Wanda's Picks

Today we feature actors, Traci Allen (Nettie) & Edward C. Smith (Mister) from The Color Purple: A Musicial opening in San Jose at the end of the month, Nov. 23-28, www.broadwaysanjose.com, (415) 792-4111. November kicks off a 16 day campaign to address violence against women in "Recognition of International Day for the Elimination of Violence Towards Women," 12 Noon on the Steps of San Francisco, City Hall. We are joined by two of the organizers: Nina Serrano and MamaCoAtl. We close with an interview with choreographer Adia Whitaker, whose Apey! is on stage at CounterPulse in San Francisco. Ampey! is a look at migration of an African woman from the Diaspora back home.

Amiri Baraka pays tribute to the "Freedom Now Suite, Max Roach & Abbey Lincoln." He is joined by the Muziki Roberson Quartet at EastSide Cultural Center, Friday, Nov. 12, 2010, 8 PM. ESCC is located in the San Antonio district of Oakland, 2277 International Blvd. @ 23rd Avenue, (510) 533-6629 and www.eastsideartsalliance.org Music: We Insist! Freedom Now Suite, Triptych (Prayer, Protest, Peace) and Lizz Wright's Lead the Way (from Salt).

Andrew Cyrille, Ms. Faye Carol, Mechelle LaChaux, Duane Deterville, Glen Pearson, Raymond Nat Turner discuss the 50th Anniversary of the historic work: "We Insist: Freedom Now Suite!' Max Roach-Abbey Lincoln." East Side Cultural Center presents "We Insist! Amiri Baraka pays tribute to the people and the album. Baraka is joined by The Muziki Roberson Quartet. Following the hour long conversation, Dayna Jarae Dantzler, actress, joins us to talk about her role as "Celie" in Broadway San Jose production of: "The Color Purple: the Musical about Love and Forgiveness," opening at San Jose Center for Performing Arts, Nov. 23-28, for 8 performances only. Visit www.sjtix.com or (415) 792-4111. We close with an interview with John Handy who performed at Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln's wedding.

Special Update on Oscar Grant sentencing of Mehserle and the subsequent reaction in Oakland and the police arrests of over 200 people. We are joined by Marcus La Fontaine, All of Us or None, Jack Bryson, Justice for Oscar Grant, and Rachel, organizer, speak about the arrests, the sentencing and verdict and next steps: gang ordinances in Alameda county. Our final guest is Sienna McLean LoGreco is a producer, director and writer for documentary film and television. She has produced and written programs for Showtime, VH1, Discovery, TLC, Animal Planet, Lifetime and PBS, and is currently directing a feature length documentary about the controversy around refugees resettling in Northern Vermont. She is also currently a consulting producer on an interview series with producers and studio executives who have shaped the modern film industry. Sienna’s documentary short, Still Revolutionaries, is about women in the Black Panther Party, and premiered at Sundance, was awarded first prize for best documentary at the Ne

The Living Wisdom of Howard Thurman: a Six CD audio collection from Sounds True.

Artists: Kissy Keefer, Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe, Jose Navarrette, and Nicole Claymoon in Manifestival: "Like Oil and Water: from Gaza to the Gulf," Dance Brigade's Festival for Social Change, Nov. 12-20, 2010, two weekends, two different program, at Dance Mission theatre. For visit www.BrownPaperTickets.com * 415-273-4633. Rob Melrose, director and co-founder of Cuttingball Theatre, Shakespeare's The Tempest, opens the 2010-2011 season, Nov. 5-29, 2010. Visit http://cuttingball.com/about/ We close with a conversation with artists: Michael B. Platt, visual artist, and Carol A. Beane, poet, whose work is up at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street, Gallery open Thursday-Friday, 9-6, and Sat.-Sun. 1-4 through January 31, 2011. Tonight, Nov. 5, 2010, 5:30-9 PM is the opening party, which will feature a poetry reading by Carol. We feature poetry from Marilyn Buck's "Wild Poppies" and music from Lizz Wright's "Salt." Visit www.wandaspicks.com

"... I survived, carried on, glad to be like a weed, a wild red poppy, rooted in life," Marilyn writes in her book: Wild Poppies. On Tuesday, August 3, 2010, long-time political prisoner and acclaimed poet and translator Marilyn Buck, 62, passed peacefully at her home in Brooklyn, New York. A few short weeks earlier, on July 15th, Marilyn had been released from the federal Bureau of Prisons medical facility in Carswell, Texas and paroled to New York City. Thanks to the efforts of her long-time friend and lawyer Jill Soffiyah Elijah, her release came several weeks before the date originally set for her release on parole, August 8th. Marilyn served a total of 33 years of an 80-year prison sentence for politically motivated actions undertaken in support of self-determination and national liberation and in opposition to racial injustice and U.S. imperialism. Throughout her years in prison, Marilyn remained a steadfast supporter of fellow political prisoners and an advocate for the women with whom she was imprison

