Defamation photos on Flickr

6 4

St Mary, Kettlebaston, Suffolk

I always look forward to coming back to Kettlebaston. It is likely that anyone who knows the churches of Suffolk well will have Kettlebaston among their favourites. The setting is delectable, in the remote Suffolk hills between Hadleigh and Stowmarket. The building is at once elegant and interesting, the interior stunning, but most fascinating of all, perhaps, is the story behind the way it is today.

In 1963, in the thirty-third year of his incumbency as Rector of the parish of Kettlebaston, Father Harold Clear Butler sent a letter to a friend. "You are right,"he wrote. "There is no congregation any more." In failing health, he relied on the family of a vicar who had retired nearby to carry out the ceremonies of Easter week that year. In 1964, Father Butler himself retired, and an extraordinary episode in the history of the Anglo-Catholic movement in Suffolk came to an end.

There may have been no congregation, but St Mary at Kettlebaston was a shrine, to which people made pilgrimages from all over England. Here was the liturgically highest of all Suffolk's Anglican churches, where Father Butler said the Roman Mass every day, celebrated High Mass and Benediction on Sunday, dispensed with churchwardens, flouted the authority of the Anglican diocese by tearing down state notices put up in the porch, refused to keep registers, and even, as an extreme, ignored the office of the local Archdeacon of Sudbury. An entry from the otherwise empty registers for October 2nd 1933 reads Visitation of Archdeacon of Sudbury. Abortive. Archdeacon, finding no churchwardens present, rode off on his High Horse!

Father Butler came to this parish when the Anglo-Catholic movement was at its height, and survived into a poorly old age as it retreated, leaving him high and dry. But not for one moment did he ever compromise.

Kettlebaston church is not just remote liturgically. You set off from the vicinity of Hadleigh, finding your way to the back of beyond at Brent Eleigh - and then beyond the back of beyond, up the winding roads that climb into the hills above Preston. Somewhere here, two narrow lanes head north. One will take you to Thorpe Morieux, and one to Kettlebaston, but I can never be sure which is which, or even if they are always in the same place. Finding your way to this, one of the most remote of all Suffolk villages, can be like finding your way into Narnia. Once in the village, you find the church surrounded by a high yew hedge, through which a passage conducts a path into the graveyard. On a buttress, a statue of the Coronation of the Queen of Heaven sits behind a grill. It is a copy of an alabaster found under the floorboards during the 1860s restoration. The original is now in the British Museum.

One Anglo-catholic tradition that has not been lost here is that the church should always be open, always be welcoming. You enter through the small porch, perhaps not fully prepared for the wonders that await. The nave you step into is light, clean and well-cared for. There is no coloured glass, no heavy benches, no tiles. The brick floor and simple wooden chairs seem as one with the air, a perfect foil for the rugged Norman font on its elegant legs. And then, the surprise of the rich view to the east, for the fixtures and fittings of the 20th Century Anglo-Catholic tradition survive here in all their splendour.

The two major features are the rood screen and the high altar. The rood screen is the work of several people, having been added to over the years by a roll-call of prominent Anglo-Catholic artists. It was designed by Ernest Geldart in the early 1900s. It was painted by Patrick Osborne in 1949, apart from the figures, which are the work of Enid Chadwick in 1954. They are: St Felix as a bishop holding a candle, St Thomas More in regalia, St Thomas of Canterbury with a sword through his mitre, St John Fisher as a bishop holding a book, St Alban in armour and St Fursey holding Burgh Castle.

To one side, the Sacred Heart altar bears the original stone mensa from the high altar. The table itself is the Stuart Communion table. To the other, a Lady altar. All of these are either gifts or rescued from redundant Anglo-Catholic churches elsewhere. The elegant grill in front of the rood loft stairs is by Ninian Comper.

Stepping through into the chancel is a reminder of how the clearance of clutter can improve a liturgical space. Here, the emptiness provides a perfect foil for the massive altar piece. The altar itself was the gift of Miss Eleanor Featonby Smith, consecrated by the Bishop of Madagascar in 1956, in one of those ceremonies conducted in the labyrinthine underworld of the Anglo-catholic movement. The altar sports what is colloquially referred to as the Big Six - the trademark six candlesticks of an Anglo-catholic parish. Behind them, the rich reredos is also by Ernest Geldart, and was also painted by Patrick Osborne.

At the west end of the nave is a display case holding facsimiles of the Kettlebaston alabasters, an oddly prosaic moment. But Kettlebaston's medieval past is not entirely rebooted, for the chancel was sensitively restored by Ernest Geldart in 1902 with none of the razzmatazz of his church at Little Braxted in Essex. The east window was rebuilt to the same design as the original, as was the roof. The late 13th Century piscina and sedilia are preserved, and on the north side of the chancel survives an impressive tomb recess of about the same date.

The sole memorial is to Joan, Lady Jermyn, who died in 1649. Her inscription, at the End of the English Civil War and the start of the ill-fated Commonwealth, is a fascinating example of the language of the time. Is it puritan in sympathy, or Anglican? Or simply a bizarre fruit of the ferment of ideas in that World Turned Upside Down? Within this dormitory lyes interred ye corpps of Johan Lady Jermy it begins, and continues whose arke after a passage of 87 yeares long through this deluge of teares... rested upon ye mount of joye. And then the verse:

Sleepe sweetly, Saint. Since thou wert gone

ther's not the least aspertion

to rake thine asshes: no defame

to veyle the lustre of thy name.

Like odorous tapers thy best sent

remains after extinguishment.

Stirr not these sacred asshes, let them rest

till union make both soule & body blest.

Above, the roofs drip with hanging paraffin lamps, the walls have their candle brackets, for this little church still has no electricity. You sense the attraction of Benediction on a late winter afternoon.

St Mary is loved and cared for by those who worship in it. There are rather more of them than in Father Butler's final days, but they are still a tiny, remote community. Since 1964, they have been part of a wider benefice, and must toe the Anglican mainstream line, as at Lound. But also, as at Lound, the relics of the Anglo-Catholic heyday here are preserved lovingly, and, judging by the visitors book, it is not just the regular worshippers who love it, for Anglo-Catholics from all over England still treat it as a goal of pilgrimage. I remember sitting in this church on a bright spring afternoon some twenty years ago. I'd been sitting for a while in near-silence, which was suddenly broken by the clunk of the door latch. Two elderly ladies came in. They smiled, genuflected towards the east, and greeted me. Together, they went to the Sacred Heart altar, put a bunch of violets in a vase on it, and knelt before it. The silence continued, now with a counterpoint of birdsong from the churchyard through the open door. Then they stood, made the sign of the cross, and went out again. Father Butler looked on and smiled, I'm sure.

I Heard It Thru the Grapevine by Heart Windows Art

3 24

A photo of a huge tangled mass of dried up brown grapevines turned into this abstract after inverting,boosting, rotating,cropping, more boosting, and more edits in Picnik. Finally a mirror frame looks like background bokeh, then a museum matt. What does this make you feel like? What emotion does it emote? What does it remind you of?

