Happy Birthday to all the Geminis! Congratulations to all the graduates! Knowledge is Power! On a sad note: We miss our Brother Kamau Amen Ra who made his transition at the end of May. He was found by a neighbor dead, in his apartment, May 27. May his journey be filled with rich imagery and lots of color (smile).

I am in Ghana, yes, the land of the first president of a free Africa, Ghana, 1957. Dr. Nkrumah was a Pan Africanist, like General Boukman and the Hon. Marcus Garvey. It has been a wonderful few days so far. I am in the mountains in a place known for its Botanical Gardens, Aburi; however, this area is also known for its Diaspora community, most here for at least 20-30 years.

I have been living off the grid since Monday, May 30 to the present.

I am at an Internet Café now; it’s dark and I have to get moving.  Yesterday this same place had no power.  The electricity was out for the entire area.  My host uses solar and has a generator, so we we’re good. After we left Akaa Falls in Bosotwi this afternoon it started storming. The bead market was closing, the vendors either gone or closing shop.  Hungry, we got sweet sliced watermelon from a girl on the side of the road and topped it off with bagged water. A little girl got a donation from Kwame while I purchased the snac. He kept telling her to talk the lady– me, but I must have frightened her (smile).  Earlier, instead of going to Buti Falls the more touristy spot not far away, we skipped it and went back to the river near land Kwame owns.  He owns a lot of land in Ghana.  He showed me two other parcels. I am staying at another.  We went for a brief hike near the lake where he is looking to build a small house. Earlier we picked avocados and mangos. He also has Sweet Berry bushes, Guava trees, Jack Fruit, Malay Apples, Cassava, Plantain, and Las Palmas Bananas, Orange and Lemons, Cinnamon and Crotin a.k.s. “the Rasta plant” (for its colors) on the large parcel of land. I think it is nine acres.

At Kwame’s place there, his caretaker’s two girls and their cousin met us with news that their dad and mother weren’t home. Really pretty girls. We hiked a bit through tall grasses. I thought about and then declined an invitation to hike to the top of the hill where there is a road. Instead, we got back in the truck and found a less intimidating path (one I could manage better—the grasses were over 5 feet tall and the corn stalks make you itch if it touches your skin).  The corn we walked between to get to the river was a lot shorter. Soon we were on the river bank listening to the Mother of Darkness.

It is there, by the lake I mentioned that Kwame described his dream home. After 22 years, the bush is peopled so it is time to move on. We met many young tree killer as we surveyed the land and hiked. The young boys were welding their modern machetes, electric saws — a philosophical equivalent to the handgun here in the USA. I both instances, Ghana and black communities in America, killing trees or killing people is undermining the well-being of the community. I saw an entire road filled with cut limbs, piles of leaves and branches spilling out onto the red dirt road like blood.

When Kwame spoke to the boys about their killing the trees, they kind of shrugged and smiled. By the time we walked back from the water falls, the boys were gone and another tree chopped up into pieces. . . .

To read of my travel, visit me at my blog.  What follows are Picks I didn’t get up last month. Check back as I will add more as time permits. Electricity is iffy and we are 8 hours ahead (smile).

Vote June 7

Oh, don’t forget to vote. Ghana also has it’s elections in November. There are posters up all over the place along the roads. Vote all the black prosecutors seeking judicial appointments into office in Alameda County, Oakland, Marin County and San Francisco City and County (See Wanda’s Picks May-June 2016).

Carl Lumbly is Ira Aldridge in San Francisco Playhouse’s production of “Red Velvet”

Listen to the interview with Carl Lumbly speaks about his role as Ira Aldridge in Red Velvet at San Francisco Playhouse (through June 25). In 19th century Europe, at a time when his kinsmen were still in chains in America, Aldridge built an incredible career on the stages of London and Europe.

Author Event
Bestselling Author TERRY MCMILLAN Coming to the Bay Area with a new book about appreciating the gifts others give to us before it is too late. The protagonist is successful optometrist, Dr. Georgia Young.  She lives in San Francisco where she has a successful practice, good friends and healthy happy grown daughters, yet something is missing in her life.  She is also bored. When tragedy befalls someone from the past, it causes Georgia to question what she really wants in the years ahead. She begins a process of reinvention that will touch every aspect of her life—career, home, health, and even love. Determined to reconnect with the best version of herself, Georgia also decides to make amends with the men she’s loved—not lovers—who have been a part of her story. In reaching out to them, Georgia will discover things about herself she never knew—and in the process, might just find new love.  I started it on the plane to Ghana, by way of London and love it. So for those of you in town, don’t miss the opportunity to hear the author share this latest additional to a canon which speaks to eloquently to what is on many black women’s hearts.

Ms. McMillan’s tour will stop in the SF Bay, Wednesday, June 22nd, 7:00pm, Rakestraw Books, 3 Railroad Ave., Danville, CA 94526 and Thursday, June 23rd, 7:30pm, KPFA Author Series, First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St., Oakland, CA 94612

Libations for African Ancestors of the Middle Passage, San Francisco Bay Area

Th second Saturday in June, June 12, is the 10th Anniversary of the San Francisco Bay Area’s participation in the International Libations for the Ancestors.  We meet at 8:30 AM for the libation at E-18th and Lakeside Drive at the fountain at Lake Merritt. The libation is at exactly 9 AM. Visit http://www.maafasfbayarea.com/

Carl Lumbly as Ira Aldridge at SF Playhouse

Ira Aldridge was the quintessential Shakespearean actor, at a time when his kinsmen were in bondage at home and abroad. When we think about black male body and how disruptive to the body-politic that whiteness represents, then one can perhaps imagine what English patrons felt when this brass, talented black had the audacity to play Othello, the Moor, with a depth some Europeans (perhaps the majority) were not ready for. The excellent cast brings the period to life in a way that resonates loudly in the presence. Black bodies seem to change and alter the spaces they occupy. Nothing was ever the same for either Aldridge or the European stage. Art is like that, it challenges core beliefs and changes us in inalterable ways, some not immediately recognizable. Carl Lumbly as Ira Aldridge in this West Coast premiere of Lolita Chakrabarti’s Red Velvet continues through June 25. Listen to a recent interview with the actor on Wanda’s Picks Radio.

Libations for African Ancestors of the Middle Passage

The annual commemoration provides an opportunity for members of the African-descended community to remember the millions of Africans — men, women, and children, who were sold, kidnapped, shipped and who died along the route from Africa to the Americas.  By remembering, we honor and restore the humanity of the nameless faceless Ancestors, and disrupt the collective amnesia.   We also begin the process of healing from the fear, pain, guilt and shame of the experience that continues to traumatize the African descended community today, and we start the restoration of cultural identity, dignity and pride. ICCAAMP also honors and commemorates those who survived the transatlantic trafficking in African people, the Maafa, to draw upon their strength, courage and determination to overcome obstacles of enormous magnitude. ICAAMP is calling upon individuals in the Black community who are unable to host their own commemorations or participate in activities hosted by Coalition members, to observe a minute of silence and prayer wherever they are at 12 noon (EST), on Saturday, June 11, to remember the Ancestors of the Maafa.  The Coalition is also requesting all Black religious and spiritual institutions to dedicate a service in remembrance of the African Ancestors of the Middle Passage.

For decades, ICCAAMP member organizations have been conducting annual events primarily during the month of June that commemorate the spirit of these African Ancestors who have for years gone unrecognized and or forgotten.  The Coalition was created to unify the important work of these organizations; to provide information to the public regarding where the Pan African Ancestral commemorations will take place; and to encourage individuals and organizations in the Black community to host their own commemoration.  With this in mind, ICCAAMP has developed a set of suggestions (located on the ICCAAMP website) for those individuals and organizations who desire to develop their own ceremonies to commemorate the African Ancestors of the Middle Passage.

Ceremonies take place nationally in: Brooklyn, New York; Washington, DC; Charleston and Georgetown, South Carolina; Hampton and Fredericksburg, Virginia; Annapolis, Maryland; Newport, Rhode Island; Boston, Massachusetts, New Orleans, Louisiana; York and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Houston, Texas; Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland, California; Montgomery, Alabama; Miami, Florida; Detroit, Michigan; and internationally in Cameroon, Senegal, Nigeria, Panama, Barbados, Brazil, Benin, British Virgin Islands, Jamaica and Ghana.  ICCAAMP is seeking to identify other African-descended communities which conduct commemoration ceremonies as well as those who are interested in hosting ceremonies to join the Coalition.

Founded in 2015, the International Coalition to Commemorate African Ancestors of the Middle Passage (ICCAAMP) has been formed to organize activities that are designed to remember the millions of Africans who were sold, kidnapped, shipped then died along the route from Africa to the Americas.  We also honor and commemorate those who survived the transatlantic trafficking in African people known as the Maafa, Black Holocaust, and Middle Passage.  For a list of commemoration locations, please visit the ICCAAMP at www.RememberTheAncestors.com.  Follow us on www.facebook.com.Remembertheancestors.com; and on Twitter #remembertheancestors

 

The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II is Awarded the Peace Ambassador Award at the Capital June 15-16

His Imperial Majesty, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II awarded Peace Ambassador Award by the White House Faith Based Initiatives during his US official trip June 8-30, 2016.  His tour coincides the International Libations for the Ancestors, African Ancestors of the Middle Passage.  He will be in Philadelphia at the Odunde Festival. The Odunde Festival is Sunday, June 12.

The Libation is the second Saturday weekend in June. For those communities who are participating, on June 12, 12 noon, ET. In Oakland we will be pouring at 9 AM at Lake Merritt, Lakeside Drive and East 18th Street.

The Oba with his entourage will consist of prominent Obas (kings) with an expected visit of the States Governors and other dignitaries. He is presenting an initiative designed to advance relationships between the citizens of Yoruba land and the USA. The mission is to attract foreign investors for economic development in Yoruba regions and environments. His Imperial Majesty’s messages will be focused on facts about nature, culture and exclusive information on business opportunities in Nigeria in general.  The city of Ife, Osun State Nigeria is endowed with abundant natural resources, solid minerals, agriculture and a varieties of artistic expressions.

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The Oni of Ife’s Schedule: June 8-30, 2016

June 11, 2016: Ooni’s Grand Reception, New Jersey

June 12, 2016: Odunde Festival, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

June 13, 2016: Museum of Contemporary African Diasporian Art (MoCADA), New York

June 15-16, 2016: Peace Award by White House Faith Based Initiatives, White House, Washington, DC & Oduduwa Economic Development & Transformation Leadership Summit 2016 & Awards Dinner, Baltimore, Maryland

June 17-18, 2016: Royal Visit to Oyotunji African Village, Beaufort, South Carolina

June 20-22, 2016: Dining with the King, Mobile, Alabama

June 23-25, 2016: Celebration of Royalty Gala, Atlanta, Georgia

June 26-28, 2016: Little Rock, Arkansas

June 29-30, 2016: Economic & Cultural Forum, Chicago, Illinois

On the Fly:
June is Juneteenth: Honoring the spirit of Liberation for African People

Do not miss the San Francisco Documentary Film Festival, Frameline40 or the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. I have linked to them here. All three have a wonderful selection of films by and about black people.

