Happy Birthday to all the Sagittarians and Capricorns especially Eugene B. Redmond, Poet Laurate, East St. Louis, Ill., activist, scholar and historian, who is 80, December 1 (pictured at left).

Happy Birthday also to Steven Anthony Jones, former Artistic Director, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre; Shawn Lyles, Bilal Sabir, Zarinah Shakir, Ann Marie Davis, Iya Halifu Oṣumare, Orlonda Uffre and C.Kelly Wright.

Is it resolution time again so soon (smile). This coming year I plan to listen to more live music and dance more. I was inspired by Diamano Coura’s 42^nd Repertory Performance, “Sama Diabar” My Wife!, November 25. This year the company featured three women choreographers: Nikka Maynard, Danielle Delane, LaTashia Bell who grew up in the company and a forth choreographer, Phillip Amo Agyapong.. The choreographers who also danced, were phenomenal. Combined with the colorful costumes, great scenic design, not to mention the excellent drumming led by Papa Zak, one could not help but be inspired to get up and dance too. The Malonga Casquelourd Theater was full for the evening show. If there had been a Sunday matinee, I would have returned to see it again. What I enjoyed this time was the talk with the artists during intermission.

The story, “Sama Diabar” My Wife!, was one of youth following their traditions and not allowing western mores to make them forget what is valued most in their culture: family relationships, respect for women, and marriage.  After being scolded for wasting their time at the club, an elder sends the young men to Touba city to find the wise man who can help them find wives.  Touba is the city where the heroic leader and Cheikh Amadou Bamba (1853-1927) peacefully resisted the French government and was forcibly exiled from his country (Senegal) for 11 years. Eventually he as freed, but the leader of the Mourides (a Sufi order he founded in 1883) continued to resist French imperialism. Touba is his city, where there is a yearly pilgrimage and men live simply so that they can serve the poor. These men, baafal wear patchwork garments. The mosque dedicated to Cheikh Amadou Bamba is made from Marble, but the old mosque and village was what we saw on stage. It is here that the four youth received needed guidance and were able to find wives.

Kwanzaa
Those of us in the San Francisco Bay Area reflect on the legacy and work that illustrated the life of Queen Mother Makinya Kouate. After Maulana Karenga gave the students from Merritt College a mimeographed sheet with notes about a harvest festival called Kwanzaa, the Oakland-Berkeley team started hosting community Kwanzaas in their homes. Later Sister Makinya would travel to Africa and learn more about harvest festivals; however, without her work the plan might have remained just that—a great idea. Now the community celebration of First Fruits and the Nguzo Saba, has a yearly stamp sponsored by the US Postal Service. Kwanzaa kits made in China have been around for a number of years. I remember when I saw this item at Sears in Oakland. However, Sister Makinya was a purest: only black people were invited, the venue should be owned by a black person so the money stays in the community, and we make the gifts or buy from a black vendor. This is practicing Umoja, Kujichagulia, Ujima and Ujamaa: Unity, Self-Determination, Collective Work and Responsibility and Cooperative Economic. Last year for the 50^th Anniversary of the celebration, Dec. 26-Jan. 1, Sister Makinya was at a convalescent hospital, so we took Kwanzaa to her.  It was wonderful watching her receive her friends and others who attended because they appreciated her service to our community. To celebrate Kwanzaa is to honor Sister Makinya’s legacy. The Village Project and the Bayview Y are hosting its 12^th Annual Citywide series of events. Visit http://thevillageprojectsf.org/vp/?page_id=97

Umoja (Unity): Dec. 26^th: 12 Noon, City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton Goodlett Way, Rotunda, Keynote:  John Templeton; 2 pm, Museum of the African Diaspora, 685 Mission Street @ 3^rd , performance by the St. Gabriel’s Brass Band; 7 pm, African American Arts & Culture Complex, 762 Fulton Street @ Webster, performance by Bernard Anderson & Band.

Wednesday, Dec. 27th:  2 pm, Hamilton Rec Center/MoMagic, 1900 Geary @ Steiner, DJ- Mr. “C”  & performance by The Village Dancers; 6 pm, Bayview YMCA, 1601 Lane @ Revere

UJIMA (Collective Work and Responsibility) Thursday, Dec. 28th:  1 pm, Western Addition Senior Center/Western Addition Family Resource Center, 1390 Turk @ Fillmore, performance by the Final Touch Band; 4 pm, Glide Memorial Church, 330 Ellis, 7 pm, RSSE, 1099 Sunnydale Ave , performance by the Silver Fox

UJAMAA (cooperative economics): Friday, Dec 29th:  4 pm:  OMI Family Resource Center/Minnie & Lovie Rec Center, 650 Capitol @ Montana, performance by Star Funk Band; 6 pm, Success Center/Citizen Film, at the WestBay Conference Center, 1290 Fillmore @ Eddy, performance by Fillmore SLIM

NIA (purpose): Saturday, Dec. 30th: 1 pm, Boys & Girls Club, 380 Fulton @ Gough, performance by Talent All Stars; 6 pm, Booker T. Washington Community Center, 800 Presidio @ Sutter DJ Mr. “C”

KUUMBA (creativity):  Sunday, Dec. 31st:  1 pm, San Francisco Main Library, Koret Theater, 100 Larkin Street, performance by Bitezo; 4 pm, Third Baptist Church, 1366 McAllister @ Pierce

IMANI (faith):  Monday, Jan. 1st:  6 pm, St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church, 2097 Turk @ Lyons, performance by Tia Carroll.

19^th Annual, 2017 California State Capitol Kwanzaa Celebration, Dec. 30, 12-2: From Fork to Food at the Last Entrance and 4th Floor John Burton Hearing Room 4203

https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2017/11/22/18804749.php

Kwanzaa at West Bay Conference Center, in San Francisco, Dec. 26-Jan. 1
http://redtri.com/san-francisco/kwanzaa-san-francisco/

We remember Della Reese (left) (born Delloreese Patricia Early; July 6, 1931), “the Angel,” made her transition Nov. 19,2017 and Dr. Intisar Shareef  (Oct. 29, 1946 -Nov. 4, 2017), early childhood educator, foster parents/kinship care program at Contra Costa College, Trustee of Pikler/Lóczy USA; Philadelphia MGT-GCC Captain, mother, grandmother, wife, activist, humanitarian. Following my professor, Ms. Chizu Iiyama as chair of the Early Childhood Department at CCC, Intisar did for Contra Costa County—Richmond, San Pablo, etc., what she and Dr. Mante did for Peralta Community College District ECE Centers when they introduced Montessori into these classrooms and later into Oakland Public Schools ECE programs. Our friend, former Black Panther Party member, Dhameera Ahmad (1/11/50-7/24/17) was also one of these mavericks for quality ECE for “the People.”

Sister Instisar (pictured right) was a cool scholar. I remember seeing her at CCC in her office, which she later shared with me until I got an office of my own. Statuesque and beautiful, I recall how she reared her son, Tauheed—French bilingual school, boarding schools.  She believed in international citizenship and traveled the world as a consultant as well as a scholar to find the most natural way to cultivate young minds. When she took over the department at CCC she brought in black women, older black women into higher education as leaders. There these older mothers met young mothers and through the many programs Intisar initiated a synergy developed between the two groups and of course the babies thrived.  When I was a preschool teacher at Headstart in Richmond, Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center and Berkeley Public Schools, I would look to Dr. Shareef for guidance.

She said: “In our increasingly diverse society, we all need to be able to create authentic, healthy, equitable relationships with people unlike ourselves, whether our colleagues, coworkers, fellow students, or families of young children.  I always want people to be heard thoroughly, without interruption. If you can hear someone regardless of their story, that’s a doorway into understanding your own humanity. I want to set judgments aside and let people and their thoughts progress naturally. If we can give each other more space to be human, to not always have the right answers, we might make it easier to communicate” (Pikler/Lóczy USA).

To continue her legacy, donations can be made to the “Intisar Shareef Scholarship Fund” through the Contra Costa College Foundation, 2600 Mission Bell Drive, San Pablo, CA 94804. (Make checks out to CCCF with Intisar Shareef Scholarship Fund on the memo line.)

Tweet for the Ancestors

This year, Nov. 22-24, Maafa San Francisco Bay Area invited everyone to join the International Coalition for the Commemoration of African Ancestors of the Middle Passage (ICCAAMP) to “Tweet for the Ancestors,” a multimedia campaign to refocus consumer energies.  Black Friday is now #Black Power to African Ancestors of the Middle Passage.  We tweeted and posted and emailed a series of messages from #REMEMBERtheAncestors; #LIBATIONS4AfricanAncestors-MiddlePassage; #COMMEMORATEAfricanAncestors along with Andinkra symbols: Nyame Dua (which is the altar for ritual) and “Fawohodie” or Freedom, Emancipation, Independence.

This year has been eventful and tragic, yet despite the fight that remains, we can and do celebrate our ancestors, because when we think of them, we are reminded of who we are and whose genes form the matrix that is our lives and legacy. The Orisa Urban World Festival concludes Dec. 2 with three Unveiling Protection Shields programs.  The Protection Shields were created at community workshops with visionary artist: Gayle Madyun.  The now sanctified shields will be returned to participants 11/30-12/2 at the following program locations: Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, 103 Kroeber Hall at UC Berkeley (11/30, 6-8 PM); Regina’s Door, 352 17th Street, in Oakland (12/1, 6-9 PM); Rafiki Coalition, 601 Cesar Chavez (12/2, 11-1) in San Francisco.

At Lake Merritt, near the Boathouse, we built a community altar for the Ancestors and lots of people stopped to write their ancestors’ names on the pavement. We shared stories and hugs and laughter. It was really great. After we took the altar down, we put the flowers next to the names of Queen Mother Makinya Sibeko-Kouate and other Iyas who made their transition this year like Hajja Dhameera Ahmad, Sister Hadiah McCleod and Dr. Intisar Sharif. It was great seeing the children learning about family as they wrote their ancestors’ names. One little girl’s ancestor was the famous Civic Rights Veteran, Ms. Daisy Bates who integrated Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas. I asked people to TWEET for the Ancestors and many did once they finished writing their ancestor(s)’ name(s).

We will definitely do this again. It was so funny; people asked if it was a fundraiser and were surprised when we said, “No.” That this was for the Ancestors.

The altar had bubbles and peppermint candy for visitors to take and a photo of a sister on a beach in Salvador, Bahia (Brazil). The peppermint was to sweeten the bitterness of death, the bubbles were for Hajja Dhameera who loved the magic bubbles represent. We blew bubbles at her memorial.

One woman shared her sibling’s story. She was five when he died at two of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). She says when she breathes she thinks of him and as she walked that afternoon he was on her mind—She was five when he died. Her brother was born in 1978.

Ancestors guided the footsteps of many others who decided to walk or jog or cycle by the altar that afternoon. Another woman who started crying, said she wrote the name of her great grandfather who is the sole survivor of her family. He migrated here from Europe just before the Nazi-led killings began.

Given it was the day after Thanksgiving, families were off from work so moms and dads and grandparents were all together. It was great watching children and parents taking sides of the family to chronicle– paternal or maternal. One father’s grandmother had 6-7 names and he knew them all. Her husband just had two (smile).

Some visitors wrote their ancestors’ names really big and bold with powerful strokes. I wondered about these ancestors’ energy and their legacy which was living on in their next of kin.

Two elder women said that we stood on the shoulders’ of our ancestors, so it is fitting to remember and call their names. I pointed to the website: RemembertheAncestors.com for more information. By the time we concluded two and a half hours later, the space was a holy one. It was a memorial for all the ancestors whose names we’d called into the space. Ava and I then went over to the rocks and poured libations to the ancestors including the ones evoked that day. We asked their blessings and presence. We asked them to help us to work out our difficulties, to help us stay strong and steadfast. We also asked them to be with our young people who died violent deaths and to help them move on. We also asked them to be with the youth who are locked behind bars— to be the hope in their despair, to give them answers to their questions and opportunities to change a bad situation into something positive until they are free once again.

We are Tweeting again December 31, 2017-January 1, 2018 for Jubilee. This was a day formerly enslaved Africans celebrated as they waited for Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation to become law, January 1, 1863. Check out Facebook.com/maafabayarea later this month. We plan to post the Jubilee song and dance. The word is #Imani, #Faith, #Freedom, #Jubilee, #Independence. The Andinkra we used for the first tweet, “Fawohodie” or Freedom, Emancipation, Independence, works well here too.

From West Oakland to West Africa: A Transatlantic Conversation through Poetry

When my sister-friend Karla Brundage (pictured left) shared with me her master’s thesis project, to link Diaspora Africans to Continental West Africans via the Japanese poetic form: Renshi, I was intrigued. I have spent most of my life looking for a way to get home, home both ancestral and philosophical. Almost ten years ago I set out to spend each New Year in an ancestral portal or geography as I continue to Map Diaspora. 2017 I have not traveled outside the United States, but if the prison industrial complex is itself a country, then SCI Graterford prison in Philadelphia is now a part of that terrain I call Diaspora.

But back to Karla and West Oakland to West Africa or WOWA, 8 of us began meeting on Monday evenings at Mills College in Sept. 2016. The plan was 8 meetings, but the groove was so tight, we continued meeting, and Karla invited more poets to share the journey. These poets began meeting on Saturdays. Both groups conclude this second session early December.

We responded to prompts and then sent our poems via email to our poet-pal in West Africa. I have had four poet pen-pals, two men and two women. My current poet pen-pal is in Tamale, Ghana. It is a town in the northern region that I visited last year. I stayed there for a week as I visited historic landmarks along the slave route. She is a high school teacher and mother of a small son. Celeste is fiery and fierce and writes about her ancestors and life before colonialism, a time when her culture was not presented through a western sieve.

We are all pretty excited about the trip to Ghana next year in May to perform with our Ghanaian poet friends and make a few stops at historic places in Ghana, such as the DuBois Center in Accra and the two major slave dungeons. For many poets in the diverse group, this will be their first time in Africa. We have had poetry readings, have published a handcrafted chapbook, and guests on radio shows, including Wanda’s Picks. On Zakiyyah G.E. Capehart’s show on KPFA, Sir Black called in from Accra to share poetry.  Saturday, Dec. 9, 1-4 PM, is our free Speakeasy Poetry Party: Get to Ghana Fundraiser, at The Back Room, 1984 Bonita Avenue (off University Ave.) Berkeley. People are encouraged to dress jazzy and come prepared to have fun. There will be wine, poetry and a silent auction. WOWA also has a GoFundMe Campaign (WO2WA) about to end.

