KPFA - Making Contact

Thousands of local social justice organizers passed away this year. People doing crucial work in their communities, whose deaths didn’t make the headlines.  On this edition of Making Contact, we’ll hear about some of the fallen heroes of 2016.

Featuring:

Joani Blank, founder of Good Vibrations; Carol Queen, Sexologist; Darren Seals, Ferguson activist; Ebony Williams, Chosen Diamonds mentor; Berta Caceres, co-founder of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH); Silvio Carillo, journalist and nephew of Berta Careres; Cedric Robinson, UC Santa Barbara professor and author of Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition; Robin Kelley, UCLA Black Studies and History professor;  Tom Rainey-Smith, Amnesty International Korea coordinator; Luis de la Garza, Member of La Colectiva; Horacio N. Roque Ramirez, Queer Latin@ oral historian

Credits:

Host: Andrew Stelzer

More information:

Joani Blank

Videos, articles ETC:

The Malleable Memory of Darren Seals

Who Killed Darren Seals and Why

The post Fallen Heroes of 2016 appeared first on KPFA.

The Get On The Bus program coordinated by the Center for Restorative Justice Works that offers support and free transportation services to families affected by the criminal justice system by bringing children and their guardians/caregivers from throughout California to visit their mothers and fathers in prison. These ride happen for several weekends, from Mother’s Day to Father’s Day, hundreds of families are reunited for the holidays.

Special Thanks for funding from the Omnia Foundation. Thanks to Center for Restorative Justice Works, and the Get on the Bus program and to filmmaker Elizabeth Lo, whose forthcoming short documentary on the Get on the Bus program will be playing at film festivals and online outlets soon.

Featuring

Center for Restorative Justice Works

Get on the Bus

Hezekiah Davis

Credits:

Host: RJ Lozada

Producers: Monica Lopez, Marie Choi, RJ Lozada, Anita Johnson, Andrew Stelzer

Executive Director: Lisa Rudman

Web Editor and Audience Engagement Director: Sabine Blaizin

Development Associate: Vera Tykulsker

For More Information:

Center for Restorative Justice Works: http://www.crjw.us

Get on the Bus: http://www.crjw.us/get-on-the-bus/

Filmmaker Elizabeth Lo: http://www.elizabeth-lo.com

The post The Long Ride Home: Get on the Bus, and Incarcerated Families appeared first on KPFA.

The Murder of Fred Hampton began as a film portrait of Hampton and the Illinois Black Panther Party, but half way through the shoot, Hampton was murdered by Chicago police.

In an infamous moment in Chicago history and politics, over a dozen policemen burst into Hampton’s apartment while its occupants were sleeping, killing Hampton and fellow Panther Mark Clark and brutalizing the other occupants.

Filmmakers Mike Gray and Howard Alk arrived a few hours later to shoot film footage of the crime scene that was later used to contradict news reports and police testimony.

“You can jail the revolutionary, but you can’t jail the revolution…You might murder a freedom fighter like Bobby Hunton, but you can’t murder freedom fighting.” – Fred Hampton.

Recently restored and reworked by Gray, The Murder of Fred Hampton is a chilling slice of American history. (Excerpt from mike-gray.org)

Featuring:

For More Information:

The post The Murder of Fred Hampton appeared first on KPFA.

The actions at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota continue. While mainstream media coverage is lacking, Native, citizen and independent journalists have been using social media to share anything from profiles within the Oceti Sakowin Camp, to live Facebook video of on-the-ground actions. We share interviews from a grassroots media group called the Voices of Standing Rock.

Making Contact Community Storytelling Fellow, Vincent Medina is a Chochenyo Ohlone Native American who is a part of a young generation working to revitalize the Chochenyo language for future generations. 

Featuring: 

Kevin Gillbert, activist at Standing Rock, Voices of Standing Rock, Grassroots Media Group, Audrey De La Rosa, Native American Water Protector, S, Water Protector, First People, Toronto, Canada, Vincent Medina, Chochenyo Ohlone, Language and Culture Activist, Making Contact Community Storytelling Fellow Gabriel Medina, Chochenyo Ohlone Dottie Galvan, Chochenyo Ohlone Elder, Cathy G., Chochenyo Ohlone Elder

Producers: Marie Choi, Anita Johnson, Monica Lopez, R.J. Lozada

Host: R.J. Lozada

Contributing Producer: Voices of Standing Rock, Vincent Medina

Voiceovers:

Executive Director: Lisa Rudman

Production Interns:

Web Editor: Kwan Booth

Audience Engagement Director: Sabine Blaizin

Development Associate: Vera Tykulsker

Organizational Volunteers:

Music:

_ghost, “Lullaby” 

Kai Engel, “July”

Lee Rosevere, “The Secret to Growing Up”

Lee Rosevere, “Making a Change”

Lee Rosevere, “Slow Lights”

For More Information:

Voices of Standing Rock (Facebook page)

#NoDAPL Solidarity

The post Native Power: Language, Land, and Water NoDAPL appeared first on KPFA.

Given the Trump Election and the difference between popular votes and Electoral votes, we explore the Electoral College. Who are the electors, anyway? And will the United States ever join the rest of the world, and adopt a popular vote for president?  Yale University Law & Political Science Professor Akhil Reed Amar says the Electoral College discourages voting, lessens the power of the states, and could work to the disadvantage of either major political party.  On this edition of Making Contact, Akhil Reed Amar speaks with Angela McKenzie of Initiative Radio about how the US constitution can be changed to create a more fair and just society.

Featuring:

Credits:

For More Information

Music:

The post The Electoral College’s Dirty History Encore appeared first on KPFA.