Tag: The People’s Minister of Information JR Valrey

The Block Report speaks with our correspondent Claude Gatebuke, also of the African Great Lakes Action Network, about the politics in the African Great Lakes region. We discuss Rwandan President Kagame attempting to extend his reign for a total of 40 years, Rwanda working for Western powers, tension between Burundi and Rwanda, political prisoner Victoire Ingabire, the role Tanzania has played as a stabilizing factor and more.

The People’s Minister of Information JR talks with reporter and author Thandisizwe Chimurenga about the recent Black female victims of police terrorism in the U.S. including the cases of Sandra Bland, Marlene Pinnock, Natasha McKenna and more. “Natasha died in February in Virginia,” says Thandi. “Why we speak of her is because recently the video of how she died was released and, once you look at the video, you can understand the reason it was held for so long. They used a stun gun on her; she was shot four times. She’d been arrested and charged with assaulting a cop.”

I talked to a future repatriate, my comrade Dr. Chris Zamani, about his recent trip to South Africa in search of a homeland and a place for him to stick his flag. I talked to him about some of the factors that he has to consider in order to prepare to make that move. He has a very interesting outlook on history and life that is driving his decision to want to leave the U.S., and I wanted to share this ongoing conversation that we have been having with each other for the last few years. Check out Dr. Zamani in his own words ...

BlockReportRadio.com speaks wit’ Jason Silverman about his new documentary “Sembene,” which chronicles the life of the late father of African cinema, Ousmane Sembène from Senegal. It screens at the Mill Valley Film Festival on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 5:45 p.m., at Sequoia 2, 25 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley, and Thursday, Oct. 15, 3:15 p.m., at Rafael 1, 1118 Fourth St., San Rafael.

Mansour Id-Deen speaks wit’ The People’s Minister of Information JR about the Berkeley police stopping Black motorists at a disproportionate rate in violation of our human rights. “The disparity is unbelievable,” says Id-Deen. Blacks are stopped more and often “for no reason.” We also speak about “progressive” Congresswoman Barbara Lee securing over $2 million to hire 18 police officers in her district, which includes Berkeley and Oakland. She needs to pay “more attention to local issues and have conversations with local leaders,” Id-Deen says, to make “a better decision.”

Shafia Monroe speaks wit’ the Block Report about how to stay healthy during pregnancy and the need for more Black midwives and doulas in the nation. Blacks have by far the highest infant mortality rates, with 17 of every 1,000 Black babies dying in their first year, compared with 3-4 in other communities. Learn more and meet keynoter Erykah Badu – who herself is a doula – at the ninth annual International Black Midwives and Healers Conference Oct. 9-11 in Portland, Oregon.

The Matatu Festival of Stories is in full swing this week, with opening night dinner at Miss Ollie’s featuring Saul Williams, Donte Clark and Bryant Terry. Some of the upcoming activities of the festival are the Thursday night concert featuring neo-soul musician and producer Shafiq Husayn, the Friday night showing of a documentary about Ethiopian musician and thespian Asknaketch Worku, as well as Saturday’s performance by the Alonzo King Lines Ballet.

International journalist and freedom fighter correspondent Gerald Perriera speaks on world politics four years after the assassination of Qaddafi and two years after Chavez, covering Libya, Eritrea, Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Venezuela, Guyana, Mali, Niger, France, the U.S. and more. “Libya is a failed state,” Perriera observes, since Qaddafi’s Jamahiriya was destroyed, with several factions and many militias “all doing their own thing.” Some 3 million Libyans who supported Qaddafi now live in exile. Libyans throughout the country demonstrated against the death sentence for Qaddafi’s son, Saif.

Haitian activist lawyer Ezili Danto speaks on the current state of Dominican apartheid and the denationalization of Haitians within its borders. “The Dominican Republic is the Israel of the Caribbean,” Danto says, noting that they sided with the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War. “Haiti is a sanctuary for freedom, a sanctuary in a world where, when the Africans liberated the island, it was the only place on Planet Earth where slavery of Black people did not exist.”

