Our Common Ground With Janice Graham

OUR COMMON GROUND with Janice Graham January 29, 2011 10 pm EST ALFO, co-hosting Tonight Our Guest: Mark Clements, victim of Jon Burge Sentenced and sent to the IL Department of Correction at age 16. He spent 28 years in prison after being tortured into a false confession by Jon Burge. His wrongful conviction was overturned but not discovered until he had spent 28 yrs. behind bars. He is now an activist to bring justice for other prisoners victimized by Jon Burge. Mark A. Clements, Administrator Jail Jon Burge Coalition & Campaign to End the Death Penalty The OUTRAGEOUS Case of Jon Burge: Rogue Sheriff Decades after torture allegations were first leveled against former Chicago police commander Jon Burge, a federal jury has found him guilty of lying about torturing prisoners into making confessions. Burge has long been accused of overseeing the systematic torture of more than 100 African American men.

~ Speaking Truth to Power and Ourselves ~ ALFO,Co-Hosting Saturday, January 22, 2011 10 pm EST OUR COMMON GROUND once again welcomes . . . Kevin Gray is a CounterPunch.org political magazine contributor and civil rights organizer who resides in Columbia, South Carolina. He is a contributing editor to Black News, a former President of the SC ACLU, and was Jesse Jackson's SC campaign manager in 1988. There’s no keener mind, no sharper eye focused on the condition of black politics. He is a frequent co-host and guest with Dave Marsh’s heard on Sirius radio each Sunday. Gray is Founder of the Harriet Tubman Freedom House Project and the former managing editor of Black News in Columbia. Neill Franklin, the National Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and a former law enforcement officer. We will talk with him about a growing hostility by police on marijuana reform and about the discrepancies and how far some law enforcement with lie to argue them.

Join OUR COMMON GROUND in Welcoming THE SCOTT SISTERS HOME Jamie and Gladys Scott will be with us to talk about their recent release from 16 yrs incarceration and their 2x life sentence suspension. Honoring the Birthday of Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. "Drummajor for Justice" Saturday, January 15, 2011 10pm ET

Saturday, January 8th ~ 10 pm ET ALFO, of The ALFO Show, co-hosting OUR COMMON GROUND proudly presents Nnenna Freelon Internationally AcclaimedJazz Vocalist Six time Grammy Winner and Music Activist Her career, activism, womanism and new album, "Home Free" with her son, Pierce Six-time GRAMMY® Award-nominee Nnenna Freelon is hailed as the "international voice of Jazz." telecast! Pierce Freeon, hip-hop artisit, activist and scholar of Beast and Founder, http://www.blackacademic.org/ Pierce Freelon is an emcee, professor, activist and the founder of Blackademcis.org. “ Home Free” is their first fusion project of her jazz and his hip-hop. Second Page THE RELEASE OF THE SCOTT SISTERS: Rejoice and Reload OUR COMMON GROUND ALTERNATIVE ~ ACTIVIST TALK RADIO "Transforming Truth to POWER one show at a time" Contact us :OCGInfo@ourcommonground.com

OUR COMMON GROUND Presents Kwanzaa is a weeklong celebration held in the United States honoring universal African-American heritage and culture, observed from December 26 to January 1 each year. It features activities of celebration, feast and gift giving. Families and communities come together in imagination, meditation and mindfulness to weigh the greatness of the past and the possibilities of the future for Black people throughout the Diaspora. The first Kwanzaa was celebrated in 1966 - 1967.

TALK THAT MATTERS Speaking Truth to Power and Ourselves REINVENTING OUR PRESIDENT

OUR COMMON GROUND with Janice GrahamGuest, Co-Host, Dr. Debra Napier, PhD Live and Call-In Friday, December 17, 2010 8 - 10 pm ET CHILDREN AND OUR IMPRISONED FAMILY The dilemma is simple but so complex. So many children live in families where a Father, Mother, Uncles and other family members are incarcerated in a prison and jail. How much of that fact should, especially small children, know and see about incarceration ? When Black children visit places of incarceration, what are the messages, what are they learning and what are they internalizing ? How does it affect their sense of "being Black" where it seems that "Black" may very be "very bad". Should we require some new configuration of visiting for children? Private conditions, children being away from obnoxious others, including visitors? Our young children share a family's pain when coping with incarceration and law offenses. Should they be exposed to the possibility that a prison is a mirror ? What is the balance in dealing with incarcerate

