June is Black Music Month.  On this episode of Black Power Talks, we uplift Miriam Makeba.  Miriam Makeba’s music played an important role in the African Revolution by building bridges across the colonial borders that divide African people.  

We discussed the role of Makeba's music and feature three of her songs: "Into Yam", "Pata Pata", and "Malcom X."  We talk about the importance of her appearance in the film Come Back Africa (1959) and the importance of the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in her own political transformation.  Makeba had two uncles killed in the massacre.  As Makeba appeared on the international stage.  We discuss her shifts from the New African Movement and SophiaTown Renaissance to her All-African and anti-colonial position.  

On this episode, we are joined by Dr. Martin L. Boston, assistant professor of Pan-AfricanStudies and Ethnic Studies at California State University Sacramento.  Dr. Boston is the author of the doctoral thesis, “Be(Long)ing: New Africanism & South African Cultural Producers Confronting State Repression in an Era of Exile" and other recent articles on culture and the antiapartheid movement.

Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom, Dexter Mlimwengu and Solyana Bekele, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

On this episode of Black Power Talks we will be presenting to you a roundtable discussion on the 1979 film Bush Mama by Haile Gerima.  

Bush Mama is described elsewhere as the story of Dorothy and her partner T.C. TC is a Vietnam veteran who thought he would return home to a "hero's welcome." Instead TC is falsely arrested and imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. Dorothy’s life revolves around the welfare office and a community facing poverty and unemployment. As a result of the film's events, both the main characters develop revolutionary consciousness.  Bush Mama ends with Dorothy committing an act of revolutionary violence.  

In this roundtable discussion you will hear from some previous Black Power Talks guests, and some new voices.  Alongside Dr. Matsemela and Dexter, you will hear from Michelle Mwezi Odom, Denzel Draughn, and Parrish Davis of San Diego, California.  You will also hear from Themba Tshibanda of St. Louis.  

Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

Today, we are excited to examine Kendrick Lamar and his new album Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers.  Lamar has produced his first album in five years, following much anticipation.  Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers double album that engages a variety of topics that pertain to the lived experience of African people.  Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers is representative of Lamar’s general intervention into hip hop.

Over the past 12 years, Lamar’s music has defied the form and genre that has historically been applied to hip hop culture and rap music.  There has historically been a division between what people call “conscious rap” and “hardcore or gangsta rap”. 

Kendrick Lamar’s immediate entry into hip hop has been to give definition to the African experience under US counterinsurgency. This was the point of his debut studio album Section .80 and it has continued for the past 11 years.

While defining the conditions that Africans endure, Kendrick, like many other African artists, does not point the political way forward.  In this episode we take it upon ourselves as African Internationalists to interpret Kendrick Lamar's work and identify the way forward.  

To do this, we are joined by our newest co-host, and die-hard K.Dot fan, Solyana Bekele. 

Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

Today on Black Power Talks we uplift and look at the importance of May 19th to the anticolonial struggle for liberation.  Malcolm X was born on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska.  Malcolm’s Birthday is an important day of political organization. Just six days before African Liberation Day, May 25th, Malcolm’s birthday is often celebrated as an important kick off to a week-long mobilization for African Independence. 

Malcolm shares his birthday with Ho Chi Minh and Yuri Kochiyama.  May 19 has often underscored the importance of Afro-Asian Solidarity.  In this episode we explore this alongside the importance of May 19 to anti-colonial struggle for liberation of African and colonized people around the world. 

This episode contains excerpts from the #OmaliTaughtMe episode entitled "Remember May 19: Uplifting Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh" featuring Chairman Omali Yeshitela and our very own Matsemela Odom.  The full video of the talk can be viewed at The Burning Spear TV Youtube Channel.

Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

On this special 100th episode of Black Power Talks we uplift African Liberation Day.  African Liberation Day is May 25.  May 25, 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the first African Liberation Day mobilizations in the United States.  May 25, 2022 also marks the 50th anniversary of the African People’s Socialist Party.

As African Internationalists, we know that Africa is not free and that the Organization of African Unity, now rebranded the African Union (AU), served the colonial and neocolonial interests of legitimizing the colonial borders in Africa.  These colonial borders were forced upon African people through centuries of colonial assault that produced the wealth of the white world at the expense of the African world:  the colonial mode of production.  African Internationalists observe African Liberation Day as a part of our quest for true African Liberation, the way Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba and others envisioned it:  A united socialist Africa governed by the African Working Class.