Karla is a Fulbright Scholar, having spent a year in my favorite country, Zimbabwe. She taught there, while the classroom teacher there, taught here. I remember thinking how cool that was for Karla to be able to not just trade high school classrooms, but to also be able to take her young daughter, now in graduate school, with her. Last year, Karla returned from West Africa after teaching there for about three years. A consummate poet, her mom also a dynamite writer, Karla who was born in Berkeley, yet raised in Hawaii truly embodies the spirit of the Hon. Marcus Mosiah Garvey who told us Africa is for Africans and that for those willing to put in the work, we could certainly “accomplish what we will.”

Wanda Sabir: Karla, could you please tell us about the genesis for WOWA?

Karla Brundage:  “The Genesis for WO2WA, West Oakland to West Africa, happened in 2014 when I was living in Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa. At that time I was teaching English at International Community School of Abidjan.  As I have always been an advocate for student voice and hoped to be an agent for social change, I became invovled in many groups in Abidjan and particpated in the AISA Conference (Association of International Schools in Africa) While there I met, Sir Black, also known as Yibor Kojo Yibor who was a co-founder of Ehalakasa and Talk Party a monthly Poetry Slam in Ghana. While there, I participated in a Slam and formed a connection with Sir Black.  He eventually came to Abidjan and performed for my students. When he explained to me the connection between Spoken Word and the Griot tradition, something he used to work with youth in Ghana, I was excited to try to collaborate.  At first, I wanted to create a poetry slam between Abidjan and Ghana, but we were unable to create that link in that year due mainly to language difference of France and English.  When I came back to the states in 2015, I approached Youth Speaks with a proposal to create some kind of exchange with Ghana and American students.  Again the bureaucracy seemed too overwhelming. I returned to Abidjan and once again collaborated with Yibor.  We applied to perform at the MASA Conference (Market for African Performing Arts).  When I returned to the US for the final time, I applied to a Community Engagement Fellowship at Mills College with the hopes of creating a poetic exchange between my home town of Oakland and the greater Bay Area with people in Ghana and West Africa.”

“As Community Engagement Fellow, I wrote a nine week curriculum which involved creating partner poets who exchange poetry for a period of 9 weeks.  Right now we have 15 pairs of poets, totaling 30 participants.  Each pair shares a poem each week with their partner poet. The themes change after each 2 poem cycle. We use the form of Renshi poetry which is a Japanese form in which the poet uses the last line from their partner’s poem to begin their poem.”

WS:  In your second year now what are you doing differently with this new group?

KB:  “This year, we have added a number of poets from Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire and have created a few more themes which address cultural and political differences. I have also asked people from the original group to lead some of the writing workshops.  The whole group will join together and all 15 of us will go to Ghana in May to meet our partner poets.”

WS: Talk about some of the participants and their range of experience writing poetry

KB:  “I have a range of poets from professional published poets who earn their living as Artists, to Mills graduate and undergraduate students, we also have members who are retired. So we are multigenerational.  The group is composed of 11 women and 2 men. We also have a number of LGBTIQ participants.  We have a diverse group geographically and ethnically, though the group does speak mainly to artists of color and African Americans in particular.”

WS: You are a Fulbright scholar and you’ve taught and lived in South Africa and more recently West Africa, for many years and you also born in Berkeley but grew up in Hawaii.  Tell us a little bit about your cultural history; you can start with your great grandfather at Tuskegee as a World War II pilot. . . .

KB:  “Wow, yes, I have travelled a lot in Africa. I believe this is because of  my family history. My mom, Dr. Kathryn Takara, is a well-known poet and publisher. She was a professor at University of Hawaii for 30 year, but never received tenure. Our family has always fought discrimination within the University system starting with my grandparents both of whom taught at Tuskegee Institute in the 1940s and ‘50s. My mother has travelled in China and to Niger. After my daughter was born, I applied for a Fulbright Teaching Exchange and we spent a year in Zimbabwe.  While there, my eyes were opened to the complex relationship I have with the continent of Africa as an African American.  I have been processing this in my poetry ever since.

WS:  If a person were to map your diaspora what would it include? People places? This is an extension of the previous question.

KB:  “My diaspora is African American, aside from West Africa, I do not know geographically where my ancestors came from.  My mom, who is African American, is also 14 Powhautin Indian, as that tribe was located in the Virginia area where my grandfather is from.  My father is from upstate New York and is of Danish and German descent.”

WS: The poetic form Renshi you’ve chosen for WOWA is indicative of the connection between West Oakland and West Africa: the ethnography connection as well as the ancestral connection. Talk a little bit about the philosophical lineage you are mining with WOWA retracing the fractured route through poetry through this group of racially and culturally diverse poets.

KB:  “When I originally conceived of this project, I had youth in mind from Oakland Unified School District. As this demographic proved difficult to engage (I am still researching how to do this), I reached out to the Mills and greater Oakland community. My response was mainly from African American women. While I did not plan for any specific demographic, I adjusted accordingly. I was surprised by the range mostly in ages that this project called out to. Currently we have 13 participants 9 African American, 2 white, 1 South East Indian, 1 Cuban/Italian mix.  The form of Renshi poetry is meant to “link” the participants.  The goal was to cross cultural divides between the US and West Africa as well as to break stereotypes and form lasting and authentic friendships. I think poetry is a form to do this because poetry is really about 2 things, the heart and ideas.  When people share ideas through poetry they are also sharing their hearts. it is also a very intellectual sharing.  This is not about “hooking up” or making donations. We are having intellectual discussions that cross borders with no political agenda.”

WS: If you haven’t already shared your immediate hopes for the project, please do. 

KB:  “I hope that this project can grow. I am still looking to partner with other youth organizations. I would like to include/reach out to more African American Men and boys. We will be going to Ghana in May to meet our partners.  I hope that this will be a life changing experience for all of us. Eventually we will publish a book.”

WS: Does this mirror your partner’s hopes? What is the report on the ground in Accra, Abidjan. . . .

KB: “My partner and I have co-created this project, with me as the visionary and he as the support. I think he would hope that if this continues, I could pay him. Also perhaps we could create a more equitable exchange and try to bring some Ghanaian poets here, but all of this takes money. We are mostly funding this from Gofundme, a grant from City of Oakland Cultural Funding Program, but we are in no way making the kind of money that would allow me to fly people here. I also do not have the institutional support to help people with VISAs.”

WS: Lastly, how can people help through the May departure? Can people sponsor poets, pay for group lodging?

KB: “Yes, people can sponsor us. Please like our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WO2WA/ and watch for our upcoming events.  We also have a Get to Ghana Speakeasy Poetry Party & Open Mic at “The Backroom” in Berkeley, 1984 Bonita, Dec. 9, 1-4 p.m. featuring the 15 WOWA poets:  Shoshana Moed, Tyrice Brown, Rucha Chitnis, Adeshima aka Marcus Lorenzo Penn, Xiomara Hooker, Wild-Flower Brashear, Mimi Gonzalez-Barillas, Wanda Sabir, Zakiyyah G.E. Capehart, Sara Biel, Karla Brundage, Makeda aka Sandra Hooper Mayfield, Imani Todd, Audacious IAM

Nicolas Bearde & Friends Celebrating the Season

Now celebrating his 11th anniversary, this special concert with Nicolas Bearde & Friends, is a “must see” show for all fans of contemporary Jazz and Blues. Joining Bearde on stage are some of the Bay Area’s best: John R Burr (piano), Ron Belcher (bass), and Leon Joyce Jr.  (drums). The solo performance is Saturday, December 9, 2017 at 8 p.m. at Piedmont Piano Company, 1728 San Pablo Ave. (at 18th), Oakland.  Tickets are $25 in advance / $30 at the door. A Meet & Greet and reception follows. To reserve tickets call (510) 547-8188.

Lyric Performing Arts Academy presents: The Jazzy Nutcracker featuring Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite at Fremont High School Auditorium, 4610 Foothill Blvd., Oakland, Saturday, Dec. 9, 1 p.m. Tickets are $10 adults, $5 children/seniors. Later that afternoon and the following weekend, guests can see Go Tell It: A Harriet Tubman Christmas Story, 12/9 at 4 p.m.; 12/16 at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults; $10 children/seniors.
Visit GotTellIt.info

Cinderella at African American Shakes
Dec. 22-24, is directed by Sherri Young. The wonderful holiday favorite is once again at the Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco. Free Teacher’s Night Out, Dec. 21, 8 p.m.  Register in advance African-AmericaShakes.org/Education/Teachers-Night-Out. For tickets call City Box Office (415) 392-4400. Youth under 18 and seniors (65+): $25.

Lorraine Hansberry’s Holiday Cheer

Lift your spirits with Lorraine Hansberry Theatre’s 2017 Soulful Christmas: A Gospel Holiday Concert presented at San Francisco’s Buriel Clay Theater, 762 Fulton Street (near Webster) in San Francisco December 14-23, 2017. For tickets visit lhtsf.org or call 415.474.8800.

Gospel solo artist, Yvonne Cobbs, directs the legendary Lorraine Hansberry Gospel Choir with inspirational holiday music both old and new, sacred and secular. The show is guaranteed to be a roof-raising, hand-clapping, joyful good time for all ages. Though I miss Black Nativity and I hope LHT will bring it back one day, this concert is really beautiful. Ms. Cobbs is a superb musical director and the LHT Ensemble is stellar. Everyone is a constellation. The stage glows.

Oakland East Bay Symphony presents: Let Us Break Bread Together, a holiday concert featuring the music of Prince and Leonard Cohen, Sunday, December 10, 2 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre, Oakland. For tickets and information call: 510-444-0802. Under 18? Just $15. Tickets start at $25.00

Digital Storytelling Festival at West Oakland Branch Library, Saturday December 9th 2 – 4 PM
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Join us to see digital films of your neighbors and community members! These films are the creations of a two day workshop here at the West Oakland Library. The films are 2 – 4 minutes long.  The WOBL is located at 1801 Adeline Street, Oakland. It is a free event. There will be popcorn. Wanda Sabir’s digital story: “A Particular Memory,” is a part of the Festival. It is her family’s migration story from NOLA to SF.

Kitka Evening Star

Wintersongs and CD Release Celebration Concerts in Oakland, Friday, December 15, 8 p.m.at St. Paul’s Church; Sunday, December 17, 5 p.m., Nile Hall, Preservation Park, Oakland, www.kitka.org, (510) 444-0323.

Oakland Public Conservatory of Music is BACK!

Oakland Public Conservatory of Music is BACK! on the block, anchor tenant in the newly restored historic California Hotel where Oakland and Emeryville meet. The opening celebrations coincide with other celebratory happenings throughout the hotel complex which patrons will not want to miss, December 8-10, 2017, 3445 San Pablo Ave. There will be small bites, munchies and beverages will be served.

Adults and Youth can sample classes: Zimbabwean-style marimbas, Beginning Band for Adults, Piano Class, Guitar, Afro Cuban percussion, Jazz improvisation, and more. We’ll also be offering classes for parents and their tots!  For the schedule visit: https://www.opcmusic.org/Events.php

The public programs are: Saturday, December 9, 2017; 1pm to 5pm and Saturday evening concert: 7-8:30pm. Sunday December 10, 2017: 2-5pm Jazz Jam Session. Register for classes Saturday from 1pm – 5pm. For more information: Call (510) 836-4649 or email info@opcmusic.org

Holiday Fair

Saturday, Dec. 2, 12-5 p.m. at EastSide Arts presents: Holiday Book & Art Fair, 2277 International Blvd. This is a free event.

Concerts
Sovoso at Freight and Salvage, 2020 Addison Street, Berkeley, Monday, Dec. 18, 8 p.m.

Ashkenaz Music and Dance Center Events

Friday, Dec. 1, Music of Southern Africa: Chinyakare and Zulu Spear, 9:00-11:59 PM. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. Shows are always all ages @ Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley.

Cuban Music@ Ashkenaz

Wednesday, December. 6, Yissy and Bandancha, Contemporary Cuban, 8:00 PM  9:00 PM. Doors open at 7:30 pm; Show at 8 PM.  Tickets are $18 Advance / $20 Day of Show @ Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley.

Women Drummers International Presents: Drum Sunday@ Ashkanez

Drum Sundays are drumming workshops presented on the first Sunday of every month by one of the FANTASTIC MAESTRA DRUMMERS from Born to Drum.  This month, Dec. 3, 1-3 p.m., the workshop leader is DEBBIE FIER, Middle Eastern Rhythms and Percussion. Classes are open to ALL LEVELS. There will be a limited number of drums to borrow on a first come first serve basis.  Tickets are $25 – $10 (sliding scale) / Under 12 yrs. free. No one turned away for lack of funds. The class is in the back studio.

Dance and Song@ Ashkanez

Global Cultures for Kids Presents Dimensions Dance Theater, Sunday, December 10, 2017, 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM. Advance tickets are $12 adults / $8 kids, at the door $15/$10.  Bring a family of four for $35

Regina’s Touch-Benefit for US Virgin Island Children’s Fund, Sunday, December 3, 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM.

Regina Wells Rashida Oji is a full-hearted singer whose voice and presence touches people deeply. She has been singing all of her life, from her youth leading Catholic folk masses to venues large and small around the USA. She has shared the stage with Linda Tillery, Carolyn Brandy, Edwina Lee Tyler, Santana, rhiannon, Bobby McFerrin, Melanie DeMore, Toshi Reagon and her own band Rashida Oji and Middle Passage – and Ojala’.  Iya Regina is joined by Michaelle Gorlitz, drums, Charlene Gumbs of “Sistahs of the Drum”, bassist Lillie Robinson, and sound healer “Madhu Sahu” Anziani. Tickets are $15.

Global Womens Strike and Haiti Emergency Relief Fundraiser In Memory of Lori Nairne

Saturday, December 9, 6:00 pm – 11:30 pm, at OMNI Commons, 4799 Shattuck Avenue, Oakland.

Art: Two Shows at Joyce Gordon Gallery

While the Seventh Annual Holiday Show is in full swing, don’t miss Martin Grizzell’s LUKASA – Post-Modern Variations of Coded Quilts, December 1 – 31, at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street Oakland, (12th St. Bart). Visit www.joycegordongallery.com or call 510.465.8928. The opening reception is Friday, Dec. 1, 6-9 p.m. Gallery hours are Wednesday-Friday, 11-5, Sat. 1-5.

