Culture Currents

Ghana becomes a bridge of rediscovery, reclamation and celebration of Black lives weaving the threads back together where they have been frayed.

This is one of the most interesting visual art pieces that I have seen in a long time. The “purple heads” will love it, like I did, one, because it includes an reenactment of "The Last Supper," but instead of food, it’s "The Last Session," with a lot of the famous artists that have passed on.

Davey D, host of KPFA’s Hard Knock Radio and a well known and respected community activist and advocate, will headline the Homeboy Hotline's first annual fundraiser celebration on Saturday, June 23, 2-4 p.m., at Hibiscus Restaurant, located at 1745 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. Donations raised will fund the work of HBH, a nonprofit organization that provides support, resources and hope to the formerly incarcerated.

Reginald DeVoine was called home on Friday, June 8, 2012. Owner of DeVoine Entertainment, Reggie produced shows that pertained to Black history and brought them to life on stage. He left an indelible mark on this earth by touching the lives of many, his biggest accomplishment.

During the past year marking the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, Destiney Peoples and Amanda Jack were recognized for being actively engaged in voter education. These two young women, along with Jocelyn Iglehart, have committed themselves to helping to prepare people to vote in the June 2016 primaries. They will do so in honor of the efforts of their forefathers.

“Our annual Oakland’s Finest Black Tie Gala and College Scholarship Drive raises funds to give college scholarships to deserving Black youth to attend four-year colleges,” says Lacy.

Guests on Friday's Wanda's Picks Radio are Tovi Scruggs, M.Ed., and Sharon Morrison Parker, directors of ASA Academy, who talked about an exciting conference next week: "MAN UP! First Annual Black Boys Conference: Extending the Arm of Brotherhood to Achieve Manhood" on Saturday, March 28.

I have known the artist and teacher Naru from the streets of Oakland for over a decade, and within that time he has never ceased to amaze me with the creative necessity of his community projects to our community. His most recent and probably most important work to date, in my opinion, is Hip Learning, which is a Hip Hop based curriculum on human anatomy for elementary school youth.

Kendra Willis is a Bay Area woman I have known for my whole life. This young family woman is a motivational speaker, an author of two books, a business owner, a wife and mother. Growing up, she was always an avid reader; now she is a celebrated writer of fiction, with her new book, “No Faith,” set to come out this May. Check her out in her own words ...

I’m not sure which knife-point of ancestral trauma in the new movie “12 Years a Slave,” based on Solomon Northup’s autobiography, caused me to crumple into a paralyzed ball on the floor. I am not sure when I became unable to breathe or even see straight while watching the continuous acts of graphic genocide, racist hate, hegemony, brutality and oppression filter across the movie screen.

Meres Sia Gabriel has been rhyming for decades around Oakland, but she just now released an EP titled “Sweet & Lovely” that will lead up to her much anticipated album. She invites you to an EP release performance on Friday, Aug. 22, 6:30-9:30, at The Golden Stair, 608 55th St., near Shattuck, in Oakland.

Success at New Year’s resolutions to quit smoking and/or vaping could be the brass ring of accomplishments in 2022.

Freedom of speech and press is not only a constitutional right but it’s a God given human right granted by universal law.

I’ve finally seen “Selma” and can report it is a proper civil rights movie. By that I mean it takes few chances either thematically or aesthetically. The icons remain intact and the movement free from revisionist recriminations. This cautious strategy is understandable in a risk-averse Hollywood. Although boxed in by those kinds of commercial expectations, “Selma” delivers even more than it should.

Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church of Los Angeles joined religious institutions across the nation as it hosted the first NoMenthol Sunday observance in Southern California. NoMenthol Sunday is a national interfaith effort that educates congregants about the role mentholated and candy-flavored tobacco products play in addicting African Americans to tobacco products.

Please join our national and worldwide movement to support Black businesses and Black people financially by going out of your way on Wednesdays to spend your money in the Black community.

It is time to call for and mobilize “People United to Combat Media and Government Emasculation of Martin Luther King Jr.” It must be recognized that by consistently imposing upon the public the image of a person who had a dream and was essentially innocuous, the U.S. government and the country’s commercial media are emasculating a man in death whom they could not weaken or intimidate in life.

Since we last caught up with Kev Choice, he has been in the lab creating the soundscape for the new Jennifer Johns’ “Chronicles of the Aquarian Mind” album, which will see the light of day in mid-October. This is a very unique match of Oakland talent, be it that she is a strong vocalist and at times rapper and Kev is definitely production savvy. Check out Kev Choice in his own words ...

Miguel Gonalez is a Colombian man who teaches youth how to play the traditional African-Indiginous rhythms of our ancestors from all over Africa and the Americas, opening the door for children intellectually trapped in the system’s schools to develop a knowledge of self, with the first steps being through playing the heartbeat, the drums. His organization, New Urban Drum Culture, is unique in its approach in helping to build self-esteem in at-risk inner-city youth.

J. Aubry body massage can relieve trauma pain we may not even know we’re carrying.