Apply at www.charitablefilmnetwork.submittable.com/submit. Please spread the word!  #LoveYall #BlendedBooksClub

The 6th Annual New Orleans Loving Festival is seeking original artwork and short films with themes concerning Love, Race, Identity and the Multiracial Experience, for a juried group art exhibition from July 1st to August 6th at the Myrtle Banks Building Gallery. Please follow the guidelines below for consideration:

1. ART Submissions must include your bio or resume, high resolution photo(s) of the artwork, and a description - including the title, size, medium, and the year the artwork was created.Artwork created before 2013 should not be submitted for consideration.
2. SHORT FILM Submissions must include your bio or resume, a film synopsis, and a web link to preview the film (or screener DVD).

You will need to create a Submittable User Account to submit your materials. See instructions at https://charitablefilmnetwork.submittable.com/submit/56316­. 

The DEADLINE for receiving submissions is Wednesday, June 1, 2016 at Midnight - Central Standard Time.

The New Orleans Loving Festival is an initiative of Charitable Film Network. For more information contact mail@charitablefilmnetwork.org or visit lovingfestival.org. Please follow the Loving Festival on Facebook and Twitter!

The 6th Annual New Orleans Loving Festival is seeking original cartoons that address topics related to diversity, multiculturalism and social justice for a group art exhibition, A Loving Judgement from June 4th to July 2nd at the Arts Council of New Orleans’ Exchange Centre Gallery. The exhibition is curated by the Master of Arts in Museum Studies Program, Southern University at New Orleans.

About the New Orleans Loving Festival: The "Loving Festival" is modeled after Loving Day multicultural celebrations across the country that organize people to stand against racial prejudice through education and community outreach. The Loving Festival also honors the legacy of Richard and Mildred Loving, the interracial couple whose 1967 landmark civil rights lawsuit “Loving v. Virginia” ended all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States.
The Loving Festival is an important community platform for showcasing films and other creative works that explore racial stereotypes and inspire people to work together for social justice.
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About the Exhibition: Nearly 50 years after the Loving decision, communities in the United States and around the world are still facing social and cultural challenges. Although the new technological revolution in communication and the growing interest in citizen journalism as alternatives to mainstream media have brought people closer together more than ever, they have also uncovered the depth and complexity of some social and cultural provocation. This exhibition explores the themes of diversity, multiculturalism and social justice, and how cartoons and comic strips may reflect the social landscape in the community.

Submissions: We invite cartoon artists to submit their original work related to the exhibition themes. Please use our online application to submit your work. You will be asked to submit the following:
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1. Artist contact information
2. High resolution photo(s) of cartoon submission(s)
3. High resolution photo of artist (for the exhibition catalog and website)
4. Artist statement (between 300 to 400 words)
5. Artist biography (between 300 to 400 words)
6. $35.00 Application Fee

You will need to create a Submittable User Account to submit your application. The submission deadline is March 15, 2016 at 11:30pm CST. Applications submitted after the deadline will not be considered. Successful submissions will be notified by March 29, 2016.  For more information contact heid@suno.edu.

TO APPLY VISIT: www.charitablefilmnetwork.submittable.com/submit 

Accepted artwork must be exhibit ready - with a white mat, black frame and hanging wire. Participating artists will be responsible for shipping costs. If resources are available artists will receive a full or partial reimbursement for shipping.
The New Orleans Loving Festival is an initiative of Charitable Film Network.

‪#‎NOLF‬ ‪#‎LovingFestival‬ ‪#‎LoveYall‬ ‪#‎cfnNOLA‬ ‪#‎CharitableFilmNetwork‬

So my interest in Racial Reconciliation / Healing is about the same: Repairing the damage, Removing evil doers power, De-constructing institutionalized racism, and Preparing children to survive and thrive regardless.

To attack these we really only need agreement that the disproportionate poverty and incarceration of black people is the wound and a willingness of people to use their personal power and influence to change laws and policies that contribute to the injury (Ineffective, underfunded schools and the war on drugs), and use their time energy and resources to help children avoid the pitfalls that maintain poverty and incarceration rates.

Political power is being driven by bigoted people who believe that black poverty and incarceration are because something is innately wrong with people with melanized skin. They are not necessarily evil but suffer from ignorance, traditional beliefs and media's focus on the outcomes rather than the causes. These folk are not very likely to participate in discussions with those of us who know better. Public media are the best hope for shedding light into their dark places.

Healing the Wound: The conversation that led Pastor Wardsworth and I to begin the Silverback Society was about repairing the damage. This takes boots on the ground and overcoming the internalized racist beliefs that black men are helpless to change their communities and that the children are “lost”. We are healing those concepts in the hearts and minds on hundreds of boys and soon to be hundreds of men.

I write to express that addressing the pain cause by racism may soothe the injured but does nothing to heal the injury, reduce the political power of bigots and racists, change how real estate values work, or prepare the next generation to deal with it while becoming people who will break the cycles put in motion generations earlier. Healers have to do something to change something.

LLOYD DENNIS, a.k.a. the "Love Doctor" is a motivator, trainer and the author of HIS WAY WORKS: A Primer For Modern Living. For more information visit: wwwlloyddennis.com or www.facebook.com/lloyd.dennis.

Originally published on June 11, 2015 by lloyddennis.com.

