Wanda's Picks Radio Show

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!

1. Jeff Liberman, dir. The Amazing Nina Simone opens in Bay Area theatres this weekend. Visit theamazingnina.com We open with a tribute song by Sam Waymon, Ms. Simone's younger brother, friend and band member.

2. Billy X Jennings, Black Panther Party Archivist speaks about a new exhibition at the Oakland Public Library. He is speaking 10/24, 2 p.m. at the Bradley C. Walters Community Room, 125 14th Street, Oakland. Visit itsabouttimebpp.com

3. Charles Blackwell, poet, painter, joins Dr. Eugene Redmond to speak about Eugene B. Redmond Collection and Learning Center, SIUE, which just opened Oct. 19, 2015.  See http://www.siue.edu/news/index.shtml

He is Poet Laureate of East Saint Louis [Illinois], Emeritus Professor of English, Founding Editor of Drumvoices Revue, former Chairman of Creative Writing Committee at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville). Before he began his 15-year stint at CSUS, however, he spent two years (1967-69) as Teacher-Counselor and Poet-in-Residence at Southern Illinois University's Experiment in Higher Education in East Saint Louis. At EHE, he taught with Henry Dumas, Joyce Ladner, Oliver Jackson, and Katherine Dunham, serving as a Senior Consultant to the latter at her Performing Arts Training Center. . . .