Under the system of lifelong forced servitude, Black people could be tortured to death at a moment’s notice with impunity. White oppressors could sense that at some point the coin will flip. This mirrors today, where police continue to kill Black people with impunity.
Tags:
Alice Walker,
Black Jamaican English,
Black male characters,
British English,
British slave owner,
chattel slavery,
cultural genocide,
despotism,
enforcers for the overseer,
house servants,
Irish overseer,
Jamaica,
lifelong forced servitude,
Marlon James,
menial beasts,
Mildred Taylor,
mulatto,
POCC Minister of Information JR,
police kill Black people with impunity,
rebellious acts,
rebellious enslaved women house servants,
Sade,
slave plantation,
slave rebellion,
Toni Morrison,
tortured to death,
white oppressors,
“Avatar”,
“Let the Circle Be Unbroken”,
“master’s” family,
“Precious”,
“Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry”,
“Soldier of Love”,
“The Book of Night Women”,
“The Princess and the Frog”
The thing that most threw me off about this East Oakland native is that she loves opera. She has been singing longer in her life than she hasn’t been, and seems to be able to hit notes that makes glass break. She has recently been cast in a Black opera called “Dark River,” which tells the story of legendary Civil Rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. It opens at the Oakland Metro Opera House on Nov. 12 and runs until the 22nd.
Tags:
BBD,
Black people,
Bobby Brown,
Boyz II Men,
Brown Sugar N Spice,
East Oakland,
Emmett Till,
En Vogue,
Fannie Lou Hamer,
Frederick Douglass,
Kirk Franklin,
Madame Marie Selika,
Mississippi,
opera,
President Rutherford B. Hayes,
Salt N Pepa,
Taiwo Kujichagulia Seitu,
The Boys,
the Oakland Metro Opera House,
the Young Musicians’ Program,
Toni Morrison,
UC Berkeley,
“Dark River”
Can you imagine 45,000 people dying each month and hardly a peep from anyone in the age of the Internet? There is a media blackout about Congo and no worldwide resolution to end the conflict and carnage there. The purpose of the Break the Silence Congo Week is to raise awareness about the devastating situation in the Congo and mobilize support on behalf of the people of the Congo.
Tags:
"Break the Silence" Congo Week,
Adrienne Kennedy,
Alice Walker,
All of Us or None,
ArtEsteem,
August Wilson,
Avery Klein-Cloud,
Bellot Idovia Foundation,
California College of the Arts,
Carla Oden,
Danny Glover,
Deborah Slater Dance Theater,
Deep Waters Dance Theater,
Dia de Los Muertos,
Dorsey E. Nunn,
Esther Rolle,
Hamdiya Cooks,
Jorge Rodolfo De Hoyos,
Kathleen Hermesdorf,
Kim Epifano’s Epiphany Productions,
King Sunny Ade,
legacy of slavery,
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children,
Lorraine Hansberry Theatre,
Maafa Ritual,
Mexican Folklorico,
Nicole Opper,
Ntozake Shange,
Ossie Davis,
Patricia A. Montgomery,
Quentin Easter,
Rosamaria Garcia,
Ruby Dee,
Sharese Bullock,
Sonic Dance Theater,
Stanley E. Williams,
Ted Lange,
Toni Morrison,
transatlantic slave trade,
Uscla Johnny Desarmes,
Wanda Sabir,
WS Merwin
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”
One of the definite queens of soul music, folk guitarists and amazing song writers of our time is India.Arie. She has been nominated numerous times for Grammys, but more importantly she has been one of the symbols, within this decade, of dark skinned talented Black women musicians rising to prominence. Mainstream media in America, since its inception, has been about destroying the image of African people.
Tags:
"Testimony: Vol. 2 Love and Politics",
Alice Walker,
Anita Baker,
Anthony David,
Atlanta,
Bill Withers,
Bonnie Raitt,
Colorado,
Donny Hathaway,
India.Arie,
Iyanna Vanzant,
Lalah Hathaway,
Lizz Wright,
Mainstream media,
Marvin Gaye,
Minister of Information JR,
Oleta Adams,
Oprah,
Savannah Georgia,
Sezen Aksu,
Shirley Chisolm,
Stevie Wonder,
Susan Taylor,
the former editor of Essence Magazine,
Toni Morrison
We need to confront our racial past – and our racial present. In things racial, we have always been and continue to be essentially a nation of cowards. This Department of Justice, as long as I am here, must – and will – lead the nation to the “new birth of freedom.”
Tags:
African American equality,
African American History Month,
Attorney General Eric Holder,
Black history,
Black History Month,
Charles Drew,
Civil Rights Movement,
Department of Justice,
diversity,
divisive force,
Emmit Till,
Frederick Douglass,
George Wallace,
Jackie Robinson,
James Baldwin,
Joe Louis,
Langston Hughes,
lynching,
Malcolm X,
Marcus Garvey,
Marion Anderson,
Martin Luther King,
nation of cowards,
new birth of freedom,
Paul Robeson,
race protected cocoons,
racial issues,
Ralph Ellison,
Reconstruction,
Rosa Parks,
slavery,
Toni Morrison,
Vivian Malone,
W.E.B. DuBois,
Walter White
Dropped in to see the McCoy Tyner Trio with Marc Ribot on guitar. Tyner is always a treat and this ensemble featuring Gerald Cannon on bass and Eric Kamau Gravett on drums is phenomenal!
Tags:
"Quality of Life",
"Sincerella",
"Victim of Duty",
Albert Woodfox,
Avotcja,
Donald Lacy,
Eugene Ionesco,
Felicia Benefield,
Gail Shaw,
Geronimo ji jaga,
Goapele,
Herman Wallace,
Malik Rahim,
Marcus Shelby,
McCoy Tyner Trio,
Nas,
Nicolas Bearde,
Robert King,
Sila and AfroFunk,
Toni Morrison,
Wanda Sabir,
Wanda's Picks,
Zion I
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