Elaine Brown’s “A Taste of Power,” a memoir which chronicles her leadership of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense when co-founder, Huey P. Newton is imprisoned, still resonates with me. The idea that a black woman is nominated to the leadership position of the most powerful civic organization in the country at that time, is still remarkable and speaks to what Kathleen Cleaver calls revolutionary imagination.
Power remains a pawn on the board for black America. It is as elusive as the queen and as laudable as the witty joker. Nonetheless, power is necessary for change, and as long as the imbalance is a part of an insidious racist structure permeating all levels of life—from economics and politics to educational equity, healthcare and human rights, we have a problem.
We live in a violent society which is getting more violent daily. While traveling recently I caught up on films I’d missed in theatres, “Creed” and “Concussion”. I also watched two documentaries, “In An Ideal World” and “Peace Officer,” both Independent Lens (ITVS) selections. All films thematically looked at violence. Two films– “Creed” and “Concussion,” looked at violence as entertainment, the other two looked at violence or physical force as an instrument of power.
In “Creed,” dir. Ryan Coogler (“Fruitvale Station”), we meet a kid, Adonis Johnson Creed (actor Michael B. Jordan) with a huge chip on his shoulder, one that comes from fatherloss, an ailment many black boys contract through no fault of their own. In Adonis Johnson’s case, his father (Apollo Creed) dies without the two ever meeting. The boy never knows he had a father, let alone one who could have cared. His life up to the point he can articulate the problem is shrouded in anger. He says at one point in the film that he fights to prove “he was not a mistake.” Do boys conceived out of wedlock feel like they are mistakes? Do boys who do not know their fathers feel that it is somehow their fault, that is, they are the reason for the absence?
When his father’s widow (actress Phylicia Rashad) finds her step-son housed at the local juvenile facility, the boy has just had a fight, defending he tells her, his mother’s name. Mary Ann Creed (eventually “Ma”) asks the boy if he’d like to live with her. He agrees and when we meet him again, he is grown, articulate and working at a firm which has just given him a promotion. He quits his job and leaves home to begin a journey which takes him to Philadelphia. He is looking for his father, “Apollo Creed,” boxing champ, killed too soon in the ring (“Rocky IV,” 1985).
Young Creed (Adonis Johnson) wants to fight; he contacts his late father’s trainer, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) who owns a restaurant. At first Rocky refuses the kid, who has done his homework and knows about Rocky and his father’s famous fight behind closed doors. He also knows that Rocky made the call that night which ended Creed’s life in the ring. No one in Philadelphia will train Creed’s son. Adonis, whom everyone calls Hollywood, goes to the gym and watches other boxers train and copies their strategies, until one day, Rocky stops by the gym to check on the Creed’s son.
Apollo and Adonis’s lives echo those of Greek gods–Adonis, the handsome youth who symbolizes death and rebirth, and Apollo, also handsome, the god of Olympus. Adonis’s father is also the god of healing and light. He moves the sun across the sky daily with his horse drawn chariot. Perhaps in a way, Creed-Johnson’s sojourn is his chariot ride across a psychic sky previously darkened by doubt and pain.
“Creed” (2015) is a story of faith and belief and healing. Rocky feels guilty about Creed’s death and sees a way to work through his debt, by helping Creed’s son. The action kept me ducking blows in my seat. Though I was not happy that once again, a heroic black man dies off screen and a white man saves the day, but as a sequel to one of the Rocky sagas, perhaps this treatment was an opportunity for an ancestor to be reincarnated through a son born after his physical death. Stallone walked away with the nominations, while Michael B. Jordan and other performers in a well-crafted work, including the writing, received nothing.
“Concussion,” the film
Upon reflecting on my choices of films while flying cross country, I find it interesting that they both had to do with sports, sports which are health risks. Imagine getting hit for a living or crashing one’s head into another to make money, as football players do. Prior to watching the excellent film, “Concussion,”(2015) dir. Peter Landesman, I hadn’t known that human beings do not have a protective cushion inside their skulls to protect their brains from injury when hit. Until accomplished pathologist Dr. Bennet Ifeakandu Omalu (Will Smith) uncovers the truth about brain damage in football players who suffer repeated concussions in the course of normal play and at great personal risk, takes on the NFL, more specifically the politically savvy Pittsburgh Steelers machine or franchise, such information remains suppressed and more and more players are at risk and die horrible deaths.
