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]]> http://www.jonblackphoto.com/blog/worku-mamo-ethiopian-artist/feed/ 1 http://www.jonblackphoto.com/blog/piassa-scenics/ http://www.jonblackphoto.com/blog/piassa-scenics/#comments Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:47:29 +0000 admin http://www.jonblackphoto.com/blog/?p=416 Piassa is Addis Ababa’s oldest and most popular neighborhood. It was occupied by Italians during Italy’s Fascist regime in Ethiopia 1936-1941. Short after the occupation Piassa became a central location in Addis Ababa for trade, entertainment, and of course cafe’s. Rich with culture and history, Piassa is a location Ethiopians are proud to claim as their own.

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More about Robel…

video credit:

One Winter, Five Dreams

Somalian emcee K’naan came to Addis a couple of weeks ago to perform at the FIFA world cup tour. If you don’t know about K’naan you should! Look him up. I wish him success as he brings Hip-Hop back to its thoughtful roots.

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for K’nann’s Bio, Music, and Videos check out http://knaanmusic.ning.com/

Ethiopian artist Gebrekristos Solomon in his studio in Piassa, Addis Ababa

]]> http://www.jonblackphoto.com/blog/lake-awassa/feed/ 1 http://www.jonblackphoto.com/blog/medanealem-church/ http://www.jonblackphoto.com/blog/medanealem-church/#comments Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:03:06 +0000 admin http://www.jonblackphoto.com/blog/?p=298

Ethiopian Orthodox church in my Neighborhood

Last Saturday my Church held a lunch for local Street boys. The program works with the young men in the hopes of furthering their education and family reconciliation. This crew is SO much fun to chill with! I look forward to getting to know them better in the coming months.

What a wonderful woman! This is an assignment I shot earlier this month for Associated Press.

Bogaletch Gebre was born in Kembatta in southern Ethiopia. She grew up in a culture where women experience heavy labor from a young age and are treated far less than equal from men. Determined to learn to read, she ran six miles each way to a missionary school and became the first girl from her village to be educated beyond the fourth grade. Her mother was occasionally beaten for allowing her to attend school. Like millions of African girls, she underwent Female Circumcision. Escaping four attempted forced marriages by abduction, Boge  received scholarships to attend high school in Addis Ababa and Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where she studied microbiology and physiology. With money scrimped from scholarship stipends, she built a tin-roofed house for her father’s family, the first in the village. In a society where fathers are known by the accomplishments of their sons, people of Kembatta began to understand the value of educating girls when they saw the “house that Gebre’s daughter” built. Boge became the first Ethiopian woman to join the science faculty at the University of Addis Ababa and received a Fulbright Scholarship to study parasitology at the University of Massachusetts. Since then Boge has returned to Ethiopia to start Kembatti Mentii Gezzima-tope (Kembatta Women’s Self-Help Center). The organization has worked in Boge’s Homeland of Kembatta since 1997 seeing a 97% reduction of Female Circumcision in the area. The organization also battles for Women’s rights and HIV awareness.

I am very fortunate to get to meet Boge and listen to amazing stories that need to be heard. For more info on Boge and her Organization Visit www.kmgselfhelp.org