Wanda's Picks

Nelson Vails, Olympian Silver Medalist and Anthony Taylor, Vice President of the National Brotherhood of Cyclists, join us on the air before they head to Oakland for the AUG. 4 to 7, 2011 for the Major Taylor Cycling Summit, San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area at the Marriott Hotel. We speak for almost an hour about the history of blacks on bikes in this country & Marshall W. "Major" Taylor a little known pioneer in the sport in 1899. It takes Vails, 110 years later to bring the notion or connection between blacks and bikes, blacks and the environment, blacks and healthy living, full circle. Vails will give a keynote address: "Nelson “Unveiled. 'Life in the Fast Lane: America’s First Ambassador of Cycling.'" Major Taylor died relatively unknown at the age of 53 in Chicago. Later his remains were exhumed and he was given a proper burial in a more prominent area of the Mt. Glenwood Cemetery. Anthony Taylor says he made a pilgrimage to Chicago. I forgot to ask about the "Taylor" surname--any relation (smile). The connection while obvious is even more remarkable when one learns that Major Taylor is the inspiration for NBC's founding in 2008, the same year the first statue for a person of color was unveiled in Major Taylor's Worchester, Mass., home (May 28). Nelson Vails was present at this great event. Listen to the program at http://www.majortaylorassociation.org/events/2008may21.shtml  Visit http://www.thenbc.org/Summit2011 Kenny Hawkins joins us to talk about his "Groovin’ Deep Project's upcoming concert this weekend, August 6, 2011, 6:30-10:30 PM at Cerruti Cellars at 100 Webster Street @ Embarcadero West Oakland, CA. The ensemble features: Michael Parsons on piano, Jeff Chambers on bass, Leon Joyce on drums  and Kenny Hawkins on sax and flute along with special guest vocalists Nicolas Bearde and Terrie Odabie.

Scott Rosenfelt, director, joins us to speak about his first documentary film, "Standing Silent," currently screening at the 31st Annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, Aug. 8, 4:30 PM, at the Rafael Cinema. Known for his commercially successful works: "Smoke Signals," "Home Alone," "Mystic Pizza," "Teen Wolf" and "Extremities," "Gospel Hill" (producer),  says this film which looks at the incidence of child molestation in the Jewish community by rabbis and the silence that greets these accusations, "changed the way he looks at the world and the work he does."  His subject, Phil Jacobs, publishes a series of articles in The Jewish Voice, and it is these stories that are entre for the director into the story of abuse, neglect, forgiveness, and healing. Rosenfelt goes on to say of the three years spent filming with a small crew, that "Standing Silent"does the work documentaries are supposed to accomplish: "illuminate a relatively un-heard of subject, expose it and give people hope that although they will never get over what happened, they can (at least) feel a little bit less despair." The film which has many twists and turns raises the point of why famous criminals receive sympathy while their victims don't, why a lesser known person's life less valued and not worthy of safety, why closed communities can often be both a blessing and a curse. We close with Max Good, director and Nathan Wollan, producer of "Vigilante Vigilante" opening at the Roxie, August 12, in San Francisco. More recently with the advent of 9/11 and subsequent fiddling with First Amendment rights like Freedom of Speech, people have begun to look more closely at political and social ideological policing. Good & Wollen's film takes this notion to an unprecedented level in "Vigilante." Music: Malaika Sowethu Gospel Choir

Pnina Bechor was only 14 when she disappeared from her home in Yavniel. Almost seventy years later, her great niece, filmmaker Noa Ben Hagai, discovered traces of Bechor's life and members of her family in a Palestinian refugee camp near Nablus. We interview director Noa Ben Hagai about her film: Blood Relations screening at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Jul 30 & Aug 3; We rebroadcast the Wed., July 27 show with: Karin Kariner, director, "Skate of Mind," joins us to talk about her film screening twice in the SFJFF, Sun., July 31 & Thurs., Aug. 4. Visit www.sfjff.org Robert Hillary King, Angola 3 & Malik Rahim, BPP Veteran, co-founder, Common Ground Collective. The Dislocation Express: AXIS Dance Company, Judith Smith & Dandelion Dance Theatre, Eric Kupers. The Traveling performance continues Wed., July 27-Sat., July 30, 2011. Visit hhp://axisdance.org/TDE.php

Karin Kariner, director, "Skate of Mind," joins us to talk about her film screening twice in the SFJFF, Sun., July 31 & Thurs., Aug. 4. Visit www.sfjff.org Robert Hillary King, Angola 3 & Malik Rahim, BPP Veteran, co-founder, Common Ground Collective. The Dislocation Express: AXIS Dance Company, Judith Smith & Dandelion Dance Theatre, Eric Kupers. The Traveling performance continues Wed., July 27-Sat., July 30, 2011. Visit hhp://axisdance.org/TDE.php

