Wanda's Picks

We open with a conversation with Wesley Watkins VI, Ph.D., creator of the The Jazz & Democracy Project® which manifests a hypothesis that Dr. Wes has been investigating since he was an undergraduate: a music-centered curriculum with genuine links to the other subject areas can increase student identification with school, impact academic engagement, and have a subsequent effect on overall academic success among students who have an affinity for music. Visit http://www.jazzanddemocracy.com Caleb Heller (director, editor,cinematographer) & Pilar Hailé-Damato (producer) speak about their film about Y-LOVE or Yitz Jordan, in their film by its same title.

Y-Love is the “premier Orthodox Jewish entity in hip hop.”  This documentary paints a poignant portrait of a perennial outsider: a Black, Jewish, gay orphan searching for a home. The film is a part of the SFJFF opening July 24, 11:40 AM at the Castro Theatre in SF. There is a party the next evening. Visit www.sfjff.org Peter Miller, dir. of a.k.a. doc pomus joins us to talk about the SFJFF closing night film at the Castro, July 26, 8:15 PM. The festival continues at other venues through Aug. 6, with screenings of a.k.a doc several more times: 7/28 at Cinearts, 8/4 at the Roda, and 8/5 at the Rafael. Visit http://akadocpomus.com/ We close with one of our favorite guests, Kim Nalley, who is having another residency at the Rrazz Room at Hotel Nikko, through July 22. July 18, is a special tribute to Etta James with special guests: Sugar Pie DeSanto, Ms. James contemporary, Lady Mem'fis, Denise Perrier, and Mike Olmos, trumpeter for Ms. James. Visit www.therrazzroom.com

Kim McMillon has over 20 years of experience producing theatre in the Bay Area. In 1987, Ms. McMillon wrote, produced, and directed Voyages, A Multi-Media Excursion Into Reincarnation at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Playhouse.In 2000, Ms. McMillon wrote, and produced Confessions Of A Thespian: When Spirit & Theatre Collide at the Julia Morgan Theatre in Berkeley. From 2001 – 2005, Ms. McMillon produced the Oakland Literature Expo with PEN Oakland as part of the City of Oakland’s Art & Soul Festival. Ms. McMillon  is currently working on an stage adaptation of Brazilian Director Carlos Diegues’ 1984 Film Quilombo dos Palmares on 17th century slavery in Brazil.  Ms. McMillon’s radio show Arts in the Valley can be heard on 1480 KYOS AM in California’s San Joaquin Valley, as well as on Facebook.  She is currently enrolled in a doctoral program in UC Merced’s School of Humanities. She will speak about the free "Writers on Writing" program produced by the Women’s National Book Association (WNBA) and the Oakland Public Library, Saturday, July 14th from 12 pm – 2 pm, at the Oakland Public Library Rockridge Branch, 5366 College Avenue in Oakland. Jovelyn Richards joins us next to talk about her latest work: Stripping Down to Story, Written and Performed by Jovelyn Richards, 715 Bryant Street @ 5th Street, San Francisco, Friday, and Saturday, July 13-14 @ 8pm. We close with a rebroadcast of a show: Mavis Staples, Ruthie Foster, and Pedro Robles, Wanda's Picks Special featuring Mavis Staples, Ruthie Foster and Pedro Rosales of De Rompe y Raja. Music: Rene Marie's Imagination; Ruthie Foster's "Truth."

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Today we have a special broadcast highlighting, Renata Simone's latest film, END GAME: AIDS in the Black Community, which airs tonight, July 10, 2012, 10 PM PT on PBS's Frontline World (check local listings http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/endgame-aids-in-black-america/ We speak to Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick, an infectious disease specialist and medical epidemiologist, about her untiring work to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS and her volunteer efforts to educate her peers and those affected and infected on how to better protect their health. Dr. Fitzpatrick, who appears in the film, is director of the AIDS Education Training Center at Howard University and an associate professor and attending physician in the Department of Medicine at Howard University College of Medicine and Howard University Hospital. She is also director of the Care Center, a collaborative project between Howard’s Department of Medicine and United Medical Center in Southeast Washington that provides the infectious disease treatment component for the medical center. We speak next to Luis J. Rodriguez, leading Chicano author & activist, named one of LA Weekly’s People of the Year 2012 about his memori: "It Calls You Back: An Odyssey through Love, Addiction, Revolutions, and Healing," (now in paperback) his first film & a new anthology:  "Rushing Waters, Rising Dreams: How the Arts are Transforming a Community." The literary events kick off this evening, 6-8 PM, at the Cesar E. Chavez Branch Library, 3301 E. 12th Street, Oakland with stops 7/11, 12-3 PM at the SF Public Library, 100 Larkin and 7/12, 6-8:30 PM at Modern Times Books, 826 Valencia in SF.