Grizzell’s exhibition explores the African origins of Underground Railroad coded in quilts. LUKASA is inspired by the late Mrs. Ozella McDaniel Williams Quilt Code.

Art Exhibit
Art Speaks Truth to Power Exhibit at Oakland City Hall 3rd floor Rotunda Space, December 1st, 2017 – December 31st, 2017

Rev. Daniel Buford, Executive Director of BOCA exhibit showcases his pieces of work. His sculptures are all handcrafted out of wood, featuring Redwood relief carvings named after the biblical Prophets.

Pre New Year’s Bash at The SFJazz Center features: The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol featuring Pianist Joe Warner

Saturday, December 30, 2017 shows at 7 & 9pm, 201 Franklin St, San Francisco. For information call: 866-920-5299. The show is for All Ages – ADA accessible. Tickets $40, online or at the door. Visit: fayecarol.com

Nicolas Bearde & Friends Celebrating the Season

Now celebrating his 11th anniversary, this special concert with Nicolas Bearde & Friends, is a “must see” show for all fans of contemporary Jazz and Blues. Joining Bearde on stage are some of the Bay Area’s best: John R Burr (piano), Ron Belcher (bass), and Leon Joyce Jr.  (drums). The solo performance is Saturday, December 9, 2017 at 8 p.m. at Piedmont Piano Company, 1728 San Pablo Ave. (at 18th), Oakland.  Tickets are $25 in advance / $30 at the door. A Meet & Greet and reception follows. To reserve tickets call (510) 547-8188.

Lyric Performing Arts Academy presents: The Jazzy Nutcracker featuring Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite at Fremont High School Auditorium, 4610 Foothill Blvd., Oakland, Saturday, Dec. 9, 1 p.m. Tickets are $10 adults, $5 children/seniors. Later that afternoon and the following weekend, guests can see Go Tell It: A Harriet Tubman Christmas Story, 12/9 at 4 p.m.; 12/16 at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults; $10 children/seniors.
Visit GotTellIt.info

Cinderella at African American Shakes
Dec. 22-24, is directed by Sherri Young. The wonderful holiday favorite is once again at the Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco. Free Teacher’s Night Out, Dec. 21, 8 p.m.  Register in advance African-AmericaShakes.org/Education/Teachers-Night-Out. For tickets call City Box Office (415) 392-4400. Youth under 18 and seniors (65+): $25.

Lorraine Hansberry’s Holiday Cheer

Lift your spirits with Lorraine Hansberry Theatre’s 2017 Soulful Christmas: A Gospel Holiday Concert presented at San Francisco’s Buriel Clay Theater, 762 Fulton Street (near Webster) in San Francisco December 14-23, 2017. For tickets visit lhtsf.org or call 415.474.8800.

Gospel solo artist, Yvonne Cobbs, directs the legendary Lorraine Hansberry Gospel Choir with inspirational holiday music both old and new, sacred and secular. The show is guaranteed to be a roof-raising, hand-clapping, joyful good time for all ages. Though I miss Black Nativity and I hope LHT will bring it back one day, this concert is really beautiful. Ms. Cobbs is a superb musical director and the LHT Ensemble is stellar. Everyone is a constellation. The stage glows.

Oakland East Bay Symphony presents: Let Us Break Bread Together, a holiday concert featuring the music of Prince and Leonard Cohen, Sunday, December 10, 2 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre, Oakland. For tickets and information call: 510-444-0802. Under 18? Just $15. Tickets start at $25.00

Digital Storytelling Festival at West Oakland Branch Library, Saturday December 9th 2 – 4 PM

Join us to see digital films of your neighbors and community members! These films are the creations of a two day workshop here at the West Oakland Library. The films are 2 – 4 minutes long.  The WOBL is located at 1801 Adeline Street, Oakland. It is a free event. There will be popcorn.

Kitka Evening Star

Wintersongs and CD Release Celebration Concerts in Oakland, Friday, December 15, 8 p.m.at St. Paul’s Church; Sunday, December 17, 5 p.m., Nile Hall, Preservation Park, Oakland, www.kitka.org, (510) 444-0323.

Holiday Fair

Saturday, Dec. 2, 12-5 p.m. at EastSide Arts presents: Holiday Book & Art Fair, 2277 International Blvd. This is a free event.

Concerts
Sovoso at Freight and Salvage, 2020 Addison Street, Berkeley, Monday, Dec. 18, 8 p.m.

Ashkenaz Music and Dance Center Events

Friday, Dec. 1, Music of Southern Africa: Chinyakare and Zulu Spear, 9:00-11:59 PM. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. Shows are always all ages @ Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley.

Cuban Music@ Ashkenaz

Wednesday, December. 6, Yissy and Bandancha, Contemporary Cuban, 8:00 PM  9:00 PM. Doors open at 7:30 pm; Show at 8 PM.  Tickets are $18 Advance / $20 Day of Show @ Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley.

Women Drummers International Presents: Drum Sunday@ Ashkanez

Drum Sundays are drumming workshops presented on the first Sunday of every month by one of the FANTASTIC MAESTRA DRUMMERS from Born to Drum.  This month, Dec. 3, 1-3 p.m., the workshop leader is DEBBIE FIER, Middle Eastern Rhythms and Percussion. Classes are open to ALL LEVELS. There will be a limited number of drums to borrow on a first come first serve basis.  Tickets are $25 – $10 (sliding scale) / Under 12 yrs. free. No one turned away for lack of funds. The class is in the back studio.

Dance and Song@ Ashkanez

Global Cultures for Kids Presents Dimensions Dance Theater, Sunday, December 10, 2017, 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM. Advance tickets are $12 adults / $8 kids, at the door $15/$10.  Bring a family of four for $35

Regina’s Touch-Benefit for US Virgin Island Children’s Fund, Sunday, December 3, 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM.

Regina Wells Rashida Oji is a full-hearted singer whose voice and presence touches people deeply. She has been singing all of her life, from her youth leading Catholic folk masses to venues large and small around the USA. She has shared the stage with Linda Tillery, Carolyn Brandy, Edwina Lee Tyler, Santana, rhiannon, Bobby McFerrin, Melanie DeMore, Toshi Reagon and her own band Rashida Oji and Middle Passage – and Ojala’.  Iya Regina is joined by Michaelle Gorlitz, drums, Charlene Gumbs of “Sistahs of the Drum”, bassist Lillie Robinson, and sound healer “Madhu Sahu” Anziani. Tickets are $15.

Global Womens Strike and Haiti Emergency Relief Fundraiser In Memory of Lori Nairne

Saturday, December 9, 6:00 pm – 11:30 pm, at OMNI Commons, 4799 Shattuck Avenue, Oakland.

Visit La Pena Cultural Center for events and classes

Art: Two Shows at Joyce Gordon Gallery

While the Seventh Annual Holiday Show is in full swing, don’t miss Martin Grizzell’s LUKASA – Post-Modern Variations of Coded Quilts, December 1 – 31, at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street Oakland, (12th St. Bart). Visit www.joycegordongallery.com or call 510.465.8928. The opening reception is Friday, Dec. 1, 6-9 p.m. Gallery hours are Wednesday-Friday, 11-5, Sat. 1-5.

Grizzell’s exhibition explores the African origins of Underground Railroad coded in quilts. LUKASA is inspired by the late Mrs. Ozella McDaniel Williams Quilt Code.

Art Exhibit
Art Speaks Truth to Power Exhibit at Oakland City Hall 3rd floor Rotunda Space, December 1st, 2017 – December 31st, 2017

Rev. Daniel Buford, Executive Director of BOCA exhibit showcases his pieces of work. His sculptures are all handcrafted out of wood, featuring Redwood relief carvings named after the biblical Prophets

 

We pour libations for: Fats Domino, New Orleans musical legend, dies October 24. He was 89. The Architect of Rock N Roll was the child of a Haitian Kreyòl plantation workers and the grandson of an enslaved African.  And we also pour libations for Denise Banks, co-founder of the American Indian Movement (AIM) made his transition October 30. He was 80.

Congratulations to Drs. Vera and Wade Nobles on their 50^th Wedding Anniversary this month.

Support National Campaign to Have UN Investigate Human Rights Abuses of Political Prisoners

Comrade Jalil Mutaquim (Anthony Bottom) has launched a National Campaign to have the UN International Jurists investigate the human rights abuses of American political prisoners. Support this campaign by endorsing it. Read Blog #47 and International Campaign for Human Rights of U.S. Political Prisoners

Orisa Urban World Festival: Protection Shields Nov. 2-Dec. 2
Workshops, Public Performances, Ritual Grave Sweeping, Theatre, Dance, Lectures and More
Visit http://www.orisaurbanworldfestival.com/schedule.php

“Mapping Diaspora Installation” by Wanda Sabir (concept) at Mygration Art Exhibit,
Conceptualize your geography, share oral histories, make up new ones.

Mygration: Nov. 3-Nov. 25 at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14^th Street, Oakland (12^th Street BART)
Opening Reception, Friday, Nov. 3, 6-9 p.m.; Poetry Reading, Sat., Nov. 4, 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., Artist Talk, Sat., Nov. 11, 1-4 p.m.

Doctors Without Borders presents:  Forced from Home: An Interactive Exhibition Designed to Expose the Realities of the Global Refugee Crisis (Oct. 30-Nov. 5)

Just across from Lake Merritt in Oakland, 10th Street parking lot of the historic Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center which houses the Calvin Simmons’s Theatre, neighbor to the Oakland Museum of California and Laney College, sits a refugee camp.  Forced from Home is a 10,000 square-foot outdoor exhibition hosted by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the international humanitarian aid organization which delivers emergency medical care around the world.  MSF is privately funded so that its reputation as nonpartisan remains in-tact is in Oakland through Nov. 5, 9 AM to 5 PM.  MSF staff, not all doctors or nurses, lead free tours which offer visitors a glimpse into the lives of unprecedented 65.6 million people who are internally displaced, refugees in a foreign land, or in limbo— stateless.

When one joins a tour which takes minimally 1 hour to complete—longer if you stop to watch other virtual stories from Mexico, Afghanistan, Southern Sudan or Iraq, write postcards to workers abroad for the holidays, times when family is missed most or postcards to legislators to support policies that promote peace—you are given a card which tells you the country of origin and whether or not you are a refugee or an internally displaces person or other categories of persons who wind up in MSF camps.

My card said I was from the Republic of South Sudan, a new country.  I had an ID number with a stamp: Internally Displaced Person over my photo.  There was a line for my gender and DOB, date of issue of the card and expiration date: 13/May/2027. I know Dinka’s from Southern Sudan who now live in Santa Clara County and in Oakland, so I felt comfortable in my identity; however, I did not know what I was going to encounter next.

After being assigned a country, we then face certain situations which cause us to lose our homes.  Exhibition themes: “Push Factors”: War, religious conflict, food shortage, safety can make people flee. “On the Move”—How do people, once displaced navigate their journeys. Then there is “Legal Status”: What rights does the fleeing person retain as she crosses borders? “Basic needs”: How do families find food, shelter, maintain basic hygiene and access technology as they move from place to place? “Health Care” is of course an important issue. Many ailments caused by poor sanitation and poor nutrition.  Then of course, “Shelter” is primary and hardest to secure for multiple reasons. Visit forcedfromhome.com

We enter a tent where we watch a virtual 360-video—the people on the screen are life-size and talking right next to you as you turn to watch all the stories.  The people are from Lebanon, Mexico, Tanzania, and South Sudan regions where the largest populations of displaced persons currently reside.   We listen to an Iraqi father with his wife and daughter share how he lost his home and now all he has is a wood-burning stove.  The video and others like it, plus the large photos of hospital trauma centers, people on the run—smoke from explosives visible in the  background, emphasize how dire and urgent the needs are for so many people.

It is crazy to think that “84 percent of refugees are hosted by developing regions.  The top six refugee countries are Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, Uganda, and Ethiopia.  The six wealthiest countries, including the US, host less than 9 percent of the world’s refugees” (UNHCR, Oxfam).

MSF builds hospitals like one in Afghanistan, highlighted in a large photo. The hospital is rubble. It was bombed, aid workers and patients killed.  I can see the sadness in Elvis’s eyes as he looks at the photo of a place he helped build, now gone.  He tells me how it is his job to make sure the MSF staff are safe. Sometimes he has to have staff pack up—all except perhaps 1 doctor.

Elvis, Kenyan, gave me a private tour—with MSF since 2003, he is the person who goes into the region first with a doctor, logistics/mechanic person, to do an initial survey and set up.  He told me how the tents pre set-up are labeled for the kind of care needed in a particular area.  The medical tent we visited was for cholera. It had special beds made from canvas, easy to clean with a hole for the bucket to catch the diarrhea. He said that there would be someone at the entrance and exit of the tent to spray the person with antibacterial and to keep the germs from spreading.

On the other side of the ward was another section with beds covered in mosquito netting. Presented with different scenarios as Dinka from Southern Sudan, I had to think about what I might take with me in the five minutes I had before I had to leave—I chose bottled water, a blanket, my keys, a cell phone and a motorcycle.  Elvis told me that people would probably take the motorcycle from me or try to jump on it, so more often people walked.

At the next stop, I had to pay the person to get through. He wanted my shoes, so I had to leave them.  We passed by buses, canoes or boats and walking or climbing through mountains. Boats built for 20-40 people were carrying hundreds. The fake life jackets were lined with cardboard and the floors were often flied with excess fuel which burned the skin of the women and children seated in the bottom of the boats.  These treacherous journeys across the Mediterranean Sea were often unsuccessful.  I decided to keep walking rather than take a bus.  I couldn’t imagine my body squeezed in between many others headed to safety.

Sometimes an escaping family would make it to a border and the police would not let all the family members cross. This happened to me. I could not leave, but my cute daughter was allowed to cross.  Without access to media or international attention, people trapped at the borders often die.  The government does not supply food, water or any kind of humanitarian aid.  I worried about my daughter who was allowed to cross. I hoped she would not be kidnapped, trapped and sexually trafficked.

By the time I get to the end of the journey, I don’t have much left to barter with. I notice that some of the other refugees or IDPs nearby have their passports. I didn’t grab mine when I left. Perhaps I should have instead of keys.  I thought about grabbing photos, but my photos are saved in Dropbox and Google Drive so I can access them from a cloud.

