We are pleased to announce an event on Aug. 16, 2016, to celebrate the union of Marcus Books and the African American Arts and Culture Complex (AAACC) in the Fillmore District of San Francisco. Over the past few months, Marcus Books and the AAACC have been collaborating on the details of their new partnership which will manifest as a bookstore within the first floor lobby of the complex. The event, to be held Tuesday, Aug. 16, 6-9 p.m., on the first floor of the AAACC, is meant to share the exciting plans with the community.
Jul 30, 2016
I want to address a point overlooked and ignored, that Alabama Constitution Article VIII Section 177 (a) and (b) are contradictory. The former states, “Every citizen of the United States who has attained the age of 18 years … shall have the right to vote.” The latter, however, states, “No person convicted of a felony involving moral turpitude … shall be qualified to vote until restoration of civil and political rights.”
Jul 30, 2016
From behind the enemy lines of the California State Prison System, from within the “belly of the beast” that is the Amerikan injustice system, I greet you all and call for your full attention to the annual commemoration of Black August and invite all prisoners and families throughout Amerika to join us in honoring our beloved martyrs with fasting, studying and sharing respect and unity with Panther love and knowledge in the spirit of our fallen comrades.
Jul 29, 2016
On FLEA Days, Tupac Shakur, Baltimore, Kwanzaa, women-comrades and the revolutionary experience of Black August … Kasim O. Gero is currently housed as an inmate at the Patuxent Institution in Jessup, Maryland. The unedited answers to these questions are his added consent to this interview and dissemination of information in alignment with the mission of George Jackson University.
Jul 20, 2016
In the national debate ensuing from Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” some have not given credit to Angela Davis forging national interest in prison abolition with her organizing Critical Resistance campaigns across the country. With the nominal success of the Pelican Bay prisoners’ hunger strike in California, we recognize that when we organize a national determination, we can collectively force institutional change.
Jul 17, 2016
A Dodge County Circuit Court judge on Thursday, July 14, rejected a request by Waupun Correctional Institution inmate Cesar DeLeon to stop force feeding him after DeLeon testified that he would continue hunger striking if the court’s force-feeding order were lifted. DeLeon had asked Judge Steven Bauer to discontinue force feeding by nasogastric tube or, in the alternative, to be fed intravenously.
Aug 7, 2016
Cheers and chants filled the room at the Green Party Convention at the University of Houston, where physician and activist Jill Stein was named as the Green Party’s presidential candidate with human rights activist Ajamu Baraka as her running mate. Stein said that too much is at stake this election for people to be voting out of fear. Stein said that if people had the courage to vote for the greater good rather than the lesser of two evils, it would be numerically possible for the Green Party to win.
Aug 7, 2016
On Oct. 22, 2013, in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, Sheriff’s Deputy Erick Gelhaus shot and killed unarmed, 13-year-old Andy Lopez without cause. Gelhaus, a trained weapons instructor and firearms expert, fired eight shots at Andy, hitting him seven times. So here we are, almost three years later and now the news that Deputy Gelhaus has been promoted to sergeant. This is outrageous.
Aug 2, 2016
“Antiracism in Cuba: The Unfinished Revolution” by author and professor Devyn Benson is an impressive study on the history of racism and Black organizing in Cuba prior to the 1959 revolution and right after it. I talked with author Devyn Benson about racial nuances as we discussed Black Cuban history. Check her out in her own words in this exclusive interview.
Aug 1, 2016
BlockReportRadio.com interviews East Oakland’s Sistah Fa about her son, Omar Shakir, being locked up on trumped up charges of trying to murder a police officer on July 24, 2016. When the OPD raided her house, they did it with a robot and with the use of an undisclosed green substance that confused residents. Black people, welcome to the era of “Terminator” robot policing alongside the regular modus operandi of trumped up charges, police pimping, police murders, unwarranted raids and the use of undisclosed chemicals.
Aug 1, 2016
The hub of Hunters Point at Third and Oakdale was buzzing with traffic and throngs of people as they assembled outside of the Bayview Opera House. The Moon Candy soul band was on the stage as people began to sit in the new seats in the outside auditorium. The Opera House had been closed for remodeling for four years. Finally, on July 20, the new Opera House was unveiled to the public.
Aug 2, 2016
Midway through February 2015, The African Outlet opened its doors at 4942 Third St. at Quesada, the Howard property. The proprietors are Horgan Edet, from Nigeria, and his partner, Judah Dwyer. Just step on into The African Outlet. The store is both a fine retail experience and a wonderful resource for anyone interested in African culture. Horgan and Judah are very happy to be here and to be finding our path within the Bayview Village.
Aug 1, 2016
Summer has come and is nearly gone. Before we know it, school will be starting and what have you done with your children? Kids are always talking about how bored they are, so let’s mix it up a bit and get them exposed to some fun activities, mostly free and out of house, when possible. In picking an activity, don’t worry about how fancy or exciting it is, only that it is an opportunity to spend quality time together.
Jul 31, 2016
The new “Black Woman Is God” exhibit, curated by Karen Seneferu and Melorra Green, features the work of over 50 Black women artists in a variety of genres: film, mixed media installation, sculpture, paintings, photography – in a range of sizes covering entire walls to intimate corners. We travel below ground into spaces where lives are born and secret formulas are calculated … brews stirred.
Jul 31, 2016
Two more teams have come together to make a political statement. The Minnesota Lynx and the New York Liberty of the WNBA have chosen to advocate an idea that really should not be radical but somehow is, in the United States of 2016: the idea that Black lives matter. These are public and visible displays of real solidarity: white players joining with their Black teammates, wearing the same shirts and standing alongside them in a show of multiracial unity against anti-Black bigotry.
Jul 28, 2016
Anthony Ratcliff died on July 23, 2016, after a valiant fight against throat and lung cancer. He was born in Oakland, California, on May 18, 1956, to mother Geneva Cleopatra Draper Ratcliff, a homemaker (now deceased), and father Dr. Willie Ratcliff, a contractor and publisher of the San Francisco Bay View newspaper. Anthony was greatly beloved and will be sorely missed. His homegoing service is Friday, July 29, 1 p.m., at Common Ground Covenant Church, Sacramento.