Today we speak to Dr. Tescia Evans & Mrs.Tiana Jones-Bey about Ross Dance Company's Second Annual Praise Dance Festival in Davis, July 7, 2012, 7 PM at the Veteran's Memorial Theatre. Visit www.rossdance.comMr. Jesse Brooks joins us to talk about the debut on PBS's Frontline World, award-winning filmmaker Renata Simone's End Game: AIDS in Black America, 10 p.m. PST, Tuesday, July 10 (check local listings). Visit: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/social-issues/endgame-aids-in-black-america/aids-in-black-america-the-worlds-16th-worst-epidemic/ We close with a rebroadcast of an interview last Nov. with Rachelle Ferrell, singer, composer, musician, who is in town this weekend, July 6-8, 2012 in San Francisco. Music:

What to the American Slave is the 4th of July? Frederick Douglass asked over 100 years ago, a question still pertinent today. We play Malcolm X: Afro-American Lesson Part 1; followed by Rene Marie, singing from Voices of a New America "Lift Ev'ry Voice/Star Spangled Banner. Tim Wise follows speaking about his latest book, Dear White America (3/21/2012). We then replay an interview with Susan Heyward, who speaks about her role in the David Mamet's play RACE at ACT-SF last season, 2011. There are echoes of Scottsboro Boys in Mamet's RACE, as well as jurist, Anita Hill. In this case, it is a black woman who accuses a rich white man of rape, he then goes to a prominent firm to see if its attorneys can make the charges and case disappear. It is actress, Susan Heyward's character, a new attorney at this firm and its first woman, a woman who doesn't play by the rules, which makes it very clear that justice, often based on the client and victim's race, will not be a factor on her watch (to her career's detriment, at least at that firm). A black woman attorney and a black woman victim. RACE looks at the artificial separation between justice and race and juxtaposes these two phenomena with differing outcomes. Can or should, or how does an attorney keep herself from empathizing with a victim who reminds her of herself? Is justice ever compromised by empathy? Black women are never the victim in popular lore; however, RACE raises this issue as does ACT's current play The Scottsboro Boys.Music: Slavemasters from Africa with Fury: Africa Rise. Our closing piece is a clip of an interview with Robert King with Dr. Terry Kupers re: Slavery in US Prisons. I think I found this on the angola3.org blog. Music: "Drum Solo" from Voices of a New America. Music: UMOJA "Our Problem to Solve" and Novalima: "Liberta."

Rebroadcast of Wednesday, June 27, 2012: Incarcerated CA Women Special with Professor Angie Bell re: Angola 3, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace on the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of their solitary confinement April 17, 2012, and Woodfox recent court hearing in late May this year. We then shift a taped conversation with Georgia Horton, a prisoner currently incarcerated at the Central California Women's Facility Chowchilla, CA (CCWF). We also speak with Hamdiya Cooks, Asst. Dir. LSPC and Beatrice Smith, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, witness to the atrocities facing women inside CCWF. We conclude with a live interview with Sabina Zuniga Varela about her role in Luis Alfaro's BRUJA at the Magic Theatre through Sunday, July 1, 2012. We then play the rest or almost the rest of the interview with Georgia Horton (smile). I am going to start with the interview we didn't hear first. I open the show with a review I wrote on Bruja at the Magic Theatre, and it's a good thing I did since we do not hear the interview with Sabina (smile). It is played in the off air portion of the show this morning, proceeded by an interview with Mrs. Smith. Write letters of support for Georgia Horton W33911, Central California Women's Facility 512-20-3L, P.O. Box 1508, Chowchilla, CA 93610-1508.

