I met Ajuan Mance at a function at the San Francisco Main Library, where she had a table displaying her sketches of the many faces of Black men. I talked to her for a second and noticed the activist nature of her work.

She was protesting the objectification of the Black male image in the media, while at the same time capturing the natural wild beauty of the Black man. I was taken aback by her collection of drawings, and even saw some faces that I thought I recognized. Ajuan’s elegant pen work is second to none. Check this interesting local artist out in her own words …

M.O.I. JR: Can you tell the people a little bit about your work? Why do you choose to draw Black men?

Ajuan: I have worked in a number of artistic media, but since July of 2010, my primary focus has been on creating the drawings that appear in “1001 Black Men,” my online sketchbook at 8-ROCK.com. My goal is to create 1,001 drawings of African American men in roughly 1,001 days.

Ajuan Mance

The irony is that it is not just mainstream white America that is putting the Black male image to these uses. Black-owned and Black-created media are complicit in the objectification of Black men and in reinforcing the limited ways in which African American men become visible. And, of course, very few people either inside or outside of the media are speaking about or acknowledging that this is happening.

Drawing by Ajuan Mance

M.O.I. JR: How have people responded to your sketches?

Ajuan: People have generally been quite receptive to this project. People enjoy the diversity of the men I have depicted, which really thrills me, because that was one of my goals. Many have recognized people they know or people they’ve seen. The most common question I have gotten is why I am not doing a series of drawings of Black women.

M.O.I. JR: Are you selling these sketches as a book or as postcards or both?

Ajuan: Currently, I am selling these sketches as postcards, prints and in the form of ‘zines. By fall I plan to have a book of my first 250 drawings available for sale.

M.O.I. JR: What do you want people to get out of your project?

Ajuan: I want these drawings to convey not only the many ways of being Black and male, but also the immense possibilities for Black manhood. When people look at the wide range of Black men I depict, I also want them to be reminded of all of those experiences and presentations of Black manhood and masculinity that I haven’t had the space to portray.

Drawing by Ajuan Mance

M.O.I. JR: Where can people see your work? Do you have any public appearances in May?

Ajuan: I will be showing my work at Art Murmur/First Fridays on May 3. I will be at Uptown Body and Fender, 401 26th St., in Oakland. I’ll be showing some new mixed media works in the exhibit “Afro-Futurism: Envisioning the Year 2070 and Beyond,” from May 17 through Aug. 1, 2013, at the San Francisco Public Library’s African American Center. And, of course, people can always find my drawings on my website.

M.O.I. JR: How do people stay in touch with you?

Ajuan: People can always reach me through my website at 8-Rock.com. There they can find links to my Etsy store and to the websites of lots of other interesting and talented artists of African descent.

The People’s Minister of Information JR is associate editor of the Bay View, author of “Block Reportin’” and filmmaker of “Operation Small Axe” and “Block Reportin’ 101,” available, along with many more interviews, at www.blockreportradio.com. He also hosts two weekly shows on KPFA 94.1 FM and kpfa.org: The Morning Mix every Wednesday, 8-9 a.m., and The Block Report every other Friday night-Saturday morning, midnight-2 a.m. He can be reached at blockreportradio@gmail.com.
 

Drawing by Ajuan Mance

Drawing by Ajuan Mance

The concept of “comrade” has a special meaning and significance in revolutionary struggle. We have often been asked to explain our use of this term, especially by our peers who are new to the struggle, instead of more familiar terms like “brother,” “homie,” “cousin,” “dog,” nigga” etc.

Kevin 'Rashid' Johnson

Terms like “mister” or “youngster” imply a difference of social status, entitlement to greater or lesser respect and built-in concepts of superiority or inferiority. Terms like “bitch,” “dog,” nigga,” “ho” etc., are degrading and disrespectful – even when used affectionately – as some do to dull the edge of their general usage in a world that disrespects us.

“Comrade,” however, connotes equality and respect. It implies “I’ve got your back” and “we are one.” Comrades stand united unconditionally and, if need be, to the death. It implies a relationship that is inclusive, not exclusive, and not based on any triviality but revolutionary class solidarity. It represents the socialist future we seek to represent in the struggles of today and the eventual triumph of classless communist society.

Most forms of address used by New Afrikans carry subtle implications of differing status and worth or were originally meant to insult and dehumanize us. Embracing these terms has led to our subconsciously embracing these roles and feeling and believing we are inferior and treating each other as worth less than others.

The concept of “comrade” has a special meaning and significance in revolutionary struggle.

So it is definitely important that we remind ourselves constantly that we are equal to and as good as anyone else and address each other accordingly. As Malcolm X put it in an interview with the Village Voice in 1965:

“The greatest mistake of the movement has been trying to organize a sleeping people around specific goals. You have to wake the people up first; then you’ll get action.”

“Wake them up to their exploitation?” the interviewer asked.

“No,” Malcolm replied, “to their humanity, to their own worth.”

Conscious use of the term “comrade” instead of the many disparaging terms of address popular today explicitly connects all people up as humans and equals. It reminds us of our interdependence for survival; it promotes relations of equality, friendship and camaraderie between all oppressed and exploited people; it expresses the unified outlook of the proletariat; and it will promote a change in people’s outlook and thinking. It’s use identifies those committed to the revolutionary struggle and represents the future in the struggles of today.

“Comrade” connotes equality and respect.

As Amilcar Cabral expressed in “Our People Are Our Mountians”: “I call you ‘comrades’ rather than ‘brothers and sisters’ because if we are brothers and sisters it’s not from choice – it’s no commitment – but if you are my comrade, I am your comrade too, and that’s a commitment and a responsibility. This is the political meaning of ‘comrade.’”

In the interpersonal sense, camaraderie binds people by respect, mutual support and trust, making organizations cohesive and stable. It builds and cements unity in the process of struggle, generating mutual confidence between people, affirming that we can rely upon each other regardless of the dangers that come from standing for the people and social justice for all.

Examples of genuine camaraderie are inspirational to the people and build their willingness to make a commitment to the struggle. The development and maintenance of organizational structure depends on the close and genuine camaraderie of the revolutionaries – what we call Panther Love!

Rashid Johnson, a prisoner in Virginia who was transferred last year to Oregon, has been held in segregation since 1993. While in prison he founded the New Afrikan Black Panther Party – Prison Chapter. As a writer, Rashid has been compared to George Jackson, and he is also the artist who drew the image that became the icon of the California hunger strikes. His book, “Defying the Tomb,” with a foreword by Russell “Maroon” Shoats and afterword by Sundiata Acoli, can be ordered at leftwingbooks.net, by writing to Kersplebedeb, CP 63560, CCCP Van Horne, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3W 3H8, or by emailing info@kersplebedeb.com. Send our brother some love and light: Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, 19370490, Snake River CI, 777 Stanton Blvd., Ontario, OR 97914.

by Paradise Free Jahlove

Calling all Black celebrity athletes! Calling all Black celebrity entertainers! Calling all Black celebrity entrepreneurs! Calling all rich Black people and people who are rich in their Blackness! The ancestors are calling. The ancestors are calling for a national Black radio station. The same ancestors who enabled you to excel in this country by sacrificing their lives for the struggle are calling for outlets for the voices of Black America. We need more Black Power outlets!

Come check out Planet Oakland, Friday, June 7, 7-9 p.m., at J. Posh Design Studio, 3824 Telegraph Ave. in Oakland, featuring yours truly, Paradise (www.trueviberecords.com), and Aries Jordon (www.journey2womanhood.tumblr.com), above, who was just recently selected as Miss Cleopatra 2013, and others.

Hollywood has the Big Mikes. The GOP has the Big Mikes. D.C. has the Big Mikes. The governor can get on the mike and speak to 30 million Californians. The president can get on the mike and speak to 300 million Americans. The pope can get on the mike and speak to a billion Catholics. But do you remember anything a pope has ever said. Has a pope ever said anything to make a significant difference in your life? What a waste of the biggest platform in the world. Give that mike to a mediocre poet and the world would be a better place in a Nubian minute.

We need microphones uncontrolled by special interests. We need a national Black radio station, programs and shows. Which is why you always hear me say, “Give me the ear of Black America for one year and I’ll make 40 million model citizens appear.” So-called White America, you wouldn’t have to worry about the so-called “Negro Problem” anymore if you gave the right people the Big Mikes.

But Zeus and Uncle Sam don’t want that. They don’t want to see a functional, happy nation of Black people in America. The cystem is designed for history to repeat itself. For his story to repeat itself, for the 1 percent who thrive off the misery and suffering of the 99 percent, for the status quo to stay on top. Otherwise, America could put truth on the microphone right now and the problems of America could be fixed in a jiffy.

America grew so afraid of the 1970s rise of the Black Panthers and Oakland’s ability to churn out community messiahs and change the American and world landscape that Oakland was purposefully discombobulated and flooded with guns and drugs. But perhaps worse than being Ground Zero for the crack epidemic – and still we rise – the entire city of Oakland was taken off the microphone! So Oakland is probably the only major city in the country, if not the world, without its own radio station. We can’t even get on the mike and say, “Stop killing each other, you idiots. It’s a setup. It’s a trap.”

Can you imagine, Oakland used to have its own radio station, like KDIA, with people like Sly Stone DJing on the mike! Spitting game like: “Everybody is a star. Stand. It’s a family affair!” Are you kidding me? Man, Bobbie Seale should have his own national radio show. Angela Davis should have her own national radio show. Congresswoman Barbara Lee should have her own radio show. Author Ishmael Reed should have his own radio national show. Oakland should have its own national Black radio show, so the voices of Oakland can be heard. So our revolutionary veteran soldiers can put out word.

Unfortunately, since Oakland was taken off the mike, about 150 people a year have been killed in Oakland for the last 30 years. And if we don’t do something about it, it’s going to happen again this year. His story repeats itself. The cystem is designed that way, so the same people on top can stay there, thriving off the suffering of the masses, and pretending that they are in the process of fixing things.

Kola Soljet, Paradise and Aries Jordon – Miss Cleopatra 2013 – at Cleopatra's Ball

But this kind of violence is happening everywhere, not just in Oakland. In Connecticut, Chicago, the Middle East, Afrika, Boston. Violence in America today is more American than apple pie. Gun control? Terrorism? Turn on the TV and see 30,000 murders a day. But why do we let it happen in Oakland (which is like a metaphor for urban America)? Because we don’t take it personally. We are not in enough pain or it hasn’t hit home enough. Plus we can always run to our suburbs – the suburbs of our computers and TVs and gadgets. The suburbs of our minds. The suburbs of our hearts … on the perimeter where we don’t have to feel the pain of others.

But today there are no more suburbs. The violence is so prevalent and pervasive that at the world’s present rate of violence, corruption, pollution and consumption, humanity has less than 40 years to live. We are all on death row. And need to take a stand like Paul Robeson, until the day when a single gunshot in Oakland will be a shot heard around the world! And no less than a thousand concerned citizens will converge on that area to try and find out what happened and not leave until the problem is resolved or the citizens in that neighborhood are convinced it’s not going to be business as usual with violence and terrorism in our communities.

We should react to violence in our communities like America reacted to the recent Boston Marathon bombings. We saw recently in Boston, after people were killed during a high publicity event, how the so-called authorities know how to catch a killer if they want to: Shut down the city, send out the dogs, fly up the helicopters and aeroplanes, review the spy cameras, put the whole nation on alert.

If crime weren’t a part of the cystem and the economy of the rich – like giving out parking tickets – it could be squashed by knowledge and technology in a few years. But capturing the killer was only of great importance because it happened in the land of the Caucazoids, at one of their major money making and high publicity events. If a similar bombing had taken place at a similar event in the hood, dudes would still be running around and the whole affair would only get a blurb in the mainstream news – if that much. Where was the outrage and coverage of the most recent Middle East-like war violence in Chicago, where in one weekend last March over 40 people were shot and 10 killed?

But frankly, my dear, if we continue to lose our voices, our hopes for the future look very dim. Essence magazine is no longer Black owned. Ebony is no longer Black owned. BET is no longer Black owned. Motown is no longer Black owned. Even Famous Amos cookies ain’t Black owned anymore. Dag. Are you Black owned? Is your mind Black owned? Is your behind Black owned? If it is, you need to take it to a Black owned business and buy Black.

There is a movie out now about the Jackie Robinson story. I personally don’t feel the need to see it or empower this non-Afrikan entity with my dollars. The Jackie Robinson story is a great one and he is a great man for what he accomplished and suffered through. You gotta love Jackie Robinson. But truth be told, his “integration” into the “great white way” was the beginning of the end for the Negro Baseball Leagues. And on a larger scale, the Jackie Robinson story is reflective of the beginning of the mass integration that would wind up being the disintegration of Black culture and self-sufficiency in this country.

On KPOO for decades, Donald E. Lacy Jr.’s Wake Up, Everybody, fills Saturday morning with movers and shakers from the hood and across the world. It’s a must-listen show, 7 a.m. to noon.

I would prefer to see or hear about the Curt Flood story. An Oakland brother who graduated from McClymonds High School and went on to play pro baseball during a time in the ‘70s when the major league baseball team owners could keep a player on their team for as long as they wanted and pay them whatever they chose. The league was making millions off the players and the players were getting paid pennies in comparison!

Curt Flood freed the baseball slaves by taking the league to court and winning free agency. So the players could bargain for their contracts and play for any team that would pay for their services. Curt Flood was soon blackballed or, rather, whiteballed from the league. But he is the reason most pro athletes are getting these mega million dollar contracts today,

Currency is like electrical power: Who or what are you empowering with your dollar? Professor John Henrick Clarke said being “Black and beautiful” in this world today is practically meaningless. He said we need to be “Black and powerful.” Curt Flood was Black and powerful because he raised his voice for righteousness!

Raise your voice and the voices of our people – the voice of truth. Until we get the big mikes, we gotta hit a lot of little mikes. Bring back the doo woppers on street corners and concerned citizens speaking on footstools like Malcolm and Black New Yorkers used to do in the ‘60s – and even today. Support your local poetry, spoken word and open mike scenes where – at least there – we still have a voice.

Don’t go just to suit yourself or after a disaster and you want to know what other people are thinking and doing about it. Disasters are happening in our communities every day. Go to support the process and free speech, keeping in mind that in places like China they don’t play that – they don’t have open mike.

Fortunately, something positively amazing has recently happened in this country, so please support it. There’s this new Black (owned?) television (station?) channel 66.1, called BOUNCE, BTV, and so far it seems to be really good and representative of our people. It has quality Black drama, classic Black movies, comedy and videos, and it’s not degrading, minstrel or coonish. Please check it out and let me know what you think.

Make your mama happy for Mother’s Day, the busiest day of the year at the post office! Purchase Black stamps and flowers from Black flower shop owners and Black greeting cards. Be Black! Think Black! Buy Black!

Black Business of the Month: KPOO

Speaking of having a voice and a choice, my Black Business of the Month is KPOO radio in San Francisco. Black-owned KPOO has been giving our communities a voice for some 30 years; but it may be closing down and taken off the mike as early as mid-June without your support!

Go to www.kpoo.com/donations, where you’ll see several ways to contribute. KPOO’s fundraising drive on Indiegogo has a goal of $10,000. As of May 1, with only 38 days to go, they are $8,300 from their goal.

We rallied together to save Marcus Books. Let’s do the same for the lone Black voice of San Francisco and the Bay, KPOO! Give KPOO a call and thank them for their many years of service, then ask them what they need – in addition to your generous donation – and how you can be of service to them.

We tolerate KPFA because its powerful signal potentially reaches millions and could provide an invaluable service to our communities worldwide, but racism continues to rear its ugly head there too. We, with all the capital and currency that we command, as a people should not be losing radio stations, but building more!

Paradise is president of the International Black Writers & Artists Local 5 in Oakland and was honored by the City of Oakland with “Paradise Day,” on Oct. 6, 2007. Visit www.2012worldsfair.wordpress.com and email him at oaklandworldsfair@yahoo.com. Paradise also facilitates the Buy Black Wednesdays Facebook page and group, hosts the Black Wednesday Show every Wednesday at 6 p.m. on www.harambeeradio.com and blogs at www.blackwednesdays.blogspot.com.

Wilfred Batin, Wanda’s nephew, at the Honor Roll Tribute in February at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco – Photo: Wanda Sabir

Tour de Cure this weekend in the Gold Country

Support me in making my $1,000 goal! I am a Red Rider, which means I am personally affected by diabetes. Read my story at http://main.diabetes.org/goto/wandasabir. If anyone wants to join me in the 62-mile bike ride, I’d love company (smile).

‘The Expulsion of Malcolm X’

“The Expulsion of Malcolm X,” Larry Americ Allen’s epic play, is closing its successful run this weekend, May 3, 4 and 5 at the Southside Theatre in Fort Mason Center, Building D, 3rd Floor, in San Francisco. Written more than 20 years ago, “Expulsion” tells a story many theatres were afraid to touch, but not COVE or Colors of Vision Entertainment, where DeJuan Conner is executive producer and CEO. He is also portraying El Hajj Malik so well, I thought it was he on stage.

COVE also produced “A Soldiers Play,” which had a very successful run in this same theatre. Abbie Rhone, who directed “A Soldier’s Play,” is cast as Elijah Muhammad in “Expulsion.” Yes, he is the weasel who kicks his biggest fan out of the Nation (smile). Seriously though, Rhone portrays the elder leader with finesse, his Elijah a man who rules with an iron hand, yet is upset by petty rivalry and jealousy directed towards MX.