It is a stunning story, and a stunning performance by all, especially Will Smith as Dr. Omalu, who now lives with his wife and children in the Central Valley town, Lodi, CA. What I love about the film is how much respect Dr. Omalu shows toward the deceased victims– egungun or ancestors. When to most of his peers, his job is to close cold cases, the scientist takes his own funds to pursue forensic evidence which points to a huge cover-up.
“Concussion” is an awesome crime story with larger than life villains and just enough heroes to keep one on the edge of her seat. Dr. Omalu is deeply religious and keeps God in front of all his major decisions. He just cannot understand how the National Football League (NFL), once it knows the sport has dire consequences for its players, refuses to at least warn them and institute safe checks and prevention measures. On screen, we see bright men discarded once they begin to exhibit the erratic behavior indicative of chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE. Ironically, the first case Dr. Omalu examines is a former player, Michael Lewis “Mike” Webster (March 18, 1952 – September 24, 2002. Known as “Iron Mike” Webster, what followed were other autopseys which substanciated the doctors findings that indeed head injuries caused by sustained trauma to the brain in contact sport, caused these deaths. The film shows footage of college students and even younger players hitting each other in the head over and over again. In one of the most riveting segments, Dr. Omalu, demonstrates what this injury looks like.
The Nigerian-American physician, forensic pathologist, and neuropathologist says at a trial hearing when the film opens and he is called as a witness, that he speaks for the dead. That the dead are his clients or patients. Later, the meticulous and dedicated scientist opens his patient’s skull and finds what looks like a normal brain. However, “he suspected dementia pugilistica, dementia induced by repeated blows to the head, a condition found previously in boxers. Using specialized staining, Omalu found large accumulations of tau protein in Webster’s brain, affecting mood, emotions, and executive functions similar to the way clumps of beta-amyloid protein contribute to Alzheimer’s disease” (wikipedia). He is first to discover and publish findings on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) says that the film is accurate in its portrayal of the sport and subsequent injuries. The film is based on the doctor’s 2008 book, “Play Hard, Die Young: Football Dementia, Depression, and Death.” Since its publication, the doctor has founded the Bennet Omalu Foundation to continue research and to advocate against contact sports for minors.
In a recent interview, published by the “San Diego Tribune,” Dr. Omalu says the problem of football and the NFL stance on an activity which is irreversibly harmful to the brain health of its players, rests with American society:
‘The NFL is not in the business of health. They’re not,” he said. “They’re in the business of sports entertainment to make money. The NFL doesn’t care about its football players…They are expendable assets.
‘The culprits in this are the consumers…as we continue to wallow in the intoxication of football and the idolization of football..and continue to sustain the NFL and make them richer.” He was the first to publish widely on the topic and his scholarly article, co-edited with colleagues in the Department of Pathology at his alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh, the doctor published his findings in the journal “Neurosurgery” in 2005 in a paper titled “Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in a National Football League Player.”
‘County supervisor Ron Roberts said recently that San Diego’s NFL team, the Chargers, chaired by Dean Spanos, sought a $550 million public subsidy for a new stadium in Mission Valley last month before targeting a site downtown. The funding measure could be put to a public vote in November [2016].'”
More on Dr. Omalu who practices in the Sacramento area and has state that OJ Simpson probably suffers from CTE: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sports/league-of-denial/the-frontline-interview-dr-bennet-omalu/
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“Peace Officer,” film
“Peace Officer,” dirs. Scott Christopherson, Brad Barber, just shows us how no one is immune to the violence unleashed across America in its police forces. Trained to attack, rather than deescalate volatile circumstances, innocent people are killed and situations end tragically, which need not have resulted in such.
The story centers on that of retired peace officer, Dub Lawrence, who becomes a police officer, then Sheriff of Davis County, Utah in 1974. As a rookie cop with keen investigative skills, he helps break the Ted Bundy case. When we meet him though, he smiles and tells us that wading through raw sewage is preferable to witnessing the philosophical shift in policing from peacekeeping to terrorism during his tenure.
