Monthly Archives: June 2016

A “space mountain,” “a behemoth,” “a colossus,” “a palace for Jabba The Hut” and “a half-baked baked Alaska” – that’s how columnists have described George Lucas’ $400 million 300,000-square-foot Museum of Narrative Art, a collection of Americana and Hollywood memorabilia. On May 16, 2016, San Francisco Supervisor, Aaron Peskin, appeared on CBS Bay Area talk show “Matier in the Morning,” where he reintroduced Treasure Island as a site for the project.

The San Francisco Black Film Festival is fast approaching, and one of the best short documentaries screening is “The BlackBoard,” a film about the Black community’s relationship to Black skaters and skateboarding in the past and present. It features Black skaters from all over the country, including Karl Watson and Jabari Pendelton. “The BlackBoard” screens Saturday, June 18, 6-10 p.m., at Origins. Here is Marquis Bradshaw talking about his film.

It’s not some grand conspiracy, but it’s grand theft nonetheless. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ voters will lose their ballots, their rights, by the tens of thousands. The steal is baked into the way California handles No Party Preference – “NPP” voters – what we know as “independents.” There are a mind-blowing 4.2 million voters in California registered NPP – and they share a love for sunshine and Bernie Sanders.

“No one in the neighborhood believes that fire was an accident,” continued Donald about the recent tragic three-alarm fire that completely destroyed 10 small and very small thriving businesses on 73rd and BlackArthur. Along with the eradication of people’s long-time rented and owned homes through all means of politrickster moves and paper trails which the youth skolaz reveal in their report, local businesses are under attack.

With the Sonoma and Napa Valley only an hour away from the big cities, Northern Cali is known for its exquisite wineries that are ranked right up there with the great wineries of France and Spain. Melody Fuller is the founding director of the Second Annual Oakland Wine Festival, which starts on July 16, 2016, and the Oakland Wine and Food Society. I spoke with her about her organization and the festival. Check her out in her own words.

In the wake of the failure and collapse of the U.S. imposed dictatorship of Michel Martelly in Haiti, and as conservatives from the U.S. to the U.K. are being investigated for fraudulent electoral practices, the grassroots people of Haiti continue to escalate their fight for liberation, solidarity and dignity. Rocking the streets with “Nou pap obeyi!” (“We will not obey!”) illegitimate officials imposed by foreign colonizers, Haitians have fought on all levels to return governance of Haiti to its people.

John Burris said that he is deeply saddened by the passing of his mother, Imogene Burris, 90, but he is most thankful for her amazing life and the human gifts of giving, sharing and social justice which she bestowed on everyone. Burris says that his mother was “the wind beneath his wings.” Funeral services will be held on Friday, June 10, at 11 a.m. at Second Baptist Church, 1170 Benicia Road in Vallejo. Quiet hour will be on Thursday, June 9, from 6 to 7 p.m. at Wiggins Funeral Home on 524 Capitol St., Vallejo.

With the passing of the irreplaceable guitar gripping musician, singer and songwriter Prince, it is like a giant redwood tree falling in the forest. The vacuum that it creates makes people a little more thirsty for the next generation of artists making timeless music. Martin Luther McCoy, the San Francisco native, is definitely in the running. Catch him performing in Oakland on Thursday, June 9, 8 p.m., at the New Parish, 1743 San Pablo Ave.

Block Report Radio interviews Los Angeles anti-police-terror activist Wil B of the A14. He speaks on his conviction and upcoming sentencing date, June 8. He speaks on the police lying on the witness stand. He talks about what people can do to help and more. For the next couple of days until his sentencing on June 8, Wil is asking people to join a hashtag campaign – calling it either the “Free Wil B Campaign” or “Free the A14 Campaign.”

The California Democratic Primary is Tuesday, June 7. Whatever “The Movement” means to you, if you care about human decency and international human rights, we need a Sanders victory and a Clinton repudiation in California on June 7 – and beyond. I admire and support Sen. Sanders for his courageous challenge to the American Israel Political Action Committee, his support for human rights and fair treatment for the Palestinian people, and his open challenge to Hillary Clinton on Israel and Palestine.

The reverberations. Not the rumbles, the reverberations. The death of Muhammad Ali will undoubtedly move people’s minds to his epic boxing matches against Joe Frazier and George Foreman, or there will be retrospectives about his epic “rumbles” against racism and war. But it’s the reverberations that we have to understand in order to see Muhammad Ali as what he remains: the most important athlete to ever live.

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The Democratic National Convention will take place in Philadelphia, from July 25 through July 28. City authorities have issued permits for four marches during the convention, but they have thus far refused to grant a permit to the March for Our Lives organized by the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign. KPFA’s Ann Garrison spoke to campaign organizer, Philadelphia native and former Green Party vice presidential candidate Cheri Honkala.

When I first heard the statement that “The Black Woman Is God,” it wasn’t new or spooky to me, because I grew up in a family with over a hundred members and everyone knew that my grandmother’s say was the final one. She was the family’s guide or god. I talked with “The Black Woman Is God” exhibit’s cofounder Karen Seneferu about this year’s show and the concepts and history behind this very important annual art show in the Bay.

On Saturday, June 18, 3-7 p.m., at the New Parish Courtyard, 1741 San Pablo, Oakland, his longtime teammates and comrades Money B and Dj Fuze of Digital Underground will be handling the hosting and music for the 20th Anniversary of Life Party for Tupac. We will also officially remember Afeni Shakur, who passed away on April 21, ’16, from a cardiac arrest, with a short opening ceremony led by Sista Iminah.

On June 3, Da’Nille Lemon, a 14-year-old eighth grade student at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Middle School, will become the youngest recipient of Community Boards’ The Gail Sadalla Rising Peacemaker Award at their annual Peacemaker Awards. Bayview resident Da’Nille serves as the peer mediation project leader for the Restorative Mediation Program and participates in her school’s Peer Resources elective, a program that empowers youth to create just change.

I am interviewing Equipto of the Frisco 5 Hunger Strike about the history of their movement, as well as his feelings on the resignation of Police Chief Suhr in San Francisco, after the police murder of Jessica Williams-Nelson. M.O.I. JR: What prompted you to organize the collective that eventually became known as the Frisco 5? Equipto: It was just a group of people that came together and decided to go on a hunger strike. The movement just sprouted from that basically.

“Lambadina,” an international love story originating in Ethiopia before moving to the U.S., will be screened on opening night of the San Francisco Black Film Festival, Thursday, June 16, 6-9 p.m., at the Coppola Theater at San Francisco State University. The story is about childhood love, family, friendship, commitment, sincerity and history. Come check out this beautiful feature length film and meet the filmmaker, Messay Getahun, as well as check him out in this exclusive Q&A.