Black Power Talks

The People’s War Radio Show, Episode #63: To Protect, Preserve, And Perpetuate: Black Music and Black Power

June is Black Music Month.  Black Music Month emerged as a form of resistance to colonial domination of African people, African culture, and the African narrative.  It was created in the late 1970s by the famous music producer from Philadelphia, Kenny Gamble and the Black Music Association. The original theme of Black Music Month was to “preserve, protect and perpetuate black music.”  However, the narrative of Black Music Month has been depoliticized. 
Popular news sources have credited President Jimmy Carter with creating the observance.  As well, President Barack Obama rebranded the month, African American Music Appreciation month and noted that amongst other things Black music, allowed Black people in the US to "defend our country's enduring promise of freedom and opportunity for all."
Our guests on this episode, DJ Eddie Maultsby and Norman Jalali Richmond, give a different narrative.  They uphold the African music tradition as internationalist, anti-colonial, and a source of Black Power.
Some topics discussed are:
Black musicians during the Civil Rights and Black Power Movement
Fela Kuti, Peter Tosh, Aretha Franklin, Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, Eddie Maultsby and the Florida Spiritualaires, Sam Cooke and other musicians
The origins of Gospel Music as a form of resistance to colonial slavery
The guests also connect the significance of music to their own personal stories.
This episode includes some great samples of music such as:
Bob Marley and the Wailers "Burnin' and Lootin'"
Max Roach feat. Abbey Lincoln "Freedom Day"
Sam Cooke "A Change is Gonna Come"
Fannie Lou Hamer "Walk with Me" and "Amazing Grace"
Eddie Maultsby and the Florida Spiritualaires  "Ain't No Love Like Jesus"
DJ Eddie is known as Florida’s Blind Boy and the World’s Best Blind DJ, DJ Eddie is the Assistant Station Manager at Black Power 96.  He is born and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida and spent over 35 years playing music for the community in downtown St. Pete.  As soon as he heard about Black Power 96 and its mission, he united with Black Power 96.  He has been with the station ever since. DJ Eddie’s musical specialty is gospel music.
Norman Jalali Richmond, was born in Louisiana and raised in Los Angeles, California.  He moved to Canada in the late-1960s where he became an early leader in the African Liberation Movement in Canada.  Jalali has dedicated his life to revolutionary cultural work. He has worked with a host of musicians such as Bob Marley, Abbey Lincoln, Hugh Masekela, and Fela Kuti.  Jalali is the host and producer of the “Diasporic Music” show on Black Power 96 FM radio in St. Petersburg, Florida. 
“Diasporic Music” provides an all-African mix of music and politics that is quote “made in the West but is not of the West” unquote.  “Diasporic Music” Airs: Every Sunday, 2pm to 4pm Eastern Time
The People's War radio show is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Muambi Tangu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.
 

The People’s War Radio Show, Episode #62: Black communities fight food insecurity and food apartheid and build Black Power

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the contradictions of food insecurity in the African Community and other oppressed communities in the United States.
According to the Journal of Nutrition, Food insecurity is understood as “ the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.”
Nearly 40 percent of black children in the United States are food insecure, this is almost twice the rate of white children.
A symptom of the larger colonial oppression of African people in the US, food insecurity has serious political and economic effects on the African community.  
Food justice organizer, Karen Washington, has suggested the use of another term to understand the intentional unevenly structured access to healthy and affordable food that African people in the US endure, “food apartheid”.  
Black, Brown and Indigenous communities are organizing against food insecurity and food apartheid throughout the US by organizing community gardens, farmers markets, urban food cooperatives, and other grassroots solutions to the problems. 
In today’s episode of the People’s War Radio Show, we will hear about a new farmers market created in the African community of North Saint Louis, the One Africa! One Nation! farmers market. Our guests talk about:
The effects of food apartheid and food insecurity on the black community of North St. Louis and throughout the US.
Covid-19's impact of food insecurity in the African community.
The Gary Brooks community garden in North St. Louis
The One Africa! One Nation! Marketplace in North St. Louis and its grand opening on June 5, 2021
Farmers markets as a counter to big agribusiness
How other organizers can do these projects in their communities.
To discuss this with us, we have Ticharwa Masimba and Marisa Martinez - organizers of the One Africa! One Nation! Farmer’s Market.
Ticharwa Masimba is the project director of the One Africa! One Nation! Farmer's Market.  Ticharwa has also worked with the Black Power Blueprint and the African People's Education and Defense Fund to bring economic development and self-determination to the black community of St. Louis.
 
Marisa Martinez is the market manager of the One Africa! One Nation! Farmer's Market and has many years of experience in the food service industry.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The People's War radio show is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Muambi Tangu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.
 

The People’s War Radio Show, Episode #61:Take Back the Dome! Reparations Now!

