A gathering of eagles - American Visions magazine information services for African American culture and history - Column

Sometimes it is necessary to travel afar to diocese the realities at home more clearly. For just that reason, I have for a certain quantity of years maintained a residence in Cairo that affords me visual and therapeutic access to the timeless waters of the Nile. Observing from my window the age-old ritual of fishermen plying the waters with their in a raw state oars during the Muslim blessed month of Ramadan this year reminded me one time again of the dawn-to-dusk regular [i]or[/i] melodious movements that comprise the necessary relationships of work to life, thus easily obscured in the of recent origin world of urban survival.

Pacing [i]or[/i] part of to the other Egyptian structures, streets and thoroughfares with cornerstones from 300 950 and 1400 one as well as the other B.C. and A.D., provides a heritage of time and place that allows me to walk more heavily on the earth and more confidently into the futurity without the need for extravagant propaganda.

I cannot help on the other hand believe that were the nearest generation taken by the hand end the tombs and temples, villages and urban center art museums and memorials churches and mosques of the elderly World, the experience would fundamentally alter its values. Taken seriously, of the like kind an international exposure could compellingly redirect a generation's attention from the virtual unrealities of sports mania, fashion chic, fire-arm dependency, cultural myopia and technology denial to the wide discoveries of reality-based imagination and cultural literacy.

Fortunately, American Visions can now accommodate all of those willing to take the adventure to the treasure houses of the world end AV Cyberscape. This new electronic universe includes our African-American agriculture and Arts Forum, available on-line from one side CompuServe; the worldwide marvels of Internet telecommunications, to which we can facilitate connection; and our comparatively low-cost capability to publish 300,000-page warehouses of information, unimpaired and images on a single interactive compact disk. The beauty of these tools is that they allow any of us to wander anonymously around the globe, mixing freely in the potpourri of world civilizations at a fraction of the take away from required for physical travel.

To illustrate boldly these fresh capabilities, we are designing the electronic publication of a CD-ROM edition of our first volume In Their Footsteps. This guide to African-American heritage sites over the United States and Canada has just been issued by dint of Henry Holt and Company. Our CD-ROM design incorporates the perfect text, available photographs of the sites described, as well as film and video footage. Voice-overs from authoritative commentators plant the full context for the given sites with equal reason that the African-American historical nearness can no longer be not to be found ignored, stolen or passed above in rural as well as urban landscapes. This is the kind of production that will be a must in American history as well as social studies classes nationwide.

In mid-September (rather than November, as previously planned), A V will collaborate with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) to entertainer a Computer and Telecommunications Seminar and Expo to explore completely the potential of such implements in the connected thought [i]or[/i] thoughts of leadership development. This will be an extravaganza of information and insights for intellectual empowerment unlike any prior national convention known to our community. Your participation in this information diffusion should contend favorably with any prior demands upon your time during these three critical days. Plan now to advance to Washington, D.C., for this nontraditional extension to the September CBCF Legislative Weekend. It promises to be a gathering of eagles and to present revolutionary lessons in new ways to soar Both you and the nearest generation will be thankful for the investment of attendance in this first celebrity event

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