Happy birthday, Bob Marley! Congratulations, Robert King, on seven years of liberation from Angola! We're looking to free Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace! Happy birthday to my brother, Fred!

‘Faubourg Tremé'

In nearly two and a half years since the levees broke, I've seen many films about New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina, but "Faubourg Tremé" is a story that offers hope. Lolis Eric Ellie, a New Orleans native, buys a house in the historic Black neighborhood and decides to refurbish it. In the process he meets Irving Trevigne, whose family is one that has been restoring homes for generations. He was born with a saw and leveler in his hands - no, seriously, Trevigne carried a wealth of New Orleans history in the tool box he lost during the storm.

But before the flood, when he lost everything, including hope, Trevigne told Ellie about his great uncle Paul Trevigne, who was the editor of the New Orleans Tribune, the first Black paper in the country. It is his story that shows how New Orleans was a different kind of place, one which boasted the largest free population of Black people, the largest insurrection and the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement.

"Faubourg Tremé" is the story of jazz, which is really the story of resistance. No one talks about jazz as resistance to Jim Crow and the end of Reconstruction, but that is when it was born. Seventy-five when Ellie meets him, Trevigne says to the youth who ask why Black people in New Orleans and the South didn't resist the terrorism that the laws and institutions didn't support Black rights. And the beatings, lynchings and other public forms of terror stopped organized resistance efforts.

New Orleans was ahead of its time with its integrated schools and Black representatives in federal government. Kalamu ya Salaam, New Orleans scholar and writer, said people are excited about a Black mayor today when the state of Louisiana once had a Black governor.

The story of Treme is the story of New Orleans. "Faubourg Tremé" tells the reason why New Orleans is not being rebuilt; it's reconstruction all over again. It's the test case in Plessey v. Ferguson all over again. Plessey, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), challenged in the Supreme Court the segregation of public transportation. Plessey, a Black man, lost and so went the remainder of the advances for Black people prior and during Reconstruction.

"Faubourg Tremé" tells the story of how the interstate highway ran through the center of Tremé's business section during the period in this country called "urban renewal," really, urban removal of Black people and destabilizing a stable economy by running major expressways through communities, leveling homes and, in their places, developing large rental property units called projects. My grandmother and aunt lost their home to redevelopment and the family moved into the projects off Claiborne Avenue, now home to the large displaced homeless population. Katrina didn't create the homelessness; it just made it more visible.

"Faubourg Tremé," through the stories of a few key people - Wynton Marsalis, Paul Trevigne, Glen David Andrew, Kalamu ya Salaam, historians John Hope Franklin, Eric Foner, Keith Weldon, Father Jerome LeDoux, former pastor of St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church - tells the story of a people determined to claim all their rights of citizenship. It shows Congo Square pre-emancipation, pre-Civil War and a newspaper published during the Civil War. I wonder if director and executive producer Stanley Nelson's attraction to the project was because of his knowledge of the era through his seminal film about the Black press, "Soldiers without Swords"? This is certainly a story that shows how a newspaper can change policy and support revolutionary change.

The film shows the unbroken link between Africa and New Orleans culture. A member of the group Living History says that when one sees the dances of New Orleans, one sees the same choreography. Keith Smith's cinematography is fantastic here as the joyful Mardi Gras celebration is captured on film, juxtaposed against the tragic scenes of bloated dead bodies and people swimming in water or stranded on rooftops begging for help. From the jazz funerals to the archival footage of brass bands and parades to the lynchings, which might have stopped the overt resistance, but didn't, change the flavor of Faubourg Tremé, a place that had been a model for true democracy and still, even after Jim Crow, was a place where the races befriended one another, even if their children couldn't attend the same schools.

"Faubourg Tremé" is the story of gentrification and reparations. It is the story of the crack epidemic and urban blight. It's the story of The Fillmore and West Oakland's Seventh Street. It's the story of Bayview Hunters Point now. The displacement and removal of African people not only disrespects, it dishonors our history and our contributions to American history. I expected to see Marcus Garvey and the UNIA in New Orleans.

"Faubourg Tremé" skipped the period preceding the Civil Rights Movement, Hurricane Katrina effectively interrupting a story centered on the cultural evolution of what is now called the 6th Ward. But it would have been nice to at least hear someone mention the UNIA. Instead, after the successes of the ‘60s, many African Americans moved from Faubourg Tremé into suburbs and the community, because of the flight of the middle class, lost what was left of its historic wonder.

Now Faubourg Tremé is a ghost town where cheap property destroyed in the storm is going to white people, many outsiders, who love New Orleans architecture and history but not its people, especially on the French Quarter side of Faubourg Tremé, where African traditions formerly celebrated, like the jazz funeral, are outlawed or more closely watched as are its people, who seem to be on a "most wanted" hit list. Glen David Andrews is in prison now awaiting a hearing for playing his horn without a permit.

Glen David Andrews, who was displaced by Katrina, and people I met Tuesday evening in the audience, who are also here because their home was ruined, said the laws are being used to penalize Black people for practicing their cultural traditions. Andrews says in the film that he lost everything that mattered: the cemetery where his people are buried and all his positions. He said he refused to play the American anthem or God Bless America any more because he wasn't a citizen of this country - couldn't be, if he was treated like this.

In most great films, what's compelling is the story and its people, the storytellers. Similar to the film "Favela Rising," which was intended to tell one story and life inserted itself and another story was the outcome, "Faubourg Tremé" is the story of Katrina, but it is a lot more. When the flooded homes are shown and one sees the personal loss suffered by the protagonist's friend, Mr. Trevigne, when ones sees the tears in the eyes of poet laureate of Louisiana Brenda Marie Osbey and reads the fates of so many others profiled in the short 67-minute film, one feels the loss in a way prior footage fails to convey.

