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Black San Franciscans will never forget this old Marcus Book Store, an official historic landmark, at 1712 Fillmore St., its home for 33 years. The graceful old Victorian had previously been home to Jimbo’s Bop City jazz club back when the Fillmore District was known worldwide as Harlem of the West and had been saved from Redevelopment bulldozers when the district was destroyed.

Marcus Books is coming back to San Francisco

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.

Behind Enemy Lines

Black woman prisoner in Alabama fights for voting rights: Transformation v. modification

Jul 30, 2016
“Womyn Freedom Fighters” – Art: Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, 1859887, Clements Unit, 9601 Spur 591, Amarillo TX 79107

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.”

Black August 2016

Jul 30, 2016
“Black August” – Art: Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, 1859887, Clements Unit, 9601 Spur 591, Amarillo TX 79107

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.

Black August Memorial: an interview with Kasim Gero, Patuxent Prison

Jul 29, 2016
“Black August Resistance” – Art: Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, 1859887, Clements Unit, 9601 Spur 591, Amarillo TX 79107

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.

Jalil Muntaqim: The 13th Amendment – prison slavery and mass incarceration

Jul 20, 2016
Jalil Muntaqim founded the Jericho Movement, which supports political prisoners, fighting for their recognition and amnesty, creating graphics similar to this for each one.

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.

Judge refuses to halt force feeding of inmate in solitary confinement protest

Jul 17, 2016
Waupun Correctional Institution inmate Cesar DeLeon is shown being force fed June 20 in this screen grab from a video shown July 14 in Dodge County Circuit Court. DeLeon, who along with several other Wisconsin inmates is hunger striking to protest long-term solitary confinement, was unable to convince a judge to withdraw the force-feeding order. – Photo: Wisconsin Department of Corrections

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.

Maroon sues DOC and wins! Settlement reached in Shoatz v. Wetzel
Sundiata Acoli: Ride and denied
Announcement of nationally coordinated prisoner work stoppage for Sept. 9, 2016
White House officials and local leaders attend debate, organized by prisoner, between prisoners and Morehouse students
The Black August Slave Rebellion: Every slave has a right to rebel
Governor’s new budget supports more incarceration
Hugo Pinell, aka Dahariki Kambon: Decades of assassination attempts against the man most feared by CDCr
Suicide crisis in California women’s prison: Advocates demand justice for Erika Rocha and Shaylene Graves
SF Bay View banned inside Indiana prisons: Do Black Lives Matter behind the walls?
Illinois prisoners boycott overpriced phone calls, commissary and vending machines
Wisconsin DOC is force feeding prisoners who are on hunger strike to end solitary confinement
Chican@ Prisoners Day
Hunger strike at Wisconsin’s Waupun state prison against conditions of a ‘living hell’
Wisconsin prisoner hunger strike enters second week, spreads to multiple facilities – you can help!
Prison rules must abide by human rights standards

News & Views

Green Party ticket: Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka

Aug 7, 2016
Green Party vice presidential candidate Ajamu Baraka and presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein – Photo: Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle

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.

Gelhaus gets a promotion after getting away with the murder of Andy Lopez

Aug 7, 2016
The campaign for justice for Andy Lopez, led by Latino youth, has been a Black-Brown collaboration from the beginning. Despite a long and very strong united effort, Santa Rosa activists have been just as disappointed and angry as those all over the country at the impunity of law enforcement. – Photo: Daniela Kantorova

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.

Talkin’ with author Devyn Benson about ‘Antiracism in Cuba: The Unfinished Revolution’

Aug 2, 2016
Devyn Benson

“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.

Sistah Fa speaks on OPD’s recent use of robot and trumped up charges against her son, Omar Shakir

Aug 1, 2016
This bomb disposal robot is similar to the one used by Dallas PD to blow up Micah Johnson by strapping explosives to it with duct tape. The U.S. military has been using robots as weapons for some time, but Johnson’s murder was the first time a robot had been used by police to kill.

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.