Mrs. Karima Al-Amin speaks on the attempt to execute her husband and legal client Imam Jamil Al-Amin through medical neglect while he is a political prisoner. He has a series of conditions that have not been treated adequately while he is unjustly imprisoned. Imam Jamil was formerly known as the revolutionary H. Rap Brown. His contributions to Black history are priceless. And his family and congregation need him back home in Georgia. Free Imam Jamil! Free ‘em all!

Revolutionary, Bronx based, political Latino rap group Rebel Diaz strikes again: This time it’s not a dose of reality Hip Hop that they serving, but a new political and cultural education tool better known as Ñ Don’t Stop, a webisode that regularly appears on the Venezuelan media website TeleSur English that will also soon be hitting television screens worldwide.

Black Media Appreciation Night is rolling around again. Here is our opportunity to return the love that so many Black journalists, artists and organizers have dished out to us over the years in the form of articles, broadcasts, songs and events. We are inviting and urging you to come out to support the people who care about reporting and making art so that your voice can be represented on the airwaves and screens across the planet. Come show your love to this year's award winners, led by Black Lives Matter founder Alicia Garza. Early bird tickets are only $25.

In a time when true friendship is a lost art, I can truly say that Dedon Kamathi was my friend. How difficult it is for me to use the past tense. Dedon would say that he was my most loyal follower. But the truth of it was that he was my leader. His favorite saying was “Ready for the Revolution.” Dedon was ready for the revolution, but the community that he gave so much to continues in its state of unreadiness.

I have known Iminah, the renaissance woman who works under the brand name “From Ghetto to Goddess,” for a few years, and I continue to be inspired by how she serves the Black community. Since moving back to Oakland from Atlanta where she went to college, Iminah has been involved with speaking to at-risk youth, writing and recording an album, and dancing in everything from plays and dance shows to music videos.

Every June, we celebrate the upcoming San Francisco Black Film Festival that was founded by Ave Montague and is now run by her son, Kali O’Ray, and his wife, Katera Crossley. On the same weekend as Juneteenth, the film festival features the very best in independent films by and about Black people. This year the roster features a phenomenal lineup of films from every walk of life. See the full schedule and many trailers at sfbff.org and BE THERE from Thursday, June 11, through Sunday, June 14, for some unforgettable shows.

Frisco filmmaker Kevin Epps is at it again with his weapon of choice, his camera. This time, the “Straight Outta Hunters Point” filmmaker just released his new film, “Solutions Not Suspensions,” which takes a look at who is being suspended from the San Francisco Unified School District and under what circumstance. He is taking a stand on an issue that does not get a lot of attention in our community.

Robert “Fleetwood” Bowden’s “Da Cotton Pickas” is a must see documentary about how slavery did not stop with the Emancipation Proclamation. In fact, some people who were sharecropping slaves are still alive today, like Bishop Henry Williams, the subject of this monumental documentary. He worked for over 18 years and was never paid for picking cotton. Fleetwood tells a story of a historical reality with this documentary that most have never heard.

Love and Fit Hop with Stic of dead prez and Afya Ibomu is today, Monday, Feb. 9, 11 a.m., in the Merritt College Student Lounge, 12500 Campus Drive, Oakland. Stic.man and his wife, Afya Ibomu, are both engaged in creating “Fit-Hop,” a subgenre that promotes sobriety and healthy living as opposed to the mainstream Hip Hop. Check Stic out in his own words.

Hajj Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of El Hajj Malik Shabazz, known commonly as Malcolm X, interviewed on Martin Luther King Day 2012, is asked, “How do you see the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King?” Malcolm responds that when it comes to my grandfather’s methods and the methods of Martin Luther King, we can’t always all come at the enemy from the same direction, the same angle. Both are important. And we look beyond our differences to our common interests. And read Malcolm's telegram to Martin.

The best African centered holiday play in the nation, “Go Tell It!,” the story of the freedom fighter Harriet Tubman told through spirituals, will be showing at the Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley, on Saturday, Dec. 6, at 7 p.m. and on Sunday, Dec. 7, at 3 p.m. Instead of celebrating capitalism during the holidays, “Go Tell It!” is a way that we can remember our ancestors, how far we have come as a people, as well as the leaders, the tactics and the situations that got us here. “Go Tell It!” makes you want to learn more about your ancestors’ history, no matter who you are.