Culture Currents

This art exhibition will feature some of the hottest artists in the Bay Area, including Emory Douglas, Sage Stargate, Duane Deterville, Karen and Malik Seneferu and others. The night will pay tribute to the Bay Area’s rebel rousers, independents and outliers. I chopped it up with the curator and organizer Melorra Green about this Saturday’s event and also about the power and function of art in our society.

In February, Poor Press will be releasing eight powerful and beautiful books, including “Black Disabled Ancestors” by Leroy Moore, “Unwritten Law” by Dee Allen, “When Mama and Me Lived Outside” by Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia, “Disturbance Within Myself” by Audrey Candycorn, “Chimalli” by Muteado Silencio, “Horse Tuuxi: My Name is Kai!” by Angela Taylor, “Everybody’s Jesus” by Katana Barnes – the most diverse Poor book-making program in the history of Poor Press

The Supreme Court is expected to make decisions concerning gay marriage in June 2013. After the decision is made and the gay marriage issue fades away, I wonder if the nation will once again, as Frederick Douglass wrote, “look upon the Negro [...] as an alien.”

On March 6, the Bay’s “Free Speech Radio” aka KPFA suspended one of the best broadcasters and shows that they had on the air because The People’s Minister of Information JR Valrey of Block Report Radio, who’s also the associate editor of the SF Bay View, reported on the fact that members of management and of the CWA union, aka the “White Citizens Council” inside of KPFA, have been engaged in racist activities.

Inspired by President Barack Obama’s “My Brothers Keeper” initiative, AfroSolo will launch Project Empowerment: The Audacity to Succeed II. An anthology entitled “Lighting up the Future: Letters From Black Men to Young Black Men and Boys,” will be a collection of letters from Black men designed to celebrate, uplift and motivate young Black men and boys to successfully transcend youth to adulthood. We cordially invite your participation.

“Considering we’re in education, that’s kind of a problem.”

The Golden State Warriors sports franchise has undergone a new change in ownership. When new owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber were introduced to the fans recently in an outing against the Detroit Pistons, they were given a standing ovation.

How do you think that society should be better educated on the topic of domestic violence? By teaching our children in grade school, girls and boys, that it’s not ok to fight or hit anyone, for starters.

Renowned artists and athletes meet once a year in Lake Tahoe to play golf and raise money for charities. Michael Jordan, John Elway, Kevin Nealon, Aaron Rodgers, Dennis Haysbert, Jerome Bettis, Jim Harbaugh, A.J. Hawk, Jim McMahon and many other entertainers and sports figures participated in this fun-in-the-sun annual event.

AshEl is a food-based activist who has been heightening consciousness for years in the Bay about what we put in our bodies. We have to use everything that we have to inform and educate our people about how our body works – young people especially. I salute AshEl on his valiant quest to keep us in the know about how these corporations are trying to kill us from the inside out.

We feel it’s important to be a part of this conversation. If there’s a national and international conversation going on against capitalism and imperialism, we need to be a part of that. But folks also gotta undersand that racism needs to be talked about and that white privilege still exists.

Oakland based artist Eesuu has been one of my favorite local visual artists for the last decade. I love his choice of colors and the ways in which he blends them, as well as I like the themes behind his work. He is exhibiting a new body of work during the month of April in downtown Oakland at SoleSpace, 1714 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Called “Sugar 2.0,” it looks at the history of this substance that has been used as a tool to enslave people, colonize land and build empires.

Donald Trump is the consequence of an America in which a white man with money is automatically bestowed with power and political freedom. Despite his blatant stupidity, repulsiveness and toxic influence, he remains a presidential candidate – to me this is ridiculous. An imposed hierarchy means that my voice as a Black woman is the last to be heard. Cue Solange Knowles and Michelle Obama to deliver me from this angst.

Celebrating the Black Panther Party for Defense birthed in Oakland 55 years ago, Baba Jahahara also shares appreciation of the many past and present jewels of our communities.

As a writer and someone who strives to follow my dream, it’s an all too relatable feeling of not being taken seriously when you yourself are serious about following your own path to achieve those dreams.

Dynamic, brilliant and an elite athlete extraordinaire, Raquel “The Rock” Miller believes that boxing is more than boxing – that it is a lifestyle. She is proving this on a daily basis. Through her disciplined work ethic and her commitment to the “sweet science,” through diligence and perseverance, The Rock won several national boxing tournaments and qualified for the world championships in Beijing. She won a silver medal there.

The documentary “Virunga” tells the story of the rangers at Virunga National Park in eastern Congo who are battling to keep the last remaining 800 mountain gorillas that live in the park alive – a battle against poachers, the M23 rebel forces and the British corporation Soco, which is trying to convince officials inside the park and in government to allow them to exploit the huge ocean of oil that lies under the park.

I’ve created a fatherhood survey to help men evaluate how they think they are doing as fathers as well as some thoughts and ideas that may help improve areas of weakness. Remember, dads, we are only human – not robots. We are imperfect and will make mistakes every day. The important thing is that we love our children, learn from the mistakes and continue to practice on the skills that will make us the best fathers possible.

Two more teams have come together to make a political statement. The Minnesota Lynx and the New York Liberty of the WNBA have chosen to advocate an idea that really should not be radical but somehow is, in the United States of 2016: the idea that Black lives matter. These are public and visible displays of real solidarity: white players joining with their Black teammates, wearing the same shirts and standing alongside them in a show of multiracial unity against anti-Black bigotry.

The Certain Days: Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar collective is releasing its 17th calendar this coming fall. The theme for 2018 is “Awakening Resistance,” reflecting on organizing in the current political climate. We are looking for 12 works of art and 12 short articles to feature in the calendar, which hangs in more than 2,500 homes, workplaces, prison cells and community spaces around the world. We encourage contributors to submit both new and existing work. We also seek submissions from prisoners – please forward to any prison-based artists and writers.