Wanda's Picks

The show which begins with a prerecorded interview with Oscar Grant's Uncle Cephus "Uncle Bobby" Johnson speaking about the rally called by the ILWU Saturday, October 23, 2010 in downtown Oakland. This interview is followed by a conversation with filmmaker Adimu Madyun and Eesuu Orundide about "Warrior Spirit Art Experience" at J Posh Design Studio in North Oakland, 3824 Telegraph Avenue, Saturday, October 30, 2010, 7 PM to 11 PM. For information call (213) 272-6999 or 393fils.com and BlockReportRadio.com Another filmmaker joins us next, Anna Belle Peevey, co-director of "New American Soldier," a part of the United Nations Association Film Festival 2010 Friday, October 29, Program XXI, at 7:15 PM at Stanford University, Anneberg Auditorium Cummings Art Building, 435 Lausuen Mall. Visit www.unaff.org We close with a conversation with artists: Malik Seneferu, Antjuan Oden and Shizue Seigel who talk about their work in the exhibition, "Honoring Revolution with Visions of Healing," through Nov. 6, Tuesdays-Saturdays, at SOMArts Cultural Center Gallery in San Francisco. Visit www.somarts.org There is a closing reception Nov. 6 and a fundraiser.

Katerina Cizek, director, "The Bicycle," which screens in the UNAFF 2010, Oct. 27, 5:25, a part of Session XV at Stanford University Medical School, Li Ka Shing Center Bldg., 291 Campus Drive, which starts at 4 PM and ends about 7 PM. Visit www.unaff.org. For Kat's many projects visit: filmmakerinresidence.nfb.ca and her latest work: http://highrise.nfb.ca/ Lance Garner (Franco) & Michael J. Asberry (James) in TheatreWorks production of "Tracy Lett's "Superior Donuts" through October 31. Visit www.theatreworks.org (650) 463-1960. The show is 7:30 PM tonight, Thursday-Friday, 8 PM, Saturday 2 & 8 PM and Sunday, 2 & 7 PM. Tickets are $19 (student)-67. Liza Garza, Sunday, Nov. 14, 8 PM, is featured in La Pena Cultural Center's "Mujeres en la Resistencia," a part of the 11th Annual Hecho en Califas Festival. Visit www.lapena.org We close with an interview with writer, Jacqueline Woodson, whose "Peace, Locomotion," premiered in a stage adaptation at the Kennedy Center, October 23.

Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely is performing at Stanford University, Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Friday, October 29, 2010, 8 PM. Tickets are half price for students and $10 for Stanford students. Call 650-725-ARTS (2787), or http://livelyarts.stanford.edu There is a free vocal workshop the evening before, Thursday, October 28, 2010, for Stanford students. Singer/songwriter Toshi Reagon has a musical personality equally at home on a formal concert stage or in a rowdy blues bar. Atlanta-born and Brooklyn-based, Reagon effortlessly moves among traditional African American folk, blues, and gospel music genres to vintage rock, reggae, and contemporary pop. Her voice is by turns earthy and sweet, her band BIGLovely grooves with easy grace, and her music nests sharp social commentary in sensual vocal harmonies with infectious hooks. Jasmina Boyich, Stanford University professor and curator/founder of the Human Rights Association Film Festival, 13 years old now, opens October 22, 2010 and continues through October 31, 2010 in two cities: Palo Alto and San Francisco. There is a free screening at the Stanford University Memorial Auditorium honoring United Nations Day, Sunday, October 24. Visit http://www.unaff.org/2010/schedule.html

Cepheus "Uncle Bobby" Johnson speaks about the rally called by the ILWU Saturday, October 23, 2010, 12 noon at 14th and Broadway in Oakland, CA. Visit www.oscargrantfoundation.com

Music: Toshi Reagon's "Scorpio" & "One More Today"; Capathia Jenkins's "How You Gonna Save Em?" and Barrington LEVY's "Under My Sensi."