Reparations is a hot topic in many political topics.  Numerous colleges and universities have implemented reparations plans in response to legacy of colonial slavery that funded their institutions and the stolen and enslaved African labor that built their schools.  
Some cities have begun to draft reparations plans as well.  One that has received a lot of attention is the plan in Evanston, Illinois that has made housing grants available to some members of the African community of the Chicago suburb. 
This has not come out of nowhere. It is the result of the revolutionary upsurge of the African Working Class.  
Today we talk with two organizers, Chimurenga Selembao and Akile Anai, of the Reparations Now! Take Back the Dome! campaign from St. Petersburg, Florida to discuss a truly African Working Class-led campaign for reparations, "just economic compensation," for the devastation that the construction of Tropicana Field and gentrification have caused the black community of St. Petersburg.
Together they discuss:
The Reparations Now! Take Back the Dome Campaign!
The history of the Reparations struggle and the leadership of the Uhuru Movement in that struggle.
The economic, social, and political devastation that the Dome  and gentrification, have caused on the African community.
The 2001 Durban World Conference Against Racism, 9/11 and the impact on the Reparations struggle 20 years ago.
The 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre and the similar colonial violence against Africans in St. Pete and Florida.
The proposed solutions to the problem including the creation of a land reparations authority.
Chimurenga Selembao has been in the struggle for reparations to African people, his entire political life.  Chimurenga is the National Director of Organization for the African People’s Socialist Party USA.  Born and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, Chimurenga is a lifelong member of the Uhuru Movement.  Chimurenga oversees the work of Uhuru Movement organizations in the United States.
Akilé Anai is editor of The Burning Spear newspaper, a monthly black power journal in continuous publication since the height of the Black Revolution of the Sixties. Four years ago, in 2017, at age 21, and again in 2019, she ran for St Petersburg City Council, the first candidate of any election internationally to run on the platform of reparations.
 
The People's War radio show is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Muambi Tangu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

The People’s War Radio Show, Episode #60: Free, Free, Palestine

On this episode of The People's War Radio Show, we discuss the historic roots to what is being referred to as the 2021 Israel-Palestine conflict.
In early May 2021, Palestinians were protesting the continued illegal annexation of Palestinian controlled land by Israeli settlements.  The Israeli supreme court was preparing to expel even more Palestinian families from East Jerusalem. This has been part of an increasingly aggressive and illegal Israeli settlement of Palestinian lands since 1967 but is part of more than 100 years of history.
This period is indeed only a recent moment in the Palestinian Arab struggle to keep their land against the onslaught of European settler colonialism. 
We discuss the roots of the crisis in Occupied Palestine by reaching back in history and coming forward. In this episode we explore:
Life in Palestine before British Occupation
The political economic roots of the colonial project beginning with late-19th century Zionism, the British Mandate, and post-WWII European settlement.
Nakba, the exile and forced removal of Palestinians between 1948 and 1967
Israeli settlement in Palestinian land post-1967
The correlation between European colonization of Africa and European Colonization of the Middle East
African-Arab solidarity
Covid-19 and reproductive politics in the Palestine and Israel
To discuss this with, we are joined by two scholar-activists, Bayan Abu-Sneineh and Dr. Maisam Alomar.
Bayan Abu-Sneineh is a doctoral candidate in ethnic studies at the University of California San Diego. Bayan is currently completing her doctoral research project on the intersections between racial and reproductive violence against Palestinian and African people in Israel and Palestine.  Bayan’s family is from Hebron, Palestine.
 
 
 
 
Maisam is an assistant professor in Women and Gender Studies at the University of Colorado.  Her research is on the distribution of healthcare  as part of the larger context of colonial violence.  Maisam received her PhD in Ethnic Studies from the University of California San Diego.  Maisam’s family is from TulKarem in the West Bank of Palestine.  She also has some family in Ramallah. 
The People's War radio show is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Muambi Tangu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.
 

The People’s War Radio Show, Episode #59: Shut down the St. Louis Workhouse! Free 'em all!

On April 4, 2021, incarcerated Africans rebelled at the St. Louis Justice Center, a city jail in downtown St. Louis.  They broke the locks on their cells, busted out the windows and proceeded to throw chairs, tables and other furniture from the jail and set several fires in effort to draw attention to the inhumane conditions they have experienced.  
This uprising was the most recent in a series of uprisings in local jails and prisons in the St. Louis area in the past years, including a rebellion months earlier in February.  
A 2017 rebellion of inmates at the St. Louis Workhouse, a medium security prison on the North Side operated by the city of St. Louis made national news after several inmates were heard crying for help after enduring temperatures as high as 110 degrees with no air conditioning.
St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, US Congresswoman Cori Bush, and other officials have made news recently with calls to defund the St. Louis police.  Jones, Bush, and others have also focused on the St. Louis Workhouse.  Jones has slated the Workhouse for closure in 2022.
In this episode of The People's War Radio Show we discuss:
Living conditions in the St. Louis Workhouse and St. Louis Justice Center
Covid-19 in St. Louis jails and beyond
The links between colonial-slavery and mass incarceration today
The Black Power Blueprint's African Independence Workforce Program as a form of dual and contending power to the colonial prison system
To discuss this with us, we are joined by Abdullah Alexander.  Abdullah is a member of the African People’s Socialist Party and the Outreach Coordinator for the Black Power Blueprint.
Black Power Blueprint is a program that has refurbished buildings, built community gardens, and provides economic development for the black community of St Louis. Abdullah spent over 27 years incarcerated and now is working to build the African Independence Workforce Program which includes housing and job training for formerly incarcerated African men and women. 
The People's War radio show is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Muambi Tangu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.