Under Lange’s direction, Conner’s MX is a family man who loves his wife Betty, portrayed well by Kreshenda Jenkins, and his kid brother, Reginald, portrayed by Terry Stanley. Reginald, who introduced MX to Islam, ends up leaving the fold, though not of his own choice. It is here that MX’s love for the Messenger is tested.

Conner’s MX is obedient, yet thoughtful. Blinded initially by values he assumes all in leadership uphold, he cannot believe his teacher, father, mentor would betray the laity as he has. And even when his eyes are fully open, he does not curse his teacher; he bids him peace, his very posture one of respect, yet he can no longer participate in a ministry that is hypocritical.

In Conner’s able hands, America’s MX is principled and kind. This is a lesson for youth today who talk about elders earning their respect. Even when MX was expelled from a community he loved, he did not curse his savior.

“The Expulsion of Malcolm X” is epic in length and quite comprehensive in its breadth, as over 14 scenes, two acts, we get to traverse the terrain that was Jim Crow and the rise of the Civil Rights Movement. MX questions the Nation of Islam’s “do-nothing” policy when he sees Martin King putting his and other people’s lives on the line to combat racial injustice. He asks Muhammad about this and is told, the NOI is a religious organization, not a political one. I thought about today and how Islamic organizations still lag behind other religious groups when it comes to fighting injustice and providing sanctuary for those in need, whether that is battered women, single parents, AIDS victims, the homeless or any number of social ills.

I am a product of the Nation of Islam in San Francisco, was a vanguard, a junior lieutenant, graduated from Muhammad University at 15 years old, top of my class and valedictorian, met my husband there, and was present when the Hon. Elijah Muhammad died and the community went in multiple directions. I remember sitting in what is now the Fillmore Auditorium listening to the Messenger each month on fourth Sundays. Sometimes he was too sick to speak long, so his late son, Wallace Muhammad, later Warith Din Muhammad, or Min. Farrakhan would speak. This happened in the play too. Suffering from asthma, the Hon. Elijah Muhammad left the speaking to Minister Malcolm while he recuperated. The scenes where the two men are juxtaposed – their words overlapping one another – are quite powerful. For tickets or information on “Expulsion,” call (510) 213-0401 or visit brownpapertickets.com.

‘Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners’

April was a busy month with quite a few cinematic highlights, among them Shola Lynch’s wonderful film, “Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners” (2013). Sister Lynch knows how to tell a story right. If folks know her “Shirley Chisholm: Unbought, Unbossed” (2004), then one can certainly say that in this director’s capable hands Black history, especially stories untold, get their day on the screen from a perspective that is profound, as is this latest work about a woman who is still going strong, Dr. Angela Y. Davis. I hadn’t realized prior to seeing the film that the campaign to free Davis was a global one, nor had I known the details of her relationship with Comrade George Jackson, how he inspired her and helped her survive captivity, which before her arrest was theoretical.

Defense attorney Leo Branton Jr. and Angela Davis confer during her 1972 trial in San Jose. Branton passed away on April 26, 2013. – Photo: AP

A young, fiery Davis is shown articulate, brave and fierce at 28 when she is arrested and accused of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy in the 1970 death of a state judge who was shot with one of several weapons she had bought. After 18 months in prison, she was acquitted by an all white jury in Santa Clara County. Some of my favorite parts of the film are when she is on the lamb, her brother, Reginald Davis, taking her from one safe house to another, one motel or hotel to another as the two evaded the FBI manhunt. What is interesting is the conversation the director has with one of the FBI agents, who reflects on this time, as footage of Richard Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover speak about the threat the Black Panther Party and the movement for Black liberation are to national security and why all such mobilization needs to be stopped immediately.

Davis speaks about why she didn’t leave the country like Assata Shakur and her defense strategy. Presiding Judge Richard E. Arnosan, who ruled in her case to grant bail and the young farmer who put up his farm as collateral when Aretha Franklin was out of the country at the time the decision was reached let her stand trial as a free woman.

California’s timely decision to suspend the death penalty – a crucial moment – was a key reason why Davis was able to get released on bail. The charges brought against her were a capital crime and, had the death penalty been an option – by lethal gas – she could have been sentenced to death.

The film is shot with serendipitous moments like this. The prosecution plays up the fact that Davis’ guns were used in the courthouse siege and the fact that Davis ran when charged. Branton asked the jurors to close their eyes and visualize what is means to be Black in America, so they could empathize with Davis when she refuses to turn herself over to the FBI. He has them walk backward into United States history to enslavement of his and Angela’s people, then forward through Jim Crow all the way to the present, where Black life was pretty worthless on the Stock Exchange – even peace warriors like Dr. Martin King.

I love it when Fania Davis, Esq., is in Paris speaking at a rally in French. Then later on when Angela Davis wins her case and she travels the world thanking her supporters, the span and reach is once again breathtaking. Reminds me of when Mandela walked out of Robben Island into the world’s hearts. The woman’s impact is HUGE! Critical Resistance didn’t wear an organizational hat yet, but certainly it was conceived in these moments of her life. Davis was living it as were her supporters against a mighty nation, and she won.

The drama of the courtroom is also big in “Free.” The decision to have her case tried separately from the case of Ruchell Cinque Magee, one of the only shootout survivors, is addressed, along with Davis’ membership in the Black wing of the Communist Party and then Gov. Reagan and the UC Regents’ vote to dismiss Davis from her position at UCLA. See http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/08/home/davis-campaign.html.

The legal defense team shares on screen in recent interviews why Davis had a Black legal team and why the team, which included women legal experts too, decided to let Davis make her own opening remarks – which were not about her trial, rather the sexist remarks lead prosecutor Albert Harris Jr. made in his opening statement – placing Davis’ alleged participation in the Marin Courthouse shooting on the fact that she was in love with Jonathan Jackson’s brother George.

One doesn’t get to see the icon, Angela Davis, within a cultural context, a milieu which includes family who are just as devoted to justice and freedom as their more publically recognized daughter, sister and aunt. What I love the most about the film is its title: “Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners.” The call, “Free them all,” is an affirmation as much as it is the title of a thought provoking wake-up call.

Daphne Muse, writer, poet and social commentator, was present at the trial and writes on her blog about Leo Branton: “He was one of the first to hire consultants to develop psychological profiles of jurors and demand fairer diversity of juries. Psychologist Dr. Tom Hilliard, Anne Ashmore (Poussaint-Hudson) and psychiatrist Price Cobb Jr. were part of the team who contributed their expertise to voir dire potential jurors. As secretaries for the defense team, Marlene Cassel and I came to witness his brilliance, legal acumen and forthrightness every day of that trial.

“Branton always swooped through the office in suits that bespoke the unbridled and astute confidence and experience he possessed. He turned litigation into well crafted performance art; after all, it was his desire to be an actor that paved the way for him to become a lawyer. He was exemplary in his ability to cross examine witnesses and during the trial, he put eye witness testimony in a tailspin and, as a result, a witness pointed out Kendra Alexander as the woman he saw in the Marin Courtroom and not Angela.

“He was so masterful in the courtroom that his legal charisma mesmerized the presiding judge, Richard E. Arnosan, the bailiffs, jurors, spectators and many members of the press; it also totally flummoxed prosecutor Albert Harris Jr. and his team. Harris looked as though he’d been bricked with a brief, the day of the verdict. I often wonder if the jurors knew that Leo was Black. He had that kind of racial ambiguity, for some, where he could represent either or.

At the Maroon the Implacable Tour at the California Institute of Integral Studies are Wanda Sabir with Theresa Shoatz, Russell “Maroon” Shoatz’s daughter, center, and Annie Paradise, who hosted the event. The event looked at the effects of prison on families. Anita Wills of Occupy 4 Prisoners and People’s Investigators and a genealogy expert, spoke along with others about the state’s capture of her sons. – Photo: Wanda Sabir

“With so many precedents set in litigating the Angela Davis trial, it really was indeed one of the major trials of the century. I’m sure John Jay, first chief justice of the Supreme Court; Clarence Darrow, attorney for the legendary, early 20th century Scopes Trial; and Charlotte E. Ray, first known African American woman lawyer, are all a-turning in afterlife awe. The power of his closing argument still resonates beyond that chamber into curricula in law schools throughout the United States. The trial transcript of the closing argument, May 30 to June 1, 1972, is available at the Bancroft Library, U.C. Berkeley, and the Angela Davis Papers and in the Howard Moore Jr. Papers, Woodruff Library, Manuscripts and Rare Books, Emory University, Atlanta, Ga.

Ms. Muse says that she invited the attorney to a holiday party December last year where he spoke of Davis’ trial and its “significant milestones and precedents.” Though many people know the Davis story, not many, Muse reflected, know Branton. She continues, “His presence and words brought a serious dimension of reality to that history. With a worldwide movement mobilized and upon her acquittal, Branton told Angela that she was the most powerful woman in the world” (http://daphnemuse.blogspot.com/). You can listen to Branton speak at the party thanks to videographer Mateenah Floyd-Okanlawon.

Executive produced by, among others, Jay-Z, Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith, “Free Angela” is the product of cooperative economics or Ujima (smile).

The film is having a special screening Tuesday, May 7, 7-9:21 p.m. at Landmark Piedmont Theatre, $12 general admission. This screening is being presented by Sankofa Events in solidarity with the Mayor’s Office of the City of Oakland, Critical Resistance, KPFA and the San Francisco State University Women and Gender Studies Department. For tickets, visit http://www.tugg.com/events/3958#.UXr9BZOOV0E.email.

‘Virgin Soul’

We celebrate with author Judy Juanita the publication of her first novel, “Virgin Soul.” The novel is a tour de force featuring Geneice Hightower, who takes us on a journey through the Black Arts and revolutionary movements of the ‘60s, most notably the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Up close and personal, this old soul in a young body, smart and cute and hip when she needs to be, innocent and fierce, yet always honest, is a for real foot soldier, movement woman, who attends Oakland City College, hosts Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) at her flat, which becomes a Safe House, learns to clean and assemble guns, dodges police bullets, graduates from SF State, feeds kids breakfast, tutors in Bayview Hunters Point, recites poetry, gets laid and ultimately finds herself (smile). Yes, it’s that exciting.

Just back from the LA Book Festival, she has other tour dates and special events like the one this Saturday, May 4, 2 p.m., at the 57th Street Gallery, where the author will be joined by veteran Panthers in a panel discussion about this important history. You can also catch her at Moe’s Books in Berkeley May 1 at 7:30 p.m.; at Book Passage in San Francisco at the Ferry Bldg. at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 2; Saturday, June 2, she’ll be at the Peralta Hacienda Historical Park at 2 p.m. If you get to this event, my younger daughter, TaSin, and I are a part of an exhibit, “Telling Stories.” Give us a listen and let me know what you think (smile). Listen to an interview with Judy a couple of weeks ago on the air: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks/2013/04/19/wandas-picks-radio-show.

SFIFF at 56

The San Francisco International Film Festival continues with quite a few Pan African and other films of note, among them two riveting films, “The Pirogue,” directed by Moussa Touré, “God Loves Uganda,” directed by Roger Ross Williams, and “Tall as the Baobab Tree,” directed by Jeremy Teicher. These three films look at the systematic economic disenfranchisement of Africa, whether that is the global impact of trade on families who have to send their sons and daughters on perilous journeys across the Atlantic ocean on boats ill-equipped for the hazards to the implementation of an educational system that undermines community values as it seeks to strengthen its nation’s ability to compete and survive.

When one thinks about the enslavement of African people, which is how many in the Diaspora landed in their present locations, and the subsequent colonialism, religion is the major culprit, then and now. African American director Roger Ross Williams, in his film, “God Loves Uganda,” takes an unprecedented look at a major church whose mission is to evangelize Africa, with a special focus on Uganda, what Lou Engle, International House of Prayer, calls “The Pearl of Africa.”

Featured artist Victoria Theodore with her mother and pianist and mentor Mary Watkins on the left at the Music SHE Wrote concert at the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music on Friday, April 26 – Photo: Wanda Sabir

I remember when Uganda was granted aid money during George W. Bush’s tenure, with the stipulation that abstinence would be the only prevention method allowed, so a country which had been the model for other nations regarding HIV/AIDS prevention saw its numbers increase at an alarming rate. Then a bill was introduced which would make homosexuality a crime punishable by death. A list of gay activists and their supporters, such as Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, was published and David Kato was beaten to death in January 2011. The vehement atmosphere engendered by such legislation fueled by American evangelist Scott Lively, whose 2009 call to “Kill the Gays” was the culmination of a high profile campaign begun in 2002 in Uganda.

Last year, I interviewed the directors, Katherine Fairfax Wright and Malika Zouhali-Worrall, and Longjones, one of the subjects in “Call Me Kuchu,” a film that tells David Kato’s story and that of others who continue his dangerous work to preserve the rights of this sexual minority in Kampala, Uganda: http://www.trbimg.com/img-5179eaf9/turbine/la-la-me-0425-branton-obit2-jpg-20130425/600.

The director writes: “I thought about following the activists – brave and admirable men and women – who were fighting against these policies. But I was more curious about the people who, in effect, wanted to kill me. (According to the provisions of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, I could be put to death or imprisoned.) Notably, almost every evangelical I met – American or Ugandan – was polite, agreeable, even charming. Yet I knew that if the bill passed, there would be blood on the streets of Kampala.

“What explains that contradiction? What explains the murderous rage and ecstatic transcendence? In the well-known trope about Africa, a white man journeys into the heart of darkness and finds the mystery of Africa and its unknowable otherness. I, a Black man, made that journey and found – America (http://www.godlovesuganda.com/film/directors-statement/).”

“God Loves Uganda” screens at the 56th Annual San Francisco International Film Festival, Monday, May 6, 8:15 p.m., Tuesday, May 7, 3:30 p.m., and Thursday, May 9, 8 p.m., at the Kabuki Theatre in San Francisco. Visit sffs.org.

In veteran Senegalese Moussa Touré’s film, “The Pirogue,” a fishing vessel turns into a chariot to heaven, and the keepers of The Pearly Gates speak Castilian Spanish. Opening with a wrestling match where once again the protagonist’s fighter loses, he is convinced that perhaps he should leave home for heaven, though from what we can see, he seems to be doing okay – son is healthy, his wife is happy, his spoiled brother loses his job yet can still buy electronic devices. But everyone is leaving the country, including his kid brother to pursue a music career.

Fishing is becoming a less viable livelihood, ditto cattle herding, and as African men find themselves at a loss with how to support their families and villages in an ever increasing global community where foreign investors can undercut a formerly regional economy, they make the treacherous and dangerous trek across the water. If they make it, their worries supposedly are over and they can send money to their impoverished families or communities.

So our fisherman is convinced to navigate the pirogue. He receives his money up front and leaves it with his wife. There are 30 men aboard and as he checks his GPS – yes, GPS – the immediacy of this problem hits the audience, which has its collective memories of “boat people.” I think of little Cuban national Elián Gonzalez and how the uncle of Haitian-born American writer Edwidge Danticat, Rev. Joseph Dantica, was allowed to die in the Krome detention center in Florida.

Western nations are perceived as sanctuary or preferred destinations for refugees escaping the consequences of industrialized greed and conquest, yet why would an African expect their former masters to treat them fairly? Reminds me of a character in playwright Matthew Lopez’s “The Whipping Man,” Simon, who expects his master to return after the war and pay him a sum of money – a personal 40 acres deal. The man’s back is scarred and his memories of enslavement are horrific, yet he holds out for a measure of humanity despite all he has experienced which show inhumanity and untrustworthiness.

The titular boat men from a variety of nations, with distinct languages and cultures, remind us of another journey hundreds of years or so before in the opposite direction. This time the living cargo isn’t sure of its welcome. Black bodies are no longer trading high on Western markets.

Tossing on the high seas, fearing for their lives, some men regret their decision to leave home. Perhaps there were other choices, a bit safer, ones that didn’t mean splintering families. Africa has been fleeced, but it doesn’t need to remain bare if nations refuse to be exploited any longer.

“The Pirogue” screens one last time, Thursday, May 2, 6:45, at New People Cinema in San Francisco.

The director promotes films by African filmmakers in Rufisque, Senegal, and since 2011, he has been the director of documentary filmmaking at FESPACO. To read more about him, see the https://www.festivalscope.com/director/tour-moussa.

Lorraine Hansberry Theatre presents Marcus Gardley’s ‘Black Odyssey, a Reflection’

Marcus Gardley is brilliant, and at almost 30 his light is shining so brightly, at the end of the two-act play, not only was I blinded, I was speechless – so full of emotions was I. And I was not alone; men and women were wiping away tears as Ulysses Lincoln made it home.

Based loosely on Greek playwright Homer’s “Odyssey,” this journey was one most in the audience recognized, yet perhaps had not articulated it so masterfully prior to this production. We know the trail of bones, whether it is Black Mary Wilkes following Aunt Ester Tyler: a former slave and a “soul-cleanser’s” instructions so that Citizen Bartlow can get right with himself in August Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean” or Great Aunt Tina (Athena) pleading with her dad, Great Grand Daddy Deus (Zeus) to talk to Great Grand Paw Sidin (Percedian) to save her kin from drowning.

It is interesting that like Wilson’s “Citizen,” Gardley’s “Ulysses Lincoln,” a Gulf War veteran who has blinded Polyphemus, a one eyed cyclops, Great Grand Paw Sidin’s or Poseidon’s son, which is why Sidin is trying to drown him, also has to go to the City of Bones. He needs to find his story or learn his history so he can get home.