When I get to a camp, the first thing I see is a store.  Elvis says, no matter where he is in the world and no matter how bad it is, someone sets up a store where refugees barter for goods. The cell phone charging station uses solar power.  I see a toy car too. All I have left is a blanket and water bottles. I wonder what I have to barter with. Perhaps I can offer a service like letter writing or babysitting.

The first station Elvis’s team sets up is for clean drinking water, hand washing, and a toilet.  Americans use a lot of water daily, while the average refugee uses about two gallons.  He asked me if I wanted to try swatting in the stall—I remember all too well the toilets in Africa where one swats to do her business.

What makes MSF so successful is its integration of services with community members who are hired to work alongside international aid workers.  From Kenya where he worked in HIV services, treatment and diagnosis, to his work internationally, Elvis says that he could not have the kind of job he has now at home.  His loyalties would be split, so he does not work at home where presently there is unrest over the election results.   Dadaab in Kenya is the largest refugee camp in the world, home to majority Somali refugees.

The other larger camp seemed to be in Southern Sudan where for a long time, the environment was stable.  However, Elvis told me of a bombing there which killed a lot of people.   MSF built these more permanent shelters in Sudan and has been a presence there for years.  MSF has a similar yet longer presence in Congo where it still provides aid. Elvis said they, MSF, treats everyone—the aggressor and the victim.  MSF also advocates for the displaced persons, refugees and migrants who are not able to find safety.  They ask larger governments to step up and provide sanctuary for displaced persons.

The irony of Oakland’s own burgeoning homeless or Internally Displaced population is not lost on me. I think about the poor to no response by the current municipality to the needs of citizens who do not have adequate housing or sanitation. The sanctioned camp on Peralta and 35^th Street, recipients Winter 2016-17 of compassionate care must have exhausted civic supply given the poor maintenance or removal of port-a-potties, handwashing facilities and regular trash and garbage pickup.  Cold weather is coming in now and with it winter storms and illness for those exposed to the elements. San Francisco started inoculating homeless residents against hepatitis C, caused by inadequate sanitation.  Alameda county has not been proactive on this potential public health emergency.  Our homeless populations are also “Forced from Home;” however, unlike those refugees escaping violence and persecution, these are American citizens who have certain rights, among them the right to shelter and food and safety. The problem is bigger than one city; however, if the cities in the Bay Area collaborate and plan, suffering can be mitigated and long-term solutions put into immediate action. Listen to an interview with MSF members on Wanda’s Picks Radio taped Oct. 27:  http://tobtr.com/10376085

Put Your Ideals into Practice:

For those interested in working for MSF there is a recruitment information session, Wed., Nov. 8, 6-7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, North Branch, Community Meeting Room, 1170 The Alameda, Berkeley. Visit http://bit.ly/MSFBerkeley.

Free Community Film Screening of “Whose Streets” at The Ruth in San Francisco

Maafa Commemoration San Francisco Bay Area: Free Community Screening Friday, Nov. 10, 3 p.m. of “Whose Streets” (2017), dir. by Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis at The Ruth (Bayview Opera House Ruth Memorial Theatre), 4705 3^rd Street, San Francisco, (415) 824-0386.  There will be preshow art activities and a panel discussion following the screening.  Panelists include: poet/activist, Tongo Eisen-Martin and Jack Bryson, host, Restorative Justice Barbershop Talks. Invited, representatives from Idriss Stelley Foundation. For program information and to RSVP call: 510.255.5579 and visit Facebook.com/maafabayarea

On the Fly:
Plus, you should use it vardenafil generic http://www.unica-web.com/archive/2013/english/UNICA2013-AGM-minutes3.html as directed by a medical professional to prevent adverse effects. They may also be linked to depression, substance abuse or eating disorders. generika cialis The main activity viagra 100mg usa of this pill is dependent wholly on active ingredient, sildenafil citrate, which is also the same component Sildenafil Citrate that is actively used to formulate Kamagra tablets. Women should be on regular exercise, proper stress management and healthy food diet with extra https://unica-web.com/watch/2017/solntsevo.html levitra 20mg generika proteins. Robert O’Hara’s “Barbecue” at SF Playhouse

San Francisco Playhouse continues with its production of Robert O’Hara’s “Barbecue,” directed by Margo Hall through Nov. 11.  Two families, one story—In O’Hara’s work reality TV meets its match. Sometimes truth is too hard to digest, let alone sell to a prejudicial public. Often stories are recast to keep the façade appropriately masked.

Sometimes race is a parallel universe and nowhere is it better depicted than in the comedic work, “Barbecue,” where one Lillie Anne decides to bring her siblings together to create an intervention for their sister, Barbara, who is an addict.  Barbecue is her favorite activity, so the family throws the party at their sister’s favorite park. The play opens with the white family, then switches to the black family. The two families pick up where the other leaves off, the transitions perfect, the movement seamless.

In a talkback the evening I attended, the cast said in answer to a question that the playwright did not want the two casts to act at all like one another; however, the Adleans: Edris Cooper-Anifowshe and Jennie Brick said they both adopted certain character traits without seeing the other perform beforehand.  Kehinde Koyejo and Teri Whipple’s two “Maries” are over the top outrageous. The entire family, especially brother “James T” played by Adrian Roberts and Clive Worsley are also too funny. I love the Taser scene. No one is clean in this play, except perhaps Lillie Anne and she has her issues too.

As we watch this family address addiction to prescription drugs, alcohol and other substances, some illegal, wearing first one ethnicity and then another, how does this play out for the audience?  Does the stereotypical formula: black family + crack addict seem more plausible than white family + crack? What story sells better? What is the dominate narrative on addiction audiences are more comfortable witnessing? What is the drug of choice? Who gets to get
addicted to what?

Given the current uproar over opioids now that white America is the face of addiction, does it matter the drug of choice? Yes. Look at all the black people rotting in prison from lengthier crack cocaine sentences. Drug addiction which is an illness is a crime when the victim is black.

Set in Middle America, these are not hip Bay Area folks who get around. It seems that the most fun they have are family barbecues, the late night shopping network and Reality TV shows where families plan successful interventions for drug addict sisters.

As we watch the play and wonder, will Barbara go into rehab in Alaska—she has to leave her surroundings according to the network blueprint Lillie Anne is following..

Big sister Lillie Anne (Halili Knox and Anne Darragh) has bought Barbara a ticket and rehearses the siblings. The family has to tie Barbara to a tree and gag her to get her to listen.  Susi Damilano and Margo Hall’s Barbara is insane enough to be believable, especially when Hall’s “Director” comes on the scene.

The Director literally upsets the applecart – rips out the canvas and has the cast rewind the story from the start.  Things are not quite what they seem at all during the second act.  What just happened?! Who’s telling the truth? This is where the playwright, O’Hara is his most challenging and creative. At the end of the play our heads are spinning, not quite like the Exorcist, but well. . . .

Located at 450 Post Street in San Francisco, visit https://www.sfplayhouse.org/sfph/2017-2018-season/barbecue/ for tickets.

Nina Simone Story in Berkeley

Ms. Faye Carol as Nina Simone in “The Nina Simone Story,” written by Dr. Mona Vaughn Scott, at Black Rep, 3201 Adeline Street, near Ashby in Berkeley, Friday-Sunday, November 10-12. Friday at 8, Sat., 3 and 8, Sunday at 5. For tickets visit Brown Paper Tickets. For information call: 510.652.2120.

The Farm at TheatreFIRST in Berkeley

TheatreFIRST presents The Farm by Jon Tracy, directed by Michael Torres and Elena Wright at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley CA 94709 Runs Thursday – Saturdays, 8pm, Sundays, 2pm through Nov. 11.  Each performance will be followed by a community discussion moderated by artists and activists from around the bay area to continue the conversation presented by the story.  Tickets are $25 general, $20 student/senior Visit: www.theatrefirst.com

ITVS Season opens with Chasing Trane

Independent Lens’s season opens, Monday, Nov. 6 (10 P.M. KQED Channel 9) with Chasing Trane, John Scheinfeld’s portrait of jazz great John Coltrane, which features Denzel Washington speaking the words of Coltrane. Other highlights of the Fall 2017-Winter 2018 lineup include Raoul Peck’s Academy Award-nominated I Am Not Your Negro; Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Historically Black Colleges & Universities, the latest film from Stanley Nelson (The Black Panthers) and Marco Williams; Jennifer M. Kroot’s The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin, a fascinating look at the life and times of the groundbreaking creator of “Tales of the City”; Peter Nicks’ The Force, an inside look at Oakland’s troubled police department; and Peter Bratt’s Dolores, a moving portrait of pioneering labor and women’s rights activist Dolores Huerta. Check local broadcast times (KQED Channel 9) for scheduling. Nov. 7 the film will begin streaming online. Visit http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/tv-schedule/

Two@ AAMLO

The Annual Festival of Black Doll Show at the African American Museum and Library, Oakland, is Saturday November 4, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. This free event cohosted by the American Black Beauty Doll Artists and AAMLO is always a holiday favorite for young and old. Food is served and guests have an opportunity to win a doll in a raffle and make dolls too.

 

Just in case you missed the big screening at Grand Lake, Evolutionary Blues: West Oakland’s Music Legacy, dir. Cheryl Fabio, is having a free screening AAMLO, Saturday, Nov. 11, 6:30 p.m., 659 14^th Street @ MLK Jr. in Oakland. The film is fabulous, I just can’t figure out why Avotcja is not included. Inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, Avotcja is Oaktown Blues.

Art Exhibits

Clay & Earth: What We Stand On, New Work by Vicki Gunter @ Oakopolis Gallery – Oakland

October 6 – November 18, 2017

 

Gallery Open: First Friday Art Murmurs – 10/6 & 11/3 – 6-9 p.m. and every Saturday 1-5 p.m., 447 25th Street, Oakland.  Also at the gallery is “The Global Climate Change Music Project: by Rob Slaney, Australia – in the Listening Booth!  Because climate change is a planetary problem . . .  Composers from every country on the planet contributed 4 bars of music to create one composition that speaks for the earth.

Open Studios in San Francisco con’t.

Rodney Ewing’s Open Studios 2017, Saturday, ​November 11th 11am-6pm and Sunday, November 12th 11am-6pm.  Preview Party Friday, November 10th 6-9pm at the Pacific Felt Factory. 2830 20th Street, between Bryant and York, San Francisco; 510/467-5946   http://www.pacificfeltfactory.com/

During Open Studios Ewing will be featuring recent work from two series. The first, “Untethered/Stories of Life from the Fillmore was a project that he collaborated with painter Monica Lundy on last year. The project is an examination of the history of displacement that occurred in the Fillmore/Western Addition, and how it affected two cultures; Japanese Americans sent to internment camps during WWII and African Americans who were displaced during the 60’s because of urban renewal.

The second body of work, “Strange Fruit” was commissioned for the annual 4 Square exhibit at Arc Gallery.“Strange Fruit”, is based on the facial angle studies of Petrus Camper. An 18thcentury Dutch physician, anatomist, physiologist, anthropologist, paleontologist and naturalist who stated that African features were the furthest away from the standards of “classical beauty”.  For this project I have appropriated his examples of African features as subjects to speak for the African American men, women, and children that have perished at the hands of state sponsored violence. Each board represents a specific individual such as Tamir Rice, or Sandra Bland. The text on each board is taken from the language that is generated from Google image searches of each person. Many of the descriptions overlap and align with each other to create an unfortunate and on going narrative for a community that is often under siege.

Walking in the Light Tour, Sept. 30 at Black Rep in Berkeley.
Listen to interview with Marvin X  on Wanda’s Picks Radio Show.

 

The Legend of Pink closes Sept. 30. Two shows.
Wanda’s Picks Radio Show Interview

AAMLO’s Future

Folks have probably heard by now that the African American Museum and Library, Oakland, (AAMLO) is without a permanent director.  While the search is being articulated and mounted, Susan D. Anderson, Bay Area author and founder of Memory House, will act as interim director and chief curator for the next 6-9 months as the Oakland Public Library (OPL) mounts a national search to find the right person for the job.

At a community meeting called by Supporters of AAMLO, Gerry Gazón, Director of Library Services apologized to Council person, Lynette Gibson McElhaney, District 3, (meeting host) for not letting City Council and the community know that Rick Moss’s 16 year tenure at AAMLO had ended.  Moss who never quite earned favor with majority black community who wanted a more active role in the governing and use of the building and its wealth in the form of archives, nonetheless had quite a few bright moments, among them: stunning exhibits, a notable Martin Luther King Jr. film series, and the more recent Festivals of Knowledge.

Gazón said he wants AAMLO going forward to be more “participatory, active and accessible to the community.” He said he sees the institution as a “thriving part of Oakland and Northern California—the Schomburg of the West.  This was the dream of the founders I had the opportunity to meet during the planning, contract signing and while on a hardhat tour of the Green building before it opened for business.  For Black Americans, the Schomburg is a destination where they find resources which help us identity and define for ourselves who we are as a people. The same is true for AAMLO. The archives are rich and will become even richer when the public sees exhibits which showcase the rich legacy of Black California.

Council person, Lynette Gibson McElhaney, District 3, spoke of her commitment to facilitating an open process where there is community involvement at every level. She suggested reinstituting the AAMLO Friends Group. I know there were at least three incarnations. Right now there is an active Supporter of AAMLO that meets via phone and in person. One of the leaders is Karen Oyekanmi, whose American Black Beauty Doll Artists hosts a free Annual Festival of Black Doll Show at AAMLO in November, this year, Sat. Nov. 4, 10-5 p.m.

Film@AAMLO
Also at AAMLO, 659-14^th Street, Oakland, Wed., Oct. 4, 6-9 p.m. there is a free screening of the documentary, “The Price of the Ticket.” After the screening filmmakers Karen Thorsen and Douglas Demsey will join Oakland History Room librarian Dorothy Lazard in a public discussion about the issues raised in the film. This is the kick off for the Oakland History Room’s 2017 Fall History Series: Prejudice, Patriotism & Protest in Oakland.  Visit oaklandlibrary.org/

Food Justice@ AAMLO
Circling Back: Honoring Dr. George Washington Carver, is a panel discussion, film screening and poetry. The program is Friday, October 13, 6-8 p.m. at AAMLO, 659 14^th Street.  Moderator: Dr. Gail Myers, Farms to Grow, Inc.  The panel discussion explores Dr. Carver’s ideologies for sustainable nutritional living with Aaron Coleman, Iyalode Kinney. Will Scott, Jr.