These are our friends, our family, our people, and the loss is a major loss to the nation, not just a region.

One can understand more fully what drives Malik Rahim and the Common Ground Collective and one can also sadly understand what drives Ray Nagin and former Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and why the apathy exists. It's the same story that resulted in the demise of Sophiatown in South Africa during the 1950s when Apartheid laws said communities could not be integrated and that such successful examples of democracy had to be eliminated. Faubourg Tremé is Sophiatown.

The film website is a great resource and I encourage everyone to visit it. Look for the film on PBS sometime this year. It will be available for purchase and rental through California Newsreel. Visit www.newsreel.org.

Future Baker and Paradise enjoy the 18th annual African American Celebration Through Poetry. Photo: Wanda Sabir

Rain didn't keep people away from the annual African American Celebration through Poetry, which was dedicated to "those for whom truth is not an option, people like Lee Williams, who was recovering from a serious scalding, and Chauncey Bailey, whose journalism cost him his life, and Richard Wright, his centennial year." We were pleased to have as our special guest, via phone from Paris, Julia Wright, author-activist Richard Wright's daughter. Ms. Wright was introduced by Pam Africa, another special guest, who shared a poem from Mumia Abu Jamal's book, "Death Blossoms." Pam Africa, representative of MOVE and Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu Jamal, then spoke about award winning journalist and the case of former Black Panther Party members the San Francisco 8, one Julia Wright also echoed support for in her comments.

Ms. Wright shared her memories of her father and two gifts she wanted to give him on the occasion of his 100th birth year. One was to publish his last manuscript, a mystery, "A Father's Law" (Harper Collins, 2008, $14.95). The second present was to re-release three books banned during the McCarthy era. She also says that Mississippi has adopted Wrights' collection of stories, "Uncle Tom's Children," as a book for the state public schools this year. In the collection there is a pre-Katrina story that is uncanny in its vision.

Later, after the program, Norman Gee, artistic director for the Oakland Public Theatre, which is producing a monthly dramatic reading series to celebrate Wright's centennial, said the same was true of "Native Son." Wright had started the book in Chicago, then moved to Harlem when a trial similar to the one his fictional character Bigger Thomas experienced got underway. Margaret Walker, in Chicago, sent him clips from the trial.

The poetry that afternoon was outstanding, as usual, much of it reflecting themes Wright addressed in his work: alienation, resistance, love and family. We opened the program with Greg Gordon's praise song, followed by Mary Thornton and Ann Marie Davis, whose work looked at the longevity of our walk or sojourn and those whose footsteps we followed in. Longtime participant Future Baker's work questioned the violence in our communities, something she hadn't seen in Las Vegas in the all Black community there.

Jason Burnette and Myron Michael followed. Myron's poetry about family was really lovely, as were the poems of Ayodele Nzinga or Wordslanger, who treated us to work from her latest manuscript. James Cagney was back after several years' absence, and it was great to have him share poetry and a short story. Paradise performed a medley of favorite poems, among them, "They Love Everything about You, but You."

Mona Limbrick shared poetry about addiction and healing, which was lovely, especially the poem about the ocean. Lindsey Ellis shared an except from her manuscript and Luella Hill shared pieces from her award-winning book, "As Solid as a Rock I Stand." She told us that her book had been adopted by the Oakland Public Schools. Arnold White brought two paintings to share: "Oaktown" and another of Rosa Parks.

Branch Librarian Veronica Lee welcomed everyone and spoke about the collection and Richard Wright's books, plus announced the recently installed Black Panther exhibit and the reception Feb. 16. Later Christine Saed, former librarian, came and shared information about programs honoring Richard Wright which would be hosted at the Oakland Main Library beginning in May.

I was emcee and closed the outstanding program after the open mic, which featured Charles DuBois and a really wonderful poem about Martin King by David Hokes Jr. While looking for work to read that afternoon, I ran across work I hadn't remembered writing, plus a few old favorites. One, "A Headless Fish with Guts," I dedicated to the memory of my cat, Smokey. Patrons enjoyed the refreshments provided once again by The Bread Workshop in Berkeley and Delightful Foods, The No Cookie Cookie Bakery, in Oakland.

Monthly Richard Wright Centennial Project

The Richard Wright Centennial Project series continues at the San Francisco Main Library, Sunday, Feb. 10, at the Main Library on Larkin Street, across the street from Civic Center BART, 2 p.m. The theme is "If He Hollers" (racism in World War II). The event is free. That evening there will be another performance at The Chapel of the Chimes, Piedmont Avenue at Pleasant Valley Road in Oakland, 6 p.m. Call (510) 534-9529, ext. 3, or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Next month, March 16, at the San Francisco Main Library and The Chapel of the Chimes, the theme is "Native Sons" or "The Protest Novel." The series, which began in September, will culminate with a play Richard Talavera is writing.

‘No Easy Victories'

The book launch and reception for "No Easy Victories: African Liberation and American Activists over Half Century, 1950-2000" is Thursday, Feb. 7, 6 p.m., at La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley. Hundreds of thousands of Americans mobilized to oppose Apartheid in the 1980s, that successful movement built on decades of behind-the-scenes links between African liberation movements and American activists, both Black and white.

"No Easy Victories" draws on the voices of activists of several generations to explore this largely untold history. Today, Africa and the world face global injustices as deadly as Apartheid. Understanding this history of solidarity is essential for finding new paths to a future of equal human rights for all. This event is a special gathering and celebration of African solidarity and anti-apartheid movement veterans. RSVP requested; call (510) 238 8080, ext. 309, or write to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Bay View Arts Editor Wanda Sabir can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Visit her website, www.wandaspicks.com, for an expanded version of Wanda's Picks and for exciting "web exclusives."

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