Monthly Archives: August 2020

Aug. 8, the day after getting the news that Kali O’Ray, director of the San Francisco Black Film Festival, passed away, came the news that my cousin’s cousin “Cuban Pete” was murdered in Oakland in a different incident, and my comrade Chester from the Black Panther Commemoration Committee was also shot in a separate incident still. This was in addition to a dreaded text from a life-long friend that her sons had been shot.

Without question, we who represent the most negatively impacted communities are committed to upending policing as we know it: This is the call of the moment – and the mandate of my life.

“Black Men born in the U.S. and fortunate enough to live past the age of 18 are conditioned to accept the inevitability of prison. For most of us, it simply is the next phase in a sequence of humiliations. Being born a slave in a captive society and never experiencing any objective basis for expectation had the effect of preparing me for the progressively traumatic misfortune that lead so many black men to the prison gate. I was prepared for prison. It required only minor psychic adjustments.” – Comrade George L. Jackson

It is with deep pain and distraught heartbreak the San Francisco Black Film Festival announces the death of its Director Kali O’Ray on Friday August 7, 2020, after a short battle with heart disease. The previous announcement that his death was related to COVID-19 was mistaken, and we apologize for the error. Festival organizers ask the public’s forbearance as O’Ray’s wife and co-director, Katera Crossley, and family plan details around observances for his untimely passing.

Aswad “Baldhead” Muhommed started the Struggle to Bubble Movement, a homeless empowerment community survival program to feed his soul – not for a non-profit grant, not for a tax write-off, not because he is running for office or trying to sell an album, and not for a status symbol – but possibly for the transformation it has been for many.

Just released by Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Shamann Walton is a report from the Human Rights Commission (HRC) quantifying the intention to redirect funding from the police department into the African-American community, with recommendations heard directly from community members, particularly those most impacted by systemic racism, through a process facilitated by the San Francisco Human Rights Commission.

May our Divine Mother-Father Creator of and in All – and beloved Ancients and Ancestors from past millennia, yesteryears and, literally, yesterday – find you and (y)our extended Family healthy and staying spirited during this dangerous worldwide pandemic, global imperialist monopoly capitalist economic devastation, and ongoing European and american “white” state and vigilante terrorism. WE offer our sacred-most thoughts for the healing of our dear editor, Elder Mary Ratcliff. Get well, Mama Mary! Asé.

We are losing so many loved ones this year. Beloved heroes like Rep. John Lewis and his friend and mentor Rev. C.T. Vivian and Rev. Joseph Lowery, dean of the Civil Rights Movement. Here in Oakland, we lost Wonder Woman Denise Adele Gums (Oct. 26, 1953-July 22, 2020).

He was born under the name Delbert Orr but is known in the world as Delbert Africa, a prominent member of the MOVE Organization. In the ‘70s in Philadelphia, he was perhaps its best known and most frequently cited member.

Their dirty laundry has been aired. The story on sfbayview.com has been viewed by over 50,000 people across the country. Now Warden Craig Koenig of Soledad State Prison and other officials have decided that they’d better come up with a good reason for the brutal 3 a.m. assault on 100-200 Black inmates. The guards made it clear the raid intentionally exposed the men to COVID-19. Emerge the scapegoat: validate prisoners known not to be active in prison culture, including prison gangs.

I open this piece reflecting on the lessons from Chairman Mao because as revolutionary nationalists in the anti-racist-capitalist-imperialist movement, we have failed in recent years. And it is Mao who reminded us that failure is never the fault of the masses but of the cadre.

The founder and CEO of Heart and Soul Communities, Ericka Tillis, is a pioneer in the senior-assisted living industry in Oakland and San Leandro. That pioneering vision has kept her facilities and residents unscathed by the COVID-19 epidemic while the virus has been running unbridled through the senior community and the Black and Latino communities of Alameda County.

I was startled momentarily while driving down International and 87th Ave as I noticed a mural being drawn on the opposite side of the block from the East Bay Dragons Motorcycle Clubhouse. The faces of Marcus Garvey, Huey P. Newton, Malcolm X and others were being painted back to life.

“We are marching in solidarity and trying to make change. My first march was on the school system. We were protesting Berkeley High school, because we don’t have enough resources for Black students,” said Shayla Avery, a 16-year-old Berkeley High senior due to graduate this upcoming school year.

Open Letter to: Killer Mike, Cardi B, Kanye, Jay-Z, P-Diddy, Ludacris, 50 Cent and others: Greetings and solidarity to each of you. In recognition of your individual voice, influence and cultural following among current generations of Black people – Africans in the Diaspora and on the continent – we salute you.

If you missed the June 28 Afrosurrealist Writers event with guest moderator Brent Lambert of FIYAH Literary Magazine, have no fear. The entire Zoom event was recorded via a YouTube Live Feed and can be viewed online.

John Lewis, then the 23-year-old leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, better known as SNCC, delivered a speech at the Aug. 28, 1963, March on Washington that at the time drew almost as much attention as Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream.”

From behind the enemy lines, within the “Belly of the Beast” that is the Amerikan injustice system, I invite my fellow prisoners and their families throughout Amerika to celebrate the annual commemoration of Black August. Join together in honoring our beloved martyrs with fasting, studying and sharing Panther Love and knowledge, in the spirit of our fallen comrades.

To deny with a lie. To not take responsibility. To want to be chosen and resentful when we are not. We as a people today must ask ourselves whether we want to be like Cain, i.e. whether we are willing to let our brother suffer and die because we believe in that moment that we would benefit.