As Ulysses Lincoln travels, he meets friends and foes – even family. Maps are etched in hands and he finds paths or trails similar to his own. These familiar markings make the journey, if not less harrowing, certainly more satisfying for Ulysses, who has been lost so long his memories are legends he shares with his new friend, Nella Pell. She saves his life.

Stranded people with limited rations are not the most sympathetic rescuers, but the child Nella Pell convinces her dad not to shoot him and her mom to let him stay.

There is a lot of water imagery, floods and heavy rains. Is it New Orleans after the levees break or some other water odyssey? Ulysses is at first confused, until he realizes that he is in the future, the journey a memory past, one previously inaccessible, thus the forced journey. He will not get a pass home until he knows where he comes from, not physically, which, when asked, he’d say New York City, but a deeper look at home as in who are his people? How many generations can he name? What ancestors’ stories does he carry in his bones?

Jacque Barnes, right, is the owner of Casa de Cultura in Berkeley, where the fundraiser for Jacque took place Saturday, April 27. Jacque is a cultural legend in the Afro-Brazilian community. Val Serrant, center, is leading us in a healing chant for Jacque, who is recovering from heart surgery. Send funds to the Jacqueline Barnes Fund at any Chase Bank, account 423-594-766. – Photo: Wanda Sabir

What is blood but water? First blue and then when air hits it the color changes? The human body is 90 percent water and if the planet is a metaphor for our vehicles for this journey, then what does this memory-blood-water connection mean?

The sibling rivalry between Paw Sidin and big brother Daddy Deus is so amusing, as are the relationships between other characters, I guess too numerous to name, that the actors portray, yet are absent from the program.

The major characters are nine, yet many more fill out the story, like Malachi (Telemachus), Ulysses’ son, who is born while his dad is away and does not know him, and Ulysses’s wife, Benevolence Nausicca Sabine (Penelope).

In the world these characters inhabit, while gods technically can’t cross each other, Great Aunt Tina leaves home to go to stay with Ulysses while he is away. Hanging with human beings changes her. She loses her looks and the human container starts to give her pain and trouble. Magic ceases to work in this realm, or perhaps what she notices is how hard the life her Ulysses and others trapped in this realm manage.

Ancestors speak to Ulysses. He dreams and in this state he and his wife, Benevolence, speak.

There was much to recommend “Black Odyssey”: the staging, which was marvelous, especially the various songs and choreography and the cast, which was stellar. When Aldo Billinglea’s Ulysses makes it home to Benevolence (Britney Frazier), one sees tears rolling down his cheeks. And then there is the single mother, Benevolence. She wants to believe her husband is gone, but something makes her continue to hold on even after at 14 years she almost gives up.

Margo Hall as Great Aunt Tina, exemplifies how much our ancestors love us and how hard they work for Great Uncle Paw Siddin, portrayed by Darryl V. Jones, our salvation and happiness even if their advocacy doesn’t work out for the best. Aunt Tina begs her dad to stop Paw Siddin, but his hands are ethically tied.

“Black Odyssey” covers the period Ulysses has been lost, Black people from our earliest memory of enslavement to the present. Stranded on rooftops waiting for a savior, Ulysses sees the Four Little Girls from Birmingham, Emmett Till from Chicago, Martin King and others. Is this his fate, to be stranded?

If Ulysses represents post-Apocalypse or life after captivity, then how much longer must we wander as a people? When will our choices open the hinges which are rusted shut? True, like Ulysses, we’ve inherited trauma – mother dead before he was born, Ulysses is without family or at least he thinks he is an orphan until he starts traveling and realizes how much family there is waiting to claim him.

The memory is in the blood and perhaps one has to spill the blood to release the spirit trapped inside? Sounds like what happened with Jesus – the trapped divinity wasn’t released until crucifixion. That’s when the magic begins – water becomes buoyant whereby Jesus can walk on its surface. What does he learn while blue that he didn’t know when the water was red?

Paw Siddin admits to his stirring the waters, yet Ulysses does have choices. Paw Siddin reminds me of Olukun, the orisha who rules the deepest waters. Post traumatic slave syndrome, this genetic memory and our participation in its continued perpetuation that is our own enslavement is no skinny dip.

The cast is rounded out by Steven Anthony Jones, LHT artistic director, and the director of this production as he plays the role of Artex Sabine; Halili Knox is a number of characters, her primary one is Alsendra Sabine; Kehinde Koyejo as Nella Pell; Dimitri Woods as Malachi; Carl Lumbly as Great Grand Daddy Deus; Bert van Aslsburg as stage manager.

Visit www.lhtsf.org or call (415) 474-8800 to find out about subscriptions and other free readings. The next one is May 4, 2 p.m., at MoAD, “We Are Proud to Present,” by Jackie Sibblies Drury.

The playwright’s work was a part of Bay Area Playwright’s Festival about two years ago. Listen to the interview: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks/2011/07/15/wandas-picks.

Another film which is was also shot in Senegal in a remote village where education has just been introduced within the past decade shows the changes this means for a community where girls were married off as child brides, literacy was not necessarily widespread and chiefs still were consulted on major decisions. In this setting we meet two girls, Coumba and her little sister Debo. The stories are based on the young people, whom the director Jeremy Teicher met when in the village just outside Mbour for a shoot as a college student.

Unfortunately the youth are not traveling with this film, which is having much success on the film festival circuit. I do not know why they are not here, since it is their story. Reminds me a bit of Kathryn Stockett’s “The Help.” She didn’t live the story, and her protagonist didn’t either, yet both the fictional and actual novelist got all the glory. “The Help” didn’t get to move to New York and start a writing career. The screenplay softens these edges quite a bit. In the novel it’s pure exploitation.

Nonetheless, I am giving Teicher the benefit of the doubt as the villagers liked the film and he employs Africans on both ends of the production. “Tall as the Baobab Tree,” directed by Jeremy Teicher, screens Sunday, May 5, 1:30, KAB; May 7, 6:00, New People; May 8, 1:00, New People. Here is an archival interview from a couple of weeks ago: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks/2013/04/24/wandas-picks-radio-show.

Other films to note: “Let the Fire Burn,” directed by Jason Osder, Sunday, May 5, 9 p.m., Wednesday, May 8, 6:15 p.m., Thursday, May 9, 6:30 p.m.; “A River Changes Course,” directed by Kalyanee Mam, Sunday, May 5, 1 p.m., at New People; “Salma,” directed by Kim Longinotto, Thursday, May 2, 6:15 p.m., Saturday, May 4, 2 p.m., “Fatal Assistance,” directed by Raul Peck, Monday, May 6, 6:30, BAM/PFA, May 7, 9:15, KAB, May 8, 6:45 KAB. Visit www.sffs.org.

On the fly

Ms. Ruth Beckford is having a luncheon at Geoffrey’s on 14th Street in Oakland this month to celebrate retirement and think out loud about “what’s next?” There is life after 70, 80 even 90 years old. Don’t miss an opportunity to listen to the elders speak. I am not intentionally leaving the date out; as of this writing, I do not know when the event is happening (smile). Ms. Beckford told me about it two-three months ago, and Mrs. Belva Davis told me she was on the panel when I spoke to her before her gala celebration. If I wrote it down, I have since lost the paper bearing the details, so if anyone knows, send me an email please. I’d like to attend.

The 13th Annual Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival is May 18, 11-7, at San Antonio Park in Oakland. Visit www.eastsideartsalliance.org. Gina Breedlove’s CD release party is at Freight and Salvage Sunday, May 5, 8 p.m., in Berkeley. Listen to an interview at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks/2013/04/26/wandas-picks-radio-show. The Northern California Book Awards is Sunday, May 19, 1:00 p.m., San Francisco Main Library, Civic Center, 100 Larkin, enter on Grove, Koret Auditorium. Reception follows in the Latino/Hispanic Meeting Room.

In “For Every Mountain,” veteran Bay Area playwright Beverly Brown’s Totally Led Ministries brings her play to El Cerrito Theatre, 540 Ashbury Ave., El Cerrito, May 4-5. Tickets for the play are now available. General seating is $25 per person, with children age 15 and under $15 at the door only. Group rates for 10 or more persons are discounted to $22 per person. For ticket information, visit totallyled.org or contact Beverly Brown at (510) 677-7046, sistahbev@sbcglobal.net. View “For Every Mountain” promotional video at www.totallyled.org. The Third Annual San Francisco Green Festival is Thursday, May 30, through Wednesday, June 5. Visit sfgreenfilmfest.org.

Bay View Arts Editor Wanda Sabir can be reached at wsab1@aol.com. Visit her website at www.wandaspicks.com throughout the month for updates to Wanda’s Picks, her blog, photos and Wanda’s Picks Radio. Her shows are streamed live Wednesdays at 6-7 a.m. and Fridays at 8-10 a.m., can be heard by phone at (347) 237-4610 and are archived on the Afrikan Sistahs’ Media Network.

As adults, we frequently reminisce about childhood as we listen for the voice of our mothers calling, “Time to come inside now.” It may have been getting dark or too cold outside, or perhaps it was time for dinner. Our memories are always so vivid about those days; it tends to comfort us to the point where we keep it close to our hearts and memory bank. Many people indicate this is the place in their memory where they go for safety and comfort when homeless.

You’re always welcome at Mother Brown’s Kitchen and Drop-In Resource Center under the motherly eye of CEO Gwendolyn Westbrook. – Photo: Betty McGee

Mother Brown’s legacy was left in the hands of the current CEO, Gwendolyn Westbrook. Mother Brown’s Kitchen is one of many programs sponsored by United Council for Human Services under the stewardship of Ms. Westbrook. All meals conform to the National Registry of Food Safety Standards. When asked about the quality of the food, Mr. Wade said, “This food tastes like my mama’s cooking. Do you know the word is out on the streets about how good the food is here, and man, they are flocking to Mother Brown’s Kitchen!” Once Mr. Wade has his dinner, he receives a bagged snack in case he gets hungry during the night.

We met a young lady, Pat, who describes the rest of her evening in the Drop-In Resource Center. She is thankful not to have to sleep in the streets tonight. She intends to sleep inside with only a chair to accommodate her need for safe sleep. Pat is looking forward to the day when the full service bed facility materializes in Bayview Hunters Point where many will not have to resort to chairs or sleeping on the floor in a church.

However, sleeping in a chair allows the homeless to sleep light, thereby allowing them to closely watch their things as they rest. Many still fear for their safety despite being inside under the watchful eyes of outreach workers.

While using United Council for Human Services, Pat, along with other homeless people, will shower and wash her clothes. Guests are given a robe to wear while their clothes are drying. She gets up to a hot breakfast in the kitchen and takes her time to plan her day. Homeless people who use the Drop-In Center generally spend the day taking care of their business; some have jobs, and some volunteer in the community, returning at the end of the day to resume the cycle. The Drop-In Resource Center can accommodate 49 homeless adults.

In 1998, Mother Brown started United Council for Human Services Clothing and Food Bank at 1065 Oakdale Ave. in San Francisco. Residents who are eligible to receive food must live in 94124. The bank is open from 9 a.m. to 12 noon on Wednesday. Fresh produce, staples, meat, bread and bottled drinks are issued to more than 2,071 family members weekly.

Mr. Wade loves Mother Brown’s Kitchen. “This food tastes like my mama’s cooking,” he exclaims. – Photo: Betty McGee

There are two other components to Mother Brown’s legacy. One is the Hope House Project designed to house single men and women in private homes. The houses are leased from the owners and needy individuals are placed in bedrooms while they work, look for work, further their education and/or deal with social issues.

Homeless individuals learn to live cohesively with one another for an undetermined length of time. Hope House has been in existence for more than 11 years and has had a 98 percent success rate pertaining to program completion. The program houses an average of 65-70 individuals at any given time depending on the number of bedrooms in the house.

The newest program managed by United Council for Human Services is the Hope House Veteran Program. This program is nearly two years old. It is designed to assist with temporary housing for homeless men and women who served in the military. Some of the goals of the Veteran Program are to provide strong case management that encourages higher education, employment, health awareness and securing permanent housing. Again, the program mimics the infrastructure of the regular Hope House Program by housing veterans in rooms of private homes leased from owners. The program is funded to provide housing to 60 homeless men and women who served in the military. It is in the VA Hope House Transitional Housing Program where I met Robert Kemp.

Robert Kemp is a 53-year-old African American man with 11 years of military service. When Mr. Kemp entered Hope House Transitional Housing Program in 2011, he did not have much more than a job. His addiction to cocaine left him depressed and angry. His faith shaken, he was fighting to gain control over his life after ending a marriage due to his addiction.

Addiction to cocaine in the ‘80s left many African Americans’ lives in total chaos and hopelessness. Therapy was not part of our culture and, as a result, not even the United States military was able to figure out how to manage drug addiction. In the case of Mr. Kemp, the military dealt with his addiction by ending his military career with two honorable discharges and one bad conduct.

How do you turn a person away after 11 years of serving your country because of the military inability to work with drug abuse? Mr. Kemp had entered the United States Navy at the early age of 17, completed his basic training and studied recordkeeping and accounting, only to be discharged with a bad conduct due to his addiction. Mr. Kemp’s service in the Navy lasted from 1977 to 1989 with time spent on the following ships: USS Morton in Pearl Harbor, Hi/USS Peieiu in Long Beach and USS Enterprise in Alameda.

Mr. Kemp’s addiction was so out of control, he was no longer able to hide it from the Navy; he was issued a bad conduct for his final discharge in 1989. By the time the Navy discovered what was going on, he had been using cocaine for more than three years. According to Mr. Kemp he was absent without leave (AWOL) once and even at that point the Navy did little to determine the reason for his erratic behavior.

Robert Kemp

His stay in VA Transitional Hope House has not always been peaches and cream. Things got so bad once he was removed from the program due to his addiction and abnormal behavior, including but not limited to anger issues. He was out of the VA Transitional Hope House for more than four months for conduct unbecoming of a resident.

When he returned to the program, he was welcomed back with open arms. Mr. Kemp indicates that the case manager, Mr. Harrison, made it plain that he needed to work harder to conquer his addiction and manage the anger issues. When asked what he liked most about The VA Transitional Hope House, he stated, “I am able to access more than one case manager, which I need to maintain my sobriety.”

Mr. Kemp is constantly going to meetings to maintain his sobriety. He closes by stating, “VA Transitional Hope House was my salvation at a time when my life appeared to be moving out of control and I had nowhere to go.”

Hope House Veteran Program now has vacancies and is inviting homeless veterans to apply for housing. Please call United Council for Human Services at (415) 671-1100 if you or someone you know is in need of housing services.

Dr. Betty McGee can be reached at bmcgee_us@yahoo.com.

Supporters of ending the suspension of Minister of Information JR Valrey made up the majority of the crowd at KPFA’s Townhall on Racism at Laney College April 11. JR’s show, the Block Report on the Morning Mix every Wednesday at 8-9 a.m. had become one of the station’s top shows in terms of audience size and funds raised and brought a flood of new listeners to KPFA. A larger audience is seen by all sides of the KPFA debate as the solution to chronic money problems at the station. – Photo: Minister of Information JR Valrey

One major issue that sparked the recent conflict was the March 6 suspension of Block Report Radio’s Minister of Information JR Valrey, who is also the associate editor of the SF Bay View newspaper. According to the suspension letter, Valrey was suspended because the CWA (Communications Workers of America) union, which represents only the 20 percent of the staff at KPFA who are paid, has flooded the Pacifica Radio Network with complaints about JR addressing racial issues at the station on the air.

Valrey had repeatedly contacted the management at KPFA and Pacifica two months prior to discuss these problems, but his emails were never even acknowledged. So he went to the airwaves beginning on Feb. 6 to hold management accountable by educating the people who pay the bills at KPFA, the listeners, to the circumstances he and others are forced to work under.

JR Valrey’s suspension was originally for 60 days, but it was recently extended by Pacifica Executive Director Summer Reece, who claims that she wants the new interim general manager to handle the investigation, which basically means that the investigation has not even started, be it that the old interim general manager, Andrew Phillips, is still at work. On April 12, he was asked by Reece to step down as KPFA’s interim general manager because of rampant acts of racism going unaddressed at the station under his tenure.

The panel at KPFA’s Townhall on Racism April 11 was composed of Steve Zeltzer, Frank Sterling, Tracy Rosenberg, Gerald Sanders and Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia. – Photo: Scott Braley

KPFA News and its affiliated morning news program Upfront, broadcast weekdays at 7-8 a.m., has over 12 paid employees, while most other shows, including the Morning Mix, broadcast at 8-9 a.m., have none. Hard Knock Radio has two, La Onda Bajita has none, Flashpoints has two, Africa Today has none and Transitions on Traditions has none.

To represent the different sides of the debate at KPFA on April 11, the panel was composed of Pacifica National Board Treasurer Tracy Rosenberg, member of the Local Station Board Frank Sterling, Steve Zeltzer of Work Week Radio on the Morning Mix, Gerald Sanders, formerly of the Local Station Board, and Tiny of Poor News Network on the Morning Mix. Janet Korben of the Local Station Board and Ann Garrison of the Unpaid Staff Organization also pitched in.

Tim Killings of the Laney College Black Student Union speaks to the panel as Minister of Information JR Valrey watches. – Photo: Scott Braley

Tim Killings of the Laney College Black Student Union organized the townhall meeting and The People’s Minister of Information JR Valrey was the host. Throughout the evening 50-60 people came to hear and speak out on what’s going on at KPFA.

The next townhall meeting is at Laney College on the fourth floor of the student center, Room SC401, on Tuesday, May 7, at 6:30 p.m. A rally in front of KPFA will be scheduled at this meeting.