The contrast of the sharp and out of focus areas is disconcerting somehow. The repeated pattern is like the repeating of gossip, just what a sharp tongue does.

I think of the twisted together vines and how gossip travels in a perverted tangled mass like the grapevines I saw. Gossip even travels in Christian circles many times under the guise of a prayer need. "We should pray for such and such person because she did this or that...." You know what I'm talking about! Oh, it looks good like this brightly colored abstract but underneath it all is the old brown dried up grapevine mass. A tangled mess of words that end up defaming, detracting, even slandering and not edifying or building up the other person.

The rainbow thing at the bottom looks like a tongue wagging, flapping, it's rooted in the grapevine, part of the mess!

James 3:1-12

1 My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. 2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. 3 Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. 4 Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. 5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. 7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: 8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. 10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. 11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? 12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.

Narrung ferry crossing. Pelicans, shags and gulls waiting for the next one. by denisbin

3

Narrung and Point Malcolm Lighthouse.

The Malcolms of Poltalloch had their association with the district memorialised in the only inland lighthouse in Australia. The lighthouse at Narrung on the narrow entrance from Lake Alexandrina into Lake Albert was named Point Malcolm. The lighthouse here was erected as an aid to shipping and lake transport in 1878 just a few years after the founding of Meningie. At that time the land route to the South East was from Milang across the lakes to Meningie by steamer and then down through the Coorong by coach. A local Strathalbyn builder charged over £1,000 to build the lighthouse and the keeper’s cottage. The lighthouse was turned off in 1931 and a lighted pole erected nearby for leisure sailors and fishermen as most commercial trade on the lakes stopped by 1931.

The land here was taken up by leasehold by the South Australian Company in 1843 and named Narrung from a local Ngarrindjeri word meaning place of “large she-oaks.” It was a beef cattle property covering most of the peninsula south from Narrung. This leasehold station was then taken over by the Honourable John Baker a wealthy pastoralist and a very conservative politician. (He opposed the railways to Port Adelaide and Gawler in 1856 and wanted members of the Legislative Council to be elected for life!) By the time of his death in 1872 he had 11,000 acres of freehold land near Lake Albert as well as leasehold land along the Coorong. He held major properties at Morialta where he lived, Harrogate, Tungkillo, and runs in the Flinders Ranges and elsewhere in SA. He was to later defame George Taplin and argue strongly against the establishment of Point McLeay Mission for Aboriginal people. Baker attended church at the Anglican Church at Norton Summit and his likeness is carved in stone there and the stained glass windows are memorials to members of his family. When Narrung Station was put up for sale by a later owner in 1906 the state government purchased the station and then subdivided it into small farms for closer settlement. Despite appeals from the Aboriginal Friends’ Association (AFA) not one acre was granted to the Aboriginal Mission at this time. The small township of Narrung with about 40 town blocks was surveyed and laid out in 1907. The school opened in 1912.

San Francisco - Mission District: Building Bridges of Solidarity: Breaking Down Barriers by Wally Gobetz

4

Building Bridges of Solidarity: Breaking Down Barriers, a 117-foot long mural on 24th Street and Capp Street, was executed in 1997 by Eric Norberg and Mike Ramos for HOMEY (Homies Organizing the Mission to Empower Youth) and project coordinator Nancy Hernandez.

The anti-Zionist mural, depicting "related images of struggle by indigenous communities against forces of imperialism, racism, and economic oppression", came under heavy protest from the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) and the HOMEY artists had to remove or alter the portion of the mural depicting Palestinian resistance.

Ms. Demure, Bebe Zahara Benet by RyanReporting

2

The 18th Annual Original GLBT Expo

The Fourth Annual Video Lounge

The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center of New York

655 West 34th Street

New York, NY 10001

March 12th 2011 - 12 noon to 7pm

March 13th 2011 - 12 noon to 6 pm

Presents the Fourth Annual VIDEO LOUNGE

Hosted by

The Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival &

The Rhode Island International Film Festival

Main Curator

Ryan Janek Wolowski of both Film and Television

THE ORIGINAL GLBT EXPO FOURTH ANNUAL VIDEO LOUNGE

***********************

Saturday March 12th 2011 12:00 – 7:00PM

12:00 Stephen Flynn - Director of the Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival HOSTS

Best in LGBT and our friends Music Music Videos including Brian Kent and Jason Walker

12:30 Ms. Demure HOSTS from Dayton, Ohio host of Harper's Bazzaroworld Present's The Ms.Demure Show

"16th and 8th" preview with Stephen Schulman from SASi Public Relations & Marketing

1:00 Randolfe Wicker LGBT Activist HOSTS

Gender bending music videos in Japanese Pop culture

Sekiya Dorsett director of "Saving Julian" a short film for and about LGBT homeless youth

1:30 Anu Singh from GLAAD The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation HOSTS

Bollywood goes pink

Desi Music Video Mix

Engendered / I View Film Festival Highlights

Guest from Karan Johar film कभी अलविदा न कहना "Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna"

2:00 Neal Bennington - Broadway Commentator as seen on The Wendy Williams Show HOSTS

- NOREEN CRAYTON (National Tour of Rent, Independent Music Award winner)

- RICHARD DeFONZO (VH1's "Boys Will Be Girls", Tribute Artist)

- TERESE GENECCO (MAC Award Winner, Longest running nightclub act on Broadway)

- PAUL GOLIO & TINSEL (Ventriloquist)

- BOBBY CRONIN (Theatre Composer/Lyricist, Welcome to My Life)

2:30 Tym Moss from Artists Exposed HOSTS

Phil Putnam

Gabrielle Lindau "These Showers Can Talk" short film with Lori Michaels

Deepa Soul aka Diedra Meredith (recording artist) / executive director of OUTMUSIC, the LGBT Academy of Recording Artists

Josh Zuckerman

3:00 Lady Gaga - Rare clips from 2008 before "The Fame" was released + more

3:30 Ryan Janek Wolowski of MTV Networks HOSTS

Oh My Josh! International pop recording artist "Out My Face (Wah Wah Wah)"

MAOR - Recording Artist/Music Producer originally from Tel Aviv/Israel will perform his latest single "Kmo Shir Chadash" & Victory - NO More Rain

Check out www.maormusic.com/home

4:00 Appolonia Cruz from FX GAY TV previously known as Fruta Extrana TV as seen on The Wendy Williams Show HOSTS

Miss America 2011's Claire Buffie (Miss New York)

www.missnyorg.com/miss-ny-2010.html

LOVARI w/ special guest entertainers from his music videos:

Demanda Dahhling/Thomas Bistriz(Author)

Janifer (Recording Artist)

King Ralphy (Promoter)

Seth Clark Silberman (PHDJ)

DJ Sparrow - www.LovariWorld.Com

Simply Rob (spoken word poet) from El Grito de Poetas

Jorge Merced the director of the fabulous "Pregones" Bronx Theater

India M. (India Mendelsohn)

