Friday, March 29, 2024
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Culture Currents

Cultural happenings in SF and beyond.

Gold medalist Gabby Douglas speaks out, is smacked down

Gabrielle Douglas, is, at age 16, making a transition to being more explicit. She’s also learning that this comes with a price. Douglas should be praised for speaking out about what she faced. But instead it’s earning an outrageous response.

NFL cash and community

The San Francisco Bay View newspaper and LaHitz Sports are starting a “Great Kids in the Bay View” writing contest. Each contestant will write about his or her favorite 49er (offensive and defensive players) to win tickets to a game and get their photo in the paper with the players.

How to raise a reader

Kids start learning from the moment they’re born. When parents read, sing and talk to their child, the child’s brain is filled with words, sounds and emotions that help make the brain cells grow stronger. This will have a lifelong effect on his ability to learn language and communicate with others. Get inspired with these reading tips from First 5 California.

Knock ‘em out the box: an interview wit’ trainer Ben Bautista of SFC Boxing...

The boxing world has its eye on Northern Cali, because the area is producing champions in every division, right and left. Later on, I will talk to more of the fighters, but I wanted to write this story first, so that people could see boxing from the eyes of trainers, not just fighters.

Two tributes to Black Panther Field Marshal Richard Aoki

Richard Aoki lived a full life, as dictated by the four winds and the revolutionary party that he served. He was indeed a revolutionary in every sense of the word. Well done, Field Marshal Richard Aoki. Please ride the four winds in dashing splendor, as only you can, so that young people will breathe in the essence of your courage.

The Oakland thespian: an interview wit’ Anita Woodley

Anita Woodley is one of the hidden treasures of Oakland’s drama community. Though she no longer lives in Oakland, Oakland very much lives in her. She has recently jumped onto the international scene with her two popular one woman plays, “Mama Juggs” and “The Men in Me.”

Ujamaa Parties: World’s Fair comes to the Bay Area!

Paradise’s 2012 Cultural World’s Fair was put in motion to help set the template of what Buy Black Wednesdays is all about. The opening reception was like an “Ujamaa Party.” Ujamaa is a Kiswahili word which means “cooperative economics.” And an Ujamaa Party is when people get together and go and support a Black business as a group.

The power of Gabby Douglas

As Gabby told the New York Times in June: “I have an advantage because I’m the underdog and I’m Black and no one thinks I’d ever win. Well, I’m going to inspire so many people. Everybody will be talking about, how did she come up so fast? But I’m ready to shine.” Shine she did. Dominique Dawes, the great African-American gymnast who won team gold in 1996, exclaimed: “I feel like Gabby is my child or something. I am so anxious for her to win. I know it will have an enormous impact on encouraging African-Americans and other minorities to go into the sport of gymnastics.”

Damien Hooper: The sanctioning of an anti-racist Olympic rebel

Before fighting U.S. boxer Marcus Browne, Damien Hooper’s ring attire included a black T-shirt emblazoned with the Aboriginal flag. Hooper, who is of Indigenous ancestry, knew that he was breaking the Olympics “no politics rule,” which states that you can only represent your country or approved corporate sponsors.

AAU Tae Kwon Do bronze medalist back in the Bay Area

Because of all of my supporters, I had a chance to compete in the 2012 Amateur Athletic Union Tae Kwon Do National Championships held July 2-7 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I want to say many thanks to all who helped me realize my competition goal, for without your support, I would not have made it.

If they say it and I don’t believe it, is it true? What is...

Dr. V. Diane Woods is the architect of the California Reducing Disparities Project’s African American Strategic Workgroup report, “We Ain’t Crazy! Just Coping with a Crazy System,” which looks qualitatively and quantitatively at Black mental health in California and its blatant racialized disparities.

Wanda’s Picks for August 2012

There are many great programs for youth in the San Francisco Bay Area – among them, AileyCamp at Cal Performances, Destiny Arts, Oaktown Jazz Workshop, Dimensions Extensions and Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, founded by Angela Wellman.

Fists of freedom, an Olympic story not taught in school

It has been almost 44 years since Tommie Smith and John Carlos took the medal stand following the 200-meter dash at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City and created what must be considered the most enduring, riveting image in the history of either sports or protest. But while the image has stood the test of time, the struggle that led to that moment has been cast aside.

‘Hamlet’ at San Quentin, oh my!

Shai Alkebu-Lan was invited to attend one of San Quentin's performances of “Hamlet” by Shakespeare. It was a great performance, and many people throughout the Bay Area and the state, family and friends of inmates, staff and the thespian community as well as the media attended the performance.

Junior welterweight champion Karim ‘Hard Hitta’ Mayfield speaks

Long before Karim “Hard Hitta” Mayfield held a professional boxing title, he was considered a beast in the streets of San Francisco – because of his hands. Eight years after retiring as a street fighter, this professional boxer has risen to superstardom.

The Panther party for Tupac’s birthday

Tupac Shakur, a very talented rapper and actor who defined the aspirations and frustrations of a generation, was shot on Sept. 7, 1996, and died on Sept. 13. On June 16, Bobby Beats, the father of Digital Underground’s Money B and a former Black Panther, organized one of the biggest, most exciting and most meaningful Tupac birthday parties in history.

Buy Black Wednesdays: Replace Black on Black crime with Black on Black love

When we, Black America’s trillion dollar nation, start circulating our dollars within the community more, more of us will have more dollars in our pockets and purses, and as a result there will be less crime, less violence and a dwindling homicide rate. Happy, prosperous people don’t commit crimes, steal and kill.

How and why I started the California poetry gold rush, leading up to this...

1995 was a very auspicious year. My “Entering Oakland” poem, which made fun of Oakland’s ominous border signs that actually read “Entering Oakland,” was a catalyst in getting the city’s signs changed to “Welcome to Oakland.” Now I’m attempting my biggest endeavor ever, a Cultural World’s Fair.

Beautiful and deadly: an interview with Frisco boxer Raquel Miller

You may recognize Floyd Mayweather and Andre Ward as two major figures in today’s world of boxing, but very few have heard of Raquel Miller, a female fighter from the streets of Hunters Point. All of that is about to change with this 2011 Golden Gloves winner and rising star taking the Northern Cali boxing world by storm.

Reggie DeVoine: Da man gone home

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.