8:00 AM: Update on the Hunger Strike at Pelican Bay with Deirdre Wilson Project Coordinator for CCWP and Free Battered Women,  and a supporter of the Fast for Justice started by inmates at Pelican Bay, July 1, 2011, and Linda Evans, a former anti-imperialist political prisoner, released in 2001 via a pardon by president Bill Clinton, along with Susan Rosenberg, another political prisoner. 8:30 AM: Maria Acuna, English professor, musician, composer, and Avotcja,

Poet/Playwright/Multi-Percussionist/Photographer/Teacher join us to talk about a celebration of Pablo Neruda, Nobel Laureate Chilean poet, 7 PM, Wed., July 27, 2011 @ Cafe Leila, 1724 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley, CA. Avotcja is also celebrating her 70th birthday at La Pena Cultural Center, Sunday, July 24, 7 PM. Visit avotcja.org and quijerema.com 9 AM: Dr. Beheroze Shroff teaches in the Department of Asian American Studies at UC Irvin. She is a documentary film maker whose research for the past 15 years has been on the Siddi or African Indian community in India where she is now. Dr. Henry J. Drewal is the Evjue-Bascom Professor of Art History and Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Adjunct Curator of African Art at the Chazen Museum of Art, UW-Madison. Dr. Sarah Khan,

born in Pakistan and raised on the East Coast, received her BA from Smith College majoring in History with a concentration in the Middle East and Arabic. She has a Ph.D in Ethnobotany from CUNY with a specialization in South Asian and Asian Healing systems, specifically Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Drs. Khan and Drewal, the curators of the MoAD-SFexhibition "Soulful Stitching: Patchwork Quilts by Africans (Siddis) in India," July 1-Sept. 18, give a lecture at MoAD, Sun., July 24, 2-3:30 PM. 9:30 AM: Noa Ben Hagai, dir., "Blood Relation," @ 31st Annual SFJFF screening July 30, 11:30 AM at JCCSF and again at the Roda at BRT, Aug. 3, 12:25 PM

Maurice Carney, Executive Director. Maurice Carney is a co-founder and Executive Director of the Friends of the Congo. He is an independent entrepreneur and human rights activist who has fought with Congolese for fifteen years in their struggle for human dignity and control of their country. He has worked as a research analyst at the nation's leading Black think tank the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. While at the Joint Center, Mr. Carney worked with civic associations in West Africa providing training on research methodology and survey. He served as the interim Africa working group coordinator for Reverend Jesse Jackson while he was Special Envoy to Africa. Mr. Carney also worked as a research consultant to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation addressing issues such as the socio-politcal condition of African American communities.  Crisis in the Congo screens July 20, 2011,  6 PM, at the African American Art and Culture Complex, 762 Fulton Street, San  Francisco, CA. Call (510) 663-2255, www.priorityafrica.org and friendsofcongo.org SF Jewish Film Festival presents: "Strangers No More," Academy Award Winner, 2011, co-directed by guest: Karen Goodman.  The film which looks at Tel Aviv's Bialik-Rogozin School, a K-12 public school that has opened its doors to children from 48 countries, such as Eritrea, South Africa, Sudan, Eastern Europe, and others. We close with "Next Year in Bombay," directed by guests:  Jonas Parienté, who studied in Paris (BA in Sociology) and New York (MFA in Integrated Media Arts) and Mathias Mangin, who was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a place made famous to American audiences through the lens of LIFE photoessayist Gordon Parks. Mathias grew up in Paris, and graduated in finance from Edhec Business School, later studying photography in Sao Paulo and filmmaking in New York. http://www.nextyearinbombay.com/

Bay Area Playwrights Festival, July 22-31 at Thick House in San Francisco: http://playwrightsfoundation.org/ features the work of guests: Jackie Sibblies Drury, "We Are Proud to Present a Presentation..." & Chinaka Hodge, "700th & Int'l." Amy Mueller, Festival Artistic Director and Edris Cooper Anifowoshe, director of Hodge's work,join us. Next, Douglas Milton and Pat Baxter announce the National Black Cyclists Cycling Conference, AUG 4-7, 2011 in Oakland, CA. We close with a look at the hunger strike July 1-now @Pelican Bay and the Bring the Noise Protest this afternoon in San Francisco. Guests are: Dorsey Nunn, ED, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Dolores Canales, parent of a prisoner in the SHU, Deirdre Wilson & Manuel Manuel La Fontaine, All of Us or None, both fasting, as a part of "Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition," determined to amplify the voices of those on hunger strike, put and end to torture inside the Security Housing Units in Pelican Bay, & Corcoran, and win their 5 core demands. Samson from Revolution Book will speak about “Bring the Noise!” March In Support of Hunger Strikers at Pelican Bay and Beyond in downtown SF at Rush Hour @UN Plaza, today, Friday, July 15, 5 PM July 1, 2011, more than 500 inmates refused food at Pelican Bay State Prison and that 6,600 prisoners in 13 different prisons participated in the hunger strike on the weekend of July 2-3. This is an extremely significant and extraordinary development, something that challenges people on “the outside” to sit up and take notice. Many have been moved to support the prisoners in their just demands” (revcom.us) Sit-in or similar action planned for July 18, 2011 at Capital Bldg. targeting the head of CDCR and Gov. Brown http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/)

