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MY'STORY

The MOVE Fire

This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985 Philadelphia police fired thousands of rounds at the MOVE house, city officials approved dropping an explosive device on the roof, the resulting fire was allowed to burn, 11 people—including five children—died, and 61 homes were destroyed. Philadelphia City Council later called it a “brutal attack carried out by the City of Philadelphia on its own citizens” and acknowledged that no individual faced criminal consequences for the bombing. One timeline correction worth preserving for the BHP record: the major previous MOVE-police confrontation was August 8, 1978, about seven years before the bombing, not a year or two earlier. Officer James Ramp was killed, other police and firefighters were wounded, nine MOVE members were later convicted, and television cameras recorded police beating Delbert Africa during his arrest. The 1985 MOVE Commission later specifically criticized city planners for failing to adequately use lessons from that 1978 confrontation. And that actually strengthens the point you’re making: 1985 did not happen without precedent or institutional memory. There had already been a deadly confrontation with MOVE, years of conflict, negotiations and police involvement before Osage Avenue.

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BLACK FACTS
The Truths They Never Taught You...

The Violence That Helped Spark the NAACP

In August 1908, a white mob attacked Springfield, Illinois’s Black community, destroying homes and businesses and lynching two Black men. National outrage over the violence helped spur the movement that created the NAACP the following year.

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Wikipedia

Invective

Invective (from Middle English invectif, or Old French and Late Latin invectus) is abusive, or insulting language used to express blame or censure; or, a form of rude expression or discourse intended to offend or hurt;[1][2][3] vituperation, or deeply seated ill will, vitriol.[clarification needed] The Latin adjective invectivus means 'scolding.'[citation needed]

The genre of invective

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Cicero denounces Catilina; fresco by Cesare Maccari, 1882–1888

The "genre of invective" or "vituperatio" in Latin is a classical literary form used in Greek and Roman polemical verse as well as in prose. Its primary context is as rhetoric.

The genre of vituperatio belongs to the genus demonstrativum, which is composed of the elements of praise and blame.

During the Roman Republic, personal invectives and character assassination were widely used as part of both forensic speeches and orations. Cicero made frequent use of the invective form against political foes such as Clodius, Catilina (in the Catalinarian speeches) or Mark Antony (Philippics). Common charges included avarice, cupidity, cowardice, effeminacy, drunkenness, poor writing and speaking skills, luxury, disapproved sexual habits and tyrannical behaviour.

Between 44 BC and 30 BC, invective became a tool of the propaganda war between Octavian and Mark Antony.[4] Among other slanders, Mark Antony was accused of having married the foreign queen Cleopatra, of being her submissive subject and of having lost his Roman identity. Further, it was stated that Cleopatra was planning to invade Italy. This propaganda before the Battle of Actium in 31 BC allowed Octavian to present his campaign as a legitimate military campaign to defend the Roman Republic.

The preferred literary term for the later invective of the Renaissance is libel.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "in·vec·tive." The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. 2000, 2003 Houghton Mifflin Company.
  2. ^ "invective." Collins Essential English Dictionary, 2004, 2006. HarperCollins Publishers.
  3. ^ "invective." WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection.[sic] 2003-2008. Princeton University, Clipart.com, Farlex Inc. 13 May 2017 http://www.thefreedictionary.com/invective. Note: This MLA format citation (which provided the most information regarding this unusual citation) was provided on the web page.
  4. ^ Borgies, Loïc (2016). Le conflit propagandiste entre Octavien et Marc Antoine. De l'usage politique de la uituperatio entre 44 et 30 a. C. n. Brussels: Latomus. ISBN 978-90-429-3459-7.
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Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.

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Wikipedia

Invective

Invective (from Middle English invectif, or Old French and Late Latin invectus) is abusive, or insulting language used to express blame or censure; or, a form of rude expression or discourse intended to offend or hurt; vituperation, or deeply seated ill will, vitriol. The Latin adjective invectivus means 'scolding.'

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Wikipedia

Lexicon of Musical Invective

The Lexicon of Musical Invective is an American musicological work by Nicolas Slonimsky. It was first published in 1953, with a revised and expanded second edition appearing in 1965. The book is an anthology of negative musical criticism, focusing primarily on works that later became part of the standard classical repertoire and on composers now widely regarded as canonical, including Beethoven and Varèse. The material is systematically organized, with entries arranged alphabetically by composer and chronologically within each section. The volume also contains an index titled the “Invecticon,” or “Index of Invectives,” which categorizes recurring critical expressions under thematic headings, ranging from “aberration” to “zoo,” and provides references to the corresponding passages. The structure of the work highlights the rhetorical strategies and stylistic devices employed in critical writing, including metaphorical language and unconventional comparisons. The juxtaposition of critiques drawn from different historical periods—often directed at works that later achieved recognition—reveals recurring patterns of resistance to musical innovation and contributes to the book’s ironic and often humorous effect. In a preface titled Non-Acceptance of the Unfamiliar, Slonimsky identifies a central theme of the collection: the tendency of critics to reject unfamiliar artistic developments. A later edition, published in 2000, includes a foreword by Peter Schickele, titled If You Can’t Think of Something Nice to Say, Come Sit Next to Me, which offers a humorous reflection on the work and its implications. The book has been regarded as a reference resource for the study of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century musical reception. Its entries were extensively used in Dictionary of Folly and Errors in Judgment, a work published in 1965 by Guy Bechtel and Jean-Claude Carrière. A Spanish translation by Mariano Peyrou, titled Repertorio de vituperios musicales, was published in 2016. Concepts illustrated by Slonimsky’s compilation have subsequently been applied in the analysis of critical reception in other musical genres, including popular music.

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Wikipedia

Invective Against Swans

"Invective Against Swans" is a poem by Wallace Stevens from his first book of poetry, Harmonium (1923).

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Wikipedia

Nicolas Slonimsky

Nicolas Slonimsky (April 27 [O.S. April 15], 1894 – December 25, 1995), born Nikolai Leonidovich Slonimskiy (Russian: Николай Леонидович Слoнимский), was a Russian-American musicologist, conductor, pianist, lexicographer, and composer. Best known for his writing and musical reference work, he wrote the Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns and the Lexicon of Musical Invective, and edited Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians.

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TOPIC OF THE DAY

Greenwood / Black Wall Street

Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.

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TRIVIA QUESTION OF THE DAY

Which heavyweight champion was known as the “Brown Bomber”?

Joe Louis.