My latest piece is up at Global Voices Online:
Growing up in Uganda
For the blogren, this has been the week to remember their childhoods. Their posts — touching, witty, inspiring — give insight into the diversity of Ugandan youth.
Category: ugandan culture
GVO: Uganda: Bloggers Respond to Controversial Daily Monitor Articles
My next piece is up at Global Voices Online:
Uganda’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community has gotten a lot of press recently in the form of a number of articles written by Katherine Roubos, a 22-year-old Stanford student from the United States. Most recently, Roubos covered the first ever LGBTI press conference, a story that prompted an anti-gay rally in Kampala.
horror, in pictures
My strongest support goes to my friend Katherine Roubos, whose courageous coverage of the GLBT community in Uganda has garnered this:
I went to the rally to be a part of a team of white female decoys (Katherine’s editor sent her to cover it, which theoretically gave her some sort of journalistic immunity, but the purpose of the rally already nullified that. Better safe than sorry, not so?) and to exercise my own curiousity: the event was organized by Martin Ssempa, a conservative Ugandan religious activist with whom I recently exchanged words.
Wow. Martin Ssempa is undeniably charismatic. He is also undeniably creepy. For all you Lawrencians: imagine Fred Phelps shaking your hand. I came home and took a very long shower.
P.S. Aga Khan, if you fire her, that’s it. We’re done.
kampala street arts festival
I spent Sunday afternoon selling juice and sandwiches to passersby at the first ever Kampala Street Arts Festival. Organized by Peter Otim, who sells his paintings, batiks and sculpture in his gallery on Bukoto Street, the festival filled the street with local artists, musicians, restaurateurs and those who came to admire their work.
BBC’s Sarah Grainger compiled a photo essay that shows participants making art out of the city’s ubiquitous potholes, and I was able to get a few shots of Breakdance Project Uganda and Sylvester & Abramz, who performed at the event.
hiphop makes me happy
Last night I left the house (goodbye, Scrubs, I’ll miss you so) and went to the Sharing Youth Center in Nsambya for Breakdance Project Uganda’s Hiphop For a Cause show.
I say this as only a white girl from the midwest can: How. Cool.
Breakdance Project Uganda was founded by Ugandan hiphop artist Abramz several years ago to empower street kids, formerly abducted child soldiers and other disadvantaged children throughout Uganda using hiphop and breakdance. BPU offers free breakdancing classes to these children, giving them a positive means of expressing themselves and encouraging them to become future BPU teachers.
The Hiphop For a Cause performers ranged from Lyrical G, the hiphop winner of the 2006 Pearl of Africa Music awards, to a group of children from HEALS, an afterschool program in Gulu, to kids from the Kingship Orphanage in Kampala who had been training with LA-based hiphop choreographer Jessica Dexter.
Over 100 people attended the show, all proceeds from which will go into further Breakdance Project Uganda programming.
Abramz and his crew of mouthwateringly talented dancers offer classes at the Sharing Youth Center every Monday and Wednesday from around 5:00 to 9:00 PM. Classes are free and open to anyone who wants to learn.