After Lawrence’s family falls victim to excessive force and loses a loved one, he uses his investigative and forensic skills to advocate for the many families who are victims of a militarized police force. We learn of the US military’s gifts of weapons and armory to civic municipalities with the charge to use the equipment within the year. This heavy artillery is largely cause for increased death and destruction, that and the “war of drugs.” We see police storm houses, kicking in doors, breaking windows, scaring citizens to death and then killing them when the violence is met with violence. Often these police break-in unannounced and not in uniform. The “no-knock” search warrants lead to
stories of mistaken identity, and police officers’ boisterous attitudes even when in error. There is no shame. Dub uncovers many coverups just a city away. All of this has lead to a 15,000% increase in SWAT team raids in the United States since the late 1970’s.
Lawrence regrets his founding of the SWAT teams 30 years earlier to save not take innocent lives. If this is not enough, his tracking the case of his son-in-law, Brian Wood exposes multiple felonies, mistakes and problems connected to the lies and outright coverups by police investigators.
“Peace Officer” screens, May 9. Watch http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/tv-schedule/#schedule-coming-soon
Alternatives to Violence (AVP)
While traveling in South Africa a few years ago, I was not able to get to Capetown to scale Table Mountain; however, in California, Butte County to be precise, there are two basaltic plateaus or table mountains overlooking the city of Oroville. Formed by volcanic eruptions 14 – 39 million years ago, this member of the Lovejoy Formation, Laura Brown writes in the Union (4/2/09), “believed . . . much older than the nearby Sutter Buttes or Mount Shasta,’ according to “Wildflowers of Table Mountain Butte County, California” by Samantha Mackey and Albin Bills.” Folklore says that the Buttes or shorter mountain range not far off are actually the top of North and South Table Mountain. And when you look between the two mountain ranges, we can see an almost perfect fit, sort of like the wig that fell off (smile).
I was in Oroville for the Alternatives to Violence advanced training. AVP is a project that helps one transform power without doing harm to oneself or others. AVP has adapted strategies from other restorative justice or violence prevention projects; however, AVP is unique as well. The program is used in prisons and in the community, and is an all-volunteer organization committed to peace building. At the training, one of the facilitators whose training was in the late ‘70s, testified to the impact of AVP on his life then and now. Just out of prison, after over 30 years behind bars, he spoke to how AVP saved his life. Another facilitator, a Chico State student, described how he used humor (acting the fool) an AVP strategy, to deescalate a potentially volatile moment between friends.
“In an Ideal World,” a documentary film made in a California prison by AVP facilitator Noel Schwerin, looks at how AVP transforms men whom society has forgotten or given up on. This transformation, which is visible, also changes the environment—all of a sudden guards see the men in a different light. AVP highlights our shared humanity. When anyone is harmed we are all harmed. Ubuntu in practice, AVP is a way to embody the consequences of violence in a way which is less cerebral and more experiential. The training(s) – Basic and Advanced, are both reflective, collaborative, communal and most importantly fun.
The inside work is hard and after a weekend, Friday-Sunday of this excavation, a hike on North Table Mountain to see the lovely wildflowers in season at this time of year and trek along a waterfall was perfect way to relax before the long drive back to the Bay Area.
“In an Ideal World” aired nationally late April, on World Channel as part of the fourth season of AMERICA REFRAMED, public media’s newest documentary series. The film will be available for free streaming on http://worldchannel.org/programs/episode/arf-s4-e413-ideal-world/ starting April 27, 2016.
Shot over seven years, with unprecedented access, “In an Ideal World” follows three men in California’s infamous Soledad prison—John Piccirillo, a white separatist murderer, Sam Lewis, a black ex-gang member and Ben Curry, a warden. Each entered the system young and learned its codes of conduct not only to maintain order and safety, but also for their personal survival.
“And Justice for All” Forum in Oakland
It’s about time black folk had their own Commonwealth Club Series, Michael DeFlorimonte, founder, The Registry, stated at the inauguration of the monthly speaker series focused on black issues, The Forum. The first, held at Impact Hub Oakland, smack in the middle of downtown Oakland, next to upscale Picans, across from the Downtown YMCA, the venue and its guests were centrally located and accessible.
The panel of San Francisco Bay Area African American jurists moderated by the esteemed people’s attorney John Burris, April 28, was outstanding from the questions posed to the intimate stories shared about law, justice and its uneven application even when one wears the proper credentials. Seated before us were children of parents who were incarcerated and men who’d been falsely arrested and accosted by police at gunpoint.