Barnacle Billl (Bill Murray)

Ova Floh

5:00 Ms. Demure HOSTS from Dayton, Ohio host of Harper's Bazzaroworld Present's The Ms.Demure Show

Joe E. Jeffreys presents "Drag Show Video Verite"

Candy Samples

5:30 Soce the Elemental Wizard / Andrew Singer HOSTS

Comedy Stop

Brad Loekle

Claudia Cogan

6:15 "White House Presidential Proclamation LGBT Pride Month" with Samara Riviera from www.VivaLaRiviera.com, Sassy Parker from Chic and Sassy, Ryan Janek Wolowski

6:15 - 7:00 Best in LGBT and our friends Music Music Videos incl LaVonna Harris, Yozmit, R. Sky Palkowitz The Delusional Diva, Peppermint, Kid Akimbo, Josh Zuckerman, Ari Gold, Pepper Mashay, Erika Jayne and more

*******************************************************

Sunday March 13th 2011 12:00 – 6:00PM

12:00 Stephen Flynn - Director of the Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival HOSTS

Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival video highlights incl David Kittredge, David Kilmnick, Ron Soper, Carmella Cann aka Michael Ferreira and amberRose Marie

12:30 Neal Bennington - Broadway Commentator as seen on The Wendy Williams Show HOSTS

- NOREEN CRAYTON (National Tour of Rent, Independent Music Award winner)

- NATASCIA DIAZ (Broadway's Man of La Mancha & The Capeman)

- REBECCA LARKIN (Broadway's Avenue Q & South Pacific

1:00 Randolfe Wicker LGBT Activist HOSTS

Gender bending music videos in Japanese Pop culture

Colleen Whitaker speaking on behalf of Susi Graf "Lost in the Crowd" documentary on NYC LGBT homeless youth

Paul Golio & Tinsel Ventriloquist / Jokes / Sketch Comedy

1:30 Tym Moss from Artists Exposed HOSTS

Robbie Cronrod, from Robbie and Allan (www.LoveAtFirstWink.com/vote ; Crate and Barrel's Ultimate Wedding Challenge, Currently 2nd Pl)

Ariel Aparicio

Athena Reich

"What Happens Next" feature film sneak peak with Thom Cardwell and guest stars from the movie showing of some clips and the Q&A with Jon Lindstrom, Chris Murrah, and Ariel Shafir

www.whathappensnextmovie.com

2:00 Anu Singh from GLAAD The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation HOSTS

Ricky Martin Recipient of GLAAD's Vito Russo Award music video spotlight

Juan Fortino

Vermex Van Croix

Kid Akimbo originally from Brazil

2:30 Soce the Elemental Wizard / Andrew Singer HOSTS

Comedy Stop

Mike Cotayo

Joanne Filan

3:00 Appolonia Cruz from FX GAY TV previously known as Fruta Extrana

TV as seen on The Wendy Williams Show HOSTS

*JANID (Recording Academy and Billboard Recognized Zonisphere

Recording Artist) - "Alias" music video

LIVE Q&A with

JANID and Kaydean (Alias video director, Recording Academy

Recognized 3x Gold and 1x Platinum record producer and CEO of

Zonisphere Records)

*Chanel International (Drag Star)

*Johnathan Cedano (actor) - portraying adult film actor Tiger Tyson

in the one-man show "Confessions of a Homo Thug Porn Star,"

"INDIO" Producer/Director of Johnathan Cedano's "Portrait of a Porn Star"

*Mike Todd GOOTH Magazine

Samara Riviera from www.VivaLaRiviera.com, Sassy Parker from Chic and Sassy

*Adam Barta

*amberRose Marie Upclose & Personal: a videomentary. LIVE Q&A

with Billboard recording artist amberRose Marie follows, with a

special surprise. National SAG LGBT committee member Ron B.

Joins Appolonia Cruz for an intimate chat with this Diva-licious

beauty. www.amberRoseMarie.com

4:00 Ryan Janek Wolowski of MTV Networks HOSTS

MAOR - Recording Artist/Music Producer originally from Tel Aviv/Israel will perform his latest single "Kmo Shir Chadash" & Victory - NO More Rain

Check out www.maormusic.com/home

BeBe Zahara Benet winner of RuPaul's Drag Race Live in person showcasing "Cameroon" plus live Q&A

4:30 Under the Pink Carpet Meet the on air personalities from the gay-themed television entertainment news series that airs on WNYE / WNYC TV Channel 25 / Dish Miss HOSTS

Lady Clover Honey

Tony Sawicki

Colton Ford, recording artist, actor (The Lair) and former gay male adult entertainment star.

5:30 - 6:00 Best in LGBT and our friends Music Music Videos including Vanessa Conde, Crystal Waters, Noa Tylo, Salme Dahlstrom, Khalid Rivera and more.

*****************************************

VIDEO LOUNGE 2011 make sure not to miss this event which only happens once a year.

Look for surprise guests throughout the day as well as giveaways all day long.

This event is OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

********************************************

Peppermint by RyanReporting

3

The 18th Annual Original GLBT Expo

The Fourth Annual Video Lounge

The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center of New York

655 West 34th Street

New York, NY 10001

March 12th 2011 - 12 noon to 7pm

March 13th 2011 - 12 noon to 6 pm

Presents the Fourth Annual VIDEO LOUNGE

Hosted by

The Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival &

The Rhode Island International Film Festival

Main Curator

Ryan Janek Wolowski of both Film and Television

THE ORIGINAL GLBT EXPO FOURTH ANNUAL VIDEO LOUNGE

***********************

Saturday March 12th 2011 12:00 – 7:00PM

12:00 Stephen Flynn - Director of the Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival HOSTS

Best in LGBT and our friends Music Music Videos including Brian Kent and Jason Walker

12:30 Ms. Demure HOSTS from Dayton, Ohio host of Harper's Bazzaroworld Present's The Ms.Demure Show

"16th and 8th" preview with Stephen Schulman from SASi Public Relations & Marketing

1:00 Randolfe Wicker LGBT Activist HOSTS

Gender bending music videos in Japanese Pop culture

Sekiya Dorsett director of "Saving Julian" a short film for and about LGBT homeless youth

1:30 Anu Singh from GLAAD The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation HOSTS

Bollywood goes pink

Desi Music Video Mix

Engendered / I View Film Festival Highlights

Guest from Karan Johar film कभी अलविदा न कहना "Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna"

2:00 Neal Bennington - Broadway Commentator as seen on The Wendy Williams Show HOSTS

- NOREEN CRAYTON (National Tour of Rent, Independent Music Award winner)

- RICHARD DeFONZO (VH1's "Boys Will Be Girls", Tribute Artist)

- TERESE GENECCO (MAC Award Winner, Longest running nightclub act on Broadway)

- PAUL GOLIO & TINSEL (Ventriloquist)

- BOBBY CRONIN (Theatre Composer/Lyricist, Welcome to My Life)

