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Black radio, Black power!
May 11, 2013
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.
BlaQuarterbacK
March 10, 2013
2012 could be called the year of the Black quarterback. Black quarterbacks were the new breed, making most of the headlines, with players like Colin Kaepernick, Russell Wilson, Cam Newton and Robert Griffin III, aka RG3, dazzling the NFL with their scrambling ability and foot speed, accurate passing skills and overall sterling play, fulfilling the promise of all previous Black quarterbacks who paved the way.
Wanda’s Picks for February 2013
February 2, 2013
The 23rd African American Celebration through Poetry is Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013, 1-4 p.m. at the West Oakland Branch Library, 1801 Adeline St., in Oakland, (510) 238-7352. All are welcome and if anyone didn’t hear of the event in time to be a part of the featured program, we do have an open mic at the end of the program.
Buy Black Wednesdays: Black history is universal
February 1, 2013
There are a lot of people out there who are concerned about how you spend your money. Embrace this glorious month of February and our incomparably rich history that extends back God knows where and support the future Gabby Douglases and Colin Kaepernicks and George Washington Carvers of the world by buying Black.
Buy Black Wednesdays: Science of the years
January 3, 2013
Going back to nature is going back to what’s natural and good for your health and wellbeing and going back to your natural selves. Going back to nature is going back to Black, Mama Nature’s original people. We should teach our children about the cycles of the moon and the difference between planting and harvesting seasons, the ancient Afrikan Sciences of the Years.
Rock the vote! Rock the boat!
November 5, 2012
In this country they sing, “God Bless America,” but they mean, “except if you live south of the border or in the hood or if you’re a person of color, a woman, poor or an activist for the common good.” Rock the vote and rock the boat by shopping locally! My Buy Black Wednesday Business of the Month is MG Enhancez Hair Shop.
The 2020 vision for Buy Black Wednesdays
September 11, 2012
The day is Buy Black Wednesday. I am setting foot in the Pan Afrikan Market Place called Little Nubia, modeled after Harlem in its “hey day,” old Timbuktu and Black Wall Street. So there are over 600 Black businesses in a 10-square-block area. Red, black and green is everywhere. Flags from every Afrikan nation flutter in the summer breeze.
Ujamaa Parties: World’s Fair comes to the Bay Area!
August 19, 2012
Paradise’s 2012 Cultural World’s Fair was put in motion to help set the template of what Buy Black Wednesdays is all about. The opening reception was like an “Ujamaa Party.” Ujamaa is a Kiswahili word which means “cooperative economics.” And an Ujamaa Party is when people get together and go and support a Black business as a group.
Buy Black Wednesdays: Replace Black on Black crime with Black on Black love
July 19, 2012
When we, Black America’s trillion dollar nation, start circulating our dollars within the community more, more of us will have more dollars in our pockets and purses, and as a result there will be less crime, less violence and a dwindling homicide rate. Happy, prosperous people don’t commit crimes, steal and kill.
How and why I started the California poetry gold rush, leading up to this summer’s World’s Fair
July 18, 2012
1995 was a very auspicious year. My “Entering Oakland” poem, which made fun of Oakland’s ominous border signs that actually read “Entering Oakland,” was a catalyst in getting the city’s signs changed to “Welcome to Oakland.” Now I’m attempting my biggest endeavor ever, a Cultural World’s Fair.
Swedes revive ridicule of Black beauty Hottentot Venus
May 7, 2012
Swedish Minister of Culture Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, a self-proclaimed “anti-racist,” declared the party officially started by slicing a piece of a cake depicting a stereotypical African woman – in the area of the genitalia. Shocking photos that went viral on the net show the Stockholm cultural elite watching and laughing as Minister Liljeroth slices the cake.
Buy Black Wednesdays 11: Afromantic History Month
February 19, 2012
Welcome to the great month of February, my favorite month of the year! And I’m not just saying that because on Feb. 18 my starship landed here. And on the day before that, the 17th, the voice and moxy of the Black Panthers, Huey P. Newton, was born. And on the 14th of this guilded, star-studded month the furious freedom fighter Frederick Douglass hit the earth like a comet!
Buy Black Wednesdays 9: Black is the new religion: Afrika closed until further notice
December 26, 2011
Afrika! Black people! Afrikans! Let’s do like China did and put the whole continent on lockdown by closing our doors to the rest of the world until we’re ready to come back out again as a superpower.
Buy Black Wednesdays 8: Occupy Black Wall Street!
November 18, 2011
Join the Occupy movement. But join with caution and ask yourselves of any movement: Does this group have a collective goal or game plan to work on which assures that we, Black people, are making progress for our people every day, if not every hour?
Buy Black Wednesdays 6: We’ve made everybody else rich – now it’s our turn!
September 8, 2011
Turns out the freedoms we won weren’t enough; we also need discipline. No disrespect to other cultures, but when we got a little freedom, we did a jailbreak from each other and ran into the open arms of everybody else and made them rich! We ran to Chinatown to get Chinese food, we ran to Japantown to get sushi and Japanese food. We ran to the taco stand to get Mexican food.
Buy Black Wednesdays: Money talk
August 17, 2011
Berkeley, Calif.: The most liberal city in America and the world, some say. And yet Berkeley High School, with over 3,500 students and 250 teachers, has only eight Black teachers. Scandalous!
The 4th of You Lie: An EnDepenDance and Be Truly Free Poem
July 2, 2011
Invariably around this time of the year, the Fourth of July, you’re likely to hear somebody talking about how great this country is. And it is, but so was the Third Reich.
Buy Black Wednesdays: What does it mean to be a born-again African?
July 1, 2011
First of all, let’s not get it twisted: You can be a born-again African and a born-again Christian at the same time! Being a born-again African has nothing to do with religion, other than religiously going out of your way to support Black people and Black businesses. Being a born again African means you realize that you and your people have been stripped of your land, language, culture, heritage and spirituality and you know it is your responsibility and delight to reclaim it for yourself and your kin.
Buy Black Wednesdays: Cooperative economics the ancient African way
June 7, 2011
Thank you for supporting Buy Black Wednesdays. This new wave of “cooperative economics” is spreading across America and pan-Africa like a red, black and green tsunami of Black empowerment.
Buy Black Wednesdays
May 4, 2011
Please join our national and worldwide movement to support Black businesses and Black people financially by going out of your way on Wednesdays to spend your money in the Black community.