The People's War Radio Show, Episode #58: Mother's day special on the fight for the African family

African mothers continue the fight for the African family against the continuing legacy of colonialism and slavery. We discuss the role of "Child Protective Services" and the foster care system. We envision a world with African self-determination and collective child-rearing.
With special guests:
Aniya Butler, who is fighting for the return of her six-year-old daughter, taken by the Arizona Department of Child Safety in 2020. 
Adrienne Spellman, whose son John Andre was killed in February 2021 in a transitional housing complex for foster youth funded by Alameda County Social Services.
Shawntae Mitchum, Black Studies professor and sociologist from Oceanside, California.
Maria Odom, mother of host Matsemela Odom, who works as an eligibility worker for Los Angeles Public Social Services serving women in need. 
Thomasine Okey, mother of host Muambi Tangu and model for collective family care-taking.
The People's War radio show is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Muambi Tangu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.
 

The People's War Radio Show, Episode #57: Free Jamil Al Amin (H. Rap Brown) and honor Mafundi Lake

Thirty-four U.S. states are currently seeking to deny the right to free speech and political association by passing new laws. On April 26, 2021, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed into law an "anti-riot" bill making it a felony to block a highway or destroy colonial statues during protests among other measures designed to quash the growing resistance against police violence.
We talk with Bilal Sunni Ali about the case of Jamil Al Amin (H. Rap Brown), after whom the 1968 "anti-riot act" was named. This law made it a felony to cross state lines "with the intent to incite, promote, encourage, participate in and carry on a riot" and was passed as part of the U.S. government's program to militarily defeat the Black Power movement of the 1960s.
Al Amin was the subject of constant surveillance and harassment since that time and has most recently been incarcerated since 2000. He is now 77, suffers ill health and is being denied proper medical care behind bars.
We also talk with Carolyn Weyni Lake, widow of Mafundi Lake, martyred political prisoner known for his decades of Black Power organizing in Birmingham, Alabama and inside the notorious Atmore-Holman prison. Mafundi died in prison on January 21, 2018.

The People's War Radio Show, Episode #56: Tribute to DMX, "Voice of the Streets"

Hip-Hop artist, DMX, born Earl Simmons, died on April 9, 2021. The beloved rapper sold millions of records, was nominated for three Grammy Awards and was the first musician whose first five albums reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart. 
DMX also held several acting credits including his appearances in the 2000 action movie “Romeo Must Die” with Jet Li and Aaliyah; and the 2001 action film “Exit Wounds” with Steven Seagal. He starred with Nas and Method Man in Hype Williams’s 1998 film, “Belly” and was profiled in BET's 2006 reality series “DMX: Soul of a Man.”
We talk with two East Coast black power organizers - Yejide Orunmila, president of the African National Women’s Organization and Dexter Mlimwengu, writer and Information/Education Coordinator for the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement - both long-time DMX fans.

The People's War Radio Show, Episode #55: Daunte Wright and the struggle to stop police killings

In the midst of Derek Chauvin's trial for the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, police have killed another unarmed black man, Daunte Wright, in Brooklyn Center, just 12 miles from Minneapolis.
Once again, the people take to the streets demanding justice, the media works to criminalize the victim, the lawyers descend on the family to get paid and police departments across the country continue to carry out their mandate to contain the colonized African community and maintain the status quo.
We talk with Jamaal Abegaz from his home in Moorhead, Minnesota. 
In 2020, the city of Moorhead presented Jamaal with their Human Rights Award for his work advocating for the human rights of the African community in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd. 
Jamaal is now an organizer with the African People's Socialist Party, and was preparing to travel to the Minneapolis area to promote the Uhuru Movement's program for Black Community Control of the Police.

The People's War Radio Show, Episode #54: White garbage dumps contaminate African townships in South Africa

Asa Anpu discusses the environmental, biological and psychological effects of pervasive toxic white suburban trash dumps and mining tailings in the black townships of South Africa.
Anpu is the Director of the Better Living Association, an organization working to improve health, economic and living conditions for African working class people in South Africa.
He recounts a struggle waged by Sharpesville residents for the restoration of electricity and the expulsion of white missionaries at this year's commemoration of the March 21, 1960 Sharpesville Massacre.
He discusses the latest initiative of the Better Living Association, Project Thuthukani, organizing residents of Evaton West, a township on the outskirts of Johannesburg, to remove the garbage dumps, separate recyclable trash and turn the land into community food gardens.
The People's War radio show is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Muambi Tangu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.