Wanda's Picks

A first generation Nigerian, Nwamaka Agbo began volunteering at the Ella Baker Center in 2000, because she believed in the organization's commitment to providing innovative solutions for some of the hardest problems impacting low-income communities of color.After majoring in Sociology and African American/ African Studies at UC Davis, Nwamaka Agbo, was drawn to the work of the Green Collar Jobs Campaign, because of its solution-oriented response to climate change. She saw this as her generations’ freedom rights and civil rights movement.  Nwamaka is now the Campaign Director of Soul of the City, at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights dedicated to developing the leadership of young adults of color to create progressive, effective leadership in Oakland. Terri J. Vaughn, founder, Take Wings Foundation & Kenny Lattimore, co-hosts, join us to talk about the 9th Annual Angel Awards Benefit, Sat., Aug. 18, 2012 at the Marriott Oakland, City Center. The conversation is one of why they serve & invest in bla

Today we are continuing our conversation with Fiberalchemist April Martin-Chartrand; we then shift to an interview with three women artists, playwright Mfoniso Udofia, Erin Michelle Washington, Arts Organizer, Soul Productions, and Itero Udofia, director, MoAD Youth Media Project. We conclude with a special conversation with Michael Africa Jr., born 34 years ago, a month after the date of the unlawful detention of his parents, Debbie and Michael Africa Sr., and other MOVE 9 family. 

V. Diane Woods, Dr. P.H., M.S.N., Founding President, founder & CEO of African American Health Institute-- San Bernardino County, 2006-2012, (909) 880-2600, joins us to talk about the recent release of an unprecedented report which looks at black mental health in the State of California--wellness models & treatment for affected and vulnerable populations, plus empirically driven prevention & education guidelines and support for communities here. This report, released July 17, 2012, is also a resource for African Americans lay persons, as well as clinicians who work with and within the communities targeted in this study. The need for culturally specific training for those providing services came up Dr. Woods stated, from members of the focus groups in the five regions studied. Dr. Woods academic preparation for this task is certainly impressive. She is currently Assistant Research Psychologist, University of California, Riverside with a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) from Loma Linda University Sch

Today we are looking at Black Liberation, the first day of Black August, a month New Africans look at fallen comrades as well as successful revolts against enslavement, whether that is 500 years ago or presently. We are joined by artist, writer, April Martin-Chartrand, whose exhibit Treasured Cigar Box series, at the San Francisco Public Library, (Main Branch) in the African American Center, 3rd Fl., through Aug. 2, 2012, invites audiences into a world of the global slave trade perspectives between Africa, Europe, the Americas, and America (USA). These multidimensional assemblage cigar boxes (15 boxes) incorporate recycled and found objects, keys, money, and hand painted paper. This series bridges the gap by connecting the major Colonial slave trade shareholders of the New World. Treasured Cigar Box (series) offers knowledge and research into the deeper meaning on how the exploitative, atrocious and brutal servitude, and harvesting of tobacco by circa 12-million African Slaves fueled the beginnings of the mod

This morning we speak to Cynthia Taylor, Assistant Dir. of Public Programming at the Oakland Museum of California, about Summer Nights, tonight, Fri., July 27, 2012, 5 - 9 p.m. yes, extended hours at half price! Visit museumca.org We wax at length about tonight's programming which besides a book signing with Oakland cartoon artist, Dan Clowes with Chris Ware. There will be a special bus out front for folks to get on and explore 1968 memories while Amoeba Records is spinning all the hits of that era or season. Funny Girl screens outside, the Blue Cafe popping hot corn treats for patrons to eat. Taylor and I also spoke about a special ceremony tomorrow, 1-3 p.m. the Ohlone basket weaving ceremony, which is free admission and next week's annual Celebration of the Summer Reading Program with the Oakland Public Library. We are then joined by Thomas Simpson, AfroSolofounder whose program is in its 19th year. The AfroSolo season kicks off Mon., July 30, at the Common Wealth Club with a panel discussion on Race with

