Wanda’s Picks March 2021

Women’s History Day, March 8, March now International Women’s History Month is a time to reflect on the folks who hold up Half the Sky. Imagine a world without women, the silent and silenced beings who make our worlds go round. There is no Malcolm X without Mrs. Louise Little, Grenada native who met her husband at a UNIA conference in Canada. She taught her children how to resist with dignity. In a recent book talk at the Schomburg Center for African American History, Monday, February 22, where every day is an opportunity to celebrate Black History, three authors were in discussion about the life and legacy of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, “Our Black Prince.” The program called “Mother Tongue: the Philosophy of Malcolm X”, featured: Anna Malaika Tubbs, Dr. Michael Sawyer, and moderator, Dr. Imani Perry.

This discussion focused on Louise Little’s influence on her son, whom he adored. As we listened to the scholars share their research, we learned that from his mother Brother Malcolm acquired the quiet dignity we witnessed in his carriage. No push over, Mrs. Little taught her children to stand their ground without fear. She and her eventual husband met at a UNIA conference in Canada. She covered these events for the Black press and so her work enabled the couple to travel.

Sunday, February 21, 1965 was the anniversary of that awful day– Brother Malcolm gunned down in a hail of bullets at the Audubon Ballroom in New York as he spoke. The date, once again falls on a Sunday and for those who like numbers,  56 years later – 56 the inverse of “65” and the “21” 02.21.21.

In the San Francisco Bay Area the day was lovely, sunny and warm, not at all like the weather in New York or Texas or Chicago and elsewhere Americans are experiencing cold weather with power outages and water and food shortage complicated by a pandemic and vaccine shortages.

So I am thinking about our prince—the brilliant Brother Malcolm who is central in Regina King’s (director), “One Night in Miami” (2020). The film takes the historic event February 25, 1964 where Brother Malcolm, Jim Brown and Sam Cooke are all in Miami to witness their friend, Muhammad Ali (1942-2016), then Cassius Clay’s big fight against Sonny Liston for the Heavyweight Championship. What happens after the fight when the men get together at Brother Malcom’s hotel for an improvisational after party complete with ice cream is off the record. However, Kemp Powers’s 2013 stage play which he later adapted for film (2020) imagines these Black men with differing ideas of success simmer, boil and occasionally whistle as judgment and accusation make space for truth.

What happens in that room literally changes the world—two of the men ancestors less than a year later.

Black manhood frightens white dominance, because this systemic inequality is not sustainable and despite the fatalities has not stopped our collective move forward economically or politically and has fueled or inspired African American cultural and spiritual momentum. I appreciated the vulnerability expressed by the men – that room a kind of limbo where if the curtains were drawn, the four could entertain another outcome than the one outside the door.

Violence was/is a legacy none could stop, like birthrights and inheritance or legacy DNA trackers.  When secrets were shared, the bond between each of the men grew tighter, so that once parted they no longer walked alone. Malcolm like Richard Wright shared a pragmatism in art as a political tool, Sam Cooke was not in agreement initially yet eventually accepts.

All the men are successful public figures whether athletes, entrepreneurs or religious and political leaders which makes the imagined conversations a rare opportunity to see Black men speak honestly about what matters to them as Malcolm looks out the hotel window and confirms he is being followed.   “A Night in Miami” is a film about trust. It is a film that explores options only available in community. “We is we.”

“A Night in Miami” is also entertaining. Lots of laughter and Black man shenanigans juxtaposed to the more serious moments such as 22-year-old Cassius prays with his friend before his bout while simultaneously not missing a hilarious beat when he claims victory in more ways than one. Today, Jim Brown (85) is the last man standing.

Serious Malcolm X shares with a disbelieving Sam that he was on security at his concert one evening when the venue lost power. Malcolm watched amazed, he told the men listening, as Sam, a consummate professional, sang acapella while the audience provided the rhythmic grounding—his point to Sam acknowledged and confirmed the artist’s leadership and ability to move his people. Cinematically we all return with the two men to that memory with delight. We later see Cooke (1931-1964) on TV singing his latest work, “A Change Is Gonna Come” (1964), which is different from his previous work.  He obviously heard Malcolm and gave the people what they needed to hear, not what they might want.