To say that these individuals were isolated or underrepresented this 50+ anniversary season of so many civil rights firsts is unfortunately still the truth, which is another reason why “And Justice for All” is still a rallying cry on another pivotal and important anniversary, the 50th Anniversary of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.
All four panelists are prosecuting attorneys, Otis Bruce, Senior Deputy District Attorney, Marin County, Paul Henderson, Deputy Chief of Staff, Public Safety for San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Scott Jackson, Law Professor, Director of the Litigation Center, Golden Gate University and Jennifer Madden, Assistant District Attorney, Alameda County— I found this, in itself, a provocative place to begin a conversation about justice, when from a lay perspective, defense seems the place one starts, not its opposite. However, over the course of the evening the audience learned how the court operates and the power prosecutors hold in their positions is second really only to the judge. We learned about negotiation skills and how prosecutors who know the communities represented by the suspects can craft alternative solutions to keep black people out of prison.
To be a black litigator is more than having an active caseload, what it means is to impact the system so that so many black fish are not caught in a net which cast widely, yields a catch disproportionate to the effects of the law and law enforcement on certain communities.
Justice is certainly a goal, one each candidate for judge in their various municipalities, Alameda, Oakland, San Francisco and Marin, have changed laws, crafted statutes and made their counties or cities fairer by their active presence in seeing that justice is for all, not some privileged segment of their jurisdictions.
It would have been good to see another woman jurist, since such do exist on the bench. The questions asked of Ms. Madden were not as challenging as those directed to the other panelists. Perhaps a better way to handle the questions would have been to allow other panelists to comment on the topic after the designated person completed his or her thoughts.
I was really curious about Mr. Otis Bruce, a Mississippi native, juxtaposition of southern politics and northern politics in 2016. His solitary presence in an overwhelmingly white, upper income district, runs contrary historically to that of his geographic origins. There are black people in Marin County, and if one counts San Quentin, there are a lot of black residents there. What if prisoners could vote? Mr. Bruce spoke about going to Vallejo and Richmond, nearby cities and counties and speaking to the youth about staying out of Marin County.
A black face in Marin County at night, is like a black face on a lone Mississippi or Alabama back road. It does not matter if one is male or female. Several years ago, I was escorted out of the county when I got lost one night after a concert. I agree, black youth shouldn’t act up anywhere, especially where there is zero tolerance for youthful antics, but where can black teenager or youth act silly and not lose his or her life? It is not as if Richmond and Vallejo are safety zones. Bruce said black youth are ending up in Marin County courts, and when the young men see his face—they smile or nod, because they feel their chances at getting justice jumps up a few notches.
This belief is not without merit, given Mr. Bruce’s record in criminal cases tried in Marin County. Scott Jackson of all the candidates seemed to have the most varied preparation for the bench and in his practice as a jurist and professor. Scholarly in his inclination, his goal once elected and thereafter (a 5 year projection) is to make sure his face and name because a part of the parlance in Oakland and Alameda county.
All the jurists have developed programs, Paul Henderson, perhaps the younger of the men, several. He stated that he’d like to work during his tenure and afterward to keep children out of the foster care system. So many black parents and others, lose custody of their children when incarcerated. Foster care is the newest auction block. Just as in the past, these parents and families often did not know where their children were sent and the children cannot locate their families once they come of age. It is an insidious judicial move which plays to the parent’s fears and often linguistic inadequacies. It is also punitive when a relative has a criminal record. Income, housing — all important, yet, tedious when the child is suffering from the trauma of mother or father-loss. As long as the child is safe, what does it matter if the caregiver has all the amenities which are often not available because of income? The children are given to strangers who can then apply for and receive the kind of monetary resources which keep this trade in young human flesh so profitable.
Upcoming Forums:
May – The Changing Face of the Bay Area Landscape – East Bay | Real Estate
June – Healthcare
July – Visual Arts
August – Financial Services
September – Food & Wine
October – Business: C-Suite
November – Diversity in Tech
December – Beauty & Style: Natural Hair
Townhall, May 6 with Jennifer Madden
Jennifer Madden and Paul Henderson’s back stories were compelling. There is an opportunity to meet and speak to Friday, May 6, 6-7:30 PM at Eliza’s Pearl Arthouse at Regina’s Door, 6-7:30 PM, 352 17th Street, Oakland.