At the Cantor Museum at Stanford University Dr. Henry John Drewel's "Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas” is up through January 2011. Born and raised in New York City and Hempstead, NY, Dr. Drewal received his BA from Hamilton College majoring in French and minoring in Fine Arts. After graduation he joined the Peace Corps, taught French and English and organized vacation arts camps in Nigeria. It was during his two years in Nigeria that he apprenticed himself to a Yoruba sculptor. That experience was transformative. See http://www.henrydrewal.com/ & See http://museum.stanford.edu/calendar/ and Artists from Honoring Revolution with Visions of Healing, Dia de los Muertos 2010 at SOMArts Cultural Center through November 6, 2010: Patricia Montgomery, Carla Oden, and Sue Matthews. Visit www.somarts.org. We close with an interview with Guy Gunaratne/Phil Pachenko/Heidi Lindvall, director/producers of the film, "The Truth That Wasn't There" Sri Lanka/UK, 2010. Cinema verite sylistically

The show which begins with a prerecorded interview with Oscar Grant's Uncle Cephus "Uncle Bobby" Johnson speaking about the rally called by the ILWU Saturday, October 23, 2010 in downtown Oakland. This interview is followed by a conversation with filmmaker Adimu Madyun and Eesuu Orundide about "Warrior Spirit Art Experience" at J Posh Design Studio in North Oakland, 3824 Telegraph Avenue, Saturday, October 30, 2010, 7 PM to 11 PM. For information call (213) 272-6999 or 393fils.com and BlockReportRadio.com Another filmmaker joins us next, Anna Belle Peevey, co-director of "New American Soldier," a part of the United Nations Association Film Festival 2010 Friday, October 29, Program XXI, at 7:15 PM at Stanford University, Anneberg Auditorium Cummings Art Building, 435 Lausuen Mall. Visit www.unaff.org We close with a conversation with artists: Malik Seneferu, Antjuan Oden and Shizue Seigel who talk about their work in the exhibition, "Honoring Revolution with Visions of Healing," through Nov. 6, Tuesdays-Saturd

Katerina Cizek, director, "The Bicycle," which screens in the UNAFF 2010, Oct. 27, 5:25, a part of Session XV at Stanford University Medical School, Li Ka Shing Center Bldg., 291 Campus Drive, which starts at 4 PM and ends about 7 PM. Visit www.unaff.org. For Kat's many projects visit: filmmakerinresidence.nfb.ca and her latest work: http://highrise.nfb.ca/ Lance Garner (Franco) & Michael J. Asberry (James) in TheatreWorks production of "Tracy Lett's "Superior Donuts" through October 31. Visit www.theatreworks.org (650) 463-1960. The show is 7:30 PM tonight, Thursday-Friday, 8 PM, Saturday 2 & 8 PM and Sunday, 2 & 7 PM. Tickets are $19 (student)-67. Liza Garza, Sunday, Nov. 14, 8 PM, is featured in La Pena Cultural Center's "Mujeres en la Resistencia," a part of the 11th Annual Hecho en Califas Festival. Visit www.lapena.org We close with an interview with writer, Jacqueline Woodson, whose "Peace, Locomotion," premiered in a stage adaptation at the Kennedy Center, October 23.

Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely is performing at Stanford University, Dinkelspiel Auditorium, Friday, October 29, 2010, 8 PM. Tickets are half price for students and $10 for Stanford students. Call 650-725-ARTS (2787), or http://livelyarts.stanford.edu There is a free vocal workshop the evening before, Thursday, October 28, 2010, for Stanford students. Singer/songwriter Toshi Reagon has a musical personality equally at home on a formal concert stage or in a rowdy blues bar. Atlanta-born and Brooklyn-based, Reagon effortlessly moves among traditional African American folk, blues, and gospel music genres to vintage rock, reggae, and contemporary pop. Her voice is by turns earthy and sweet, her band BIGLovely grooves with easy grace, and her music nests sharp social commentary in sensual vocal harmonies with infectious hooks. Jasmina Boyich, Stanford University professor and curator/founder of the Human Rights Association Film Festival, 13 years old now, opens October 22, 2010 and continues through October 31, 2010 i

