Wanda's Picks

Today we interview Ms. Bonnie Boswell, niece of Civil Rights Leader, Whitney Young. Young is the subject of a new film, Power Broker, airing on ITVS this month, Feb. 18. Executive Producer and Producer of Power Broker: Whitney Young's Fight for Civil Rights, Ms. Boswell, is an award-winning reporter, producer, commentator and talk show host. A graduate of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boswell won a Golden Mike Award for a one-hour news program she created for NBC. Mrs. Boswell has been a news reporter for NBC-TV, Los Angeles, the co-host of a national cable television news talk show and and an associate producer for ABC’s 20/20.

We kicked off the show with a broadcast of an interview looking at the musicality of Langston Hughes's poetry. On what would have been the poet's 111 birthday. When the Weary Blues Met Jazz, Langston Hughes's collaboration with Charles Mingus and Leonard Feather, is a part of the wonderful Poetry Foundation--audioitem/713. We follow this recording with a live interview with narrative features programmer for SF Indie Fest, Holly Roach, who will speak to us about this 15th Anniversary. Visit http://sfindie.com/ There is a special Superbowl event on Sunday, Feb. 3, at the Roxie Theatre. Joy Elan, poet, teacher, writer, scholar, whose book Signs of Life, Past, Present, and Future (2011), is next. I first met Joy at the Empowering Women of Color Conference March 2012 at UC Berkeley. Visit http://www.joyelan.webs.com/  Guetty Felin, joins us to talk about her latest film, Broken Stones, which creatively uses an edifice to depict the tragic events and her people's resilience during and since the earthquake three years ago, concludes, the African Film Festival at UC Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive, Feb. 5, 2013, 7 p.m. Afrikahn Jahmal Dayvs, BAJABA Showcase & Idris Akamoor, Cultural Odyssey, join us to update the Street Gallery, on current programs, one tonight, a tribute to Billy Higgins, at the 57th Street Gallery. Idris gives us an update on The Pyramid's European Tour and the release of the boxed set of music and six concerts which lead up to the formation of a community ensemble begin Feb. 10, 2013 at Floyd Pellom’s 57th Street Gallery, 5701 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland. The other concerts at SF State Knuth Hall Creative Arts Bldg. (2/13, 1 p.m.), the Jazz Heritage Center (2/15-16, 8 p.m., 1330 Fillmore), and the AAACC (2/21 8 p.m.) and Brava (2/22 8 p.m.) are free.  Music: Dwight Tribble's "I've Known Rivers"; Donald Duck Bailey

We have Mahen Bonetti, director, African Film Festival, Inc. on the air this morning to talk about the African Film Festival tour at the Pacific Film Archive at UC Berkeley, Jan. 23-Feb. 5, 2013. The PFA series, curated by Kathy Geritz, offers a wonderful opportunity to audiences to see Africa through African eyes, most of the directors young and for this series, women. The concerns of African filmmakers are often aesthetic and political—the desire to depict the realities of their everyday lives and to interpret their history from their own perspective. A number of the featured documentaries look to the past to examine forces that continue to influence the present. Our Beloved Sudan traces the complex history leading to the partition of Sudan; The Unbroken Spirit focuses on the courageous fight for a multiparty democracy in Kenya; and the arc of Black Africa, White Marble moves from colonial-era to present-day Republic of Congo. All three take the vantage point of one individual in order to bring to life a larger history. Other documentaries observe life as it unfolds and portray collective experience: the poetic Broken Stones depicts Port-au- Prince, Haiti after the earthquake and Africa Shafted focuses on Johannesburg, South Africa as it absorbs immigrants from all over Africa. Microphone celebrates Egypt’s vibrant youth culture of hip-hop and graffiti art, while How to Steal 2 Million, a stylish noir, and a number of short films highlight the creative spirit of younger filmmakers.Visit http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/tickets/ and http://www.africanfilmny.org/  Music: Wolf Hawk Jaguar "Esu Exit;" Leon Thomas's "The Creator Has a Master Plan."

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the writing, visual and performing arts of African people in the Diaspora. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work filled with raw unfettered passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay! Remember to tune in on Wednesdays from 6 AM PST to 7 or 8 AM and on Fridays from 8 AM to 10 AM. We also host special broadcasts from time to time.

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the writing, visual and performing arts of African people in the Diaspora. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work filled with raw unfettered passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay! Remember to tune in on Wednesdays from 6 AM PST to 7 or 8 AM and on Fridays from 8 AM to 10 AM. We also host special broadcasts from time to time.

