Wanda's Picks Radio Show Rebroadcast, Friday, April 19, 2019

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!


1. Jo Kreiter, Flyaway Productions, Laura Elaine Ellis, Executive Director of the African African American Performing Arts Coalition (AAAPAC), Catalina "Caty" Palacios and Tanea Lunsford Lynx who are both members of Essie Justice to talk about The Wait Room, a site specific dance honoring women with incarcerated loved ones, April 19-20, April 26-27 at 1125 Market Street, a vacant lot opposite UN Plaza at Civic Center.


2. Howard Thurman Special with Rev. Liza Rankow & Rev. Dr. Dorsey Blake, Nov. 8, 2010. Upcoming programs at OneLife 2/17 & 3/7, both at East Bay Church of Religious Science, 4130 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, California 94609.

Don't forget to watch: Backs Against the Wall: The Howard Thurman Story, dir. Martin Doblmeier, (http://journeyfilms.com/batw/) on Public Television's WORLD Channel this afternoon/evening, 3 p.m. & 6 p.m. PT, Feb. 8. There are also local screenings on Feb. 9 and Feb. 12.

Rebroadcast from:  http://tobtr.com/s/11178105

Wanda's Picks Radio Show, Wed., April 17, 2019

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!?

1. Keith Josef Adkins rebroadcast, Apr. 17. He joins us to speak about his play on Dr. George Washington Carver: "Patron Saint of Plants."


2. Saabir Lockett: Special Projects Coordinator for EBASE, joins us to talk about the film "City Rising: The Informal Economy", screening at Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland, Monday, April 22, 7 p.m. It is a free event.

3. Flyaway Productions World Premiere of Jo Kreiter's The Wait Room, part 1 of The Decarceration Trilogy April 19-27, 2019. The site specific work honors women with incarcerated loved ones. We are joined in the studio with collaborators: Pamela Z, Composer and Sean Riley, Set Designer.


Show Link:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks/2019/04/17/wandas-picks-radio-show

Wanda's Picks Special Broadcast, Thursday, April 11, 2019

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!

1. Rev. Harry Louis Williams II joins us to talk about "When the Struggle Is Real" (2019). Visit www.IAmOGRev.com

2. Arisika Razak RN, MPH is Professor Emerita, and former Chair of the Women’s Spirituality Program, at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). She has served as CIIS Director of Diversity, and currently is a core teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland. For over twenty years she was an inner city midwife in the SF Bay Area, attending the births of women from over 70 countries. A regular contributor to books and journals, Arisika is also a dancer who has performed nationally and internationally for over thirty years; she has led healing and empowerment workshops for women for over 30 years and spiritual and movement workshops for beings of all genders for over two decades. Her film credits include Fire Eyes, the first full length feature film by an African woman on female genital cutting; and Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth where she is interviewed on Alice Walker's womanism. She joins us to talk about Destiny Art Center's "Jewels" at Odell Johnson Theatre through Friday-Sunday, 4/12-4/14.

3. . Rennie Harris, choreographer, joins us to talk about his work, Lazarus, (Program A at Cal Performances 4/9 & 4/13) commissioned by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Cal-Performances for AAADT's 60th Anniversary (1958-2018).


Visit: http://tobtr.com/s/11285761

Mumia Abu-Jamal: An Evening for Justice and Freedom

Pam Africa, Jeff Mackler
Photo credit: Wanda Sabir

Mumia Abu-Jamal: An Evening for Justice and Freedom at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave
The evening opened with a special greetings by Ula Taylor, Chair, African-American Studies Dep’t, UC Berkeley and Stephen Bingham, Former President, National Lawyers Guild

Jeff Mackler, Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, served as host for the evening peppering the introductions with amusing personal notes that showed how long he and by extension, all those on the panel and perhaps quite a few in the room, had been doing social justice work.  Mumia Abu Jamal is the catalyst; however, the injustice that his case and life illustrate certainly began long before he was a celebrity journalist and prisoner.
It was perhaps the familiarity with which we find ourselves still in the room without Mumia that added, what Alice Walker said, a certain sadness to the assembly. Why isn't Mumia free?