April Martin Chartrand, Author/Illustrator speaks about her new book: "ANGEL'S DESTINY: A Novel Story of Poems & Illustrations" reading Thursday, Oct. 21, 7-8:30 PM with Imani M. Harrington, at The Green Arcade, 1680 Market Street, S.F.(415) 431-6800. Visit http://www.youtube.com/user/AprilMartinChartrand Francine Cavanaugh, co-director, "ON COAL RIVER," 81 min, USA, at SF Doc Fest., Friday, October 22, 9:30 PM; Monday, October 25, 7:15 PM. With the recent April 2010 Massey Energy Company coal mine disaster in West Virginia, On Coal River could not be more relevant. When residents of the Coal River Valley begin noticing that a host of medical problems are linked to a Massey-owned coal-waste dumping ground that sits above the local elementary school…they join together in a David-and-Goliath struggle to draw national attention to the dangers they face on a daily basis. -Silverdocs. Visit oncoalriver.com Zack Rogow is the author, editor, or translator of eighteen books or plays. Currently he teaches in the

Oren Rudavsky, Producer/Director, "To Educate a Girl," http://www.toeducateagirl.com/ In 2000, 110 million children in the world were not in school—two thirds of them were girls. In 2010, filmmakers Frederick Rendina and Oren Rudavsky traveled to Nepal and Uganda, two countries emerging from conflict and struggling with poverty, to find the answer to one question: What does it take to educate a girl? The film screens at the Mill Valley Film Festival at the Rafael Film Center, Oct. 16, 3:45 PM; Judy Irola Producer/Director, also has a film in the closing weekend of the MVFF: "Niger ’66, A Peace Corps Diary," Friday, Oct. 15, 7 PM at the Rafael Film Ctr. & Sun., Oct. 17, 2:30 PM at Sequoia in Mill Valley. Visit mvff.org. After serving two years in the Peace Corps in Niger, Africa (1966-68) Irola returned to San Francisco where she went to work for KQED-TV in their documentary film unit. Now she is an esteemed professor at the University of Southern CA, where she holds the Conrad Hall Chair in Cinematograph

Brooklyn Siren Capathia Jenkins and Chicago Tunesmith Louis Rosen bring “Brilliant” (NY Magazine) Melodies to Freight & Salvage Oct. 22, 2010. They have two days in Southern CA, Oct. 20-21.Visit capathiajenkins.com Martin Baer is a cameraman, author and director. As an author, director and cameraman he has realized films that focus in particular on historical topics and on Africa (“Free Africa!”, “White Ghosts – The Colonial War against the Herero”, “Kinshasa Symphony”). Kinshasa Symphony screens at the Mill Valley Film Festival Thursday, Oct. 14, 7 PM at Rafael & Sat., Oct. 16, 4:45 PM at Sequoia in Mill Valley. Visit www.kinshasa-symphony.com Donna Jean Murch is an associate professor at Rutgers where she teaches African American and urban history. She received her Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley in 2004. She is speaking about her new book: Living for the City: Migration, Education and the rise of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California, at the Oakland Main Library, Oct. 14, 6:30-7:30 PM as a part

Claude Marks is the Project Director of The Freedom Archives, a political, cultural oral history project in SF. He is a former political prisoner who served time for a conspiracy to break a Puerto Rican political prisoner out of Leavensworth. Claude taught ESL, literacy, writing and history inside. He will speak about the the San Francisco Premiere of COINTELPRO 101, Sunday, October 10, 2010, at 4 and 7 pm at Mission Cultural Center of Latino Arts in San Francisco, CA, 2868 Mission Street. Suggested donation $10, youth $5. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Soffiyah Elijah and the filmmakers we speak after the program. Regina Y. Evans is a Poet, Storyteller and Playwright from Oakland, Ca. She is the Writer of Echo: A Poetic Journey Into Justice, a theatrical performance designed to bring awareness to the horrors of sex trafficking/slavery. "Echo: A Poetic Journey into Justice," braids together the fabric of poetry, Negro Spirituals and movement in an effort to shine a light upon the extraordinarily similar threads that

We open the show with a conversation with actor, Alex Ubokudom, who is both African and American, joins us to talk about Nigeria on the occasion of its 50th anniversary of freedom from Britain. He is also currently on stage in Tarell Alvin McCraney's "The Brothers Size" (as Elegua) at the Magic Theatre through October 17. There is a free matinee, Sat.,October 9, 2010, 2:30 at the Laney College Theatre. The play is for mature audiences. Mary Campbell and Deidre Wilson speak about the California Coalition for Woman Prisoners and Free Battered Women State-wide Conference Friday-Sunday, October 8-10, 2010. Dr. Marcus Lorenzo Penn is a native Bay Area physician by training, but a photographer by passion. He has trav­eled throughout the world-visiting six of the seven continents-gathering photos of his experiences. Medically, he trained to diagnose and treat through medication. Artistically, he evolved to share and discover through photography. His work aims to reveal the natural, elemental, environmental, social a