April Martin Chartrand, Author/Illustrator speaks about her new book: "ANGEL'S DESTINY: A Novel Story of Poems & Illustrations" reading Thursday, Oct. 21, 7-8:30 PM with Imani M. Harrington, at The Green Arcade, 1680 Market Street, S.F.(415) 431-6800. Visit

http://www.youtube.com/user/AprilMartinChartrand

Francine Cavanaugh, co-director, "ON COAL RIVER," 81 min, USA, at SF Doc Fest., Friday, October 22, 9:30 PM; Monday, October 25, 7:15 PM. With the recent April 2010 Massey Energy Company coal mine disaster in West Virginia, On Coal River could not be more relevant. When residents of the Coal River Valley begin noticing that a host of medical problems are linked to a Massey-owned coal-waste dumping ground that sits above the local elementary school…they join together in a David-and-Goliath struggle to draw national attention to the dangers they face on a daily basis. -Silverdocs. Visit oncoalriver.com

Zack Rogow is the author, editor, or translator of eighteen books or plays. Currently he teaches in the MFA in Writing Program at the California College of the Arts and in the low-residency MFA at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. A staged reading of his new play based on the poetry and life of Nazim Hikmet, Turkey's greatest modern poet, entitled "Things I Didn't Know I Loved," is presented by Lunch Poems at UC Berkeley, Monday, October 25, 7:00 p.m. in the Maude Fife Room, 322 Wheeler Hall, UC Berkeley. Free. Dir. Willem Alkema, 74 min, (Netherlands) at SF Doc Fest @ the Roxie in San Francisco, Thursday, Oct. 28, 9:30 PM, http://www.slystonedocumentary.com/ A filmic tribute to persistence, Dutch filmmaker Alkema spent years playing hide-and-seek with his elusive musical idol, Sly Stone. He found Stone in Southern CA recovering from a motorcycle accident . . . then five more years of emails, calls, and promises later, Stone finally agreed to sit down for his first filmed interview in over 20 years. Music this show, "Sly and the Family Stone: Family Affair."

Oren Rudavsky, Producer/Director, "To Educate a Girl," http://www.toeducateagirl.com/ In 2000, 110 million children in the world were not in school—two thirds of them were girls. In 2010, filmmakers Frederick Rendina and Oren Rudavsky traveled to Nepal and Uganda, two countries emerging from conflict and struggling with poverty, to find the answer to one question: What does it take to educate a girl? The film screens at the Mill Valley Film Festival at the Rafael Film Center, Oct. 16, 3:45 PM; Judy Irola

Producer/Director, also has a film in the closing weekend of the MVFF: "Niger ’66, A Peace Corps Diary," Friday, Oct. 15, 7 PM at the Rafael Film Ctr. & Sun., Oct. 17, 2:30 PM at Sequoia in Mill Valley. Visit mvff.org. After serving two years in the Peace Corps in Niger, Africa (1966-68) Irola returned to San Francisco where she went to work for KQED-TV in their documentary film unit. Now she is an esteemed professor at the University of Southern CA, where she holds the Conrad Hall Chair in Cinematography (endowed by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg) at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. AlterTheater Ensemble kicks off its expanded season with Intimate Apparel, a beautiful play about pursuing your dreams against the odds by Lynn Nottage, winner of 2009’s Pulitzer Prize. Company co-founder Jeanette Harrison ("Mrs. Van Buren") and associate artist Dawn Scott ("Esther"), Rebecca Frank ("Mayme"), Matt Jones ("George") join us. The play runs through October 31 (extended). Visit altertheater.org or call (415) 454-2787. Henry Grimes & Roscoe Mitchell close the show. These two musical giants appear this evening, Friday, October 15, 2010, 8 PM in a duet concert at CNMAT (Center for New Music & Audio Technologies), 175O Arch St., Berkeley, CA, 9472O, $15, 51O-643-999O, http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/event/2011/10/15/henry_grimes_roscoe_mitchell ... We feature the music of Henry Grimes this show from Profound Sound Trio: Opus de Life and Henry Grimes Rashid Ali: Spirits Aloft.

