Tag: Angela Davis

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.

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!

Black History Month is not just about Afrikans in Amerikkka. It’s about Afrikans on an international level. So therefore, Black History Month extends to every month and day of the year.

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets outside the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals here and around the world Nov. 9, demanding that Mumia Abu-Jamal must live and be free and that the U.S. must abolish the death penalty and end racist killings and brutality by police.

Rally to build KPFA’s audience in communities of color and diverse communities Thursday, Nov. 11, 4:30 p.m., KPFA, 1929 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley. The potential elimination of Hard Knock Radio is a political insult to our communities and the mission of the Pacifica radio network. The programmers of color who work at KPFA have long standing contacts in the broader community. Our communities have fought, sacrificed and worked hard for KPFA, and the station’s budget must not be balanced on our backs. Hands off Hard Knock Radio!

What is so striking about this film is its living history lessons, the love and admiration for each other that Yuri Kochiyama and Angela Y. Davis share, women with big hearts who have endured personal suffering and survived. Yuri is gracious and fiery and so is Angela.

The fundraiser at the College of Alameda on May 18 was a great success, thanks to Maria Labossiere, Colette Eloi, Carolyn Brandy, Michelle Jacques and the ASCOA representative. The Social Welfare Club raised $170 for Jean Ristil’s organization in Cite Soliel.

Recent DNA analysis confirms the earliest inhabitants of modern day China migrated from the African continent thousands of year ago and brings to full circle a genealogical journey I have embarked upon to embrace my African and Asian roots. I grew up in public housing in southeastern San Francisco where racial tension and conflict today exist between the African American and Asian communities sparked by culture clash and kindled by gentrification.

The Fox News cable channel crew has discovered a new all-purpose Black boogey-man to rile latent racial animosity in America: Mumia Abu-Jamal, the internationally acclaimed death row journalist. Abu-Jamal is now a regular reference in the weapons of mass deception arsenal employed by Fox and its friends to demonize their enemies de jour.

Black August is a month of great significance for Africans throughout the Diaspora, but particularly here in the U.S. where it originated. “August,” as Mumia Abu-Jamal noted, “is a month of meaning, of repression and radical resistance, of injustice and divine justice; of repression and righteous rebellion; of individual and collective efforts to free the slaves and break the chains that bind us.”

“Jailhouse Lawyers, we are learning, are often people of extraordinary firmness who fight for a law that rarely fights for them.” “Unity is feared ... isolation is favored.” – from “Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the U.S.A.” by politically condemned death row prisoner, journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal “This landmark legislation (Prison Litigation Reform Act) will help bring relief to a civil justice system overburdened by frivolous prisoner lawsuits. Jailhouse lawyers with nothing else to do are tying our courts in knots with an endless flood of frivolous litigation.” – Sen. Orrin Hatch, former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee

“As the social order continues, it devises other ideals of social danger, among them women. In the United States today, there are more than 90,000 women in prisons. Of that number, over 80 percent are mothers, who have left more than 167,000 children behind, living in a tenuous freedom.” – Mumia Abu Jamal, “Jailhouse Lawyers”

What was amazing about the hearing Monday was the prosecution’s admission that it didn’t have enough evidence to convict these men. As attorney Daro Inouye said of Jalil Muntaqim, who pled no contest to the prosecution’s charge of conspiracy, his client picked up a loaded grenade to save his brothers, his friends, his fellow defendants, and he didn’t plead guilty. That language did not pass his lips.

On a windy April 24th, hundreds gathered into Humanist Hall on the periphery of downtown Oakland to celebrate the 55th birthday of Mumia Abu Jamal, a former Black Panther who has been a political prisoner for the last 28 years, as well as celebrate the release of his newest book, "Jailhouse Lawyers," published by City Lights (www.citylights.com).

Happy Birthday, Mumia Abu Jamal! On Wanda's Picks Radio, we are celebrating Mumia Abu Jamal's birthday and his new book, "Jailhouse Lawyers," with an introduction by Angela Davis.

It's the party of parties! Celebrate Mumia's birthday and the release of his new book, "Jailhouse Lawyers," this Friday, 4/24, 6:30pm, Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland, with keynote speaker prison abolitionist Prof. Angela Davis, Min. of Info. JR, Mistah F.A.B., Chela Simone, Kiilu Nyasha, Tiny of Poor, Molotov Mouths, Adimu of Hairdoo and many more.

Angela Davis called for a new movement to abolish what she called "the prison-industrial complex" in the U.S., which has become the largest jailer in the world. "Racism is directly responsible for the fact that the U.S. has become the great incarcerator."

Many TV channels broadcast live the entire funeral for four Oakland police officers killed March 21, news anchors calling them "heroes" and "angels." Police funerals are intended to legitimize past and future police violence and tell the public to shut up. The spineless left complies - no mention of Oscar Grant ... or Lovelle Mixon.

Dressed in black leotards, Jetaun Maxwell, dancer-choreographer, has a red ribbon, a strip of cloth representing the blood, the noose and rein society places on girls who seek freedom. - from Wanda's review of "Invisible Womb"

Be sure to listen to the archived Wanda's Picks Radio for Feb. 11, when the guests are Cynthia McKinney in the first hour and Guy Patrice Lumumba and Lisa F. Jackson, director of the film, "The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo," in the second. Extraordinary radio! Superb mix of arts and politics!