2:30 Tym Moss from Artists Exposed HOSTS

Phil Putnam

Gabrielle Lindau "These Showers Can Talk" short film with Lori Michaels

Deepa Soul aka Diedra Meredith (recording artist) / executive director of OUTMUSIC, the LGBT Academy of Recording Artists

Josh Zuckerman

3:00 Lady Gaga - Rare clips from 2008 before "The Fame" was released + more

3:30 Ryan Janek Wolowski of MTV Networks HOSTS

Oh My Josh! International pop recording artist "Out My Face (Wah Wah Wah)"

MAOR - Recording Artist/Music Producer originally from Tel Aviv/Israel will perform his latest single "Kmo Shir Chadash" & Victory - NO More Rain

Check out www.maormusic.com/home

4:00 Appolonia Cruz from FX GAY TV previously known as Fruta Extrana TV as seen on The Wendy Williams Show HOSTS

Miss America 2011's Claire Buffie (Miss New York)

www.missnyorg.com/miss-ny-2010.html

LOVARI w/ special guest entertainers from his music videos:

Demanda Dahhling/Thomas Bistriz(Author)

Janifer (Recording Artist)

King Ralphy (Promoter)

Seth Clark Silberman (PHDJ)

DJ Sparrow - www.LovariWorld.Com

Simply Rob (spoken word poet) from El Grito de Poetas

Jorge Merced the director of the fabulous "Pregones" Bronx Theater

India M. (India Mendelsohn)

Barnacle Billl (Bill Murray)

Ova Floh

5:00 Ms. Demure HOSTS from Dayton, Ohio host of Harper's Bazzaroworld Present's The Ms.Demure Show

Joe E. Jeffreys presents "Drag Show Video Verite"

Candy Samples

5:30 Soce the Elemental Wizard / Andrew Singer HOSTS

Comedy Stop

Brad Loekle

Claudia Cogan

6:15 "White House Presidential Proclamation LGBT Pride Month" with Samara Riviera from www.VivaLaRiviera.com, Sassy Parker from Chic and Sassy, Ryan Janek Wolowski

6:15 - 7:00 Best in LGBT and our friends Music Music Videos incl LaVonna Harris, Yozmit, R. Sky Palkowitz The Delusional Diva, Peppermint, Kid Akimbo, Josh Zuckerman, Ari Gold, Pepper Mashay, Erika Jayne and more

*******************************************************

Sunday March 13th 2011 12:00 – 6:00PM

12:00 Stephen Flynn - Director of the Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival HOSTS

Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival video highlights incl David Kittredge, David Kilmnick, Ron Soper, Carmella Cann aka Michael Ferreira and amberRose Marie

12:30 Neal Bennington - Broadway Commentator as seen on The Wendy Williams Show HOSTS

- NOREEN CRAYTON (National Tour of Rent, Independent Music Award winner)

- NATASCIA DIAZ (Broadway's Man of La Mancha & The Capeman)

- REBECCA LARKIN (Broadway's Avenue Q & South Pacific

1:00 Randolfe Wicker LGBT Activist HOSTS

Gender bending music videos in Japanese Pop culture

Colleen Whitaker speaking on behalf of Susi Graf "Lost in the Crowd" documentary on NYC LGBT homeless youth

Paul Golio & Tinsel Ventriloquist / Jokes / Sketch Comedy

1:30 Tym Moss from Artists Exposed HOSTS

Robbie Cronrod, from Robbie and Allan (www.LoveAtFirstWink.com/vote ; Crate and Barrel's Ultimate Wedding Challenge, Currently 2nd Pl)

Ariel Aparicio

Athena Reich

"What Happens Next" feature film sneak peak with Thom Cardwell and guest stars from the movie showing of some clips and the Q&A with Jon Lindstrom, Chris Murrah, and Ariel Shafir

www.whathappensnextmovie.com

2:00 Anu Singh from GLAAD The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation HOSTS

Ricky Martin Recipient of GLAAD's Vito Russo Award music video spotlight

Juan Fortino

Vermex Van Croix

Kid Akimbo originally from Brazil

2:30 Soce the Elemental Wizard / Andrew Singer HOSTS

Comedy Stop

Mike Cotayo

Joanne Filan

3:00 Appolonia Cruz from FX GAY TV previously known as Fruta Extrana

TV as seen on The Wendy Williams Show HOSTS

*JANID (Recording Academy and Billboard Recognized Zonisphere

Recording Artist) - "Alias" music video

LIVE Q&A with

JANID and Kaydean (Alias video director, Recording Academy

Recognized 3x Gold and 1x Platinum record producer and CEO of

Zonisphere Records)

*Chanel International (Drag Star)

*Johnathan Cedano (actor) - portraying adult film actor Tiger Tyson

in the one-man show "Confessions of a Homo Thug Porn Star,"

"INDIO" Producer/Director of Johnathan Cedano's "Portrait of a Porn Star"

*Mike Todd GOOTH Magazine

Samara Riviera from www.VivaLaRiviera.com, Sassy Parker from Chic and Sassy

*Adam Barta

*amberRose Marie Upclose & Personal: a videomentary. LIVE Q&A

with Billboard recording artist amberRose Marie follows, with a

special surprise. National SAG LGBT committee member Ron B.

Joins Appolonia Cruz for an intimate chat with this Diva-licious

beauty. www.amberRoseMarie.com

4:00 Ryan Janek Wolowski of MTV Networks HOSTS

MAOR - Recording Artist/Music Producer originally from Tel Aviv/Israel will perform his latest single "Kmo Shir Chadash" & Victory - NO More Rain

Check out www.maormusic.com/home

BeBe Zahara Benet winner of RuPaul's Drag Race Live in person showcasing "Cameroon" plus live Q&A

4:30 Under the Pink Carpet Meet the on air personalities from the gay-themed television entertainment news series that airs on WNYE / WNYC TV Channel 25 / Dish Miss HOSTS

Lady Clover Honey

Tony Sawicki

Colton Ford, recording artist, actor (The Lair) and former gay male adult entertainment star.

5:30 - 6:00 Best in LGBT and our friends Music Music Videos including Vanessa Conde, Crystal Waters, Noa Tylo, Salme Dahlstrom, Khalid Rivera and more.

*****************************************

VIDEO LOUNGE 2011 make sure not to miss this event which only happens once a year.

Look for surprise guests throughout the day as well as giveaways all day long.

This event is OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

********************************************

Landmine Victim Harmonica Player by Pictim

6 3

A Cambodian landmine victim entertains us with his clever harmonica playing. Khoa I Dang Refugee Transit Camp. Thai / Cambodian Border.

********************************

I usually don't expect a fee for private viewing, projects, school work, charity work, etc. Also if you wanted to use any images as a base for a private artwork or poster, I would love to see the final product (as long as it is legal and doesn't defame anyone).

Although I do need to charge for other professional, corporate or commercial uses, as I also have to make money to live. I can then supply a high resolution finished image which is sized to your needs.

