Sojourner Truth Radio

On Wednesday January 18th, Atlanta Law enforcement officers shot and killed Atlanta forest defender and activist Manuel Tortuguita Terá. Atlanta Police — including a SWAT team — were violently evicting protesters who had occupied a wooded area outside a proposed $90 million training facility known as “Cop City,” inside Weelaunee Forest, a public forest in Georgia.

Kamau Franklin, the founder of Community Movement Builders, a grassroots organization dedicated to creating sustainable Black communities through organizing and cooperative development, joins guest host Nana Gyamfi to discuss the opposition from community members to “Cop City” and what organizers and community members are calling for since this violent raid.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has made it clear from press conferences from NYC to Texas and back that he doesn't want any more asylum-seekers coming to the City. New York City has seen 36,400 asylum seekers arrive as of Jan. 4th this year, but keeping asylum seekers out of NY is not a real solution so what can be done? Guest host Nana Gyamfi is joined by Carl Hamad Lipscombe, the Executive Director of Envision Freedom Fund, an organization committed to dismantling and transforming the immigration and criminal legal systems in NYC. We discuss this issue and contextualize past and present immigration reforms that disqualify recent arrivals from Africa and African descent from being able to acquire asylum or fix their immigration status in the U.S.

Today on Sojourner Truth hosted by guest host Nana Gyamfi, New York City Mayor Eric Adams has made it clear from press conferences from NYC to Texas and back that he doesn't want any more asylum-seekers coming to the City. New York City has seen 36,400 asylum seekers arrive as of Jan. 4th this year, but keeping asylum seekers out of NY is not a real solution so what can be done? We are joined by Carl Hamad Lipscombe, the Executive Director of Envision Freedom Fund, an organization committed to dismantling and transforming the immigration and criminal legal systems in NYC. We discuss this issue and contextualize past and present immigration reforms that disqualify recent arrivals from Africa and African descent from being able to acquire asylum or fix their immigration status in the U.S.

On Wednesday January 18th, Atlanta Law enforcement officers shot and killed Atlanta forest defender and activist Manuel Tortuguita Terá. Atlanta Police — including a SWAT team — were violently evicting protesters who had occupied a wooded area outside a proposed $90 million training facility known as “Cop City,” inside Weelaunee Forest, a public forest in Georgia. Kamau Franklin, the founder of Community Movement Builders, a grassroots organization dedicated to creating sustainable Black communities through organizing and cooperative development, joins us to discuss the opposition from community members to “Cop City” and what organizers and community members are calling for since this violent raid.

As the Biden Administration approaches its halfway mark. We know that Blacks put this Administration in office just off of the South Carolina primary alone. But they expected to see something from the Biden Administration in the areas of: voting rights, reparations, and addressing white supremacist violence, yet very little if anything in these areas has come from the Biden Administration.

We are joined by two members of the Movement for Black Lives, Dr. Amara Enyia and Montague Simmons who will share their take on these shortcomings and what the Movement for Black Lives is doing to build the power to get these priorities accomplished, in spite of a conservative House.

Today on Sojourner Truth we start with a brief update on the present political and civil crisis in Peru.

And time is running out on the public comment period to give feedback on the distribution of genetically engineered (GE) trees in U.S. forests. The USDA has put out a draft impact statement asking permission to deregulate the distribution of a GE American Chestnut Tree, with a draft decision approval that requires little to no monitoring from agencies.

We spend the rest of the hour Global Justice Ecology Project executive Director Anne Petermann who has traveled all over the globe speaking to UN delegations and community groups about the social and ecological dangers of GE Trees and industrial tree plantations, including the exacerbation of climate change.

We discuss the role of GE trees in preserving forests, who the forces pushing for GE Trees are and the true dangers of what some are calling a massive irreversible experiment for U.S. forests.