Bay Area writer Karen Hutton can be reached at karenyhutton1988@gmail.com.

Activist-poet-feminist Leroy Moore, founder of Krip Hop Nation, spoke of the genesis, economics and politics of advocacy for people of color with disabilities in an oppressive society. He says, “If the U.S. wants to put a frame around Black history, then I want my history as a Black disabled man in that frame.” – Photo: Malaika Kambon

His mother, sister and niece told me the story of how Joe became blind when I sat down with them at Georgia State University in October of 2010 as Krip-Hop Nation and Georgia State University held an event and award ceremony to honor the late Blind Joe by giving an award to his family. I can’t let the story of how Joe Capers became blind out of the bag, but you will soon know this story and more when the film documentary of Blind Joe Capers comes out. The documentary that is in currently being worked on by Naru Kwina not only covers Blind Joe’s life but also the impact he made on the Oakland’s early Hip-Hop scene and his commitment to the blind community in Oakland as well.

Joe Capers

Spoken word artist Joy Sledge, aka Joy Elan, is hard of hearing. A graduate of both UC Berkeley and Stanford Universities, her poem, “Silently Outnumbered,” warns against the tendency of society to underestimate and seek to intimidate people with disabilities. – Photo: Malaika Kambon

I’m talking about the founder of HipLearning, Naru Kwina. Come to find out that Naru knew Joe and used to record and help out in Joe’s studio back in the day. When Naru found out what I was doing, he told me that he would be down to work on a film documentary about Joe. This documentary is in the works and up to now Naru has filmed artists like MC Hammer and others plus he has also interviewed community leaders like KPFA’s own Greg Bridges, who was a friend of Blind Joe.

Activist Enalita Loicy Pela is a disabled queer woman of color, who is a musician, poet and writer. Her songs, written in the blues, jazz, soul and rock genres, quietly rocked the house as her lyrics spoke to the facts of life as a disabled queer woman of color. – Photo: Malaika Kambon

To keep Joe Capers’ name and legacy in the public’s eye while Naru and crew continue to work on the documentary, Krip-Hop Nation once again gathered Black and Brown musicians and poets with disabilities this past February for what was called Krip-Hop Nation Mini-Concert Tour Honoring Blind Joe Capers and The Blind Joe Capers Legacy. This small tour was four days, Feb. 14-17, at four venues – in Concord, East and West Oakland, and San Francisco.

Brown and Black musicians and poets with disabilities came together in a collaborative effort that both honored and celebrated the accomplishments of the late Blind Joe Capers, performing a mixture of music from Spoken Word to Folk to Hip-Hop. As always, the tour also contained panels of speakers who talked about the importance of Krip-Hop Nation. During the tour the surprise treat was at the Eastside Arts Alliance in East Oakland when some of the family of Blind Joe Capers came and listened and saw the love and work that was going on to spread the legacy of Blind Joe Capers to Oakland’s residents of today.

Lateef Mcleod is a phenomenal Black actor and poet. He has cerebral palsy. Like Joy and Fezo, he is a published author. Using a voice activated lap top, his powerful poem, “I Am All Right,” rang with the searing condemnation of a society that looks down on disabled people “with that sad, condescending smile that you use,” thinking we are naive. – Photo: Malaika Kambon

If you know of any venues next to public transportation that would be down to host this event in early August, please let us know. I would like to thank all the artists who performed at the February Krip-Hop Nation Mini-Concert Tour Honoring Blind Joe Capers and the Blind Joe Capers Legacy. Thanks, too, to the continuous love and support from Joe Capers’ family and thanks for the work of Naru Kwina. Also shout out to photographer-activist Malaika Kambon, who took pictures at the Eastside Arts Alliance in East Oakland that are published in this article.

After the concert, Krip Hop Nation artists, the family of Blind Joe Capers and community folks joined together in solidarity. – Photo: Malaika Kambon

To follow the latest news of the Joe Capers’ Legacy Project Film Documentary, go to our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Memorial-to-Life-Work-of-Joe-Capers-Disabled-Producer-of-the-Stars/ or drop us an email at Kriphopnation@gmail.com.

Krip-Hop Nation founder Leroy F. Moore Jr. can be reached at blackkrip@gmail.com.

Keith Jones, aka Fezo Madone, is an incisive social critic, political analyst and activist. Using his mic and his feet, he is turning the perceptions of cerebral palsy upside down. “How does society see disabled people of color? Are we an inspiration, crazy, something to be hidden, corrected or cursed? And how are we expected to live in society with these labels?” – Photo: Malaika Kambon

Keith Jones writes with his right foot. – Photo: Malaika Kambon

There are two film festivals in the Bay Area that are famous for presenting excellent work by Black filmmakers: the Oakland International Film Festival and the San Francisco Black Film Festival. Now that the OIFF is over, we are looking towards the future. In a few weeks, thousands of people will be trailing into theaters all over San Francisco to check out what the SF Black Film Fest has deemed some of the best Black indie films of the year.

San Francisco Black Film Festival director Kali O’Ray accepts his award on Black Media Appreciation Night last November at Yoshi’s. – Photo: Malaika Kambon

Last year’s festival featured the likes of the famous director and writer Robert Townsend, Hunter’s Point filmmaker Kevin Epps, Los Angeles based director Lela Nicole, legendary Bay Area rappers Mac Mall and Ray Luv, as well as fem-cee Ms. Be and her husband and cinematographer Kosh, who were presenters last year in the music video section of the festival. This year proves to be just as exciting if not more. Read the words of SF Black Film Fest Director Kali O’Ray.

M.O.I. JR: Can you tell us a little bit of history of how the SF Black Film Fest started? When?

Kali O’Ray: The San Francisco Black Film Festival was founded with the artistic vision to provide a platform for Black filmmakers, screenwriters and actors to present their art. As a competitive film festival, SFBFF identifies filmmakers, screenwriters and actors who are emerging as talents and established artists contributing to the cinematic legacy of African Americans.

SFBFF conscientiously expands the notions of “Black filmmaking” to a global perspective. Hence, film submissions are accepted worldwide from filmmakers and screenwriters who are of African descent or feature actors representing the African Diaspora. SFBFF is managed by a dedicated advisory board of 10 artists, business people, film industry figures and other professionals.

The SFBFF is a place to view films like no other. We do not specialize in films showing the standard stereotypes, the ones we are used to. We try to show positive and innovating films that you may or may not be able to view at regular screenings. We bring a positive light by selecting films which Hollywood might not ever bring to you.

There are so many films being produced – many you will never hear of, not because they are not good, but because the Hollywood market likes to put us in a box. This box is slowly being broken.

The San Francisco Black Film Festival was founded with the artistic vision to provide a platform for Black filmmakers, screenwriters and actors to present their art.

There is so much going on with Black media that most people are not aware of unless they are enthusiasts, filmmakers themselves or keeping up with the film festival scene. Since the camera and computer programs have become readily available or at least accessible to most, the media has taken off and we are catching up by leaps and bounds. Some make it to the theater, some make it to DVD and some you will get only one chance to see. Come and be a part of this festival or any festival you can attend!

M.O.I. JR: What flicks are you looking forward to this year?

Kali O’Ray: As we still have more than two weeks of films to be submitted and reviewed, it is hard to determine what we will be playing in the festival. We have so many films this year that the competition will be fierce, and the stories will be great. I am so proud of where filmmaking is going and what is being produced.

We have finally made it to the place where the independent filmmakers are almost on an even playing field and it is getting much easier, with the help of the DSLR and editing software, to make a film and get your story into a festival. If your film is good, you will then have the chance for distribution or, even better, a chance for a bigger budget to bring your vision to the masses.

It is time for us to take control of the images we want, to determine who we are as a people. No more are all the roles going to be menial and with no substance or just filling a stereotype on screen. The time will soon be here when we actually have a say in our portrayal on the big screen.

As filmmakers and writers start to fill these voids, I am looking to see a new type of representation and films by and about Black people. Our time is coming and the SFBFF plans on being the platform

M.O.I. JR: Why are film festivals important to filmmakers and film lovers alike?

Kali O’Ray: Film festivals are important because this gives the chance for a small, independent filmmaker or writer to have a platform for others to view their work in an atmosphere of like-minded people who want to explore and discuss their work. It offers even a greater gift to the movie goer who gets to see films which they would never see, had they not been a part of the film festival circuit.

This is a chance to network and find people to fill those holes you need on your project, a chance to find tips and tricks which can save you countless time during production. This is also a good way to get your finger on the pulse of the hottest topics in the African American community. I am blessed every year to see the films that do not make the final cut, so you better believe the ones that do have a lot to offer.

One of my favorite things about the festival is the sharing and dialogue after the films. The Q&A portion is something I adore because I, many times, have questions, comments and praise about most of the films, and I know the filmmakers love explaining their journey, trials and tribulations to bring this film for your viewing pleasure.

Many times we are talking about someone who has spent all of their personal money to bring you a film. It is worth that much to them that they would work and spend every penny they could spare to make a film for you to see. This could not be done about 10 years ago, but we are at a place where this is being done by so many, and the least we could do is be there to support the filmmakers because some will go on to be the greats and their stories are worth hearing.

Film festivals are important because this gives the chance for a small, independent filmmaker or writer to have a platform for others to view their work in an atmosphere of like-minded people who want to explore and discuss their work. It offers even a greater gift to the movie goer who gets to see films which they would never see, had they not been a part of the film festival circuit.

M.O.I. JR: What have some of the highlights been of the SF Black Film Fest over the years?

Kali O’Ray: There have been many highlights but some of my favorites are Spike Lee, Taraji P. Henson, Danny Glover, Samuel L Jackson, Billy D. Williams and Bill Duke. For some it may be others, but these are mine.

Another great highlight for me personally was last year’s reception with Robert Townsend. He is such a great, positive brother who shares the vision of the SF Black Film Festival. He is concerned with the portrayal and images of our people on screen and is a great mentor for anyone in the business. He is another brother who got his start from nothing! Credit cards and promises is what made his first film, and the rest is history.

M.O.I. JR: How do people stay in tune with what’s going on?

Kali O’Ray: The best way to keep up with what the SFBFF is doing is going to the website (www.sfbff.org), the newsletter (sign up at the upper right hand corner of the website) and Facebook. With these you will always know what we are up to and what films are coming down the pipe. We stay on top of film and you can do so with us.

The People’s Minister of Information JR is associate editor of the Bay View, author of “Block Reportin’” and filmmaker of “Operation Small Axe” and “Block Reportin’ 101,” available, along with many more interviews, at www.blockreportradio.com. He also hosts two weekly shows on KPFA 94.1 FM and kpfa.org: The Morning Mix every Wednesday, 8-9 a.m., and The Block Report every other Friday night-Saturday morning, midnight-2 a.m. He can be reached at blockreportradio@gmail.com.

I once was told that reading was the theater of the imagination and, probably because it was introduced to me at an early age by my parents, it has always been one of my favorite pastimes. In a conversation with my comrade Tyson, one of the owners of Black and Nobel bookstore in Philly a few years ago, I learned that Black people in the U.S. bought twice as many erotic and gangsta lit books as we do anything else. So I thought that it is important for me to read and get to know what people are reading and the people who are behind the scenes sculpting this art form.

Mary B. Morrison

M.O.I. JR: What was your life like before you became a writer? What inspired you to become one?

Mary Honey B Morrison: The relationship with my soulmate lasted I say five years; he says seven. When he proposed, I sobered up realizing neither one of us was ready to make a lifelong commitment.

Our relationship was the best of the best and the worst I’d ever experienced. Not in a physical way but when couples are spiritually connected we almost know one another too well. We know what makes the other person happy and we know how to piss them off.

As I’ve heard before, “Hurt people hurt people.” That’s what we did to one another. In my novel, “Soulmates Dissipate,” that is being made for the big screen, I pen the essence of love and loss that my fans can relate to.

Mary Honey B Morrison had a lot of prolific and enlightening ideas when it came to literature, expressing one’s self and sexuality, so I wanted to turn our readers on to a legendary author in our midst.

M.O.I. JR: What created the urge in you to write erotic stories? What is the importance of expressing yourself sexually?

Mary Honey B Morrison: I am a sexual person. I had to learn to respect my body as a woman. Growing up in my hometown of New Orleans, I was constantly told, “Don’t do it. You’re not going to be half the woman your mother was.”

Well, my mother had eight, some say, nine kids before she committed suicide. I had to learn that I am a person birthed from my mother. I am not and can never be my mother – whom I love beyond infinity.

Sexuality came natural to me. That is after I had my first orgasm at the age of 16. I’ve never been passive in a relationship. It’s always been common sense to me, perhaps because of my father’s abuse toward my mom, that I’d never allow a man to degrade or judge me.

I am a woman. God gave me a clitoris with more than 6,000 nerve endings and I intend to use every single one at my discretion.

M.O.I. JR: How many books have you written?

Mary Honey B Morrison: I’m a New York Times best-selling author with 18 published novels. Number 19, “I’d Rather Be With You,” will be released Aug. 1, 2013. I’m penning number 20, and have a contract for number 21, 22 and 23 with Kensington Publishing Corp.

In my novel, “Soulmates Dissipate,” that is being made for the big screen, I pen the essence of love and loss that my fans can relate to.

M.O.I. JR: How often do you write? What is your creative process like?

Mary Honey B Morrison: For me, creativity doesn’t have a time or place. I don’t write every day, but don’t tell my publisher this (lol). I do enjoy writing between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., but honestly I can write “any time or any place; I don’t care who’s ‘round.” I know that that’s Janet Jackson’s quote and yes, it’s sexual, but it also applies to my lifestyle of writing.

M.O.I. JR: What was the process like for you to find a publisher?

Mary Honey B Morrison: Finding a publisher was not difficult for me because I’m a hard worker, even to this day. I self-published my first novel, “Soulmates Dissipate,” in June of 2000. Sold over 14,000 copies total. Carl Weber introduced me to my first agent, Claudia Menza, and she secured me a three-book deal with Kensington Publishing Corp. in less than three months of my self-publishing my first novel.

M.O.I. JR: Do you do any work with women who have been sexually abused?

Mary Honey B Morrison: I’m so glad you asked this question. On May 9, 2013, I’m hosting an event at White House Black Market in Emeryville. Kensington Publishing Corp. is sponsoring gift cards, Maria Costen at cbsradio.com 99.7 is promoting the event on air, PF Chang’s is providing complimentary appetizers, Destiny the Harpist is performing, and I’m dressing three of the women from a local non-profit, 24 Hour Oakland Parent Teacher Children Center and Emergency Shelter.

I’ve also agreed to be the keynote speaker for the non-profit’s 2014 scholarship luncheon. It would be great if you could have me and the owner from the women’s shelter on-air to promote and talk about this wonderful event.

M.O.I. JR: What kind of stuff do you read?

Mary Honey B Morrison: No you didn’t say “stuff”! OK, now that I’ve loosened my lips, I primarily read magazine articles and online postings on Facebook. I’m currently reading Pynk’s erotic novel, “Politics. Escorts. Blackmail.”

M.O.I. JR: What kind of impact do you want your stories to have?

Mary Honey B Morrison: No matter what challenges my female characters encounter, they always prevail. Women are the gravity to earth. That’s how I’ve always written my novels.

I haven’t told anyone this, so you’re the first. My next series, “Single Moms,” will be based in Oakland. This series is anointed by God. I don’t want my publishers or readers to think I’m crossing over to Christian fiction. I’m not.

But the feeling that is upon my heart is heavy with the responsibility to help millions of women overcome this obstacle that plagues our – especially the African-American – community. These women meet at church, and each one has her journey. Some are successful. Others are not. That’s life.

M.O.I. JR: How do people stay up on what you have going on?

Mary Honey B Morrison: Sign up for my newsletter on my web site at www.MaryMorrison.com. Join my fan page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mary-Honey-B-Morrison/167732794577?ref=ts&fref=ts. I’m also on Twitter at https://twitter.com/marybmorrison. Email me at AskHoneyB@aol.com.

The People’s Minister of Information JR is associate editor of the Bay View, author of “Block Reportin’” and filmmaker of “Operation Small Axe” and “Block Reportin’ 101,” available, along with many more interviews, at www.blockreportradio.com. He also hosts two weekly shows on KPFA 94.1 FM and kpfa.org: The Morning Mix every Wednesday, 8-9 a.m., and The Block Report every other Friday night-Saturday morning, midnight-2 a.m. He can be reached at blockreportradio@gmail.com.

Every day women throughout the world find themselves in abusive relationships. What makes us so susceptible to abuse? Many people believe that if we witnessed abuse as children or experienced abuse then we are more likely to end up in an abusive relationship. However, this is not always the case.

I have seen women who were self-confident, smart and high in spirits get in a relationship that at first seemed normal and healthy only to end up with their lives shattered. In no time these women go from confident to being withdrawn and afraid.

Abusive men use numerous tactics to break the women who love them and they often stop at nothing to accomplish this task. As women, we do not have to put up with abuse, but getting out of an abusive relationship isn’t as easy as most outsiders assume.

Abuse comes in different forms: mental, emotional, verbal, physical.

Chances are if you are experiencing one of these, then eventually you will experience them all! In my experience the abuse always escalates. I have never seen it decline or stop.

Men often abuse for several reasons: They are insecure in their relationships, they have no control in other aspects of their lives, they are trying to make up for their shortcomings, and because they like the sense of power. Some of these men may have witnessed abuse as children and are simply mimicking what they have seen. The majority of abusive men do not feel that they have a problem and if asked about the abuse they deny it.