For more information please contact me through FlickrMail.

Thanks .............. tim

********************************

Miss India M. at The Original GLBT Expo Fourth Annual Video Lounge by RyanReporting

2

The 18th Annual Original GLBT Expo

The Fourth Annual Video Lounge

The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center of New York

655 West 34th Street

New York, NY 10001

March 12th 2011 - 12 noon to 7pm

March 13th 2011 - 12 noon to 6 pm

Presents the Fourth Annual VIDEO LOUNGE

Hosted by

The Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival &

The Rhode Island International Film Festival

Main Curator

Ryan Janek Wolowski of both Film and Television

THE ORIGINAL GLBT EXPO FOURTH ANNUAL VIDEO LOUNGE

***********************

Saturday March 12th 2011 12:00 – 7:00PM

12:00 Stephen Flynn - Director of the Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival HOSTS

Best in LGBT and our friends Music Music Videos including Brian Kent and Jason Walker

12:30 Ms. Demure HOSTS from Dayton, Ohio host of Harper's Bazzaroworld Present's The Ms.Demure Show

"16th and 8th" preview with Stephen Schulman from SASi Public Relations & Marketing

1:00 Randolfe Wicker LGBT Activist HOSTS

Gender bending music videos in Japanese Pop culture

Sekiya Dorsett director of "Saving Julian" a short film for and about LGBT homeless youth

1:30 Anu Singh from GLAAD The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation HOSTS

Bollywood goes pink

Desi Music Video Mix

Engendered / I View Film Festival Highlights

Guest from Karan Johar film कभी अलविदा न कहना "Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna"

2:00 Neal Bennington - Broadway Commentator as seen on The Wendy Williams Show HOSTS

- NOREEN CRAYTON (National Tour of Rent, Independent Music Award winner)

- RICHARD DeFONZO (VH1's "Boys Will Be Girls", Tribute Artist)

- TERESE GENECCO (MAC Award Winner, Longest running nightclub act on Broadway)

- PAUL GOLIO & TINSEL (Ventriloquist)

- BOBBY CRONIN (Theatre Composer/Lyricist, Welcome to My Life)

2:30 Tym Moss from Artists Exposed HOSTS

Phil Putnam

Gabrielle Lindau "These Showers Can Talk" short film with Lori Michaels

Deepa Soul aka Diedra Meredith (recording artist) / executive director of OUTMUSIC, the LGBT Academy of Recording Artists

Josh Zuckerman

3:00 Lady Gaga - Rare clips from 2008 before "The Fame" was released + more

3:30 Ryan Janek Wolowski of MTV Networks HOSTS

Oh My Josh! International pop recording artist "Out My Face (Wah Wah Wah)"

MAOR - Recording Artist/Music Producer originally from Tel Aviv/Israel will perform his latest single "Kmo Shir Chadash" & Victory - NO More Rain

Check out www.maormusic.com/home

4:00 Appolonia Cruz from FX GAY TV previously known as Fruta Extrana TV as seen on The Wendy Williams Show HOSTS

Miss America 2011's Claire Buffie (Miss New York)

www.missnyorg.com/miss-ny-2010.html

LOVARI w/ special guest entertainers from his music videos:

Demanda Dahhling/Thomas Bistriz(Author)

Janifer (Recording Artist)

King Ralphy (Promoter)

Seth Clark Silberman (PHDJ)

DJ Sparrow - www.LovariWorld.Com

Simply Rob (spoken word poet) from El Grito de Poetas

Jorge Merced the director of the fabulous "Pregones" Bronx Theater

India M. (India Mendelsohn)

Barnacle Billl (Bill Murray)

Ova Floh

5:00 Ms. Demure HOSTS from Dayton, Ohio host of Harper's Bazzaroworld Present's The Ms.Demure Show

Joe E. Jeffreys presents "Drag Show Video Verite"

Candy Samples

5:30 Soce the Elemental Wizard / Andrew Singer HOSTS

Comedy Stop

Brad Loekle

Claudia Cogan

6:15 "White House Presidential Proclamation LGBT Pride Month" with Samara Riviera from www.VivaLaRiviera.com, Sassy Parker from Chic and Sassy, Ryan Janek Wolowski

6:15 - 7:00 Best in LGBT and our friends Music Music Videos incl LaVonna Harris, Yozmit, R. Sky Palkowitz The Delusional Diva, Peppermint, Kid Akimbo, Josh Zuckerman, Ari Gold, Pepper Mashay, Erika Jayne and more

*******************************************************

Sunday March 13th 2011 12:00 – 6:00PM

12:00 Stephen Flynn - Director of the Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival HOSTS

Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival video highlights incl David Kittredge, David Kilmnick, Ron Soper, Carmella Cann aka Michael Ferreira and amberRose Marie

12:30 Neal Bennington - Broadway Commentator as seen on The Wendy Williams Show HOSTS

- NOREEN CRAYTON (National Tour of Rent, Independent Music Award winner)

- NATASCIA DIAZ (Broadway's Man of La Mancha & The Capeman)

- REBECCA LARKIN (Broadway's Avenue Q & South Pacific

1:00 Randolfe Wicker LGBT Activist HOSTS

Gender bending music videos in Japanese Pop culture

Colleen Whitaker speaking on behalf of Susi Graf "Lost in the Crowd" documentary on NYC LGBT homeless youth

Paul Golio & Tinsel Ventriloquist / Jokes / Sketch Comedy

1:30 Tym Moss from Artists Exposed HOSTS

Robbie Cronrod, from Robbie and Allan (www.LoveAtFirstWink.com/vote ; Crate and Barrel's Ultimate Wedding Challenge, Currently 2nd Pl)

Ariel Aparicio

Athena Reich

"What Happens Next" feature film sneak peak with Thom Cardwell and guest stars from the movie showing of some clips and the Q&A with Jon Lindstrom, Chris Murrah, and Ariel Shafir

www.whathappensnextmovie.com

2:00 Anu Singh from GLAAD The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation HOSTS

Ricky Martin Recipient of GLAAD's Vito Russo Award music video spotlight

Juan Fortino

Vermex Van Croix

Kid Akimbo originally from Brazil

2:30 Soce the Elemental Wizard / Andrew Singer HOSTS

Comedy Stop

Mike Cotayo

Joanne Filan

3:00 Appolonia Cruz from FX GAY TV previously known as Fruta Extrana

TV as seen on The Wendy Williams Show HOSTS

*JANID (Recording Academy and Billboard Recognized Zonisphere

Recording Artist) - "Alias" music video

LIVE Q&A with

JANID and Kaydean (Alias video director, Recording Academy

Recognized 3x Gold and 1x Platinum record producer and CEO of

Zonisphere Records)

*Chanel International (Drag Star)

*Johnathan Cedano (actor) - portraying adult film actor Tiger Tyson

in the one-man show "Confessions of a Homo Thug Porn Star,"

"INDIO" Producer/Director of Johnathan Cedano's "Portrait of a Porn Star"

*Mike Todd GOOTH Magazine

Samara Riviera from www.VivaLaRiviera.com, Sassy Parker from Chic and Sassy

*Adam Barta

*amberRose Marie Upclose & Personal: a videomentary. LIVE Q&A

with Billboard recording artist amberRose Marie follows, with a

special surprise. National SAG LGBT committee member Ron B.

