Follow Us
Jamie Scott’s son, 18, fights to free the Scott Sisters in Mississippi
August 7, 2009
Now 18, Terrance Scott tells Minister of Information JR in this gripping interview: “Seeing what they did to my mother, it put a rage inside me.” Terrance is the son of Jamie Scott of the Scott Sisters of Mississippi, who have served 15 years of double life terms for a robbery they didn’t commit that netted $11.
The teaching of a nation: an interview with author and Alkebulan Books owner Shannette Slaughter
August 6, 2009
Shannette Slaughter’s former Black bookstore, Alkebulan Books, is legendary in the Bay Area because of the assistance it has given thousands to educate themselves in a society where the television shows we watch and the music we listen to tries to direct our attention to strict consumerism, where we buy a whole bunch of stuff that we don’t need and we have no concern for the plight of our people. They call it “programming”; we call it “mind-control.”
The POCC presents ‘You Can Kill a Revolutionary … But You Can’t Kill the Revolution!’ Tour
July 22, 2009
The Prisoners of Conscience Committee is embarking on a six-month tour and education campaign around the planet called “You Can Kill a Revolutionary But You Can’t Kill the Revolution.” The purpose is to educate and re-inform people about the 40th anniversary of one of Black and colonized people’s “September 11ths,” the “Massacre on Monroe,” where the U.S. government by way of the Chicago Police Department assassinated 21-year-old Chairman Fred Hampton and Defense Captain Mark Clark of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, at approximately 4:35 in the morning on Dec. 4, 1969, on the West Side of Chicago.
Watching the murder trial of Mehserle: an interview with Cop Watch Oakland cofounder Rekia Mohammed Jabrin
July 22, 2009
Rekia Mohammed Jabrin has been involved in the Justice for Oscar Grant Movement in more than one way. She has been a consistent spectator at the Johannes Mehserle indictment hearings, taking notes, as well as one of the cofounders of Oakland Cop Watch. We are talking to her to get our audience prepared for the July 24 hearings in Oakland’s Superior Court, where Mehserle’s lawyer will be arguing to get the murder trial taken out of Alameda County.
Drama, drama, drama: an interview with thespian Rie Shontel
July 18, 2009
Drama has been a valuable art form to the Black experience in Amerikkka since before slavery. It was one of the ways that we maintained our history, although huge segments of the population couldn’t read or aren’t reading. I have only been to a few theatrical plays, but I love cinema, with some of the best dramatized movies to me being “dead presidents,” “Brown Sugar” and “Juice.”
Grind for the Green: an interview wit’ organizers Ambessa and Zakiya
July 14, 2009
The dynamic duo of the Bay Area’s “green movement,” Ambessa and Zakiya, have been organizing the Grind for the Green Festival for a few years in an effort to get Black and other youth of color interested in “sustainable” living practices. Mixing the music industry with environmental politics seems to be the ticket on how they have managed to get hundreds of youth from all over the Bay to be their captive audience. Past guests have included Bicasso of Living Legends, Charlie 2na, and Dj Backside. This year the keynote speaker will be M1 of dead prez. Check out what Ambessa and Zakiya have to say about this year’s Grind for the Green conference, which kicks off July 18th at 10am in San Francisco.
Kambale Musavuli challenges the US to stop the resource wars in the Congo
June 29, 2009
Kambale Musavuli, national spokesperson and student coordinator for Friends of the Congo, in this interview by POCC Minister of Information JR, challenges the people of the U.S. and President Obama to stop the resource wars in the Congo that have killed 6 million people, half of them children, for minerals like the coltan that powers our cell phones and almost everything electronic.
Live from the Mehserle courtroom: an interview with Uncle Bobby, Oscar Grant’s uncle
June 2, 2009
The female BART officer that was on that platform even stated in her testimony that she supposedly feared for her life, and she just knew that she was going to have to shoot somebody or kill somebody that night. Those were her words in court. The judge said: “Hold up. Wait a minute, who were you going to shoot first?”
