications. Most praised him for his bold critique of society and purchased several copies of the text. Burrell ended the session by speaking to and signing the books of all those that purchased them.

Later in the day, Shirley Sherrod, a civil rights activist and victim of unethical journalism, spoke in the moot court room in the School of Law. Sherrod was working of the Department of Agriculture when she forced to resign after a blogger posted a video of her speaking at NAACP luncheon that he had altered. Sherrod told the audience of the whole ugly ordeal from start to finish, including why she didn't take her job back. She said that everyone involved was so quick to say something negative. That's was why no one stopped to check if that was right tape. She said she still felt that, "it's still my job to help as many people as I can... We need to learn how to exist together or else another Shirley Sherrod will pop up somewhere." Following her speech there was a reception and Mrs. Sherrod took time to talk to attendees and also take pictures.

I really enjoyed attending both events. It felt like I was getting to participate in a piece of history. However, I covered the events as a photojournalist this time so my stories as they usually are. Their just a compilation of what I noticed while I was moving around taking pictures. My camera is old so I had some lighting issues in the beginning and a lot of my pictures came out fuzzy but you can view all my good pictures on my new picasa.
Dilane's Picasa

What is your take on Mrs. Sherrod's story? Do you think that the blogger or the journalists are at fault? How would you have handled the situation if you were Sherrod?

Howard’s Mock Trial Team’s Season Brought to an End

In March, Howard University’s mock trial team competed in the American Mock Trial Association’s (AMTA) Opening Round Championship Series (ORCS) in Hamilton, Ohio. Twenty- four teams from three regions convened to compete for six openings to the National Championship in Nashville, Tenn. Unfortunately, Howard’s team was not successful in securing one of those openings and will not compete in the National Championship.

This year’s case is a criminal murder trial, involving three movie studio partners. One is the murder victim and the other two are on trial for his murder. In each trial, one team will argue as the prosecution and the other as the defense.

All mock trial competitions are arranged in the same way. Students create a pretend trial with opening statements, direct and cross examinations, and closing arguments. They are divided into groups of seven, three attorneys, three witnesses, and one timekeeper to set up the trial. Judges then score each team based on the presentation of each part of the case. The team that earns the most points wins the judges’ ballot or score sheet. The teams with the most ballots are the teams that win the competition.

Last month, Howard University won 4th place in the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA) 25th annual East Regional Qualifying Competition with a record of six wins, one loss and one tie. Two of Howard’s students, Manti Bean and Dilane Mitchell, also won individual outstanding attorney and witness awards respectively. This win earned Howard a place in the ORCS.

In addition to winning 4th place in their region, HUMTT won trophies in two other competitions this season. Throughout the early part of the school year teams compete in invitational competitions. These are not official AMTA competitions but are hosted by other universities and offer an opportunity for teams to compete with other teams as well as practice for regional and national competition. Howard took fifth in an invitational hosted by the University of Miami in Miami, Fla. and took 2nd in an invitational hosted by Harvard University in Boston, Mass.

Attorney Tianna Johnson, director of HUMTT was so proud of her team. She said that she expected the team to go into competition and win every time. It didn’t surprise her at all that the team was doing so well. She was excited to add all the new trophies to her collection in her office.

In the past, Howard’s team had a quite profound effect on some of their judges. Mr. Clifford J. Gannett judged on of Howard’s rounds, “It was really a lot of fun. I was very impressed with how prepared the team was. I would love to judge again” he said.

Another judge, Scott R. Apple, observed that the fact that the team was competing in one of the huge auditorium courtrooms was a sign of how well they were doing in the competition. He also thought the team was really effective and prepared.

The ORCS was the first time all year the team had lost.

After the winning teams were announced a cloud of melancholy settled over the team. Losing, a distant memory had been brought back to their attention in this competition.

Suddenly, their mock trial season was over.

One of the team members gave his thoughts on why the team had not been successful. “We have to learn to do our best all the time” Michael Roy said. “ We heard about the reputations of some of the teams here and thought that were weren’t going to have to work to beat them.”

Another team member, Victoria Miranda, thought, “Some of us have really been slacking. It doesn’t look good when some of us do the work and others don’t. It also creates bad chemistry among teammates.”

Now that competition is over the team members and their coach can get back to the other activities. “The god part is now we can go back to living our lives,” said Johnson.

True indeed, along with the end of the season comes the end of the endless hours of working on witness character, courtroom decorum, and rules of evidence among other things. No more late nights spent in the Powell building listening to a teammate practice their opening statement or a direct examination for the 80th time. The team members are now free to focus on schoolwork until the end of the academic year.

