Denise Valentine, Storyteller

Tasting life, meeting new people, seeing new places, reading, writing, watching documentaries, music and cultural arts, dancing, my children's laughter, swimming, lying on the beach in the sun, sand in my toes.

Nothin better than chocolate and strawberries on top ...well almost.

I find great fulfillment in speaking out and taking action against things that violate the sanctity and quality of life.

Freedom from Robben Island

Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs.
-- Redemption Song, Bob Marley

London Coffee House, Phila - Former site of slave auctions

Links of Interest

Keepers of the Culture, Inc., Philadelphia's Afrocentric Storytelling Group KOTC.org

copyright©; Keepers of the Culture, Inc.

National Association of Black Storytellers (NABS) NABS, Inc.

National Storytelling Network (NSN) NSN

Soka Gakkai International (SGI)
a Buddhist network that actively promotes peace, culture
and education through personal change and social contribution. SGI

SGI-USA SGI-USA

Get my banner code or create your own banner

As each group seeks their separate roots and origins, society fractures along a thousand fissure lines. When neighbors distance themselves from neighbors, continue your quest for truer roots, in the deepest regions of your lives. Seek out the primordial "roots" of humankind. Daisaku Ikeda, Sun of Jiyu Over a New Land

"Stell dir vor, es gabe Krieg und keiner ginge hin. Imagine there was a war and no one went."

NEWS

..

In remembrance of the victims of 9/11, I pray for their families. And I pray that a tragedy like this never be repeated, anywhere on the planet. I have no sympathy for Terrorists, homegrown or foreign-born. However, the current war in Iraq has no connection to the attack on 9/11.
The following statement was issued by the group September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, made up of families of the victims of the 9-11 attacks. It reads in part:
"The timing of [Gen. David Petraeus’] testimony is another attempt by government officials to force a non-existent connection between the events of 9-11 and this administration's disastrous policy of invasion and war in Iraq. The 9-11 Commission found there was no operational or cooperative relationship between Al Qaida and Iraq. It is widely understood today that this administration's actions in Iraq have in fact created a terrorist sanctuary where none previously existed, at a cost of more American lives than were lost on 9-11, tens of thousands maimed and wounded, and over 100,000 Iraqi dead.
"Six years after September 11, 2001, politicians, from the White House to the halls of Congress, continue to abuse the memory of our loved ones who died in that attack by attempting to invoke their and our suffering to further this administration's political goals. As we have stated on previous occasions, we ask any and all politicians and candidates for office to respect the memory of the innocent lives lost on 9-11 by refraining from using the 9-11 sites, memorials, and anniversaries for political ends, either explicitly or as political 'backdrop.'"

Video website: http://www.911pressfortruth.com/
September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows www.peacefultomorrows.org

Jerusalem Women Speak: Three Women, Three Faiths, One Shared Vision

I GOT ISSUES:
When the Levees Broke
Listen to 'Louisiana 1927'
Read the lyrics 'Louisiana 1927'
Voices from the Flood
See also: Come Hell or High Water, by Michael Eric Dyson
Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, by John M. Barry

DarfurGenocide.org

Save Darfur

Support the Soldiers, Bring them Home

JUSTICE OR JUSTUS?

Political Prisoners in the U.S.

You said he reached sir
but he didn't have no piece sir
But now he rest in peace sir
in the belly of the beast sir.
-- from Diallo by Wyclef Jean

Can't Jail the Spirit Political Prisoners and POW's in the US Can't Jail the Spirit

FOREIGN POLICY, magazine of global politics, economic news and commentary.

JUSTICE FOR THE "JENA 6"

Incarceration, Narrative and Performance Incarceration, Narrative and Performance

'In overthrowing me, you have cut only the trunk of the tree of liberty. It will spring again from the roots for they are numerous and deep. -- Toussaint L'Ouverture, 1802

Domestic Abuse
This candles burns for my friend Witney Rose, and Crystal Floyd my daughter's best friend, both killed in the same year.
www.womenagainstabuse.org

W.O.R.T.H.

AIDS
The members of Sinikithemba, a South African Choir are all HIV Positive
Listen

Human Trafficking
Human Trafficking

Amnesty International

Children I met in Langa Township, Cape Town, South Africa

The Deeper the Roots The Stronger the Tree