Today on Sojourner Truth, activists and co-founders of the Shawnee Forest Defense John Wallace and Karen Frailey join host Margaret Prescod for the hour to discuss recent developments in their campaign towards making the Shawnee Forest a national park and climate preserve.

The Shawnee National Forest is located in Southern Illinois. The Shawnee National Forest

encompasses a 289,000 acre area in southern Illinois stretching from the Mississippi River to the Ohio River which contains some of the most ecologically bio-diverse areas in the United States.

Three decades ago, in the summer of 1990, activists from Earth First! occupied the Fairview Timber sale site in the Shawnee Forest which is located in Southern Illinois for 79 days — using their bodies to block the logging equipment and using legal strategies to challenge the harvesting of the lumber in court. This historic action has come to be known as the Shawnee Showdown. This relatively small group of activists were successful in stopping commercial logging in the Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois for 17 years. But in 2013, the Forest Service won a motion to lift the injunction.

But logging is back in Shawnee. Currently, thousands of acres at the Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois are scheduled for logging operations. Shawnee is managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which allows logging on public lands. The fight to save the Shawnee Forest continues today, with the most recent attempt by organizers to transfer the Shawnee National Forest out of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s control and into the hands of the U.S. Department of the Interior, with a proposal that would establish Shawnee as a National Park and designate it as the nation’s first climate preserve. The biggest gain from converting the forest into a national park and climate preserve is the elimination of commercial logging efforts and resource extraction.

Today on Sojourner Truth, we are joined by father and son duo David Trujillo and David Edward Reyes who will share details about the play they've directed and produced titled, "Vincent" that has just added a final week of shows due to its popularity. Breaking out of the norm, this play is staged inside Margaret Garcia's art studio. The play is a one man show starring David Edward Reyes on the the famous Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh. Their depiction of this renowned tortured artist touches on a side of van Gogh rarely discussed, the poverty that Vincent van Gogh endured in addition to his battle with depression and mental health, and the role of his brother Theo as his caretaker.

In 1995, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reclassified the bald eagle from endangered to threatened in the lower 48 states. Populations continued to recover enough that, in 2007, the bald eagle was officially removed from the federal Endangered Species List.

The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States of America and appears on its seal. This majestic species of birds generally represent strength, pride, and courage. The fierce beauty and proud independence of this great bird was the reason it was selected as a symbol of the strength and freedom of America when European settlers first came across one.

For indigenous people the bald eagle represents the strongest and bravest of all birds. For this reason, Native Americans have chosen the eagle and its feathers as a symbol of what is highest, bravest, strongest and holiest. The bald eagle is indigenous to North America. Its range includes most of Canada and Alaska, all of the contiguous United States, and northern Mexico. It is found near large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply and old-growth trees for nesting.

And in Potter Valley, Mendocino CA, a 150 foot pine tree nesting bald eagles for the last 25 years is under threat of being cut down by PG&;E before the nesting season begins and it becomes illegal to cut the tree this week. PG&E contract workers showed up with wood chippers and County Sheriffs intimidating and shoving tree protectors who were lined up protecting the 150-foot tall pine tree harboring the eagles’ nest. PG&E has refused to consider alternatives such as installing automatic shut-off switches on their antiquated lines or putting the lines underground. Eagle supporters have offered to raise the $200,000 estimated cost of removing the hazardous lines instead of the tree, and are continuing to be overlooked, our guest is Pauline Girvin, an elder married into the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, in whose ancestral territory the eagle tree stands. She is an Indian law attorney, a veteran of the 1990s northern California Timber Wars, a youth mentor and nonviolent warrior for the Earth.

Today on Sojourner Truth what is the caretakers survey and how is it impacting the narrative around care-taking around the globe? We hear testimonials from caretakers in Myanmar, Scotland, Canada and the U.S. Our guest is Peggy O' Mara an independent journalist, and the editor and publisher of Mothering Magazine for over 30 years. Her work can be found at peggyomara.com. O'Mara joins us to delve into the importance of care-taking and viewing it as a global effort.