When the Northern California Center for African American History and Life (NCCAAHL) moved from Golden Gate Library to its permanent home, the former Charles S. Green Library, it was love at first sight.  Imagine from 1946 to 1965—Eugene and Ruth Lasartemay and Jesse and Dr. Marcella Ford begin collecting the oral histories and artifacts that documented the activities of African Americans in and around Oakland, the Bay Area, and California. Their vision was to establish an institution, a legacy for future generations.

The friends met in each other’s living rooms where they would clips articles about black people and compile documents worth saving.  Eventually they moved into various storefronts along Grove Street in 1970 and 1976 not far from what would eventually become Marcus Bookstore. The group which had adopted the name East Bay Negro Historical Society moved into Golden Gate Library in 1986 where the collaboration between the East Bay Negro Historical Society and GGL established the first Oakland library with a collection dedicated to black culture. The library and EBNHS hosted public programs; however, when Robert Haynes became chief curator he took the exhibitions which showcased the collection to a higher level.  Dr. Lawrence Crouchett, author, “Visions Toward Tomorrow: The History of the East Bay Afro-American Community, 1852-1977,” was executive director then and changed the organization’s name to the Northern California Center for Afro-American History and Life. Dr. Crouchett (1922-1993) didn’t live to see the fruition the founders’ dream to have a building in 1994 when “NCCAAHL merged with OPL to create the African American Museum & Library at Oakland (AAMLO), a unique public/private partnership” (OPL website).

When patrons walk into the building on the corner of 14^th and MLK Jr. the founders’ names are on a plaque at the entrance to the museum library.  It was a win win for OPL, the agreement was that the NCCAAHL would lease its extensive archives to the public institution. Most of the founders are now deceased, and the membership inactive; however, if anyone is interested in being a part of the new vision for AAMLO, that is, a museum library that serves the needs of the community and is a resource for Black History and Life in California, then visit the OPL website.

I met one of the founders, Mr. Eugene Lasartemay before he passed at a book signing with Mary Rudge, who co-wrote a book with him about the life of Jack London and the black woman who raised him, Jennie Prentiss.  Morrie Turner, another founder, was a revolutionary cartoonist, who lived between Berkeley where he had a studio and Sacramento where he had a home. Mr. Turner was a wonderful man, whom I interviewed on a few occasions. My favorite memory of the artist was watching him illustrate the “Wee Pal” symphony concerts when Calvin Simmons was conductor of the Oakland Symphony. We’d take my older daughter, Bilaliyah, who was a toddler then, to the family Sunday matinees.

Trustees and OPL administration went back and forth regarding what to do about the names of European writers on the Green building outside and the murals on the inside walls which did not reflect black art or culture. A compromise was the commission of muralist Daniel Galvez’s panels made from Patricia Montgomery’s quilt designs (2002).  The panels cover the ceiling murals in the staircases. Black people still have to look over their shoulders, the structure is not completely our own.

MAAFA Commemoration San Francisco Bay Area 2017

As the 22^nd Annual San Francisco Bay Area African Ancestors of the Middle Passage Commemoration approaches I recall the three queens we lost this season: Makinya Sibeko-Kouate, Queen Mother of Kwanzaa, who brought Black Studies to the East Bay, Sister Jacquelyn Hadiah Mcleod and Hajja Dhameera Ahmad.  We miss them. They will have a special place on the altar October 8, at the Ritual at Ocean Beach. Everyone is invited to bring photos of their loved ones who have made their transitions this past season for the community altar. I also wanted to let people know that if anyone is traveling from the East Bay, there is a bus leaving from Grocery Outlet in Oakland that morning. If you would like ride leave a message at: 510-255-5579.

The raging storms we’ve felt this season coupled with scorching high temperatures make one think seriously about our carbon footprint and how we can remove the boots. Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, plus Floridians and Texans trying to get back on their feet after on storm after another devastated their homes.

As one part of the country drowns the other burns. Here in California we are still having unseasonably hot weather—80-90 degrees in San Francisco. I remember a Student Enrollment Lesson from the Nation of Islam about the weather and who controls it.  Looked up the other day at the fuchsia, lavenders and purple clouds streaking across a bluesy western skies and a friend said it looked like chemtrails—completely ruined the moment (smile).  Here is a scientific study published in the Huffington Post on chemtrail theories.

4^th Annual PUSH Festival Review

It was the final day of Raissa Simpson’s PUSH Dance Festival, the 4^th Annual and between the afternoon and evening programs we walked over to the park across the street where there was a community garden and lots of fun activities for kids and those of us who are kids at heart.

Over the four years, PUSH Festival has featured superb work and audiences are enthusiastic. I was especially looking forward to Simpson’s Mothership Part 2 and Halifu Osumare, Ph.D.’s ebo to Oya, warrior deity who is a symbol for change and transformation. Recently, Bay Area residents heard Oya’s husband, Shango’s voice rumbling—the booming sound precursor to flashing fingers of light parting the skies. It was an amazing show, better than the best July 4^th program—afterward huge rain drops drenched all who stood outside to watch.

Osumare says of the new work, “In The Eye of the Storm” (2017), “We are in the eye of a national and international storm, and the crisis can only be survived in community with others. The forces causing the storm are external and internal to the community, and survival means growing spiritually. Oya is the Yoruba warrior deity of the Winds of Change, and with her husband Shango she promotes social justice. Oya brings the storm but also shows the community the way out, and as a result people grow. This dance is dedicated to Oya-Yansa, and was originally choreographed for 25th anniversary of the Sacramento State’s Sacramento/Black Art of Dance, founded by Dr. Linda Goodrich.”

“In the Eye of the Storm” ended part one of the PUSH Festival Program A.  Nothing could follow the 13-minute, 8 member journey that took the community across the water where we shape-shifted then regrouped (smile). The company performed several vignettes simultaneously. I wondered about the character reading Carter G. Woodson’s “Miseducation of the Negro,” while another character dressed in hijab walked disengaged to and fro. At one point all the dancers assembled and tossed possessions onto a sheet which was then tied together and removed. Perhaps they were “putting away childish things.” Ayo Walker’s “Oya,” has a solo and then departs, later after the cleansing ceremony where the characters see each other and come together, she returns dressed in a gorgeous gown with sword(s) and crown.

Osumare’s work stylistically pulled from her facility with African-derived dance styles and reflected the migration patterns of African Diaspora people from West Africa to Americas—hip hop culture an element central to the work musically and tangibly. Her company was outstanding in its execution.  Missing from the landscape was the rainbow—sign that the storm has passed. I learned later that in its premiere in Sacramento, the work had a multimedia enhancement that showed Oya-Yansa in all her magnificence.

“Accredit,” choreography and performance by Katerina Wong was set in St. Louis against a back drop of a high school there, Normandy High School.  First we see the outside of the school.  Later we see a child dancing on film, as Wong dances on stage. Later I learn that Wong taught a class at the school.  The way the cinematography starts large, then telescopes in, shows how illusive and artificial the microcosm is to the macrocosm. There is really no separation between Normandy and Oakland, Normandy and San Francisco, Normandy and other municipalities where children like this child dancing are deprived a fair chance. I wonder how many in the audience know the story Wong and this child filmed, dance. The story at Normandy is one of equity and access, public education’s failure and a community trapped in structural inequity. I knew the story immediately as the camera moved in and I see the name of the high school.  I remember the excellent story I’d listened to and then read the transcript from NPR’s “This American Life: The Problem We All Live With” (July 31, 2015).  It was rebroadcast in February this year. The title, “The Problem We All Live With” is taken from the Norman Rockwell painting (1964) of Ruby Bridges, and this story also looks at integration. Funny, the Obama’s hang Rockwell’s painting at the White House.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, black journalist, juxtaposes her experience in public school to her investigation into the two Fergusons: one where children excel academically, the other where they fail: Normandy School District.  Separate is still unequal.

Normandy School District in Normandy, Missouri, on the border of Ferguson, Missouri, is the same school district where Michael Brown lived. This school district legally deprived black children of equal education, and knowingly allowed children to graduate without adequate skills.

Katerina Wong’s “Accredit” recalls the travesty which persists to date. Black parents who protested and asked that their children be permitted to attend a better school, had to get a court order which was later rescinded, because the white parents at the alternative predominately white public school protested.

Kendra Kimbrough Barnes’s excerpt of “In the Meantime,” is a beautiful meditation on the color pink, breast cancer and Black women.  I hadn’t seen it in a while, yet I remembered it. It’s not every day that a choreographer interrogates breast cancer, especially “parabens” and why this chemical is still in cosmetics, including lotions and deodorants when parabens are in cancer cells. The work has monologues, solo dance pieces, and larger company work. Sunday the dancers were: Clairemonica Figueroa (scholar, who narrates and gives us facts); Marianna Hester (hummingbird); Yeni Lucero (matriarch); Patricia Ong (Sister #1); Meagan Wells (Sister #2). The entire piece will be a part of KKDE’s season at the Laney College’s Odell Johnson Theatre, 900 Fallon Street, Oct. 28, 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 29, 4 p.m. Visit kkde.net or call 510.560.KKDE (5533).

On the Fly:
Lewis Jordan, Alto Sax, has a new CD, “This Is Where I Came In,” and three release parties: October 15 at Bird & Beckett in San Francisco, October 20 at EastSide Alliance in Oakland, and October 27 at Cafe Pink House in Saratoga. He will have a special guest at EastSide. Tongo Eisen-Martin has a new collection out, “Heaven Is All Goodbyes.”  LitQuick at MoAD:  Festival of Poetry and Protest , Wed., Oct. 11.  From West Oakland to West Africa (WOWA) Poetry Reading at West Oakland Brancy Library, Tues., Oct. 5, 1801 Adeline Street, 5-6 p.m. Free.  WOWA Writing Workshops begin Sept. 30.  Listen to an interview with WOWA poets and writers on Wanda’s Picks Radio Show, Sept. 29. Don’t miss the United Nations Film Festival at Stanford University where a wonderful film about a Haitian children’s classical music ensemble, “Serenade for Haiti,” dir. Owsley Brown, is showcased. The director will be in attendance. The film opens theatrically at the Roxie in San Francisco, October 27 – Owsley Brown in attendance with Q&A on October 27 & 28 and Sunday, October 29, 3:30 PM; Joanna Haigood, choreographer goes back to her roots in a remounting of the work: “The View From Here,” (2002) inspired by the paintings of Marc Chagall,” October 20-29, 2017.  Focusing on specific paintings for their exploration of themes of circus, love, life in the shtetl, revolution, color and multidimensionality, Haigood uses layered imagery and aerial dance to evoke dreamlike effects compatible with both Chagall’s technique and sense of fantasy at Zaccho Studio, 1777 Yosemite Ave, Studio 330 (off of Third Street), San Francisco. For tickets and information: (415) 822-6744. Purchase online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3073  Mill Valley Film Festival 40, October 5-15. Visit https://www.mvff.com/  Gordon Parks Exhibits in Berkeley and San Francisco, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) is the exclusive West Coast venue for Gordon Parks: The Making of an Argument, Sept. 27-Dec. 17, which originated at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA). In this exhibition, Parks first published work at Life Magazine, we see how the editors choose to leave out certain photos of Leonard “Red” Jackson, a 17 year old Harlem gang leader. Similar to how black boys are profiled or labeled in certain ways today, Life editors omit Parks’s photos of Red washing dishes, reading books, getting nominated “Mayor for the Day,” hanging out with adult mentors (a minister and a policeman). Instead they choose the images that show violence, death, pain. The indictment has never been so evident—the argument is there to the contrary, yet the publishers manipulate the evidence to the contrary. They market what their audiences know or want to know. Life was not about debunking any myths. Racism was marking all the shots. The BAMPFA presentation features screenings of multiple films directed by Parks, including three early documentary films, Flavio (1964), Diary of a Harlem Family (1968), and The World of Piri Thomas (1968); The Learning Tree (1969), the first major Hollywood studio film directed by an African American; and Shaft (1971), which is widely credited with launching the “blaxploitation” genre. Visit bampfa.org The exhibition also coincides with another presentation of Parks’s work, Gordon Parks: Elements of Strength, which opens at San Francisco’s Jenkins Johnson Gallery on October 5, 2017.  UC Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive is located at 2120 Oxford Street, Berkeley. TheatreFIRST presents “The Farm,”A Song-Poem-Beat-Opera adaptation of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” by Jon Tracy, directed by Michael Torres and Elena Wright, arrangements by Carlos Aquirre and Stephanie Prentice, and choreography by Liz Tenuto. Originally commissioned and performed at Shotgun Players, TheatreFIRST redevelops this song-poem-beat-opera of animal uprising to address our own experiences of oppression and maybe most importantly, the oppressor inside us all. The Farm runs October 12th-November 11th, 2017. Opening Night is October 15th at 7:00pm. Tickets are $15-$25 and available at theatrefirst.com. Visit http://theatrefirst.com/the-farm/the-farm-press/.James Baldwin in Film at BAMPFA and the African American Museum and Library, Oakland, Thursday / 10.5.17 / 7:00, James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket, dir. Karen Thorsen (US, 1989) in person (86 mins). TheatreFIRST presents: The Farm, A Song-Poem-Beat-Opera adaptation of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” October 12th-November 11th, 2017 at 1301 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, in Live Oak Park. Opening Night is October 15th at 7:00pm. Tickets are $15-$25 and available at theatrefirst.com.

Two Reviews

Dolores (2017), dir. Peter Bratt

Dolores Huerta, 87, co-founder of the National Farmworkers Union is a force Peter Bratt portrays well in a film which salutes the life of one of our national heroes.  Carlos Santana, one of the film’s producers, encouraged Bratt to tell the story of a woman many do not know. Running so hard all these years, Huerta has not stopped to write or dictate a memoir. Bratt’s Dolores shares with his audience a woman people who thought they knew did not know. Her life, as Angela Davis says covers so much political and historic territory—

With grace and dignity under fire, Dolores Huerta stands tall often the only woman at the table. She didn’t call herself a feminist, yet she stood for women’s rights. To leave a comfortable life in Stockton to face the unknown in the fields with the farmworkers, living as they did, experiencing their hardships and teaching them how to advocate and tell their own stories took a lot of courage and she came under fire for it.  Bratt’s “Dolores” gives us unprecedented access to his protagonist’s work. Huerta is certainly a disciple of Dr. Martin King, however, luckily she still lives.

Mother of 11 children, Huerta, a single mother at times, put the work of the movement, above all— and she hasn’t stopped, the Dolores Huerta Foundation, is the vehicle she develops to cultivate the next generation of activists and change agents when she leaves the United Farm Workers Union.