For now Howard’s team gets to put mock trial out of their minds but never for too long. Next year brings a new case, new team members, and new chances to bring back the win.

Made: I DID IT!

It's done. It's over. After four months of consistent hard work, I have completed and PASSED JOUR:201 Reporting and Writing. It was probably the hardest class I have taken since the start of my career at Howard University but it really was a wonderful experience. I have learned a lot and my reporting skills have improved tremendously. Most of the time I hated it but it was worth it. Thank you all for going on this journey with me. I will keep posting, I am applying to become the assistant copy chief at my school newspaper, The Hilltop. So, there's much more to come. Til the next time.

50th Annual Sakura Matsuri

The last major event of the National Cherry Blossom festival this year's Sakura Matsuri, or Japanese Street Market was a hit.


The market was set up on Pennsylvania Avenue between 10th and 14th streets. People filled the street, some dressed as their favorite anime characters. Every where there were booths that advertised products from all parts of Japanese culture.


Cyrus Norgard was volunteering at the information tent set up on 12th and Pennsylvania. "I found out about the festival while I was taking some Japanese classes down at George Mason in Fairfax. I started in 2007 then I came back in 2009 and this year."

When he's not volunteering Norgard enjoys just walking around the market. "I don't have a favorite vendor; I just like walking around. This is the one time of the year when year when you can see people wearing kimonos."

People wearing kimonos is a common sight during the Matsuri. There was even a tent where people could try on traditional kimonos and take pictures.



Vendors from D.C. As well as New York City were in attendance. A bookstore, Kinokui Niya, was selling beautiful fans along with books for children and adults. Other vendors sold a variety of products from Sake and Japanese food to pearls and furniture.


There was also a children's corner on 13th and Pennsylvania avenue. The kids were able to make arts and crafts, get their faces painted or just play.

There were three performances stages set up to entertain festival goers. Orientarhythm, a group from Japan, did an exciting dance with bright red nun chucks combining martial arts and hip hop. After their performance they took questions from the audience via a translator.

The Japan-America Society of Washington D.C. But there were other organizations that were present at the Matsuri.

Kathleen Emerson-Dell, the assistant curator of National Bonsai and Penjing Museum, was working is the National Arboretum's tent during the Matsuri.

Dell has worked the festival for the past five years and watched it expand and attract more visitors and higher quality vendors. She also added that this year has been the best weather. "Some years I've been here with my hat and long underwear on; other years it's just been too hot."

There is an even larger collection and variety of flowering cherry trees. They we're donated to the Arboretum during the bicentennial in 1976, creating the first Bonsai museum in the world. There wasn't even one in Japan at the time.

Dell said employees of the arboretum encourage people to come to the festival but also to come out to the arboretum and see all the other Bonsai and cherry trees growing there.

Hundreds of thousands of people visited the Sakura Matsuri. Many travel from long distances to see the festival and the market. Kathy Jung, traveled from West Virginia to support some of her friends who were taking pictures with Matsuri attendees dressed as Hello Kitty and Geisha. This was her first time coming to D.C. for the festival and she was enjoying herself.

The 50th annual Sakura Matsuri was just as successful as expected. Considering the volume of visitors the market attracts the Japan-American Society has already begun to plan for next year's event which is set to take place on April 9, 2011.

Made: The Front Page

I did it! On Tuesday, my first story for The Hilltop titled Two Week Cherry Blossom Festival Officially Starts was published on the front page. I was so excited; I felt that I had really accomplished something. Then when the story was published online it was and still is the top story that you see as soon as the Hilltop's Web site comes up. I'm quite proud. Check it out.

Howard University Brings Home the Win!

So, we did it!

Howard University Mock Trial team won fifth place out of 26 teams in last weekend's American Mock Trial Association East Regional Qualifying Tournament in Baltimore, Md. The hours upon hours of endless working on weekdays, weekends, snow days and holidays finally paid off. This means that our team will move on to the next round of competition, Opening Round Championship Series (ORCS), in Hamilton, Ohio.

In addition to winning the fifth place trophy team members Eddie Holiday and myself, Dilane Mitchell, won outstanding attorney and witness awards, respectively.


Beginning Saturday morning and continuing until Sunday evening, our squad began four rounds of grueling competition. Two teams in each round scramble to impress two judges enough to win the ballads that they are holding. The teams are matched based on their record at the time so each rounds gets progressively harder. By the time we made it fourth round we were absolutely exhausted; we had to make sure we brought our "A" game and did win both ballads in the end.

