Archive for the ‘Black Lives Matter’ Category

Audia Jones Wants to Redefine Criminal Justice in Texas – The Nation

Audia Jones is running for Harris County district attorney. (Courtesy of Audia Jones)

Harris County, Texas, has long played a leading role in Americas law-and-order regime. Its elected officials have presided over a 130 executions since 1972, and its police jail more people than many states entire prison systems.

In recent years, however, an insurgent progressive movement has emerged in the country, which includes Houston. Democrats swept local races back in 2016, in what conservatives at the time called the worst defeat for Republicans in county history. Among the victors was Kim Ogg, who became the countys first Democratic district attorney in more than three decades.

On the trail, Ogg vowed to reduce prosecutions for crimes like marijuana possession, enact bail reforms, and improve community trust and public safety. But she has delivered on few of the progressive promises she ran on. One of the candidates jockeying to replace her is Audia Jones, a former district attorney whose platform is among the most progressive of any DA running for office in 2020. That vision has helped Jones attract local support from groups including the Texas Organizing Project and the Houston GLBT Political Caucus, along with the attention of national political figures such as Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors and Tiffany Cabn, the criminal-justice reformer who was55 votes away from becoming the Queens district attorney. On February 13, Jones added another important endorsement: Senator Bernie Sanders backed her and three other progressive DAs running for office.

I spoke to Jones by phone ahead of early voting in Texas, which begins tomorrow, February 18.

Daniel Fernandez

Daniel Fernandez: You have experience as a prosecutor, but some of your opponents have spent decades working in Harris County. What experiences do you think youd bring to bear that these other candidates might not have? The Q&A

Audia Jones: We have a current district attorney whos made comments about being part of a progressive dynasty, and did not keep those promises. Im going in there having seen everything, and it didnt take me 10, 15, 20 years to realize our system was completely lopsided. What we intend to do is be evidence-based and data-driven. We want to start tracking the causes so that at the end of our first year we can say, Hey, weve done something different, and this is how its decreasing our prison population and the amount of spending we put towards imprisoning individuals. Our communities are calling for something different, and its time we give that a chance.

DF: Youre running for office amid a wave of progressive success in Harris County. How do you see yourself fitting within this movement for reform?

AJ: I always tell people in Harris County that the DA is the most powerful actor in our criminal justice system. Were the gatekeepers: The DA is the key to making this progressive movement a reality. We have had a slew of progressive elected officials who are doing great things, from the county commissioners court to the judges, and I think the missing link is the district attorney.

DF: The number of men incarcerated in Texas prisons and jails has decreased in recent years, even as the number of incarcerated women continues to rise. What plans do you have to address the needs of women caught up in the legal system?

AJ: Houston is the number one hub in the US for human trafficking. A lot of women are getting caught up in sex work or being victims of human trafficking. Essentially all weve done is incarcerate them, which does nothing to help. We also know we have a significant number of women who are victims of domestic violence, but from my own experiences in the district attorneys office, [I can say] we dont really provide resources for individuals who have been victims. And I think its time for us to provide life skills and resources, like going to a psychologist or psychiatrist to mentally battle through whatever it is that they went through.

DF: Another part of your platform is abolishing the death penalty. But jurors in your county have imposed just two death sentences in the last five years. Rather than concentrating on the death penalty, many people have called attention to the more than 17,000 people in Texas who face natural life sentences. What plans do you have for responding to the needs of these individuals who are facing this other death penalty?

AJ: One of our primary focuses is our conviction integrity review unit. In the first 100 days, we want to pull every case where individuals are sentenced to 10 or more years in prison and review all of the evidence and the details surrounding either the conviction or plea, including pulling in outside counsel to help on cases to make sure that any individual, no matter their sentence, has gotten a fair shake.

DF: Texas is also one of just three states in which 17-year-olds are prosecuted as adults. Would you use your discretion to stop trying and punishing children as adults?

AJ: Yes. Childrens brains continue to develop up until the age of 21 to 25. So when were specifically charging kids who are 17 as adults, even when were saying theyre not adults for a movie, theyre not adults for the purposes of purchasing alcohol or purchasing cigarettes, there is a huge disconnect. And again, I am the only candidate who has publicly stated we will no longer be moving forward [with adult prosecution] unless somebody has suffered serious bodily injury or sexually violent crime. We need to deal with children as children. Dealing with them as adults has done nothing but perpetuate the school-to-prison pipeline and increase our prison populations.