Today on Sojourner Truth what is the caretakers survey and how is it impacting the narrative around care-taking around the globe? We hear testimonials from caretakers in Myanmar, Scotland, Canada and the U.S. Our guest is Peggy O' Mara an independent journalist, and the editor and publisher of Mothering Magazine for over 30 years. Her work can be found at peggyomara.com. O'Mara joins us to delve into the importance of care-taking and viewing it as a global effort.

In 1995, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reclassified the bald eagle from endangered to threatened in the lower 48 states. Populations continued to recover enough that, in 2007, the bald eagle was officially removed from the federal Endangered Species List.

The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States of America and appears on its seal.This majestic species of birds generally represent strength, pride, and courage. The fierce beauty

And proud independence of this great bird was the reason it was selected as a symbol of the strength and freedom of America when European settlers first came across one.

For indigenous people the bald eagle represents the strongest and bravest of all birds. For this reason, Native Americans have chosen the eagle and its feathers as a symbol of what is highest, bravest, strongest and holiest. The bald eagle is indigenous to North America. Its range includes most of Canada and Alaska, all of the contiguous United States, and northern Mexico.It is found near large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply and old-growth trees for nesting.

And in Potter Valley, Mendocino CA, a 150 foot pine tree nesting bald eagles for the last 25 years is under threat of being cut down by PG&;E before the nesting season

begins and it becomes illegal to cut the tree this week. PG&E contract workers showed up with wood chippers and County Sheriffs intimidating and shoving tree protectors who were lined up

protecting the 150-foot tall pine tree harboring the eagles’ nest.PG&E has refused to consider alternatives such as installing automatic shut-off switches on their antiquated lines or putting the lines underground. Eagle supporters have offered to raise the $200,000 estimated cost of removing the hazardous lines instead of the tree, and are continuing to be overlooked, our guest is Pauline Girvin, an elder married into the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians, in whose

ancestral territory the eagle tree stands. She is an Indian law attorney, a veteran of the 1990s northern California Timber Wars, a youth mentor and nonviolent warrior for the Earth.

Finally we are joined by father and son duo David Trujillo and David E Reyes who will share details about the play they've directed and produced titled, "Vincent" that has just added a final week of shows due to its popularity. Breaking out of the norm, this play is staged inside Margaret Garcia's art studio. The play is a one man show on the the famous Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh, their depiction of this renowned tortured artist touches on a side of van Gogh rarely discussed, the poverty that Vincent van Gogh endured in addition to his battle with depression and mental health, and the role of his brother Theo as his caretaker.

Today on Sojourner Truth we bring you our King Day special program paying homage to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s radicalism. Dr. Martin Luther King became increasingly vocal about his views against the war the U.S. was waging at the time–

the war in Vietnam. He delivered a speech entitled, “Beyond Vietnam: Time to Break the Silence,” exactly one year before his assassination.

Dr. Martin Luther King declared: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” He went on to name the U.S. government as the greatest purveyor of violence in the world and preached that nonviolent direct action is our greatest hope and the best tool to bring about change.

Over 54 years later, in this powerful speech, Dr. King provides both a diagnosis and a cure that remains fully relevant today. As the U.S. finds itself encroached in yet another war enabling the continued war between Russia and Ukraine.

Today, in partnership with the CA High Desert residents and the CA Poor People's Campaign, Sojourner Truth brings you audio from this public reading of “ Beyond Vietnam.” This event was part of 54 public readings— for each year since Dr. King’s assassination— taking place across the state of California.

The CA Poor Peoples’ Campaign has picked up Dr. King’s unfinished work, weaving the interlocking injustices—systemic racism, systemic poverty, environmental devastation, militarism and the war economy and a distorted moral narrative of Christian nationalism—into one “moral fusion” campaign.

We hope you'll enjoy this live reading of Martin Luther King's speech "Beyond Vietnam" read by the CA high desert residents honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.