At the SFSFF June 2-5, there will be a rare screening of the Arthur Micheaux film, “Within Our Gates,” with a new score composed by Dr. Adolphus Hailstork, featuring Maestro Michael Morgan, Oakland East Bay Symphony, as conductor. The SFSFF opens June 2 and continues through June 5 at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. The film is the first film for Oscar Micheaux, USA, 1920 and features: Evelyn Preer, Flo Clements, James D. Ruffin, Jack Chenault. It is believed to be a response to D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation,” which had its centennial last year.  Here is a link to an interview with Morgan and Hailstork:  http://tobtr.com/8790655

From SFSFF:  Within Our Gates is the oldest surviving film made by an African-American director and not only an intrepid rebuttal to D.W. Griffith’s racist epic The Birth of a Nation (1915), but also a history lesson to white America shocked by the 1919 riots. It portrays the early years of Jim Crow, the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, and the Great Migration in the story of a young African-American woman who goes north to try to raise money for a poor, rural school in the Deep South. Within Our Gates confronts the racial violence of the time with the same vigor as it counters hateful stereotypes.  The SFSFF’s presentation will be the San Francisco premiere of acclaimed composer Adolphus Hailstork’s new original score for strings and voice. The score was composed for and performed last September as part of  The Birth of an Answer event put on by the Institute for the Humanities at Old Dominion University.

San Francisco Doc Festival

Adam Irving’s “Off the Rails, makes its San Francisco Bay Area premiere at the festival, June 12 & 14.  Arguably the best-trained driver New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) ever had, Darius McCollum has spent nearly half his life in jail for the crime of driving buses and trains. The problem: McCollum was never an MTA employee. He was taught the ins and outs of the subway system from childhood by transit workers who adopted him as a “mascot.” By age 8, he memorized the entire subway system. And then a life-devouring obsession born of undiagnosed Asperger’s syndrome took over. Adam Irving’s debut feature documentary Off the Rails is a fascinating, frustrating and heart-breaking story; A profile of a man seemingly born for one thing – and of a legal system that seems only able to deal with its problems with a hammer. San Francisco Premiere:

See the film Sun, Jun 12, 4:30 PM at Roxie Theatre and Tue, Jun 14, 9:00 PM at Vogue Theatre.  For other films of interest visit: http://sfindie.com/festivals/sf-docfest/

 

Diverse Black Stories & Experiences At Frameline40: San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival

Frameline Showcases Intergenerational and Intersectional Black Stories,  both New and Classic, at Frameline40 Frameline40 San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Featical June 16-26. www,frameline.org

Selected titles: CHECK IT / DIRS Dana Flor & Toby Oppenheimer / 2016 / USA / 90 min; CONVERSATIONS WITH GAY ELDERS: AN INTERGENERATIONAL FILM PROJECT / DIR David Weissman / 2016 / USA / 60 min; KIKI / DIR Sara Jordenö / 2016 / USA, Sweden / 94 min / Opening Night Film; LIVING WITH PRIDE: RUTH C. ELLIS @ 100 / DIR Yvonne Welbon / 1999 / USA / 60 min / Retrospective Film; THE REVIVAL: WOMEN AND THE WORD / DIR Sekiya Dorsett / 2016 / USA / 82 min; STRIKE A POSE / DIRS Ester Gould & Reijer Zwaan / 2016 / Netherlands, Belgium / 83 min / Showcase Film; SUITED / DIR Jason Benjamin / 2016 / USA / 77 min;TONGUES UNTIED / DIR Marlon T. Riggs / 1989 / USA / 55 min / Retrospective Film; THE TRANS LIST / DIR Timothy Greenfield-Sanders / 2016 / USA / 60 min / Showcase Film; TREASURE: FROM TRAGEDY TO TRANS JUSTICE, MAPPING A DETROIT STORY / DIR dream hampton / 2015 / USA / 63 min

SHORT FILMS: CRYSTAL LAKE / DIR Jennifer Reeder / 2016 / USA / 20 min; I WAS / DIR Joshua Walker / 2016 / USA / 1 min; MEZZO / DIR Nicole Opper / 2015 / USA / 14 min; OH, I GET IT / DIRS Sara McCaslin & Danny Tayara / 2015 / USA / 9 min; SWIRL / DIR Lance McDaniel / 2015 / USA / 6 min; TRANSCEND / DIR Kai Towns / 2015 / USA / 17 min; VERACITY / DIR Seith Mann / 2015 / USA / 20 min; VOGUING: THE MESSAGE / DIRS Jack Walworth, David Bronstein, & Dorothy Low / 1989 / USA / 13 min; WE’VE BEEN AROUND / THIS IS ME (Shorts Anthologies) / DIR Rhys Ernst / USA / 52 min

More Films:

“Presenting Princess Shaw” opens June 3 at the Embarcadero Cinema at Landmark Embarcadero in San Francisco

By day, Samantha Montgomery cares for the elderly in one of New Orleans’s toughest neighborhoods. By night, she writes and sings her own songs as Princess Shaw on her confessional YouTube channel.

Across the globe, Ophir Kutiel creates video mash ups of amateur YouTube performers. Known as Kutiman, he is a composer, a musician, and a pioneering video artist embraced by the world of fine art. Kutiman “transforms sampling into a multimedia art”, whether at his home on a kibbutz in Israel or at a live performance at the Guggenheim in New York.

Two strangers, almost 7,000 miles apart, begin to build a song. The film unfolds as Kutiman pairs Princess Shaw’s emotional performances in a beautiful expression of generosity and compassion, revealing the bonafide star underneath and her fight to never give up on her dreams.

 

Elaine Brown’s “A Taste of Power,” a memoir which chronicles her leadership of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense when co-founder, Huey P. Newton is imprisoned, still resonates with me. The idea that a black woman is nominated to the leadership position of the most powerful civic organization in the country at that time, is still remarkable and speaks to what Kathleen Cleaver calls revolutionary imagination.

Power remains a pawn on the board for black America. It is as elusive as the queen and as laudable as the witty joker. Nonetheless, power is necessary for change, and as long as the imbalance is a part of an insidious racist structure permeating all levels of life—from economics and politics to educational equity, healthcare and human rights, we have a problem.

We live in a violent society which is getting more violent daily.  While traveling recently I caught up on films I’d missed in theatres, “Creed” and “Concussion”. I also watched two documentaries, “In An Ideal World” and “Peace Officer,” both Independent Lens (ITVS) selections.  All films thematically looked at violence. Two films– “Creed” and “Concussion,”  looked at violence as entertainment, the other two looked at violence or physical force as an instrument of power.

In “Creed,” dir. Ryan Coogler (“Fruitvale Station”), we meet a kid, Adonis Johnson Creed (actor Michael B. Jordan) with a huge chip on his shoulder, one that comes from fatherloss, an ailment many black boys contract through no fault of their own. In Adonis Johnson’s case, his father (Apollo Creed) dies without the two ever meeting. The boy never knows he had a father, let alone one who could have cared. His life up to the point he can articulate the problem is shrouded in anger. He says at one point in the film that he fights to prove “he was not a mistake.” Do boys conceived out of wedlock feel like they are mistakes? Do boys who do not know their fathers feel that it is somehow their fault, that is, they are the reason for the absence?

When his father’s widow (actress Phylicia Rashad) finds her step-son housed at the local juvenile facility, the boy has just had a fight, defending he tells her, his mother’s name. Mary Ann Creed (eventually “Ma”) asks the boy if he’d like to live with her. He agrees and when we meet him again, he is grown, articulate and working at a firm which has just given him a promotion. He quits his job and leaves home to begin a journey which takes him to Philadelphia. He is looking for his father, “Apollo Creed,” boxing champ, killed too soon in the ring (“Rocky IV,” 1985).

Young Creed (Adonis Johnson) wants to fight; he contacts his late father’s trainer, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) who owns a restaurant. At first Rocky refuses the kid, who has done his homework and knows about Rocky and his father’s famous fight behind closed doors. He also knows that Rocky made the call that night which ended Creed’s life in the ring. No one in Philadelphia will train Creed’s son. Adonis, whom everyone calls Hollywood, goes to the gym and watches other boxers train and copies their strategies, until one day, Rocky stops by the gym to check on the Creed’s son.

Apollo and Adonis’s lives echo those of Greek gods–Adonis, the handsome youth who symbolizes death and rebirth, and Apollo, also handsome, the god of Olympus.  Adonis’s father is also the god of healing and light. He moves the sun across the sky daily with his horse drawn chariot. Perhaps in a way, Creed-Johnson’s sojourn is his chariot ride across a psychic sky previously darkened by doubt and pain.

“Creed” (2015) is a story of faith and belief and healing. Rocky feels guilty about Creed’s death and sees a way to work through his debt, by helping Creed’s son. The action kept me ducking blows in my seat. Though I was not happy that once again, a heroic black man dies off screen and a white man saves the day, but as a sequel to one of the Rocky sagas, perhaps this treatment was an opportunity for an ancestor to be reincarnated through a son born after his physical death. Stallone walked away with the nominations, while Michael B. Jordan and other performers in a well-crafted work, including the writing, received nothing.

“Concussion,” the film

Upon reflecting on my choices of films while flying cross country, I find it interesting that they both had to do with sports, sports which are health risks. Imagine getting hit for a living or crashing one’s head into another to make money, as football players do. Prior to watching the excellent film, “Concussion,”(2015)  dir. Peter Landesman, I hadn’t known that human beings do not have a protective cushion inside their skulls to protect their brains from injury when hit. Until accomplished pathologist Dr. Bennet Ifeakandu Omalu (Will Smith) uncovers the truth about brain damage in football players who suffer repeated concussions in the course of normal play and at great personal risk, takes on the NFL, more specifically the politically savvy Pittsburgh Steelers machine or franchise, such information remains suppressed and more and more players are at risk and die horrible deaths.

It is a stunning story, and a stunning performance by all, especially Will Smith as Dr. Omalu, who now lives with his wife and children in the Central Valley town, Lodi, CA. What I love about the film is how much respect Dr. Omalu shows toward the deceased victims– egungun or ancestors. When to most of his peers, his job is to close cold cases, the scientist takes his own funds to pursue forensic evidence which points to a huge cover-up.

