33rd African American Celebration through Poetry, Sat., Feb. 25

Theatre
Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer @TheatreWorks March 8-April 2, 2023

Slavery on CA Constitutional Books?!

Here is a link for virtual participants.

Contact: Aldo.Garcia@asm.ca.gov • 916.319.2311

Assemblymember Wilson to Host Press Conference to Announce Introduction of The End Slavery in CA Act

Date: Wednesday, February 15 Location: Capitol West Steps
Time: 11:30 AM – 12:00 PM 1315 10th St Sacramento, CA 95814

SACRAMENTO, CA — On Wednesday, February 15, Assemblymember Lori D. Wilson (D – Suisun City) will be hosting a press conference to announce the introduction of The End Slavery in California Act. The act is an Assembly Constitutional Amendment that will remove involuntary servitude from the State Constitution. Assemblymember Wilson will be joined by other members of the Legislature as well as a coalition of sponsors.

California is among only 16 states with an exception clause for involuntary servitude in their State Constitutions. Multiple other states have removed such exception clauses from their constitutions in recent years like Tennessee, Alabama, and Vermont. This Assembly Constitutional Amendment is an opportunity to catch up to these states and serve as a model for others in the nation.

CA Reparations Tour
Oakland Reparations United Tour – February 15, 2023 – Oakland, CA – 983 89th Ave, Oakland, CA 94621 on the way to Sacramento…

Speaker Bio: Kamm Howard – National Black Cultural Information Trust (nbcit.org)

Reparations United Unity Tour – Sacramento Tickets, Sacramento | Eventbrite

African American Policy Forum

Marin City Reparations Coalition Workshop

Theatre
Satchmo at the Wardorf @San Jose Stage Feb. 1-26

Wanda’s Picks Virtual Show: An Interview with L. Peter Callender & Ted Lange

Part One of the Detroit Trilogy @The Aurora Theatre extended March 2-5

Aurora Theatre Company’s second play in their 31st season is Dominique Morisseau’s “Paradise Blue.” The show will be directed by Aurora Theatre Company’s Associate Artistic Director, Dawn Monique Williams. PARADISE BLUE will be presented in-person on Aurora’s mainstage from January 27 – February 26 (Opens: February 2nd). Inspired by August Wilson’s Century Cycle, Dominique Morisseau has written three plays she calls her Detroit Trilogy: Paradise Blue, Detroit ʼ67, and Skeleton Crew. All have been produced off-Broadway and around the country. Aurora produced a successful run of Morisseau’s Detroit ʼ67 in their 2018/2019 Season.  Tickets are pay what you can January 27-Feb. 1. The show opens Feb. 2. It streams online Feb. 21-26.

For single tickets ($20-$75) or subscriptions ($200-$385), the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit www.auroratheatre.org. There is an African Diaspora Affinity Night (though all are welcome) on Friday, February 10. Discussion host and director Dawn Monique Williams may be joined by the actors, community members, and local storytellers. Other post show discussions are:  Friday, February 3, Tuesday, February 7, Wednesday, February 15 Thursday, February 23   The first in the trilogy about her beloved city Detroit, Dominique Morisseau’s “Paradise Blue.” is the perfect play for the Bay, the geographic resonance will echo in one’s hearts long after the final curtain. 

To watch or listen to an interviewed Dawn Monique Williams, the director visit: Wanda’s Picks Radio (http://tobtr.com/12191648 ) Follow wandaspicks @YT Please leave comments.

Unbanned Book Club features author, Nic Stone, 2/21

ABPsi Black History Month Panel

Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84349605632?pwd=STVZSGZobUp6SHRTeExuaUE2S1JFZz09#success

Reparations Speak Out!

Belly of the Beast Film Screening & Discussion at the San Francisco Main Library, African American Center

Last year as a part of MAAFA Awareness Month and the SF Main Library’s One City, One Book, we hosted a virtual film screening and talk with Cynthia Chandler, the lead attorney and Kelli Dillon, survivor and litigant, in the suit against the State of CA for the illegal sterilization of women prisoners in CA State prisoners. This class action suit 20 years ago led to the reparations legislation and payment to those women who survived this genocide and are still alive.

Long Distance Revolutionary Screening and Discussion – free online Feb. 2, 2023 5 PM PT

Register here tinyurl.com/Mumia-film

Listen to interview with Stephen Vittoria, director on Wanda’s Picks Radio Show, a 2015 rebroadcast of the 2013 interview.

