Culture Currents

Affordable health care is possible by eliminating lobbyists buying votes in the process.

At 12:35, Stanley Tookie Williams was dead. The state of California had murdered him. A man whose greeting was the Swahili term Amani, or peace, was gone. What a waste.

Eesuu has been one of my favorite visual artists for the last six years that I have been aware of his work. I like the vibrant colors and the overall vibe that his work transmits. He has recently finished a new sculpture and has founded an annual art festival in West Oakland. It will sound better reading it if you hear it from Eesuu direct.

Harper’s Ferry ... freeing slaves … Virginia ... hanging ... white man – this is the extent of my knowledge of John Brown. I wasn’t aware that it was 150 years ago, on Oct. 14-15, 1859, that this happened, an event which many say forecast the Civil War and the emancipation of enslaved Africans. See the opera Sunday afternoon, March 14, 3 p.m., at the East Side Cultural Center.

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble is one of the most riveting and exciting instrument-playing musical formations specializing in Jazz wit’ a splash of Hip Hop. I talked with trumpet player Gabriel “Huda” Hubert about touring extensively overseas, one of his brothers quitting the band, growing up in a polygamous household, the legalization of marijuana, their upcoming new album, “The Bad Boys of Jazz,” and more.

The purpose of the Black Elders Fund of Oakland is to serve local elders in need and or purely on the basis of merit, to support them and the work they’re doing, help them with present day needs, provide services for them, rides and financial aid, do errands, check up on them and collect and archive their stories, recipes and wisdom for the community and the diaspora.

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.

Drama has been a valuable art form to the Black experience in Amerikkka since before slavery. It was one of the ways that we maintained our history, although huge segments of the population couldn’t read or aren’t reading. I have only been to a few theatrical plays, but I love cinema, with some of the best dramatized movies to me being “dead presidents,” “Brown Sugar” and “Juice.”

I want to start with the recent attempt by the Children’s Museum of Oakland to prevent Palestinian kids from showing their art. You wrote a very moving piece on your website. It was very personal. Could you just briefly outline what you wrote and your response to this censorship?

Robert “Fleetwood” Bowden, an emerging filmmaker, community activist, TV producer, radio host and best-selling author took the South to Southwest journey in reverse. He left San Francisco and took his movement to Houston. He introduced his movement to the residents of this huge city known as Htown.

Today marks the first anniversary of President Obama ending juvenile solitary in the federal prison system in response to the case of New York City teenager Kalief Browder, who committed suicide in 2015 at the age of 22. In 2010, when Kalief was just 16, he was sent to Rikers Island, without trial, on suspicion of stealing a backpack. He always maintained his innocence and demanded a trial. Instead, he spent the next nearly three years at Rikers – nearly 800 days of that time in solitary confinement.

In his new film, “Good Hair,” Chris Rock approaches the subject of Black women’s hair ... like a man. Love 'im or not, you gotta see this film that everybody's talking about. And the Bay View has some free tickets to a special screening Wednesday, Oct. 21, 7 p.m. Each ticket admits two. Call (415) 671-0789

Lazarus House, a grassroots organization that takes urban youth on first time outdoors ventures, is currently in a fundraising drive to buy a 12-passenger van. Donate now!

Community Empowerment Programs Incorporated will be working extensively with Leroy F. Moore Jr., founder of Krip Hop Nation, on programs that empower people with disabilities in arts, self-advocacy and music. The partnership will start working on its first annual activism, music and arts event facilitated by African American leaders hosted in Albany, N.Y., and a location to be determined in New York City shortly thereafter.

Chef Bryant Terry is teaming up with the Matatu Festival of Stories and is offering an opening night dinner – with spoken word artists Saul Williams and Donte Clark, along with visual artist Mahader Tesfai – on Tuesday, Sept. 22, from 7 to 10 p.m. at Miss Ollie’s, 901 Washington St. in Oakland. Check out Chef Bryant Terry, one of Oakland’s frontline soldiers in the food justice and healthy soul food movement, in his own words.

Typically, people make mistakes about Andre “Son of God” Ward all of the time. People say he’s light (in terms of weight), but no one can push him around. They say he cannot punch, but no one can just walk right through him. The lesson is that it is always different on the outside, and until you get into a ring with him, you won’t know how hard he can punch. Once you find out, the same mistake isn’t repeated – at least not by the same people.

Bottom of the boat --- rocking, rolling, thrashing --- Violently – the quaking black --- hole now her life. She had --- No idea where she was --- on the awful ocean, --- Traveling shackled for --- thousands of miles; --- belly beginning to bulge --- with the baby of her rum-reeking rapist and his --- “Zero Tolerance” policy --- for --- tears… --- She would bear four more for --- a ‘Master,’ who’d sell her --- to the West Virginian wanting --- her in the worst way –

One morning we wake up and find ourselves in the middle of something that is killing people worldwide. It feels so strange, so unbelievable. Many of us are in shock, angry and depressed.

Baba Jahahara never fails to offer up the beauty of humanity in community with his garden of loved ones transitioning, revolutions building, justice promising, freedom awaiting, movement posturing, humans imagining and congratulating outstanding achievements acknowledged. We feel the love.

“When we say incarceration, when we say whiteness, what does that mean?”