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Monster Kody: an interview wit’ author Sanyika Shakur
June 20, 2012
The first book I read after I decided to consciously educate myself to be a part of the movement was Sanyika Shakur’s “Monster” in the mid-‘90s. I was inspired by the sharpness of his ideas, his vocabulary and his grasp on history. I respected him in the same way I respected Tupac Shakur. I knew that one day I wanted to be able express myself as articulately as the two of them.
The San Francisco Black Film Festival is back!
June 9, 2012
Summertime in the Bay Area is nothing without all of the music, food and film festivals. If you missed the Oakland International Film Festival, there is still time for you to catch the Bay’s biggest Black film festival, the San Francisco Black Film Festival, which runs June 15-17 at a number of theaters around San Francisco. This year Leo Sullivan will be in attendance. He is one of the cartoon visionaries who created Fat Albert and Looney Tunes. Digital Underground will also be a part of this year’s festivities, as well as Black Panther Party co-founder and chairman Bobby Seale.
Right outside this stadium, police are killing our children
February 8, 2012
“We’re having a big benefit concert for my son on Feb. 10 at 330 Ritch in San Francisco. And I’ll just list a few of the artists who will be there: The Jacka, J-Diggs, Mac Mall, Turf Talk, Beeda Weeda, Cellski, Matt Blaque, Laroo, plus The Doe Gang, Undagod and Fly Benzo. It’s hosted by Chuy Gomez, music by DJ JR, The Minister of Information,” says Denika Chatman, mother of Kenneth Harding, murdered by SFPD. Come celebrate Kenny’s life. For tickets and more information, go to http://justice4kennethhardingjr.eventbrite.com/.
Our next guest is the legendary African researcher Runoko Rashidi, from the United States
February 8, 2012
“We need a knowledge of self in order to counter the negative imagery and influences … People who know their history are in a better position to defend themselves and advance their own interests than people who do not,” says historian Runoko Rashidi, who discusses the strong Black influence on Europe.
‘Suicide of participant’ after historic California prison hunger strike?
December 31, 2011
Hozel Blanchard is the father of a prisoner in Calipatria State Prison who recently expired after the historic California prison hunger strike under mysterious circumstances. Why would a prisoner who helped lead two hunger strikes and was looking forward to an imminent parole date kill himself?
Occupy the Airwaves: an interview wit’ the rap group Rebel Diaz
December 24, 2011
We feel it’s important to be a part of this conversation. If there’s a national and international conversation going on against capitalism and imperialism, we need to be a part of that. But folks also gotta undersand that racism needs to be talked about and that white privilege still exists.
Police critic Fly Benzo keeps catching hell since police murder of Kenneth Harding
November 24, 2011
We get criminalized in Bayview Hunters Point on the T-Train, and the police chase people down because they don’t have a transfer. I spoke before the Board of Supervisors, and a couple of days later Kenneth Harding was shot down over a $2 transfer. African American youth in San Francisco have a 70 percent unemployment rate, so our population is rapidly decreasing. It’s going to continue to decrease when the police are criminalizing our poverty. When I tried to videotape a cop, they put me under arrest, they beat me up. I was hospitalized, and I was put in jail. They gave me $95,000 bail.
Racism, white privilege in the 99%: If not now, when do we address it?
November 15, 2011
Is the Occupy Movement against slavery, or is it that some people are just mad because they never get to hold the whip? Do you not see racism? Can you see it in this movement? Where is the support for justice for Raheim Brown in Oakland and Kenneth Harding in San Francisco?
Gangsta literature: an interview wit’ Frisco’s urban fiction novelist Fleetwood
October 12, 2011
My OG potna, Fleetwood from Frisco, just put out his second book, “Bloodtest.” It is an urban fiction novel that is based right here in the Bay Area. It is important for us to support the writers, media-makers and artists in our communities who tell our stories.