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!

1. Pam Africa, International Friends and Families of Mumia Abu Jamal; Ramona Africa, MOVE Organization re: Bay Area Tour in San Jose at Evergreen Valley College, Montgomery Hall (Friday, 10/16, 12-4), Freedom Archives Hall, 518 Valencia St., SF (10/16, 7 PM); Niebyl Proctor Library, Oakland (Sat., 10/17, 7 PM); Sun., 10/18, 2-5 pm, 2251 Florin Rd, Sacramento, CA 95822 – Suite 126

2. From the archives: Long Distance Revolutionary, dir. Stephen Vittoria (2013)

3. Tiearea Robinson, Lecturer at a lecturer, Dept. of Africana Studies, Cal State University, Dominguez Hills, Friends of the Negro Spirituals Heritage Keeper 2015.

4. Jeff L. Lieberman, Re-Emerging Films, director, The Amazing Nina Simone which opens in New York with an art exhibit, Oct. 15-18. www.amazingnina.com

Song: To Be Young Gifted and Black from Youtube

Celebration of Toni Morrison with Reading

Toni Morrison Tribute Encore

Registration Details

33rd Annual African American Celebration through Poetry

33rd Annual Celebration of African American Poets and Their Poetry

This is an annual poetry reading in the East Bay, formerly hosted by the West Oakland Library. Each year for the past 11 or so years we have adopted the yearly theme selected by Association of African American Life and History (ASALH, founded by Dr. Carter G. Woodson). This year the theme is Black Resistance. The poetry reading is Sat., Feb. 25, 2023, from 10 AM PT to 1 PM PT. We are really excited to feature two outstanding Black women writers: Ayodele “Word Slanger” Nzinga, MFA, Ph.D. who is also Oakland’s Poet Laureate. She is the inaugural adult poet laureate.

Avotcja, multi-percussionist, poet, playwright, radio host and teacher is also featured. An elder, her work inspires as it instructs. Both poets are women who use art to instruct and change those within the sound of their voices.

We are calling the names of recent ancestors Oaklanders Fred T. Smith, Anita Pointer, Muziki Roberson, Bill Russell and other national and international stars—keep shining: Sidney Poitier, Fred T. Smith, Lani Guinier, Valerie Boyd, Mary Alice Smith, Bill Russell, Nichelle Nichols, Mable John, Coolio, Pele (Essence).

These ancestors were living example of Black Resistance—Greatness! Asẹ.

The program will be online, broadcast through Facebook.com/wandaspicks For those Black writers who would like to be a part of the featured program send a query to Ms. Sabir@ info@wandaspicks.com Please include the work you’d like considered, a brief bio (25-50 words), a phone number and an email address. All ages are welcome. Regional poets as well as national and international poets are welcome to submit. This is not a contest; there is no fee. Featured writers will join us in Zoom. Each poet can share 1-3 minutes, no more than 5 minutes. We will have a rehearsal the week before the reading, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 12:30 PM-1:50 PM PT.  The rehearsal is encouraged for those who have never participated in the event before, and for those who need to test their equipment.

If there questions, call/text 510-397-9705.  All mailed submissions need to arrive by Feb. 11, 2023, African American Poetry Celebration, P.O. Box 30756, Oakland, CA 94604. 

Here is a link to the 32^nd Annual AACP in Feb. 2022 (FB.com/wandaspicks). We dedicated the program to Christine Saed, Al Young and bell hooks. This link is for the 31st Annual Celebration of African American Poets and Their Poetry and here is a link to the 30^th Annual Celebration of African American Poets and Their Poetry blog entry.

Put Ur Play On Showcase

Ramses the Great!

Honoring Our African Ancestors – Ancient and Modern, Ramses II to now
A Review and Interview with scholar Professor Manu Ampim,
by Wanda Sabir

I think the people one spends New Year’s Day with says a lot. This year January 1, Ava and I went to see Ramses II, great Egyptian King at the deYoung Museum in San Francisco. We’d planned to go December 31, but for those in the Bay, it rained all day—it was cold and well, I wasn’t feeling happy about getting wet and maybe sick. Sunday was supposed to be sunny and so, we got the tickets exchanged Sunday morning and we spent the whole day at the museum. For tickets visit FAMSF. It’s a separate admission.