“Concussion” is an awesome crime story with larger than life villains and just enough heroes to keep one on the edge of her seat. Dr. Omalu is deeply religious and keeps God in front of all his major decisions. He just cannot understand how the National Football League (NFL), once it knows the sport has dire consequences for its players, refuses to at least warn them and institute safe checks and prevention measures.  On screen, we see bright men discarded once they begin to exhibit the erratic behavior indicative of chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE. Ironically, the first case Dr. Omalu examines is a former player, Michael Lewis “Mike” Webster (March 18, 1952 – September 24, 2002. Known as “Iron Mike” Webster, what followed were other autopseys which substanciated the doctors findings that indeed head injuries caused by sustained trauma to the brain in contact sport, caused these deaths.  The film shows footage of college students and even younger players hitting each other in the head over and over again. In one of the most riveting segments, Dr. Omalu, demonstrates what this injury looks like.

The Nigerian-American physician, forensic pathologist, and neuropathologist says at a trial hearing when the film opens and he is called as a witness, that he speaks for the dead. That the dead are his clients or patients. Later, the meticulous and dedicated scientist opens his patient’s skull and finds what looks like a normal brain.  However, “he suspected dementia pugilistica, dementia induced by repeated blows to the head, a condition found previously in boxers. Using specialized staining, Omalu found large accumulations of tau protein in Webster’s brain, affecting mood, emotions, and executive functions similar to the way clumps of beta-amyloid protein contribute to Alzheimer’s disease” (wikipedia).  He is first to discover and publish findings on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) says that the film is accurate in its portrayal of the sport and subsequent injuries. The film is based on the doctor’s 2008 book, “Play Hard, Die Young: Football Dementia, Depression, and Death.” Since its publication, the doctor has founded the Bennet Omalu Foundation to continue research and to advocate against contact sports for minors.

In a recent interview, published by the “San Diego Tribune,” Dr. Omalu says the problem of football and the NFL stance on an activity which is irreversibly harmful to the brain health of its players, rests with American society:

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“Peace Officer,” film

“Peace Officer,” dirs. Scott Christopherson, Brad Barber, just shows us how no one is immune to the violence unleashed across America in its police forces. Trained to attack, rather than deescalate volatile circumstances, innocent people are killed and situations end tragically, which need not have resulted in such.

The story centers on that of retired peace officer, Dub Lawrence, who becomes a police officer, then Sheriff of Davis County, Utah in 1974. As a rookie cop with keen investigative skills, he helps break the Ted Bundy case. When we meet him though, he smiles and tells us that wading through raw sewage is preferable to witnessing the philosophical shift in policing from peacekeeping to terrorism during his tenure.

After Lawrence’s family falls victim to excessive force and loses a loved one, he uses his investigative and forensic skills to advocate for the many families who are victims of a militarized police force. We learn of the US military’s gifts of weapons and armory to civic municipalities with the charge to use the equipment within the year. This heavy artillery is largely cause for increased death and destruction, that and the “war of drugs.” We see police storm houses, kicking in doors, breaking windows, scaring citizens to death and then killing them when the violence is met with violence. Often these police break-in unannounced and not in uniform.  The “no-knock” search warrants lead to
stories of mistaken identity, and police officers’ boisterous attitudes even when in error. There is no shame. Dub uncovers many coverups just a city away.  All of this has lead to a 15,000% increase in SWAT team raids in the United States since the late 1970’s.

Lawrence regrets his founding of the SWAT teams 30 years earlier to save not take innocent lives. If this is not enough, his tracking the case of his son-in-law, Brian Wood exposes multiple felonies, mistakes and problems connected to the lies and outright coverups by police investigators.

“Peace Officer” screens, May 9. Watch http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/tv-schedule/#schedule-coming-soon

Alternatives to Violence (AVP)

While traveling in South Africa a few years ago, I was not able to get to Capetown to scale Table Mountain; however, in California, Butte County to be precise, there are two basaltic plateaus or table mountains overlooking the city of Oroville. Formed by volcanic eruptions 14 – 39 million years ago, this member of the Lovejoy Formation, Laura Brown writes in the Union (4/2/09), “believed . . . much older than the nearby Sutter Buttes or Mount Shasta,’ according to “Wildflowers of Table Mountain Butte County, California” by Samantha Mackey and Albin Bills.”  Folklore says that the Buttes or shorter mountain range not far off are actually the top of North and South Table Mountain. And when you look between the two mountain ranges, we can see an almost perfect fit, sort of like the wig that fell off (smile).

I was in Oroville for the Alternatives to Violence advanced training. AVP is a project that helps one transform power without doing harm to oneself or others. AVP has adapted strategies from other restorative justice or violence prevention projects; however, AVP is unique as well. The program is used in prisons and in the community, and is an all-volunteer organization committed to peace building. At the training, one of the facilitators whose training was in the late ‘70s, testified to the impact of AVP on his life then and now.  Just out of prison, after over 30 years behind bars, he spoke to how AVP saved his life.  Another facilitator, a Chico State student, described how he used humor (acting the fool) an AVP strategy, to deescalate a potentially volatile moment between friends.

“In an Ideal World,” a documentary film made in a California prison by AVP facilitator Noel Schwerin, looks at how AVP transforms men whom society has forgotten or given up on. This transformation, which is visible, also changes the environment—all of a sudden guards see the men in a different light. AVP highlights our shared humanity. When anyone is harmed we are all harmed.  Ubuntu in practice, AVP is a way to embody the consequences of violence in a way which is less cerebral and more experiential. The training(s) – Basic and Advanced, are both reflective, collaborative, communal and most importantly fun.

The inside work is hard and after a weekend, Friday-Sunday of this excavation, a hike on North Table Mountain to see the lovely wildflowers in season at this time of year and trek along a waterfall was perfect way to relax before the long drive back to the Bay Area.

“In an Ideal World” aired nationally late April, on World Channel as part of the fourth season of AMERICA REFRAMED, public media’s newest documentary series. The film will be available for free streaming on http://worldchannel.org/programs/episode/arf-s4-e413-ideal-world/  starting April 27, 2016.

Shot over seven years, with unprecedented access, “In an Ideal World” follows three men in California’s infamous Soledad prison—John Piccirillo, a white separatist murderer, Sam Lewis, a black ex-gang member and Ben Curry, a warden. Each entered the system young and learned its codes of conduct not only to maintain order and safety, but also for their personal survival.

“And Justice for All” Forum in Oakland

It’s about time black folk had their own Commonwealth Club Series, Michael DeFlorimonte, founder, The Registry, stated at the inauguration of the monthly speaker series focused on black issues, The Forum. The first, held at Impact Hub Oakland, smack in the middle of downtown Oakland, next to upscale Picans, across from the Downtown YMCA, the venue and its guests were centrally located and accessible.

The panel of San Francisco Bay Area African American jurists moderated by the esteemed people’s attorney John Burris, April 28, was outstanding from the questions posed to the intimate stories shared about law, justice and its uneven application even when one wears the proper credentials. Seated before us were children of parents who were incarcerated and men who’d been falsely arrested and accosted by police at gunpoint.

To say that these individuals were isolated or underrepresented this 50+ anniversary season of so many civil rights firsts is unfortunately still the truth, which is another reason why “And Justice for All” is still a rallying cry on another pivotal and important anniversary, the 50th Anniversary of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.

All four panelists are prosecuting attorneys, Otis Bruce, Senior Deputy District Attorney, Marin County, Paul Henderson, Deputy Chief of Staff, Public Safety for San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Scott Jackson, Law Professor, Director of the Litigation Center, Golden Gate University and Jennifer Madden, Assistant District Attorney, Alameda County— I found this, in itself, a provocative place to begin a conversation about justice, when from a lay perspective, defense seems the place one starts, not its opposite. However, over the course of the evening the audience learned how the court operates and the power prosecutors hold in their positions is second really only to the judge. We learned about negotiation skills and how prosecutors who know the communities represented by the suspects can craft alternative solutions to keep black people out of prison.

To be a black litigator is more than having an active caseload, what it means is to impact the system so that so many black fish are not caught in a net which cast widely, yields a catch disproportionate to the effects of the law and law enforcement on certain communities.

Justice is certainly a goal, one each candidate for judge in their various municipalities, Alameda, Oakland, San Francisco and Marin, have changed laws, crafted statutes and made their counties or cities fairer by their active presence in seeing that justice is for all, not some privileged segment of their jurisdictions.

It would have been good to see another woman jurist, since such do exist on the bench. The questions asked of Ms. Madden were not as challenging as those directed to the other panelists. Perhaps a better way to handle the questions would have been to allow other panelists to comment on the topic after the designated person completed his or her thoughts.

I was really curious about Mr. Otis Bruce, a Mississippi native, juxtaposition of southern politics and northern politics in 2016. His solitary presence in an overwhelmingly white, upper income district, runs contrary historically to that of his geographic origins. There are black people in Marin County, and if one counts San Quentin, there are a lot of black residents there. What if prisoners could vote? Mr. Bruce spoke about going to Vallejo and Richmond, nearby cities and counties and speaking to the youth about staying out of Marin County.

A black face in Marin County at night, is like a black face on a lone Mississippi or Alabama back road. It does not matter if one is male or female. Several years ago, I was escorted out of the county when I got lost one night after a concert. I agree, black youth shouldn’t act up anywhere, especially where there is zero tolerance for youthful antics, but where can black teenager or youth act silly and not lose his or her life? It is not as if Richmond and Vallejo are safety zones. Bruce said black youth are ending up in Marin County courts, and when the young men see his face—they smile or nod, because they feel their chances at getting justice jumps up a few notches.

This belief is not without merit, given Mr. Bruce’s record in criminal cases tried in Marin County. Scott Jackson of all the candidates seemed to have the most varied preparation for the bench and in his practice as a jurist and professor. Scholarly in his inclination, his goal once elected and thereafter (a 5 year projection) is to make sure his face and name because a part of the parlance in Oakland and Alameda county.

All the jurists have developed programs, Paul Henderson, perhaps the younger of the men, several. He stated that he’d like to work during his tenure and afterward to keep children out of the foster care system. So many black parents and others, lose custody of their children when incarcerated. Foster care is the newest auction block. Just as in the past, these parents and families often did not know where their children were sent and the children cannot locate their families once they come of age. It is an insidious judicial move which plays to the parent’s fears and often linguistic inadequacies. It is also punitive when a relative has a criminal record. Income, housing — all important, yet, tedious when the child is suffering from the trauma of mother or father-loss. As long as the child is safe, what does it matter if the caregiver has all the amenities which are often not available because of income? The children are given to strangers who can then apply for and receive the kind of monetary resources which keep this trade in young human flesh so profitable.

