Culture Currents

“The Cannes International Film Festival provides a larger opportunity for African Americans to bring their stories to the world marketplace expanding beyond the 500 or so theaters. In my experience, contrary to what we are told in the U.S., the world is ready to hear our stories of insiders, outsiders, the oppressed and the powerful.” - John Michael Reefer, film producer and director

“Good Kidd,"directed by Oakland native Jamari Perry, is a coming of age story that most young Black men from impoverished, drug ridden environments call their lives.

OUSD school closures will further undermine the work towards racially stigmatized and marginalized injustices impacting Black and Brown disabled students.

I LOVE MY BLACK DADDY! I LOVE MY BLACK DADDY! I LOVE MY BLACK DADDY! I’m telling you, I’m telling you, I’m telling you … Woke up in the Fourth Watch of the night, Nov. 13, 2018, a couple of days after Veterans Day, thinking about what Anh Lê, a freelance writer in San Francisco, had asked me about my Father, Sp5 Wyley Wright Jr., of the 114th Aviation Company of the U.S. Army, whose last mission in Viet Nam was March 9, 1964, as an Honor Guard for then Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. I LOVE THAT MAN, My Dad!

Author Willie Hill says it’s crucial “for our youth to start thinking outside the hood” – incarcerated parents can help.

Whenever and wherever the People gather like a mighty Storm To fight for Freedom that hasn't yet been won They will always whisper with Pride and Respect The Power-filled name Maroon – The Implacable One

All about the perfect play for the Bay and poets’ poetry of Black Resistance.

Support and love for life are available for all.

For students in Bayview Hunters Point, life can be a challenge. There are territories to know not to wander into, there are people out there who don’t want youth to make it, there are temptations everywhere, but through all of this, community organizations by neighborhood residents still emerge. 100% College Prep’s 16th Annual Musical Showcase is next weekend, March 14-16, at Thurgood Marshall High School

When our Knights are captured -- Or fall on battlefields, as they -- Surely must, and we lose their -- Brilliant light and we are -- Scrambling to pry pens, -- Swords, spears, bread and -- Roses from stainless steel -- Grips of their icy hands – Scrambling to hoist our -- Fallen banners, temporarily -- Mired in mud and blood, -- Even higher, scrambling -- To staunch rivulets of -- Brine from our sweetly -- Shattered hearts …

“Healthy Hearts San Francisco” is a federally funded campaign designed to promote fitness opportunities for low income San Francisco residents in the African American and Latino communities. Health workers at the various city clinics offer physical activity prescriptions to people to take advantage of fitness classes, dieting and lifestyle changes, which help to promote healthier lifestyles.

After just under an hour of deliberation, a Manhattan jury acquitted Atlanta Hawks guard Thabo Sefolosha of misdemeanor charges ranging from obstructing government administration and disorderly conduct to resisting arrest last week. The charges stemmed from a late-night confrontation with the New York Police Department last April that left Thabo with a broken leg.

Bayview Hunters Point Community Legal is hosting our first annual Summer Benefit Concert on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2-5 p.m., at 4100 Third St. Join us for a day of fun, music and community. We will have live performances from local musicians Alvin Jett and The Third Street Project, great food prepared by a neighborhood chef for sale and a silent auction with items donated by several local artisans and businesses, including Giants tickets!

Thursday, Nov. 10, Nate Parker visited historic McClymonds High School for a screening of his film, “Birth of a Nation” (2016). His visit and the screening were a part of Supervisor Keith Carsen’s Community Empowerment Forums which, hosted that evening by Elaine Brown, former Black Panther Party chair, are to create spaces for public discourse and problem solving. In this case, the topic was the importance of knowing one’s history.

“When we say incarceration, when we say whiteness, what does that mean?”

The Matatu Festival of Stories is in full swing this week, with opening night dinner at Miss Ollie’s featuring Saul Williams, Donte Clark and Bryant Terry. Some of the upcoming activities of the festival are the Thursday night concert featuring neo-soul musician and producer Shafiq Husayn, the Friday night showing of a documentary about Ethiopian musician and thespian Asknaketch Worku, as well as Saturday’s performance by the Alonzo King Lines Ballet.

Mathematics can be an agent of freedom and access. The great Bob Moses, founder of the Algebra Project, advocated for mathematics literacy as a tool for liberation and as necessary as civil rights. 

Finding their way and their place through poetry and sharing the fruit.

OH, HAPPY DAY! It’s wonderful to receive one’s FLOWERS WHILE ONE CAN STILL SMELL THEM!!! Sister DOROTHY COOK, mesmerized by their fragrance, beautifully dressed in gold colored suit, matching hat, celebrated her 80th birthday in what was a magnificent BIRTHDAY musical in her honor at CORNERSTONE Missionary Baptist Church, located in the Bayview, corner Third and Paul, Saturday afternoon, Oct. 18.

It is easy to become what you know, so easy. What’s difficult is resisting. Unresolved trauma haunts the gene pool. A son, Josh (actor Yohana Ansari-Thomas) witnesses his mother’s murder or its aftermath – Dad’s bloody shirt and subsequent kidnapping of the children until he is captured. This same boy, now man, still has unresolved memories of that day when his mom was shot and the housekeeper “stood there and did nothing.”