Judith Ritter, Lead Attorney for
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Photo credit: Wanda Sabir

Mumia Abu-Jamal sent a taped message of introduction to the panelists which Prison Radio played for all of us. His attorney Judith Ritter gave a wonderful update on his case and a overview in what she called the case of two judges. She was followed by Pam Africa, Minister of Information for MOVE and Friends and Family of Mumia Abu Jamal, Alice Walker spoke about her first visit to see Mumia and the absurdity of the prison system. Angela Y. Davis wrapped up a wonderful evening which raised over $1,000 to help with Mumia legal fees now that his counsel can appeal. Checks should be made payable to Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu Jamal, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610. Visit http://www.free-mumia.org/

Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize Novelist, Mumia's Friend
Photo credit: Wanda Sabir

Pam Africa with her husband

Dr. Ula Taylor, Pam Africa, Dr. Angela Y. Davis

Movement Women

Angela Davis, Jeff Mackler, Pam Africa

Pam Africa handed out a poster: Krasner Drop the Appeal which references Philadelphia DA, Larry Krasner's appeal (Jan. 25, 2019) following Judge Leon Tucker's decision Dec. 27, 2018, to allow Mumia Abu-Jamal to file a new Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) with the PA Superiour Court on all the issues that were brought up over 20 years of litigation. Tucker concluded that Ron Castille, a former DA turned PA Supreme Court Judge who ruled on a number of Abu-Jamal's appeals between 1998-2012, violated the Pennsylvania Rules of Judicial Conduct by refusing to recuse himself from hearing appeals. Tucker explained that "Justice must be completely just without even a hint of partiality, lack of integrity or impropriety." On Jan. 25, DA Larry Karasner, following in the footsteps of his corrupt predecessors, and standing on the side of the Fraternal Order of Police, filed a notice that he would oppose Judge Tucker's order. His reasoning this opinion could potentially result in the court having to hear "thousands of cases." Does this mean that the PA courts might have wrongfully convicted more persons than Abu-Jamal? (theIntercept.com 2019/02/09).

We took photos to send to Mumia who despite the Hep C treatment, is still not well. Pam Africa stated that the call is release Mumia Abu-Jamal now. His present  attorney has been working on his case for 17 years. 

Alice Walker delivers one of many tongue in cheek comments about the absurdity of the prison system which she agrees with Dr. Davis (to the right of Pam Africa), needs to be abolished. Photo credit: Wanda Sabir

Angela Y. Davis closes the evening.
Jeff Mackler and Pam Africa look on.
Photo credit: Wanda Sabir

Wanda's Picks Radio Show, Friday, April 5, 2019

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!

1. Rennie Harris joins us to talk about his Lazarus, commissioned by Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. In its Bay Area premiere this coming week: Program A, performed Tuesday, April 9 at 8pm and Saturday, April 13 at 8pm, features the Bay Area premiere of hip hop dance pioneer

Rennie Harris

Rennie Harris’ Lazarus (2018), inspired by the life and legacy of Alvin Ailey. The work is the company’s first two-act ballet and was a 2018 recipient of the New England Foundation For the Arts prestigious National Dance Project grant. With Lazarus, which has a score by Darrin Ross, Harris addresses the racial inequities America faced when Ailey founded this company in 1958 and still faces today. True to tradition, the program closes with Revelations, Ailey’s 1960 masterpiece celebrating the African-American experience.

Erik Lee

Latanya d. Tigner

2. Rebroadcast of Wed., April 3, 2019 featuring: Erik Lee & Latanya d. Tigner, Mazin Jamal, Dr. David Campt, Shelley Davis Roberts.
http://tobtr.com/s/11274527

Wanda's Picks Radio Show April 3, 2019

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!

1. Erik Lee and Latanya Tigner join us to talk about new work premiering at Dimensions Dance Theater this weekend: We Have Ourselves, April 5-6 at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts theatre, 1428 Alice Street, Oakland.

2. Mazin Jamal, Professional Life and Leadership Coach, is the founder and director of Holistic Underground (2014), a community organization providing personal and professional development to leaders, creatives, and change agents. He's is a featured artist in MAPP this weekend.

3. Dr. David Campt (@thedialogueguy), White Ally Tool Kit, is a nationally renowned in the areas of civic engagement, dialogue and deliberation, and collaborative decision making. He teaches strategies for changing attitudes, behavior, and group culture around dialogue. David’s innovative ideas and engaging personality cause groups to better address the challenges that confront them. His clients make new choices so that more people’s insights are honored, relationships are improved, and collective goals are more effectively pursued. He is a dynamic and engaging speaker, facilitator, trainer, and strategist who helps ensure meetings and conferences meet objectives by enhancing conversation.

4. Shelley Davis Roberts, Lead Designer for House/Full of Black Women, Episode 13: “divine the darkeness” installation, March 24-April 14, at Ashara Ekundayo Gallery, 480 23rd Street, Oakland, Hours: Wed.-Fri., 1-7 p.m., 1st and 3rd Sat., 12-4 p.m. and by appointment, (510) 604-2748.  