Joins Appolonia Cruz for an intimate chat with this Diva-licious

beauty. www.amberRoseMarie.com

4:00 Ryan Janek Wolowski of MTV Networks HOSTS

MAOR - Recording Artist/Music Producer originally from Tel Aviv/Israel will perform his latest single "Kmo Shir Chadash" & Victory - NO More Rain

Check out www.maormusic.com/home

BeBe Zahara Benet winner of RuPaul's Drag Race Live in person showcasing "Cameroon" plus live Q&A

4:30 Under the Pink Carpet Meet the on air personalities from the gay-themed television entertainment news series that airs on WNYE / WNYC TV Channel 25 / Dish Miss HOSTS

Lady Clover Honey

Tony Sawicki

Colton Ford, recording artist, actor (The Lair) and former gay male adult entertainment star.

5:30 - 6:00 Best in LGBT and our friends Music Music Videos including Vanessa Conde, Crystal Waters, Noa Tylo, Salme Dahlstrom, Khalid Rivera and more.

*****************************************

VIDEO LOUNGE 2011 make sure not to miss this event which only happens once a year.

Look for surprise guests throughout the day as well as giveaways all day long.

This event is OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

********************************************

wieszać na kimś psy [verdaccio] by Kazimierz Pietruszewski Sr

5 1

bad-mouth someone

drag someone through the mud

to defame someone

to denigrate

literally: to hang dogs on someone

Ms. Demure, The Original GLBT Expo Fourth Annual Video Lounge by RyanReporting

3

The 18th Annual Original GLBT Expo

The Fourth Annual Video Lounge

The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center of New York

655 West 34th Street

New York, NY 10001

March 12th 2011 - 12 noon to 7pm

March 13th 2011 - 12 noon to 6 pm

Presents the Fourth Annual VIDEO LOUNGE

Hosted by

The Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival &

The Rhode Island International Film Festival

Main Curator

Ryan Janek Wolowski of both Film and Television

THE ORIGINAL GLBT EXPO FOURTH ANNUAL VIDEO LOUNGE

***********************

Saturday March 12th 2011 12:00 – 7:00PM

12:00 Stephen Flynn - Director of the Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival HOSTS

Best in LGBT and our friends Music Music Videos including Brian Kent and Jason Walker

12:30 Ms. Demure HOSTS from Dayton, Ohio host of Harper's Bazzaroworld Present's The Ms.Demure Show

"16th and 8th" preview with Stephen Schulman from SASi Public Relations & Marketing

1:00 Randolfe Wicker LGBT Activist HOSTS

Gender bending music videos in Japanese Pop culture

Sekiya Dorsett director of "Saving Julian" a short film for and about LGBT homeless youth

1:30 Anu Singh from GLAAD The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation HOSTS

Bollywood goes pink

Desi Music Video Mix

Engendered / I View Film Festival Highlights

Guest from Karan Johar film कभी अलविदा न कहना "Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna"

2:00 Neal Bennington - Broadway Commentator as seen on The Wendy Williams Show HOSTS

- NOREEN CRAYTON (National Tour of Rent, Independent Music Award winner)

- RICHARD DeFONZO (VH1's "Boys Will Be Girls", Tribute Artist)

- TERESE GENECCO (MAC Award Winner, Longest running nightclub act on Broadway)

- PAUL GOLIO & TINSEL (Ventriloquist)

- BOBBY CRONIN (Theatre Composer/Lyricist, Welcome to My Life)

2:30 Tym Moss from Artists Exposed HOSTS

Phil Putnam

Gabrielle Lindau "These Showers Can Talk" short film with Lori Michaels

Deepa Soul aka Diedra Meredith (recording artist) / executive director of OUTMUSIC, the LGBT Academy of Recording Artists

Josh Zuckerman

3:00 Lady Gaga - Rare clips from 2008 before "The Fame" was released + more

3:30 Ryan Janek Wolowski of MTV Networks HOSTS

Oh My Josh! International pop recording artist "Out My Face (Wah Wah Wah)"

MAOR - Recording Artist/Music Producer originally from Tel Aviv/Israel will perform his latest single "Kmo Shir Chadash" & Victory - NO More Rain

Check out www.maormusic.com/home

4:00 Appolonia Cruz from FX GAY TV previously known as Fruta Extrana TV as seen on The Wendy Williams Show HOSTS

Miss America 2011's Claire Buffie (Miss New York)

www.missnyorg.com/miss-ny-2010.html

LOVARI w/ special guest entertainers from his music videos:

Demanda Dahhling/Thomas Bistriz(Author)

Janifer (Recording Artist)

King Ralphy (Promoter)

Seth Clark Silberman (PHDJ)

DJ Sparrow - www.LovariWorld.Com

Simply Rob (spoken word poet) from El Grito de Poetas

Jorge Merced the director of the fabulous "Pregones" Bronx Theater

India M. (India Mendelsohn)

Barnacle Billl (Bill Murray)

Ova Floh

5:00 Ms. Demure HOSTS from Dayton, Ohio host of Harper's Bazzaroworld Present's The Ms.Demure Show

Joe E. Jeffreys presents "Drag Show Video Verite"

Candy Samples

5:30 Soce the Elemental Wizard / Andrew Singer HOSTS

Comedy Stop

Brad Loekle

Claudia Cogan

6:15 "White House Presidential Proclamation LGBT Pride Month" with Samara Riviera from www.VivaLaRiviera.com, Sassy Parker from Chic and Sassy, Ryan Janek Wolowski

6:15 - 7:00 Best in LGBT and our friends Music Music Videos incl LaVonna Harris, Yozmit, R. Sky Palkowitz The Delusional Diva, Peppermint, Kid Akimbo, Josh Zuckerman, Ari Gold, Pepper Mashay, Erika Jayne and more

*******************************************************

Sunday March 13th 2011 12:00 – 6:00PM

12:00 Stephen Flynn - Director of the Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival HOSTS

Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival video highlights incl David Kittredge, David Kilmnick, Ron Soper, Carmella Cann aka Michael Ferreira and amberRose Marie

12:30 Neal Bennington - Broadway Commentator as seen on The Wendy Williams Show HOSTS

- NOREEN CRAYTON (National Tour of Rent, Independent Music Award winner)

- NATASCIA DIAZ (Broadway's Man of La Mancha & The Capeman)

- REBECCA LARKIN (Broadway's Avenue Q & South Pacific

1:00 Randolfe Wicker LGBT Activist HOSTS

Gender bending music videos in Japanese Pop culture

Colleen Whitaker speaking on behalf of Susi Graf "Lost in the Crowd" documentary on NYC LGBT homeless youth