Upcoming Forums:

May – The Changing Face of the Bay Area Landscape – East Bay | Real Estate
June –  Healthcare
July –  Visual Arts
August –  Financial Services
September –  Food & Wine
October –  Business: C-Suite
November –  Diversity in Tech
December –  Beauty & Style: Natural Hair

 

Townhall, May 6 with Jennifer Madden

Jennifer Madden and Paul Henderson’s back stories were compelling. There is an opportunity to meet and speak to Friday, May 6, 6-7:30 PM at Eliza’s Pearl Arthouse at Regina’s Door, 6-7:30 PM, 352 17th Street, Oakland.

Art Exibit Opens Friday, May 6 at Impact Hub Oakland,
2323 Broadway Oakland CA, 6:30pm – 10:00pm

“Beating The Odds” paintings by Edythe Boone – Opening Night is Friday, May 6! this show highlights the work of   community activist, educator, great-grandmother, and muralist, Edythe Boone. Edythe believes that art is for everyone, not just professional artists. Her mission is to empower individuals and transform communities through art.

May is Older Americans’ Month

The City of Oakland’s 164th birthday, May 4 activities 10:00-1:30/2:00 in front of and within City Hall and 150 Frank Ogawa Plaza Lobby (exhibit), Downtown Oakland, include a visual art exhibition, “Oakland Blazing New Trails.” The exhibit can be viewed within both buildings, Mon. through Friday 9:30-4:30 until Wed. May 25, 2016.

African American Soprano, Nicole Joseph sings Samuel Barber’s Knoxville; Summer of 1915 at OEBS

The Oakland Symphony, Music Director and Conductor Michael Morgan, the Oakland Symphony Chorus and guest artists Tracy Silverman, electric violin, and soprano Nicole Joseph will conclude the Symphony’s 2015-2016 season with a concert of music by John Adams, Stravinsky, Barber and Ravel Friday, May 20, at 8 pm at the Paramount Theatre. Mr. Silverman will perform John Adams’ The Dharma at Big Sur for orchestra and electric violin and Ms. Joseph, who was the winner of the 2015 Toland Vocal Arts Competition, will sing Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Completing the evening will be Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms with the Oakland Symphony Chorus, Lynne Morrow, Director; and Ravel’s La Valse. Pre-concert drinks, lobby entertainment and a talk begin at 7 pm and the concert is sponsored by Bell Investment Advisors.Tickets are priced $20-$75 and may be purchased at www.oaklandsymphony.org

Bay Area composer John Adams composed The Dharma at Big Sur for the opening of Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles in 2003, with Tracy Silverman as its electric violin soloist. In addition to an unusual solo instrument, its playful orchestration includes electronic samplers, ten gongs and two flower pots. Dharma’s sinuous solo passages and descriptive orchestral writing emerge as if from a fog into crystal clear phrases in homage of American composers Lou Harrison and Terry Riley. Adams composed it to evoke what he calls the “shock of recognition” that happens when reaching the end of a continental land mass in a spectacular place like Big Sur, California. Barber’s equally evocative musical memory of a summer evening, Stravinsky’s neoclassical choral symphony and Ravel’s ebullient, dance-hall romp are the perfect complements to Adams’ concerto. The performance of The Dharma at Big Sur is underwritten by a grant from the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation, that would be appreciated.

Film
San Francisco Silent Film Festival features a Rare film by Oscar Micheaux

WITHIN OUR GATES
Saturday, June 4, 5:15 pm at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco
Directed by Oscar Micheaux | USA, 1920 | 83 m.
With Evelyn Preer, Flo Clements, James D. Ruffin, Jack Chenault

“Within Our Gates” is the oldest surviving film made by an African-American director and an intrepid rebuttal not only to D.W. Griffith’s racist epic The Birth of a Nation (1915) but also a history lesson to white America shocked by the 1919 riots. It portrays the early years of Jim Crow, the revival of the Ku Klux Klan, and the Great Migration in the story of a young African-American woman who goes north to try to raise money for a poor, rural school in the Deep South. Within Our Gates confronts the racial violence of the time with the same vigor as it counters hateful stereotypes. This will be the San Francisco premiere of a new score for strings and voice by acclaimed composer Adolphus Hailstork.

Live musical accompaniment by Oakland Symphony musicians and members of the Oakland Symphony Chorus, conducted by Michael Morgan. Listen to a recent interview with Maestro Morgan and Dr. Hailstork here:

Radical San Francisco State University

“Agents of Change,” a powerful documentary about the black student-led protest movement on college campuses in the late 1960s, and its connection to the Black Lives Matter movement and campus protests of today, will have its Bay Area premiere at the Castro Theater on May 15, 2016 at 1 pm with KRON’s Pam Moore moderating the on-stage discussion following the screening. The film won the Jury and the Audience Award for Best Feature Documentary at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles.

Filmmakers, Abby Ginzberg of Berkeley and Frank Dawson of Los Angeles, will be joined by SF State activists featured in the film.  Tickets are available through eventbrite:
http://www.eventbrite.com/e/agents-of-change-bay-area-film-premiere-tickets-23117066769

 

On the Fly:
San Francisco International Arts Festival; Yerba Buena Gardens Music Festival; San Francisco International Film Festival; Ifa Festival in Oakland; Antony and Cleopatra @ African American Shakespeare Company; The Grace Jones Project at MoAD; Take this Hammer at YBCA; The Mountaintop at Contra Costa Civic Theatre; Sojourner & runboyrun at The Magic Theatre; Red Velvet at San Francisco Playhouse; Six Degrees of Separation at Custom Made Theatre, Mas at Ubuntu Theatre Project, To Kill a Mockingbird at Berkeley Playhouse.

African Liberation Day 2016

African Liberation Day (ALD) was founded as African Freedom Day on April 15, 1958 at the first Conference of Independent African States in Accra, Ghana. This conference laid the foundation and strategy for the further intensification and coordination of the next stage of the African Revolution which would ultimately culminate in the complete unification of the African continent. With the creation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) on May 25, 1963, African Freedom Day became African Liberation Day. Since then, May 25th has been celebrated throughout the African world as a day to mark our ongoing determination to free ourselves from foreign domination and exploitation. And, it is in the spirit of the first African Freedom Day that the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party and the Bay Area African United Front invites you to join us in celebrating 58 years of African Liberation Day.

Black Love Beyond borders Week of International Solidarity

May 21 to May 28: We will be joining partners across the U.S. and international partners to host a week of internationalism to raise consciousness and build connections between Black-led U.S.-based movements and Black-led struggles and popular uprisings across the globe.

• Sat., May 21: Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival, 11am – 7pm, San Antonio Park, Foothill Blvd. and 18th Ave., Oakland. Sponsored by the Eastside Arts Alliance: https://www.facebook.com/EastSideArtsAlliance/?fref=ts

• SUN., MAY 22: MAIN EVENT KICKOFF: WHAT’S HAPPENING IN HAITI, 6pm – 8pm at Oakland Peace Center 111 Fairmount Avenue. Hosted by Haiti Action Committee, Black Alliance for Just Immigration and Black Lives Matter Bay area Chapter. TO RSVP, GO TO: https://www.facebook.com/events/856250281147973/

• Mon., May 23: Teach-in on the “Stop the Bleeding” Campaign to End the Financial Rip-off of Africa by corporations and politicians, 7pm – 9pm at SoleSpace, 1714 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Hosted by Priority Africa Network. TO RSVP, GO TO: https://www.facebook.com/events/1071430532924097/

• Tue., May 24: Teach-In: The Struggle of Afro-Colombians for Their Land and Livelihood, 6pm – 8pm with Tianna Paschel, author of Becoming Black Subjects Movements and Ethno-Racial Rights in Colombia and Brazil, and short documentary film at Niebyl Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland. Hosted by Priority Africa Network. TO RSVP, GO TO: https://www.facebook.com/events/211962679187442/

• Wed., May 25: African Liberation Day Event, 1:30pm at McClymonds High School, 2607 Myrtle Street. Hosted by All African People’s Revolutionary Party.

• Thurs., May 26: Day of Action for Haiti, 11:30am – 1:30pm at the Dellums Federal Building, 1301 Clay St., Oakland. Hosted by Black Lives Matter Bay Area Chapter, Black Alliance for Just Immigration and Haiti Action Committee. TO RSVP, GO TO: https://www.facebook.com/events/946042015523089/

• Sat., May 28: African Liberation Day Main Event, 12pm – 6pm at EastSide Arts Alliance 2277 International Blvd, Oakland. Hosted by All African People’s Revolutionary Party. GO TO: https://www.facebook.com/events/1002952279800186/

Organizational Sponsors: Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Haiti Action Committee, Black Lives Matter Bay Area Chapter, All African People’s Revolutionary Party, Priority Africa Network, EastSide Arts Alliance and Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.

For more information: devonte@blackalliance.org and (510) 459-2914.

“Dr. Mutulu Is Welcome Here” is the title of the campaign and the program Malcolm X Grass Roots Movement hosted Easter Sunday, Resurrection Day in Oakland. As we walked into Sole Space, a venue that also sells shoes and art, and is a part of the corner building that houses “Oakstop,” we were invited to pose with a photo of Dr. Shakur. Mama Ayanna, seated at the door welcomes and greets comrades and friends of friends as other members of MXGM (https://mxgm.org/) host the program which includes a slide presentation which presents Dr. Shakur’s political biography and what led to his conviction, February 11, 1986. He was charged and convicted of freeing our Sister Assata Shakur from prison and master minding a 1981 expropriation of a Brinks armored truck. He is a prisoner of war, a distinction which carries certain legal rights, not that the federal government acknowledges these rights.  It is for this reason that after serving 30 years of a 60 year sentence, his release was not addressed nor his parole date honored this past Feb. 10. His next date is April 7, 2016. There is lots of information and a wonderful video at http://mutuluiswelcomehere.com/

A young sister poet opened the program, followed by Wanda Sabir who spoke of Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, followed by Phavia Kujichagulia who stated that we are at “WAR.” Tureeda Mikell spoke about the system of white supremacy and its tactics in a poem which every black child needs to hear and use as a counterinsurgency plan. Queen Ayodele Nzinga—Wordslanger sprinkled medicine on the fire and it came up red, her brazen hot fingertips covered in molten language, bullets formed and fired from her mouth.  Antique wrapped it up in fiery freestyle melodies. Write to Brother Mutulu, support his release.

