POPPING CULTURE
On the 7th April 2012, Heels & Heart presented Nemesis: Good vs. Evil, their 3rd Annual Wearable Art Fashion Show. This year, the catwalk’s cause was the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada, “an organisation dedicated to funding blood cancer research and patient services to help those battling with blood cancers live longer, better lives” (from the show’s program).
Set up in the trendy Mile End building Espace Reunion, the fashion show’s ambiance was modern, chic and meaningful—as though we had been transported to Manhattan’s meatpacking district for an intimate preview of the latest von Furstenberg or McQueen collection.
This issue's {rebel} report takes a look at the some of our world's most addictive substances...drugs
A – Acid
B – Blow
C – Crack
D - Dextropropoxyphene
Something’s happening in Europe that the vast majority of Europeans are unaware of: those traditionally slim Europeans are getting fat.
Of course, this isn’t news to those of us on this side of the Atlantic. Weight gain in North America reached epidemic proportions years ago. But when we think about it today, it’s not particularly alarming, almost as if we’ve resigned ourselves to gaining weight – and then trying to lose it – at some point in our lives. Counting calories is as North American as apple pie, a practice unheard of in Europe, until now.
What is “the power of we”? According to Craig Kielburger, the pioneering global activist, child rights’ advocate, and founder of Free The Children and Me to We, “We Day is not the action of one day, We Day is a movement that lives all year round.” It is, Kielburger adds with his trademark enthusiasm, “The movement of our times.”
Bringing in celebrities to share their inspiring stories with high school students who are already involved in global action on some level, We Day is designed to motivate and inspire youth to feel empowered, to take action, and to involve themselves in something larger than themselves.
There can be little doubt that mother nature has an enduring influence on humanity (though it would be more accurate to say that nature and humanity are one but that’s a little too new agey for most). Yet, we have developed the dangerous habits of ignoring her and, increasingly, trying to control her. Interestingly, governments adopt a similar strategy with regards to many domestic concerns – unemployment, homelessness, inequality – pushing them aside while also concealing their effects, by inadequate means.
Take the American and Japanese governments who knowingly installed weak defenses in areas susceptible to natural disasters, and have long dismissed significant social and economic problems. But nature, as she does, has provided an inescapable wake-up call on both fronts.
Most black superheroes don't actually have super powers. So a question occurred to me, what is a superhero? Blade is a vampire, Superman is an alien and Batman doesn't have any special abilities, unless being a rich white guy could be considered a super power. Wikipedia suggests a superhero is a" fictional character of unprecedented physical prowess dedicated to acts of derring-do in the public interest".
In which case our highly underappreciated and relatively unknown class of black superheroes is indeed worthy of the title.
