Monthly Archives: May 2019

“The Sun-Reporter is an example of the significance of the Black press in America,” Harris said. “There are issues that are unique to the Black community, and until we have true diversity in the press, we must rely on papers like the Sun-Reporter.”

“Jazz,” adapted by Nambi E. Kelley from Toni Morrison’s novel, is a tragic composition. Performed across a series of lyrically connected (woven) tapestries: colors, sounds, fractured memories … missing people, guns (bullets) falling tears, treetops, wild woods, sharecropped promises, fire terror, unclaimed bodies … too many bodies to count … love.

“In 99 percent of counties, if you are a minimum wage worker working full time, you cannot afford market rate for a one-bedroom apartment” and “Last year, 12 million Americans borrowed an average of $400 from the payday lender at up to a 300 percent interest rate.”

Amidst an overdose crisis of historic proportions, proponents of coercion are deftly adopting criminal justice reform rhetoric to market “alternatives” that simply cloak the mechanics of the criminal justice system in public health interventions. Register for a free conference, “Coercive Treatment – Moving Beyond ‘For Your Own Good,’” to be held May 16-17 at UC Hastings College of the Law, 198 McAllister St., San Francisco.

Marie Harrison was a fighter to the end. The final year of her life was spent in protests at San Francisco City Hall and atop the Hunters Point Shipyard at the Lennar development on Parcel A. The Bayview Hunters Point Community Air Monitoring Project will vote at its May 2019 meeting on a proposal to name itself the Marie Harrison Community Air Monitoring Network.

Happy Mother’s Day! This is an important day when we stop to think of our own mothers and appreciate all their sacrifices and love. Today is also a day to reflect on the mothers of the world struggling to raise their families in poverty, under the horrors of war, or being sanctioned by the United States for living in a country that insists on being independent and free from the yoke of neoliberalism.

In more than two dozen cities across the country, mothers who cannot afford bail are getting help to go home. “This is more than a direct service but an invitation to be part of our collective liberation,” said Arissa Hall, project director of National Bail Out collective.

"There is so much power in stillness. We live in a very fast paced world with Internet and everyone on their phones every five seconds and everyone’s attention span is crumbling. I think it is definitely easier to be busy, to be on the run from your life, to be out there in the wilderness fighting for your life than it is to be actually still and really connect to the people who made you. That’s much more challenging. So yeah."

This year, advocates are demanding that the understaffed Parole Board be filled with people who believe in rehabilitation, have experience in human services and have a background that allows them to be impartial evaluators.

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS FOR ON-CALL GENERAL LEGAL COUNSEL SERVICES (RFQ 18/19-11) Notice is hereby given that the San Francisco County Transportation Authority and the Treasure Island Mobility...

The Congolese people were determined to rid themselves of Joseph Kabila’s regime on Dec. 30, 2018, the date of the presidential, legislative and provincial elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). For two years, the people had made tremendous sacrifices in life and freedom in a deadly battle against President Kabila, who was bent on remaining in power by any means necessary.

Lorie Davis has created a culture within TDCJ by which jailhouse lawyers, also known as “writ-writers,” are subjected to manifold reprisals for their peaceful and legal activities. Activities which are supposed to be protected under the U.S. Constitution’s First and 14th Amendments!

According to the program, sickle cell anemia is a disease that evolved in places like sub-Saharan Africa because it protects people from Malaria. There are millions of cases in the world and 100,000 in the United States of America. Most are African-American. The conclusion of the program is that a cure for sickle cell anemia may be at hand. You can watch the program on your computer or cell phone. I hope you will watch it.

In his first dispatch since his transfer in November, Rashid reports that the Indiana Department of “Corruption” (IDOC) and its private corporate medical and mental health contractor, Wexford of Indiana, use prisoners to supervise, monitor, report and assess other prisoners who are actively suicidal – and many times also mentally ill.

“When we say we want to talk about race,” said panelist Chinyere Oparah, a professor of ethnic studies at Mills College, “the assumption is that the conversation will be divisive. That assumption is a divisive tactic.” Discussions about race, she said, should be intergenerational and include people from different walks of life – a testament true to the audience that packed the theater.

August Wilson, playwright, was very much at home in the SF Bay. I will never forget his workshop production of “Jitney” at Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, where he encouraged a woman who criticized the absence of substantive women characters in his plays to write her own. Wilson said his journey was personal, yet there was room on the stage for multiple voices and perspectives.

“Why would I allow myself to drift when I can direct it? I was born with the instructions. Right and exact, consciousness, inner guidance, knowing, choosing how to act in every situation. I create me. Believe it. Turning thoughts into things. Turning vibrations I feel into thoughts. Impulses I receive …”

May our Divine Mother-Father Creator of and in All – and Beloved Ancients and Ancestors from yesteryears and yesterdays – find you and (y)our extended Family in sacred Spirit, healing and thriving. WE are hoping to be in the magnificent presence of those of you around the Bay Area soon … possibly, at upcoming events like International Workers’ Day on 1 May (at the Port of Oakland); the 19th Annual MALCOLM X Jazz & Art Fest on 18 May (at San Antonio Park, Oakland); African Liberation Day on 25 May (in Oakland); and other venues. Asé.

On May 1, 2019, May Day, we are requesting that for all of May, friends and supporters call, tweet, email and text Gov. Cuomo’s office and appeal to him to grant Jalil’s Application to Commute the Sentence to Time Served. We also request that this initiative be widely posted on social media platforms, encouraging freedom-loving people around the world to join in our May Day Initiative.

“The Case of the Wrong Man” was screened at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, California. It is a Brazilian documentary, and is, according to the synopsis, “the story of a young Black worker, Júlio César de Melo Pinto, who was executed by police in the 1980s in Porto Alegre.” Porto Alegre is a city in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Due to this area’s climate, European immigrant colonists who arrived in the 20th century found it easy to adapt to.