Tag: James Byrd

May our Divine Mother-Father Creator of and in All – and Beloved Ancients and Ancestors from yesteryears and yesterdays – find you and (y)our extended Family in sacred Spirit, healing and thriving. WE are hoping to be in the magnificent presence of those of you around the Bay Area soon … possibly, at upcoming events like International Workers’ Day on 1 May (at the Port of Oakland); the 19th Annual MALCOLM X Jazz & Art Fest on 18 May (at San Antonio Park, Oakland); African Liberation Day on 25 May (in Oakland); and other venues. Asé.

Alfred Wright was a 28-year-old physical therapist, a “man of great faith,” and father of three sons. He went missing for 18 days. He was found by volunteers and his father, stripped down to his shorts and one sock, with his throat cleanly slit and one ear missing. The police recorded the cause of death as “accidental drug overdose.” Alfred Wright was also a Black man married to a pretty white woman … in small-town Texas.

“Emmitt Till” does more than call attention to how Till’s death ignited the U.S. Civil Rights Movement in the ‘50s and ‘60s. It points to the quiet heroism of Mamie Till Mobley in the face of unspeakable horror and unrelieved terrorism. Come see this dynamic and inspirational play by Tavia Percia and the Tavia Percia Theatre Company: Saturday, Feb. 1, 7 and 9 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 2, 3 and 5 p.m., at the Eastside Arts Alliance, 2277 International Blvd, Oakland.

I was armed when I entered the darkened studio room on Yosemite in San Francisco’s Bayview District where Zaccho Dance Theatre resides. When I opened the black curtain and stepped into the darkened room, I stood still for a moment to let my eyes adjust and noticed chairs where a few patrons sat. I decided to wander through the huge open space.

In the past year we have witnessed a succession of murderous assaults reflecting a common character structure: The authoritarian psychology: Jason Smith beaten to death by racists in Louisiana; Trayvon Martin murdered by a racist vigilante in Florida; Christian Gomez allowed to die on hunger strike by prison guards in California; 17 people, nine of them children, slaughtered in Afghanistan; Kendrec McDade slain by racist police in California; Gerardo Perez-Ruiz murdered by border vigilantes in Arizona.

Trayvon Martin and Mumia Abu-Jamal. One is dead. One languished on death row for 30 years. They are separated in age by a generation, separated by different locations and different life-histories, but their stories of being under surveillance, watched and shot, intersect strikingly with each other and with many other people.