Culture Currents

With the original floor from 1888 restored, The Bayview Opera House continues to provide arts education and cultural enrichment to San Franciscans on a low or no cost basis. The recent Dare To Dream arts program and upcoming Black History Month celebrations are just a few of the events.

Wanda's picks of April 2019's most exciting goings on!

Menthol has been the tobacco industry’s recruitment tool for far too long. It has been added to cigarettes for nearly a century, masking tobacco’s harsh flavor, making the smoke feel smoother and easier to inhale – but that ease comes with a price. The smoothness of menthol allows smokers to inhale more deeply, so harmful particles can settle lower in the lungs. Menthol cigarettes are also harder to stop – people who use menthol cigarettes have a lower rate of successfully quitting.

“The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” by Stanley Nelson is a documentary about a Black revolutionary organization in a revolutionary time. It is one of the best documentaries that I have ever seen that intends to tell the history of an organization that shook the world and fundamentally changed the way that Black people in the United States have looked at themselves for nearly half a century. It’s screening in San Francisco, Berkeley and San Rafael on Oct. 2. The Oakland screening is Saturday, Oct. 3, 1 p.m., Piedmont Theater, 4186 Piedmont Ave., followed by Q&A with Stanley Nelson and former Oakland Panther Steve McCutchen.

Black Genius built the pyramids, not slave labor. Black hands have built pyramids all over the world. In Afraka, Asia, Amerika and, apparently, even ancient Atlantis! I mention this because there are some very schizophrenic people out there who can’t make up their minds whether or not to try and steal the credit from Black people about who built the pyramids or to condemn Black people for using slave labor to build the pyramids.

Robert King takes us on a lyrical journey "From the Bottom of the Heap" to the depths of a darkness so dense flashlights can't pierce the intangible conscience or sensibility of a nation or a people who would subject another citizen to what King describes in his autobiography as a normal state of affairs for Black men.

Rebecca Brando, one of the 10 children of American cinema legend Marlon Brando, talks about the new documentary on his life, “Listen to Me Marlon,” the way that Brando revolutionized acting, his human rights work in solidarity with the Black Panthers, Martin Luther King Jr. and Native peoples and more. “Listen to Me Marlon” opens on Friday, Aug. 7, in San Francisco and Berkeley.

Our beloved Kiilu, 78, passed peacefully into the welcoming arms of the ancestors in the early morning of April 10, 2018. Kiilu was a serious political animal. She didn’t just debate or go to meetings; she was on the frontlines of political struggle. Kiilu personified the spirit of a Black Panther and a dragon breaking free from a dungeon rolled into one, with the resiliency of a Haitian freedom fighter in their revolution and the resolve of a Palestinian resisting the settler colonial Zionist. Kiilu Nyasha, we love you, and we will never forget what you gave.

In the film “Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race and America,” the activist quietly befriends the philosophical offspring of the white supremacists who made Dr. King’s job so hard from Bombingham to Selma. Daryl Davis, Black man, holds the unique distinction of being an expert on the Ku Klux Klan. We get to travel across the country with Davis as he introduces us to his people – white supremacists and racists. The question he poses, “How can you hate me when you don’t even know me?”

On March 24, 2012, Leonard “Mousy Brown” Fulgham passed away while in the custody and care of the California Department of Corrections. His obituary read: “Mousy’s formative years occurred during the period known as the Black Power Struggle and the Civil Rights Movement ... This man’s presence will forever be felt, missed and recognized by the masses!”

Karryl Smith (Special One) and Carla Green (CMG), better known as The Conscious Daughters (TCD), exploded nationally on the hip-hop scene when their first single, “Funky Expedition,” from the debut album “Ear to the Street” dominated video stations like MTV, BET and The Box in the early 1990s.

Leola King brought memorable class and dignity to every business she operated during a 50-year career in San Francisco. Most of the Black people here now know nothing positive of what it was like to walk and live amongst the greatness we had created there on Fillmore Street. Redevelopment viciously undermined and ripped Mrs. King’s fortune away. Her funeral is Friday, Feb. 13, 11 a.m., at Third Baptist Church, 1399 McAllister, the repast 4-7 p.m. at West Bay Conference Center, 1290 Fillmore St., San Francisco.

Research shows that children who do chores have fewer behavior problems, are more engaged in school, enjoy better mental health in later life and are part of a stronger family due to shared responsibility.

May our Divine Mother-Father Creator of and in All – and Beloved Ancients and Ancestors from yesteryear and yesterdays – find you and (y)our extended Family in sacred Spirit, healing and thriving. WE hope that this special period of remembrance and celebration of Alkebulan/African OURstory, history and heritage, Black Love, Joy, Resistance and Visioning for our Future is enlightening, reflective, productive, fun and transformative for you and yours. Asé.

For the season, Kristine Anigwe is averaging 24 points a game and 16 rebounds, and is ranked seventh in the nation in scoring and No. 1 in rebounding in all of college basketball!

In March, our focus is on recognizing the great work, contributions and leadership of our women and girls. And not just for past accomplishments. But for women’s continuing visionary role in creating the equal, prosperous and just society that WE are building. For decades, WE commemorated the 8th of March as International Women’s Day. However, like February’s Negro (Black, African) History (Heritage and Future’s) Week, initiated by the great Dr. CARTER B. WOODSON, International Women’s Day was also expanded into an entire month.

An amazing story is about to unfold. I don’t know how it’s going to happen or play out exactly, but it’s going to be a doozy! The ancestors have something up their sleeves and I’m inclined to believe this joker is going to be wild! Do you think this is a coincidence? Cam NEWTON is playing for the Carolina PANTHERS in Super Bowl 50, in the greater Oakland San Francisco Bay Area. Huey NEWTON co-founded the Black PANTHERS 50 years ago in the greater Oakland San Francisco Bay Area.

Jamie was instantly recognizable. In addition to his colorful suspenders and hand-made wool caps, he always had a camera or a video recorder in hand – documenting life’s events wherever he went. He was also known to be generous to those in need and often voiced his deep concerns for the changing state of the African American community in the Fillmore. He worked on many community projects and used his voice, means and talents to protest injustice wherever he saw it.

Maybe the plan has brought the current percentage of African American residents to just 5%.

The legendary photos of Malcolm X aka El Hajj Malik el Shabazz will forever be etched in the pages of American history. In one photo, a Japanese woman holds his head as his spirit left his body. This woman was a friend and comrade of El Hajj Malik el Shabazz; her name is Yuri Kochiyama. She lived an extraordinary life that was intertwined with the Black human rights struggle and the Black Power Movement.