It’s the apex of the movement for Black life, for human rights for Black Americans hitting a national and global audience with Malcolm X’s call for justice to African nations and to the United Nations against the US government, a call that has yet to be answered or addressed in any real way. Great film, Sister Regina King. Brava!  Here is a Variety Interview with featured cast: Eli Goree as Muhammad Ali, Kingsley Ben-Adir (Malcolm X), Aldis Hodge (Jim Brown) and Leslie Odom Jr. (Sam Cooke) and Regina King, director at the Toronto Film Festival (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FneK97Jz7V4).

This film released on Christmas Day, 2020 was perhaps a love song to Black men who are too often maligned in the media. Another recent series on Brother Malcolm I’d like to bring to your attention is “Who Killed Malcolm X” a Netflix series released last year Feb. 7, 2020, which follows insipid sleuth Brother Abdur-Rahman Muhammad who for 30 years pursued this cold case.

The recent deathbed confession of Ray Wood (NYPD undercover officer) is cause to revisit this series for those who might have missed it given the call by Shabazz family and attorney on their behalf to reopen the case.

Given the NYPD and FBI stealth involvement in the operations of Black organizations that spoke to Black Liberation, I am not shocked that Brother Malcolm was killed; however, the US government killed him not any one person even if the person had his hand on the trigger.  It was a bigger plan. It’s always a bigger plan. Abdur-Rahman’s methodical attention to the details of the story and conviction of the three men, ignoring the innocence of two men charged: Muhammad Abdul Aziz (aka Norman 3X Butler) and the late Khalil Islam (aka Thomas 15X Johnson). The guilty shooter, Mujahid Abdul Halim (then known as Talmadge Hayer) and the innocent men spent 20 years in prison. The FBI had records which would have exonerated the two innocent men; while the NYPD had information gathered from its undercover agents like Wood. The two agencies did not share documents; however, the strategy was clear regarding Brother Malcolm’s influence: discredit, disrupt, discontinue. If Malcolm X died during the process, so be it.

I watched all six (6) episodes which for a closet detective were engaging as the story unfold to its unfortunate conclusion.  Muhammad who lives in DC and is a tour guide, interviewed men who knew the five men identified at the ballroom as the shooters.  Halim/Hayer while still in custody (he was released in 2010) gave the court the names of all the accomplices; he also interviewed with Abdur-Rahman Muhammad.

When AR Muhammad narrowed the shooter responsible for firing the projectile that ended Brother Macolm’s life, this person, whom Newark Mayor Ras Baraka as well as Sen. Cory Booker, knew, was not investigated. The evidence collected was huge. It was as if, criminal turns his life around means he is not held accountable, which he should be.

The recent surfacing of NYPD undercover officer Wood’s letter explains why there was no security at the entrance to the ballroom.  It was planned by NYPD.  This is how 5 weapons came into the facility.

The investigation according to AR Muhammad was sloppy with the room left unsecured the evening of the murder. The podium was not even taken into the prescient as evidence. The room was mopped and used for a program the same evening.

The shooter(s) especially the shooter who fired the fatal shot were working for the government (except perhaps the shooter who was caught) which means, until there is transparency there is no trust and even once there is transparency the assault Black people — leadership and valued if ordinary citizens, is so routine or habitual, even then a person might have cause to never trust this government. This is what Muhammad Abdul Aziz tells Abdur-Rahman Muhammad.

Just because citizens go along with the program does not mean they agree or support said program.  We are just bidding our time, right?

If the government, specifically the FBI and NYPD tell the public about this operation and –more expansively (such operations elswhere in New York, in California, in Louisiana, in Texas, etc.– across the nation cases where innocent citizens were shot from orbit just because their narrative countered that of this racist nation and its leadership past and present, perhaps we might be able to mend this festering sore masquerading as a democracy.

In the meantime, do not get lost in the distractions called facts or explanation (read excuses) or “blame the revolutionary” rhetoric. These false narratives are smoke screens that have nothing to do with the goals and objectives of the dominant class structure which has never upheld Black people, our collective humanity or our welfare as a goal.

We are always on the menu.

When the movement for civil rights meets the movement for Black Power, President Johnson comes to the throne (office) and promises Dr. King and his dream team passage of legislation  JF Kennedy had had on the table: Voter Rights and Civil Rights. And after much haggling, the watered down legislation passes in 1964, yet just as previous CRAs in 1866 and 1875, did little to change the circumstances of Black people.