DF: Youve talked about redirecting resources to prosecute violent crime. But within that, what do you think is the appropriate response for someone who has been convicted of, lets say, a homicide or rape?

AJ: As far as the appropriate response, its our responsibility in the district attorneys office to weigh all of the factors. What was the cause [of the crime]? What was this persons history? Their mental well-being? Have they been in and out of the criminal system before? I think all of those factors need to come into play when were determining what type of plea agreement to seek or offer.

Our number one priority will always be to make sure that the community is safe, but I think second, is our responsibility to take that stuff into consideration, and then find an adequate and appropriate response as far as the time to seek and make sure that it is a parallel to the offense that they actually committed.

DF: Would you consider no longer seeking life without parole sentences?

AJ: Its something we need to figure out. Were convicting too many people and placing them on death row, essentially in solitary confinement, in these animalistic type conditions. And then 27 years later, were like, Oops, sorry. So we have to figure out, you know, what are our alternatives to life without parole?

DF: Reading your platform and hearing what youve said, it seems to me like your opposition to the death penalty is first, because of how many mistakes are made, but second, because it is remarkably cruel. And Im unclear as to why a life without parole sentence is any more humane.

AJ: Lets make sure Im clear. Im not saying its more humane. What Im saying is that I believe that it is different than someone receiving a death sentence. You cant exonerate someone who is already deceased. If someones sitting in jail, obviously, thats something that we want to prohibit.

I had a young man that came from Missouri. He spent 27 years in a life sentence without parole where they were able to determine, Hey, this, there was evidence that was withheld by the prosecutor. However, he was alive and he had the ability to be taken off of life without parole. Now, Im not saying life without parole is something were absolutely going to use because, like you said, our main goal is to end excessive punishment. However, if there are some rare occasions, there may be some evidence or something that led to looking at life without parole, but not the death sentence.

DF: Youve alluded to prosecutorial misconduct. Do you have plans for how your office would prosecute its own historical wrongdoing or the chronic abuse that continue to occur inside Harris County jails?

AJ: We will be holding everybody accountable. Historically what weve seen is the people with the most powerthe prosecutors, police officers, jailers, and individuals who are elected officialshave been held to the lowest standard. And what were saying is that at the very minimum well hold everybody to the same standard. So if we have a prosecutor in our office, who is found to have withheld evidence or to have intentionally done something [wrong] on a case, we will hold that individual accountable. Same thing with police officers. We will always support our great police officers, and there are some great ones, but we will be holding them accountable as if they were a regular civilian without a badge.

DF: After your term is completed, what do you think constituents should expect in terms of change?

AJ: Data and transparency are going to drive our entire office. What are our incarceration numbers looking like? What is the makeup of our Harris County jail? Have we decreased violent offenses? Have we increased the number of victims who have been able to move forward in life even though they went through something harsh or traumatic? And then being able to move forward with a strong and rebuilt Harris County district attorneys office because right now its decaying every single day. The turnover rate is astronomically high, theres a lack of leadership.

DF: So can you commit at this stage to what youd like to see?

AJ: Like, population, as far as number wise?

DF: Well, youve talked about being evidence-based and data-driven, and Im curious if you have benchmarks for where youd like to be.

AJ: A big goal will be trying to get the incarceration rates down 40 to 50 percent within that four-year period. And I know its a reach, but we intend to support felony cash bail reform, which I believe will keep people who are just poor or suffering from some type of mental health issue from just being in jail because they cant afford to get out. I think thats going to cut our incarceration rates significantly.

DF: Weve talked a lot about you and your ideas, but youve also spoken to the greater movement to end mass incarceration. How will you empower activists and community members to create lasting change in Harris County?

AJ: We want to open up the lines of communication between the DAs office and our community. Well be breaking our office into teams of three that will parallel each district we have in our city council. There will be three teams of prosecutors who live in that area who will attend civic club meetings and participate in school programs. Essentially well be creating tentacles of communication throughout the districts in Harris County, and doing it within the areas that our prosecutors actually live and raise their children.

I dont think weve ever had a sense of communication, a sense of transparency. And its refreshing for community members to see that and understand that these are our goals and that they have a line of communication back to us because I believe justice looks different in every area.

