Wanda's Picks Radio Show: African Liberation Day

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!

Guests:
1.As a youth living in Los Angeles, CA, Akubundu Amazu-Lott experienced first hand being profiled by the police. On at least a half dozen occasions he was pulled over at gun-point by the LAPD. This experience contributed to his understanding that African people in America were treated as second-class citizens. He made his way out of Los Angeles to SJSU. There he participated in sports (football) and received his B.S. in Business Administration and his Master of Urban Planning. He joined the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (AAPRP) in 1979 and is currently on the Central Committee and the California Chapter Coordinating Council. It is through his extensive study of Pan-Africanism and the struggles of oppressed people globally that he remains motivated to work for positive change. He has been an adjunct professor at SJSU for the past seven years in the African-American Studies Department.

2. Jimi Evins, artist, curator, speaks about his show this weekend at Studio/Gallery 1508 in Oakland, 1508 8th Street, West Oakland. Charles Curtis Blackwell joins Jimi Evins. He is a jazz poet and a playwright, performance and visual artist. His paintings have been shown from coast to coast and have received multiple awards. In 2009 he was one of three featured artists at Lighthouse for the Blind’s 20th anniversary Insights exhibit in San Francisco.