Paul Golio & Tinsel Ventriloquist / Jokes / Sketch Comedy

1:30 Tym Moss from Artists Exposed HOSTS

Robbie Cronrod, from Robbie and Allan (www.LoveAtFirstWink.com/vote ; Crate and Barrel's Ultimate Wedding Challenge, Currently 2nd Pl)

Ariel Aparicio

Athena Reich

"What Happens Next" feature film sneak peak with Thom Cardwell and guest stars from the movie showing of some clips and the Q&A with Jon Lindstrom, Chris Murrah, and Ariel Shafir

www.whathappensnextmovie.com

2:00 Anu Singh from GLAAD The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation HOSTS

Ricky Martin Recipient of GLAAD's Vito Russo Award music video spotlight

Juan Fortino

Vermex Van Croix

Kid Akimbo originally from Brazil

2:30 Soce the Elemental Wizard / Andrew Singer HOSTS

Comedy Stop

Mike Cotayo

Joanne Filan

3:00 Appolonia Cruz from FX GAY TV previously known as Fruta Extrana

TV as seen on The Wendy Williams Show HOSTS

*JANID (Recording Academy and Billboard Recognized Zonisphere

Recording Artist) - "Alias" music video

LIVE Q&A with

JANID and Kaydean (Alias video director, Recording Academy

Recognized 3x Gold and 1x Platinum record producer and CEO of

Zonisphere Records)

*Chanel International (Drag Star)

*Johnathan Cedano (actor) - portraying adult film actor Tiger Tyson

in the one-man show "Confessions of a Homo Thug Porn Star,"

"INDIO" Producer/Director of Johnathan Cedano's "Portrait of a Porn Star"

*Mike Todd GOOTH Magazine

Samara Riviera from www.VivaLaRiviera.com, Sassy Parker from Chic and Sassy

*Adam Barta

*amberRose Marie Upclose & Personal: a videomentary. LIVE Q&A

with Billboard recording artist amberRose Marie follows, with a

special surprise. National SAG LGBT committee member Ron B.

Joins Appolonia Cruz for an intimate chat with this Diva-licious

beauty. www.amberRoseMarie.com

4:00 Ryan Janek Wolowski of MTV Networks HOSTS

MAOR - Recording Artist/Music Producer originally from Tel Aviv/Israel will perform his latest single "Kmo Shir Chadash" & Victory - NO More Rain

Check out www.maormusic.com/home

BeBe Zahara Benet winner of RuPaul's Drag Race Live in person showcasing "Cameroon" plus live Q&A

4:30 Under the Pink Carpet Meet the on air personalities from the gay-themed television entertainment news series that airs on WNYE / WNYC TV Channel 25 / Dish Miss HOSTS

Lady Clover Honey

Tony Sawicki

Colton Ford, recording artist, actor (The Lair) and former gay male adult entertainment star.

5:30 - 6:00 Best in LGBT and our friends Music Music Videos including Vanessa Conde, Crystal Waters, Noa Tylo, Salme Dahlstrom, Khalid Rivera and more.

*****************************************

VIDEO LOUNGE 2011 make sure not to miss this event which only happens once a year.

Look for surprise guests throughout the day as well as giveaways all day long.

This event is OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

********************************************

Beautiful Berbera Beach, Somaliland. by Yusuf Dahir

6 3

Somaliland, a place to be discovered!

www.afrodigg.com/news.php

Somaliland seeks a little respect

Chicago Tribune

Paul Salopek

June 8, 2008

Free and stable, self-declared republic chafes at lack of world recognition

HARGEISA, Somaliland

Untroubled by petty crime, money changers in this quiet desert city leave their stacks of currency unattended—in piles the size of refrigerators — while they pray in mosques.

Earnest government officials, elected in what may be the cleanest voting in Africa, eagerly meet reporters in roadside cafes, a practice that would be suicidal in the violent south of the country, where occupying Ethiopian troops do battle with a ferocious Islamist insurgency. (Even more unusual, the officials insist on picking up the tab for camel-milk tea.)

Across town, another private university is being planned—the sixth in the region. It won’t teach the Quran, unlike the few other surviving educational facilities in war-ruined Somalia. Instead, its curriculum will be secular and American—pinched from Portland State University in Oregon, to be exact.

“This is what frustrates us,” said Dahir Rayale Kahin, president of the obscure self-declared republic of Somaliland, a parched enclave the size of Oklahoma that proclaimed its independence from Somalia in 1991 and is angling to become a platform for U.S. power in the region.

“We are a functioning state, but the world still ignores us. Instead, it props up a failed state in the south, in Mogadishu, a place with no rule of law, a state that is nothing.”

Remote, desperately poor and unrecognized by any country—yet astonishingly stable and free—the separatist republic of Somaliland marked 17 years of democratic self-rule last month, a remarkable milestone of good governance that served to remind its few Western visitors, wistfully, of what’s missing in the rest of Somalia: airports that aren’t mortared by rebels, streets that are safe to walk at night, votes that are counted fairly, and a fledgling army that has managed, so far, to trump the divisive Somali obsession with tribe and clan.

Not everyone is celebrating.

The U.S.-backed transitional federal government of Somalia, which theoretically rules this shattered nation from the war-gutted capital of Mogadishu, condemns Somaliland’s leaders as traitors and renegades. And local and international human-rights groups have noted that Kahin, Somaliland’s second president, has become more authoritarian in the past year, jailing and then pardoning local opposition politicians and reporters.

But as the United States struggles to contain the threat of Islamic terrorism in Somalia—and in the rest of the volatile Horn of Africa—dusty Somaliland, population 3.5 million, has stepped up as an unlikely partner in that Herculean task.

Stretching across the north of Somalia along the blistering-hot shores of the Gulf of Aden, Somaliland recently offered its derelict port of Berbera as a base for the Pentagon’s new Africa Command, or AFRICOM. The Pentagon, which already operates a counterterrorism base in neighboring Djibouti, has yet to respond to the proposal.

Welcome to oil firms

Somaliland’s government also has invited U.S. oil companies to reclaim their 1980s exploration rights in the region, abandoned during the civil wars that led to Somalia’s collapse. So far no companies have returned, citing legal concerns about Somalia’s claim of sovereignty over the region. For the same reason, Somaliland receives little foreign aid.

Washington must walk a tightrope in its relations with a rustic statelet that covers about a quarter of Somalia and is inhabited primarily by camel and goat herders.

Officially, the Bush administration has deferred the issue of Somaliland’s independence to the African Union, which has a historic aversion to tinkering with old colonial borders on the continent. Angry Somalilanders argue that they actually are restoring their colonial boundaries: The region was a British protectorate that joined with Italian-ruled Somalia in 1960.

It is partly that history, Somaliland elders say, that girds their mini-state against Somalia’s violence and chaos. While the Italians undercut tribal authority, allowing young warlords to seize power, the British left old clan structures intact. Somaliland’s nascent government now includes a council of elders, or Guurti, that helps resolve disputes.

