Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
California
Tanya Kersey, founder and executive director for The Hollywood Black Film Festival (HBFF) has announced that “Note to Self” will open the 12th Hollywood Black Film Festival tonight at 7 p.m., at the Montalban Theater, 1615 Vine St., Hollywood. The festival will close with “24 Hour Love” on Sunday, Oct. 28, at 6 p.m. at the same location. The festival runs Oct. 25-28. “Note to Self” centers around a handsome and popular student-athlete who embarks on a journey of self-realization while navigating the choppy waters of a love triangle.
District of Columbia
Black Youth Vote! (BYV!), the youth program of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, is hustling hard as it transitions the iThink 2012 Campaign efforts from voter registration to voter education and mobilization for the last days of the 2012 presidential election cycle. Active in 14 states and Washington, D.C., Black Youth Vote! is making waves at the grassroots level. The young leaders are dorm-knocking, staging vote raids, working with the fraternities and sororities to get their members to the polls, and collecting voter pledge cards. Florida BYV! organizers Lucas Melton and Jamaal Rose even convinced their college president, Florida A&M University (FAMU) interim president Larry Robinson, to sign a BYV! pledge card and cancel classes for a few hours so FAMU students could participate in a march to the polls on the first day of early voting.
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Dennis Garcia of Trek for Peace has partnered with Sudan Sunrise and Highways Performance Space to bring attention to the crisis in South Sudan. He will be accompanied by a film crew led by award-winning multi-disciplinary artist Patrick Kennelly and Sudanese-American peace activist Rudwan Dawod to document the reconciliation project in Torit, the Manute Bol school project in Turalei, and the Yida and Abyei refugee camps located in South Sudan. Garcia joins a growing list of Sudan Sunrise supporters, including Board Chairman John Zogby and advisory board member Ambassador Sharon Wilkinson. Sudan Sunrise supports projects that facilitate reconciliation efforts aimed at providing education, healthcare, and community development in South Sudan and Sudan.