Rallying, rioting, rebelling: Revolution
May 12, 2009
George Jackson said, “If terror is going to be the choice of weapons, there must be funerals on both sides … And let the whole enemy power complex be conscious of that!” Or, as Brother Imam Malik Khaba (formerly known as Jeff Fort) put it: “Ain’t gone be no killing, without killing.”
All gas – no brakes: an inner-view of Oakland rapper Shady Nate
May 9, 2009
Oakland has always been filled wit’ a gang of lyrical MC’s that “gas” ever since Hip Hop really got started in the Bay. Shady Nate is somebody that I could easily see being the King of Bay Area rap in a couple of years.
A whole different politic: an inner-view of Sinista Z of East Bay Politix
April 21, 2009
A lot of artists call themselves “political,” “revolutionary” and “conscious” artists but very few, including the internationally known ones, use their art to benefit people’s street campaigns, political and social struggles.
‘Rebel Musiq’: an innerview of rapper Bicasso of the Living Legends
April 17, 2009
Two decades after Bob Marley’s “Rebel Music,” in 2009 Oakland, artists like Bicasso are the musical spokespeople for criminalized Black neighborhoods that are literally at war with the police; must I remind you of the cases of Oscar Grant and Lovelle Mixon?
‘Chasing Demons’: an innerview of DJ Twelvz
April 17, 2009
DJ Twelvz is one of the up and coming dj’s in the Bay Area who has one foot in conscious circles and the other within street rap. In my opinion, this is where the movement needs to go.
The Town in chaos: an interview wit’ rapper Beeda Weeda
April 9, 2009
While the world was watching downtown Oakland burn up in the aftermath of the police murder of Oscar Grant III, rappers Beeda Weeda and J-Stalin put their social commentary into 16 rhyming bars and came out with the Town masterpiece “We Ain’t Listening,” the remix. Listen at www.blockreportradio.com.
Police 2, Oakland residents 4
March 24, 2009
On March 21, Lovelle Mixon, 26, was murdered by Oakland police after allegedly killing four of them on MacArthur Blvd off of 73rd Avenue in East Oakland. Listen to JR’s Block Report interview with his family – his mother, Athena, his wife, Amara, and her sister, Alicia – broadcast March 30 on KPFA’s Flashpoints at http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/49609.
Air cartoons: Rapper Azeem in his own words
March 18, 2009
Azeem is definitely one of the artists in the Bay’s soundscape who puts the “c” in creative. He’s the rapper’s rapper, a creative lyricist, a conscious mind. Vote for him on BET at http://www.bet.com/OnTV/BETShows/deal/deal_ya_heard.htm??Referrer={626141E.
Snap shot: an interview with photographer Ayesha ‘Esh’ Walker
March 11, 2009
Photo exhibit and fundraiser Friday, March 13, 6-7:30 p.m., at Youth Radio, 1701 Broadway, Downtown Oakland: Help this young artist study in Egypt this summer.
Two months in: The maturing of the Oscar Grant III Justice Movement
February 28, 2009
‘Since the police murder of Oscar Grant, there has been an awakening of the sleeping giant, the social consciousness of the people,’ writes Minister of Information JR. Call DA Tom Orloff, (510) 272-6222, to demand the charges be dropped against JR Valrey and all protesters. Stay tuned for more on the war against police terrorism in Oakland, birthplace of the Black Panther Party.
‘The Whole Woo Wop’: an interview wit’ Kmaxx of KPOO’s Ghetto Gumbo
February 17, 2009
Definitely it has been a long time coming for one-time Coup bass player Kmaxx to drop his latest release, “The Whole Woo Wop,” which is in stores now.
DA moving ahead with charges in BART shooting protests
February 17, 2009
While charges have been dropped for many of those arrested in recent Oakland protests over the BART police shooting of Oscar Grant, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office is moving forward with six or seven cases, at least three of them felonies.