Wanda's Picks

Today we will feature guests who illuminate African Culture at its highest: Pee Wee Ellis who is in town this weekend, Friday-Saturday, June 9-10 for STILL BLACK, STILL PROUD - An African Tribute to James Brown Feat. Pee Wee Ellis, Vusi Mahlasela & Meklit Hadero at Yoshi's in Oakland. Visit yoshis.org Eurydice Ross, Tanya Marie Amos and Michelle Ned speak about Grown Women Dance Collective's "Fallen Heroes, Rising Stars: A Juneteenth Celebration through Dance," June 18th, 2011, 8:00 p.m. at Diablo Valley College Theater in Pleasant Hill. Call (925) 680-4400. Brother Osei Terry Chandler joins us to talk about "Libations for the Ancestors" this weekend, June 11, 2011. This event collectively honors the millions of enslaved Africans who perished during the Middle Passage, the Transatlantic "slave trade" route from Africa to the Americas. This commemoration held annual on the second Saturday in June. The SC memorial is in its fourteenth year, at Fort Moultrie, Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, 9 AM-1 PM. For information call: (843) 556-2041. The commemoration is held in conjunction with programs in Brooklyn, NY (Coney Island); Portobello, Panama; San Francisco, CA; Oakland, CA; Cape Coast Castle, Ghana and others. We all gather to honor the millions who perished in the horrific voyage, the Middle Passage.  We feel and understand that if we don't remember and honor them, who will! What is unique about this ritual is its sychronicity. We all pour at the same time. On the West Coast it is at 9 AM sharp. We close with a conversation with programmers and directors for the Queer Women of Color Film Festival, June 10-12 at Brava Theater in San Francisco. Visit http://www.qwocmap.org/festival.html It is a free event. Music: Rupa and the April Fishes's "Este Mundo."

Qasim “Q” Basir, director of Mooz-lum, starring Evan Ross, Nia Long, Danny Glover, Roger Guenveur Smith, Summer Bishil & Dorian Missick. The director received the “Inspirational Filmmaker of the Year” award from the Memphis Black Writers Film Festival for “The Inspiration of Barack: Yes We Can” series, a compilation of seven short films all dealing with different people who become inspired by Obama to take essential steps forward in their lives, can now be found in Blockbuster video & iTunes.com. We then play a short excerpt from an interview with Mooz-lum co-star, Roger Guenveur Smith. Paula Claudine Hobson-Coard, artist, composer, singer, photographer, joins us to talk about her Summer Love project, a one day exposition of new paintings Saturday, June 11, 2011, 12 noon to 7 PM at Empty Space, 644 Laguna Street, in San Francisco. Visit globalcreativityforyou.com We close with two playwrights and directors: Keith Josef Adkins and Dominic Taylor to talk about The American Slavery Project. Visit thenewblackfest.org Dominic Taylor is a writer and director.  His play "Voices from Harper’s Ferry (A History Play)" was staged as a part of The American Slavery Project: In recognition of the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War (now through 2015). Taylor's latest play I WISH YOU LOVE was staged at Penumbra Theatre in April 2011 and will be staged at The Kennedy Center in June 11, 2011 and at Hartford Stage in July 2011. KEITH JOSEF ADKINS is a playwright and screenwriter. KJA worked as a TV writer on hit comedy GIRLFRIENDS.  His feature film script THE DISAPPEARING is in development with SimonSays Entertainment (2010 Sundance’s Night Catches Us with Anthony Mackie).  Keith also worked as a story editor on the feature film Gun Hill Road, which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, isopening Frameline 35, in San Francisco

Juanita Brown, Trace of The Trade; Professor Griff, Public Enemy & Hussain Bey,  "Neccessary Tour: Black History 101 Mobile Museum Tour with A Taste of Freedom, Saturday, June 4, 2011, 11 AM to 3 PM at the Linen Life Gallery in San Leandro; Berkeley's 8th Annual World Music Festival featuring among others: Rafael Mauriquez.

Today we honor Gil Scott-Heron, poet, writer, musician, scholar who made his transition Friday, May 27, 2011. He was 62 years old. We are joined by Umar Bin Hassan, Last Poets, CEO Bebop or Be Dead.  In the early '70s,  Hassan was a member of the street-poet godfathers of rap, The Last Poets. He joined the group in 1969 after seeing them perform in his native Ohio. With Hassan, The Poets released The Last Poets, This Is Madness, Holy Terror, and Last Poets at Last. In mid-1993, he released his first solo album, Be Bop or Be Dead. Charles Curtis Blackwell, jazz poet and a playwright, performance and visual artist. His published plays and poetry include Is, the Color of Mississippi Mud and The Fiery Response to Love’s Callings among other works. He has also produced three spoken-word CDs in collaboration with jazz drummer Billy Toliver, and Raymond Nat Turner, poet, teacher, founder of UpSurge: Jazz Poetry Ensemble. Gerald Lenoir, Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), joins us to close the show and talk about the BAJI's 5th Anniversary and Awards Ceremony, Saturday, June 4, 2011, 5:30 PM at the Islamic Center of Northern California on Madison at 14th Street in Oakland. For information visit www.blackalliance.org We rebroadcast the interview with Michelle Alexander, attorney, professor, and author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness. The soundtrack for this show is: Me & the Devil (I'm New Here); Message to the Masses dedicated to his father; We Beg Your Pardon America; I Think I'll Call It Morning; Ain't No Such Thing as a Superman.

