Wanda's Picks Radio: Oscar Grant verdict special edition!

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We open with a panel of political organizers, scholars and artists to talk about the Oscar Grant murder trial and the verdict.

Panelists:

Rachel Jackson, organizing member of the New Years Movement 4 Justice, Oakland General Assembly for Oscar Grant, CA Coalition and Oakland Coalition, which meets each Thursday at 7 PM at the Continental Club, 1628 12th Street, Oakland. The next meeting is July 15, 2010. For information email: newyears@onefam.org

The Oakland Townhall continues meeting this Saturday, July 10, 4 PM at Olivet Institutional Missionary Baptist Church, 807 27th Street @ San Pablo Avenue, Oakland, (510) 452-4201.

Frank B. Wilderson, III is a creative writer, dramaturge, filmmaker, poet, and critical theorist. He spent five years in South Africa where he worked as a university lecturer, an elected official of the Congress of South African Writers, and as a member of ANC's aboveground and underground structures. Wilderson's groundbreaking memoir, Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid won the 2008 American Book Award/Before Columbus Foundation (Ishmael Reed's organization); the 2009 Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Legacy Award; the 2010 National Endowment for the Arts Literature/Creative Writing Fellowship; and was a Finalist for ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year (Autobiography/Nonfiction).

Gregory Caldwell works at the Richmond Youth BUILD Program, where adults who have not completed high school are offered an opportunity to get a diploma or fulfill GED requirements. He is a Ph.D. candidate at UC Santa Cruz in the History of Consciousness Dept. where he is investigating incarceration: bodies and spirit housed most often in black bodies. Greg’s pedagogic interventions with young people "allow their minds to be expanded in two ways: first, in gaining a better understanding of the structural forces at work in the world, forces which either inhibit or enable ethical transformation; secondly, they come to understand how central they are, as youth of color, to those structural forces—even though the media implies that they are on the margins" (Wilderson). This work directly speaks to Oscar Grant, his murder and the spectacle or life he inherited, a life where even in death, he is blamed or held culpable for his demise. (Look at the media’s attempts to turn him into a villain pretrial.)

Mateen Kemet, director of Runaway Films shows “Oakland Be Mine,” a work-in-progress this evening. This film personifies Oakland as a beautiful black woman, who has attracted the attention of a visitor to town, who chases after her illusive presence which offers another view of this city in the Bay. Oakland Be Mine discussion and screening mixer is tonight, Friday, July 9, 2010, 7:00 PM to 10:30 PM as a part of Friday Night @ The Humanist Hall, 390 27th Streeet, at Telegraph in Oakland. This is a change in venue, as the City of Oakland shut down the Embarcadero because of the Mehserle verdict, July 8. Admission is free. The film, when complete will screen at the Oakland International Airport for a year. To see a clip visit: http://www.youtube.com/user/nucinema and
www.runawayfilmworx.com


Our second guests speak about the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo this weekend, July 10-11, in Hayward, CA:

Sonya Hopkins, an African American cowgirl and contestant in the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo this weekend, competing in several ladies events: Ladies Barrel Racing and Ladies Steer Undecoratin. The Sacramento rancher has been participating in the rodeo from 1998 to the present, and has the honor of being the Bill Pickett Rodeo finalist. Sonya can be contacted at: backyardroper@gmail.com

Named "Best New Country Artist" by New Music Weekly, Miko's debut album, "Freeway Bound", also received honors as the "2007 Country Album of the Year", at The Independent Music Awards. Miko also serves as emcee at the Bill Pickett invitational rodeo, this weekend, July 10 & 11, 2010, 2:30 PM at the Rowell Ranch Rodeo Grounds, 9711 Dublin Canyon Road, Hayward, CA. Visit http://www.billpickettrodeo.com/schedule.html or call 510.864.2747

We close the show with the duo Tuck and Patti, who have a concert this weekend at Stanford Jazz Festival, July 10, 2010. Visit www.tuckandpatti.com

Tuck and Patti (Patti Cathcart, vocals; Tuck Andress, guitar) perform at Stanford Jazz, Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Saturday, July 10, 2010, 8 PM. Visit http://www.stanfordjazz.org/jazzfestival/07_10.html