Today we'll be speaking to Robin Damelin, subj. of One Day After Peace, screening at the SFJFF 7/31 & 8/1. Visit http://www.sfjff.org/ We also speak to David McCauley, Dir., Ailey Camp at UC Berkeley. In its 11th year, Ailey Camp concludes August 2, 2012, 7 PM at Zellerbach Hall. Tickets for the free performance are available through the UC Berkeley box office. Visit http://calperformances.org/community/aileycamp/ He is followed by special guest host We close with a special guest host, Safi wa Nairobi who interviews the Watts Prophets who perform at Ashkenaz Music and Dance Center in Berkeley, Sat., July 28. Angela Wellman, founding director, Oakland Public Conservatory wraps up a winderful collective conversation this afternoon about peace and reconciliation and forgiveness, reciprocity and patience. She performs this evening at Freight and Savage in Berkeley. The OPC Summer Music Academy concert is, Thursday, July 26 at 5:30 PM with the children at 1616 Franklin at 17th in Oakland. Visit http://www.opcm

I am in LA at the ABPsi Conference and it is fantastic! Tell you about it when I return (smile). Today's show is the rebroadcast of Wednesday's show. We speak to my old friend,  Paradise, about the Oakland World Festival kick-off tomorrow, Sunday, July 22, 2012 in Berkeley, CA http://2012worldsfair.wordpress.com/ The 10th Annual International Black Women's Film Festival, Friday-Saturday, July 20-21 opened tonight and continues in San Francisco tomorrow. All the screenings are free. I don't know how Adrienne Anderson does it, but she is literally surpassing last season's festival which in itself was phenomenal. Visit http://festival.ibwff.com/ I was honored to speak to four witty, wonderful black directors, actors and producers Wed. afternoon: Alfred Robbins, Tamu Favorite, Tiffany Black and Alessandra Pinkston We close with an excerpt of an interview with James T. Lane, who is wonderful in his role as Ozie Powell in ACT-SF's current production of Scottsboro Boys. Napoleon Revels-Bey follows Paradise a

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the writing, visual and performing arts of African people in the Diaspora. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work filled with raw unfettered passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay! Remember to tune in on Wednesdays (summer schedule) and on Fridays (8 AM to 10 AM). We also host special broadcasts from time to time.

We open with a conversation with Wesley Watkins VI, Ph.D., creator of the The Jazz & Democracy Project® which manifests a hypothesis that Dr. Wes has been investigating since he was an undergraduate: a music-centered curriculum with genuine links to the other subject areas can increase student identification with school, impact academic engagement, and have a subsequent effect on overall academic success among students who have an affinity for music. Visit http://www.jazzanddemocracy.com Caleb Heller (director, editor,cinematographer) & Pilar Hailé-Damato (producer) speak about their film about Y-LOVE or Yitz Jordan, in their film by its same title. Y-Love is the “premier Orthodox Jewish entity in hip hop.”  This documentary paints a poignant portrait of a perennial outsider: a Black, Jewish, gay orphan searching for a home. The film is a part of the SFJFF opening July 24, 11:40 AM at the Castro Theatre in SF. There is a party the next evening. Visit www.sfjff.org Peter Miller, dir. of a.k.a. doc pom

    Kim McMillon has over 20 years of experience producing theatre in the Bay Area. In 1987, Ms. McMillon wrote, produced, and directed Voyages, A Multi-Media Excursion Into Reincarnation at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Playhouse.In 2000, Ms. McMillon wrote, and produced Confessions Of A Thespian: When Spirit & Theatre Collide at the Julia Morgan Theatre in Berkeley. From 2001 – 2005, Ms. McMillon produced the Oakland Literature Expo with PEN Oakland as part of the City of Oakland’s Art & Soul Festival. Ms. McMillon  is currently working on an stage adaptation of Brazilian Director Carlos Diegues’ 1984 Film Quilombo dos Palmares on 17th century slavery in Brazil.  Ms. McMillon’s radio show Arts in the Valley can be heard on 1480 KYOS AM in California’s San Joaquin Valley, as well as on Facebook.  She is currently enrolled in a doctoral program in UC Merced’s School of Humanities. She will speak about the free "Writers on Writing" program produced by the Women’s National Book Association (WNBA) and the Oa

