Invitation to American friends 19. november 2006

Tidligere bunkemails til venner og bekendte

 

 
   
 


Dear friends

As you all know we Europeans are today involved in a racism against Muslims of the same magnitude as the one America had in the years when blacks tried to escape oppression in the South only to be forced into ghettoes in the "liberal" North. And with the same sad results as you saw last year in the hundreds of burning French ghettos.

Three of my closest Muslim allies and fighters in this struggle are next weekend coming to New York for a conference. Therefore I and Christina - my long-time roommate in New York - have decided to throw a party for them next Saturday evening (Nov. 18th) at 254 Elizabeth St #PH just off Houston in Soho. In case of warm weather we will party outside in our roof top garden with a view all over of Manhattan.  

The three friends I want to celebrate in the party are Sherin Khankan, whom I am on the board with in Critical Muslims and who just the day before this party will publish her new book about Islam and Democracy  (with my cover photo)  and Mona Sheikh, a well known public speaker in Denmark who last year publized her book on Radical Islam with American publisher Lynne Rienner.  Mahvish Ahmad (seen to my left here) has been my closest co-worker in Critical (meaning Progressive) Muslims for several years as well as in the Ahmajia mosque I belong to, but is right now studying in Harvard.

If you happen to be in or around New York I would be very glad to see you at this party. Nobody can throw parties like Christina ...as you can get a  glimpse of here from her summer retreat in Switserland
For further instructions and to let us know if you can come, please e-mail or call on 917-349-4361.


 

My party next year in Denmark

Also let me at the same time announce my 60-year birthday party on June 1st, 2007 in Denmark. Since you may need a lot of planning to participate in that far away party I already now want to let you know. It will coincide with the opening of my photographic retrospective exhibition on racism in one of our biggest gallery in Copenhagen (that way I get the party room and the wine for free :-) where I will show my pictures of racism from the USA, Denmark, Bolivia, Namibia and Uganda. The party itself will therefore celebrate diversity and integration - not only bringing my white and Muslim immigrant Danish friends together, but also hopefully some of you black and white Americans.

Let me know if there is the slightest chance that YOU personally can come and possibly combine a few days in Denmark with a vacation or business trip to Europe. I would love to see especially those of you who made American Pictures possible - just as the Danes would love to see some of you who through my pictures have become well known to many in Denmark.


 

An update on my life

1. This summer I photographed black (Bantu) racism against the Pygmies in Uganda. It was amazing to hear blacks speak about the "inferior" Pygmies with almost the same words I heard American whites speak about blacks in the 70's.

2. A movie is right now coming out on Danish TV about the healing trip I made last year with Ku Klux Klan leader Jeff Berry to see all my black friends in the South.

3. I am working on a digital version of my slideshow and if you have Windows Mediaplayer you can already see a rough edition here on my website. As a result I am on Monday showing my last slideshow ever  in America !!!! -  in Boston University.

4. My pictures have lately - to my great surprise - been discovered by the art world and are right now touring museums all over Europe - so far to great reviews in the French media.


 

Well, let me know if you can come to the party on Saturday.

With Love

Jacob Holdt
c/o Christina Sun, 254 Elizabeth St #PH
New York, NY 10012
Cell phone: 917-349-4361
 

or:
Gernersgade 63
1319 Copenhagen K, Denmark
Tel in Denmark: +45 33 124412
JacobHoldt@american-pictures.com  


 

If my e-mail answer was too short or unsatisfactory, 
you can find more information on my 22.434 web pages:

www.american-pictures.com
 

My calendar where you can see if one of my lectures is in your area or - if you want to organize one - if I am available on your preferred date

My previous  6.500 lectures - listed after type of school

The online version of the show or book with 3000 pictures

Reviews of my shows - in major American papers and college papers

My articles on racism, development aid, ecology, welfare state etc.

My photographs - from the USA, Bolivia, Nepal, Guatemala, 
Nicaragua, Thailand, Haiti , Jamaica, Africa and Kosovo.

My racism work with the Ku Klux Klan - and their healing encounters with my black friends


And some hobbies helping me to fill out all the spare time as a lecturer on the boring highways:

Genealogy - with a family tree containing over 10,000 of my
family's direct ancestors through 150 generations - or  4.100 years! Click from my children all the way back to their x-great grandparents such as emperor Augustus, Herod the Great, Alexander the Great and 1,100 other  kings, emperors - and pharaohs such as Ramses II - not to speak of Washington, Jefferson and Roosevelt.

Influential ancestors: Or see my family's relationship with those persons who actually talked to or were friends with Jesus, John the Baptist, St. Paul, Socrates, Plato, Sophocles, Perikles, Cleisthenes (the founder of democracy) and others who shaped modern humanism...... well, even corresponded with Jesus (as surprising as it sounds).

Glory:
And if you finally - after this e-mail - have difficulties seeing my saint halo, - well, let me try to polish it a bit by showing you how much saint blood runs in my family veins - directly descending from more than 30 saints and some of the popes who (mistakenly?) canonized them!!!