Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Just a little something that I grabbed off of the internet about my man Malcolm X, also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz! Special Safehaven215 Shoutout to infed.org for this tight article on Malcolm X and his "homemade" or self-education!
Homemade education
Malcolm became a letter writer and as a result he says that he “stumbled upon starting to acquire some kind of homemade education”. He became extremely frustrated at not being able to express what he wanted to convey in letters that he wrote. He says that “in the street I had been the most articulate hustler out there … But now, trying to write simple English, I not only wasn’t articulate, I wasn’t even functional”. His ability to read books was severely hampered. “Every book I picked up had few sentences which didn’t contain anywhere from one to nearly all of the words that might have been in Chinese”. He skipped the words he didn’t know and so had little idea of what the books said.
He got himself a dictionary and began painstakingly copying every entry. It took him a day to do the first page. He would copy it all out and then read back aloud what he had written. He began to remember the words and what they meant. He was fascinated with the knowledge that he was gaining. He finished the A’s and went on to the B’s. Over a period of time he finished copying out the whole dictionary. Malcolm regarded the dictionary as a miniature encyclopedia. He learned about people and animals, about places and history, philosophy and science. As his word base broadened, he found that he could pick up a book “and now begin to understand what the book was saying”. He says that “from then until I left that prison, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading in my bunk. You couldn’t have gotten me out of a book with a wedge”.
He preferred to read in his cell but one of the problems he had was that at 10 o’clock each night when ‘lights out’ was called he found that it always seemed to coincide with him in the middle of something engrossing. Fortunately, there was a light on the landing outside his particular cell and once his eyes got accustomed to the glow, he was able to sit on the floor by the cell door and continue his reading. He found that the guards would come around once every hour so that when he heard their footsteps approaching, he would rush back to his bunk until they had gone past and pretend to be asleep. As soon as they had gone, he would be back by the door reading. This would continue until three or four every morning. He says that “three or four hours of sleep a night was enough for me. Often in the years in the streets I had slept less than that”.
Malcolm read and read and read. He devoured books on history and was astounded at the knowledge he obtained about the history of black civilizations throughout the world. He read books by Gandhi on the struggle in India, he read about African colonization and China’s Opium Wars. He found within the library’s collection some bound pamphlets of the Abolitionist Anti-Slavery Society and was able to read for himself descriptions of atrocities committed against the slaves and of the degradations suffered by his forbears. “I never will forget how shocked I was when I began reading about slavery’s total horror … Book after book showed me how the white man had brought upon the world’s black, brown, red and yellow peoples every variety of the sufferings of exploitation”. His reading was not limited to history, however. He read about genetics and philosophy. He read about religion.He relates that “ten guards and the warden couldn’t have torn me out of those books … I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life”.
It's Good To Be Back
Peace
Trevor Winston Lee

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Since Barack Obama is our new President it is very important that we listen closely to bills that will be passed, plans for the economic crisis, and decisions made about our troops who are away at war. This "AYO" image is a way that Safehaven215 can show you that Barack Obama is talking about something that you should be listening to. My first "AYO" post on Barack Obama is just the video today in Virginia. Barack basically made everyone aware of how serious this economic crisis is. He made it very clear of what and will not be tolerated in the next four years, and most importantly he talked about how the decisions that will be made are in the best interest of the American people. The speech was scheduled today at 11:00am, but you can catch it again on CNN at 2:00pm; they are replaying it for anyone who missed it. If you don't check out my blog until after 2:00pm then you can just watch it below! You know I got you guys!
Peace
Trevor Winston Lee

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

The Spook Who Sat by the Door was originally a novel written by Sam Greenlee about the civil rights struggle in the United States in the late 1960s. The movie takes a look at black militancy, and how knowledge is something that knowone can take from you. Dan Freeman become the first African American to be accepted into the CIA. Since Freeman was forced to work behind the desk because he was black he quickly resigned. Upon his return to his hometown is Chicago, he immediately began recruiting young black men who lived in Chicago to become Freedom Fighters. He began to teach them guerrilla warfare tactics, weaponry, communications and subversion. This is a crazy movie that I'm sure you'll love. Just click the image above to see he movie, and it'll take you right to it!
Peace
Trevor Winston Lee

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Peace
Trevor Winston Lee

Monday, December 29, 2008

When the levees were broken from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 there was a town called Algiers Point that underwent tragic occurences . A militia of about 15 to 30 men and women took it upon themselves to use pick up trucks, shotguns, and family dogs to patrol the neighborhood. The militia targeted people who they thought were theives, outlaws, or as one member of the militia put it, "anyone who didn't belong". They blocked main roads that led into the town with trees that were pulled straight out of the ground from the storm. One member of the militia describes it as, "great." He continued saying, "It was like pheasant season in South Dakota. If it moved, you shot it." I'm sure you're thinking to yourself; how can something like this happen, but it did, and the scary part is that people actually enjoyed this horrific time at Algiers Point. Click here for more information on Algiers Point. I left a little video below so everyone can see it for themselves. It's pretty graphic so watch it at your own risk. I'm curious to hear what everyone has to say about this! Give me some feedback!
Peace
Trevor Winston Lee

Thursday, December 4, 2008

propaganda-noun- information that is spread for the purpose of promoting some cause
Check out this film "Reefer Madness", it was a film created back in 1936. It was a film that talks about marijuana use, and the events that follow when high school students are lured into the tempataion of smoking marijuana. It talks about things that may happen, but are debated as highly unrealistic actions such as manslaughter, suicide, and rape. The film was directed by Louis Gasnier and had a cast of nobodies! The film was used back in the day for parents as a morality tale to teach them about the dangers of smoking marijuana. A perfect example of some propaganda for ya! If you wanna watch the film just click the pic below!
Peace
Trevor Winston Lee