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Audia Jones Wants to Redefine Criminal Justice in Texas - The Nation

This Black-Owned Bank Put Harriet Tubman on a Debit Card and Social Media Lost It – Adweek

On Thursday, OneUnited Bank announced a new limited-edition Black History Month version of its Visa debit card. The card features a rendition of famed American abolitionist and Underground Railroad leader Harriet Tubman with her arms folded across her chest, created by Miami-based artist Addonis Parker.

But when the bank announced the new card on Twitter, reactions were swift and critical.

Some assumed the project had been led by a clueless white marketing team. Many interpreted Tubmans crossed arms as the Wakanda Forever salute from the Marvel film Black Panther.

Let me guess. A white marketing executive from Beverly Hills came up with the idea of a Harriet Tubman Visa Debit Card doing the Wakanda Forever salute.

According to Parker, however, his portrait of Tubman was intended to convey the American Sign Language symbol for love. He told Adweek that he started the painting in 2016 (two years before Black Panthers release) when the Obama administrations Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced that Harriet Tubman would be the new face on the $20 bill. That decision was delayed last year by Lews replacement, Stephen Mnuchin, reportedly to avoid a potential effort by President Trump to revoke the addition of Tubman entirely.

Her pose is about love. Love is the greatest power in the world, and love is the greatest poverty in the world today, Parker said. I wanted her to be saying, I did all this in my legacy because I love you. Shes talking to the future generations.

Parker said his admiration for Tubman matches his respect for other civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

She was an icon. She had more gall than a lot of men in history, Parker said. We know that she was led by God.

And for OneUnited Bank president Teri Williams, the controversy over the Tubman card is nothing new. As the largest Black-owned bank in the nation, OneUnited operates according to a different mission, according to its website: empower our community and close the racial wealth gap.

When the decision was made to delay putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, we said, We think that we have a role to play here because we can actually put her on a global payment instrument, Williams told Adweek.

Williams hopes that by placing Tubmans image on a debit card, it will help spur momentum to add the abolitionist to national currency. And she eschewed critics that may misunderstand the reasoning behind the cards design.

We put out many images that are unapologetically black, Williams said, because we believe that its important for us to celebrate our culture and to communicate to the world that Black money matters.

The emphasis on unapologetically belies the power of Parkers work, which he said has instigated controversy in the past.

In February 2017, the bank issued the Amir card, in partnership with the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter. Other OneUnited card designs feature images about immigration (the Justice card) and show black kings and queens in golden royal crowns and jewels. The images arent always easy for everyone, Parker said: Im used to it, the haters. But tell them I love them.

We understand that a lot of people are not used to seeing that, particularly from a banktaking a stand that black lives matter, Williams said. But we think its really important for us to support social justice because we understand that civil rights and social justice have a huge impact on our wealth building.

Williams said the bank puts money behind its mission, donating to Black Lives Matter as well as the ACLU and the BMe Campaign.

The strongly negative reaction to the Tubman card on Twitter was reminiscent of the previous weeks controversy over Barnes & Nobles issuing a set of classic titles with cover art reinterpreting the protagonists as people of color. While many accused Barnes & Noble of a kind of literary blackface, the book designs were actually the brainchild of Doug Melville, the chief diversity officer at TBWAChiatDay. Melville explained the concept behind his #DiverseEditions project in a LinkedIn video Thursdaybut only after the book designs were pulled in a reaction to public outcry.

The bank isnt swayed by the Twitter controversy. Williams said that as soon as the Harriet Tubman card was unveiled, the direct response was overwhelmingly positive and customers began calling the bank asking to either order the card or to have their current cards replaced.

This is who we are. Were Black all day, every day, said Williams. Were here for our community, and our focus is really on being unapologetically and authentically Black.

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This Black-Owned Bank Put Harriet Tubman on a Debit Card and Social Media Lost It - Adweek

Activist Blair Imani talks blackness, identity ahead of Vancouver visit – The Province

Blair Imani joked that this story could be titled Muslim author radicalizes black community.

The historian and activist, recently named among the 100 most influential African-Americans by The Root, will be in Vancouver next week to promote her second book, Making Our Way Home: The Great Migration and The Black American Dream.

Released in January, just in time for the 50th anniversary of Black History Month, Imani charts the exodus of six million African-Americans from the American south, to northern and western cities between 1910 and 1970. Paired with illustrations by Rachelle Baker, the highly-accessible history book reads like a graphic novel.