Art Exibit Opens Friday, May 6 at Impact Hub Oakland,
2323 Broadway Oakland CA, 6:30pm – 10:00pm
“Beating The Odds” paintings by Edythe Boone – Opening Night is Friday, May 6! this show highlights the work of community activist, educator, great-grandmother, and muralist, Edythe Boone. Edythe believes that art is for everyone, not just professional artists. Her mission is to empower individuals and transform communities through art.
The City of Oakland’s 164th birthday, May 4 activities 10:00-1:30/2:00 in front of and within City Hall and 150 Frank Ogawa Plaza Lobby (exhibit), Downtown Oakland, include a visual art exhibition, “Oakland Blazing New Trails.” The exhibit can be viewed within both buildings, Mon. through Friday 9:30-4:30 until Wed. May 25, 2016.
African American Soprano, Nicole Joseph sings Samuel Barber’s Knoxville; Summer of 1915 at OEBS
The Oakland Symphony, Music Director and Conductor Michael Morgan, the Oakland Symphony Chorus and guest artists Tracy Silverman, electric violin, and soprano Nicole Joseph will conclude the Symphony’s 2015-2016 season with a concert of music by John Adams, Stravinsky, Barber and Ravel Friday, May 20, at 8 pm at the Paramount Theatre. Mr. Silverman will perform John Adams’ The Dharma at Big Sur for orchestra and electric violin and Ms. Joseph, who was the winner of the 2015 Toland Vocal Arts Competition, will sing Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Completing the evening will be Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms with the Oakland Symphony Chorus, Lynne Morrow, Director; and Ravel’s La Valse. Pre-concert drinks, lobby entertainment and a talk begin at 7 pm and the concert is sponsored by Bell Investment Advisors.Tickets are priced $20-$75 and may be purchased at www.oaklandsymphony.org
Bay Area composer John Adams composed The Dharma at Big Sur for the opening of Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles in 2003, with Tracy Silverman as its electric violin soloist. In addition to an unusual solo instrument, its playful orchestration includes electronic samplers, ten gongs and two flower pots. Dharma’s sinuous solo passages and descriptive orchestral writing emerge as if from a fog into crystal clear phrases in homage of American composers Lou Harrison and Terry Riley. Adams composed it to evoke what he calls the “shock of recognition” that happens when reaching the end of a continental land mass in a spectacular place like Big Sur, California. Barber’s equally evocative musical memory of a summer evening, Stravinsky’s neoclassical choral symphony and Ravel’s ebullient, dance-hall romp are the perfect complements to Adams’ concerto. The performance of The Dharma at Big Sur is underwritten by a grant from the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation, that would be appreciated.
Film
San Francisco Silent Film Festival features a Rare film by Oscar Micheaux
WITHIN OUR GATES
Saturday, June 4, 5:15 pm at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco
Directed by Oscar Micheaux | USA, 1920 | 83 m.
With Evelyn Preer, Flo Clements, James D. Ruffin, Jack Chenault
“Within Our Gates” is the oldest surviving film made by an African-American director and an intrepid rebuttal not only to D.W. Griffith’s racist epic The Birth of a Nation (1915) but also a history lesson to white America shocked by the 1919 riots. It portrays the early years of Jim Crow, the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, and the Great Migration in the story of a young African-American woman who goes north to try to raise money for a poor, rural school in the Deep South. Within Our Gates confronts the racial violence of the time with the same vigor as it counters hateful stereotypes. This will be the San Francisco premiere of a new score for strings and voice by acclaimed composer Adolphus Hailstork.
Live musical accompaniment by Oakland Symphony musicians and members of the Oakland Symphony Chorus, conducted by Michael Morgan. Listen to a recent interview with Maestro Morgan and Dr. Hailstork here:
Radical San Francisco State University
“Agents of Change,” a powerful documentary about the black student-led protest movement on college campuses in the late 1960s, and its connection to the Black Lives Matter movement and campus protests of today, will have its Bay Area premiere at the Castro Theater on May 15, 2016 at 1 pm with KRON’s Pam Moore moderating the on-stage discussion following the screening. The film won the Jury and the Audience Award for Best Feature Documentary at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles.
