Wanda's Picks Radio August 24, 2011

Rebroadcast interview with Michelle Alexander: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colonialism and interviews with Joanna Haigood and visual artist Charles Trapolin, re: their collaboration with premiered earlier this year: The Monkey and the Devil. Visit http://www.ybca.org/content/zaccho-dance-theatre-monkey-and-devil

Bayview–based choreographer Joanna Haigood explores present–day species of racism with The Monkey and the Devil, a continuously running performance installation uniting dance and theater during which audience members are free to navigate the Forum.

Taking its title from ethnic slurs, The Monkey and the Devil investigates the rise of a contemporary, racism rooted in the lasting effects of America's slave trade. Echoing an earlier time, today's cultural figures unwittingly rehash old race–based arguments, updated for today's eyes and ears. Two massive, rotating set pieces, designed by visual artist Charles Trapolin, represent this duality. Their opposition recalls Abraham Lincoln's New Testament–quoting declaration foreshadowing the abolition of slavery, 'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' Even today, Americans grapple with re–uniting a split house, with these artifacts of slavery.

Music: CHELLE! and Friends, who commemorate the music of Mardi Gras, New Orleans, and celebrates its Creole people and their remarkable music.

Announcements: Words Upon the Waters: A Gulf Coast Update and Fundraiser is Sunday, August 28, 2011, 2-5 PM at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street, Oakland. There will be poetry, a film screening and current information on what's happening in New Orleans and Mississippi.

Congratulations to Francisco Torres, SF8 member, whose charges were dropped and who is now free. Torres was the last member of the SF8 who was being prosecuted. Visit http://revolutionaryfrontlines.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/cisco-torres-is-free-of-all-charges-in-the-sf8-case/

Thanks to the brave and courageous men who called the hunger strike July 1, 2011 at Pelican Bay to protest their inhumane treatment and to the Hon. Tom Ammiano, Chair, Assemblymember, Thirteenth District, California Legislature, for hosting the Policy Review of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secure Housing Unit(SHU), Tuesday, August 23, 2011. We will broadcast testimony from the public comment part of the meeting next Wednesday.