Adopt an Encampment

The monthly breakfasts are going strong, the two encampments we serve are cleaner and have less dumping now that we have mobilized support for its inhabitants. There was a lot of flooding in March. RJ and I got sandbags from the City of Oakland to help with the excessive water. We have also been able to continue to give away shoes, men’s pants, socks, coats, and men’s underwear. However, these supplies and others like heavy garbage bags, pine cleaner, food, blankets, etc., often come out of our pockets. I average $200-$300 out of pocket a month. I am not sure how long I can keep this up. We are still looking to develop permanent housing stock for these alternative communities.  Visit http://theausetmovement.blogspot.com/ or email: theausetmovement@gmail.com

“Welcome to Leith” premieres on Independent Lens, April 4

So you thought racism has spun its wheels and left the concourse? Nope. Meet Craig Cobb, notorious white supremacist leader who sees a real estate investment opportunity, and before the small North Dakota town, Leith can blink, it is occupied by nouveau Mayflower stockholders, puritans who want a place in America where they can honor and celebrate whiteness and white power. Leith is so off the beaten path, Mayor Ryan Schock can’t define white supremacy, let alone agree to participate in Cobb’s armed legion. Directed by Christopher K. Walker and Michael Beach Nichols, the film airs on Independent Lens, April 4, on PBS.

Listen to an interview with Walker about the surreal experience, a throwback to the Wild Wild West mixed with Jim Crow South, when the only ones winning were white men with guns: http://tobtr.com/8558877

That the film screens on the 48^th anniversary of Martin King’s shooting at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, April 4, the end of The Season of Peace – the months between the killing of men of peace: Mahatma Gandhi, JFK, Malcolm X and Martin King, is not unnoticed by this writer. Nor is it lost on anyone watching the heated presidential race how in line Team Trump is with Team Cobb. After 9/11, the federal government shifted attention away from domestic terrorism to an inarticulate international terror, so if it weren’t for organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Project monitoring white supremacist activities, the Leith invasion might have gone unnoticed, especially given the fact that Leith has a population of 24 people. It is a registered ghost town. To check local times visit http://itvs.org/films/welcome-to-leith/

Lorraine Hansberry Theatre at the AAACC for “Thurgood”

Steven Anthony Jones framed by the stars and stripes has the look of Supreme court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who has returned to his alma mater, Howard Law School to tell all, well maybe not all, but enough. In a stunning work, reprised for a limited engagement, April 7-17 at the Burial Clay Theatre, 762 Fulton Street, in San Francisco, Jones brings this remarkable man to life in George Stevens, Jr.’s remarkable work.  Jones, who is artistic director of the LHT, says he was born during a time when Marshall’s court battles were topical, and had a major impact on southern family members whom he’d visit during the summer. However, Jones and Marshall’s lives run parallel in other ways over a generation apart.

SAJ: “Thurgood Marshall was such a great man. I thought I knew him, but I did not know what a great and important person he was to all of our lives. He was the foot soldier under Charles Hamilton Huston, professor at Howard University who established the law school. Marshall led the civil rights movement in the courts. He fought so many battles, put his life on the line for so many things we take for granted,” Jones said in a recent interview. He is a man who was getting Dr. King and other Civil Rights activists out of jail.” (If I remember my history, Marshall was also the person who told King to distance himself from Bayard Rustin—but that is not this story (smile).

“He was responsible for Brown vs. Board of Education. Under the guidance of Professor Huston, they fought all the small battles in the court. It was just finding out the details of that struggle and then walk in that man’s shoes for a couple of hours was a real thrill. It might be of all the things I have done on stage, my favorite. He was just an amazing human being. I am happy to get this story out for another generation.”

WS: Talk about how your walk in the arts has allowed you to do justice to such a character, such a life? You are at a point in your career when it fits, wouldn’t you say?

Jones laughs. “Well I am the right age. It presents him after he retires. He says at the beginning of the play, ‘I have given 50 years to the law.’ I have given 43-44 years to the theatre. I have the fortune to have started at the Negro Ensemble Theatre with Turner Ward. I originated a role in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, A Soldier’s Play. I worked with the brothers, Denzel and Sam Jackson, who went on to become major box office stars, and I can’t emphasize enough how important it was to be able to work with Douglas Turner Ward (Day of Absence). He is responsible for mentoring and teaching generations of African American actors, playwrights, designers. He put so many people into the business. We needed forget that Douglas created the modern black theatre movement in the early ‘60s when he wrote the editorial in the New York Times, “Theatre for White People Only,” and that led to the discussion that led to the creation of the Negro Ensemble Company and pushed the door open which led to the creation of all the ethnic theatres. We’re talking Asian, Native American or woman’s theatre, Gay and Lesbian, all the sub-groups that eventually began to function in the structure of American theatre and give voice to their stories. I think all of this is possible because of the work of Douglas Turner Moore.” To hear more visit: http://tobtr.com/8558877  To see “Thurgood” visit: http://www.lhtsf.org/tickets.html

THE FORUM CONVERSATION SERIES LAUNCHES WITH LEGAL PANEL DISCUSSING ISSUES OF COURTROOM BIAS, RULINGS, ELECTION

Prominent Civil Rights defender Attorney John Burris hosts evening with legal experts, judicial candidates.

Attorney John Burris, one of the nation’s most prominent civil rights defenders, in conversation with legal experts Otis Bruce, Jr. (Senior Deputy District Attorney, Marin County), Paul Henderson (Deputy Chief of Staff, Public Safety for San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee), Scott Jackson (Law Professor, Director of the Litigation Center, Golden Gate University) and Jennifer Madden (Assistant District Attorney, Alameda County). Reception to follow.

The conversation will be candid, with the objective of gaining an insider’s perspective on the criminal justice system from these accomplished professionals, together in discussion for the first time. Timing is everything, and in this election year, these four impressive African Americans are also candidates for four different Bay Area Superior Court Judicial seats – Bruce (Marin County), Henderson (San Francisco County), Jackson (Seat 1, Alameda County) and Madden (Seat 2, Alameda County).

The event takes place, Thursday, April 28, 2016, 7:00 p.m. at Impact Hub Oakland,   2323 Broadway Oakland CA
Visit the event page: www.bit.ly/theforum-justice

Open Engagement@ Oakland Museum of CA

Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) hosts Open Engagement (OE) 2016. We will explore the theme of POWER. This befits the legacy of Northern California’s radical politics such as the black power movement represented by the Black Panther Party founded fifty years ago in Oakland. This particular installment of OE is the first chapter in a trilogy of themes and institutional locales that will consider JUSTICE at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2017, and in 2018 returning to the Queens Museum in New York to explore SUSTAINABILITY .

Open Engagement’s 2016 keynote speakers are activist Angela Davis and artist Suzanne Lacy. These iconic figures bracket the unique space that OE is becoming as a site of care for the field of socially engaged art and as the meeting ground for aesthetics and social activism.

Power is the ability to make desired results happen. OE believes in the genius of the many so we invite presenters and attendees to define what power means for themselves as individuals and communities.

What is it? The digital age may have forever transformed the path to power. Now it is less about the individual and physical control and more about the crowd and influence of information. But liberation and dystopia have gone hand in hand. The Arab Spring and #BlackLivesMatter movements have had profound and far reaching effects, in part through the aid of digital tools, yet the core concerns for humane societies haven’t changed – and may have gotten worse. What is the calculus of new and old power that we seek?

How do we get it? We can grab or make it. When not given fairly and freely, how do we effectively demand opportunity? When strident and just calls for equity are met with further resistance, then what? What are the innovations to create new DIO (do-it-ourselves) avenues to power? How can we grasp our independent agency to influence and turn this influence into change?

Conference panel:
April 30, 2016
5:00pm  –  6:30pm
Lecture Hall — Level 1

Gathering together some of the most provocative voices of the Bay Area, our panelists speculate on the role of arts practitioners to record and amplify the experience and concerns of disabled people 25 years after the Americans with Disabilities Act. We will discuss current projects that present creative challenges to mental illness and police violence, race and disability poetics, medical/ technological interventions, and political activism. We are united in the belief that authoring contributions to the cultural and historic record is crucial to empowering people with disabilities.

Discussants are author / artist Corbett O’Toole, filmmaker/ artist Lisa Ganser, artist/ curator Cara E. Levine, poet/ performance artist Leroy Moore, photographer/ disability rights activist Anthony Tusler, and community activist/ oral historian Alice Wong. Moderated by artist Jennifer Justice.

An Easter Story: Jerusalem, California
by Wanda Sabir

Black man seated on a shopping cart wearing a sweater as slacks, smoking a cigar in Oakland’s Chinatown is an anomaly, so as I walk by him, I turn around and look again. Was I really seeing this? I was flabbergasted. I could not believe my eyes: a naked black man? I called RJ and told him what I was witnessing and asked him what I should do. He told me to go to the Salvation Army and get the slightly built man some clothes. He suggested a men’s size 8 ½ shoe.

When I walked into the busy store a couple blocks away, I see a friend trying on a faux fur stole, which looked good on her. Might be a bit warm for Easter Sunday in Oakland – but two of us tell her to go on and buy it.  As I wandered the store looking for jogging pants, tee-shirts, and shoes, I learn that most of the men’s shoes are kept for Army men. I find sandals which might have been too small, but I hoped not.  I pick up canvas shoes, but they are too large and there are no socks, so I put them back. I purchase a pair of khaki walking shorts, flannel shorts, two tee-shirts, long jogging pants and a hooded front zipped sweatshirt.

There was only one check stand open and the line was long. I didn’t want the elder to leave, so I requested another checker and one came to the register and rang up my purchases. I then raced back across the street where the regal elder sat calmly smoking a cigar.

I was kind of nervous. I didn’t want to intrude, but I went up to him and told him I bought him some clothes as I began taking the items out of the bag and showing them to him. I told him I would leave the bag with him for the items, but he took the shoes and another item and put it in his cart.  I repeated what I said about the bag and stepped back so that he wouldn’t take the items from my hands.  Each item was greeted with a “thank you Ma’am.”

Felt funny to be thanked so formally, considering he might be my elder, but looks are deceiving. I have learned over the past few months that people who look to be my elders are actually younger than me.  So perhaps I am his elder (smile).

When I finished speaking I gave him the bag which he added to his cart where the red floral blanket and other items were stored. I then left. I forgot to ask him if he was hungry, but he didn’t mention it, so I hoped that his day continued to go well and that he had a safe place to sleep that evening. I was tempted to go by the site later that evening about midnight when I was driving home from a play, also about a displaced man, Johnny “Rooster” Byron. Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem, produced by Secondwind Productions March 4-26, in San Francisco, is set in Wiltshire, England during the holiday celebration honoring St. George.