Peter Bratt’s “Dolores” is a wonderful historic look at the synergetic relationship between black and brown people which continues in the Central Valley today where the highest rate of incarceration of black youth remains unchallenged because people erroneously think only Mexicans live in California’s farm belt forgetting that Black agrarian roots run deeper than Latinos’ in this country on both coasts, not to mention historic antebellum south.

What Huerta brought to Cesar Chavez was her skillset in political lobbying.  As one of the leaders of the Community Service Organization (CSO) she founded the Agricultural Workers Association (AWA), set up voter registration drives and pressed local government for barrio improvements.  It was in CSO in 1955 that she met Cesar E. Chavez, Executive Director with whom in 1962, joined Huerta’s AWA with his National Farm Workers Association, which eventually became the National Farm Workers Union.

She continued making systemic changes legislatively as a leader in UFWU, successfully passing laws which are still on the books today, like the ease with which Californians can register to vote, bilingual ballots, securing Aid For Dependent Families and disability insurance for farm workers in California in 1963, and in 1975 securing the Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, the first law in the United States granting farm workers in California the right to collectively organize and bargain for better wages and working conditions.  And we all remember the successful grape boycott to stop the use of harmful pesticides which were making the laborers sick.

Huerta whom we see in the film helping Senator Robert Kennedy win his California Presidential Primary, standing near her friend when he is shot and killed. It was a sad day and a poignant moment in the film filled with power and passion, also laughter and love and forgiveness.

We also see Huerta honored by President Barack Obama, who apologizes for not crediting her with the popular rallying cry: Si Se Puede—Yes, [We] Can!

After a very brief interview with the director and Mrs. Huerta, opening weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area, I speak to Juanita Chávez, DHF Communications and Media Coordinator about the Foundation.  She says there are community organizers who continue Huerta’s style of engagement—face to face, in intimate settings, preferably homes. These organizers share help community members identify problems and articulate strategies to address them.   One problem affecting Kern county residents was the high number of expulsions in the Kern County High School District.

In July this year, Dolores Huerta Foundation, Latino and Black students, their parents, and community organizations, settled their lawsuit against Kern High School District, the largest school district in California.  KHSD was suspending and expelling African American students [8 % of enrollment; 15 % expulsions] at a rate 500% higher than Caucasian [32 % of enrollment; 22 % of expulsions], and Latinos [55 % of enrollment; 22 %expulsions] at a rate of 380% higher. KHSD had the most student expulsions in all of California. Schools in Kern County reported 2,578 expulsions among a student population of 173,365. Astonishingly, in terms of raw numbers this was even more expulsions than Los Angeles County which had a student population nine times larger.  As a part of the settlement the KCHD has to implement positive discipline practices to address disparate discipline outcomes and provide discipline-related training to all staff and personnel operating within the school environment. The lawsuit also includes terms which will allow advocates to work with the district to ensure that these reforms are actually implemented in the future” (DHF).

The film which features interviews with Huerta’s children, friends and lots of wonderful documentary footage. Bratt packs it in, yet there was so much more he could have included—Huerta’s life so dense.  However, what emerges is an elegant story of a powerful woman whose life reflects an unmatched trajectory of good work cross many landscapes and lifetimes.

Her children realize early on that service is one’s highest calling, despite the personal sacrifice their mother’s choices meant to her family.  Nonetheless, Huerta’s life is a blueprint many of her children chose also to follow— Camila Chavez (Mills College alum) heads the Dolores Huerta Foundation, while elder brother Emilio Huerta, Bakersfield attorney, is running for the 21^st Congressional District seat in Kern County currently held by David Valadao (R-Hanford).

Visit: https://www.doloresthemovie.com/

Jennifer Michelle Bréa’s Unrest, (2017), a review

When we think about the work and look around to see who is on our team, national policies create need for alliances whether this is in public education, economic justice or healthcare.  A new film, “Unrest,” directed by Jennifer Michelle Bréa, looks at people suffering (for the most part in silence) from myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.  Precipitated for the most by a viral infection, Brea’s is coupled with a high temperature which leaves her physically unable to lift her head. For two years she lies in bed unable to move.  She turns the camera on herself crawling upstairs, across the floor, prostrate and at visits to doctors who cannot figure out what was wrong. Most tell her the problem is all in her head and is probably related to a childhood trauma she cannot remember.

Jennifer, just 28 when she becomes ill, is at the top of her game—she’s in love, doing what she loves—traveling, studying at Harvard where her eventual husband is a student as well.  Life couldn’t have been better when it all falls down.

What Jennifer has on her side from the beginning is a supportive spouse, Omar Tomas Wasow, Ph.D., Stanford alum, Princeton professor, co-founder, blackplanet.com.  One can see for Jennifer, Tomas is the love of her life and for Tomas, Jennifer is his.  The two adjust in ways most newlyweds cannot imagine in advance or prepare for, but we see Tomas and Jennifer working it out. When Jennifer feels compelled to think what if, Tomas quickly tells her, often with tears in his eyes, that their conversations and her tenacity and will-power and strength are more than enough for him.

As Jennifer’s camera is turned on at the onset of an illness without a name, a diagnosis without a cure, an ailment afflicting millions with little research or research funding, we laugh and cry with her as she finally finds a doctor who tells her illness is real and has a biological source.  We celebrate her traveling the world via skype and other conferencing software to meet many other ME survivors, document their stories for a film beginning to take shape.  Most ME or myalgic encephalomyelitis survivors are women, but in “Unrest” we meet young men—the cumulative ages of all involved range from teens to older adults.  We meet a Stanford University scientist whose son has ME. We also meet a woman whose daughter succumbs to chronic fatigue syndrome later on in her life, when she is also a mom.

The politics of healthcare and the interference of biased social norms impede families’ ability to advocate. In Demark a young woman, Karina Hansen is taken by police from her home and locked away for three years. When advocates go to court to fight for all ME survivors the judge shuts down a doctor’s testimony.

Perhaps what “Unrest” does best is share the story of an auto immune disease that affects so many, yet because of the nature of the disease—fatigue, we do not see its effect because those affected are often in bed. The global rally for ME where shoes represented those who couldn’t attend or had died, while others who could make it, regardless of what the exertion might mean later on.

A simple walk for Jennifer means she might end up writhing in pain from the exertion later on.  We see Jennifer and Tomas dancing in the backyard where Jennifer has a tent.  The tent is a mold-free zone, mold a contributing factor to ME.  One minute she is enjoying the dance, the next she is lying on the ground.

Perhaps what Unrest teaches those of us to not so challenged, is to not take anything for granted, especially our health.  Jennifer graciously shares her body with her audience.  We walk around inside, try on her experiences which are told with such immediacy there is no time for distancing or intellectual processing— Who is this woman obviously suffering? Why does she want to share these intimate moments with strangers? From the opening frames we are asked to commit, and we do—first out of curiosity, then through love and admiration.

The film opens Sept. 29 at the Rialto in Berkeley and the Vogue in San Francisco. Visit unrest.film
Official Trailer

Photo credit: Jennifer and Tomas: Kristine Biamby

 

Let It Fall: LA 1972-1982, dir. John Ridley IV

Academy Award-winning writer John Ridley IV challenges audiences with an ethnographic work which explores the kinds of warped civic policies which set the stage for the powder keg that was LA 1992. The LA Rebellion didn’t just happen, the volcanic eruption was lit—rumblings set off by LA Police Department terrorism.  LAPD’s blatant misuse of brute force which unfairly targeted black populations was an explosion waiting to happen.

When Korean storekeeper Soon Ja Du kills honor row high school student Latasha Harlins and gets off with five (5) years probation – the judge rejecting the jury’s suggestion of prison time, this just three days after King was beaten almost to death, black folks take notice – the kettle whistling: beware.

A year later, there is no water, no pot and no tea. When the jury in the Rodney King trial finds all four officers innocent of misconduct—the top blows all the way off, lost somewhere between LA and Simi Valley.   There is no space made available to hold the anger and grief the verdict stirs in black consciousness— It is a whiplash that carries black psyche backward to the ships, fields, auction blocks where everyone from the lead attorney for the prosecution to the people in the street expect a different outcome, but who is history to lie, especially when there is a precedent being set.

Crazy, right?  To expect a different outcome when the variables – racism and the mythology that is white supremacy stay the same.  How could a judicial system predicated on facts that state black people are not human render a compassionate result?  King was belligerent and deserved what he got.

The callousness of such verdict lit a powder keg.  It was a bit more than the black community could absorb.  As one man in Let It Fall put it, “we just needed to let off some steam. [It wasn’t our intent to hurt innocent people, but the presence of police, just set us off.]”

Ferguson ‘14, Detroit ‘67 and LA ’92 share salient features: police misconduct. In his film, Ridley gives participants an opportunity to reflect on the recorded facts.  The philosophical distance (25 years) changes narrative outcomes— nuances are recalled and behavior perhaps rash in those moments is explained. The result, “Let It Fall,” is fresh take on a reoccurring problem in America between the policed and the state.  There really will never be peace as long as justice is framed by a blue uniform.

The militant strong-arm response to black community’s grief when Mike Brown was killed was ineffective.  To allow the youth to bleed out on the street and then there uncovered, unclaimed was a real time reenactment of Antigone, the Greek story of a sister’s desire to claim her brother’s body from the state and is denied.

Ferguson 2014, Detroit 1967 and LA 1992 share salient features: police misconduct. LAPD sees the black community as a threat, not grief stricken or in shock over what occurred.  The people are surrounded and attacked by LAPD and when LAPD is outnumbered, it retreats and allows the events to unfold as they do without regard for innocent people who could be injured or almost killed by angry men who have no outlet for their pain and frustration.

The Ridley work, unlike so many other treatments produced on this 25^th anniversary year of the LA Rebellion (2017), allows those integrally involved in the incidents of that moment to reflect on their actions and those of their community. What would they have done differently had they had the opportunity to rewind and replay the narrative? What lessons come from the tragedy on all sides? Has the community healed or is the fire still simmering? What happened that night to King? Who was in the car with him? What is the myth of the big powerful black man (read beast) who must be subdued?

In a carefully crafted story, replete with illustrations or maps, counter narratives and arguments which give audiences access to information overlooked or not known in 1992 Ridley covers – not necessarily new ground, just more of it as we are escorted into the saga that is Black LA.

Black Los Angeles is a place many African Americans relocated to in what is called the Great Migration. The cause for the massive movement of black people was escape from Jim Crow laws which legalized segregation. Unfortunately these same racist policies and practices by armed government officials met black people here.  Police Chief Darryl Gates made famous LAPD’s use of the “choke hold,” a restraint method which killed its majority black victims.  Asphyxiation seemed to be the preferred method of death for black victims in both regions.

Gates exemplified a racialized attitude determined to squash any rumblings still heard in the lowlands post-Black power, post-New Afrikan renaissance.  LA 1972-9182 was a time when factory shutdowns made it harder for black men to take care of their families—the American dream covered with post-its: “keep out N-GGERS!”

Watts was still simmering when King was beaten.

It was LA, during the post-crack cocaine infusion along with handguns and gang warfare fueled by the LAPD and the federal government that put Black resistance was on simmer.  However, the Rodney King verdict blew the lids off all the pots. The ruckus settled down after five days of rampant mayhem.  Black people are outgunned and outnumbered even before a domestic force, in this case, Gov. Reagan, calls in federal support.

What happened to First Amendment Rights for all citizens? Why is it when black people assemble, they are seen as a threat and threatening? Is the government response with force related to the centuries old burden this nation refuses to address—racism and the myth of white supremacy? Until this is addressed there will be no justice and certainly no peace. The fires will continue to flare and simmer, flare and simmer until perhaps this nation falls.

Listen to interview with the awardwinning writer, director, John Ridley on Wanda’s Pick Radio Show.

Official Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JGY-GjzKp4

 

 

 

Baba Richard “Dick” Claxton Gregory (Oct. 12, 1932 to 19 August 2017): Ashay!

Dr. Richard Claxton “Dick” Gregory (84) joined the ancestors August 19, the same day as the Millions for Prisoners Human Rights March in Washington, DC.  A longtime advocate for human rights, Gregory who ran for President of the United States, went to Iran to negotiate the release of Americans held hostage, his Bohemian diet, extensive fasts for human rights, ten years ago his visit to Oakland to honor the lives of the 918 adults and 305 children–including 40 infants—who lost their lives along with U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan and a United Press International film crew.  Jim Jones followers, killed that day were majority black, and rest now in a mass burial site at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland.  Dr. Gregory came to Oakland at the invitation of Dr. Jynona Norwood, founder and executive director of Jonestown Memorial Services and Wall. On that fateful day, her family lost 27 loved ones including her beloved mother and three-month-old cousin Charles Garry Henderson–the youngest child to perish in Jonestown. Later there was a marker placed at the site with a list of names of those killed. Omnira hosted a grave sweeping ritual two years ago to honor those killed in Jonestown, Guyana.

June 19, 2015 I was in Dr. Gregory’s company again, he was a part of a DC tradition called, Black Power Talks where the community honors one of their own. Dr. Frances Cress Welsing was the honoree, Gregory’s daughter, Ayanna Gregory, who is a wonderful singer, shared a song, then introduced her father who helped us sharpen our focus so that we could safeguard what we valued most: black sanity, black health and black lives.