The East Regional is known to be the hardest regional in the country; every year for the last decade the national champion has come out of the East Region. Schools such as University of Virginia (UVA), University of Maryland (UMD), Georgetown University, George Washington University and Patrick Henry University are all housed in the East Region.

We ended the competition with a record of 6-1-1, meaning we won six ballads, tied one and lost one. We actually felt bad because we took both ballads in the fourth round which knocked the opposing team, Patrick Henry's A squad, out of the top eight so they did not qualify to move forward.

After the closing ceremonies one competitor was heard saying, "... Yeah all the top schools always make it out [of the region] Howard, UVA [University of Virginia], G. W. [George Washington]..." We were actually quite proud to find out we had that kind of reputation.

Attorney Tiana Sousa- Johnson, the director of the Forensics program at Howard, as well as our coach was very proud of her team. We have brought home at least one trophy, one attorney, and one witness award from every competition we have attended this year, three in total. My teammates are excited to move on and have already had meetings about how to be successful in ORCS. We are also aware that this means that we will have to continue to practice almost every day for the next month in order to be prepared for ORCS.

Other schools that placed were UVA, UMD, and Georgetown University. The other seven teams from Baltimore as well as the top eight teams from the regionals in Cincinnati, Ohio and Louiseville, Ky. will join Howard University in competition in Hamilton, Ohio for ORCS. The top six teams from this competition will go on to the National Championship in Memphis, Tenn. on Mar. 20 and 21.

"Snomaggeden" hits Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States and a city usually bustling with all kinds of activity was brought to a stand still Friday, Feb. 5^th by a record-breaking snowstorm. The storm nicknamed “snowmagedden” paralyzed majority of the eastern US, from New York down to Pennsylvania.

With 54.9 inches of snow this winter, “snomaggedden” has made the winter of 2009- 2010 the snowiest to ever hit Washington, D.C., according to the National Weather Service. The most comparable amount was the 54.4 inches that fell in the winter of 1898! Most news outlets are saying that it is the worst storm to hit since the winter of 1996.

The snowstorm began to fall Friday afternoon and continued all the way into Saturday evening. CNN meteorologists estimated 40 inches or three and a half feet had fallen. People all over the city were snowed in and could not leave their homes to go to work or could. Many homes throughout D.C., Maryland, and Virginia were without power. Over the course of the storm the roofs on 22 homes collapsed.

The entire city was closed. Streets that usually have heavy traffic like such as Georgia Avenue, U Street, and Irving Street were barren. Stores, restaurants, shopping mall and other non-essential businesses were all closed. The city set in for a very quiet weekend. In central Pennsylvania, Interstate 80 near Clearfield was shut down Wednesday after two traffic pileups -- one involving 17 cars and the other involving seven cars, said Rich Kirkpatrick of the state's Department of Transportation in an article on CNN.com. Mayor Adrian Fenty and other city employees went to work clearing the snow on Sunday morning. He hoped to have the city up and running again by Monday morning.

All three area airports, Baltimore Washington, Dulles, and Regan International, were closed and thousands of flights were cancelled in an attempt to avoid flying in the dangerous conditions.

Majority of stores and malls reopened on Monday; however, federal offices, public schools, and several universities closed on Feb. 5 and have not reopened. The universities have been closed now for an entire week. Now students and professors will have to cover the same material in less time.

According to a press release on WMATA.com, metro services have been limited on and off since Feb. 5 when metro services were ended early at 9 p.m. Services were limited to underground only from Feb. 6 to the 8. Full services were restored on Feb. 9 but were limited again on Feb. 10.

Part two of the storm hit Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Before the city could clear all the snow from the first wave could be completely cleared another 15 inches fell, as estimated by FOX news. This storm had much stronger winds and lower visibility than the first storm.

Throughout the streets of D.C. youth of all ages are taking the time out of school to build snowmen, sled and ski down hills and have snowball fights. College students also read and study in preparation for the overdrive that will come once schools open again.

One group of people especially affected by the storm was the homeless. Many poured into shelters in the area in order to protect themselves from the snow and subzero temperatures. A large group of volunteers at the DC Central shelter began preparing for the influx of homeless as soon as they heard the reports about “snomaggeden.” They prepared over 15,000 meals. Other homeless people decided to brave the storm on their own and wrapped up while sitting on benches in public parks. A program called Hypothermia Watch Partner Program, sponsored by the D.C. Department of Human Services, provides D.C. residents with a number to call if they see someone outside in freezing temperatures. A van will then go a pick the person up and take them to a shelter.

After a week of consistent snowfall, “snowmaggeden” 2010 is finally over. The streets are cleared and now the city is ready to get back to its normal pace. Schools are on the way to being reopened and all will be business as usual very soon.