Women, when you are with a man day in and day out and he is calling you a “bitch” or a “ho” or he tells you that you are worthless, ugly, too skinny or too fat, you do not have to put up with it. If he degrades you on a daily basis and suddenly you begin to believe everything he’s been saying, at that moment he has you right where he wants you – under his control.

There’s a saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” If only words didn’t hurt us! Harsh words cause damage that can take a lifetime to heal. It has taken me years to realize that I am worthy and that nothing that was told to me during my abusive relationship was true. You will never heal if you remain in the relationship. You have to break free and have no contact with your abuser, never again.

Abuse comes in different forms: mental, emotional, verbal, physical.

Verbal abuse affects us mentally and emotionally, but too often the abuse doesn’t stop there. In most situations the abuse escalates and becomes physical. Once the physical abuse begins it is more difficult to walk away from the relationship. We fear for our lives never knowing when the abuser will cross a line from beating us to actually killing us. When we fight back, the beatings are much more severe.

In my experience the abuse always escalates. I have never seen it decline or stop.

Many women have grabbed a knife or a gun in an attempt to defend themselves and have killed their abusers, only to find themselves charged with murder. Where is the justice? Some states do not have self-defense laws so even if the abuse has been documented these women are still in the wrong.

Most of these women end up pleading down to a lesser charge of manslaughter and serving time in prison, all because they were protecting themselves. Sometimes in these relationships it is kill or be killed. I do not condone murder, nor am I trying to justify it, but at the same time I realize how bad abusive relationships can be.

Abuse doesn’t affect only the women, but any children in the household as well. Children see their moms being beaten and it terrifies them. Some children will try to stop the beating that is in progress only to find themselves being hit in the process.

These children eventually grow up, and they think that abuse is normal. Girls often grow into women who end up being abused, while boys grow into abusive men. Still, there are a few who grow up and realize that abuse is wrong, but that happens with less than half of these children. We must end this cycle!

Abuse doesn’t affect only the women, but any children in the household as well.

I have found myself on the receiving end of a man’s fist and I am fortunate that he didn’t kill me or me him. I look back and recall the numerous times he pulled his .45 and with precision aimed at my head. I think about the day in January 2008 when he pinned me to the floor and began punching me in the face, the first blow drawing blood.

Back then I, like so many women, wished for death. I wanted to get out of the relationship, but every time I would get up the courage to leave he would begin to cry, to beg and tell me how sorry he was and how he couldn’t live without me.

Then my resolve would fade and I would stay. My family begged me to come home and forget about him, but the hold he had on me was more powerful than their love. Today I wonder how I could have been so weak and so needy.

Ladies, if you are in an abusive relationship, I’m here to tell you that there is hope. Whatever lies your man has been feeding you, they are just that … LIES! No one has the right to disrespect you, to hit you or to threaten you. You do not have to put up with it and you don’t have to be afraid. Women, you do not need a man to define who you are. You can make it on your own!

Take a few minutes and evaluate your self-worth. I will tell you what it took me too long to see: You are beautiful, you are intelligent, you are deserving of happiness, you are capable of supporting yourself and your children, you deserve to be treated like a queen, you deserve to be truly loved, you are strong, you are a survivor. Most of all, you are worthy!

If you are being abused, tell someone – a family member or friend. You don’t have to be ashamed. There are support groups you can contact, and family members are often willing to help. You can be single and have a happy and complete life.

Ladies, if you are in an abusive relationship, I’m here to tell you that there is hope. You do not have to put up with it and you don’t have to be afraid.

Spend time finding out who you are as a person and learn to love yourself. Until you do, you can never truly love someone else. Respect yourself and show these men that you will not accept abuse when you are deserving of so much more.

There are many good men, real men, who will love you for you and never hit you. So stand up and be strong, take control of your life, move forward, and once you are free from the prison of abuse, you will see how much better your life is.

One woman at a time, we will win the war on abuse. Never lose hope and never give up. You are not alone. As women, we will succeed.

Send our sister some love and light: Amy Buckley, 150005, KNRCF, 374 Stennis Ind. Park Rd., DeKalb, MS 39328. Amy has expressed her opinion; now it’s your turn. We invite both women and men to share your perspectives and advice.

The 11th Annual Oakland International Film Festival opened at the Grand Lake Theater on April 4 with a myriad of dope narrative flicks and docs including “Watching Phoenix Rise,” “Mugabe: Villain or Hero” and the most popular movie in the festival hands down, “The Licks,” and thousands of cinema lovers in the audience.

Last year, participants were overjoyed to meet writer Sam Greenlee, whose ‘70s revolutionary classic, “The Spook Who Sat by the Door,” screened, as well as Fumiko Ogun-lano, the star of the ‘90s revolutionary classic, “Sankofa,” who was on hand for a Q&A after the legendary defining film of her career screened.

Oakland’s own Kellita Smith from the Bernie Mack show flew in from Los Angeles to be a part of the festivities on opening night this year, looking beautiful in her all-Black everything leather outfit. Roy Agyemang, the filmmaker of “Mugabe: Villain or Hero,” travelled from London and happily answered political questions about Zimbabwe and the two years it took to make his film in a country where he was not a resident. By far this was one of the most important documentaries in the festival, because it discusses a nation that the U.S. government currently has sanctions on, and the documentary discusses the rather recent history of land reclamation in this last African British colony.

“Watching Phoenix Rise” screened to a surprisingly packed audience early on Thursday, opening night. The filmmakers and a number of the beautiful actresses were at the theater in person. Look out for Ramasses, Pharoah and Roc, the filmmakers, because they’re also behind the Oakland classics “Town Biz” and “Basketball 3:16.”

The Grand Lake Theater was filled to capacity, with people sitting on the 550-seat-plus theater floor, once it was time for the California premiere of the Oakland based award-winning narrative “Licks” to hit the screen. With a cast of Oakland based actors and co-writer Justin “Big Hongrey” Robinson, director and writer Jonathan Singer-Vine captured ghetto life with its beauty, trials and tribulations in today’s Oakland in this beautifully crafted piece of cinema. The acting was superb. The equipment used to make the film and the shots that the crew used made this production look as if it came out of a multi-million-dollar production house. “Licks” screened three times during the duration of the festival, and it sold out every single time.

Another film that deserves to be mentioned that was a part of the festival but played on the second day was “Rice Field of Dreams.” The first time filmmaker Daron Ker made his initial pilgrimage back to Cambodia after fleeing the turmoil created by the U.S. in his country when they were fighting the Khmer Rouge in the Vietnam War. During this trip, he met Joe, whose dream was to create a national Cambodian baseball team.

Early on in the documentary, Joe brings in some white guys from the U.S. to train the Cambodians in the ways and norms of major league baseball. But when the players don’t show any major improvement after a few games, Joe fires them, because he feels like he can better get through to his people. The passionate Coach Joe cries, yells and denigrates his team, eventually leading them to a win. This is a real story about cultural communication, paternalism, colonialism, self-determination and baseball.

Oakland International Film Festival director David Roach receives his Black Media Appreciation Night award at Yoshi’s last November, as presenters Sauce the Boss and Ms. Be (hidden) of the Block Report Radio crew watch approvingly. – Photo: Scott Braley

The Oakland International Film Festival is one of the premiere annual events in Oakland, and I can’t wait to see what festival director David Roach and his crew cook up for next year. Until then, I am getting ready for the San Francisco Black Film Festival, which will be June 13-16 all over San Francisco.

The People’s Minister of Information JR is associate editor of the Bay View, author of “Block Reportin’” and filmmaker of “Operation Small Axe” and “Block Reportin’ 101,” available, along with many more interviews, at www.blockreportradio.com. He also hosts two weekly shows on KPFA 94.1 FM and kpfa.org: The Morning Mix every Wednesday, 8-9 a.m., and The Block Report every other Friday night-Saturday morning, midnight-2 a.m. He can be reached at blockreportradio@gmail.com.

Last month, the U. S. Supreme Court listened to arguments on same-sex marriage. The events reminded me of Frederick Douglass’ 1865 essay titled “What the Black Man Wants.” He wrote:

Frederick Douglass as a young man.

During the gay marriage controversy, the nation “looked upon the Negro as a citizen.” Both sides used African Americans as props. A pro-gay marriage attorney argued that banning gay marriage was the same as banning interracial marriage in the past. One of the justices challenged his comparison by pointing out that interracial relationships have been visible around the world for centuries.

Media coverage repeatedly referred to the gay marriage movement as another civil rights movement. They often used the term “marriage equality” rather than gay marriage – a play on the phrase “racial equality.” Any opposition to gay marriage – or “marriage equality” – risked being labeled “hatred,” “bigotry” and “discrimination.” Gay marriage advocates even brought up the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that was specifically written to protect the rights of newly-freed Blacks after the Civil War.

The media covered rallies outside the Supreme Court – both pro-gay marriage and in defense of traditional marriage. The traditional marriage rally organizers “looked upon the Negro” by pulling out African American spokespersons to counter the racialization of the gay marriage debate. For them, simply replacing the adjective “racial” with “gay” did not prove the struggles were similar. They found it trivialized the African American civil rights struggles, and it was offensive.

Trivializing the African American struggles against discrimination can be offensive. For example, Oakland African Americans have alarming murder, HIV and unemployment rates. Yet when a group “struggled” to have a “doggy play” park built at Lake Merritt, a white women argued that she was “discriminated” against because she lived near Lake Merritt and she had no place for her dog to play. Another white lady facetiously joined the debate in a cat costume. She opposed the dog park because it discriminated against cats.

The Supreme Court is expected to make decisions concerning gay marriage in June 2013. After the decision is made and the gay marriage issue fades away, I wonder if the nation will once again, as Frederick Douglass wrote, “look upon the Negro [...] as an alien.”

I read the anonymous racial comments on SFGate.com on various topics. If these comments reflect America, then we do not live in a colorblind society. A “post-racial” America is our fool’s paradise. Thus, African Americans will have to ask ourselves questions: Will the gay marriage debate further equality for African Americans – straight or gay? Will African American gay men no longer have to complain about feeling unwelcome in the Castro?

Will the many Americans stop justifying angry white men killing African American teenagers? Will the white gay media return to the days when Black couples did not appear in their ads? After arguing to prove racial inequality, will more Americans justify affirmative action for African Americans?

Kheven LaGrone, writer, artist and curator of “Coloring Outside the Lines: Black Cartoonists as Social Commentators” and many other acclaimed exhibits, can be reached at khevan@aol.com .

On March 6, the Bay’s “Free Speech Radio” aka KPFA suspended one of the best broadcasters and shows that they had on the air because The People’s Minister of Information JR Valrey of Block Report Radio, who’s also the associate editor of the SF Bay View, reported on the fact that members of management and of the CWA union, aka the “White Citizens Council” inside of KPFA, have been engaged in racist activities.

In November, Michael Yoshida, a member of KPFA’s management team, intentionally erased a breaking news interview from the Congo before it aired when JR was a few minutes late coming out of the studio. His rash action was reported to KPFA management, but nothing was done. JR then requested a meeting with Pacifica Executive Director Summer Reece. Two months passed, and neither she nor her staff responded.

The Bay’s “Free Speech Radio” aka KPFA suspended one of the best broadcasters and shows that they had on the air because The People’s Minister of Information JR Valrey of Block Report Radio reported that members of management and of the CWA union, aka the “White Citizens Council” inside of KPFA, have been engaged in racist activities.

On Feb. 6, JR took the issue public on his drive-time show, the Block Report, the Wednesday 8-9 a.m. Morning Mix show, apparently creating a whole heap of complaints from the management and union, which KPFA management with Pacifica backing used to “suspend JR indefinitely,” which is a white liberal way of saying he is expelled from the prime-time slot. His offense: reporting on racism inside this bastion of progressive broadcasting.

Just to show the inequity of penalty enforcement at KPFA, the former Program Director Sasha Lilley, currently co-host of the KPFA radio show Against the Grain, let the word “fuck” out twice in some pre-recorded tape on her Jan. 8 show. Each FCC violation could have cost the station $350,000. She was never punished. When she was the Program Director of KPFA five years ago, Youth Radio, a local non-profit that trains mostly youth of color, was taken off KPFA’s airwaves permanently for a similar, inadvertent violation. Sasha Lilley, who is white, was allowed to slither away unaddressed.

Tim Killings of the Laney College Black Student Union speaks at a Justice 4 Alan Blueford rally on Nov. 10, 2012. – Photo: Malaika Kambon

Karen Hutton: Why did you used to listen to the Block Report on the Morning Mix?

Tim Killings: I used to listen to the Block Report on the Morning Mix because I would be up every Wednesday taking my son to school, and JR’s show is by far the best radio morning show airing at 8 a.m. It is a very good show. It became a Wednesday Morning routine.

Karen Hutton: What made the Block Report different from other radio shows on KPFA?

Tim Killings: The Block Report is different because the diversity of issues covered by the show. The Block Report is not just a political show; it exposed its listeners to many genres of music and musical artists, such as Gil Scott Heron or Seun Kuti, the youngest son of Fela Kuti. The show talked about very good political issues from around the globe, from Oakland to Africa. There is not another radio show that you can really compare to the Block Report.

JR’s show is by far the best radio morning show airing at 8 a.m.

Karen Hutton: Why is it important for the Black and non-Black community to have access to the information that the Block Report provides?

Tim Killings: It is very important that the community have access to the information the Block Report provides, because the radio is how a lot of our community receives information. The radio has been a tool of disempowerment, misinformation and propaganda when used by the dominant culture in this society.

The information that the Block Report gives empowers its listeners with the truth. In the age of media conglomerates who promote war, imperialism, fear mongering, exploitation and racism through companies such as News Corp., Time Warner, Viacom, Comcast, NBC Universal and Sony Corp. of America, it has never been more important to have independent media journalists such as JR Valrey, who report truthful information and do not hide the truth no matter what the consequences.

The radio has been a tool of disempowerment, misinformation and propaganda when used by the dominant culture in this society.

Karen Hutton: What do you think about KPFA suspending the Block Report from the Wednesday morning time slot for criticizing the racism that goes down in this “progressive” “free-speech” station, administered by management?

Tim Killings: I think that KPFA suspending JR Valrey was a huge mistake! This is usually the fate of anyone who stands up and exposes institutionalized racism.

I have seen this happen to many people who speak out against racism. Sometimes you get punished for speaking the truth.

Racism is the reality that this country has yet to deal with. The mere mention of racism makes a lot of White people very uncomfortable in their false post-racial paradigm, progressive or not.

So when I heard JR call out the management of KPFA for a clear pattern of racism, I believed him, and I was like, “Right on!” That needed to be exposed. When KPFA suspended the show, it was clear to me that it was retaliation for JR speaking the truth, which is wrong no matter which way you look at it.

I have seen this happen to many people who speak out against racism. I have been fired from two jobs for speaking out about racism and know a lot of people who have suffered the same fate, so this is not surprising to me at all. Sometimes you get punished for speaking the truth.

Karen Hutton: What do you think people should do?

Tim Killings: I think that people should recognize the importance of this fight and support and join the fight to get JR Valrey back on the air, and let KPFA know that the community will not stand for racism and retaliation against their Black radio personalities. The community should call into the station every chance they get. They should not pledge one cent to Pacifica as long as JR is suspended.

Black Broadcasters, People of Color and Unpaid Staff Townhall Meeting is Thursday, April 11, at 6 p.m. in the Laney College Student Center Room 401, fourth floor, 900 Fallon St., Oakland.

Karen Hutton: Why should we support real community media? What effect has it had on you?

Tim Killings: I support real community media because I am so tired of stations like 106.1 who promote rappers like Lil Wayne and Rick Ross who destroy the minds of our youth. I am tired of KTVU’s biased reporting and negative images of Oakland as some sort of crime haven.

I am tired of all the lies and negative images being projected through corporate media. That’s why I support real community media, because it’s resistance that is needed in our community to combat and change all of the negativity caused by mainstream media that is not controlled by our communities.

Karen Hutton: When is the Black Broadcasters, People of Color and Unpaid Staff Town Hall Meeting?

Tim Killings: Black Broadcasters, People of Color and Unpaid Staff Townhall Meeting is Thursday, April 11, at 6 p.m. in the Laney College Student Center Room 401, fourth floor, 900 Fallon St., Oakland. I hope to see a lot of community there.

Bay Area writer Karen Hutton can be reached at karenyhutton1988@gmail.com.

“The Black Woman Is God” comes out of the creative genius of artist Karen Seneferu. – Photo: Malaika Kambon

Karen Seneferu and 20 brilliant African women who are visual and performing artists have once again shattered that illusion. Karen, artist, educator and consultant, opened her “The Black Woman is God” exhibit with a February 2013 opening reception at the African American Art and Culture Complex in San Francisco.

A very special highlight at the opening night performance for “The Black Woman Is God” were two very young women dancing “I Rule the World.” – Photo: Malaika Kambon

“The Black Woman Is God” exhibit examines and questions the idea of seeing the Black woman as a God figure. Artists use materials, forms and iconography that challenge the belief that the image of God is white and male. “This exhibit addresses new representations of the Black female presence as the highest spiritual form, God herself, and challenges the viewers to do the same,” says Seneferu.

Over the course of the next month, the San Francisco Bay View newspaper will feature interviews with and photographs of the artists who participated in this brilliant exhibition, which is already receiving recognition as one that will be welcomed in galleries across the U.S. and globally.

