Thursday, March 13, 2014

Wanda's Picks Radio Special Broadcast: Michael Morgan, OEBS Director; Rev. Edward Pinkney BANCO; Aisha Brown, 100 Black Women's 16th Annual Madame CJ Walker Awards Luncheon

Michael Morgan, current Music Director of the Oakland East Bay Symphony and the Sacramento Philharmonic, joins us to talk about OEBS's latest world-wandering chapter in their innovative and popular series exploring symphonic music from various world cultures with Notes from India Friday, March 28, at 8 pm at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland which will include the world premiere of Where Shadow Chases Light, a new work by young Indian composer Juhi Bansal in her Oakland East Bay Symphony debut, commissioned as part of the Symphony’s New Visions/New Vistas Commissioning Project, along with sitar soloist Stephen Slawek performing Ravi Shankar’s Concert No. 1 for Sitar and Orchestra, excerpts from Philip Glass and Ravi Shankar’s Passages and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 www.oebs.org

The evening opens with a pre-concert talk at 7 p.m. with the composer.

Mr. Morgan also serves as Artistic Director of the Oakland Youth Orchestra, Artistic Director of Festival Opera in Walnut Creek, and Artistic Advisor to Sacramento Opera. In addition, he teaches the graduate conducting course at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Rev. Edward Pinkney from Benton Harbor, Michigan, founder of the Black Autonomy Network Community Outreach (BANCO), joins us to talk about his work to defend the poor against corporate power, and to reform the court system in Benton Harbor, a town with 70 percent unemployment and more people in prison per capita than anywhere in the world.

The majority of Benton Harbor’s residents are African American. Whirlpool is the main corporation that runs Benton Harbor and that is leading a redevelopment effort which has taken over lakefront property deeded to the city, and that threatens to displace the community. Reverend Pinkney speaks about why the struggle in Benton Harbor is a harbinger of things to come to states across the nation.
He returns to California for two major events, in Los Angeles, Mar. 15, 5-8 p.m. on "Confronting corporate power and the police state." at the Southern California Public Library, 6120 Vermont, with Laura Garcia, editor of the Tribuno Del Pueblo; Sunday, Mar. 16, he will be at the African American Center, 5 p.m., at Sixth; Julian St. in San Jose. Visit http://www.peoplestribune.org/bh/bh.shtml

He is also here to investigate the recent hanging of another black San Jose State University student. This is number 2. See  http://sfbayview.com/2009/the-frat-house-death-of-gregory-johnson-jr-remains-unsolved/

Aisha Brown
, Chair of the 16th Annual Madame CJ Walker Awards Luncheon, Friday, March 14
closes the show. Visit http://www.eventbrite.com/e/16th-annual-madam-cj-walker-business-community-awards-luncheon-tickets-9754256243 

Ms. Aisha Brown works as a Senior Legislative Aide for Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson in the Fifth District. Ms. Brown has committed herself professionally and personally to improving her community in the Bay Area through developing resources, implementing programs and providing access to vital community information. For over ten years, Aisha has worked for Supervisor Carson on policy in the areas of workforce and economic development, STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Math), social services, early care and education, and housing.

Ms. Brown is a native of Oakland, CA, graduating from Skyline High School. She attended San Francisco State University where she received a Bachelors of Arts degree in Clinical Psychology and a Master’s degree in Organizational Management.

Ms. Brown participates on a number of community boards and organizations. She currently is the President of Black Women Organized For Political Action (BWOPA), the Oakland/Berkeley Chapter, one of the oldest women’s political organizations in the state of California. She serves as a member of the City of Oakland Head Start Advisory Board and a member of the advisory board for United Way Earn it Keep It initiative.   She is also a former board member for the Black Coalition on AIDS in San Francisco ;  the Alameda County Meals on Wheels Five Star Dinner Committee; and formerly the Secretary on the board for the Foster Youth Alliance of Alameda County.

Music: From Fela, the Musical, "Water, No Get Enemy" and Gina Breedlove's "The Language of Light."

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