Keb’ Mo’, who grew up in Compton surrounded by blues – a name he doesn’t particularly care for, the blues often associated with sad stories and hard luck lives – didn’t really come into the music until his 30s. Just out with a new album, on his own label, Yolabelle International, “Live and Mo’” features six live tracks and four studio. The artist tells stories which reflect the American social and cultural landscape.
Tags:
Agape Children’s Choir,
Albert Collins,
Ali Farka Touré,
Amiri Baraka,
Bay Area Blues Society Caravan of All-Stars,
Big Joe Turner,
Big Mama Thornton,
Bobby “Blue” Bland,
Bonnie Raitt,
Danny Glover,
Dr. Dre,
Gary Clark Jr.,
Habib Koité,
Jackson Browne,
James Gayles,
Jefferson Airplane,
John Sayles,
Keb’ Mo’,
King Oliver,
Michael Jackson,
Monk Higgins,
Papa John Creach,
Robert Johnson,
Ronnie Stewart,
Rose Brothers,
Ruth Brown,
SFJAZZ,
Solomon Burke,
Taj Mahal,
Wanda Sabir,
Yolabelle International
Maafa 2009 was chillier than usual, but our hearts were certainly no less warmed by the ancestors’ tight embrace as supplicants made their way through the Middle Passage to the Wolosodon rhythms, the slave march through the Doors of No Return to the beach where each person held a piece of string – symbolic of a connection … a philosophical connection to the homeland, family and history.
Tags:
African Dance and Drum Festival,
Akosua,
Akram Khan,
Albert Mathias,
Alex Ketley,
Alonzo King,
Amiri Baraka,
Ani Di Franc,
Anthony,
Anthony Smith,
Axis Dance Company,
Barack Obama,
Beat Generation,
Black Arts Movement,
Black Repertory Group Theatre,
Brian Copeland,
Carla Service,
Carolina Chocolate Drops,
Cheo Tyehimba,
civil rights era,
Conversations with Black Authors,
Cultural Heritage Choir,
Danjuma,
David Dorfman,
David Murray,
Del the Funky Homosapien,
devorah major,
DJ Spooky,
Doors of No Return,
Dr. Raye Richardson,
Dwan Smith,
El Hamideen,
Faly Seydi,
Fannie Lou Hamer,
Faustin Linyekula,
Fernando Botero,
Fred Hampton,
Gnawa,
Gregory Maqoma,
Grupo Falso Baiano,
Ice Cube,
Immortal Technique,
India Arie,
Irene Cara,
J. California Cooper,
Jason Moran,
Jeffrey Haas,
Jerome Bongiorno,
Jetaun Maxwell,
Joan Jeanrenaud,
John Burris,
John Grider,
John Handy,
Justin Desmangles,
Kamala Harris,
Karla Brundage,
Keb’Mo’,
Khalil Shaheed,
Kikongo tradition,
Linda Tillery,
LINES Ballet,
Lonette McKee,
M.B. Hanif,
Maafa 2009,
Mai,
Mali Kingdom,
Malonga Casquelorde Center for the Arts,
Marc Bamuthi Joseph,
Marc Cary,
Marcus Book Stores,
Mark G.,
Marvin X,
Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno,
Mbongi,
Michael Jackson,
Michael Wall,
middle passage,
Nona Brown,
Oaktown Jazz Workshop,
Opal Palmer Adisa,
Pooja Aresh,
Queen Latifah,
Randy Weston,
Remy Charlip,
Richard Mayhew,
Saul Williams,
Sean Vaughn Scott,
Sharon McGriff-Payne,
Snoop Dogg,
Solomon Burke,
Sonia Sanchez,
Sonya Delwaide,
Taiwo Kujichagulia Seitu,
Tarika Lewis,
the Ghetto Prophet,
Traci Bartlow,
Tropicália,
Val Serrant,
Vince Tolliver,
Vincent Mantsoe,
Voting Rights Movement,
Wanda Sabir,
Wanda’s Picks Radio,
Wolosodon rhythms,
Womyn of Color Arts and Craft Show,
“Dark River”
Duane Deterville is a dedicated organizer in the Village Bottoms Cultural District in West Oakland and is the host of their Oct. 29 open house. The SF Bay View thinks that this open house is important because the Village Bottoms is a collective of Black business owners and homeowners who are working together to protect their property and institutions and to generate business. Listen to Duane in his own words …
Tags:
Amiri Baraka,
Carlos Moore,
Chairman Fred Hampton Jr.,
CL Dellums,
Cynthia McKinney,
Duane Deterville,
Huey P. Newton,
John Coltrane Church,
KKK and white citizens’ councils,
Louisiana,
Marcel Diallo,
Minister of Information JR,
Mississippi,
Pullman Porters,
Texas,
The Black Dot Cafe,
The Black Dot Collective,
the Juju Shop,
the SF Bay View,
the Soul Food Co-op,
the Village Bottoms Cultural District,
West Oakland,
West Oakland Blues
Amiri Baraka, one of the most fiery political poets and cultural critics in Black Amerikkka, recently celebrated his 75th birthday. He is the father of the Black Arts Movement of the ‘60s and after 2001, New Jersey abolished the poet laureate position because they couldn’t fire him, the incumbent, after he wrote his controversial piece, “Somebody Blew Up America.” On Sunday, Nov. 8, 1 p.m., Amiri will be speaking in the Koret Auditorium of the San Francisco Library, 100 Larkin St., as well as at the Black Dot Cafe, 1195 Pine St. at 6:30 in West Oakland on the same day. Here’s a quick Q & A that I did with Amiri Baraka …
Tags:
Amiri Baraka,
Billie Holiday,
Black Amerikkka,
Duke Ellington,
Gov. McGreevy,
Harlem,
Harvard,
Israel,
Koret Auditorium of the San Francisco Library,
LeRoi Jones /Amiri Baraka Reader,
New Jersey,
Obama,
Oscar Grant,
POCC Minister of Information JR,
poet laureate,
Professor Skip Gates,
Steele,
the Anti Defamation League,
the Black Arts Movement,
The Black Dot Cafe,
the new Ku Klux Klan,
U.S. Supreme Court,
“Digging: The Afro American Soul of American Classical Music”,
“Somebody Blew Up America”
The Maafa Ritual begins before dawn on Sunday, Oct. 11, about 5:30-6 a.m., at Ocean Beach on the Great Highway at Fulton Street in San Francisco. Invited are Black people interested in honoring our ancestors who perished in the European Slave Trade and its aftermath via colonialism and other forms of genocide like incarceration, terrible occurrences or reoccurring disasters felt today. Maafa Awareness Month was founded and has been organized by Bay View Arts Editor Wanda Sabir for 11 years.