Brooklyn Siren Capathia Jenkins and Chicago Tunesmith Louis Rosen bring “Brilliant” (NY Magazine) Melodies to Freight & Salvage Oct. 22, 2010. They have two days in Southern CA, Oct. 20-21.Visit capathiajenkins.com Martin Baer is a cameraman, author and director. As an author, director and cameraman he has realized films that focus in particular on historical topics and on Africa (“Free Africa!”, “White Ghosts – The Colonial War against the Herero”, “Kinshasa Symphony”). Kinshasa Symphony screens at the Mill Valley Film Festival Thursday, Oct. 14, 7 PM at Rafael & Sat., Oct. 16, 4:45 PM at Sequoia in Mill Valley. Visit www.kinshasa-symphony.com

Donna Jean Murch is an associate professor at Rutgers where she teaches African American and urban history. She received her Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley in 2004. She is speaking about her new book: Living for the City: Migration, Education and the rise of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California, at the Oakland Main Library, Oct. 14, 6:30-7:30 PM as a part of Black Panther Party History Month. She is also co-director of the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis from 2010-2012, lives in Harlem and has written more broadly on film and culture. EVERYDAY SUNSHINE THE STORY OF FISHBONE: LEV ANDERSON (co-director, co-producer) & CHRIS METZLER (co-director, co-producer). Visit http://www.fishbonedocumentary.com/ The film opens SF DocFest and features a concert with the artists profiled in the film. The film is also simultaneously screening at the Mill Valley Film Festival with a final screening there, Fri., Oct. 15. There is another screening at DocFest over the next two weeks: Oct. 14-28 at the Roxie Theatre in San Francisco. Visit http://www.sfindie.com/ EVERYDAY SUNSHINE is a documentary about the band Fishbone, African American rock musical pioneers who have been rocking on the margins of pop culture for the past 25 years focusing on lead singer Angelo Moore and bassist Norwood Fisher. www.fishbonedocumentary.com/

Claude Marks is the Project Director of The Freedom Archives, a political, cultural oral history project in SF. He is a former political prisoner who served time for a conspiracy to break a Puerto Rican political prisoner out of Leavensworth. Claude taught ESL, literacy, writing and history inside. He will speak about the the San Francisco Premiere of COINTELPRO 101, Sunday, October 10, 2010, at 4 and 7 pm at Mission Cultural Center of Latino Arts in San Francisco, CA, 2868 Mission Street. Suggested donation $10, youth $5. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Soffiyah Elijah and the filmmakers we speak after the program. Regina Y. Evans is a Poet, Storyteller and Playwright from Oakland, Ca. She is the Writer of Echo: A Poetic Journey Into Justice, a theatrical performance designed to bring awareness to the horrors of sex trafficking/slavery. "Echo: A Poetic Journey into Justice," braids together the fabric of poetry, Negro Spirituals and movement in an effort to shine a light upon the extraordinarily similar threads that run between present day sex trafficking/slavery and past day African-American slavery. The work has two performances, Saturdays, Oct. 9 & 16, both at 7 PM at the City of Refuge United Church of Christ, 1025 Howard Street, San Francisco. It is a fundraiser for several organizations combating child sexual exploitation. Visit echopoeticjustice.blogspt.com; Executive Director: Mbarouk Saad & Project Director: Alice Aida Ayers of creativesolutionszanzibar.co.tz join us to talk about an event this weekend: Creative Solutions Africa, Sunday, Oct. 10, 2010, 6-9 PM at the Afrikan Children's Advanced Learning Center, 959-33rd Street, Oakland. We close with Barbara Thompson, Ph.D., Phyllis Wattis Curator of the Arts of Africa and the Americas, about two exhibits: Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas and the new exhibition opening Wed., Oct.13,2010: "Vodoun/Vodounon: Portraits of Initiates." There is a blessing at 5.