Today we have a special broadcast highlighting, Renata Simone's latest film, END GAME: AIDS in the Black Community, which airs tonight, July 10, 2012, 10 PM PT on PBS's Frontline World (check local listings http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/endgame-aids-in-black-america/ We speak to Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick, an infectious disease specialist and medical epidemiologist, about her untiring work to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS and her volunteer efforts to educate her peers and those affected and infected on how to better protect their health. Dr. Fitzpatrick, who appears in the film, is director of the AIDS Education Training Center at Howard University and an associate professor and attending physician in the Department of Medicine at Howard University College of Medicine and Howard University Hospital. She is also director of the Care Center, a collaborative project between Howard’s Department of Medicine and United Medical Center in Southeast Washington that provides the infectious disease treatment component

Today we speak to Dr. Tescia Evans & Mrs.Tiana Jones-Bey about Ross Dance Company's Second Annual Praise Dance Festival in Davis, July 7, 2012, 7 PM at the Veteran's Memorial Theatre. Visit www.rossdance.comMr. Jesse Brooks joins us to talk about the debut on PBS's Frontline World, award-winning filmmaker Renata Simone's End Game: AIDS in Black America, 10 p.m. PST, Tuesday, July 10 (check local listings). Visit: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/social-issues/endgame-aids-in-black-america/aids-in-black-america-the-worlds-16th-worst-epidemic/ We close with a rebroadcast of an interview last Nov. with Rachelle Ferrell, singer, composer, musician, who is in town this weekend, July 6-8, 2012 in San Francisco. Music:

What to the American Slave is the 4th of July? Frederick Douglass asked over 100 years ago, a question still pertinent today. We play Malcolm X: Afro-American Lesson Part 1; followed by Rene Marie, singing from Voices of a New America "Lift Ev'ry Voice/Star Spangled Banner. Tim Wise follows speaking about his latest book, Dear White America (3/21/2012). We then replay an interview with Susan Heyward, who speaks about her role in the David Mamet's play RACE at ACT-SF last season, 2011. There are echoes of Scottsboro Boys in Mamet's RACE, as well as jurist, Anita Hill. In this case, it is a black woman who accuses a rich white man of rape, he then goes to a prominent firm to see if its attorneys can make the charges and case disappear. It is actress, Susan Heyward's character, a new attorney at this firm and its first woman, a woman who doesn't play by the rules, which makes it very clear that justice, often based on the client and victim's race, will not be a factor on her watch (to her career's detriment, at

Rebroadcast of Wednesday, June 27, 2012: Incarcerated CA Women Special with Professor Angie Bell re: Angola 3, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace on the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of their solitary confinement April 17, 2012, and Woodfox recent court hearing in late May this year. We then shift a taped conversation with Georgia Horton, a prisoner currently incarcerated at the Central California Women's Facility Chowchilla, CA (CCWF). We also speak with Hamdiya Cooks, Asst. Dir. LSPC and Beatrice Smith, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, witness to the atrocities facing women inside CCWF. We conclude with a live interview with Sabina Zuniga Varela about her role in Luis Alfaro's BRUJA at the Magic Theatre through Sunday, July 1, 2012. We then play the rest or almost the rest of the interview with Georgia Horton (smile). I am going to start with the interview we didn't hear first. I open the show with a review I wrote on Bruja at the Magic Theatre, and it's a good thing I did since we do not hear the

We are dedicating this broadcast to the women and men behind bars. Our first guest, Professor Angela A. Allen-Bell is Assistant Professor of Legal Analysis & Writing at Southern University Law Center in Louisiana. She speaks to us about the 40th Anniversary of Angola 3 inmates Albert Woodfox & Herman Wallace, stint in solitary confinement and the actions April 17, 2012 in Baton Rouge. She also gives us the context and results of Woodfox's recent 3 day hearing and the momentum built to ensure his release this time. The next hour we speak to Hamdiya Cooks, Assistant Director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. She speaks about Georgia Horton, who is currently up for parole, and what it means to go to the board hearings. As former executive director of CCWP, Mrs. Cooks also updates us on the proposed conversion of Valley State prison, also in Central Valley, Chowchilla CA.Mrs. Beatrice Smith joins Mrs. Cooks to continue our conversation about Ms. Horton, long term incarceration and its impact