Marcus Shelby presents "Soul of a Movement," his latest work which looks at the legacy of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Moveent at SFJAZZ.org on October 8, 2010. Adrienne Anderson, founder of the International Black Woman's Film Festival, October 8-9, 2010, and director Ruth Montgomery Anderson. Visit www.ibwff.org We close with cast from Magic Theatre's production of "Brothers Size" and the Marin Theatre Company's production of "In the Red and Brown" Water, parts 2 and 1 respectively, of Tarell Alvin McCraney's Brother/Sister Stories at The Magic Theatre (Brothers Size) through, Oct. 17, Marin Theatre Company (Red & Brown), through October 10. Joshua Elijah Reese (Ogun), Tobie Windham (Oshoosi Size), Alex Ubokudo (Elegua) and Ryan Vincent Anderson (Ogun in Red & Brown) join us for an hour long discussion of the play cycle. The final segment, "Marcus; or The Secret of Sweet" opens at ACT Geary Theatre October 29-Nov. 21. Visit BrotherSisterPlays.org or call (415) 749-2228. Brothers Size will be a part

Rebroadcast from October 24, 2008: Today we highlighted the Black Panther Party, Oakland Community School, the first charter school in the State of CA and a model promoted by then Gov.Jerry Brown--yes, unbelievable that this same man, as CA Attorney Gen. is promoting the trial of the SF8. We had Billy X, itsabouttimebpp.com, Melvin Dixon, the Commemorator and the Lil' Bobby Hutton Literacy Program and Naomi Banks, former student on the air. "The Down Memory Lane Reunion," is 10/25, 12-5, at the old school site: 6118 International Blvd., Oakland. We also had Naima and Alixa, climblingpoetree.com who have a new show: Hurricane Season, Oct. 24-25, at La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave., in Berkeley, 7:00 doors, 7:30 show. They will also take "Hurricane Season," to Cell Space in SF, 10/30, 7:00 doors, 7:30 show. They are performing poetry at the "Wonders of Cannibis" Festival its second day, 10/26, which also features Dead Prez, at Golden Gate Park in SF, CA. My other guests were, Avotcja & Modupue, w

John Perkins Center for Community Transformation at Patten University presents: "Great is Thy Faithfulness," DIRECTOR/WRITER: Alicia Garcia, ACTOR: Angel Harshaw-Wolf, and Timothy Russell. The play opens: Saturday, SEPT. 25, 2010, 3 PM and 7:30 PM at the Malonga Casquelourde Theatre, 1428 Alice Street, (510) 325-2693 & (510) 261-8500 ext. 7703. It is a fundraiser for establishing A Safe Place for youth in Oakland. Mahealani Uchiyama, featured guest in Sankofa Cultural Institute's Naked Jazz Series, 6:30 PM at The Black Dot Cafe, 1195 Pine St., Oakland, CA $15 at the door includes a copy of the new CD, "Ndor: Dze Madzinza." Visit www.thesacredforest.org Oakland Underground Film Festival artists and programmers: Mark Landsman, dir. "Thunder Soul," Betty M. Park, dir. Mamachas del Ring, and Festival programmer Misha. We close with Kyla Thomas-Duncan.

Rebroadcast from June 11, 2010: 8:00 AM: MOUNTAINS THAT TAKE WING. C.A. (Crystal) Griffith & H.L.T.Quan QUAD Productions. Their film opened at the San Francisco Black Film Festival, Thursday, June 17, 2010. The film screens Friday, SEPTEMBER 24, 7 PM, at East Side Cultural Center, 2277 International Blvd., in Oakland. It is a free event and Angela Davis and Yuri Kochiyama will be present as well. Visit www.quadproductions.org 8:30 AM: Sia Amma and Mia Pascal: The Marsh presents New Solo Theatre Pieces by Up-and-Coming Artists: A Festival of New Voices through June 13, 2010 9:00 AM: Coloring Outside the Lines artists and curator, Kheven Lee LaGrone, Makeda Rashidi, Nate Creekmore, Barbara Brandon-Croft and Jerry Craft.There is an artist panel Sunday afternoon, June 13, 2010 at the San Francisco Main Library. The exhibit then moved to the Laney College Library. Music this morning: "New Orleans Underwater" from Jane Bunnett's Radio Guantanamo.