Bobby Seale is gaged and hogtied five short years later (Oct. 29, 1969) in court and charged with inciting a riot at the Democratic National Convention (1968). Before this case is dismissed, Chairman Fred Hampton (Dec. 4, 1969) is killed while in a drug-induced sleep. Chairman Bobby Seale says in court the next day (in “The Trail of the Chicago 7”, dir.: Aaron Sorkin (2020), that Hampton was shot in the shoulder and then in the temple—“it was an execution.”

Breonna Taylor, execution.
Ahmaud Marquez Arbery, execution
George Floyd, execution

On the Fly:
Congratulations to Diamano Coura West African Dance Company for its National Heritage Fellowship. Thursday, March 3, these Oakland-based World Arts West community members will be featured in “The Culture of America: A Cross-Country Visit with the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellows.”  On March 4, 8pm ET / 5pm PST this virtual trip across the country will take viewers into the homes and communities where the 2020 National Heritage Fellows live and create. Click this link for the event info and to watch the preview.

12th Annual Powerful Women of the Bay Virtual Awards Luncheon, Friday, March 12, 12-1:30 p.m. features:

Cathy Adams, CEO of CDA Consulting Group; LaNiece Jones, Executive Director of BWOPA; Treva Reid, Councilmember City of Oakland, District 7; Mary Stutts, SVP of Corporate Relations at Sumitvant Biopharma; Janiece Evans Page, CEO at Tides Network; Vera Moore, Market Manager at JP Morgan Chase; Erin Archuleta, Head of Small Business & Community Advocacy at Square; Nichelle Rachal, Sr. Manager of Community Relations at The Clorox Company; Honorable Sheng Thao, District 4 Councilmember for the City of Oakland; Honable Lily Mei, Mayor of the City of Fremont; Sandra Varner, President of Varner P.R; Brittney Doyle, Founder of WISE Health.

Listen to Wanda’s Picks Radio for an interview with Sandra Varner, awardee. We close with a conversation with Michelle Browder and JC Hallman about the Mothers of Gynecology project.

Luncheon ticket holders will receive an UberEATS gift card to order lunch; tickets must be purchased no later than Thursday, March 11th.  Visit http://powerfulebwomen.com

Sponsorships for Powerful Women of The Bay are available. Contact CDA Consulting Group via email, cathy@cdaconsultingroup.com for more information. A percentage of event proceeds will support the Training Institute for Leadership Enrichment (TILE), which provides programs to develop and incubate a generation of African American women leaders.

The Schomburg Center closes its monthlong series of author talks with Walter Mosley: Between the Lines, Online:30 Years of Easy Rawlins

Theatre
Oakland Theater Project presents its world premiere: The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot, co-created by John Wilkins, Lisa Ramirez, and Michael Socrates Moran, Mar 12—Apr 18 with Previews: Fri, Mar 12 & Sat, Mar 13 at 7:30 p.m.. Opening Night is Sunday, March 14 at 7:30 p.m. with Performances: Thu/Fri/Sat/Sun through April 18 (all 7:30 p.m.)

Tickets: $25—50 online, additional pay-what-you-can tickets available; no door sales, online only at oaklandtheaterproject.org/waste-land

Also at OTP

Oakland Theatre Project presents: Binding Ties: The 16th Street Train Station through March 7

“Binding Ties: 16^th Street Train Station” at the Oakland Theater Project (formerly Ubuntu) begins its 2021 Season with a site specific work created by Dr. Stephanie Anne Johnson and Michael Copeland Sydnor in 1991. In the reprise, Johnson works alone, Copeland-Sydnor now deceased.  Folks jokingly speak about the disappeared Black people; however, Wood Street from 7^th over to 17^th where patrons enter the fenced off train station looks nothing like the slides that illustrate the work, not to mention the people in the townhouses and condos—these new neighbors who are not descendants of Pullman porters or maids who cleaned the passenger cars in silk uniforms—they had to pay for themselves. We hear one character talk about her shift which allowed her to get her children ready for school in the morning, even if it meant they are alone much of the night (3 p.m.-12 midnight.)

There is an actor on the ground who opens the play and then acts as a translator between scene changes.
The score competes lovingly with the narration, text that of the historic characters whom we come to know and care about.