Rooster, portrayed powerfully by actor Ian Walker, has occupied a forest just outside of town for 26 years when real-estate developers want to expand their housing stock and get an ordinance against Rooster to take the land where he has lived in a camper undisturbed up to now.  The town kids love him. His place is one where there is no judgement; they can experiment with drugs, sex and feel free. Located deep among the trees in a sacred forest, Rooster’s sanctuary is a place where the elder tells stories, gives guidance and sets the kids on their way, when they eventually journey into the lives carved out for them by a larger social order. A social order which appears in orange vests, loud speakers, clubs, video cameras waving threatening legal papers which they paste on a noncompliant, unruffled Rooster.

In Candomblé, St. George (or Saint Sebastian), the syncretized orisha or black diety, Ogún (also spelled Ogum) is the warrior, fighter of injustice, defender of his people. He is said to have been the first orisha to descend from “orun,” heavens, to the earth “aiye,” to make it habitable for humanity and orisha. In establishing the ile aiye or house of the earth, Ogún is seen as “the father of civilization. It was his tools and labor that cleared away the wilderness to build cities, homes, and roads. He is the cutting edge of the knife and as such is often misunderstood. The knife can be used to kill someone, or to save someone in surgery – such is Ogun’s nature.

“Ogún lives in the wilderness and forested areas of the world. He is often found hunting with his best friends Eleggua and Ochosi. Ogun can be a loyal and loving father who works tirelessly at his forge making new inventions, or he can be a blood thirsty warrior that swings machetes and decapitates his enemies.” [1]

“He is believed by his followers to have wo ile sun, to have disappeared into the earth’s surface instead of dying, in a place named Ire-Ekiti. Throughout his earthly life, he is thought to have fought for the people of Ire thus is known also as Onire. In Dahomey religion, Gu is the vodun (deity) of war and patron deity of smiths and craftsmen. He was sent to earth to make it a nice place for people to live, and he has not yet finished this task.”[2]

Butterworth’s character certainly captures much that is African deity and folk hero, Ogún. There is a mystical element connected to Rooster concerning his birth and resurrection. He has special blood and seems incapable of dying. Townsfolk whom he grew up with visit so that Rooster can recount their creation story. He holds their sacred memories sacrosanct, even if he is often the topic of ridicule or harassment. Rooster represents a rite of passage for boys and girls into adulthood. For those kids who listen, the Rooster moments are singularly life changing, shape-shifting.

Johnny Rooster Byron says he was born on the tip of a speeding bullet, which he pulls from a pocket and tosses to Ginger to see. Ginger tosses it back in disbelief.

“A Byron boy comes with three things.” Rooster tells his skeptical young audience. “A cloak and a dagger, and his own teeth. He comes fully equipped. He doesn’t need nothing. And when he dies, he lies in the ground like a lump of granite. He don’t rot. There’s Byron boys buried all over this land, lying in the ground as fresh as the day they was planted. In them’s cloaks. With the teeth sharp. Fingernails sharp. And the two black eyes, staring out, sharp as spears. You get close and stare into those black eyes, watch out. Written there is old words that will shake you. Shake you down.”

Ian Walker as Rooster looms as tall as the trees surrounding him. These evergreen soldiers are fitting companions as is the youth, Ginger (Nickolas Rice) who loves Rooster, even when he ignores the wannabe DJ. Other interesting characters are Phaedra, (portrayed by Tyler Barnes). The fairy queen with wings that light up, wears a crown and hides out with Rooster. Other interesting characters are: the multiple adolescent boys, one about to leave for Australia, the singing professor and the dancing bartender, Westley (actor, Stefin Collins). The play is set in Ireland, 2014.

“Jerusalem” directed by Misha Hawk-Wyatt, perhaps questions the notion of the antihero as Rooster is both beloved and hated. What of his story is true and what is make believe? Was he really born of a virgin with teeth and a spear as were all his descendants? Did Rooster meet the giant who built Stonehenge? What of the sacred drum the giant gave him to summon the mighty giant and the giant’s family, if Rooster ever needed their help?

With a gorgeous soundtrack featuring blues artists, rock and other dialectic discursive digressions, the youthful and more mature characters, emboldened by a stellar cast, tell a remarkable story. The tale sits on lilting tongues within a world which is rapidly changing despite Rooster’s up to then solitary, yet heroic efforts against the big machine. Even the earth spirits or gnomes and leprechauns cannot save Rooster’s home in the woods from “progress.”

If our lives are nothing but a series of narratives, collections of stories strung together or linked to a larger dynamic, yet human tapestry, then “Jerusalem” and what Rooster faces when his time runs out, is a terminus or conclusion we can all anticipate. Rooster serves as the canvas upon which the uninitiated shoot like arrows into a sky then return. For at least a generation, he has welcomed the local kids with caustic or cautionary humor. He loves “the vermin,” even when they do harm his fabric—piercing or tearing away at his soul.

As the bulldozers approach, the eviction imminent, we wonder where Rooster will fly too next or if he plans like his relative, the Phoenix, to also go up in flames. It doesn’t hurt, even as Secondwind Productions strives for race and gender neutrality, it works politically that Ian Walker, as protagonist, is a strapping black man.

The intimate set has the audience privy to various activities, whether this is the outdoor tub filled with fresh water where Rooster dips his head in the morning or the sofa which is a welcoming sight for travelers who come in peace. The space is large enough for the kids to have a party, yet, small so that they can’t hide from fate when the sun rises and well . . . accounts are tallied for payment. Good humor seems to be the way of this world, and when humor fails, Rooster gets on his post and crows.

Notes:
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[1] http://santeriachurch.org/the-orishas/ogun/

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Theatre

Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop, directed by Marilyn Langbehn, is at at Contra Costa Civic Theatre, 951 Pomona Avenue, El Cerrito, April 15-May 8.  Visit http://ccct.org/the-mountaintop/

On April 3, 1968, after delivering one of his most memorable speeches, an exhausted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. retires to his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, while a storm rages outside. When a mysterious stranger arrives with some surprising news, King is forced to re-evaluate the meaning of his life, confront his destiny, and come to terms with his unfinished legacy, as every person must do. A compelling and thought-provoking reimagination of events the night before the assassination of the celebrated civil rights leader.

DAVID MURRAY & CLASS STRUGGLE BACK IN TOWN

Saturday, April 9, 2016  8:00pm, EastSide Cultural Center, 2277 International Blvd.  Oakland. Tickets are from $10-25 (no one is ever turned away for lack of funds)

Tenor saxophone giant David Murray comes home with his guitarist son Mingus in tow to round out a local quartet called “Class Struggle”.  Murray, perhaps the world’s most prolific recording jazz artist, has revolutionized the 70s-80s avant-garde and expanded the music’s reach throughout the African Diaspora.  Equally innovative on bass clarinet, Murray has recorded with various quartet and octet combos, poets Amiri Baraka, Ntozake Shange and Ishmael Reed, and is a founding member of the World Saxophone Quartet.

Performing at the EastSide Cultural Center on Saturday, April 9th David Murray & Class Struggle come to East Oakland with the intent to perform the music in Black communities to retain its historic and soulful roots.  As sponsoring hosts, EastSide Arts Alliance recognizes that cultural gentrification – the mainstream commercializing of the music – is a key component of community gentrification.  The annual Malcolm X JazzArts Festival and efforts to establish a Black Cultural Zone in Oakland are part of the resistance against the onslaught of gentrification, while over a quarter of the Black community has been uprooted in just the past decade. Maintaining the music and arts in our schools and independently-run cultural centers is critical to the survival and livelihood of healthy empowered families and neighborhoods.

The music will be GREAT! This is an event not to be missed.

On the Fly
San Francisco International Film Festival 59, April 21-May 5
http://www.sffs.org/sfiff59/about/welcome-to-sfiff59  Crowns @ Theatre on San Pedro Square, April 8-May 1, 29 N. San Pedro Street, San Jose, Top of Form Friday, Apr 8-May 1. Visit http://www.tabardtheatre.org/tickets.html CROWNS, starring Tabard’s original 2009 cast strutting their “hattitude”: Glenna Brambill-Williams, Debra J. Crenshaw, James Creer, Juanita Harris, Tracy Perrilliat, and Paula Warren. In this moving and celebratory musical, hats become a springboard for the storytelling and exploration of coming home. Written by Regina Taylor, adapted from the book Crowns, Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry. Alonzo King’s LINES Contemporary Ballet in collaboration with Jason Moran and Charles Lloyd open April at Yerba Buena Center for Theatre, April 21-30,  www.linesballet.org, 415.978.2787  Youth Speaks Grand Slam Finals! April 16, 7:00 p.m., at Davies Symphony Hall, Grove Street between Van Ness & Franklin, San Francisco, http://www.youthspeaks.org The 14^th Annual Oakland International Film Festival is April 5-9 featuring more than 50 films screened at the Grand Lake Theater, Holy Names University, Impact Hub Oakland, Geoffrey’s Inner Circle and other Oakland venues. The Festival opens at Holy Names University in Oakland. Visit http://www.oiff.org/

Uppity Edutainment: Films by and about Black People Every Thursday in Oakland

Uppity Edutainment screens films by and for black people every Thursday at Oakstop. There is a special screening of “Black Friday: What Legacy Will You Leave,” Thursday, April 21. What is special about this screening at Oakstop, 1721 Broadway, Oakland, is the Economic Literacy Workshop in conjunction with the film and skype conversation with director, Ric Mathis.

The film will be screened in multiple locations throughout the North Bay. Films screen at 7, dinner is at 6 p.m. For information call (510) 592-8733 or visit http://www.up-ed.com/home.html  The last Thursday in March 31, Uppity screens “Not For Sale: The Oscar Wright Story,” directed by Michael Lange.

Keeping it Wild @ Sixth Annual SF Green Film Festival

San Francisco Green Film Festival returns Thursday, April 14 through Wednesday, April 20, for its biggest year yet. For its sixth edition the Green Film Fest will be a city-wide celebration and focal point for the week of Earth Day. As the West Coast’s leading green doc destination, the Festival is bringing together films, filmmakers, experts, and audiences to spark the next great environmental ideas.

The Festival will present 70 internationally acclaimed, eco-focused films. Over 90 visiting filmmakers and guest speakers will be in attendance to delve into some of the most pressing environmental issues and innovative solutions. Audiences will be inspired to move beyond their theatre seats, with tangible ideas and connections to take positive environmental action.

Scaling the country’s highest peak in AN AMERICAN ASCENT; fighting to make rivers run free in A RIVER BETWEEN US; celebrating the National Park Service Centennial in KEEP IT WILD shorts program; and honoring the 50^th Anniversary of the film that started a conservation movement, BORN FREE. Additional events in this theme include: WILD VR (an immersive workshop on virtual reality); and PARROTS, PELICANS, AND PEOPLE: OH MY! (a discussion with wildlife filmmaker Judy Irving).