OUR COMMON GROUND with Janice Graham OUR GUEST: Author, Jamal Ali The Heart Fire Rendezvous Trilogy More than a love story, it is an adventure of fulfilling destiny, engaging purpose, woven with several cultural threads and tapestries, across landscapes some myths do not know. The stories have been described as a M’aat centered, “Lord of the Rings”, a story for “the peoples of the tropics.” Three stories of love and history, to the more complex mind seeking to explore the mysticism and power of the golden fabric woven through time and souls. Ali brings the best of Shange’s relearning knowledge to Butler’s challenge to believe the unbelievable based on newly processed knowledge. They help us to begin to remember, hidden stirrings within ourselves, those moments of wonder and connection linking us to the planet, instead of the world. We are brought to layers of tropical human civilizations, thick with spirit and ritual, science, magic and powers which have no name. We discover history often overl

OUR COMMON GROUND with Janice Graham with ALFO, co-hosting Saturday Night Open Mic Top News Stories: The Black Truth of the Events Julian Assange and Wikileaks The President's Pardon 2010 Rep. Charlie Rangle's Censor Wesley Snipes Goes to Jail Black Unemployment The Congress of NO "SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER and OURSELVES" Saturday 10 pm ET

Saving Our Children Inspiration and Lessons from Prison Cedric Dean Prisoner, Activist Author “How To Stop Your Children From Going To Prison” and “How To Save Our Children From Crime, Drugs and Violence”. He grew up in the streets of Charlotte, N.C. where his ambition early on was to go to jail and solidify his street credibility. At age 13, in 1985, he began robbing and stealing. By 15, he was expelled from school for carrying a gun onto a school bus - months later he shot someone. Shortly after his 16th birthday he committed armed robbery and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Five and a half years later, he was released from prison with the aspirations of being a crack dealer. Eleven months later, he was back in jail - this time he received Life without parole for his role in a Federal crack cocaine conspiracy. Cedric Dean has been in prison for more than 20 years. He has served his prison sentence at USP Tucson, USP Atwater, USP Atlanta & USP Coleman, and is currently incarcerated at

The Politics of Thanksgiving: What We Tell Ourselves and Our Children A number of our holidays remain steeped in political controversy. Columbus Day is a case on point. Some argue that we should not celebrate Columbus because he was not the first to reach the Western Hemisphere; Native Americans had been here for thousands of years. It is further noted that he failed in his goal to find a western route to Asia. And, most tragically, he enacted terrible cruelties to friendly natives – allowing them to be raped, robbed, killed, and subjugated of their freedom which led to the genocide of millions. Also, consider Martin Luther King Day, based on legislation that took many heated years to enact, and July 4th (Frederick Douglass: “What to the American slave, is the 4th of July?”). Even Christmas invites its share of controversy over such issues as excessive commercialism and constitutional questions about the appropriate display of Christian symbols on public property. The upcoming Thanksgiving Day is no

br> POLITICAL - ECONOMIC - EDUCATIONAL - SOCIAL CRISIS How many studies does it take to prove there is a crisis? HOW DO WE SAVE OURSELVES FROM OURSELVES That is the question some educators are asking as a new study argues that the achievement gap between black male students and their white counterparts in American schools is far worse than anyone thought. The study, published this week by the Council of the Great City Schools, found black males are twice as likely to drop out of high school than white males, and only 12 percent of them are proficient in reading by the fourth grade, compared with 38 percent of white males. What's even more disquieting, some educators say, is that this was already known. Black teen girls rate of pregnancy unrelenting ? Who is giving the love in all the wrong places ?

A COP KILLS OSCAR GRANT IN COLD BLOOD: A JUDGE DENIES JUSTICE What ABOUT THE VALUE OF BLACK LIFE in AMERICAN JURISPRUDENCE ? NEWS REPORT November 5, 2010 4:46 PM ET Judge Robert Perry handed Mehserle a minimum two-year prison sentence. Mehserle has already served 146 days in jail. NOT NEWS: A Black person can be gunned down in cold blood by a policeman and get away with it. Perhaps we have forgotten how to be Black in America ? ON OUR SECOND PAGE A BROTHER’S BEAT DOWN: A MESSAGE TO BLACK AMERICA It is just not ALL ABOUT HIM. IT IS ABOUT US AS WELL. President Barack Obama, the first African-American President since Reconstruction, has been the victim of brutal attacks since he took office. This onslaught of white supremacy and racial hatred has not only rendered him confused and ineffectual, all Black people are the targets as well. They can’t deport us, so they despise and dismiss us and slash and dash at our greatest aspirations. How do WE get our groove back ? November 6, 2010

2010 PRE-MIDTERM ELECTION What happened to HOPE and CHANGE we can believe in? What will it mean when the Republicans/Tea Party take the House ? Janice is under the weather tonight and will co-host. Sitting in for her tonight, ALFO of The ALFO Show.