It was so much fun learning about the great king and his reign. It was like a fairytale only it was true—well probably with white supremacist filtering, but we know he was African not European and Queen Nefertari his beloved was celebrated in huge, monumental structures. His reign is noted for the 100-year peace treaty that serves as a model of civility with the Hittite Dynasty which I knew.

There was so much to unpack—I wished Professor Manu was with me whispering in my ear rather than the tour recording, which was nice, I just didn’t know what to believe. I am a fan of Brother Tony Browder and his daughter, both seeped in Kemetic knowledge, not to mention our brother, the late Dr. Runoko Rashidi who explored the African presence globally and found it. I was disturbed by the artifacts with all the darker Africans from places like Nubia with ropes around their necks.

High points include all the jewelry and mummies and tombs. I loved Nut, sky goddess and the gold—gold also called skin of the gods. The mixture of Kemetic spirituality via the stories was interesting, especially given the pronunciation of the names—Horus for Heru, Sebek and Set. The Great Temple at Abu Simbel (“is considered the grandest and most beautiful of the temples commissioned during the reign of Ramses II and one of the most beautiful in Egypt. . . . It is believed that the axis of the temple was positioned by the ancient Egyptian architects n such a way that on October 22 and February 22, the rays of the sun would penetrate the sanctuary and illuminate the sculptures on the back wall, except for the stature of Ptah, a god connected with the realm of the dead, who always remained in the dark” (Wikipedia).

 When my friends Tiyesha and Marty traveled to Egypt they told us at one of our Diaspora Talks, African Americans on Africa, about this amazing event, one of many. At the exhibit, there is a button you can push to see the chamber light up. . . It was pretty cool. If I ever get on a plane again, I would like to visit Kemet and see this. I would also like to participate in a dig with Brother Tony.  The artifacts are what I wanted to see and there is no interpretation needed there. Outside of going to Egypt, this is easier than getting on a plane and flying across the planet. However, I would certainly not discourage anyone from going too. I hadn’t known there was a new museum in Cairo where the King Ramses was reinterred.
The films were also entertaining, the images in the cases and painted on the walls and ceilings also explained there. The Valley of the Kings which I’d heard of, and Queen Nefertari’s tomb were so magnificent.

The movement between the galleries is well-choreographed. There are both silent and feature films throughout the program. It is an intimate space and though the tickets were staggered, if you want to miss the crowd, don’t go on the weekend midday. I am thinking early morning, 9:30-11 a.m. might be a better time to miss the crush. People were nice though and no one seemed to be in a rush. I wasn’t.

I posed with “fine” as in handsome, commanders, whom I’d wished were still around—I loved the coffins of a few women who looked like me—Loved the gold masks and the section on sacrifice and mummified offerings like scarabs or beetles and cats and other animals was interesting. These rituals linked Kemet to the spiritual traditions of other African nations further west. We already know there is overlap between the Kemetic deities and Ifa, not to mention deities in the Southern region of Africa.

When we finally left the exhibit the sun was setting. The clouds looked like smoke from chimneys with red and orange in the skies.

We asked for directions to the ancestor exhibit in the Africa galleries. It was an interactive piece created by South African artist,  Lhola Amira: Facing the Future who wears two personas, one an ancestor the other THEMSELVES with two different names. I hope I will be able to speak with the artist, even though I missed the creative when THEY were here in December for the opening.

The 7th Day of Kwanzaa is Imani or Faith. African Ancestors called January 1, “the Jubilee” (Dec. 31, Watch Night — the day before the Emancipation Proclamation went into law)—the entire weekend honors African ancestors, specifically those who were enslaved whether we’re speaking of Africans in Bahia, Brazil –the IRMANDADE: The Shape of Water in Pindorama, (2018-2020) a single channel video production which honors the legacy of the Sisters of the Good Death, whom Lhola Amira showcases in the Africa gallery or dana king’s 350 Ancestors holding space outside in the Concourse across from the deYoung Museum. They have been there a year and a half this month. Juneteenth or African Freedom Day makes two years—is this the end of their reign? What takes their place?

Someone anticipated my desire to put flowers in their hair December 31 and when Ava and I crossed the street to greet them we saw purple and white flowers in most of their wire hair. They looked regal and happy. Ava sprayed them with rosemary and water, a purifying libation while I played Sojourner’s Singing Bowl.