We have a real treat for you.  First, we introduce our newest team member, Solyana Bekele.  Second, we dug in the crates and found a real gem in our archives:  the 1973 African Liberation Day presentation by Chairman Omali Yeshitela entitled "We Are At War" delivered in Gainesville, Florida.

For more information on African Liberation Day mobilizations happening around the African World, visit alduhuru.org.

Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

On part two of our reparations series, we lift up a leader in the struggle for reparations to African People, Queen Mother Audley Moore.  Elements of the reparation demand go back to the 19th century.  Yet, in 1957, Queen Mother Moore gave the struggle an important mass character and organization when she formed the Universal Association of Ethiopian Women (UAEW) in New Orleans.  Queen Mother Moore and the UAEW took their reparation demand to the United Nations.  The UN shot it down but she passed on the legacy of her work to African National Reparations Organization and the Uhuru Movement.

To discuss Queen Mother Moore with us today, we are joined by Dr. Tiffany Caesar, the Margaret Walker Center Visiting Mellon Scholar and History Lecturer at Jackson State University in Mississippi.  Dr. Tiffany gained her PhD in African American and African Studies at Michigan State University in 2019 where she completed the research project entitled “African Women Stories:  Mothering in African Centered Educational Leadership.”  Tiffany has researched African women’s stories from the United States to South Africa (Occupied Azania).  Her recent project is a public history project on Queen Mother Moore and New Iberia, Louisiana.  

You can find more information on the Queen Mother Moore Celebration being held in New Iberia at the Iberia African American Historical Society: iaahs.org.

Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

In 1982, the African People’s Socialist Party convened the first international tribunal on reparations in Brooklyn, New York.  The verdict is that Africans in the US are owed no less than 14 trillion dollars in damages, or about one million dollars per family.  The African People’s Socialist Party aimed to make reparations a household word by taking it out of the hands of the legislative and legal sector and giving it to the African working class.  It has succeeded. 

Black Power Talks salutes the 40th anniversary of the Reparations Tribunal.  Throughout 2022, we will be presenting a series of episodes that explore the issue of reparations from an African Internationalist perspective.

This episode is part one in that series.  It is entitle "Make Wall Street Pay Reparations" and features excerpts from a March 20, 2022 panel by the same name.  The panel discussion featured Matsemela Odom, Pres. Yejide Orunmila of the African National Women's Organization, and Penny Hess, Chairwoman of the African People's Solidarity Committee.   More information on the Make Wall Street Pay Reparations campaign can be found at uhurusolidarity.org.

Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

On this episode of Black Power Talks, we discuss the Black Arts Movement, the role of the African artist and African revolution with Abiodun Oyewole of the Last Poets. Abiodun is one of the founders of The Last Poets and penned some of their most widely known works such as New York, New York and When the Revolution Comes. He is one of the original emcees.

Abiodun discusses the origins of the Last Poets and their political inspiration from Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X to the poet Keorapetse Kgositsile from South Africa, father of Earl Sweatshirt. 

Abiodun also discusses his new album Gratitude, a family endeavor.  You can learn more about Abiodun and the Last Poets at thelastpoets.com.  You can find his album wherever you get your music.

Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

It’s been a month since the beginning of Russia’s military campaign to stop NATO expansion in Ukraine. 

The March 2nd vote in the United Nations General Assembly on a resolution denouncing Russia revealed a split between the white countries of the world and many of the countries of Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, 52 of which either voted against the resolution, abstained or did not cast a vote at all. 

On today’s episode of Black Power Talks, we explore the African Internationalist perspective on this war.

Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

We discussed hip hop and politics with our guest for this episode is Jermaine"Complex" Simpson.  Complex is a rapper from San Diego, California.  

Born Jermaine Simpson, Complex was raised in the heart of the African community of San Diego.  Complex is the author of four albums, West Coast MC’n, State of Mind, A Beautiful Mess and Wrath and Roses.  Much like his favorite artists, Ice Cube, Rakim, Tupac, and among others, Complex straddles the lines of a few genres of hip hop, namely the hardcore hip hop and the much more political genres of rap music.  He explores topics such as mental health, reparations, police terror, and African resistance.

In his colonial job, Jermaine is a trained counselor and holds four different degrees and many other certifications but his profession is as a hip hop artist.  After a long hiatus, Jermaine released his first studio album in over 15 years in January 2021, A Beautiful Mess.  In January 2022, he released his fourth album, Wrath and Roses.  You can find his music at https://complexgotbars.com/

Black Power Talks is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.