Update: Dispatch from Atlanta

Hello All,

It’s been a while since I blogged here. I am well, and I have been busy.

As I blogged before, I moved to Alabama to co-organize Homeless But Not Powerless, a voter advocacy organization that seeks to improve the political representation experience for homeless and low-income individuals. Homeless But Not Powerless began operations in Montgomery, and have since expanded to Birmingham and Atlanta.  Our primary focus is conducting voter registration and education drives in shelters, soup kitchens, public parks, jails and other venues.

Also, I’m still writing. My most recent published articles are “Forcible Resettlement and Land Grabs in Ethiopia” over at Bertelsmann Stiftung – Future Challenges Organization’s blog, and an opinion piece at HornLight “On the UN’s Declaration that Famine in Somalia is Over.” On top of that, I am also doing non-profit consulting work. I am bound by confidentiality agreements not to disclose the details of what I am doing, but I will say this: I am proud to do the work I do.

February has been a pretty good month thus far. In terms of Black history month, it’s been pretty impressive. Here in Atlanta, I am surrounded by Black history. A few weeks ago, I met Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery, in what is one of my most embarrassing moments of being star-struck. Also, I have my hands on one of the original copies of the charter for the National Black Independent Political Party, which was founded in Philadelphia in 1980, and remains one of the few, notable examples of Black American political empowerment and mobilization outside of the 2-party system. As for books, I’m reading Douglas A . Blackmon’s “Slavery By Another Name:  The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II.” It links the 13th Amendment’s failure to fully abolish slavery (the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution did not abolish slavery- it merely qualified it. “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, *except* as a punishment for crime…” (source)) to the re-enslavement of African-Americans through arbitrary laws and ordinances that forced Blacks back into slavery-like conditions in mines, railroads, factories, and other places.

I’m still awaiting decisions from graduate schools. I applied to the History programs at Michigan State University, Princeton, Harvard, University of Chicago and Purdue. I heard back from both Michigan State and Princeton, and I didn’t get in. I have since called and emailed professors and administrators at each school I applied to in order to re-acquaint myself with them after months without contact. But really, all I can do is wait. In the meantime, I will likely be attending the National Council for Black Studies Conference (March 7-10) in Atlanta.

That’s all for now.

How are y’all doing?

-Arrianna