Melvin “Maalak” Atkins, Soul Chi, would often bring Mr. Gregory to Marin City to talk to the youth. Gregory’s ability to connect crooked political dots was unparalleled and the man never forgot anything.  Dr. Gregory is survived by his wife, Lillian; three sons, Christian, Gregory and Yohance Maqubela; seven daughters, Ayanna, Lynne, Michele, Miss, Paula Cenac, Satori and Zenobia Chisholm; two brothers, Ron and Garland; two sisters, Pauline Hariston and Delores Hill; 16 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

22^nd Annual Maafa Commemoration

The Maafa Commemoration, the annual tribute to African Ancestors of the Middle Passage is predawn (about 5:30 a.m.), Sunday, October 8, 2017 at Ocean Beach, Fulton at the Great Highway. If you are able to give someone a ride or if you need a ride call: 510-255-5579 and leave a message. Black people are encouraged to dress warmly, wear white, bring vegan or vegetarian items to share, a chair to sit on if you need such accommodations, flowers for the offering, drums and other instruments to play, wood for the bonfire. For information visit maafasfbyarea.com and remembertheancestors.com

Hurricane Season
It’s Hurricane Season in the Gulf and many areas of Houston are under water. It is unfortunate according to coverage in the Atlantic magazine, that the majority of those at risk for drowning are the poorer black communities. Houston’s mayor’s response to the impending storm, sounds a lot like what happened in New Orleans in 2005 – the Army Corp of Engineers are releasing water from dams (increasing flood water), while residents are told to stay home, no evacuation directive given. I spoke to Robert King and he said he can’t leave New Orleans because the highway he travels home to Austin is now closed. However, he predicts there will probably be flooding in NOLA because pumps are not working in the city (which is below sea level). This is further complicated by Hurricane Irma headed that way. Mahkmud’s (Wilbur Murry) nephew and family were evacuated from their Houston home Monday, August 28. All of this was preventable, since Houston officials were warned of increasing flooding in the coming years due to global warming. The same is true of Miami. Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth sequel” (2017) is both a warning and a call to action. What is missing from the film and these public polices is the impact of environmental racism on the quality of life for disenfranchised citizens. Look at the flooding last fall in Baton Rouge. The government response was inadequate and these black people were home owners. Look at the shutting down of hospitals throughout the Bay Area. Urgent care is band aide medicine. How is this inaccessible care connected to an insidious genocide, silently snaking its way throughout black community? Fracking, coal, oil refineries, and poor water quality (especially in the Central Valley) are all issues affecting us locally related to climate change—the record high temperatures which are frying those sisters and brothers without air conditioning behind bars, are climate changes wrath. It is more than the disappearance of our furry and feathered brothers and sisters. We are also going to disappear as a species—

I am so disappointed I missed Ernestine Shepard at an AARP Unitedheathcare  program in Oakland and Rain Pryor in San Jose. I hope both the women return – Rain in a Bay Area premiere of her one woman show: “Fried Chicken and Latkes“, shared stories and songs about growing up black and Jewish in a politically incorrect era and how she navigates the terrain to find self, while Ms. Shepard (81) who is an example of living fit and well as an elder, wowed (I’m sure) the audience with her beauty and strength. Listen to an interview with Rain on Wanda’s Picks Radio: http://tobtr.com/10211269

Lower Bottom Playaz’s present: Beyond the Bars: Growing Home dir. Ayodele Nzinga

I went to a rehearsal of Dr. Nzinga’s current work, Beyond the Bars: Growing Home. The play looks at returning citizens and men who have learned hard lessons behind bars and are using these lessons to transform their lives. The work is based on interviews the director and playwright has had with men who collectively have served 300 years behind bars.

It is a marvelous experience. Dr. Nzinga is an accomplished poet as well, so the work is lyrical and poignant and powerful. The cast reflects the lives of the men characterized in these stories, which take place here in Oakland and the San Francisco Bay Area.  All of Dr. Nzinga’s work is restorative, in that it builds character and spirit. The question the men are asked throughout the play is: Where is home?

For some, it is gone, irretrievable, for others just within grasp. The characters discuss adaptation and assimilation as useful tools once released. There is a young man who attends a therapy workshop which he is mandated to attend where he meets these men, who try to share their mistakes so the youth does not end up where they are.  It is up at The Flight Deck, 1540 Broadway Street, in downtown Oakland, through Sept. 3. Shows at 8 p.m. Friday-Sat., Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets start at $20. However, if you want to go, send the director an email. Opening weekend Dr. Nzinga was giving away tickets to affected community members. Visit lowerbottomplayaz.com or email: wordslanger@gmail.com

Radio Golf at Multi-Ethnic Theatre

August Wilson’s Radio Golf, a drama about would-be redevelopers planning to gentrify a section of Pittsburgh’s Hill District, the center of the local African-American community, is directed by Gloria Weinstock, produced by Multi-Ethnic Theatre and SF Recovery Theatre is up at PianoFight, 144 Taylor Street in San Francisco, Wednesdays through Saturday Sept. 9 (No performance Sept. 8.)  All performances at 7:00 pm.   Tickets $25-$30; $20 opening week. at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/radio-golf-by-august-wilson-tickets-36522244015

On the Fly:
At La Pena Cultural Center: Black in Latin America: Haiti & the Dominican Republic, September 14 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm. 3105 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley. Black Eyed Peas Festival, Sat., Sept. 16, 11- a.m. to 6 p.m. at Oakland Technical High School Lawn, Miss Faye Carol w/pianist Joe Warner, at The Back Door, Sept. Sundays, at 5 p.m., $20 at the door. Visit fayecarol.com SF Fringe Festival, Sept. 8-23. Cat Brooks is performing: Tasha at the Exit Theatre: Sept. 9 at 5:30 p.m., Sept. 10 at 7 p.m., Sept. 12 at 7 p.m., Sept. 17 at 8:30 p.m.  Tasha is a one-woman performance piece based on the 2015 in-custody murder of Natasha McKenna in the Fairfax County Jail.  Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive presents Reflection and Resistance: James Baldwin and Cinema, (Sept. 14-Nov. 16), a program highlighting the cultural icon, James Baldwin’s work of criticism, The Devil Finds Work. The films are introduced by faculty and special guests. Films in the series include: I Am Not Your Negro,  The Defiant Ones, In This Our Life, James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket, dir. Karen Thorsen (US, 1989) Digital Restoration. Thorsen will be at the screening, Thursday, Oct. 5, 7 p.m.

Other Fringe — http://www.sffringe.org/
Nigga-Roo

Nigga-Roo is a multidisciplinary performance inquiry into Black identity that bravely dissects Blackness as an original, necessary social construct. As Blackness is rooted in slavery and saturated in caricature, creator Dazié Grego-Sykes utilizes black face, spoken word, movement, and monologue to disarm and disrupt in 60 minutes of stage-time. Sept. 9 at 9pm, Sept. 10 at 4pm, Sept. 17 at 8:30pm, Sept. 21 at 7 pm

 

BLACK!

Four individuals describe their personal experience with the word “BLACK!” and unpack how their stories, their lives, their perspectives have been impacted by this word, positively or otherwise. Are there similarities in these individuals’ experiences or has society ‘bought into’ the stereotypes that exist? And, if so, why? Sept. 15 at 8:30pm, Sept. 16 at 4pm, Sept. 20 at 8:30pm, Sept. 22 at 8:30pm

 

Theatre
Congrats to Kheven Lee LaGrone whose play, “The Legend of Pink” opens the season at Theatre Rhinoceros at Gateway Theatre, 215 Jackson Street, in San Francisco, Sept. 13-30. There are free tickets available for all previews and opening night. Visit http://therhino.org/

“The Legend of Pink” features a beautiful drag queen named Pink. The story is based in 1989, in a West Oakland street controlled by a violent drug gang.  However, Pink believes she was meant for the diva life. She thinks she might have found a ticket to that diva life when she meets a flashy young man who takes an interest in her.  Her friend Ace, who has more than just friendly feelings for Pink himself, warns her that inviting the mysterious stranger to visit her could be dangerous.  Some people in the neighborhood have seen the young man and have their suspicions about him.  When Pink continues to see him, its discovered that, indeed, the man isnt who she thinks he is.  Things turn violent and deadly, and Pink’s life is in jeopardy.  Her life–and the West Oakland street–will change forever.

Free tickets for The Legend of Pink at Theatre Rhinocerous (@The Gateway in San Francisco beginning Sept. 13, 8 p.m. to Opening Night, Sept. 16, 8 p.m.)

Unlimited comp tickets are available for all Previews and Opening night.
To reserve comps, follow these steps:

Use this link to reserve free tickets:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3065710

Use the drop-down menu to select a Preview or Opening date
Click on Enter a Password or Discount Code

Click in the Search box and type PINKCAST but DON’T HIT ENTER!

Click on Show Available Tickets

An option to reserve tickets at no charge will appear and
you can choose the number of tickets, add to cart, and check out.​

To read about the play read a listing here

Dance

PUSH Dance Company Presents: 12th Home Season ​and Fourth Annual PUSH​fest​ Dance Festival Featuring two different programs of local and visiting artists over four evenings. Mothership (Part II)​ is a World Premiere with choreography by Raissa Simpson. Other World Premieres are by: Mary Carbonara, Kao Vey Saephanh & Katerina Wong

Program A is Friday September 22, 8pm and Sunday September 24, 4:30pm. Program B is Saturday September 23, 8pm and Sunday September 24, 7:30pm at ODC Theater, 3153 – 17th Street, San Francisco.

Tickets are: $28 in advance, $30 at the door, $15 for seniors and students; $50 for a Festival pass that includes both programs. Visit http://www.pushdance.org/festival or call the Box Office: ​415.863.9834 or www.pushdance.org/festival

Embodiment Project & Jesse Hewit are a part of Transform Fest – Fall 2017/
Sep 14 2017 — Sep 22 2017, YBCA Forum, Thursday and Friday, 8PM $25
https://ybca.org/whats-on/transform-program-a

The work incorporates hip hop, music, stories and film. It looks at the power of story to transform and heal. The film uses clips from Shakti Butler’s Healing Justice, having its world premiere Sat., Sept. 16

Film
New World-Trust Film: Healing Justice

Healing Justice is the latest film from Dr. Shakti Butler and World Trust Educational Services. The World Premiere is in Oakland, on September 16th, 5-11 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Christ, 2501 Harrison Street. The screening and discussion is 6:30-9 p.m.

Visit: https://world-trust.org/product/healing-justice/ for tickets and all the details.

Millions for Prisoner Human Rights March in Washington D.C.

Saturday morning, August 19, the day dawned bright and sunny, not a hint of the rain that drenched us the evening before. At 10:30 a.m. when I arrived at Freedom Plaza, there were people with posters and event tee-shirts and a brother with a bullhorn. Robert King and Albert Woodfox were there in Abolish the 13^th tee-shirts. King was passing out information about the law which legalizes slavery. Later on, at the rally, he would conclude the event which lasted about five hours.

The march through the streets was exciting, as the people along the route learned about legal slavery in this country and the millions of people currently barred from citizenship. King called it a moral dilemma. “All that is legal is not moral.” He stated and just the way chattel slavery was abolished in 1865, the same can happen in 2017 with the 13^th Amendment and the clause which permits slavery under certain conditions: incarceration or judicial supervision or parole. As long as a person cannot vote or serve on a jury, he or she is not a citizen nor are they free.

The evening before there was a reception at the famous, East Union Baptist Church with introductions of the local organizing committee and convener, Krystal Roundtree. Local organizers included: Tomiko Shine, Aging People in Prison Campaign, Christen Boas, Yango Sawyer, Voice for Returning Citizens, Debra Rowe, Returning Citizens United, Tyler Hopkins, DC Marijuana Justice, Elize Manoukin, Nicole Meyer, Tracey Zhang, and Anna Cohen and that evening as a part the Black August Commemoration weekend, the program.

The keynote speaker that Friday evening was Lashonia Thompson-El, WIRE founder and published writer. Before she spoke she invited to join her and speak the other women who are a part of the Women Involved in Reentry Efforts. They spoke the following afternoon at the rally as well. Many featured speakers spoke at the rally on Saturday.

These http://robertrobb.com/2015/02/ levitra no prescription factors introduce numerous levels of poisons into the system. It has quicker absorption than tablets which makes it useful , cheap cialis safe and less expensive simultaneously . Use this medicine with confidence and you can http://robertrobb.com/2015/10/ get viagra australia see magic happening. Herbal remedies- Ashwagandha churna, Kaminidugdh ras, Shri gopal tail, Shilajith gold, Aswagandharishta, Bhringaraj ras, Makaradhwaj vati, Swarna Bhasma, Kaminividrawan ras, Pushpdhanwa ras, Stimulex+ , Musli power extra capsules viagra without rx and Addyzoa. 3. Ms. Roundtree’s organizing paid off with a program that was comprehensive; however, except for the inclusion of Allegra Taylor, Hugo Yogi Pinell’s daughter and the San Quentin 6, there were no other representatives to speak about the issues of prisoners in California.  Allegra’s statement that afternoon and later that evening at the Black August dinner was a highlight of the Black August event, Black August created to honor George Jackson, his brother Jonathan Jackson and other fallen soldiers killed this month.  However, I was surprised, no one mentioned the Hunger Strike in California or the Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted Persons and Families Movement, which convened a large conference in Oakland last September on the anniversary of the Attica Rebellion.  If there were 16 rallies throughout the country, Roundtree did not mention where, so I do not know if there was one in New Orleans.  I was happy to see folks from the Bay. One young woman from Alabama is studying at Stanford and a prisoner she visits at San Quentin told her about the March and Rally and encouraged her to attend since she would be in Washington. There were lots of youth on the march and at the rally. A contingent from Howard University were there with signs. One young white man there said he felt obligated to be present given his white skin privilege and policies and positions taken in his name. There were union organizers present and when the shade moved and the audience shifted to follow it, the organizers moved the chairs on the stage so that it faced the White House.  Agents told Krystal immediately that they could not face the White House, so the podium had to be at a cattycorner to the building.

Secret Service and other police stood as the afternoon wound down within view. A few white women head hands – their bodies a barrier between their black allies and the police force. The agents even sent in a rabble-rouser, who tried unsuccessfully to stop the rally, by challenging the speaker, James Makey, Stuck on Replay, out of Boston who had a contingent of 20 or so youth with him. His poetry addressed the trauma that shadowed his birth and childhood. Inarticulate, he had no words to name what he felt before he was born, so as he writes in his poem, he kept replaying the drama that characterized the fatalism that was his life until he lost his brother and woke up.

