Culture Currents

“Peace of the Puzzle” is in the tradition of actual harmony and structure that’s only derived from live instrumentation. In short, it’s real music, not just in figurative sense. This music is more relaxed and reflective about the elements of peace and humility.

When Martin Luther King was killed in Memphis, he was about to join the sanitation workers in their protest for a union and more decent wages. The movement for civil rights was taking hold in the North and America didn’t like it – so off with King’s head.

Big Tobacco is the Mack Daddy of all corporate pimps. It knows when to come down hard and intimidating with its elite battery of highly paid executives, attorneys and scientists. And it equally knows when to quietly deflect attention by using – pimping – the front groups they keep on call to do their bidding.

The Dental Pipeline was created to respond to the oral health crisis faced by low-income people across the nation. In San Francisco, the Dugoni School of Dentistry at the University of the Pacific operates Dental Pipeline.

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.

Free medical, dental and vision care will be offered at a massive health clinic to be held by Remote Area Medical (RAM) April 1-4 at Cal Expo in Sacramento and April 9-12 at the Oakland Coliseum. Healthcare professionals are expected to provide care for an anticipated 1,000 people per day.

I have known the talented emcee Hasan Salaam for about half a decade, and I have always admired his style on the mic, his insightful lyrics and his deep recognizable vocal tone. He is one of the more humble rappers on the East Coast scene as well as one of the dopest.

My T-shirt reads, “If Barry goes to jail, then baseball can go to hell!” An all-Black jury is seated to determine if Major League Baseball is guilty of running a profit-then-deny scheme by a bunch of lying, cheating racist ringleaders.

The Welfare Poets have shared a stage with Dead Prez, Immortal Technique and the revolutionary Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Minister of Information JR Valrey speaks with founding member Rayzer about what has kept them going strong for 20 years.

“I Will Follow,” about a day in the life of a woman letting go of her own life and moving on, has a one week engagement at the Metreon in San Francisco and AMC 16 Bay Street Theaters in Emeryville. The film stars Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Blair Underwood, Omari Hardwick and Beverly Todd.

“COINTELPRO 101” is a recently released documentary that takes a long hard look at the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Program to crush resistance that led to the deportation of Marcus Garvey, the assassinations of Malcolm X, George Jackson, Fred Hampton, Martin Luther King Jr. and more.

It is not often one sees a play written and directed by Black women, the director, Liesl Tommy, from Cape Town, South Africa. Only a fine writer like Lynn Nottage could take such tragedy and make us smile and laugh between the tears.

The Fourth Annual Poetry Battle of All the Sexes was hosted by your favorite revolutionary poets, media-makers, poverty scholars and cultural workers at POOR Magazine. Here are the winners’ poems - by Jewnbug, Vivian Thorp and Dee Allen.

Bay Area journalist JR Valrey, the voice behind Block Report Radio on KPFA and associate editor of SF Bay View, known as the Minister of Information, reports vital news about the struggle against oppression. In the 31 interviews in his new book, "Block Reportin'," he shows what he calls the "big gap between what is going on in the world and what is being reported. I want to inspire people to become their own media and to truly speak on behalf of the people." Meet JR at his first book signing Saturday, March 19, 6:30 p.m., at Marcus Books, 3900 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland.

I know that donating one's body to science will not work for everyone. For those who must borrow to bury a loved one and for those who, like us, resent the exploitation, this is indeed an option that is worth your consideration.

In “Block Reportin’,” Oakland journalist and filmmaker JR Valrey lays bare stories of struggle and resistance through a collection of nearly a decade of interviews with local political leaders, national Black resistance leaders, artists and family members who’ve suddenly seen themselves cast into the spotlight.

Black History Month was very exciting at the Bayview Opera House, featuring such major local talents as Mastamind filmmaker Kevin Epps with two screenings, musicians Unidentified Flying Objects with Doc Smith and BVOH drum instructor Akinyele with his Troublemakers Union, Mary Booker’s Actors Workshop and the Providence Church Gospel Choir.

Pricipal Tamitrice Rice-Mitchell and the teachers and staff at Dr. Charles Drew College Preparatory Academy have asked the surrounding Bayview community not merely what the community can do to help improve the school, but what the school can do to help improve the community.

I highly recommend “Jar the Floor.” It illustrates the Sankofa concept that permeates African Diaspora culture. Shows are 8 p.m. tonight and 3 p.m. tomorrow, March 5 and 6, at the Mexican Heritage Plaza Pavilion, 1700 Alum Rock Ave., San Jose.

Women’s History Month and the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day March 8, 2011 – what a great month to toast the New Year. The name itself is an action, a call to action: MARCH – Move!