Filmmakers, Abby Ginzberg of Berkeley and Frank Dawson of Los Angeles, will be joined by SF State activists featured in the film. Tickets are available through eventbrite:
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/agents-of-change-bay-area-film-premiere-tickets-23117066769
On the Fly:
San Francisco International Arts Festival; Yerba Buena Gardens Music Festival; San Francisco International Film Festival; Ifa Festival in Oakland; Antony and Cleopatra @ African American Shakespeare Company; The Grace Jones Project at MoAD; Take this Hammer at YBCA; The Mountaintop at Contra Costa Civic Theatre; Sojourner & runboyrun at The Magic Theatre; Red Velvet at San Francisco Playhouse; Six Degrees of Separation at Custom Made Theatre, Mas at Ubuntu Theatre Project, To Kill a Mockingbird at Berkeley Playhouse.
African Liberation Day 2016
African Liberation Day (ALD) was founded as African Freedom Day on April 15, 1958 at the first Conference of Independent African States in Accra, Ghana. This conference laid the foundation and strategy for the further intensification and coordination of the next stage of the African Revolution which would ultimately culminate in the complete unification of the African continent. With the creation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) on May 25, 1963, African Freedom Day became African Liberation Day. Since then, May 25th has been celebrated throughout the African world as a day to mark our ongoing determination to free ourselves from foreign domination and exploitation. And, it is in the spirit of the first African Freedom Day that the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party and the Bay Area African United Front invites you to join us in celebrating 58 years of African Liberation Day.
Black Love Beyond borders Week of International Solidarity
May 21 to May 28: We will be joining partners across the U.S. and international partners to host a week of internationalism to raise consciousness and build connections between Black-led U.S.-based movements and Black-led struggles and popular uprisings across the globe.
• Sat., May 21: Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival, 11am – 7pm, San Antonio Park, Foothill Blvd. and 18th Ave., Oakland. Sponsored by the Eastside Arts Alliance: https://www.facebook.com/EastSideArtsAlliance/?fref=ts
• SUN., MAY 22: MAIN EVENT KICKOFF: WHAT’S HAPPENING IN HAITI, 6pm – 8pm at Oakland Peace Center 111 Fairmount Avenue. Hosted by Haiti Action Committee, Black Alliance for Just Immigration and Black Lives Matter Bay area Chapter. TO RSVP, GO TO: https://www.facebook.com/events/856250281147973/
• Mon., May 23: Teach-in on the “Stop the Bleeding” Campaign to End the Financial Rip-off of Africa by corporations and politicians, 7pm – 9pm at SoleSpace, 1714 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Hosted by Priority Africa Network. TO RSVP, GO TO: https://www.facebook.com/events/1071430532924097/
• Tue., May 24: Teach-In: The Struggle of Afro-Colombians for Their Land and Livelihood, 6pm – 8pm with Tianna Paschel, author of Becoming Black Subjects Movements and Ethno-Racial Rights in Colombia and Brazil, and short documentary film at Niebyl Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland. Hosted by Priority Africa Network. TO RSVP, GO TO: https://www.facebook.com/events/211962679187442/
• Wed., May 25: African Liberation Day Event, 1:30pm at McClymonds High School, 2607 Myrtle Street. Hosted by All African People’s Revolutionary Party.
• Thurs., May 26: Day of Action for Haiti, 11:30am – 1:30pm at the Dellums Federal Building, 1301 Clay St., Oakland. Hosted by Black Lives Matter Bay Area Chapter, Black Alliance for Just Immigration and Haiti Action Committee. TO RSVP, GO TO: https://www.facebook.com/events/946042015523089/
• Sat., May 28: African Liberation Day Main Event, 12pm – 6pm at EastSide Arts Alliance 2277 International Blvd, Oakland. Hosted by All African People’s Revolutionary Party. GO TO: https://www.facebook.com/events/1002952279800186/
Organizational Sponsors: Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Haiti Action Committee, Black Lives Matter Bay Area Chapter, All African People’s Revolutionary Party, Priority Africa Network, EastSide Arts Alliance and Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.
For more information: devonte@blackalliance.org and (510) 459-2914.