We open with the second part of a series of conversations, with returning guest, Ayotunde A. Akindele, Sacramento, CA and his partner and our special guest Claude Maredza, who is joining us from Harare, ZM, to talk about the Chapwati Great Zimbabwe Leisure Resort project, he heads, but more importantly what the continued effect US sanctions is having on Zimbabwean people and these unauthorized sanctions need to be lifted. Visit change.org For info: [email protected] & [email protected] 2. Steven Anthony Jones, Artistic Director, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, pops in to talk about LHT newest initiative  and the staged reading of The Jamaican Wash, a revisioning of Philip Kan Gotanda's work with Carl Lumbley and Edris Cooper-Anifososhe, this weekend tonight, 7 p.m. and tomorrow, Sat., Jan. 12, 2 p.m. at The Costume Shop, A.C.T.'s newest performance venue  1117 Market, SF (Civic Center BART, 7th St. exit.  1/2 block walk nr. UN Plaza). Visit lhtsf.org We close with a conversation between two of the San Francisco Bay Area's stunning creative art mavens: Halifu Osumare and Denise Pate. Dr. Osumare is being honored at Unity Day at the Community Dance event and arts showcase, Sun., Jan. 13, 9-5 at the Malonga Casquelourde Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice Street, Oakland. Ms. Pate, currently Cultural Arts Funding Director for the City of Oakland, will facilitate a conversation which looks at Oakland and the Arts, specific to the synergy and the definition of place, held by its Pan African citizens, especially artists. Dr. Osumare, founder of Everybody's Creative Art Ctr. (later Citidance, which Ms. Pate was executive diretor of), an honoree this Sunday, will talk about this dance center's history. This comes at a time when Oakland is being hailed as an arts destination by ArtsPlace.org, named, No. 5 re: NYtimes Top 45 Places to Go in 2012.Music: WolfHawkJaguer's Cowrie Shell, Amikaeyla's Lovely Day.

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the writing, visual and performing arts of African people in the Diaspora. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work filled with raw unfettered passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay! Remember to tune in on Wednesdays from 6 AM PST to 7 or 8 AM and on Fridays from 8 AM to 10 AM. We also host special broadcasts from time to time.

We devote the first hour to a Shout out to the Black Mother. Guests are asked to tell us their mom's name. Question: Is she still alive? What do you love most about her? What lessons are you still living by? What is she most proud of that you have done? Moms you can give a shout out to yourselves too (smile). Count your blessings on the air. You have only a minute or two though, depending on the response (smile). We are then joined by Jennifer Baichwal, director, Payback, based on Margaret Atwood's visionary work, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth. The film opens May 18, 2012 at Landmark's Lumiere in San Francisco and Landmark's Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley. We close with a conversation with Eleanor Jacobs, Lena in Lorraine Hansberry's Raisin in the Sun, directed by L. Peter Callender, Artistic Director, African American Shakespeare Company in San Francisco at the Burial Clay Theater at the African American Art and Culture Complex, 762 Fulton Street, San Francisco. Visit www.african-americanshakes.org or call (800) 838-3006.

Ayotunde A. Akindele, business man, activist, Pan African speaks about Chapwati Great Zimbabwe Leisure Resort and a petition on Change.org to remove the United States sanctions on Zimbabwe;Bill Doggett, a is respected and experienced Exhibitions Curator and independent archivist based in Oakland. Doggett’s goal is to create a educational outreach resource with his archive of rare ephemera and recordings.Doggett has curated three well received exhibitions in San Francisco: The African American Concert Singer 1900-1963, Porgy and Bess: From Broadway to San Francisco for San Francisco Opera; The Underground Railroad: Songs of Hope and Freedom, The Civil War@150 years and now a historic exhibit commemorating the 150 anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation Jan. 1, 1863-Jan.1, 2013--The Journey To Freedom: Emancipation Proclamation@150 Years.The exhibit covers The Transatlantic Slave Trade, Slavery in the US and The Emancipation Proclamation (Jan.-Feb. 2013) at the Bay View Opera House in San Francisco, with an artist reception Feb. 2.Larry Vann, drummer has been performing professionally  since 15. He draws from a deep well of musical influence, including gospel, blues, funk, jazz and soul and has toured and recorded with a medley of celebrated artists, including THE WHISPERS, ELVIN BISHOP, MARTHA REEVES, THE MARVALETTES, BUFFY SAINT-MARIE and many more. Honors & awards include: The Blues Society’s West Coast Hall of Fame, “Blues Drummer of the Year ” and The Jazz Institute’s “Man of the Year” award. He is also a Governor on the governing board of the San Francisco chapter of The Recording Academy.  Visit http://www.larryvann.com/We close with an interview with Vixen Noir aka Veronica Combs about her reinvention as a vocalist with an EP dropping, "Dangerous," Jan. 29, 2013.

Our first guest isAundre The Wonder Woman. She is featured tonight at BRAVA THEATRE, in San Francisco along with other funny women (smile). Visit brava.org Brava Theater Center is located at 2781 24th Street, San Francisco.Call (415) 647-2822. She began her comedy career at Steve harvey's Comedy House in Dallas, TX. Steve described the defense attorney as “A new comic with a funny way of saying things." Since that time, she has been named Oakland's Funniest Comic on the Strip, the Funniest Woman in Half Moon Bay. . . In 2008, she received the "Stand-up for Justice" Award from Death Penalty Focus, for her work against the death penalty. Guest: Theresa Shoatz, daughter of Russell "Maroon" Shoatz, who has a new book out on PM Press early 2013. Ms. Shoatz has been a community organizer for over 20 years. Donating her time to the Human Rights Coalition of Philadelphia (HRC FED UP!), Decarcerate Pennsylvania and Scientific Soul Sessions, she has fought tirelessly for her father’s freedom during his two decades in solitary confinement. She has been a pillar of support to the families of incarcerated men and women in her community, organizing and executing trips to prisons for relatives to meet their loved ones and exercising an “open-door” policy in order to counsel community members on the traumas brought about by mass incarceration. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Graterford Prison Chapter recently honored her dedication to families and communities throughout Philadelphia. More at: www.russellmaroonshoatz.wordpress.com