Tags:
A Safe Place Walk-a-thon,
Africa Rising,
African refugees,
Afropop Worldwide,
Alonzo King LINES Ballet,
Amiri Baraka,
Antióquia and Chinyakare,
Assemblyman Sandre Swanson,
Ayodele Nzinga,
Baobab Village,
Bay Area Latin Jazz All-Stars,
BAYCAT,
Black Holocaust,
Black Panther Awareness Month,
British Member of Parliament George Galloway,
Chike Nwofiah,
Cindy Blackman,
colonialism,
Community Works,
Cynthia McKinney,
DeBug,
DJ Jeremiah Kpohand,
DJ Said Adelekan,
Donna and Darlene Wallach,
Eric Reed,
European Slave Trade,
Eyewitness Gaza,
Fela Kuti,
Festival of the Desert in Essakane Mali,
Francisco Aguabella,
Free Gaza Movement,
Gaza,
Gil Scott Heron,
Gladys Knight,
HIV/AIDS,
HuNia Bradley,
International Solidarity Movement,
Isaura Oliveria,
Ise Lyfe,
Israel-Gaza conflict,
Israeli blockade of Gaza,
Israeli settlements,
Jason Moran,
Joanna Haigood,
Karimah Al-Helew,
Latin Jazz Ensemble,
libations for the ancestors,
Lower Bottoms Playaz,
M1,
M1 of dead prez,
Maafa Awareness Month,
Maafa Commemoration,
Maafa Ritual,
Maisha Productions with Fat Souls Records,
Mama at Twilight: Death by Love,
Mama Juggs,
Man Alive: Stories from the Edge of Incarceration to the Flight of Imagination,
Mary J. Blige,
Michael Franti,
Michael Moore,
middle passage,
neocolonialism,
Oakland International Film Festival,
Orgone,
Palestinian fishermen,
Palestinian liberation,
post-traumatic stress,
Prescott Joseph Center,
Ramsey Lewis,
Rie Shontel,
Sabar,
SS Liberty and SS Free Gaza,
Suga T,
suicide bomber,
the Afrobeat Nation from Monrovia,
Thea Bowman Theatre,
Toubab Krewe,
Tyler Perry,
Viva Palestina,
Wanda Sabir,
Wanda’s Picks,
Wo’se House of Amen Ra,
Zaccho Dance Studio,
Zaccho Dance Theatre,
Zulu Spear
Ishmael Reed is one of the most read writers of his generation, along with Toni Morrison and Amiri Baraka, living in America. In 1962, Reed co-founded “East Village Other,” a well known underground publication at the time, and was a member of the Umbra Writers Workshop, which helped to give rise to the Black Arts Movement. He has published nine novels, four collections of poetry, six plays, four collections of essays and a libretto. He currently lives in Oakland, and I approached him one day while he was visiting KPFA’s studios to ask him what he thought about the state of affairs between the police and Oakland’s Black community, with the backdrop of the police murder of Oscar Grant and, in a separate incident, the police murder of Lovelle Mixon, after Mixon allegedly killed four Oakland police officers.
Tags:
African Americans,
Amiri Baraka,
anti-Chinese riots,
BART police officers,
California,
Chinese Exclusion Act,
Enoch Pardee,
Gaelic,
Gitmo,
Hispanics,
Japanese Exclusion Act,
Jerry Brown,
Lovelle Mixon,
Minister of Information JR,
non-violent crime,
Oakland,
Oscar Grant,
Police Chief Parker,
police state,
prison hospitals,
prisoners,
racial profiling,
Ramsey State Penitentiary,
rape,
Spanish,
Texas,
the Black Amazon Queen,
the Black Arts Movement,
the Bush administration,
the ghetto,
the Native American,
the Pell grants,
the public schools,
the Umbra Writers Workshop,
the Wall Street Journal,
Three Strikes,
Toni Morrison,
torture,
traffic profiling,
“Blues City: A Walk in Oakland”,
“Califia”,
“East Village Other”
Naturally we are outraged by Rupert Murdoch’s low rag The New York Post’s depicting Barack Obama as a monkey. That cartoon is actually calling for the assassination of the president of the United States!
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