I began my New Year's Day with "The Loving Story", the award-winning HBO documentary on Mildred and Richard Loving's fight against the anti-miscegenation laws that prevented them from living as husband and wife in their home state of Virginia. What a powerful, historical event in the ongoing fight for civil rights in America - what a deeply inspiring reminder of what is possible with true love - and what a terrific film. 

Does it need saying that the fundamental issues we as a species are currently and graphically struggling with remain to be institutionalized racism and white supremacy? Laws can change, as the Lovings bravely proved, and still these horrific social constructs oppress and kill human beings. What will it take to unravel the system that produces such injustices? The story of the Lovings, who won their Supreme Court case in 1967, and hence "The Loving Story" documentary, screened in 2012, present answers that remain culturally relevant and crucially inspiring.

First and foremost, director Nancy Buirski gets the facts right, which probably everyone reading this blog well knows: the Lovings grew up in a rural Virginia community, fell in love and got married in 1958 in Washington DC. Upon returning home, they were arrested by Virginia police who were upholding then-current laws against inter-racial married couples living together in that state. The Lovings lived in forced exile, or constant fear of imprisonment when they dared return to Virginia, for the many years that the ACLU pursued the Lovings' lawsuit against the State of Virginia, which won in the Supreme Court in 1967, thereby striking down similar laws in the 28 states that still held them at that time. This was a gigantic step forward in our country's civil rights movement and set the precedent for the present-day legal battles regarding same-sex marriage. 

The facts in this film, however, are secondary to the palpable chemistry and integrity of Mildred and Richard Loving. "The Loving Story" smartly grounds its narrative by putting this wonderfully warm and entirely relatable family at the forefront - theirs was a normal life rich with community, work, play, struggle and joy. And how great to see a director willing to let her subjects tell their own story; how reflective of the underlying message of their struggle and eventual victory.  Weaving intimate, vintage film footage around first-person monologues, Buirski enabled me to connect so directly with them by personalizing their historic journey. What's more endearing than the obvious adoration Mildred and Richard felt for each other? Their love resonated like something out of an archetypal myth. By getting out of the way and letting the Lovings' own experiences function as her framing structure,  Buirski essentially says, "These two are destined to be together; laws against love are destined to crumble." The simple fact of the Lovings demands that we as a culture dismantle racist (sexist/homophoboic/classist) constructs and the criminally repressive culture they produce. If only it were that simple. 

What luck that Mildred's random letter appealing to Attorney General Robert Kennedy led the Lovings to the young ACLU lawyers that had the intelligence and stamina to see this case to its rightful end! The archival footage of lawyers Bernard Cohen and Philip Hirschkop brainstorming, advising and finally arguing their case in the Supreme Court is thrilling - to see the inner workings of change in action is rare and a great reminder that these battles are fought on many playing fields, by many people, in big and little ways. The lawyers' clear-sighted understanding that laws prohibiting 'race mixing' were inherently designed to maintain white supremacy via segregation, and thereby unconstitutional, is refreshingly smart juxtaposed with the irrational hysteria of the racist white community who raged against them. I've a great affection for lawyers who use their skills and power to fight the system from within - these guys represent the best of that. 

I can honestly say that the Lovings inspire me to remain willing to look directly at the dark side of our culture with courage and perseverance and, yes, love. The temptation to "close up" in this violent world can be strong - it can feel like the safest route to take, given the brutality of what's happening on the streets of America today. Yet I'm happy that I remain teachable about how I can live in this world without perpetuating racism; I remain teachable about how to disengage from the system of white privilege that I myself have benefitted from; I remain teachable about how to cultivate love. Additionally, that there is such a gorgeous archive of personal and public documentation of the Lovings reminds me of how absolutely necessary it is to tell our stories of daily life and resistance against injustice and victories. The creative process is a powerful tool that I unequivocally believe can be used to effect social change. Photography, film, art, dance, music, writing, cooking, reading, listening, questioning - these are revolutionary acts that sustain my hope for the future. So here's to those who have gone so bravely before us and given us the blueprint for a life wholly, bravely lived! My New Year's wish is that we can all be as true to ourselves and the stories our lives are meant to tell as Mildred and Richard Loving. 

- Elizabeth Underwood 

(I rented "The Loving Story" from my library and it's available on Netflix - visit http://lovingfilm.com/ #lovingfestival

Please mark your calendar for FACING RACE: A National Conference, a unique collaborative space for racial justice movement making. Facing Race is the largest multiracial, inter-generational gathering for organizers, educators, creatives and other leaders.

Facing Race 2014 will be held in Dallas, Texas on November 13-15, 2014. In addition to highlighting a Southern perspective for Facing Race attendees, the 2014 conference will offer the local community unprecedented access to information and resources on racial equity. Previous Facing Race National Conferences have been held in Baltimore, Berkeley, Chicago, Oakland and New York. For a limited time, Race Forward is offering an Early Bird discount. Register today! Use code: FR14Welcome.

Facing Race: A National Conference is presented by RACE FORWARD: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation. Race Forward advances racial justice through research, media, and practice. Founded in 1981, Race Forward brings systemic analysis and an innovative approach to complex race issues to help people take effective action toward racial equity. Race Forward publishes the daily news site Colorlines and presents Facing Race, the country’s largest multiracial conference on racial justice.