Wanda's Picks

SF8 Update. Today in a San Francisco Superior Court, Francisco Torres, is still being charged for events connected to the killing of a San Francisco police officer, despite the overturning to the case and dismissal of charges for the other former Black Panther Party members collectively known at the SF8: Richard Brown, Richard Bowman, Harold Taylor, Hank Jones, & Ray Boudreaux. We will also speak to Richard Brown and William Crossman about their recent trip to Geneva to bring the U.S. government to task for its police terrorism record at the United Nations. Today is also the decisive battle that cemented Haiti's independence from France: the Battle of Vertières.

Thursday, November 18, 2010 is the 32 anniversary of the murder at Jonestown, Guyana, where almost 1000 people were murdered. Join Dr. Jynona Norwood and Dr. Richard Claxton "Dick" Gregory, in conversation about the Memorial, Tribute and Prayer taking place at the mass grave at Evergreen Cemetary, Thursday, Nov. 18, 11 AM, 450 Camden Street, Oakland, CA. Survivors and representatives from congresswoman Barbara Lee's office will also be present. Rebekah Meredith, director of Fresh Peas, the story of Mr. Pete Oliver, a struggling Black Farmer in Fresno, CA,

and co-director, with Kevin Gordon, of Dreams Awake, talks about her work as a cinematographer. She received a student Oscar for her film: Dreams Awake. She is currently in the MFA program at Stanford University. We opened with music from Brother Chaz Walker's latest CD: Wisdom and Knowledge on Inersa Records. He talks about his work as a musician, poet, conscious rapper, producer and educator. He has been called the High Priest of Hip Hop.

Today we feature actors, Traci Allen (Nettie) & Edward C. Smith (Mister) from The Color Purple: A Musicial opening in San Jose at the end of the month, Nov. 23-28, www.broadwaysanjose.com, (415) 792-4111.

November kicks off a 16 day campaign to address violence against women in "Recognition of International Day for the Elimination of Violence Towards Women," 12 Noon on the Steps of San Francisco, City Hall. We are joined by two of the organizers: Nina Serrano and MamaCoAtl.

We close with an interview with choreographer Adia Whitaker, whose Apey! is on stage at CounterPulse in San Francisco. Ampey! is a look at migration of an African woman from the Diaspora back home.

Amiri Baraka pays tribute to the "Freedom Now Suite, Max Roach & Abbey Lincoln." He is joined by the Muziki Roberson Quartet at EastSide Cultural Center, Friday, Nov. 12, 2010, 8 PM. ESCC is located in the San Antonio district of Oakland, 2277 International Blvd. @ 23rd Avenue, (510) 533-6629 and www.eastsideartsalliance.org

Music: We Insist! Freedom Now Suite, Triptych (Prayer, Protest, Peace) and Lizz Wright's Lead the Way (from Salt).

Andrew Cyrille, Ms. Faye Carol, Mechelle LaChaux, Duane Deterville, Glen Pearson, Raymond Nat Turner discuss the 50th Anniversary of the historic work: "We Insist: Freedom Now Suite!' Max Roach-Abbey Lincoln." East Side Cultural Center presents "We Insist! Amiri Baraka pays tribute to the people and the album. Baraka is joined by The Muziki Roberson Quartet. Following the hour long conversation, Dayna Jarae Dantzler, actress, joins us to talk about her role as "Celie" in Broadway San Jose production of: "The Color Purple: the Musical about Love and Forgiveness," opening at San Jose Center for Performing Arts, Nov. 23-28, for 8 performances only. Visit www.sjtix.com or (415) 792-4111. We close with an interview with John Handy who performed at Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln's wedding.

Special Update on Oscar Grant sentencing of Mehserle and the subsequent reaction in Oakland and the police arrests of over 200 people. We are joined by Marcus La Fontaine, All of Us or None, Jack Bryson, Justice for Oscar Grant, and Rachel, organizer, speak about the arrests, the sentencing and verdict and next steps: gang ordinances in Alameda county. Our final guest is Sienna McLean LoGreco is a producer, director and writer for documentary film and television. She has produced and written programs for Showtime, VH1, Discovery, TLC, Animal Planet, Lifetime and PBS, and is currently directing a feature length documentary about the controversy around refugees resettling in Northern Vermont.

She is also currently a consulting producer on an interview series with producers and studio executives who have shaped the modern film industry. Sienna’s documentary short, Still Revolutionaries, is about women in the Black Panther Party, and premiered at Sundance, was awarded first prize for best documentary at the NextFrame UFVA International Film Festival, and has been distributed internationally on DVD.