Educating our community using community radio: Support KPFA
October 4, 2011
KPFA, 94.1 FM or kpfa.org, is a community station that needs and deserves your support. I am a broadcaster on KPFA with two weekly shows: The Morning Mix on Wednesdays from 8-9 a.m., which deals with community politics, and the Block Report every Friday from midnight to 2 a.m., where we play mostly music and do cultural interviews. Please donate during Wednesday’s Morning Mix, because your donation is your vote to keep the show on the air.
Hail to the new queen of Bay Area hip hop: an interview wit’ rapper Queen Deelah
September 25, 2011
Oakland has never had a dominant rapper who’s a woman in its long rap history. Today, the Sobrante Park bred Silence the Violence activist and rapper Queen Deelah is the one who is turning heads from the Town all the way to Austin, Texas. Recently while I was in Austin, I ran into Deelah, the transplant who had taken over the sleepy Texas city in a matter of months.
The Power of Choice: an interview wit’ musician Kev Choice
September 22, 2011
Kev Choice has finally dropped his much anticipated album, “The Power of Choice.” Known today as one of the most exciting up and coming musicians, in the not so distant past he was known as the bandleader for none other than the lyrical songstress and legend of our time Lauryn Hill.
Unleashing the African genius: an interview with legendary historian Ashra Kwesi
August 30, 2011
The African historian Ashra Kwesi will be bringing a level of scholarship to the Bay Area that hasn’t been seen since Professor Theophile Obenga moved back to the Congo. He will be speaking on Saturday, Sept. 3, 6 p.m., at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th St., in downtown Oakland.
Police, media demonize Kenneth Harding’s family
August 24, 2011
You are listening to the Minister of Information JR on Hard Knock Radio. Today we are talking to Denika Chatman, mother of Kenneth Harding, who was murdered July 16 in Hunters Point over a $2 transfer for Muni. Denika, how are you?
Just rock, or Black rock? An interview wit’ the rock band Peekaboo Theory
August 18, 2011
Although what we call rock began with musicians from the era of Chuck Berry and Little Richard, it has long been associated with being a white genre of music, characterized more historically by the music of Elvis Presley and the Beatles. That is the reason I wanted to do this interview with the Black Houston-based rock group Peekaboo Theory.
The People’s Lawyer: an interview wit’ Lynne Stewart
August 16, 2011
Lynne Stewart is one of the legendary activist lawyers of our time and also one of the many political prisoners of our time, who was incarcerated because her style of lawyering was called aiding and abetting a terrorist organization, by one of the biggest terrorist organizations ever known to humanity: the United States government.
Free Dhanifu Bey from those bogus charges, LAPD
August 3, 2011
Dhanifu Karim Bey, an elder in Los Angeles’ conscious community, a former Black Panther and a long time school teacher, is being forced to fight for his life unjustifiably in court in a three strikes case. Pack the courtroom Friday, Aug. 5, 8 a.m., Norwalk County District Court, Department J, 12720 Norwalk Blvd., in Norwalk.
Kenneth Harding, Raheim Brown, Oscar Grant: Can you believe the police?
July 31, 2011
On the heels of the San Francisco Police Department killing of alleged bus-fare-evader Kenneth Harding, KPFA devoted the entire morning program – the Morning Mix – on Wednesday, July 20, to police terrorism aka “excessive use of force.”
Stand up, Hunters Point!
July 26, 2011
“The police in our community occupy our area, our community, as a foreign troop occupies territory. And the police are in our community not to promote our welfare or our security or our safety, but they are there to contain us, to brutalize us and murder us,” said Huey P. Newton, co-founder and minister of defense of the Black Panther Party. Hunters Point has stood up to the Lennar Corp. and the City about the shipyard. It is time to expand that movement to include police terrorism, put new energy into it, and claim our right to live and not be wantonly killed.
‘In tha Wind’: an interview wit’ Memphis based rapper Powwah
July 12, 2011
Powwah and his family are some of the people that I check in with when I am in the Memphis area. Besides being one of the most politically educated entrepreneurs that I know, Powwah makes music. His new album, “In tha Wind,” is Southern conscious rap at its finest with precise lyrical content and the type of production that we traditionally think of when we think of bar-b-cues and Southern Comfort.