Monday, December 1, 2008

If you are outside at all today...LOOK UP AND LOOK FOR THE MOON! What may look like two bright stars behind the moon are actually planets. Yup...Tonight Monday December 1, 2008 Jupiter and Venus will aline with the moon tonight to form a spectacular sight. Tonight, from the naked eye the celestial objects will be as close as we'll ever see them until 2052! You shouldn't be scared or anything; it's just an illusion of perspective. The moon is still 251,400 miles away.Venus is 93.2 million miles away, and Jupiter isn't remotely close to us at 540.3 million miles away! For those of you who will unfortunately miss the extravaganza tonight... I'll take pictures, and post them later on tonight. Gotta get back to class!
Peace
Trevor Winston Lee

Saturday, November 29, 2008

What’s Good world. I recently picked up the newest issue of complex mag, and to my surprise Jim Jones was gracing the cover. The interview isn’t too bad as it lets you know Jim Jones latest entrepreneurial ventures, which are many! A 50/50 joint Venture with Columbia which included Koch handling marketing and promotions; not to mention a comedy division with Mike Epps, and a Broadway play. My man Jim is really making moves. On the music side of things he still isn’t the hottest rapper out there but, he recently released his own Swagger Like Us featuring Lil Wayne and Twista (Not So Great). Ruining bangers such as Kid Cudi’s "Day N Nite" and MGMT’s banger "Electric Feel" definately didn't help Jimmy either...As far as the interview is concerned he breaks down beefs with Max B and once again speaks on Cam’Ron:
Complex: He [Cam’Ron] finally came out and said that he couldn’t rock with you because you appeared on stage with 50, kind of questioning your loyalty.
Jim Jones: He’s questioning my loyalty? He was questioning himself. At that point in time when I did [appear on stage with 50], I was doing all business. I was doing what was best for Jimmy, what was best for my career. It was in my best interest to do publicity stunts and get hype. He was nowhere to be found, so who is he to be questioning what I was doing? He couldn’t do that from the get-go because I helped start all this. What went on between him and 50 was a mockery—that was dudes making jokes. That was a YouTube snap battle. It was nothing remotely physical about that battle. I can’t indulge in fun and jokes that’s like wrestling.
Homeboy just doesn’t seem the same since the split musically. It seems real similar to the Roc-a-fella split, and it's even more ironic that Dame is helping out. I’m not a hater or anything like that but, I personally don’t feel the music coming from Jim Jones, Byrdgang, Juelz Santana, or Skullgang. The best statement to describe it is “to each his own”. To view the rest of the article click below.
Peace: Clayton Rittenhouse **New Contibuting Writer for safehaven215.com**

Sunday, November 23, 2008

So I've been noticing that rotoscoping has been playing a huge role in the animation game. I'm sure you're wondering what rotoscoping is, and why am I talking about it! Rotoscoping is a type of animation that started way back in 1914 by a guy named Max Fleischer. He gave birth to the cartoon greats like Betty Boop, Popeye, and Superman. Why start using rotoscoping again in 2008? Basically, back in the day they only used rotoscoping to smooth the transition from a sheet of paper to the big screen. Rotoscoping slows down that transition so that the picture is distorted a little, but the sequence continues to run smooth! It's sounds crazy complicated, but the process is pretty simple. The best example of rotoscoping at the current moment is that video directed by Hype Williams for Kanye West (Heartless). Check it out below... the video is amazing and it represents rotoscope animation very...very well.
Peace
Trevor Winston Lee

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Peace
Trevor Winston Lee

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Fresh out of sociology class, and my professor blessed us with this film called "Reel Bad Arabs" featuring Dr. Jack Shaheen. Dr. Jack Shaheen wrote the book "Reel Bad Arabs" which I am going to grab very soon. Basically the film shows how the silverscreen constantly portrays Arabs and Palestinians as villians, theives, rapest, terrorist, and anything else that can represent evil in some way. I suggest you check out the film, and open your eyes to what we as Americans have become so numb to. I left a little sample for you below.
Peace
Trevor Winston Lee

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

I apologize for my lack of blogging lately, but the election is finally over. Words, pictures, and videos just can't explain how I feel right now. November 4, 2008 into November 5, 2008 were truly the two happiest days of my life. Thank you to everyone who made this day possible, and thank you Barack Obama for putting yourself in the position to make change for this country......Now We Can Blog Again
Peace
Trevor Winston Lee

Monday, October 20, 2008

My man Shepard Fairey is one of my favorite artists out there. He has mastered all types of artwork from painting, stenciling, spray painting, and he is sick with the scetchpad. South Carolina native Shepard Fairey emerged from the skateboard scene with his "Andre The Giant Has A Posse" sticker campaign. With hundreds of images that have changed the world including his portrait of Barack Obama that has become ridiculously popular, Shepard Fairey continues to prove himself as being one of the best. If you haven't seen some of his work, here is a short video. Buy your own stickers, clothing, and other memorabilia on his site. Just click here!
Peace
Trevor Winston Lee

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Peace
Trevor Winston Lee

Friday, October 10, 2008

My Philadelphia Phillies are going to do big things this year. They're representing Philadelphia in a big way. Last nights game was crazy! I was goin nuts! ... Oh yeah the Dodgers suck... Just kidding, but due to the circumstances.... I'm from Philly.... and I gotta say it!
Peace
Trevor Winston Lee