The Living Wisdom of Howard Thurman: a Six CD audio collection from Sounds True.

Artists: Kissy Keefer, Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe, Jose Navarrette, and Nicole Claymoon in Manifestival: "Like Oil and Water: from Gaza to the Gulf," Dance Brigade's Festival for Social Change, Nov. 12-20, 2010, two weekends, two different program, at Dance Mission theatre. For visit www.BrownPaperTickets.com * 415-273-4633. Rob Melrose, director and co-founder of Cuttingball Theatre, Shakespeare's The Tempest, opens the 2010-2011 season, Nov. 5-29, 2010. Visit http://cuttingball.com/about/ We close with a conversation with artists: Michael B. Platt, visual artist, and Carol A. Beane, poet, whose work is up at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street, Gallery open Thursday-Friday, 9-6, and Sat.-Sun. 1-4 through January 31, 2011. Tonight, Nov. 5, 2010, 5:30-9 PM is the opening party, which will feature a poetry reading by Carol. We feature poetry from Marilyn Buck's "Wild Poppies" and music from Lizz Wright's "Salt." Visit www.wandaspicks.com

"... I survived, carried on, glad to be

like a weed, a wild red poppy,

rooted in life," Marilyn writes in her book: Wild Poppies. On Tuesday, August 3, 2010, long-time political prisoner and acclaimed poet and translator Marilyn Buck, 62, passed peacefully at her home in Brooklyn, New York. A few short weeks earlier, on July 15th, Marilyn had been released from the federal Bureau of Prisons medical facility in Carswell, Texas and paroled to New York City. Thanks to the efforts of her long-time friend and lawyer Jill Soffiyah Elijah, her release came several weeks before the date originally set for her release on parole, August 8th. Marilyn served a total of 33 years of an 80-year prison sentence for politically motivated actions undertaken in support of self-determination and national liberation and in opposition to racial injustice and U.S. imperialism. Throughout her years in prison, Marilyn remained a steadfast supporter of fellow political prisoners and an advocate for the women with whom she was imprisoned. A Memorial for Marilyn Buck is planned for Sunday, November 7, 2010, 4:00 PM to 7:30 PM at the First Unitarian Church, 685 14th Street, in Oakland, CA. It is wheel chair accessible and childcare is available also. Visit www.marilynbuck.com www.marilynbuckpresente.org We are joined by Linda Evans, J. Soffiyah Elijah, Yuri Kochiyama, Miranda Bergman, Hafsa Al-Amin. Music: "I'm Going to Live the Life I Sing About," Mahalia Jackson & Somi's "Inspiration."

At the Cantor Museum at Stanford University Dr. Henry John Drewel's "Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas” is up through January 2011. Born and raised in New York City and Hempstead, NY, Dr. Drewal received his BA from Hamilton College majoring in French and minoring in Fine Arts. After graduation he joined the Peace Corps, taught French and English and organized vacation arts camps in Nigeria. It was during his two years in Nigeria that he apprenticed himself to a Yoruba sculptor. That experience was transformative. See http://www.henrydrewal.com/ & See http://museum.stanford.edu/calendar/ and Artists from Honoring Revolution with Visions of Healing, Dia de los Muertos 2010 at SOMArts Cultural Center through November 6, 2010: Patricia Montgomery, Carla Oden, and Sue Matthews. Visit www.somarts.org. We close with an interview with Guy Gunaratne/Phil Pachenko/Heidi Lindvall, director/producers of the film, "The Truth That Wasn't There" Sri Lanka/UK, 2010. Cinema verite sylistically, the three friends visit Sri Lanka, post-25 year war where the end May 2009 came without any media coverage. The "students" are given access to areas of the country no one outside has seen. They visit Internally Displaced Persons camps where there are banks, computer labs and job training. Highly subjective, the film explores the countryside where unprepared, the narrators are about as clueless as its audience. However, nothing takes away from the lovely moments in the film, the archival footage inserted for context, a context Heidi says she learned after the fact, the countryside and the mystery, which in the clip I saw, remains unresolved--how did the war end? Was there a huge massacre of the Tamil soldiers by the Sri Lankan government? Are the people on camera really happy? The crew never find out because they are never allowed to be alone with any of the IDPs. "Truth" screens at 4:20, Nov. 6, at the Castro in S.F. Visit www.thirdi.org/festival