Other speakers were Michael Bonds, from Boston, who was eventually exonerated after serving ten years, the last three in solitary confinement; Ramona Africa, MOVE Organization, joined us to talk about Mumia Abu Jamal whose body shows no trace of the hepatitis; Tribal Raine, DC, shared a poem about a broken system and a broken government, and her husband, Max Parthas, New Abolitionist Radio, gave a comprehensive history of the 13^th Amendment.  General Rashid of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika, spoke as did General Parker, Central Illinois Coalition of Black Trade Unionist. Parker wore an All of Us or None shirt.  Tomiko Shine who’d spoken the evening before gave an impassioned speech about Aging People in Prison – Human Rights Campaign. What she stated was so true, they have our bodies and by the time our people are released they are all but dead. Jihad Abdulmumit spoke about the Jericho Movement and Paulette Dauteuii brought revolutionary greetings and words from Comrade Leonard Peltier, Shaundra Scott, ACLU South Carolina spoke, as did Yusuf and his mother Shaundra Salaam, about the Central Park Five & Justice for the Wrongfully Convicted. Yusuf’s story was made into a Ken Burn’s film about the five Black and Latino boys convicted of raping and beating a white woman runner in Central Park. Though the charges later dropped—the boys’ lives ruined. What moved me the most was Mrs. Salaam’s story of how losing her son affected her life then and now.  Listen to an interview with Burns and

Shout outs were given at each gathering I attended, even the Black August dinner, I attended Saturday evening where a preview of the Sunday program honoring the San Francisco Bayview Newspaper was shown.  I kept wondering why no one gave a shout out to California, one of the largest slave states in the country.  I also did not understand why, considering she knew I was present, Kilaika Anayejali kwa Baruti, the host at the dinner not at least acknowledge my presence, considering the Black August committee was honoring my paper and I was shown in the video footage. Even acknowledgment as one of the “I Am We: Ubuntu” sponsoring organizations would have been nice.  Wanda’s Picks and Maafa San Francisco Bay Area are listed there. Krystal conclude the rally with remarks on where do we go from here with a commitment to not stopping until slavery behind bars ends.  Speakers addressed ban the box without referencing the successful campaign in California and the National Ban the Box Campaign demand led by California’s Dorsey Nunn, Director, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPW).  I hope she connects with the Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted Peoples and Families Movement, All of Us or None, LSPW and California Coalition for Women Prisoners (where I am a board member) and is more inclusive of the rest of the country, especially California, next time or perhaps I should march closer to home.

It was great though being in Lafayette Park, the White House a part of the backdrop demanding an end to legal slavery.

Eclipse 2017

I headed from Washington DC to Salem, Oregon for the solar eclipse. Arrived in Oregon about 11:30 p.m. and drove the hour to the Fairgrounds where I parked and dozed for a couple hours.  A volunteer, I got a shirt, badge and glasses.  My job was to walk around and help where necessary.  The program, in the stadium. which began at 5:30 AM featured astronauts: Jim Brau, Ph.D, who explained what eclipses are and about seeing the eclipse from orbit, while Don Pettit, Ph.D., shared what to expect just before 9:05 a.m., “first contact.”  However, there were games and booths with activates for the entire family:  ice sculptures, solar race cars, art activities such as making a bracelet with beads with would glow when the ultraviolet light hit them late during the eclipse; a flip book, a full moon calendar and a star chart for the calendar year.  There were also solar themed food booths—the longest line was at the pancake booth.

Portland Taiko opened the ceremony at sunrise and played during the moments leading to Totality.  There were science educators who did experiments on stage, a bamboo flute signaled when we could remove our protective glasses to see the corona as the moon blocked the sun.   In between there were quizzes with prizes; we watched the NASA TV coverage with interviews with viewers in Charleston.  There was a science rap artist who was pretty good. It was pretty spectacular! The event was in collaboration with NASA, OMSI, the University of Oregon.

Destiny Muhammad Plays John and Alice Coltrane

Destiny Muhammad plays Tribute to John and Alice Coltrane, Sept. 24, 4 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. at Cafe Stritch, 374 1st Street, San Jose. For a review of her Tribute to Alice Coltrane in August along with a radio interview visit wandasabir.blogspot.com

African American Museum of History and Culture 101

The impressive edifice shaped like a tiered Asante stool, takes your figurative breath away before entrance. The brass filigree create delicate tapestry visible as one gets closer to the edifice. As the bus driver told me when I asked for directions: “It’s the most beautiful building on the Mall.”  The warm humid afternoon as I waited for my dear friend Monica’s Aunt Pam to walk me into the museum.  The first time I visited, I asked for help at the information desk and the woman gave me a map of the 7 stories—without much guidance on how to navigate 400+ years in five hours. (I arrived at noon.)

So I went to the history galleries, specifically: C3: Slavery and Freedom 1400 – 1877, on Wednesday and spent the entire afternoon walking through Africa, onto and off slave ships into perhaps a worse hell in multiple landscapes in Europe and the Americas, into insurrections and fights for liberty and freedom, our ancestors met with broken promises time and time again.

I missed C2: Defending Freedom, Defining Freedom: The Era of Segregation 1876-1968 where  the Segregated Railroad Car, the Interactive Lunch Counter exhibit and the Emmett Till Memorial, the Modern Civil Rights Movement, Jim Crow, The Great Migration, were.  Above that was C1: A Changing America: 1968 and Beyond, located at the very top landing and included exhibits highlights black history through decade snapshots. There was a great exhibit on gentrification: Cities and Suburbs.

When I returned that Friday, I started in the gift shop, which closes a half hour before the museum a 5 p.m., to see if I could find a catalog to guide my second and last day there. It did. However, I did not have time to really study it.  There were also no regular docent tours or even an audio tour of the museum, which would have been so helpful.

Winging it again, I took the escalators up to the Community (L4) and Cultural (L3) galleries. I skipped the Concourse and wished I’d known that was where the Contemplative Court was. I was scrambling to get to the gallery with the rotating exhibition—

All the galleries: C levels and L levels, are full of personal stories which situate the history in lives rather than numbers and statistics, though those are present as well.

Videos located in C3: Slavery to Freedom 1400 to 1877, highlight most if not all the periods enabling visitors to better conceptualize or grasp the impact of enslavement on all of America and Europe. The riches made from Africans and the vast inequity present in the sanctioned trade in human beings did not have to be highlighted. It was understood.

What needs to be emphasized is the fact that even if Africans participated and some became rich as well in the process of legal human trafficking, Europe and America’s continued wealth is attached to Africa—its people and mineral resources, while Africa did not benefit at all from the invasion and material losses. The recent novel by Yaa Gyasi, “Homecoming,” speaks to this generational splitting of genetic atoms and the psychic unrest this scattering has on the born and yet to be born.  How do black people collect our parts and become whole? It is certainly a job for a Goddess – Queen Auset our model, the collective black body: King Ausar.

So anyway, I am wandering in the gallery, meeting ancestors I hadn’t known who fought for our liberation. I also met those I’d known along with artifacts: Gen. Harriett Tubman’s shawl and Nat Turner’s bible and Phyllis Wheatley’s published collection of poetry. These women, along with Sojourner Truth were huge bronze statues. The following day when I am in L3: Making a Way out of No Way, which has a really powerful exhibit on Mary McLeod Bethune who is the founder of the National Council of Negro Women, I see my friend, retired veteran, Michael Gomez’s grandmother, Mrs. Frances Albier (1898-1987), born in Tuskegee and a graduate from the Institute. She is in a video sharing the story of the boycott she led in Berkeley where a store owner would not hire black people. Her daughter, retired nurse, Mrs. Anita Black (96) made the sign. There is a park named after Mrs. Frances Mary Albier in Berkeley and she is responsible for the electoral success of Elihu Harris (State Assembly) Willie Brown (State Assembly) and Ron Dellums (Congress). Read more at the Online Archive of California: Frances Albier.

Both days I also met black families: mothers and fathers, grandparents, siblings and friends, and lots of children, who are asking questions and trying to understand our collective legacy. How does a parent explain black Americans continued demand for human and civil rights?

I found the mapping of the movement of legal slavery across the country with the passage of various laws quite interesting, almost as interesting as the section of the wars for this country’s independence from Britain and the black soldiers who fought bravely on the side of the Loyalists and the Patriots as enslaved men.  When we get to the Civil War battles there is even more there to show how important black regiments were to the victory, a victory which did not include provisions for the formerly enslaved black people.

I am feeling overloaded at this point (my first day)—but I don’t sit down, I ask one of the gallery attendants where the exhibit ends and he points at the revolving staircase two tiers above me. Yep, it is a great and mighty walk—our journey toward freedom and justice. My second visit, I loved the Cultural Expressions gallery (L4) where there were exhibits of our literary artists, visual artists and music and threatre artists. When you walk into the large room divided by display cases with artifacts, there is a video above which encircles the diameter – with artists speaking, reciting poetry, dancing . . . even President Obama dropping the microphone as he says: “I’m outta here.”  It is celebratory, similar to the feelings evoked a floor earlier (L3): “The Power of Place,” “Sports: Leveling the Playing Field,” “On Broadway,” Double Victory: The African American Military Experience. Black creative innovation from George Clinton’s Mothership to Chuck Berry’s 1973 Cadillac El Dorado, to the section on blacks in television – there really is no stopping black genius.

Since I was in DC for the Millions for the Prisoner Human Rights March, I was surprised when I asked folks on Level 3, where there is a great hip hop history exhibit across from a cell erected to tell the story of Angola State Prison, if they knew about the March the next day. None did and a few people were DC natives. One woman worked in a prison ministry.  That exhibit would have been a great place to leave postcards.  Another would have been in the Mary McLeod Bethune exhibit just around the corner and at the information counter downstairs.  Besides visiting the website for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, get the Official Guide to the Smithsonian NMAAHC.

At one point black men were content to hold up the corner.  Seated on crates, older men would reflect as they watched the youngsters playing ball, youth strutting with newly discovered charisma and power, and parents holding onto their babies’ hands as they acknowledged the men with either a smile or greeting.  Their wives sat on porches drinking tea, chewing snuff, watching the little ones or perhaps gardening or pulling weeds.

Laughter illuminated these sacred spaces filled with love, the balm a protective covering for all in its embrace.  Such was the Ferguson, Mike Brown grew up in.  Just finished with high school, he was thinking about his future when his life was taken randomly as if black lives are temporary without a future tense.

“Whose Streets” (2017) by Sabaah Folyan (writer, director, producer) and Damon Davis (director, producer), is a question Ferguson asks the world—Michael Brown (18) multiplied by so many others, too many in a town where black and white walk along a delineated line—“unequal” about the only aspect of the Dred Scott decision that remains: “The court found that no black, free or slave, could claim U.S. citizenship, and therefore blacks were unable to petition the court for their freedom.”[1]

We see Dred Scott on one of the street signs in the film, “Whose Streets,” a document that shows why it was important to highlight for the world—the other Ferguson towns throughout America and abroad, places where capitalism has erased human value, the strategies and spirit of a people who fed up and ready to move on the police galvanized everyone eager to not let Mike Brown’s death be in vain.

 

It became a family affair for Brittany Ferrell (25), a college student and single mother. She models for her daughter Kenna over the 3-4 years leading up to the verdict in the Brown case what resistance looks like and her daughter gets it.  Ferrell and other queer friends found Millennial Activists United (MAU).

David Whitt, father of four and husband is moved to act when he hears shots ring out near his apartment door. He decides to start filming police activity especially the excessive violence. “He and his chapter of Copwatch become guardians of Mike Brown’s memorial, rebuilding it when it is vandalized and later removed. His counter-surveillance of local police results in his eviction and the eviction of other activists in the neighborhood.While fighting for justice, Whitt also struggles for his family’s livelihood.”[2]

“Underground hip-hop artist and activist Tef Poe arrives at Canfield Green to see blood fresh on the street. Tef is one of many who refuse to go inside, even when faced with military weapons and an enforced curfew. While on the frontlines he meets Tory Russell, a powerful speaker and activist, and together they form Hands Up United.” Russell leads a march to the police station and in the midst of anger and frustration tells his constituents that it will take more than a day to get 500 years of answers.

Reimagining the dilapidated community of North St. Louis, Tory proposes a solution from the ground up. He launches a Books and Breakfast program and takes over a building to provide cultural resources and basic necessities for the community.”

“Whose Streets” exemplifies what the great Kwame Ture (Stokley Carmichael) stated about and organized black people, that there is nothing we cannot accomplish.  Although the police man who killed Mike Brown escaped punishment, “Whose Streets” shows how the people still won and continue to win.

Damon Davis, co-director, East Ferguson resident and artist, painted hands held up – in surrender or confrontation, and plastered the posters on the external walls of businesses who supported the new resistance movement and abandoned buildings boarded up after the civil unrest settled down.

He met with Sabaah who’d come to town to on an ethnographic fieldwork assignment—she’d been collecting stories, when one of her contacts recommended Damon as a person who could help her shape the narrative and introduce her around.

“Whose Streets” is a horror story. In no way is the violence skated over or obscured as police march into pedestrians, throw canisters of tear gas without provocation. People with hands raised sling words at their opponents, yet instead of responding nonviolently, the police swing their sticks and fire their weapons.  Sabaah said that after the major news outlets left each evening, the police dropped any semblance of decency.

What is beautiful about “Whose Streets” is the peoples’ will and commitment to not relinquishing their power and right to claim what is theirs—their neighborhoods, their streets and their right to occupy both.  When scavengers show up to take photos and claim aspects of what for Mike Brown’s friends and family is sacred ground, the altar is dismantled and the community refuses to go on camera or participate in a public spectacle for the politicians.

Samora Abayomi Pinderhughes’s soundtrack is exceptional—the words and music pulsing with energy like the folks on the screen. It is one adrenalin filled moment after another. We think we know the story, but unless you were there for an extended length of time, you really do not know what happened—

Through the characters profiled, the audience gets a sense of the movers and shakers who serve as backbone to a larger number of people who up to Mike Brown’s death were passive and unresponsive. Even the leadership—I am thinking clergy and civic leaders, does not get active seeking a just outcome for the Brown family until the national spotlight makes them make a public statement.

The tragedy has ignited a spirit that was not going to retire any time soon.  On the fourth anniversary of Mike Brown’s death—“Whose Streets” is a necessary rallying cry, the film itself a wonderful model of what a community can do to change a system stacked against them.

For each community experiencing these types of daily rehearsals of injustice, somewhat like a catechism, the strategy will change dependent on the particular landscape.  “Whose Streets” provides a model and as such validates Ferguson citizens’s right to resist and demand justice. Similarly, the citizens of Charlottesville deserve the same validation.  State violence might be normed as is that of white racists against black people, but it is not a norm we accept.

With humanity on the chopping board, “Whose Streets” shows ordinary citizens: beaten and intimidated standing up.  The world is what we make it and often just remembering the streets are a public space, that anyone is able to cross or walk on this marked piece of highway, is liberating for a lot of black youngsters who do not know safety or freedom.

The film opened on August 11, but today, August 9, we wanted to celebrate Mike Brown’s life – The New Parkway in Oakland,  is hosting a screening tonight.

Here is a link to an interview with the directors in April when the film debuted at the San Francisco International Film Festival: http://tobtr.com/10184253

 

 

[1] http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/dred-scott-case

[2] All notes from: http://www.whosestreetsfilm.com/