After we made the circle once we then sang Lift Every Voice, which was lit in the background at the Spreckels Temple of Music situated across the Concourse, a path lit with bubbling fountains, children’s running and laughter. Ava and I sang the traditional lyrics and then mixed it up and freestyled as we thanked our ancestors for holding onto faith and belief that one day we would be free, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

No one was freeing Black people without a fight whether that was in New Orleans or Haiti or Brazil or even California where once Mexico lost California, Texas and Arizona, slavery became legal.

Amira’s exhibit contains the traditional motifs—water. In this case as one walks through the African Gallery there are jugs – gallon jugs, of water. There is salt to cleanse one’s hands and there are hanging tapestries one can walk through, walk by. Words on tapestries also join the visual landscape. Lucille Clifton’s poetry, W.E.B. Dubois . . .

I thought about putting my hands into the salt. . . but I don’t know if salt holds germs, so I nodded at the offering and let it pass. The same with the water. The idea of ablution, one I understood. . . this was a holy space—ancestors were sanctified. The harm both recognized and healing offered in these gestures of witness. This was the perfect space to honor Ramses and the other ancestors in the gallery we’d just left. However, the Africa gallery was representative of the continent – a region underdeveloped and raped of resources, people and antiquities. How do you think the deYoung acquired these things?

It was nice seeing so many children and Black people at the museum on New Year’s Day. After we left the Ramses II gift shop we saw another activity where for a price one could participate in a Virtual Ramses. I don’t know what else could have been offered after that visit. . . the videos were interpretive and interactive. As I moved between chambers each had its’s own unique flavor like we were walking through the tombs. The lighting and art were that engaging and it was also fun hearing comments and watching the younger patrons get caught up in the attractions trying to put themselves in the headspace of a King Ramses or the people of this time.

Upstairs in the Facing the Future. . . continued
Red, white, multicolored strands of beaded strings . . . blood and flesh and what is unspoken and hidden was here as well. We could see other people approach and then they would disappear, and we’d see legs and feet. There was a privacy afforded – one’s grief honored, one’s sadness honored, one’s shame hidden.

Further ahead one saw the largely silent film of the artist on a journey home. . . tobacco, water, land. . . a boat, journey . . . spirit realm invitations sent out, food, laughter. . . more hanging cloth.

Amira’s film is lovely. I especially like the cigar smoke wafting, the water, THEIR body in water, high heels and barefoot. Water everywhere and then the forest or untamed wildness—to be able to let go and be free is captured well in the work.

I recalled being with the IRMANDADE in Brazil in 2015. It was about this same time of year as it is now—Christmas through New Year’s.  The idea of the good death is a free death. No one wants to die a slave.  These women would raise funds to buy the freedom of enslaved persons so they would not die a slave.

One wanted to enter the next realm with agency. The same themes also peopled the realm of the people in Kemet. One man who was a servant had servants in the next life. I liked the plate where the curator wrote: “the Egyptians believed; you could take it with you.”  I thought that funny, if not quite true. What the people believed was that there was a continuity of life between and here and there, so the food and provisions were for the next life. Christians also believe you can take it with you. They believe in the resurrection of the body, so did the Egyptians.

Other cultures do too. The Terra cotta warriors were buried with provisions so that in the next life they had what they needed to survive. In South Asian when women were burned alive with their husbands it was for his convenience in the next life.  I have no experience with life after this life, but certain stories circulate culturally between communities. This shared space is an opportunity for conversation.

In an attempt to give readers a different and more accurate reflection on Ramses II, I spoke to our Bay Area resident scholar, Professor Manu Ampim, who is known for his primary research and knowledge about this region as well as Nubia, Ethiopia and elsewhere in the Fertile Crescent.  The exhibit is of ancestral remains, the disturbance caused by these global tours is not a consideration, rather the money generated. Imagine your ancestors treated this way. How would you feel? I contrast this exhibit with that National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery. There at the monument the gravity of the loss of life is not absence. Of course, the death is violent, and the people tracked like wild animals and slaughtered, yet the Equal Justice Initiative has taken this tragic piece of American history and raised the dead to a place of honor and respect. Even the dirt where their bodies lay mutilated is given healing prayer. Why not the same for this great warrior king and his queen and other royal family?