Today we will celebrate the life of Geronimo ji jaga, decorated US veteran, Black Panther, father, husband, sibling, friend, humanitarian, former Political Prisoner and POW, and founder of Kuji Foundation. Guests include: Kathleen Neal Cleaver, JD, former Communications Secretary, BPP, writer, professor, activist; Emory Douglas, author, artist, former Minister of Culture BPP; Robert King, author, prison abolitionist, Angola 3; Mujah Shakir, Ph.D., Detroit native & former member of the Nation of Islam, is a founding member of the International Campaign to Free Geronimo ji Jaga (Pratt) in 1987 and served as its Chair for 8 yrs. She is also a founding member of the national Jericho 98 Campaign to Free U.S. Political Prisoners and the local bay area Jericho Amnesty Campaign; Tiyesha Meroe, activist, member of Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality and State Repression. She worked with the ICFGjj for 7 yrs. She will co-host the memorial and tribute to Geronimo with Emory Douglas at East Side Arts Alliance in Oakland, beginning at 6 PM July 15, 2011. Elder Ronald Freeman, Detroit, native, moved in LA in 1961. He was Field Secretary for Southern CA BPP chapter in charge of political and military activities, member, All of Us or None. Black Panther veteran, Kiilu Nyasha has been in the liberation struggle for over 40 years.  An internationalist, she is a supporter of political prisoners, a death penalty and prison abolitionist & revolutionary journalist. Billy X Jennings& Dr. Gail Shaw ItsAboutTimeBPP.com. Special greetings from Tanzania, in order of broadcast: Joju ji jaga Cleaver, Brother Pete O'Neal, Mama Charlotte O'Neal.

Maryam Farnaz Rostami, She will join us to talk about her show this weekend at CounterPULSE: Persepolis, Texas: FOBspring to Drag Queen in One Generation! Friday July 15th, Saturday July 16th, Sunday July 17th, at CounterPULSE 1310 Mission Street @ 9th, San Francisco, Counterpulse.org or 1-800-838-3006, www.maryamrostami.com  The San Francisco based drag queen and contemporary performance artist from Texas. Her work deals with the complexities of the modern condition through the lens of an overachieving child of model minorities. Trained as an architect, Maryam exacerbates and collides her many hats when making performance, and engages audiences on a visual, intellectual and emotional level. She is dedicated to artistic engagement as an invitation for thinking about, looking at and talking to one another differently. Her drag persona, Mona G. Hawd, uses lipsync, movement, narrative and dance and an exaggerated high femme medium to question ownership of images in our culture.  While in architecture school at the University of Texas at Austin, Maryam joined a group of dancers performing Iranian folk dance, and co-choreographed and performed traditional dances with a modern twist on and off campus. We close with a rebroadcast of an interview with cast from Lynn Nottage's Pultizer Prize Winning Play, Ruined, at Berkeley Rep in April 2011, Oberon K.A. Adjepond as Christian and Tonye Patano as Mama Nadi. Music: Fely's "Topaz" from Maturite.

Willie Thompson, 76 year old African North American Community Organizer, Writer and Free-Lance Journalist, Education, MSW, U.C. Berkley, 1967, E.D.D., Community  College Administration, U.C. Berkeley, 1973. Founder and Director of The Organization of African North Americans, Member,  Yoruba Cultural Association of Cuba, Foreign Affiliate of the Ile Osha  Ade Yeri of Regla, Cuba. Playwright Michael Gene Sullivan joined the San Francisco Mime Troupe in 1988. In 1992, he became a Contributing Writer, and Resident Playwright in 2000. His scripts include Red State (2008 nominee, Best Original Script, San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critic's Circle), and Too Big To Fail (2009 nominee, Best Original Script, San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critic's Circle.) Sullivan is also a blogger for the political website The Huffington Post. Lynne Morrowcurrently serves as the Music Director of two renowned choruses in the San Fransico/East Bay area. Under her direction, the Pacific Mozart Ensemble received a Grammy nomination in 2006 for their recording of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass with Kent Nagano in Berlin. In 2010, their long-time collaboration with Dave Brubeck (including many world premieres) led to the release of “Dave Brubeck: Songs of Praise” with Dorian Recordings. Dr. Morrow also heads the Voice and Opera/Music Theatre programs at Sonoma State University. Professor Manu Ampim, historican, primary researcher, just returned from Ethiopia and Sudan and will give us an update on what he found and the work his is involved in re: preservation of African antiquities. He teaches at Contra Costa College and leads tours to Africa. Visit http://www.manuampim.com/