Originally from Las Vegas, Nevada, Shelley Davis earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Spelman College in Atlanta, GA and a Master of Architecture Degree from U.C. Berkeley.  Her multi-disciplinary interests in architecture and continued dedication to the arts has guided her work and exploration in diversified community development, identity and culture while working as a visual and performing artist, designer, educator and project manager for  twenty years. Shelley has worked on a wide range of architectural project types including affordable multifamily housing, schools, private family residences, commercial and sacred spaces.  Her current focus is on social justice architecture which impacts underserved communities of color.  

She has served as Chapter President for the San Francisco Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects where she researched and presented on the contributions of African American Architects in her lecture “Evolution of the African American Architect”. She is also a former part time instructor at the City College of San Francisco where for seven years she taught Architecture and Diversity.  

Shelley began studying dance while attending UC Berkeley. She is formerly a gymnast and has studied Modern, Ballet, Samba, and Capoeira in the Bay Area, Brazil and Cuba.  She enjoyed nine seasons with the Kendra Kimbrough Dance Ensemble and five seasons with Alayo Dance Company. Theater set design and jewelry design are other realms of exploration that have evolved from her fascination with “making” and years as a performing artist. 

Show link: http://tobtr.com/s/11274527

Review of Julliard to Jail by Leah Joki

Just finished reading an amazing memoir, Leah Joki's Julliard to Jail (2013), the story of her work in California Corrections as Institutional Artist Facilitator in Southern CA at a time when jails were taking over the desert development-- a time when food was grown on prison grounds for inhabitant consumption, fresh milk from local dairies. Her account which includes marriage, childbirth, not to mention elements of uncertainty and drama one encounters when working within a government bureaucracy as complicated as the paramilitary division known as CDC now CDCR.

A literal page turner, it is not often that one reads a story about working inside prison that is a subjective and alternative perspective -- a young white woman actor and playwright who needs a job stumbles into corrections via the juvenile system and then finds her niche in adult corrections working with men in maximum security prisons.

Lighthearted, but not light, Joki tells stories of the men she teaches. For the time they are in her studios these men create a democratic space often challenged once they walk outside. It is not an easy space for any of the participants, but they more often than not, make it work. Would that the rest of her world complied or ran along similar values.

Joki introduces her audience to correctional officers, wardens, arts administrators . . . the entire food chain on the ground at the prison and located in Sacramento. It is a California story, with perhaps resonance elsewhere-- I don't know. With one of the largest incarcerated populations in the country, not to mention world, Arts in Corrections, a program that went away for a number of years, is certainly proven now that its back, to be helpful in both keeping the peace and giving those inside ways to express themselves affirmatively.

There is humor here too, lots of humor. What is really hilarious is the way Joki uses "lingo" to protect the innocent, and to also poke fun at the crazy list of acronyms associated with CDC and the Arts Programs. There is a glossary at the end of the book for those readers who get lost. Personal favorites are: MUGsie -- the Most Unhappy Gal reference to the administrator in Sac in charge of the Arts in Corrections program; TOWie -- The Other Woman; OBBF-- Original Black Boy Friend.

The author is a white woman who dates black men, even marries one. Irish ancestry from Montana, Joki has a temper and is angry a lot throughout this tale of triumph and woe. It is not a neat or pretty story, but it's real and in a stressful high stakes life/job, the toll is extracted in flesh.

Occupational hazards even to a savvy person with expertise like Joki who pays attention and knows how to find out where the landmines are hidden, loses an occasional limb or two. It's just par for a course that includes having not one but two children on the state-- marriage to a colleague (OBBF from New York).  The stresses of home and family and inherent drama thickens as money separates the newlyweds early on as the husband takes jobs elsewhere to pay the mortgage.

Currently Joki is back at CRC Lancaster, the men just produced a theatre program of original work. One piece Blythe was actually banned when first written and produced. Notions of censorship come up as do the statutes stating that the men cannot make money from any of their work while incarcerated. News coverage highlights quite a few success stories like the art auction for a local charity that raises $10,000 for youth.

Special Needs Yards whose populations have been integrated in most if not all California prisons by now are explained. Sometimes Joki's humor is not funny; however, it's always insightful, such as her comments on pedophiles and child molesters. It is also interesting to note that the artist in residence and arts administrators are union positions, so when the CDC wanted to eliminate the positions, they were not legally able to do so even though the budget was cut to nil.

Today given the current value CDCR has for arts in corrections, the funding is back and Joki is charged with training artists to run theatre programs in other California prisons without such programs.

She is working on a sequel and has a one woman performance piece that has toured California. She says she might bring it back.