A house manager with a cool light saber points to an usher just ahead once we drive in who escorts cars to designated parking spots. The guides show up again afterward to help us file out without incident. There are no concessions, but if you have to go to the toilet, there is a port-a-potty on the premises. I think we were told the play would be an hour, but it was a bit longer the evening I attended.

After being escorted to a parking spot patrons turn their radio dial to the frequency where the theatre sound lives. If you don’t have a radio in your car like me, make sure you have an app on your phone before you leave home or a portable radio.

The VIP tickets are parked center stage, while the regular patrons ($25-$35 donation) are to the side of the larger façade at the front of the station. One of the characters in a projection speaks about how the white patrons act like the Black men are pieces of furniture. We hear of the work by CL Dellums and A. Phillip Randolph who eventually help organize the first Black Union after the first March on Washington. “Binding Ties” is an ancestor tale. Though the men and women whose livelihood was tied to West Oakland are gone, their stories are a part of the archives in the Oakland History Room, the Bancroft Library and so many books. There is something to be said about historic preservation and the integrity of sacred spaces consecrated by Black labor, Black love and Black life—however, the empty space behind the walls images are projected on speak to the erasure of Black people from the Oakland landscape. Land trusts is one way of securing permanence; however, the best way to secure space is for Black people in places like West Oakland is for municipalities and citizen constituency to understand and value a Black presence.

There are no tickets sold at the OTP performance, so get your tickets in advance: The shows are at 7:30 p.m. gates open at 7 p.m. Thursday-Sunday.   There are limited PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN TICKETS: $5 / $10 / $15 / $20 per vehicle. General admission is: $25 / $30 / $35 per vehicle with PRIORITY TICKETS (Reserved priority parking) at $50 per vehicle.  Visit https://oaklandtheaterproject.org/binding-ties

Lorraine Hansberry Theatre in collaboration with SF Playhouse, Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s [hieroglyph], March 13-April 3

The play currently available on demand at Lorraine Hansberry Theatre in collaboration with SF Playhouse, Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s [hieroglyph], asks a similar question—When will Black wom(b)en and girls voices be amplified publically and behind closed doors? And I include here gender nonconforming Black wom(b)en, all of us together, because we are all included in the silencing. We practice allyship for protect. Allyship is a form of accompaniment— witnessing from the inside.  “I see you,” is a start. Agreement is not a prerequisite for belonging. We will find a place where we agree and build on that premise. We need all our people.

We see this practiced in Dickerson-Despenza’s play. There are so many relationships explicated here between these pages danced on the stage. Margo Hall, new Artistic Director of Lorraine Hansberry Theatre (LHT), is a magician in her elegant navigation of an alternative theatre space – film.  The cast, equally gifted in their ability to capture and translate this wonderful work on the stage via screen gives the urgency of this story primacy: Black girls, Black women are at risk for sexual violence. Black girls and Black women are being violated. There is a direct correlation between a people’s violation especially the women and girls and the earth’s violation in the Great Storm where the levees broke contaminating water and land and killing so many living beings.

In the play, young protagonist davis despenza hayes (13) portrayed brilliantly by actor Jamella Cross, tells her story through her drawings. Her artwork provides a road map none but her astute art teacher, ms. t (actor Safiya Fredericks) can decipher.

davis’s loving father, ernest hayes (actor Khary L. Moye) is trapped in his own demons and worries. NOLA post-Katrina, transplant in Chicago, the father-daughter are still swimming with dead bodies two months later. The mother is not there which further complicates the story.

ms. t establishes a bond with the child right off. There is something about “davis,” who joins the class mid-semester, whose craft and skill she admires. There is even what one could call a soul connection evident in a linked synergy to a shared if unnamed trauma neither can articulate initially. davis has nightmares which are staged really well. Sometimes she is up all night and then drags herself to art class where even on a bad day, she still answers all the questions posed by ms. t.

Art is so powerful; one wonders what davis would have used to articulate so beautifully through those nightmares which woke her from sleep had she not had her drawing pad and pens. What stories is davis sharing? ms. t suggests to “ernest,” davis’s dad, at a parent teacher meeting that he look at the drawings and talk to his daughter about them. davis is failing all her classes except Art.  ms. t suggests her father think about why davis is doing so well in art.  ernest looks at his daughter’s portfolio filled with the faces of people met at the Superdome who died.