I too looked at the riches, gold and jewels, rather than the persons who wore these items, who adorned their persons with such beautiful crafts. We need to think about these things—the people not just their things, when we look at the artifacts and antiquities. Is the exhibit tasteful or exploitative, if so, to what end?

Lifted and placed in these cold rooms void of kindness, integrity or meaningful relation, the public at least the Western consumers are trapped in a warped space where what is sacred is commodified and devoid of life energy. Death is not death here. There is life after life. There was no way to sit and reflect, even if a person wanted to think. . . thoughts crowd the mind later—It is ten days later and after reading Professor Manu’s comments to my questions, I feel a bit ashamed. I got caught up and forgot that these people are honored ancestors. I did not lift a cup in libation.

In a digital Interview with Brother Manu Ampim, he writes, “Primary research is the greatest weapon against the distortion of African and African American culture & history.” Visit https://manuampim.com/africana_profile.htm

Brother Manu in Kemet leading a tour.

Wanda Sabir: Greetings Professor Manu, hope this email finds you and your family well. Happy New Year. I went to see the Ramses II exhibit yesterday, January 1, and wanted to ask if you have seen it and what did you think?

Manu Ampim: I have not seen it yet because I have been travelling, but it is the same general propaganda to find every angle to exploit African mummies for profit.  There have been more exhibits featuring King Tutankhamen and his remains in the past 15 years than we have ever seen.  Ramses is also part of this agenda to highlight African rulers from Kemet and promote the viewing of their lives or virtual mummies, in order to draw in as much revenue as possible.  This is mainly because most white people who visit museums are not concerned with the crude and indecent display of human remains and seem to get excited in many cases to view this obscene spectacle. The Ramses and Nefertari immersive virtual reality exhibit at the de Young promotes this savagery of “coming face-to-face with the mummy of Ramses.”  [By the way, I have spent many hours in various museums carefully observing white folks and their reaction to museum displays, and there is almost never any moral concerns].

WS: I liked the artifacts; the narrative though is what I question. Can you send me material to read to reference on the Pharoah and this period?

MA: Well, there is The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt by Dodson & Hilton. I know you know these places and the new museum in Cairo. 

WS: I am really interested in the battle with the Hittites in Karnack, the 100 year treaty, the buildings. . . . It seems what distinguished the ruler was the length of his reign, the peace agreement and all the buildings and monuments he commissioned. He us said to have fathered 100 children. They said he married his own daughters.

MA: Yes, the battle between Kemet and the Hittites ended with the year peace treaty in world history.  Ramses did father over 100 children.  There is No EVIDENCE that he had any physical relations with his daughters, as the marriages in Kemet were only political marriages to keep the throne in the royal family, controlled by the female line of descent. 

WS: I’d like to know more about Queen Nefertari. Seems like a love match (smile).

MA: Nefertari was the chief wife . . . check out her temple at Abu Simbel.  (See photo.)

WS: It seemed that all the darker people had ropes around their necks. The plates said Nubians, Libyans. . . .

MA:  ALL of the foreign nations had ropes around the necks in all 4 directions (north, south, east, and west).  They were war captives, and the Africans south of Kemet were simply among the war captives, and they are not depicted any more often than the other groups.  In fact, their relations were mainly peaceful with the Africans in Kemet for long stretches on time in Kemet’s history, but there are some periods of conflict where Africans are shown as war captives, and this is when the Eurocentric propagandists step in and distort the evidence.

WS: Why is it that no African archeologists are invited to participate in these large-scale curated tours?

MA: White nationalists masquerading as “objective” Egyptologists are biased and dishonest, as their discipline demands that they follow the script of only inviting white folks and the occasional Arab Egyptologist from Egypt, who knows how to stay in his place, and regurgitate the same old skewed propaganda.  African scholars are frowned upon within Egyptology, because it is a discipline born out of the colonial era, and still carries the same racist baggage.

So there you have it folks. Knowledge is power. Here are a couple of videos I watched:

National Geographic on Ramses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDi51dEloLM

Lost World of Ramses, the Great (Great Builder)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm7ooOsuzog

Bob Moses Conference Jan. 28-29 (in person and virtual)

Here is an interview with Mr. Moses in 2017 when he was guest speaker at the Elihu Harris Barbara Lee Series.