Opening Night will take place at the Castro Theatre – a new venue for Green Film Fest – on Thursday, April 14, before moving to the Festival’s main venue the Roxie Theatre from April 15 through 19, and returning to the Castro Theatre for Closing Night, April 20. Other Festival Venues include: FestHQ at 518 Valencia; Koret Auditorium at the San Francisco Public Library Main Branch; YBCA; Goldman Theater at the David Brower Center in Berkeley; and the Banatao Auditorium in Suturdja Dai Hall on UC Berkeley Campus.

Pricing for all regular screenings: General Admission $15; Students, seniors and disabled adults $14; Members $13. Tickets for receptions and parties are individually priced. There are free events held in FestHQ (518 Valencia) on April 16 & 17; and at San Francisco Public Library Main Branch on April 19.  Visit http://www.greenfilmfest.org/

Theatre
Retired firefighter, Charles Johnson, scores another success as a playwright in “Ain’t It So…”

World Premiere of Charles Johnson’s “Ain’t It So,” directed by Richard Harder and produced by Multi-Ethnic Theatre, runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, April 21 – May 14 at 8:00 pm, plus Saturday matinees, April 23 and May 14 at 2:00 pm at the newly redesigned Gough Street Playhouse,1620 Gough Street (at Bush) in San Francisco, in the west wing of Trinity-St. Peter’s Episcopal Church.

In “Ain’t It So…,” it is 1983.  Two older African-American women, born and raised in Alabama, live on the South Side of Chicago, wait for the husbands to retire from their factory jobs.  The wives hope to return down home, but the husbands share a secret from the past that stands in their way.

Tickets are $20-$40. 415-420-8000 $20-$40 www.wehavemet.org.  There is a $10 discount on all ticket prices on Thursdays. Visit www.wehavemet.org

W. Kamau Bell’s #UNITEDSHADES

United Shades of America, a new CNN Original Series hosted by W. Kamau Bell, premieres on Sunday, April 24, at 10 p.m. ET/PT.  The eight-part series follows the comedian as he explores subcultures across the country, using comedy to start a conversation about race and how our differences unite and divide us.  The series takes Kamau from the far corners of Alaska to Florida’s retirement homes to America’s most notorious prison.  Each hour-long episode strives to show the country is not built upon just one, but many diverse and colorful definitions of America.

In the premiere episode, Kamau heads to the South to challenge the ‘new’ Ku Klux Klan.  This generation of Klansmen claims they have rebranded and Kamau must see for himself. The series will regularly air Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT following new episodes of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. Series trailer: http://cnn.it/1TePum4

Miles Ahead, a Review

In his directorial debut as Miles Davis, Don Cheadle certainly calls forth a creative yet deeply troubled spirit. In his Miles we see what happens when astral self-splits or loses sight of what is earthy. The Davis we meet is in a slump; after a period of profound artistic success he slows to a creative crawl. A ghost haunts him, her name is Frances Taylor (Emayatzy Corinealdi). The beautiful dancer from Chicago captures his soul and the mercurial master of sound chases her away. “Sketches of Spain,” and “Someday My Prince Will Come,” are just two of the many ways his love, their love manifest in the world then and even now. She knows she is his inspiration and sacrifices her own love of dance and movement for a solo performance on Miles’s stage 24/7. We watch Miles watching her, no longer there, but a presence nonetheless. Perhaps it is her beauty in the midst of so much ugliness—the infidelity, the coke, booze, disrespect and violence, that captivates us as much as the man who courts her until she says yes.

“Miles Ahead” speaks to karma and the fact that ugliness has a price and Miles was not immune. He paid for his trespasses on time, 3-4-6 years dry, record company calling for new music, his public assuming he’d died despite the absent body. The artist lives like a hermit in his multiple stories apartment alternately painting, listening to the radio, recording notes—thinking, daydreaming.

Cheadle’s Miles is unpredictable and dangerous—a reporter comes to his door unannounced and Davis punches him in the nose. Later he teaches this same guy how to use his sparing bag. They get high together and even though Miles shouldn’t trust him he does. Cheadle’s raspy voice, curly hair and audacity that is his Miles has a truth that makes a heart race or a hand tremble in the face of such genius wrapped in such unpredictability. Being in the man’s company could get you killed. Even without a pistol, Miles is dangerous. Several times he puts his pistol to someone’s head and pulls the trigger shattering ideas about black manhood and fear.  On screen, Davis is fearless, which is perhaps another reason why he got away with so much and lived as long as he did.

An enigma, Cheadle’s film adds a bit of light on a man to know him, one seems to have to step into a darkness his soul occupies. Shadowy, his horn served as a flashlight dispelling demons—slaying dragons, releasing June bugs and shoeflies. There seems to be a tranquility about the character when he is in his zone—never quite captured by the moment, but separated from his internal madness long enough to have perspective. Davis’s rages were constant and well known; however, Frances loves him and it is something he recognizes like King Macbeth recognizes in Lady Macbeth – this thing that hearts do, “bend and break,” even when their paths diverge and part; even when he realizes that she was his strength and anchor.

Davis loses his way, and the film has him chasing a score, a tape, stolen goods. However, what he gets is a younger, more articulate and assured self he thought gone.  In Cheadle’s hands, there is grace for the wicked. Yes, Miles is wicked. He is mean and arrogant, brash and hard to take, yet if music soothe the beast, then certainly Miles played on to heal or to forget, perhaps to move on after Frances?

On International Women’s Day I was in the theatre watching a film about a man infamous for his temper and fisticuffs.  Also known for his musical brilliance, the film makes one question, at what inspired this creative genius and at what cost? For Cheadle’s Davis the creative package came with excessive baggage: drugs, sex, and a need to control.  Davis reminds me a lot of Louis Armstrong, different generations, same Jim Crow. Armstrong knows what slice is up, while Davis thinks because he has a gig and his name is on the marquee that the police will not take offense at a black man seeing a white woman to a taxi, then standing on the corner smoking a cigarette like he owns the corner, if not the block and the street. Davis’s head is smashed and then he is arrested, thrown into the patrol car and taken to the precinct and booked.

One wonders just a short while after Cicely Tyson is given the Presidential Medal why this story, why now. Does it have anything to do with Davis’s 90th birthday next month, May 26? I wonder how many wives Miles had and what their collective story would say about privilege and sex and race.  When the power dividends get parceled out, black women are still on the lower rung.

Hard to believe when rumor would have it that she is on top.

Miles lives in a swanky house filled with art and space for music. He is dabbling with ideas, his fans anxious for something new. It’s been three years and his record label is also pulling at the bit. Davis is alone and lonely. He is riding a white cloud, falling off just in time for it to crash—when he is annoyed by the doorbell.

With a temper that is legendary, he punches a reporter who says his label sent him to write a story and so begins the adventure which is a crime story with a bit of love thrown in. We don’t know much about the beautiful dancer, no one even says that the person driving Miles when they first meet, is Max Roach. The white guys are bigger than life, the black guys with talent, underdogs. Those who know who these creative geniuses are know, because we know, not because the script is clear.

Gangsters don’t know what they are getting into when they decide to mess with Miles. He is fearless limping with a gun into offices where he demands money. He is beyond cool and Don Cheadle has tapped into Miles DNA. If you blink you think, yeah, that’s him. I kept having to check to see what date Davis died. I looked at Cheadle and think, is that Miles? I didn’t know that Cheadle could blow, yet he held his own with alumni Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock and younger musicians, Esperanza Spaulding and Gary Clark Jr.  Dressed in red, dark shades and elegant and cool Cheadle’s Miles was superb.  I especially loved the framing of the closing moments of Miles the film. Artisitcally the film looks and sounds lush, with a depth fitting such a storied score/life — Miles Dewey Davis III.

Cheadle’s Davis didn’t say much. His vocabulary is his silences. Observant, his boxing bag which hangs in his study—I wondered if its presence was new. Davis seemed always ready to knock an opponent out—his enemy (hubris) similar to Macbeth’s . . . imagined, yet real, a presence so great he seems to never feel safe. Surrounded by enemies, trust centered in fear, it is hard for Cheadle’s Miles to be still, to want to be still—his character is kinetic motion, like atoms fired up ready to explode. The man is constantly moving.

So Miles’s tape is stolen and perhaps this is a metaphor for something larger—he loses something really central to his life. I don’t know if he grows any wiser because of it—he still beats his wives, but for a moment he is able to recapture the muse before she slips away completely. And for this, the world even Mrs. Davis seems to forgive him.

I am not certain about all that. I do not know if I would be as lenient towards a man who took my life, and trashed it.

Impulsive and medicated . . . Davis hallucinates. His hip is deteriorating and he is on pain meds. Maybe this was why he was forgiven? The medication just exasperated a situation his personality seemed inclined to exploit.

You be the judge.

Directed by Don Cheadle, written by Cheadle and Steven Baigelman, “Miles Ahead” (100 mins) a Sony Pictures Classics release, is MPAA rated R for strong language throughout, drug use, some sexuality/nudity and brief violence. It opens April 8 at Landmark Embarcadero in San Francisco, and April 15 in other Bay Area theatres.

 

Hospitality House presents: Celebrating Movement Warriors: A Conversation with Pam Tau Lee & Stephen Bingham

Tuesday, April 12, 2016
5:30PM to 7:00PM at Kelly Cullen Community Auditorium, 220 Golden Gate Ave (at Leavenworth) in San Francisco

Moderated by Steve Williams, Co-Founder of LeftRoots, hear the the incredible stories of true movement warriors!

ALSO curated by Hospitality House (http://hospitalityhouse.org/):

Mutual Ground/Varied Approach
Art Exhibition and Bazaar

Friday, April 8th 5:00PM to 7:00PM
Hospitality House’s Community Arts Program
1009 Market Street

Love Fuels Liberation
Congratulations to Mary and Willie Ratcliff and Muhammad al-Kareem for the People’s Liberation Movement as the San Francisco Bay View newspaper. Congratulations to the collective voices which have graced its pages over this history, especially ancestors such as Kevin Weston, and to JR Valrey much respect for envisioning such a wonderful tribute program last month.

At a wonderful panel discussion closing weekend at “Invisibility: African American Male Artists on Art” at Warehouse 416, exhibition artists spoke about disappearing ink and how art makes what is hidden available to those who can see. Min. Farrakhan stated at the 20^th Anniversary of the Million Man March, “Justice or Else” rally about a need to explore our interior regions, that we are more than labels. He called 10,000 black men and 10,000 black women to step to the challenge of helping our people articulate who they are so that we can all be free. Black artists stand at the pentacle of this movement for self-determination. What better tool than the arts—visual or performance art, to awaken what is dormant or dead. Black people, African people believe in life after life, that there is no terminus to this breath which is always circulating and creating more life.