We open the show with a conversation with actor, Alex Ubokudom, who is both African and American, joins us to talk about Nigeria on the occasion of its 50th anniversary of freedom from Britain. He is also currently on stage in Tarell Alvin McCraney's "The Brothers Size" (as Elegua) at the Magic Theatre through October 17. There is a free matinee, Sat.,October 9, 2010, 2:30 at the Laney College Theatre. The play is for mature audiences. Mary Campbell and Deidre Wilson speak about the California Coalition for Woman Prisoners and Free Battered Women State-wide Conference Friday-Sunday, October 8-10, 2010. Dr. Marcus Lorenzo Penn is a native Bay Area physician by training, but a photographer by passion. He has trav­eled throughout the world-visiting six of the seven continents-gathering photos of his experiences. Medically, he trained to diagnose and treat through medication. Artistically, he evolved to share and discover through photography. His work aims to reveal the natural, elemental, environmental, social and cultural intricacies of the sometimes unseen, so that clarity and wisdom can be gained. His photos are featured in the exhibition, "Visions of Ghana", at the FLOAT Gallery of Oakland through October 30, at 1091 Calcot Place #116, Oakland, CA, 510-535-1702 Directions: http://thefloatcenter.com/location.html Visit http://www.thephotographerphysician.com

Marcus Shelby presents "Soul of a Movement," his latest work which looks at the legacy of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Moveent at SFJAZZ.org on October 8, 2010. Adrienne Anderson, founder of the International Black Woman's Film Festival, October 8-9, 2010, and director Ruth Montgomery Anderson. Visit www.ibwff.org We close with cast from Magic Theatre's production of "Brothers Size" and the Marin Theatre Company's production of "In the Red and Brown" Water, parts 2 and 1 respectively, of Tarell Alvin McCraney's Brother/Sister Stories at The Magic Theatre (Brothers Size) through, Oct. 17, Marin Theatre Company (Red & Brown), through October 10. Joshua Elijah Reese (Ogun), Tobie Windham (Oshoosi Size), Alex Ubokudo (Elegua) and Ryan Vincent Anderson (Ogun in Red & Brown) join us for an hour long discussion of the play cycle. The final segment, "Marcus; or The Secret of Sweet" opens at ACT Geary Theatre October 29-Nov. 21. Visit BrotherSisterPlays.org or call (415) 749-2228. Brothers Size will be a part of Laney College's 40th Anniversary in a free performance at the Laney College Theatre, 90 Fallon Street in Oakland, Oct. 9, 3 PM. The college is across the theatre from Lake Merritt BART. We feature the music of Otis Redding: "Try a Little Tenderness."

Rebroadcast from October 24, 2008: Today we highlighted the Black Panther Party, Oakland Community School, the first charter school in the State of CA and a model promoted by then Gov.Jerry Brown--yes, unbelievable that this same man, as CA Attorney Gen. is promoting the trial of the SF8. We had Billy X, itsabouttimebpp.com, Melvin Dixon, the Commemorator and the Lil' Bobby Hutton Literacy Program and Naomi Banks, former student on the air. "The Down Memory Lane Reunion," is 10/25, 12-5, at the old school site: 6118 International Blvd., Oakland. We also had Naima and Alixa, climblingpoetree.com who have a new show: Hurricane Season, Oct. 24-25, at La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave., in Berkeley, 7:00 doors, 7:30 show. They will also take "Hurricane Season," to Cell Space in SF, 10/30, 7:00 doors, 7:30 show. They are performing poetry at the "Wonders of Cannibis" Festival its second day, 10/26, which also features Dead Prez, at Golden Gate Park in SF, CA. My other guests were, Avotcja & Modupue, which features musician Jon Jang, and others, performing at the Jazz School, in downtown Berkeley, Oct. 24, 8 p.m. Next was guest, Shara K. Lange, whose film, "The Way North," about a Morrocan sports photographer, Fatima Rhazi, turned activist for women's rights in France, screens at 2 p.m. at the Shattuck Cinemas, in Berkeley, 10/25. It's a part of the "12th Arab Film Festival" www.aff.org. We closed with a great conversation with Black Panther Party Chairman,and co-founder, Bobby Seale, ESCC co-founder, Greg Morozumi, and the author of the book, "The Snake Dance," about the Second Annual Third World Book Festival at ESCC, 12-6 p.m. Oct.25-26, at 2277 International Blvd. in Oakland. Visit http://wandaspicks.com