At present, “The Black Woman Is God” exhibition can be seen at the African American Art and Culture Complex. The AAACC is located at 762 Fulton St. in San Francisco’s famed Fillmore District. The Sargent Johnson Gallery on the first floor houses the exhibition, which will be up until May 30. Gallery hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays from 12 noon to 5 p.m.

These photographs are from the reception and the performing artists’ show that comprised the opening night of this exhibit, held in both the Sargent Johnson Gallery and in the AAACC Theatre. See the complete gallery of photographs for “The Black Woman Is God” opening reception at the People’s Eye Photography website.

Some of the 20 visual and performing artists participating in “The Black Woman Is God” opening night gathered for a group photo. – Photo: Malaika Kambon

Participating artists are Adenike Amin, Akua Agusi, Lili Bernard, Chantil Brown, Tracy Brown, Nancy Cato, Nicole Dixon, Michele Elizabeth Lee, Idris Hassan, Reshawn Goode (Bushmama), Bessie Johnson, Nia Jordon, Dana King, Sasha Kelley, Tarika Lewis, Nashormeh Lindo, Ajuan Mance, Sage Stargate, Karen Seneferu, Sabrina Nelson and Blue Wade.

In her work, artist Karen Seneferu enjoys the support of her artist husband, Malik Seneferu. – Photo: Malaika Kambon

Malaika H Kambon is a freelance photojournalist and the 2011 winner of the Bay Area Black Journalists Association Luci S. Williams Houston Scholarship in Photojournalism. She also won the AAU state and national championship in Tae Kwon Do from 2007-2010. She can be reached at kambonrb@pacbell.net.

GirlTrek’s “We Are Harriet, 100-Year Tribute and Walking Challenge,” a walking revolution, involves 15,312 women and girls across the country.

These include Stewart’s Canal, dug by hand by free and enslaved people, including Tubman, between 1810 and the 1830s. Stewart’s Canal is part of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and, although part of the new national monument, will continue to be managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The new monument also includes the home site of Jacob Jackson, a free Black man who used coded letters to help Tubman communicate with family and others. The Jacob Jackson Home Site was donated to the National Park Service by The Conservation Fund for inclusion in the new national monument. Visit www.nps.gov/hatu.

I am reading a really fascinating book called “Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent: How Daring Slaves and Free Blacks Spied for the Union during the Civil War” by Thomas B. Allen (2006, National Geographic). In this book, beautifully illustrated, we learn of how Black people risked their freedom and lives to convey information from the Confederacy to Union officers.

Invisible and thought to lack intelligence, these Black men and women gathered important security information. John Brown is one of the cast, as well as Frederick Douglass. What is surprising are the women who singlehandedly right under the enemy’s nose passed top secret documents to comrades. This is just one of the many books one can purchase from Ashay by the Bay. I bought this on Umoja last year.

Healing arts

I attended the reception for the “Transformative Visions” exhibition at Studio One, 365 45th St. in Oakland Saturday, March 16. The exhibit will be up through April 5. It had been a heavy weekend and, while not light, the music and visual medicine helped to lift my soul a bit higher. I’d been to the plantation just a day earlier and didn’t possess the kind of currency that freed the bodies of those held behind bars. Spirits lighter? Perhaps, but this was of limited consolation when I thought about all the women left behind in California’s Central Valley, Chowchilla, when after eight hours the Sista-to-Sista team left.

When I arrived I saw people literally hanging onto the words of those in the concert hall performance. I eased into the building and took advantage of the empty halls and looked at the art before me, first downstairs where I saw the work of artists I knew and just met and then on to the upstairs galleries where more art, including my daughter’s and mine, hung.

This was a feast for a soul starving in that moment for salvation and she found it. I think I stood in rapture, listening to analysis, hearing praise, learning new things about my work – a part of what I call, “African Window Panes,” the two pieces – one photo taken in Touba City, Senegal, the other in Timbuktu, Mali.

I heard hypotheses about how I took the photo. Most thought it was photoshopped. I was impressed. “Inner chambers of the heart” was one comment. I probably should have jotted the comments down. Cheikh Amadou Bamba floats ethereally in one of the pieces. The pilgrimage happens around now. The film “I Bring What I Love” (2008), directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, is about this pilgrimage and the Mouried Brotherhood.

This was a feast for a soul starving in that moment for salvation and she found it.

It always makes me feel great connecting with artists; we are a different breed. And then there was the music: Destiny Muhammad Project with Tammy Hall, wonderful woman, and EW Wainwright, whom I’d wanted to see with my own eyes, was great. Frederick Harris was on piano with the excellent bassist, Gary Brown, Destiny on the harp, of course. I hadn’t planned to stay, just to pop in and then I saw EW and Karen Seneferu and Portia Anderson and Marcus Penn, Dafina Kuficha and Rev. Liza, Ms. Transformative Visions, and I had to sit down and listen.

It was so lovely and soul satisfying.

I left as the building was closing and folks were stacking chairs. David Glover, storyteller, and I headed for Palo Alto to Sofia University for the Ritual for the Waters of the World. It was a really safe space with the creative goddess present with us in her many representatives.

“‘Transformative Visions’ centers on the power of the arts as ministry and activism,” says Rev. Liza Rankow, founder and director of OneLife Institute. “In these times of local and global violence, economic crisis and social division, it’s important to come together in community and affirm that each of us carries a creative vision. Within each of us is the power to transform ourselves and our world.”

“Come on board and ride the waves to honor the oceans, rivers and streams. Come, dive deep as we explore consciousness, body, emotions and dreams.” Yeye Luisah Teish was out in the water, waist deep. We were all quickly submerged and didn’t come up for air until the program ended.

Our first meditation took us deep into the sea, that part of the ocean beyond light, beyond sound, beyond thought. I saw a film about people who dive so deep into the water that they literally forget to breathe, their minds so full of moments too full to realize the danger. I wanted to go there in a shallow way. So I took a breath and swept the water swirling around my feet into my hands and passed them over my head baptizing myself over and over again.

Yeye kept telling us to stay moist, fertile, to stay open to new paths and ways that return and meet and fill each other before moving. We were blessed with the presence of healers and leaders who normally do not come out like Iya Nedra Williams, Olokun priestess, who evoked the orisha who lives in the deepest parts of the waters. Mambo Susheel Bibbs, Damballah initiate known for her Mary Ellen Pleasant solo performances, opened the way with fire early on in the ceremony. Leilani Bireley, Daughters of the Goddess, led us in a wonderful Hawaiian Hula.

Arisika Razak, goddess dancer, danced to the rain, and the wonderful Ancestral Voices Choir directed by Shy Hamilton got everyone on their feet spontaneously. Then there was Iya Uzuri Amini, who called on Oshun as she had us pledge to take care of the children. It was good to see her again. She repeated her message shared Dec. 19, 2012, at the New Beginning Ritual Theatre Ceremony at JFK University in Berkeley.

Our first meditation took us deep into the sea, that part of the ocean beyond light, beyond sound, beyond thought.

Ile Orunmila Oshun members had it going on, literally. At times folks just jumped into the water and started swimming across the room until the space grew thick with bodies co-mingling. Though the women certainly outnumbered the men, as we usually do, there was certainly a male presence with Vance Williams, Ifa priest and vocalist, Kaleo and Elise Ching, masks-artists, Tai Chi, Chi Gung, Bruce Silverman and the Orpheus World Music Ensemble and Hodari Toure, technician, community activist.

Life is sacred and all life comes from water – sweet water, the kind of flavor that whets the lips of creativity and inspiration even when exhales are trapped inside walls and other confined spaces. We hold these moments until we can freely express them. We hold them open for our sisters who cannot find capacity for the fullness that is within. The glass is never empty as long as one woman, one girl is trapped, bound, caged, compromised by nets with hooks too sharp to escape.

We thought about blowing up the prison – yes, it is easy to go there when one can only visit the plantation, not shut it down. We realized, however, that we had to work smarter than the enemy so our eventual liberation was one that would be eternal rather than fleeting.

Ashay.

Meditation

Spirit Silence Retreat, facilitated by Dr. Liza Rankow and the OneLife team, featuring Destiny Muhammad, Harpist from the Hood, is Saturday, April 27, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Replenish your soul in the gentle power of intentional silence. Open to inner wisdom through a guided visioning process. Walk the meditation labyrinth. Share in sacred community. Savor the healing properties of sound and music. Enjoy a Healing Oasis at Holy Redeemer Center, 8945 Golf Links Rd., Oakland, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. – 9:30 a.m. arrival and registration.

Tuition is sliding scale, $35-$100. Scholarships are available, and no one will ever be turned away for lack of funds. RSVP is requested for planning purposes. Bring your journal, a potluck item for our shared lunch – we will supply some vegetarian basics – a water bottle, and anything you need to be comfortable for the day. For more information or to register, contact onelife@onelifeinstitute.org or (510) 595-5598.

‘The Dream Never Dies’

The Season of Peace concludes with a benefit for the East Bay Meditation Center, “The Dream Never Dies,” a conversation on “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Beloved Community and Where We Go from Here” with Alice Walker, Jack Kornfield and Michael Bernard Beckwith, moderated by Konda Mason, this Thursday, April 4, 7 p.m., at Zellerbach Auditorium on the University of California, Berkeley Campus. There will be musical performances by Rickie Byars Beckwith and Raz Kennedy. Buy tickets online at http://tinyurl.com/av6pbk4.

Dr. Nathan Hare turns 80

On April 9, Dr. Nathan Hare, the father of Black Studies in America, will celebrate his 80th year on the planet. The Bay Area will celebrate with the esteemed sociologist and clinical psychologist on Saturday, April 13, 3-5 p.m. The tentative location is Geoffery’s Club, 14th and Franklin, downtown Oakland. For more information, call (510) 200-4164. Dr. Hare and the audience will be treated to a piano concert by his wife of 57 years, Dr. Julia Hare. Marvin X, a longtime associate of Dr. Hare, will read from his writings. Tarika Lewis, Destiny Muhammad and Tacuma King are invited to perform with Marvin X.

Queen Rhodessa resurrects SHE

I’d been looking forward to seeing Queen Rhodessa Jones in “The Resurrection of SHE” up at Brava Theatre in San Francisco through April 7, since we’d had a great chat a few weeks, maybe a month ago on Wanda’s Picks. I was not disappointed. I made my entrance on Good Friday, but then every Friday is good when Ms. Jones is in the house. “SHE” defies description. It’s a party, an encounter session without the couch – with original music, lyrics by Rhodessa Jones.

We travel in time with Jones, who introduces us to the men in her life, which is an aspect of her story we do not know – well, I didn’t. Rhodessa or SHE is the first public person I know who has lifted the matrilineal line each time she brings her women, the Medea Project, together, so for her to call on the names of the patrilineal line starting with dad, Augustus Jones, was a change. She even later in the show asked us to call the names of the good men we know – right, it gives one pause. How often do you hear that?

I hadn’t realized that Rhodessa came from a family of eight, her dad a romantic who liked to see the world by rail. On one excursion he saw her mother walk by the car he was in and said to his companion, I am going to marry those legs, and he did. Rhodessa says her parents were married for 45 years.

“‘She’ is something of a multimedia memoir demonstrating Rhodessa Jones’ impact,” writes the Chronicle. – Photo: Anastacia Powers Cuellar

I’d been racing against the clock to Brava, to see “SHE”; with only 30 minute to cross the Bay Bridge I knew I was going to have to ask someone what I missed, but I made it in record time without speeding. I don’t speed, that is, in a car – my mind sometimes speeds though. I have to catch my thoughts before they escape. No, seriously. I was so happy to arrive before 8 p.m. By the time I made it down to my great seat, I almost fell into Destiny and Cristwell Muhammad’s laps – almost. I caught myself. Later Cristwell is invited to dance with Rhodessa, his chuckle lightening the moment of conception (Rhodessa’s and the character she was telling us about).

Vaseline is not an effective contraceptive, the teenage Jones finds out.

SHE enters the theatre ceremoniously, carried on the shoulders of Idris Ackamoor and David Molina, who provide a lovely landscape. SHE is as rich audibly as she is visually. In retrospect I think we should have stood as she entered, as in “All Hail,” right? I am glad I had on ritual colors. Laid to rest behind a curtain, in a lush visually rich landscape, the world was created and destroyed. Created and destroyed. Lots of fire.

Dressed in white, Rhodessa carries us along as SHE populates the New World, increases its wealth and then forgets her value. Ships and stolen lives populate this new place. SHE is a girl who tells us of ships and rapes, horror and resistance. SHE survives these and other atrocities. “The Resurrection” is both myth and fable, a bit of fairytale too.

In the second half of SHE, Queen Rhodessa has the house lights up as she joins us in the audience. We get to feel how theatre transforms lives, whether that is in the women’s prison in Johannesburg, a theatre in San Francisco, or San Bruno jail. SHE is too often locked up, keys tossed in rivers. The task Rhodessa has undertaken with the Medea Project, “SHE” and other incarnations is to peel away the layers of self-doubt, disbelief, fear, shame, hate – the barriers donned that keep SHE beyond reach, the reach of SHE.

Some of the places Jones goes, the stories SHE lives to tell are quite harrowing. Yet from the opening ceremony – SHE lying in state carried from a place past to a place present – we know SHE will win. I remember one Medea season, the play ended with the women picking up shoes, using their fists, whatever they could get their hands on to fight the demons that haunted them, many three dimensional.

Attitude is everything and one thing one learns in SHE is one has to fake it until it becomes real.

The task Rhodessa has undertaken with the Medea Project, “SHE” and other incarnations is to peel away the layers of self-doubt, disbelief, fear, shame, hate – the barriers donned that keep SHE beyond reach, the reach of SHE.

Jones illustrates SHE. We see the young mother, the lithe woman dancing nude, the matron who has still got it despite the “hot flashes” – remember that play? Billboards and programs from past shows span the breadth of SHE with co-collaborator, Idris Ackamoor, Cultural Odyssey, founder and director of “SHE.” At a certain point the clock stops ticking – SHE all that matters, SHE the molecular link to what’s past is present.

“We are we,” Jones says. Peter Callender says it too. “We is we.” Yet in this fuzzy warm axiom, Jones keeps it real and asks specifically, “Who has your back? Who can you call when you need help?” The point is, none of us is alone or should be alone. Build your army; know where your allies are. You might need to call on them.

SHE survives the Atlantic journey. Rhodessa as SHE survives Japan with a crazy boyfriend who tries to kill her, but Daddy comes to the rescue with an ax – Egun. Spirit is real and life is bigger than anything we can count, longer than a slide rule and bigger than any container. It is in these moments that Jones says theatre saved her life and we are glad because SHE has saved so many of ours.

“The Resurrection of SHE” is Ms. Jones at her most fabulous. She (Jones) says she is writing her memoirs. “Resurrection” is a preview. Don’t miss it. It is up Thursday-Sunday, April 4-7. Brava Theatre Center is located at 2781 24th St., San Francisco, (415) 641-7657, www.brava.org.

Reflection

Resurrection Day found me looking for a clear space in the sky so that I could cycle down to the beach for a moment with the ancestors. Because I spend a lot of my life behind doors, under roofs away from direct sunlight, the appeal of indoor activities when I am away from work lessens as I get older. I’d rather ride my bike or climb something hard – hum, I mean something made of granite or fossilized matter, than sit idle while others entertain me.

The ancestors were calling me Sunday, March 31, Cesar Chavez’s birthday, and we found a spot of sky and rode 10 miles before the rain came tumbling from the skies. I was on the porch when the drizzle began.

The weekend was full of surprises like the double rainbow arched over the Ferry Building in San Francisco – it was a perfect arch. As TaSin and I made our trek toward the Bay Bridge on Embarcadero, the light show on the bridge span began as well – waves of lights and clouds moved between the sections. It was really lovely. We’d had dinner at Elephant Sushi, Tamir and Nisa’s restaurant in San Francisco on Hyde Street in Russian Hill. My hair was wet, and I was not dressed for rain – it was sunny when we left the East Bay headed for our floatation appointment.

What’s floatation? It is a chamber where the subject experiences both sensory deprivation and isolation as she floats in a solution of salt. It was pretty cool after I got used to it. First I was afraid to lie down and then I grabbed onto a pipe I noticed before the door was shut and as I held on I was able to lie on my back and feel the sensation of weightlessness. I thought about my African ancestors and the darkness they must have experienced on the ships carrying them away from home. When I stretched my arms out to my sides, I imagined flying away like Africans fed up with the brutality must have done. In another chamber, TaSin wasn’t doing as well as me, so she left early.

I’d just assumed I’d spend the 60 minutes exploring options until my time was up, so I went from thinking I might have to sit up for the entire hour to wanting to stay a bit longer once the time was up. The next day, the pain I often have in my shoulders was absent, so perhaps I did relax and let go of the tension I often hold in certain parts of my body.

This is where my hair got wet and after I washed it, there was no sun in the sky with rays aimed at drying my locs. Luckily, Elephant Sushi has heat and Nisa turned it on me.

We were racing back to the East Bay for the Fatoumata Diawara-Oliver Mutakutzu double bill. What a fantastic show the two of them put on. The two artists are back in the Bay Area this summer in June.

Pharoah Sanders

On the fly

Pharoah Sanders is in town this weekend in San Francisco, Thursday-Saturday, while Stanley Clarke is in Oakland on overlapping dates. It doesn’t get any better, does it? Now add to that the 11th Annual Human Rights Film Festival at the University of San Francisco (USF), Thursday-Saturday, April 4-6, in Presentation Theater, 2350 Turk Boulevard (at Masonic), FREE and open to the public, http://www.usfca.edu/artsci/hrff/.