But while the SFU Public Square event on Feb. 22 will celebrate Imanis newest work, as well as her ongoing work with the Black Lives Matter movement, it will also feature conversations with Stephanie Allen, Udokam Iroegbu and Olivia Lucas, who will speak, respectively, on black Vancouver history, West African history and Afro-Indigenous history.

Organizer Cicely Blain, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Vancouver, will serve as emcee.

Imani, 26, said she was especially excited to hear from Allen, a real estate developer and founding board member of Hogans Alley Society, which is named for the black community that settled and thrived in Vancouver during the great migration, only to be displaced in the 1970s to make room for the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts.

Making Our Way Home.

Its a common story in Making Our Way Home.

A lot of what I talk about in my book is displacement through gentrification, Imani said. The lives of people of colour have constantly been at the peril of developers.

The history of black Strathcona, which is becoming more widely known across Vancouver thanks to the work of the Hogans Alley Society and other community activists, puts into perspective the notion that everything was trouble-free for black migrants once they came north to Canada.

Its made to seem like Canada is this equal land where everyone is so polite, and oppression doesnt operate in the same way, Imani said.

This false narrative is harmful, Imani argues, as it can discourage black Canadians from fully embracing a history and identity that is theirs. Moreover, Imani says the spotlighting of American history serves to weaponize it against the black community elsewhere.

I found that we were being put on (display) to convey to the people gathered, various groups, that: look at how bad it is in America. Its not nearly as bad in Berlin or London or Vancouver or Ottawa or Toronto, said Imani. It says, look how bad these people have it, you should be grateful for what you have, regardless of how bad it is.

Imani believes the solution is to think globally.

I think that one of the ways that were going to fight for freedom is not to put ourselves in this hierarchy of blackness, or proximity to blackness, or proximity to oppression, but instead to be internationalist in how we fight for freedom.

For Imani, blackness is about more than skin colour. Its a political identity as ones connection to black history informs the ongoing fight for an inclusive, oppression-free future for all.

Its imperative for black folks to be in solidarity with Indigenous folks because often theres a connection, Imani said, pointing out that Indigenous Canadians travelled south to support Black Lives Matter. Its not a big stretch of the imagination to look at the landscape of oppression and liberation and feel like we should fight together.

Imani has had ample time to reflect on the issue of black identity, especially as her public persona has been evolving since her conversion to Islam in 2015, and her 2016 arrest following the shooting of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For a time, that seemed like enough.

When I converted to Islam I felt like I was too many things, Imani said. Im black, Im a woman, Im Muslim, Ill leave it there.

But then Imani came out as bisexual during a heated Fox News interview in 2017 and now, living as she does at the intersection of four marginalized communities, her thinking has evolved. Shes not the problem. A system that tries who limit how we see ourselves is the problem.

I think that its crucial for black people of every generation to know that we are our whole selves, we are a community, we are individuals, we are beautiful, we have ugly parts as well, but we are whole people and we dont need to portray ourselves as perfect entities because we are going to be dressed down by society regardless, she said.

Why dehumanize ourselves when were going to live in a system that does that on a daily basis?

hmooney@postmedia.com

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Activist Blair Imani talks blackness, identity ahead of Vancouver visit - The Province

Remarkable Women Awards 2020: It’s time to vote for your Inspiration of the Year – Stylist Magazine

Meet the three amazing women shortlisted in the Inspiration of the Year category for Stylists second Remarkable Women Awards in partnership with philosophy, then vote for your winner.

Juliet Can, 39, is the founder of Stour Trust, a social enterprise creating affordable workspaces for artists and low-income workers.

Ive had a passion for equality and justice ever since I moved to the UK from Uganda in 1990, age 10. My parents and I left without warning, without a suitcase, without saying bye to my friends, to get away from the civil war. We tried to claim refugee status in the UK but it took a decade for our paperwork to be seen. It meant we were placed in temporary accommodation and moved around a lot. It was unsettling. Then, age 15, I fell into a coma from carbon monoxide poisoning from one of the places we stayed at. The doctors said if I woke up I wouldnt have any brain function, but I went on to get As in my GCSEs a few months later. The experience made me realise I wanted my life to be meaningful and, as I got older, I became more passionate about people having access to a home they can afford and a space to connect with others.