HIV/AIDS in Black Face: Prisons, Programs and Secrets African-Americans make up 50 percent of al new infections, HIV/AIDS is increasingly becoming a "Black disease" It is the health crisis that Black America has yet to fully comprehend and come to grips with. Festering beneath a shroud of secrecy and facilitated by a complex web of lies, shame and misinformation, it is an epidemic that is placing whole communities in jeopardy. Our Guest next week: Phill Wilson, Executive Director of the Black AIDS Institute The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced last it is expanding its Act Against AIDS Leadership Initiative to increase prevention efforts in the African-American, Latino, gay and bisexual communities, which are hardest hit by HIV/AIDS. Is it the right strategy for our community ? American corrections community in many ways tolerate and regard rape and homosexual sex in prisons as a control feature. To what degree does this contribute to the fact that HIV/AIDS is the highest cause of d

OPEN MIC SATURDAY NIGHTTONIGHT October 16, 2010 10pm ET I am defiant, I will not allow excuses, denial or distorted memory. You cannot stop it. You cannot silence it. You better speak Truth or you will choke on your own stuff. Own the map to your mind, the feet in your journey and the wisdom within the ancestral whispers.

Breaking the Silence on Black Suicide Guest: Amy L. Alexander, co-author, Lay My Burden Down: Unraveling Suicide and the Mental Health Crisis Among African-Americans Amy Lynn Alexander writes and produces news, analysis, and commentary. Her work has appeared in print and broadcast outlets nationwide, including The Washington Post, National Public Radio, TheRoot.com, and The Nation. She is author of three nonfiction books, including the bestseller, Fifty Black Women Who Changed America; and Lay My Burden Down: Unraveling Suicide and the Mental Health Crisis Among African-Americans, co-authored with Alvin. F. Poussaint, M.D. Her next book, Minority Opinion: A Story of Race, Media, and Reinvention (Beacon Press), will be published January 2010. Black suicide, which was once considered an oxymoron, has become an unfortunate reality. No longer so, and we mostly don’t want to talk about it; we hide it inside the pages of our Bibles and Qurans; and walk away hoping that he/she really doesn’t mean that.

OUR COMMON GROUND with Janice Graham Guests: Dr. Raymond Winbush and Ms. Goldie Taylor Raising Black Boys in Single Mother Homes:Challenges and Dilemmas Guests: Dr. Raymond A. Winbush,Director, the Urban Institute at Morgan State University (BALT, MD) author, scholar and leading reseacher on the issue of Manhood training of Black boys in urban environments. Ms. Goldie Taylor, Director of Goldie Taylor Advertising and Public Relations, author of a The Goldie Taylor Project blog, which includes a recently popular commentary on the Long allegations and complaint entitled, "A (not so) Super Hero: The Rise and Fall of Eddie Long",. She is the author of “A Woman’s Worth”, an essay featured on EbonyJet.com that gained national attention during the 2008 presidential election cycle; bestselling author, In My Father’s House ; The January Girl. She is currently working on her third novel, The Lives of Others, and The Devil and Missouri Daniel, a family memoir. Both of our guests are also well experienced single

Sexuality,Homosexuality and Molestation in the Black Church Why the Allegations against Mega-Church Leader Eddie Long Matters Bishop Eddie Long, megachurch pastor and prosperity purveyor, has now been named in three separate lawsuits alleging sexual coercion of two young men in Atlanta, Georgia. Bishop Long, in the words of the Southern Poverty Law Center, “is one of the most virulently homophobic black leaders in the religiously based anti-gay movement.” 25,000 members of this church will now have to consider truth and consequences of the prosperity theology. OUR COMMON GROUND "Talk that Matters" SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER and OURSELVES

OUR COMMON GROUND with Janice Graham and Co-Host ALFO of The ALFO SHOW The Attica Prison Rebellion of 1971" Audio documentary and discussion. The Attica Rebellion was more than a prison insurrection. It was a window into the time and culture that produced it. It offers activists, scholars and non-scholars alike an opportunity to examine closely a facet of our society that most of us rarely see or experience yet which is increasingly viewed by other nations and cultures as a fixture of American life. We lock away millions of people every decade in penal institutions; occasionally, as in the case of Attica, their inmates rebel and become socially and politically visible. When they become visible, so do our prisons and our criminal justice system. ALSO . . . The Ghost in the Rubble of 9/11:The Mosquesite Manhattan Klan, the burning of the Quaran and the "not like me" movement. The Ghost of George Bush : Mosquesite Manhattan Klan, Burning Quarans and the " you are not like me like me" movement.