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.

Brian Palmer, an independent reporter, photographer, and filmmaker's "Full Disclosure," airs on the Doc Channel Tuesday, May 31, at 8 PM (ET/PT). Full Disclosure is based on three embeds in Iraq with the same U.S. Marine infantry battalion. His photographs have appeared recently in The New York Times, Politiken, ColorLines, and other publications. From 2000 to 2002, Palmer was a CNN correspondent. He was the Beijing Bureau Chief for US News & World Report from 1996 to 1998.  Next we have in the studio Director/Producer Kim A. Snyder to talk about her latest film: Welcome to Shelbyville," which has a free community screening in Oakland, CA, this evening, May 25, 2011, at 6 PM at Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 2nd floor of the Pacific Renaissance Plaza in Oakland's Chinatown, 388 Ninth Street, Suite 290. Kim Synder is an award-winning filmmaker with more than a dozen shorts and two feature documentaries, including I Remember Me. She co-founded the BeCause Foundation to produce socially conscious documentaries that further the work of the social innovators they highlight. We close with Lawrence Beamen, whose rendition of  Barry White's “My First, My Last, My Everything” on America’s Got Talent in 2009, Piers Morgan declared that he was “The New Barry White.” On May 27, Beamen will reveal a new show that pays tribute to the R&B crooner. "Real music is power,” said Beamen. “It can do things we can't even imagine.  Like true love, it penetrates the soul." Visit Beamen’s webpage: The shows are Friday, May 27, 7:45 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. at Pier 39 Theatre, Beach Street and the Embarcadero, San Francisco, www.lawrencebeamen.com   For tickets:  http://www.eventbrite.com

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.

Today in honor of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz's birthday today, May 19, 2011, we want to pause and reflect on his legacy with those inspired by his tireless zeal and push for justice. Confirmed guests are: Grace C. Stanislaus, Executive Director, Museum of the African Diaspora; author, Sharon G. Flake whose latest book is, You Don't Even Know Me: Stories and Poems about Boys; Adwoa Kudoto, a drummer & teacher from Cape Coast, Ghana (West Africa), joins Emani Dawson Bey, "Liberation Theatre." Both women have shows at La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley, May 20 & May 25. Visit www.lapena.org We close with a conversation with musician/scholars: Anthony Brown, Jon Jang, and Marcus Shelby to talk about a Soundtrack for a Revolutioninspired by Bother Malcolm. All the excerpts from speeches are available on line at: http://www.archive.org/details/Malcolm_X (great website),http://www.brothermalcolm.net/mxwords/whathesaidarchive.html

We also play part of Leon Thomas's "Malcolm's Gone."

Today we are celebrating the life of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, a man who epitomizes transformation and revolutionary thought born May 19, 2011, (1925-1965). We are joined by friends and family who knew and admired him. Confirmed are: A. Peter Bailey, author, journalist, friend of Brother Malcolm, and Yusufu Mosley, activist, and practitioner of African-Centered Restorative Justice. We are also joined by scholar, artist, writer, teacher, Amiri Baraka. We close with an interview with Abraham Burton, who is headlining the Tenth Annual Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival, Saturday, May 21, 2011 at San Antonio Park. The Abraham Burton Trio performs at Eastside Cultural Center 2277 International Blvd., Oakland, CA   94606, Sunday: May 22, 2011, 6PM-two sets. Admission is $15. For more information: 510/533-6629  www.eastsideartsalliance.org

 

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LaKeisha Burton, born and raised in Compton,  lives in Sothern California still after spending 18 years in California Institute for Women (CIW) when at 15 she was arrested and tried as an adult and sentenced to life plus 9 years consecutively, which meant she had to serve 9 years first and then life—she was first at youth authority at Camillo in Southern California, for 90 observation where they recommended she stay in the juvenile facility. The sentencing judge said no, send her to prison. In CIW—she was the youngest person there, so she was in a segregated housing unit or in solitary confinement until she turned 18.  She served 18 years before release in 2006. No one died. Ironically, she met her victim in CIW, asked for and received her forgiveness. The victim, who killed someone, was released from CIW after 9 years. The film "Juvies," screening this evening, May 13, at EastSide Cultural Center, 2277 International Blvd., Oakland, CA, 7-9 PM, looks at the criminalization of children in the CA judicial system and its failures to address the true problems that these children face such as: parental abuse & neglect, violence, sexual trafficking, substance abuse, poverty: hunger, homelessness, mental illness. Visit www.womenprisoners.org Ja Ronn Thompson, founding and director of the San Francisco State University Gospel Choir 70 piece choir plus band, which has a performance, Sunday, May 15, 2011, at Yoshi's in San Francisco, CA, 7 PM & 9 PM, $20. Visit yoshis.com We close with a rebroadcast of an interview aired last year (Sept. 2010) with Tim Wise, who is in conversation with Angela Davis this evening, May 13, 2011, at the First Congregational Church of Oakland, 27th & Harrison, 7 PM Visit www.speakout.orgSpeak Out is taping the event for a DVD.