Later on when the father asks davis what the coded language in the pictures means, she does not want to share; however, her father “sees” something is wrong and agrees to find his daughter a therapist. davis, who is “grounded” until she picks up her grades, especially in math, invites a friend to help her. leah (actor Anna Marie Sharpe), davis’s friend from school, who likes her and is also good in math, helps her pass her test. For this, ernest, who is sad davis doesn’t want to spend time with him on her birthday—there is a show at the museum where he works he wants to take her too. He instead, lets davis spend the night with her friend. He doesn’t know the girls have other birthday plans.

The playwright paints adults who care about davis, adults who struggle with themselves yet are not so self-centered that they are unreliable. This is especially true for ms. t. Fredericks’s character champions and pays attention to the details and does not stop at unraveling the narrative davis is intentionally drawing. Perhaps this is the beauty of childhood, the kind of childhood davis had prior to Katrina and Superdome experiences and their indelible impact on her life.

Can a man protect and still honor the agency of the girl-child he is protecting? Can he keep her life separate from his? Too often men act like they were raped, when it is their ego that is raped—how dare he harm “my” daughter?! He thinks. davis as possession blinds the protector to the true victim—

This Covid-19 pandemic has increased the danger women and girls are living with. I wonder where they are finding a safe bed. I wonder about homeless children, runaways, sexual exploitation— The playwright was influenced to write one of the characters based on the story of a child in Chicago gang raped whose body was thrown under a bridge.

Trauma is on the table, yet the father who is trying to keep his job and take care of his daughter while in limbo about his marriage—pushes it to the side. Parents need to pay attention; the signs are there. It is not often that we see a Black father play with his daughter like these two characters do. The characters Dickerson-Despenza writes are human and have experienced a tragedy most of us cannot conceive let alone contemplate when sexual violence is added to the cocktail.

[hieroglyph] ignites multiple explosions, like cluster bombs. davis’s friend, leah—book-smart is also traumatized. What [hieroglyph] suggests is we stop judging our children and their friends and pay closer attention.

[hieroglyph] is part of award-winning 10-play Katrina Cycle of plays Dickerson-Despenza is writing focused on the effects of Hurricane Katrina in and beyond New Orleans. [hieroglyph] is fully produced and filmed on stage at SF Playhouse, and is presented as an on-demand video stream through April 3^rd, 2021. Patrons may support the organization of their choice by purchasing tickets ($15 – $100) from Lorraine Hansberry Theatre at lhtsf.org or from San Francisco Playhouse at sfplayhouse.org.  To listen or watch a Virtual Wanda’s Picks interview on Facebook with Margo Hall, Artistic Director of LHT: https://www.facebook.com/wanda.sabir/videos/10224972454289502

Visit wandaspicks.com for the full April Picks which is updated throughout the month, so keep sending fliers and posts about events. Also, listen to wandaspicks.com/radio broadcasts Follow the blog so you don’t miss any updates. The podcast airs from blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks Download the app.
To listen to March 31 rebroadcast with Margo Hall with an interview with Ms. Hall from 2013 re: BeBopBaby: http://tobtr.com/s/11921125

There are many Black Writing Retreats or Conferences March 26-28

Follow the site so you don’t miss anything and the radio show too. blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks

Co-presented by the City of Oakland’s Cultural Affairs Commission and the Offices of Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas, “Stories of Solidarity” is a virtual town hall conversation and concert led by Oakland’s Asian Pacific Islander and Black artists standing together.

This is a free event.

Land Acknowledgement ritual by: Calina Lawrence

Performances by:
Greer Nakadegawa-Lee, 2020 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate
Kev Choice
Tao Shi
Olafemi “Bankh” Akintunde
Howard Wiley
Terisa Siagatonu and more.

The event will be streamed live here and via Council President Nikki Bas:

https://www.facebook.com/Nikki4Oakland

So, join the organizers Thursday, February 25 from 5:00PM – 6:30PM as they continue the deep tradition of Oakland Asian Pacific Islander and Black artists coming together, across dividing lines, to create a cultural response to racism rooted in power, healing and solidarity.

This event is sponsored in partnership with: Oakland Asian Cultural Center | (OACC) | AYPAL | RedBay Coffee | Oakland Public Library’s Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Program | Life is Living | Oakland Rising | The Oakland Post | Piano Black Tea Co. | Alkalin Rye | House of Sato | Civic Design Studio | GOOD GOOD EATZ