The idea for Stour Trust came about after the Olympics were announced for London in 2005. I was working as a consultant for charities that helped local communities and I felt tensions between the artistic community (who felt their towns were changing), new businesses (who were redeveloping the area) and residents (who felt pushed out). So, myself and two artists decided to convert a warehouse in east London using recycled materials and volunteers into a place where everyone could come together. Its now big enough for 40 creators to use as a work and recreational space.

We named it Stour Space and, in 2014, it became the first UK workspace to be protected, so it cant be demolished. Today, we have four sites across the city that empower locals to work and create, with more in the pipeline. Anyone can walk in at any time to work for free, and private spaces can be hired at less than half the market rate.

In December 2019, Stour Trust worked with developer Future Generation to secure 25% of their space, just down the road from our original Stour Space, at no rent for 150 years. Thats 500 square metres that will be made into affordable workspaces and studios. I wanted to achieve something that lasts beyond my lifetime, and this is it. Ive spent more than 20 years campaigning for people to have the opportunity to thrive. The dream is that everyone in the world can have a roof over their head in which they can learn and live.

To vote for Juliet email remarkable.women@stylist.co.uk with her name in the subject line before 29 February.

Lizzie Carr, 34, founded online community and app Plastic Patrol to educate people about pollution and their environment through adventure.

It started after I went through radiotherapy for thyroid cancer in 2013 I went to the Isles of Scilly and discovered paddleboarding as a low-impact way of exercising. I wanted to continue once I returned home to London but gliding up and down Regents Canal I became more aware of the citys plastic pollution problem. I saw rubbish everywhere, birds nests were full of wrappers, straws and bags, and plastic bottles would tumble onto one end of my board and pop out the other. It was disgusting. I was using the waterways as a place to restore my health, but they were in a worse condition than I was.

So I began collecting data from my paddles; Id log what litter I found and where it was building up. I knew I wanted to help on a wider scale but I also needed to understand more about the issue. In May 2016, I decided to paddle 400 miles from Godalming to the Lake District to find evidence of plastic pollution. Over 22 days I took 3,000 photos, and in each image there were hundreds of pieces of rubbish. I got carpal tunnel syndrome from gripping the paddle every day, but my social media began to grow and I had started to raise awareness.

People were messaging me to see how they could help, so I reached out to an app developer who helped me create the Plastic Patrol app where I could upload all the evidence. Others started doing the same,and now the app has over 300,000 uploads from more than 80 countries. It felt surreal but invigorating that there was a community ready to help, and I was blown away on our first global clean-up day last September when thousands of people from 20 countries went out on the same day collecting litter and logging it on the app for a huge simultaneous data collection on plastic pollution.

Over the past few years, weve also been working with researchers at the universities of Nottingham and Glasgow to help analyse and understand our data, and have just published our first impact report. Its a call to action for industries and government by highlighting the most-found brands and major litter hotspots. There are plans to present the findings to the government environmental policy team.

I work as an environmental consultant and run Plastic Patrol as my passion project. We dont get any government funding, but we accept corporate funding and sponsorship to keep the movement going. When I started paddleboarding, I was dealing with survivors guilt; many people who I met through treatment didnt make it. I felt I had a second chance but I wasnt making the most out of it. Plastic Patrol helped me find a meaningful purpose, and when I see the contributions from people around the world who understand the danger of plastic, it feels like Im making a real difference.

To vote for Lizzie email remarkable. women@stylist.co.uk with her name in the subject line before 29 February.

Kike Oniwinde, 27, is the founder of BYP (Black Young Professionals) Network, which connects black professionals with jobs and other people from their communities.

In the black community theres a saying that we have to work 10 times harder to get the same results. Ive been lucky in that I had a successful athletics career, competing at javelin for Team GB, and great opportunities such as scholarships to study a masters in Florida and work placements at Goldman Sachs. But no matter what I was doing, I never saw anyone else who looked like me.

This frustration came to a head in 2016, during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement. I felt like I couldnt change anything. At the same time, I noticed so many companies saying they couldnt find diverse talent, blaming it on a pipeline problem like we just didnt exist. It was infuriating. I had black professional friends who were unemployed for no reason.

So I started BYP, a network connecting black professionals with employers, and each other, to give them access to opportunities. It began as a networking event in London with 100 people coming together to mingle. People told me they wanted more, so I started running events every six weeks, while developing an app to connect our community. It reached 10,000 downloads in six months, and led to a Sky Women Tech scholarship in 2018 worth 25,000. I quit my job and put the money into the app now I have a team of 16 people.