First Guest: Gina Breedlove speaks about the community healing:One Billion Rising Bay Area, Sunday, June 24th, 2012, Sunday, June 24, 2012, at Civic Center Park (MLK At Allston Way, across from Berkeley High). http://www.bayarearising The Second Guests speak about the Summer of Peace Kick-off in Oakland, tonight Friday, June 22-23, with organizers: Jennae Wallach, Peace Educator, Facilitator of the Oakland Peace Ambassadors Mahasin Abdul-Salaam, Genesis - Transportation Justice, plus several other organizations; Queen Reverend Mutima Imani, Community organizing and peace-building consultant, Reverend at East Bay Church of Religious Science http://summerofpeace.net/oakland-event/;At about 9 AM we speak to the director and playwright of Good Goods @ Crowded Fire Theatre, playwright, Christina Anderson, and director Marissa Wolf, through June 23, 2012. Cast will drop in as well we hope. Visit  crowdedfire.org. Tony Saunders closes the show as he shares his plans for his concert tonight, Friday, June 22, 2012, at

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the writing, visual and performing arts of African people in the Diaspora. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work filled with raw unfettered passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay! Remember to tune in on Wednesdays from 6 AM PST to 7 or 8 AM and on Fridays from 8 AM to 10 AM. We also host special broadcasts from time to time.

James Baldwin is one of my heroes. The man was brillant. Not every child can say that he wrote the anthem for the City of New York, but Baldwin can (Notes of a Native Son). His book length essay, The Fire Next Time is brilliant and needs to be read by every black boy beginning at the age of 8 or 9 and then again at 13. That Baldwin, one of the architects of the Civil Rights Movement, visited San Francisco at a time when Birmingham was burning and blood running through the streets, the same red blood from black veins running through the streets of San Francisco in its black communities like Bayview Hunter's Point is significant on this day, Juneteenth 2012. Director, Caroline Bins has revisited that historic and great day in San Francisco with men who were there like Mr. Oscar James, Mr. Famious "Jackie" Bell, Mr. James Lockett, Mr. Tyrone Primus. James Baldwin in San Francisco: Hunter’s Point Then and Now based on the rarely seen, 1964 film, Take This Hammer (KQED).  This film is having a special screening at

Today we are joined by: Bill Doggett, scholar, archivist and curator and Andy Kimmel, Remembus; Doggett speaks about his upcoming program, "The Civil War@150 Years: the Negro Spiritual and the Undergraound Railroad," which includes a short film created by Kimmel, at the African American Museum and Library at Oakland, 14th Street @ MLK Jr. Way, Sat., June 16, 2012, 2 PM. Almost 50 years ago, James Baldwin, noted author and activist visited San Francisco's Bayview District to talk to the black youth about what they were experiencing there. From that visit came the film: Take this Hammer, KQED's cinéma vérité record of the visit. Caroline Dijckmeester, Dutch director, stumbles upon this footage and decides to see if she can find some of these young men. She responded with a short film in response which is screening with the original at The Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco, June 19, 2012, 7:30 PM. James Lockett, one of the subjects also joins us to talk about HP then and now. As a part of a series, Wanda's

Clara “Clarae” McDaniel is a native San Franciscan with a reputation as one of the city’s dynamic female vocalists and fast growing Bay Area theatrical talents. Some of her theatrical works have included plays & musicals such as Pinocchio Jones, Tie That Binds, A Child Called Destiny, The Story of Bessie Smith, and Queenie Pie. Her work with LHT includes Tamborines to Glory, Your Arms Too Short to Box With God, Ain’t Misbehavin, Waiting to be Invited, Hit It!, Black & Blue, Eubie!, The Bluest Eye and Black Nativity. Still a long standing member of the LHT family, she is now returning for a 12th season with the New Joyful Noise. BenVereen returns to The RRazz Room to with his show "Steppin' Out with Ben Vereen," a high energy tribute to the music of Broadway, along with musical selections made famous by the likes of Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr., audiences can expect to hear classics such as "Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries," "Mr. Bojangles" and "Defying Gravity." Well known to theatre audiences