The 11th Annual Oakland International Film Festival is Thursday through Sunday, April 4-7, from Oakland to Berkeley to San Leandro, often in the same day: http://www.oaklandinternationalfilmfestival.com/film-schedule/. also April 4-7. One can only hope these films have theatrical releases. Oh, the Alvin Ailey Dance Company will be in Berkeley April 23-28. See http://www.calperfs.berkeley.edu/. The 56th Annual San Francisco International Film Festival is April 25-May 9, http://www.sffs.org.

Masjidul Waritheen presents its First Annual Halal Food Festival, celebrating healthy lifestyles by showcasing halal cuisine, Saturday, April 6, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 1652 47th Ave., Oakland. There will be children’s activities, health screenings, family fun, art and music. For information call (510) 992-3540 or email hffmwd@gmail.com. Third Saturdays 7-9:30 p.m. at Bacheesos Live Arabic Music presents beloved Egyptian classics, April 20, May 18 and June 15, featuring Sarah Michael, Qanun, Mary Ellen Donald and Terry Holgate, percussion with dancers Stasha and Brynn Mercedes, 246 Grand Ave., in Oakland, (510) 891-1496.

Lula Washington Dance Theatre presents “The Little Rock Nine” Tuesday, April 9, at The Gallo Center for the Arts, 1000 I St., downtown Modesto, (209) 338-2100 or www.galloarts.org. Tickets start at $10. This story of the nine African American children who risked their lives by enrolling in an all-white, segregated school and whose courage changed America is a legacy Ms. Washington knows well, as she was born near Little Rock in 1950.

Duniya Dance and Drum Company and the African Advocacy Network present “The Madness of the Elephant,” a West African dance and music theatre performance exploring the reign of Guinea’s controversial first president and benefactor of traditional arts, Sekou Toure, nicknamed “The Elephant,” with performances Friday-Saturday, April 5-6, 8 p.m., at Kanbar Hall at the Jewish Community Center, 3200 California St. at Presidio in San Francisco. For tickets, visit www.jccsf.org/arts or call (415) 292-1233. Tickets are $15-$30.

UniverSoul Circus is back! The 2013 Mash It Up Tour will be at 633 Hegenberger Road, near the Oakland Coliseum, April 4-14. Visit universoulcircus.com. For group discounts, call (888) 605-9997.

‘Journey of the Shadow’ opera

The world premiere of the opera “Journey of the Shadow,” based on an Andean folk tale, tells the story of a boy who writes a letter to his father, a soldier in Afghanistan. At the heart of the story is the boy’s shadow which slips into the envelope and gets into trouble at a distant post office. History and politics and innocence of children affect this story set against the backdrop of war. “Shadow” features music by San Francisco Chamber Orchestra Composer in Residence Dr. Gabriela Lena Frank, with text by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Nilo Cruz. Monday, April 8, 7 p.m., in Knuth Hall, Creative Arts Building at San Francisco State University, is a reading workshop with the composer. Gabi will talk about her new work and discuss its nuances with the SF Chamber Orchestra. Maestro Benjamin Simon and SFCO musicians will bring Gabi’s notes to life for the first time, while Gabi reads Nilo Cruz’ story as a narrator. Visit www.sfchamberorchestra.org.

The 9th Annual CubaCaribe Festival of Dance Music: Tributes to our Teachers

Enjoy three weeks of performances by master artists from the Caribbean Diaspora. Featuring special guests, Afro-Cuban modern dance company, Teatro de la Danza del Caribe from Cuba, is appearing in the U.S. for the first time, April 12-28, at various locations in San Francisco and Oakland: Week 1 at Dance Mission Theater, 3316 24th St., San Francisco; Week 2 at the YBCA Forum, 701 Mission St., San Francisco; and Week 3 at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St., Oakland. There are also special lectures and classes. Visit www.cubacaribe.org for all the details. Tickets, $10-$35, are available at www.brownpapertickets.com and the door.

Theatre: ‘The Whipping Man’

Imagine it’s the end of the Civil War, 1864. The Southland is trashed, the wounded owner’s son, Caleb (Nicholas Pelczar), a captain in the Confederate Army, returns home to find the elder, formerly enslaved Simon (L. Peter Callender) tending the home, waiting for his master’s return. The two men are joined by John (Tobie Windham). It is the season to remember the Jewry’s liberation from slavery with the Seder meal to mark Passover, which is actually April 3 this year. The irony of the situation is not lost on the three Jewish characters either, especially John, who is young, smart and inquisitive.

“The Whipping Man” cast: Tobie Windham, L. Peter Callender and Nicholas Pelczar – Photo: Samuel W. Flint

It is interesting thinking about enslaved Jews, but then enslaved Christians are an anomaly as well philosophically when one thinks about why a free man would carry anything from the old world into the new, but Simon thought he knew his former owner. The duplicity of the men who dare own another man, what that does to their souls is evident in “Whipping Man.” We never see the owner, yet his spirit hangs like a shroud over any happiness the three, especially John or Caleb, can hope to expect.

I interviewed Tobie on my radio show a few weeks ago about the role and the run in West Virginia historically not far from where the play is set. We also talk about “Django,” the film. I read the play, but haven’t seen it at this writing. Tobie’s interview closes the show: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks/2013/03/27/wandas-picks-radio-show. “The Whipping Man” by Matthew Lopez is at Marin Theatre Company through April 21. Visit http://marintheatre.org/.

‘Mental’

“Mental,” directed by P.J. Hogan, Australian director known for “Muriel’s Wedding” and “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” looks at sanity and how those within the asylum are often more sane than their keepers. This is not a new premise – “One Flew over a Cuckoo’s Nest” is a classic in such genre. What makes this story about white suburbia worth a second glance is how Shaz (actress Toni Collette) puts it all in perspective. Well known both in and outside the mental hospital, the new nanny treats her charges to a romp through Australian history founded as not just a penal colony, but one where the mentally ill were also dumped.

The Aussies come by their craziness naturally, the girls soon learn, as they climb a mountain one night with Shaz. The five girls’ father looks a lot like George W. Bush and the mother (actress Rebecca Gibney), who loses herself in the fantasy of the Family Von Trapp in “The Sound of Music,” teaches us that sometimes a musical fantasy is just what the doctor ordered, that and Prozac. “Mental” is about political corruption, philandering, loss and reclaimed identities. There is also an element of payback plus lots of suspense and laughs here as well. It opened March 29 at Sundance Kabuki in San Francisco.

Bay View Arts Editor Wanda Sabir can be reached at wsab1@aol.com. Visit her website at http://www.wandaspicks.com/ throughout the month for updates to Wanda’s Picks, her blog, photos and Wanda’s Picks Radio. Her shows are streamed live Wednesdays at 6-7 a.m. and Fridays at 8-10 a.m., can be heard by phone at (347) 237-4610 and are archived on the Afrikan Sistahs’ Media Network.

by Tyré Ellison

My life seems like a dream come true.

Tyré Ellison

This is the type of environment I grew up in which is similar to many other young Black men around this country. Many grow up in poverty and struggle to survive. Many often fall victim to the cycles of poverty, lack of education, unemployment, being incarcerated, being involved in gangs, being raised by single parents, lacking positive male influences and leaders, lacking confidence and self-identity that can extinguish the light of hope.

Imagine being in a situation where you were running for your life dodging bullets from an unknown car passing by near your home. Imagine hearing gunshots and sirens every other night. Imagine seeing people who abused drugs sit in the park where you were supposed to play.

At times, I often believed what I saw around me. I thought I had no future because everyone I knew around me was being taken away from me. My friends were taken to jail. My friends were being killed.

I don’t know too many people from my community who have gone off to college and received a degree. Not only went out into the world to make something positive for themselves, but also came back to the community to give back and help others climb up out of the depths of despair to a brighter future of success to better themselves and their families.

This is my life story. I am not perfect. I struggle just as much as anyone else. I fear failing in life. My experiences and desire to change have helped me persevere through my obstacles.

Today, my life couldn’t be more different. I am living my dream. I have a degree in social welfare from UC Berkeley. I played Division 1 footabll for the California Golden Bears as a defensive back and on special teams.

I have volunteered my time towards inspiring youth in my community. I received many awards such as the Frank Schlessinger Coaches Award for football at Cal, given to the player with athletic and academic abilities, who’s dedicated to community service.

I have a great church home at Restoration Bible Community Church in San Francisco. I have great support and love from family and friends and from my fraternity brothers. I want to someday further my education and go to graduate school and start a nonprofit that’s youth-centered helping inner city kids gain access to opportunities that will empower them. I want to help provide change.

I may feel like I’m living a dream, but I also understand that I cannot become too satisfied. There is much room for improvement and more goals that need to be reached. I have to continue to grow and develop so that I can be an effective leader for my community and family.

To the youth and those who are reading this article, I hope my story inspires you to dream big. Again, I am not perfect and am no different than you as a person. I have my challenges in life as well. I just encourage you to continue to have faith and continue to fight for what you believe is right for you.

I also want to encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and help others by pulling them up as you climb toward your successes. Never believe that life is impossible. Instead, take the word “impossible” and dissect it. The word “impossible” dissected says “I’m possible.”

You are possible to do anything and everything you place your mind to. Continue to have confidence in yourself. Continue to be determined. Continue to embrace and surround yourself with positive influences and resources that can help make a difference in your life.

My supportive family

I was fortunate enough to have a supportive family while growing up in Sunnydale. My Mom and Dad have always been hard working people who wanted a better life for my brother and sister and me. Despite our financial circumstances they provided us with what they thought would be best.

They struggled to make ends meet, but always made sure we had food in our mouths, a roof over our heads and clothes on our backs. They made sure they were a part of their children’s lives by not neglecting us, but loving us. They wanted to see their children be something positive and achieve what they may not have had the chance to achieve. My parents exposed me to extra-curricular activities such as sports which allowed me to flourish and gain more confidence and other life skills.

My parents also stressed education a lot in my household. My brother and sister and I were not allowed to have any type of fun unless our academics were handled first. My parents also advised us to not be silent and to seek help when it was needed.

I struggled in school some, but whatever I struggled with I was sure to ask for assistance from my teachers so that I could do well and understand what was being taught. Eventually this value of education influenced me to excel academically. I soon developed a desire to want to go to college.

Students Rising Above – Thank you

In my junior year at Burton High School in San Francisco, I was advised by one of the college advisors, Annette Dennett, to apply to an academic scholarship program named Students Rising Above, a nonprofit in San Francisco that helps disadvantaged high schools kids go to college. I can’t tell you how grateful I am that they accepted me into the program. It made all the difference.

SRA has helped me in so many ways. Not only did they help me through my entire college application process and applying for financial aid, they served as a reminder for me to know I have support and that I should continue to fight for my dreams. I remember applying to UC Berkeley and being denied the first time. I was advised by Barb Hendricks, student program director for SRA, to appeal.

I appealed my application to UC Berkeley and got accepted the second time. From this I learned anything in life doesn’t come easy. Anything worth having is worth fighting for – and I was willing to fight for my education.

They also gave me much more – the support and guidance I needed not only through the initial process, but all the way through until I got my college diploma. They helped me throughout college by providing tutoring, workshops, connecting me to paid internships and jobs, and assisting me financially to purchase books and food.

SRA helped expose me to college. Without SRA, it would have been very difficult for me to afford to stay in college and graduate on time.

During my senior year of college, when I was ready to graduate later in the year, I received one more amazing honor: I was the undergraduate speaker for the Social Welfare Commencement.

I told my graduating classmates that success requires unrelenting focus, faith and hard work. It also takes preparation. And that everything is possible if you want it and allow yourself to be helped by good people. If I can do it, so can anyone. Now it’s my turn to help others along the way.

For more information, go to studentsrisingabove.org.

Brought to the Laney College Forum by the Black Student Union and the Oakland based People’s Community Medics, artist Mama C – Charlotte Hill O’Neal – co-director of the United African Alliance Community Center (UAACC) in Tanzania, East Africa, came to share with Africans in the Bay Area the strong, vibrant ancestor-rooted art of an African woman who has chosen to live for 40 years in exile from the U.S. So empowering was her message that members of the Black Riders Liberation Party, other community folks and some of the many children in attendance gathered around Mama C for a community Black Power salute. – Photo: Malaika Kambon

And the next day, on Feb. 14, the CSU Diversity Center in conjunction with the CSU Ethnic Studies and History Departments proudly presented “An afternoon with Charlotte Hill O’Neal.”

“Mama C” is poet, musician, visual and spoken-word artist, Afrikan woman of the world. She is touring the world in her annual UAACC Heal the Community Tour and debuting her new documentary about her life, “Mama C: Urban Spirit in the African Bush.”

Sponsored by the Laney College Black Student Union and the Oakland based People’s Community Medics, Mama C, co-director of the United African Alliance Community Center (UAACC) in Tanzania, East Africa, came from Imbaseni, in the shadow of Mount Meru, to share with us the strong, vibrant ancestor-rooted personality of an African woman who has chosen to live for 40 years in exile from the U.S.

Oakland turned out to experience life in Africa through Mama C. Here she shares a word with Baba Jahahara as his son, Chioke, and JR Valrey look on. – Photo: Malaika Kambon

Kansas City, Missouri, fought back in the ‘60s through the ‘80s, ‘90s and today against the human rights violations that have marked Afrikan life since the infamous Middle Passage. As a high school student in the ‘60s, Mama C fought racism and “white only” segregation through her involvement in Civil Rights marches and protesting to force her high school administration to recognize the deep evil of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

Then she joined the Black Panther Party at age 18 – and married the chairman of the KC chapter, Pete O’Neal, at the National BPP headquarters in Oakland, Calif.

Charlotte O’Neal and her husband Pete stand side by side in their firm decision to live in Tanzania. And Pete O’Neal is not pining away because of his exile from the U.S. Neither is Charlotte. Though he cannot ever return to U.S. shores without encountering the undue diligence of the FBI and the U.S. government’s COINTELPRO (counterintelligence program) declaration to incarcerate and kill him, from its inception in 1991, the UAACC has continued to do the same kind of community work that the Black Panther Party was doing in the ‘60s and ‘70s, building a small microcosm of what the world should be.

The audience that came to see Mama C at Laney College was multi-generational and very attentive. – Photo: Malaika Kambon

And as Pete O’Neal reflects in the beginning of the film, “A Panther in Africa,” it is a supreme irony that as a non-Tanzanian, he has been granted authorization through the U.S. embassy to possess a 12-gauge shotgun for defense against marauding animals that sometimes crash the fences of the UAACC – when it was a 12-gauge shotgun in 1970 that led to his spending 32 years (at the time the film was made) in Africa!

As she read from her book, “Warrior Woman of Peace,” published in 2008, an enraptured audience felt why her poetry has debuted and been showcased on stage, television and radio in many cities in Africa and America during the annual UAACC Heal the Community tours that she does. Mama C’s poetry is dynamic!

She reflects: “The spontaneous release of love that comes from poetry and music and art in general … that thing that binds us all together and builds solidarity and understanding among all people, no matter where they are from or what language they speak, is like magic!”

Emory Douglas and Mama C are two great artists who honed their crafts in the Black Panther Party and have never strayed from their commitment to art that empowers the people. – Photo: Malaika Kambon

Charlotte O’Neal was also in the U.S. to debut the new documentary about her life: “Mama C: Urban Spirit in the African Bush.” The film, produced by Joanne Hershfield and Perennial Films, was chosen as the Official Selection of the 21st Pan African Film Festival held in Los Angeles on Feb. 7-18, 2013.

Her other accomplishments include but are not limited to:

• Co-directing, along with George Kyomoshulu, the newly established Arusha Poetry Club in Arusha, Tanzania, which serves as a platform for East African poets and artists around the planet.
• Completing her fourth music and spoken word album, produced at Peace Power Productions studio at UAACC
• Directing and appearing in several music videos featuring East African artists (You Tube channel: mamacharlotteuaacc)
• Appearing with Pete O’Neal in two award-winning documentaries about their lives and activism: “American Exile,” narrated by Hollywood actress Alfre Woodard, and the PBS documentary, “A Panther in Africa”
• Appearing as one of the featured artists along with M1 of deadprez in the newly released documentary on art and activism by Michael Wanguhu entitled “Ni Wakati”

 Ni Wakati Film Documentary from Ni Wakati on Vimeo.

It was a thoroughly unforgettable evening in which everyone in the community, from elders to small children, had an opportunity to exchange hugs, words of encouragement and healing with one of our own, Charlotte Hill O’Neal, Mama C, an African woman of the world, as she continues on her journey of helping to help Heal the Community for 2013 and for years to come.

Links for further information

• Mama C’s 2013 Heal the Community Itinerary
• Her poem, “And this is for those mamas who wear kanga”
• “A Panther in Africa”
• UAACC
• Interview with Mama C in Columbia, S.C., Feb.18, 2013
• Fundraiser in New York April 2011
• African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) blog: “Meet Charlotte O’Neal aka ‘Mama C’ who will be performing at ‘Women of the World: Talking about a Revolution’”

Malaika H Kambon is a freelance photojournalist and the 2011 winner of the Bay Area Black Journalists Association Luci S. Williams Houston Scholarship in Photojournalism. She also won the AAU state and national championship in Tae Kwon Do from 2007-2010. She can be reached at kambonrb@pacbell.net.