Orisha Urban World Conference in Oakland!

WolfHawkJaguar’s “Prosperity Movement” is using the vehicle of hip hop inspired by Orisha to bring African healing to those who hurt most, Black people, March 10-11. These Black deities—powerful living forces, teach those who know how to walk with certainty and live with integrity as they realize Martin King’s vision for a “beloved community.” Visit Orisaurbanworldfestival.com

“Oro Lati Enu Awon Agba: When the Elders Speak” opens the conference. Featured that evening are elders and artists, poets and musicians, who will share stories of our ancestors who crossed the waters and those who remained at home. Both Diaspora Africans and continental Africans are affected by the disease of white supremacy and racial dominance. Among the Ifa Elders on the panel Friday evening, March 11, 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. at Oakstop, 1721 Broadway Suite 201, in Oakland, are: Dr. Wade Nobles, Chief Luisah Teish, Yeye Nedra T. Williams, Dr. Kọ́lá Abímbọ́lá, Baba Obafemi and Iyabeji Cathy L. Royal, Ph.D. The first evening also includes: food, libations, acoustic sounds of Zion Trinity (from New Orleans), Charlotte Hill O’Neal (from Kansas City and Tanzania) & Awon Ohun Omnira. There will be an African Marketplace, the company of uplifted beautiful people and DJ Kobie Quashie. Evening two, Saturday, March 12, 8 p.m. to 1 a.m., is the party at “The Uptown,” 1928 Telegraph Ave. in Oakland. The Orisha Urban World Festival pays tribute to the artistic beauty and wisdom of the Orisa manifested through art in the Urban World community culminates in a concert that includes: Bobi Cespedes, Zion Trinity, WolfHawkJaguar and many more: http://www.uptownnightclub.com Tune into Wanda’s Picks Radio for exclusive interview with performers and elders featured at this historic event beginning Wednesday, February 24: http://tobtr.com/8298763 and Monday, Feb. 29: http://tobtr.com/s/8339455

Women’s History at West Oakland Senior Center

Tuesday, March 15, “Women’s History Month at the West Oakland Senior Center,” 1724 Adeline (@18^th Street), 1-4 p.m. features: Ms. Carol Henry, West Oakland resident, African Missionary, Black Panther Party alumni, and Ken Greene’s Black Panther Photography Archives, Part 2. These photos are from the Free Huey Rally at Defermery Park in 1968. Pictures from this exhibit were in the PBS documentary “Panther.” It’s the first showing in Oakland and will eventually travel to the Oakland Museum of CA. Curator, Fred Smith says, “Getting this exhibit here first is comparable to Fillmore District getting the King Tut exhibit prior to the Palace of Fine Arts.” As we reflect on the legacy of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, its 50th anniversary year, it too was a movement driven by a sincere “love for the people.” There will also be an African-American Fashion Show from “Darlene’s Uneak Creations,” plus other entertainment and food. Tickets at the door ate $15.00. For information call: (510) 238-7016.

Write Your Story

This workshop, in the Brad Walter’s Community Room, at the Oakland Main library, led by National best-selling author Denise Harris, combines lecture and writing exercises drawing from your personal experiences. Bring your journals and come prepared to write. Bring your questions and get your creative juices flowing. For information call: (510) 238-3841.

AfroSurreal Writers Meet in Oakland

The AfroSurreal Writers Workshop’s mission is to support writers of color creating weird, surreal, or absurdist art. Our conference on March 26 at the African American Museum and Library at Oakland 1-4 p.m., will feature readings and panels from more than a dozen local writers, artists, and activists, and a reception from 5-7 p.m. honoring Juliana “Jewels” Smith.

Jones/Arnie Zane Company presents: Analogy/Dora: Tramontane

MacArthur Genius and legendary choreographer Bill T. Jones, and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, returns to Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 700 Howard Street in San Francisco to present the West Coast premiere of Analogy/Dora: Tramontane, Thursday-Sunday, March 10-13. This new performance is a meditation on persistence, resourcefulness, and resilience. The work is based on an oral history Jones conducted with 95-year old Dora Amelan, a French Jewish nurse and social worker and survivor of World War II.

Dora’s harrowing story is broken into short episodes that become the basis for choreography, narrative, and music. These episodes chronicle her early family life, her mother’s death as the Germans were marching into Belgium, her journey onwards to France, and the loss of further family members during the war. Analogy/Dora: Tramontane is an incredible portrait of perseverance and survival.

Tickets are: $30 in Advance / $35 at the Door, and for Students, Seniors, Teachers: $25 in Advance / $30 at the Door. Visit ybca.org/analogy
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Oakland Social Enterprise Boutique Hosts Frederick Douglass’ Great Great Great Grandson For Speech on Human Trafficking

Regina’s Door Vintage Boutique will host a speaking engagement for Mr. Kenneth B. Morris, Jr., the great great great grandson of Frederick Douglass and the great great grandson of Booker T. Washington on Wednesday, March 16, 6:30 p.m. at 352 17^th Street in Oakland. Mr. Morris will speak on slavery and his work as a modern day abolitionist as the Founder and President of the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives (http://www.fdfi.org).

According to the F.D.F.I. website, Mr. Morris’ “…career and life path are driven by a omission to end human trafficking and all forms of servitude with a clear focus on his organization’s mission To Advance Freedom through Knowledge and Strategic Action. He could not have predicted that one day he would so fully embrace and be defined by the characteristics that so closely defined his famous ancestors.” At 6:30 p.m. is a reception; 7:00 p.m. he will speak and then the floor will open up for questions and comments. For More Information call: (510) 423-8157, evans.regina@gmail.com

Dr. Mutulu Shakur Is Welcome Here

Join the San Francisco Bay Area Community in a cultural edutainment event to honor and support one of our political prisoners, Dr. Shakur who has a parole hearing date April 4. To listen to a recent radio show to talk about this program visit: http://tobtr.com/8558807

Theatre on the Fly:
African American Shakespeare Company’s production of George C. Wolfe’s “The Colored Museum” is superb. So many aspects of black personality show up in Wolfe’s provocative characters literally framed or fried to hear Aunt Ethel (Clara McDaniel) or Miss Roj (Aejay Mitchell) tell it. There is a girl who lays and egg—yes, I know, narrow thinking is not allowed. But then black history requires suspension of judgement. Ms. Roj says it best when he shares why he “snaps.” A snap is an assertion of presence—it is “Kid” when “Man” tries to kill that part of himself which doesn’t fit the image he is trying to paint.

The ensemble is tight as is the timing, live music and scenic design, costumes. The direction is shared across an artistic landscape peopled by four very distinct voices. From L. Peter Callender and Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe to Michael Gene Sullivan and Velina Brown what’s visible in the storytelling whether this is the hilarious “Hairpiece,” the pathos of a “La La at “The Party,” the tragedy that is “Man” in Symbiosis or Walter Lee in “The Last Mama on the Couch Play,” we see why its 30^th Anniversary year why Wolfe’s stinging satire rings so true. We laugh, yet recognize these characters, ‘cause of them live some place a bit closer to home than we care to think— It is up through March 6 at the Buriel Clay Theatre, 762 Fulton Street in San Francisco. Visit http://www.african-americanshakes.org/

“Bridges, a New Musical” at Berkeley Playhouse

Imagine the Edmund Pettus Bridge juxtaposed with the Golden Gate Bridge, two stories told simultaneously through characters whose lives straddle both periods both physically and philosophically. “Bridges, a New Musical” is set in 2008, a time Elizabeth McKoy, Berkeley Playhouse’s Founding Director, felt resonated politically like 1965. After watching the film, Selma, Lord Selma, she wanted to bring the story to life in the present and shared this idea with creative team, Cheryl L. Davis (book and lyrics) and Douglas J. Cohen (music). The result is “Bridges” with excellent direction by Karen Altree Piemme and a cast too huge to name them all—let’s just say the Selma team and the Bay Area team tell the story of racial injustice and how this soul power inspires youth 43 years later when once again intolerance fuels bigotry and prejudice. Nicolas Beard (as Reverend Robert Henderson) delivers an awesome performance, as do many of the cast. Beard’s Rev. Henderson learns through his relationship with his children, especially his daughter Franki (Nandi Drayton), that love means acceptance if not agreement. There is the usual contention between mother-in-law, Grandma Clara (Amanda King) and white Jewish daughter-in-law, Denise Henderson. Dana Lewenthal’s Denise Henderson, the mother of a black boy (even though her presence is not as visible) has a perspective not at all common off or on stage. Her song, “I Don’t Count” and “Mean Cookies” with her son Michael (Caleb Meyers) are show stoppers. However Grandma Clara is a true bridge between the worlds her grandson is reading about, her granddaughter is taking inspiration from and her son, Rev. Henderson has forgotten the lessons learned from his mother’s sacrifice. When Michael asks his grandmother to tell him about the March on Selma, she tells him about, “Bloody Sunday,” March 7; “Turnaround Tuesday,” March 9 and the final successful march to Montgomery, March 21-25.

Phillip Percy Williams as “Paul” (Selma), a freedom summer leader and as “Louis” (Bay Area) Rev. Henderson’s Gay Choir director gives a wonderful performance, as do actors Joshua Marx as Bobby Cohen and Janelle Lasalle as Francine Williams. The love story between these characters Bobby and Francine Williams is a toxic mix in the segregated south as well as an unwelcome interruption between fieldworkers. They are at war and Bobby is flirting. But Bobby is white and even though, the black organizers are the experts, we see Bobby get away with certain behavior because his whiteness gives him a pass, even in the trenches. Given that safety and success are tied to the white southern response to the demand for racial equality, Cohen’s response puts them all in danger. A northerner, there is so much Cohen does not know and takes for granted when he travels to the south to register black people to vote. Francine’s mother does not know what to do when she sees her daughter attracted to Bobby, and Bobby’s father choses to ignore what he knows is the truth when he meets Francine. Bobby is not used to the terrorism, black people he meets, live with daily. Francine tries to tell him and even resists, for a time, his pursuit, yet they are young and the sexual attraction is stronger. Bobby wins the girl over in this tale of multiple crossings. Decisions made in 1965 return to haunt those who survived the battle 43 years later. Survival counter-narratives are not always the best defense when truth makes one uncomfortable or uneasy. The bridges crossed historically remain as monuments to battles won and battles to come. Bridges are how we move from one moment to another. They are the links between lessons; inspiring, they are what holds us as we move between faith and substance. Bridges are ancestors’ songs. This inspiring story is up through March 6 at the Berkeley Playhouse, 2640 College Avenue in Berkeley. For tickets call 510-845-8542 x351 or visit www.berkeleyplayhouse.org