Culture Currents

“There would be no New Orleans music without Haiti. It has been one of the most important influences going back 200 years.” – Ben Jeffe, Preservation Hall Jazz Band

In light of the Oscar Grants, Sandra Blands, Nia and Latifah Wilsons, Philando Castiles, Mike Browns, Tamir Rices, Kathryn Johnstons, Kenneth Hardings, Gus Rugleys and Idriss Stelleys of the world, the Black community needs to be bombarded with a message of protecting ourselves and one another in a nation that considers us the enemy.

We must unify and collectively work together in order to build and maintain our communities, make our sisters’ and brothers’ problems our problems and solve them together. We must be self-determining and responsible for our acts and our reactions: Umoja, Kujichagulia and Ujima.

To understand the story of Jesus is to understand that he lived in a time when there was class warfare between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots, the oppressor and the oppressed, much like it is today.

by Biko Agozino This is not a spoiler. “Harriet” is a film without spoilers because the audience already can tell how the movie was going to end. What I would like to comment on are...

How Black authors and publishers are empowering our communities through Black events, anthologies and Black takeovers of white dominated genres. by Sumiko Saulson “But I’m not sure how many of the black horror writers publishing...

by Kevin ‘Rashid’ Johnson A key strategy of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party (NABPP), from its inception, has been to empower the oppressed communities through the creation and growth of programs that serve the needs of...

Elbert “Big Man” Howard: He of the powerful words repeating, demanding, commanding, insisting that we, the people, must be responsible, must continue the fight, the struggle for human rights and justice.

While this is not the first time a White House occupant was a White supremacist, the vociferous espousing of ethnic cleansing of America has become an open debate and policy. Yet Black activists, as far as I know, are giving little attention to the prospects of being expelled from the U.S. in light of the U.S. government’s vicious expulsion of Latin Americans, or Hispanics, and others.

Recently, Elder Bill Russell accepted his “Hall of Fame” ring, which he refused in 1975 because he felt the white-run “HoF” should have honored Charles “Chuck” Cooper, the first person of African ancestry drafted into the then “whites-only” NBA, in 1950.

Please join N’COBRA Saturday, 25 January, 12 Noon, for our first Bay Area commUNITY gathering for Reparations at the beautiful Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th St. in downtown Oakland (near the 12th Street BART station). Be prepared to offer serious views and action plans.

What would MLK think about our fractured and divisive country and world of today? He would be shocked by so many unhoused, hungry, suffering people, mass incarceration, children in cages, extreme poverty, the climate crisis, and trillions spent on the Pentagon, ongoing wars and now, nukes in space (Space Force), a new war for oil looming, and extreme income inequality. He would be upset by the lying fascists running and ruining our country.

This is a very important film for today’s times. Fela was a political Black revolutionary who used music as his sole weapon to address injustices perpetrated by the government, mostly in his country of Nigeria.

At a time when ignoring the planet and its species hastens the end of life as we know it, Graves’s work poses options, some involving magical thinking. The artist illustrates across multiple compositions how powerful Black people are.

On Martin Luther King Day, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020, at 10:00 a.m., noted Bay Area grassroots leaders will host a protest rally at the Oakland City Church to highlight the plight of the unhoused.

When the Panthers died, I cried, I tried to hold back my tears, While in my mother's womb, I was consumed with fear . . .

At Dr. King’s funeral, Stevie Wonder learned of John Conyers’ bill to make his birthday a national holiday. To overcome the resistance of conservative politicians, Wonder put his career on hold, led rallies from coast to coast and galvanized millions of Americans with his passion and integrity. But it took 15 years.

Afrika is our Black Power Base. Our life force. Our African Sun. Where is your home base, Black man? It’s Africa.

Working parents, among others, may find themselves increasingly short-tempered, anxious or depressed as a result of stress at work. This may be especially hard if you’re parenting with ACEs – that is, if you’re dealing with unresolved trauma from your own childhood.

by Audrey T. Williams The AfroSurreal Writers Workshop of Oakland – and friends – will share from their speculative works in progress, followed by a moderated panel discussion. During the panel, three Bay Area writers and poets...