Rebuilt Bayview Opera House opens to community concerns

Aug 1, 2016
The fence surrounding the remodeled Opera House makes it look more like a prison than a welcoming community center. The Joe Lee Gym is at the right. This sidewalk is the place where Kenneth Harding, 19, bled to death after being shot by SFPD for not paying his T-train fare. – Photo: Lee Hubbard

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.

50 years since the 1966 Hunters Point Uprising and ‘Black Lives [Still Don’t] Matter’
Haitians at DNC: Where is Haiti’s $6 billion?
Rwanda, the Clinton dynasty and the case of Dr. Léopold Munyakazi
Members of the Frisco 5 officially reject the San Francisco Human Rights Commission’s Hero Award
The psyche of a sexually abused child: Why children may protect the cops who abuse them
The ‘fundamentalism’ in police operations
Coalition that stopped new SF jail wins human rights award as jail system blasted by civil grand jury
Indeed, Western Civilization is in a war
Treasure Island whistleblowers face immediate retaliation from power broker consortium
Do we need white revolutionaries to rise up?
Thanks, Mama Harriet!
San Francisco Civil Grand Jury and Blue Ribbon Panel rip SFPD for racial bias
FBI gives green light to crack down on Black Lives Matter protesters – BLM statement follows
Oakland displaced housing activist Paula Beal speaks
What will Bernie delegates do in Philadelphia?

Culture Currents

Upcoming Events

 » Full event list and descriptions
August 8, 2016
Renaissance Entrepreneuriship Center: Bayview Women Orientation - Hunters View 11:00 am Hunters View Community Room, 1101 Fairfax Ave., Hunters Point, San Francisco The Bayview Women's Mentorship Program (Bayview Women) provides training, mentorship ... more>>
August 8, 2016
Day of Remembrance of Victims of Police Violence 12:00 pm Portsmouth Square, Kearny & Washington Street, Chinatown, San Francisco Like many of you, CPA (Chinese Progressive Association) has been ... more>>
August 9, 2016
Community Tuesdays at Radio Africa & Kitchen -- dinner for $10 5:00 pm Radio Africa & Kitchen, 4800 Third St., San Francisco You’re invited to “break bread” with us in the ... more>>

Welcome to The African Outlet

Aug 2, 2016
Horgan Edet of Nigeria welcomes you, as Suaro Cervantes, well known and respected SF muralist, transforms the shop at 4942 Third St. from Wendy’s Cheesecake Bakery to The African Outlet at the corner where Quesada Gardens meets Third Street.

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.

Summertime doesn’t have to be boring

Aug 1, 2016
The young men on the left and right are members of the King Charles Unicycle Troupe, started in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1964 and signed as the first African American act of Ringling Bros. Circus in 1969. With them, left to right, are Morris’s grandkids, Marcelo, 4, Isaiah, 6, his wife, known as Mima to the kids, and finally Amaya, 3.

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.

Wanda’s Picks for August 2016

Jul 31, 2016
In “The New Seal of California,” artist, musician, first woman to join the Black Panther Party and a descendant of explorer Sir Francis Drake, Joan Tarika Lewis reimagines the seal of California to be inclusive of her Black identity. Could Queen Calafia, the warrior queen said to have ruled over a kingdom of Black women living on the mythical Island of California, as described by Spanish writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo in 1500, also have been an inspiration?

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.

WNBA teams show what Black Lives Matter solidarity looks like

Jul 31, 2016
Minnesota Lynx players wear warm-up shirts at a July 9 press conference showing support for Black Lives Matter. The four cops hired to provide security for the game were furious and walked off the job. – Photo: Minnesota Lynx Instagram page

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.

Master builder Anthony Ratcliff mourned

Jul 28, 2016
Anthony Ratcliff

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.

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B.L.A.C.K organization: Building Leadership and Community Knowledge
Black teenage Brooklyn-based metal band documented in ‘Breaking a Monster’
R.O.B.I.N Hood project: Bringing dental hygiene to your doorstep
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