Poet Sunni Patterson is one of New Orleans' most beloved artists. She has performed in nearly every venue in the city, toured the US, and frequently appears on television and radio, from Democracy Now to Def Poetry Jam. When she performs her poems in local venues, half the crowd recites the words along with her. But, like many who grew up here, she was forced to move away from the city she loves. read more »

Earlier this month, New Yorkers won a nine-month moratorium from the state Senate on the dangerous and highly-polluting drilling practice known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” The inspiring story of civic action that led to this decision is told by Maura Stephens in a recently published piece by Yes! Magazine. Many fighting this battle had never [...] read more »

The Indypendent is co-sponsoring the New York premiere of the documentary Sweet Crude at the African Diaspora Summer Film Festival this Thursday, Aug. 27, at 6 p.m. at the Riverside Theatre at 91 Claremont Ave. The continuing BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has refocused attention on the vast Niger Delta, home to thousands [...] read more »

Outraged parents from the Coalition for Educational Justice shut down Monday evening's school board meeting after officials refused to let them comment on recent revelations that student test scores had dropped dramatically in 2010. read more »

When the Islamophobic furor against the proposed Muslim community center two-and-a-half blocks away from Ground Zero began to peak in mid-late July, some people wondered why it was occurring now, nine years after the 9/11 attacks. As the New York Times recently noted, an article published in the paper “last December about the project [...] read more »

CREDIT: DeportationNation.org Despite concern that police involvement in immigration enforcement hurts public safety, the Obama administration announced today it has expanded a program that relies on such collaboration to all 25 counties on the Southwest border. Some compare the program, called “Secure Communities,” to Arizona’s controversial SB 1070 law. The entire states of Florida, Delaware and Virginia [...] read more »

 This article originally appeared on The Huffington Post. The Shirley Sherrod controversy, like the Van Jones incident one year ago this month, demonstrates the power of the right-wing media to rock the Obama White House when it comes to racial matters. On July 19, 2010, conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, who has a [...] read more »

PHOTOS: SAKURA KELLEY More than 400 garden activists came out for a midday hearing on Tuesday, Aug. 10 to protest the city’s proposed regulations to govern community gardens. With the 2002 Community Gardens Agreement set to expire on Sept. 17, advocates fear that the city’s nearly 300 gardens will no longer be protected from land developers. While [...] read more »

The Emergency Committee for Israel, an advocacy group launched by Bill Kristol and other neoconservative activists, and J Street, the 2-year-old outfit that bills itself as a liberal “pro-Israel, pro-peace” voice, recently aired dueling ads about Joe Sestak, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Pennsylvania. The Emergency Committee went first, with a menacing spot that asked, [...] read more »

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