Today, BYP works like a dating app but for careers. We have 40,000 users who match and talk with employers and other professionals to get advice and find jobs. We work with brands such as Facebook, Netflix, Sky and Lloyds, who want access to our talent. Someone recently got a job in tech at Soho House. She told me she never would have heard about it or thought of applying if it wasnt for us. And thats exactly what were about. BYP exists to change the black narrative. I hope there will come a time when we dont have to exist because opportunities will be shared equally. Until then, were shining a light on our community and raising aspirations for

To vote for Kike email remarkable. women@stylist.co.uk with her name in the subject line before 29 February.

philosophy is the wellbeing beauty brand inspiring you to look, live and feel your best, and is the official partner of Stylists Remarkable Women Awards 2020.

Photography: Louise Haywood-Schiefer

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Remarkable Women Awards 2020: It's time to vote for your Inspiration of the Year - Stylist Magazine

New Zealand Festival 2020: Te Ata, a festival within the festival – Stuff.co.nz

There's more than one festival in the New Zealand Festival of The Arts.

Te Ata, a festival within thefestival, will focuson young people and issues of identity, social justice, and postcolonialism through the arts.

Curated by Lemi Ponifasio, Te Ata will be based in Porirua with artists from all over the world coming to perform, teach and engage with audiences.

SUPPLIED

Dance group FLEXN are part of Te Ata, a festival within the New Zealand Festival of Arts 2020.

The public will see performers address issues of social justice, cultural expectations and also talk about the problems they face within their own community.

READ MORE:*New Zealand Festival 2020: Venues, tickets, transport and food*New Zealand Festival of the Arts 2020: Top picks for the Christmas stockings*From the quirky to the powerful: New Zealand Festivalof the Arts 2020 programme release*US artist Laurie Anderson to guest curate upcoming New Zealand Festival of the Arts

Ponifasio said Te Ata wasnot a festival with buzzy words like "youth-led" - it was aboutthe community coming together to give focus on young people, to hear from them, to look and reflect on them deeply, through the arts.

"It is a moment for young people to collaborate and create and find expressions for how they experience life right now as they contemplate and develop their livesintothe future.

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The group will perform for the public, create conversation, host a dance class for people to express their own stories and take part in a student summit which allows young people to talk about the most pressing social challenges facing them and their families.

"Te Ata is the hope that engagement through the artistic dimension can help us find new ways to listen, to be heard, to be included, challenged and reassured through exchanges and in finding other ways to understand each other and to give new expression to our ever-changing life."

Performing, teaching and taking part in a student summit is FLEXN - a crew of dancers from the very neighbourhoods where the Black Lives Matter movement began to rise.

Using flexing - a form of street dance - the groupexpresses "deeply human and sometimes heart-wrenching stories".

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Te Ata has been curated by Lemi Ponifasio.

Flexing isa type of dance made up of snapping, pausing, gliding andhat tricks.

Aloalii Tapu & Friendsis alsobringingGoodbye Naughtonto Porirua, whichpays tribute to tara, the South Aucklandsuburb Tapugrew up in.

His parents gave himthe first name Naughton during a time when having a Samoan name caused confusion - Naughton also represented safety and the promise of future opportunity.

Through the show, he rejects that idea - giving himself the space to create his own identity through dance rooted in the Samoan culture he is proud of.

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Goodbye Naughton pays tribute to tara, the South Auckland suburb Aloalii Tapu grew up in.

Tapu, his friends and singers Chris Taito and Uati Tui, take the audience through the realities of being "the man" from tara, cultural expectations and postcolonialism.

Te Ata ambassador Te Rau Oriwa Mitchell said by having the festival in Porirua, the city's youth would be able to take part in workshops and see performances from international artists they most likely would never get to experience.

With what was going on in the world, these were the type of performances people needed to see, Mitchell said.

Supplied

3 guest curators - 100+ arts experiences - 1000s of conversations sparked.

"Mental heath issues are at an all-timehigh and identity issues definitely contribute to that, it needs to be addressed.

"We need to offer pathways for people to heal people and to understand who they are and where they come from."

* Te Ata opens on February 21 and runs untilFebruary 29 at Te Rauparaha Arena Pataka Art + Museum.

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New Zealand Festival 2020: Te Ata, a festival within the festival - Stuff.co.nz