We are dedicating this broadcast to the women and men behind bars. Our first guest, Professor Angela A. Allen-Bell is Assistant Professor of Legal Analysis & Writing at Southern University Law Center in Louisiana. She speaks to us about the 40th Anniversary of Angola 3 inmates Albert Woodfox & Herman Wallace, stint in solitary confinement and the actions April 17, 2012 in Baton Rouge. She also gives us the context and results of Woodfox's recent 3 day hearing and the momentum built to ensure his release this time. The next hour we speak to Hamdiya Cooks, Assistant Director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. She speaks about Georgia Horton, who is currently up for parole, and what it means to go to the board hearings. As former executive director of CCWP, Mrs. Cooks also updates us on the proposed conversion of Valley State prison, also in Central Valley, Chowchilla CA.Mrs. Beatrice Smith joins Mrs. Cooks to continue our conversation about Ms. Horton, long term incarceration and its impact on both the prisoner and her family. Mrs. Smith, a formally battered woman, left three young children when she was incarcerated. She talks about rebuilding or mending severed relationships. Both she and Mrs.Cooks talk about the CA Habeas Project. Sabina Zuniga-Varela, "Medea," speaks about her role in Luis Alfaro's BRUJA at Magic Theatre, Ft. Mason Ctr., San Francisco through July 1, 2012. We close with the 2, 3, 4, part of an interview with Georgia Horton June 10, 2012. Because she is in a CA correctional facility she has to make multiple calls for us to complete the interview. I get almost to the end of the 4th. About 7 minutes is missing. Write letters of support for her parole hearing July 11, 2012 to: Georgia Horton W33911, Central California Women's Facility 512-20-3L, P.O. Box 1508, Chowchilla, CA 93610-1508.

First Guest: Gina Breedlove speaks about the community healing:One Billion Rising Bay Area, Sunday, June 24th, 2012, Sunday, June 24, 2012, at Civic Center Park (MLK At Allston Way, across from Berkeley High). http://www.bayarearising The Second Guests speak about the Summer of Peace Kick-off in Oakland, tonight Friday, June 22-23, with organizers: Jennae Wallach, Peace Educator, Facilitator of the Oakland Peace Ambassadors Mahasin Abdul-Salaam, Genesis - Transportation Justice, plus several other organizations; Queen Reverend Mutima Imani, Community organizing and peace-building consultant, Reverend at East Bay Church of Religious Science http://summerofpeace.net/oakland-event/;At about 9 AM we speak to the director and playwright of Good Goods @ Crowded Fire Theatre, playwright, Christina Anderson, and director Marissa Wolf, through June 23, 2012. Cast will drop in as well we hope. Visit  crowdedfire.org. Tony Saunders closes the show as he shares his plans for his concert tonight, Friday, June 22, 2012, at The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, a kick off of its "Summer at LHT" series with Saunders romantic melodic sounds entitled: "Romancing the Bass" at 7 pm, at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, 450 Post Street, conveniently located in Union Square. Doors open at 6 p.m. with a 7 p.m. meet and greet. Tony Saunders' set is at 8 p.m. For tickets & more, visit www.lhtsf.org. Radio show music: Gina Breedlove; Saunders from Romancing the Bass; Liz Wright's "Salt."

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.

James Baldwin is one of my heroes. The man was brillant. Not every child can say that he wrote the anthem for the City of New York, but Baldwin can (Notes of a Native Son). His book length essay, The Fire Next Time is brilliant and needs to be read by every black boy beginning at the age of 8 or 9 and then again at 13. That Baldwin, one of the architects of the Civil Rights Movement, visited San Francisco at a time when Birmingham was burning and blood running through the streets, the same red blood from black veins running through the streets of San Francisco in its black communities like Bayview Hunter's Point is significant on this day, Juneteenth 2012. Director, Caroline Bins has revisited that historic and great day in San Francisco with men who were there like Mr. Oscar James, Mr. Famious "Jackie" Bell, Mr. James Lockett, Mr. Tyrone Primus. James Baldwin in San Francisco: Hunter’s Point Then and Now based on the rarely seen, 1964 film, Take This Hammer (KQED).  This film is having a special screening at The Luggage Store Gallery in SF tonight at 7:30 p.m. We are joined by KATHERINE FAIRFAX WRIGHT - filmmaker; MALIKA ZOUHALI-WORRALL - filmmaker and LONGJONES - subject from the film, Call Me Kuchu, screening at Frameline this evening, June 19, 2012 at the Castro Theatre. depicts the last year in the life of a courageous, quick-witted and steadfast man whose wisdom and achievements were not fully recognized until after his death. While heartbreaking, the documentary traces a narrative that takes the viewer beyond the chronicle of victimization depicted in international news media: it tells the nuanced story of David and Kampala’s kuchus as they work to change their fate, and that of other kuchus across Africa.depicts the last year in the life of a courageous, quick-witted and steadfast man whose wisdom and achievements were not fully recognized until after his death.