One of our best known Black broadcasters in the Bay Area is also one of the most well known Black thespians from these parts. After decades of honing his acting skills, Donald Lacy is starring in the new play “The River,” which will run April 10 through May 4, 8 p.m., at the ACT Costume Shop, located at 1117 Market St. at Seventh in San Francisco. Check out thespian Donald Lacy in his own words …

M.O.I. JR: Can you tell us what interested you in theater? When did you get into theater?

Donald Lacy: I got started in theater in college at San Francisco State. I started a group called Black Artists for Artistic Awareness. I started it because I was in Brown Bag Theater and we were gonna do an Athol Fugard piece about Apartheid South Africa, and this was in the early ‘80s when people were talking divestment, freeing Nelson Mandela and all of that.

And the white powers that be decided two days before the play was to open that we could not do it. They replaced the piece with Woodie Allen’s “Death Knocks.” They were afraid of the political. Along with the PASU (Pan African Student Union), we were outraged. The department at that time was all white. So we started BAFAA and produced a play I wrote on research based on the notorious Atlanta child murders, “The Loudest Scream You’ll Never Hear,” which was professionally produced in 1985 and 1989.

M.O.I. JR: Can you tell us a little bit about the new play you are in, “The River”? Who wrote and directed it? Who do you play?

Donald Lacy: The play is the world premiere of Richard Montoya’s play “The River” written for Campo Santo, which I am a proud member of. The play is dedicated to our brother, the great actor Luis Saguar, who died a few years ago. The play is about loss, and how we live with loss. It’s also about illegal immigrants and the inhumane way they are treated.

Richard is from Culture Clash so there is a lot of comedy in the play, but it goes deep as well. We must all see ourselves in the reflection of the river and see our true selves, not the fake self. I play brother Ballard Freeman, a reformed heroin user who has become spiritual. He is a fascinating character who has lived many lives. The cast is great from top to bottom, and people will have their spirits fed when they come and see the show.

M.O.I. JR: What is the importance of theater in our society?

Donald Lacy: Wow, great question. It’s the life blood of any so-called civilized society. Theater should reflect the health or lack thereof of a society. And it should point out all of society’s ills, injustices, beauty, vibrancy, cultures and differences that make us human beings such interesting characters. Theater has been the platform to represent social justice issues for years around the world. And for me, that is why I do it: to do work that helps move the human race forward in consciousness.

M.O.I. JR: Why should people support independent theater?

Donald Lacy: Because without the people, there is no theater. In this day of so-called sequestration, where the super-rich don’t want to give back anything, they only want more and more. Theater, particularly Black theater, is an endangered species.

Theater’s the life blood of any so-called civilized society. Theater should reflect the health or lack thereof of a society. And it should point out all of society’s ills, injustices, beauty, vibrancy, cultures and differences that make us human beings such interesting characters. Theater has been the platform to represent social justice issues for years around the world. And for me, that is why I do it: to do work that helps move the human race forward in consciousness.

Just look at the Bay area. I tell young Black actors all the time, when I started as a professional actor in 1984, I was in a play that was at the Julian Theater. The play was about Jonestown, Guyana, and was directed by the great John Henry Doyle, who passed away recently. John taught me a lot about the craft. He was a great director.

During that time there was OET (Oakland Ensemble Theatre), Lorraine Hansberry, Julian Theater, Black Rep, my company, Full Circle Theater Collective, Ed Bullins had a company; there were a lot of places that Black actors could work regularly. Now Lorraine Hansberry is the only one of those left standing, and they didn’t even have a season this year for the first time in 32 years. Damn.

M.O.I. JR: What’s next for you as a thespian?

Donald Lacy: I’m gonna be directing a play called “Mama Said There’d Be Plays Like This,” a spoof on Negro plays that is hilarious, produced by the producers of Martin and the Jamie Foxx show. That will start touring this summer. I am also touring my one man show “Color Struck” in Dallas in May and in Tennessee in the fall. We are also work shopping a new play written by Sean San Jose called “Super Heroes,” which is fiction based on “Dark Alliance” by Gary Webb. It’s gonna be deeper than deep.

M.O.I. JR: Can you tell the people a little bit about your show on KPOO? How are the finances doing over there?

Donald Lacy: “Wake Up, Everybody” is now in its 33rd year. It’s a radio show heard every Saturday morning from 7 a.m. to 12 noon on KPOO 89.5 FM and on the web at www.kpoo.com. It is music, news, information, theater, live music, a little bit of everything. But it’s really all about getting information out to the public.

And thanks, JR, for sharing info with me, that I have used on the show. Like what’s going on in Brooklyn – marshal law – and there has been a white-out by the media. We have to keep our people informed of what is going on in the world around us. This is the pilot for more tactics like this. They are gonna be popping up in other cities.

In terms of financing, KPOO is in trouble. We need to raise money immediately or we will be off the air. I hope people read this and come to the aid of a true institution in San Francisco, and truly one of the last bastions of free speech. Help keep KPOO on the air. On www.kpoo.com you can donate. All donations are tax-deductible and are greatly appreciated.

M.O.I. JR: Where can people see “The River”?

Donald Lacy: At the ACT Costume Shop, located at 1117 Market St. at Seventh Street, San Francisco. Show time is at 8 p.m. The show runs April 10-May 4. You can get tickets at www.theintersection.org.

M.O.I. JR: How can people keep up with you?

Donald Lacy: DonaldLacy.com or on Facebook or Twitter or by email at dlacy99@yahoo.com. Thanks, JR, for talking with me, and keep up all the great work that you do.

The People’s Minister of Information JR is associate editor of the Bay View, author of “Block Reportin’” and filmmaker of “Operation Small Axe” and “Block Reportin’ 101,” available, along with many more interviews, at www.blockreportradio.com. He also hosts two weekly shows on KPFA 94.1 FM and kpfa.org: The Morning Mix every Wednesday, 8-9 a.m., and The Block Report every other Friday night-Saturday morning, midnight-2 a.m. He can be reached at blockreportradio@gmail.com.

Dr. Aseem Sappal is the director of operations at Oaksterdam University, the Oakland university that teaches you all you need to know about the medicinal and outlawed plant cannabis, aka marijuana. In over a third of the states that make up the nation, in one form or another, cannabis ingestion has been legalized. What is the activism all about, and what lies in the near future for people who see this plant as medicine? We talk to Dr. Assem Sappal to find out …

M.O.I. JR: Can you tell us why and how you got involved in cannabis activism? How did you get hooked up with Oaksterdam?

Dr. Aseem Sappal

Cannabis can be administered as a topical application, a capsule or a vapor such as you’d inhale Albuterol for asthma. If there were a medical necessity for it to enter the blood stream faster, you could apply a glycerol-based sublingual tincture under the tongue.

We are now learning about cannabinoids and their scientifically proven, non-psychoactive medicinal effects. It’s important that when people offer their take, that it’s no longer just an opinion, rather an educated process of thought. Before doubting the medical value of cannabis, I ask you to do the research. Pass judgment on the facts, on a truth that has already reached 18 states that have passed medical marijuana laws, including our nation’s capital.

I’ve witnessed the suffering and pain of many patients, alleviated by the administration of cannabis. I’ve met with cancer patients who are now cancer survivors. They attribute their survival to cannabis. That’s why I got involved.

I’ve been studying the medicinal aspects of cannabis for well over 15 years. As a doctor, I was naturally drawn to its medical potential. Oaksterdam University, being the nation’s first and premier cannabis college, was one of few, if not the only institution, that provides people with comprehensive knowledge regarding all aspects of the plant as well as the industry. Like the other 10,000-20,000 or so who have attended, I also sought answers to my questions.

Dr. Aseem Sappal is the director of operations at Oaksterdam University, the Oakland university that teaches you all you need to know about the medicinal and outlawed plant cannabis, aka marijuana.

There’s a lot of fiction regarding cannabis and its medical attributes. I not only wanted to clear that up for myself, but I want to educate people about it as well.

M.O.I. JR: What is the history of Oaksterdam University? What does it teach?

Dr. Aseem: Oaksterdam University was founded in November 2007 by Richard Lee. With its diverse curriculum and focus on educating the public, the school quickly gained the attention of local, national and even international media. As demand for classes increased exponentially, Oaksterdam University quickly outgrew its humble beginnings, and had moved to four locations, one of which included a sprawling 30,000 square foot campus that featured multiple classrooms, two auditoriums, a grow lab and a theater.

In 2008, the school expanded by opening a satellite school in Los Angeles and eventually opened campuses in Michigan and Sebastopol. Today, Oaksterdam University operates exclusively out of Oakland, at 1734 Telegraph, Oakland, Calif. 94612.

After Richard retired, Dale Sky Jones took over and continues marching on as executive chancellor.

OU offers a wide variety of cannabis competencies. The university offers semester programs as well as two- and four-day seminars. You can earn your certification in any of these programs.

Coming up soon are the Basic and Advanced Seminars starting April 13 through the 15th.The Basic Seminar is suited best for out of town or local students who need to complete the curriculum quickly or cannot meet regularly during the week. The Basic Seminar takes place over a Saturday and Sunday, totaling over 13 hours of instruction.

OU offers a wide variety of cannabis competencies. The university offers semester programs as well as two- and four-day seminars. You can earn your certification in any of these programs.

Upon completion of the Basic Seminar, students are eligible to attend the advanced level classes. The Advanced Seminar takes place Monday and Tuesday. You can learn everything from growing to cooking with cannabis, science, making concentrates and extracts, politics, how to start various cannabusinesses and the law! OU also offers programs specific to indoor and outdoor growing. You can enroll online at www.OaksterdamUniversity.com or call student services at (510) 251-1544.

M.O.I. JR: Can you talk a little bit about the medical applications of cannabis?

Dr. Aseem: Cannabis, which is said to have been described in early Chinese medical reference as early as 2737 B.C. and reached Europe at least as early as A.D. 500, has been known to man as medicine well before our time.

Cannabis has many medical applications as well as many methods of ingestion. We have to remember that acupuncture was commonly looked upon as folklore, but now, many years later, it is accepted as medical science. The same is true for cannabis. Research is limited in the United States. Internationally, however, research is far more prevalent. Every time we look closer we learn more about its powerful anti-cancerous ability. Unlike many prescription medications, cannabis not only addresses the symptoms but in fact addresses the core condition.

The application of cannabis as a medicine has been shown to reduce neuropathic pain, reduce muscle spasticity in patients with multiple sclerosis and has anti-tumor effects. The human body possesses an endocannabinoid system that has receptors that bind with cannabinoids which are introduced into our system via cannabis.

These cannabinoids act as neuromodulators, regulating appetite, pain, mood and memory. There is far more to learn but science is moving in the right direction. The rescheduling of cannabis as a Schedule 1 substance will help the future of cannabinoid-based medicine and the method in which we approach the endocannabinoid gateway.

M.O.I. JR: What is the legal status of cannabis in Washington and Colorado? When do you think Cali will follow suit?

Dr. Aseem: Colorado and Washington are among 18 states with medical marijuana laws, but they became the first in the nation to approve the use for recreational purposes. A similar measure in Oregon failed. It’s still early and there is still much to determine.

2014 and 2016 would be the next time Cali will have the opportunity to legalize. So, that would be the first chance of being able to follow suit. The people have spoken – 18 states are pro cannabis; the others will follow suit. So long as there aren’t many federal roadblocks in Colorado and Washington, there’s a fair chance that the voters will have the opportunity to pass the proposition.

M.O.I. JR: What is the difference between legalization and de-criminalization?

Dr. Aseem: Decriminalization states that a certain crime, such as the possession of cannabis, would no longer constitute a criminal charge. Although it would still be considered against the law, it would probably warrant a fine. Legalization would involve the removal of all legal consequences.

M.O.I. JR: How has Obama been on cannabis issues?

Dr. Aseem: President Obama has a lot on his plate. Cannabis is a small piece of it. I believe he supports the use of medical cannabis. He said to Barbara Walters that prosecuting adult pot users in states that have legalized the drug won’t be a top priority for his administration. His exact words were, “We’ve got bigger fish to fry,” and that “it would not make sense for us to see a top priority as going after recreational users in states that have determined that it’s legal.” There’s a reason that states have been given the right to govern themselves. Cannabis in my opinion shouldn’t be on the menu. It was voted in by the people.

M.O.I. JR: What can people do to advocate for more just cannabis policies?

Dr. Aseem: As I always tell our students, if people don’t speak, who will listen? You have to get out there. There’s a difference between an activist and an active activist. Educate people on the facts. Attend meetings, city council meetings. The city of Concord is meeting to discuss banning outdoor horticulture. It’s important to attend these meetings and advocate for a just cause.

We have assembly bills that address employment discrimination against medical marijuana patients. We have to advocate for these bills, raise awareness and educate. Measures are continuing to pass. To advocates and those opposed, it’s a clear signal that there is a change in the way voters think about drugs and drug policy in the United States.

M.O.I. JR: How do people stay in touch with Oaksterdam?

Dr. Aseem: Oaksterdam offers great networking opportunities. You meet great people, many of whom will become future industry entrepreneurs. Attending electives, industry events such as our April 2 Oaksterdam On the Green event at Subpar in Alameda – where there will be miniature golf and cannabis tasting – alumni opportunities and social media are ways in which you can stay in touch. You can also register for our newsletter on our website to receive updates and the latest news.

Soon we will be launching a new website! JomSocial is a social networking tool that will give our students the opportunity to create their own unique interactive profiles and communities.

Students will be able to create, join and participate in all types of groups and connect with other users through friend and buddy systems. Private messaging, uploading and sharing their own photos will all be part of the fun!

The People’s Minister of Information JR is associate editor of the Bay View, author of “Block Reportin’” and filmmaker of “Operation Small Axe” and “Block Reportin’ 101,” available, along with many more interviews, at www.blockreportradio.com. He also hosts two weekly shows on KPFA 94.1 FM and kpfa.org: The Morning Mix every Wednesday, 8-9 a.m., and The Block Report every other Friday night-Saturday morning, midnight-2 a.m. He can be reached at blockreportradio@gmail.com.

Damon Jamal is one of the household names in the Bay when it comes to creating music videos. He has worked with E40, Stevie Joe and Caz Kyzah of The Team, just to name a few. Recently he has been stepping his game up by moving his base of operations to Los Angeles and trying his hand at full length feature filmmaking.

His new film, “Rolling,” will premiere at the Oakland International Film Festival on Saturday, April 6, 9 p.m., at the San Leandro Performing Arts Center, 2250 Bancroft Ave., San Leandro. Here is the next up and coming Melvin Van Peebles or Danny Glover in our mist locally …

M.O.I. JR: Can you tell us the story about how you were first introduced to film?

Damon Jamal: Back in my younger years, circa 2000, I really wanted to write films and get them made into major motion pictures by companies like Paramount and whoever else had a big budget for my ideas. I wrote a couple screenplays, but it never really worked out. But eventually the technology got to an affordable level, so I can do it myself without any help from the majors.

Basically I bought a camera for cheap and started shooting documentaries and commercials and then shifted into music videos, which led to short films, and now I’m shooting full length feature films.

M.O.I. JR: Who were some of your film inspirations?

Damon Jamal: I like cats like the Hughes brothers, Martin Scorsese, spike jonz.

M.O.I. JR: What is the plot in “Rolling” about? Why is this an important story to tell?

Damon Jamal: “Rolling” is a film about seven kids breaking into their high school. What starts as a poorly planned film school submission turns into a reality check. With free reign of the campus and a set of master keys, unlikely interactions occur and secrets become harder to hide.

It’s important because it’s a story of a group of Bay Area kids who come from different cultures and backgrounds and, although I’m Black, I don’t feel like every project I do has to have all Black faces. So this story represents most of urban America, a blend of different races and genders.

M.O.I. JR: What do you hope people get out of the film?

Damon Jamal: There’s a few messages in the film – most notably that drugs are not cool and the dangers of trying to be somebody that you’re not.

Also I want the world to see that I have the skills to direct an independent production that looks just as good as the majors, and it’s creative and thought provoking.

M.O.I. JR: How long from writing it to post-production did the film take?

Damon Jamal: About nine months, but it took about a year and a half to get distribution. Each movie I do, I learn, and so it’ll be a shorter period in the future.

M.O.I. JR: For people who would like to get into film, what kind of advice would you give them?

Damon Jamal: Write, shoot and edit every month, and this will make you a better filmmaker.

M.O.I. JR: How does shooting a movie compare with shooting a music video?

Damon Jamal: A lot more work but a lot more reward. Working with professional actors is extremely refreshing though and a lot easier and enjoyable.

M.O.I. JR: How has the response been from “Rolling”?

Damon Jamal: Great! It is being compared to “The Breakfast Club,” which is obviously a classic. So it’s great to see critics, outside of the hip hop community, embracing my work.

M.O.I. JR: What do you think about “Rolling” being selected for the Oakland International Film Fest? When is your film showing at the festival?

Damon Jamal: It’s a beautiful thing. I’m excited because this will be the first time anyone has seen the film. I’m told it will be shown April 6.

M.O.I. JR: How do people stay up with what is going on with “Rolling”?

Damon Jamal: Facebook.com/RollingTheMovie or follow me on twitter @DamonJamal.

The People’s Minister of Information JR is associate editor of the Bay View, author of “Block Reportin’” and filmmaker of “Operation Small Axe” and “Block Reportin’ 101,” available, along with many more interviews, at www.blockreportradio.com. He also hosts two weekly shows on KPFA 94.1 FM and kpfa.org: The Morning Mix every Wednesday, 8-9 a.m., and The Block Report every other Friday night-Saturday morning, midnight-2 a.m. He can be reached at blockreportradio@gmail.com.