Still, U.S. policymakers fear that allowing Somaliland to become Africa’s newest country would sink the already feeble transitional government of Somalia, which is propped up by U.S. cash and troops from the African Union and another U.S. ally, Ethiopia.

Ethiopian forces, aided by U.S. intelligence, installed Somalia’s unpopular federal authorities 18 months ago after an invasion that toppled a conservative Islamic movement. Since then, thousands of people have died—and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes—in a stubborn Islamist rebellion.

Except in Somalia’s strangely placid north.

America’s ‘only real friend’

“I don’t know why America ignores its only real friend in the region,” said Mustafa Farah, a youth chewing khat, a popular narcotic leaf, in Somaliland’s self-designated capital of Hargeisa. “You could walk with an American flag across this city and nobody would bother you. We like Americans.”

In fact, many Somalilanders are Americans.

Though statistics are scarce, the regional government here estimates that as many as 100,000 Somaliland expatriates may live in the United States. Some of the region’s parliament members speak English with cornfield-flat Minnesota accents. Entrepreneurs building the new university are modeling their classes on those of their alma mater in Portland, Ore.

Remittances sent to local families from the United States and elsewhere are believed to dwarf the Somaliland government’s annual budget of $50 million—a figure roughly equivalent to U.S. funding for fighting brush fires this year in San Diego County, Calif.

For its part, the State Department has allocated $1 million to help Somaliland organize its next presidential race, to be held no later than April 2009. It will be the region’s fourth round of elections since declaring independence. No free elections have been held elsewhere in Somalia for almost 40 years.

Somaliland’s experiment with democracy hasn’t been without glitches.

The president faced criticism last year for imprisoning three journalists on charges of defamation. Three politicians also were held after trying to form a new opposition party. The government quietly released the men, fearing their arrest had damaged its bid for international recognition.

“We will go ahead with our elections and we will never give up,” Kahin, the Somaliland leader, said while relaxing at the presidential palace one recent evening. “We are a patient people.”

Wrapped in a traditional sarong-like skirt and stirring a cup of tea, he cited Kosovo and East Timor as recent models for achieving independence. He noted that those fledgling states had separated from viable countries—whereas Somaliland simply wanted a divorce from the wreckage of Somalia.

Outside, in a handmade republic in one of the toughest neighborhoods in the world, the city’s generator-powered lights punctually kicked on. And among the mosques’ amplified calls to prayer there came the tinny strains of hip-hop.

Jennifer Lawrence at the GLAAD Media Awards at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City by RyanReporting

3

The GLAAD Media Awards at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City

The GLAAD Media Awards recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives.

GLAAD, the world's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) media advocacy organization, honored Robert De Niro, Mariah Carey, and the best in film, television, and journalism at the 27th Annual GLAAD Media Awards at the Waldorf Astoria New York on Saturday May 14th 2016. Jennifer Lawrence, Aziz Ansari, Connie Britton, Diane Sawyer, Caitlyn Jenner, Tamron Hall, Noah Galvin, Andrew Rannells, Andreja Pejić, and Jason Biggs were among the special guests. Recording artists Alex Newell and Bebe Rexha, as well as the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Fun Home performed at the event hosted by Emmy Award-winning actress Laverne Cox. The 27th Annual GLAAD Media Awards were presented by Delta Air Lines, Hilton, Ketel One Vodka, and Wells Fargo.

GLAAD Media Award recipients announced Saturday in New York. Additional awards were presented in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton on April 2.

Excellence in Media Award: Robert De Niro (presented by Jennifer Lawrence)

Ally Award: Mariah Carey (presented by Lee Daniels)

· Outstanding TV Journalism – Newsmagazine: “Bruce Jenner: The Interview" 20/20 (ABC) [accepted by: Diane Sawyer, Caitlyn Jenner, and David Sloan, senior executive producer]

· Outstanding TV Journalism Segment: "Interview with Jim Obergefell" Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN) [accepted by: U.S. Supreme Court plaintiff Jim Obergefell]

· Outstanding Magazine Overall Coverage: Cosmopolitan [accepted by: Laura Brounstein, special projects director]

· Outstanding Film – Limited Release: Tangerine (Magnolia Pictures)

· Outstanding Individual Episode: "The Prince of Nucleotides" Royal Pains (USA Network)

· Outstanding Digital Journalism – Multimedia: "Stopping HIV? The Truvada Revolution" Vice Reports (Vice.com)

· Outstanding Newspaper Article: "Cold Case: The Murders of Cosby and Jackson" by Dianna Wray (Houston Press)

· Outstanding Magazine Article: "Behind Brazil's Gay Pride Parades, a Struggle with Homophobic Violence" by Oscar Lopez (Newsweek)

· Outstanding Digital Journalism Article: "This Is What It’s Like To Be An LGBT Syrian Fleeing For Your Life" by J. Lester Feder (Buzzfeed.com)

SPANISH-LANGUAGE NOMINEES

· Outstanding Daytime Program Episode: "¿El marido de mi padre o yo?" Caso Cerrado (Telemundo)

· Outstanding TV Journalism – Newsmagazine: TIE: "Amor que rompe barreras" Un Nuevo Día (Telemundo) and "En cuerpo ajeno" Aquí y Ahora (Univision)

· Outstanding TV Journalism Segment: "Víctimas de abusos" Noticiero Univision (Univision)

· Outstanding Digital Journalism – Multimedia: "Campeones de la igualdad" (Univision.com)

GLAAD (formerly the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) is a U.S. non-governmental media monitoring organization founded by LGBT people in the media.

Motto - to promote understanding, increase acceptance, and advance equality.

Founded - 1985

Founder

Vito Russo

Jewelle Gomez

Lauren Hinds

GLAAD 2016 President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis

GLAAD

104 W 29th St #4,

New York, NY 10001

USA

(212) 629-3322

Waldorf Astoria Hotel

301 Park Ave,

New York, NY 10022

USA

(212) 355-3000

Hashtag metadata tag

#GMA @glaad ‪#‎glaadawards #GLAAD #GLAADMediaAwards #GLAADMedia #GLAADAwards #LGBT #GLBT #LGBTQ #GLBTQ #Lesbian #gay #gays #gaymen #gaywomen #bi #Bisexual #Trans #Transman #TransWoman #Transidentity #Transgender #Gender #GenderFluid #GenderIdentity #Queer #Media #TV #Television #Press #WaldorfAstoria #WaldorfAstoriaHotel #NY #NYC #NYS #NewYork #NewYorkCity #NewYorkState #USA #Equality #Pride #celebrity #fashion #famous #style #RedCarpet #RedCarpetEvent

Photo

New York City, Manhattan Island, New York State, USA The United States of America country, North America continent

May 14th 2016‬

Vinna Rouge, Teresa Rodríguez from Aquí y Ahora on Univision, Vicente Corona Perez at the GLAAD Media Awards at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City by RyanReporting