Screening: Black Panthers, Vanguard of the Revolution

KQED, Independent Lens, Pandora, Firelight Media, Youth Speaks, and Congresswoman Barbara Lee's Office invite you to:

 

THE BLACK PANTHERS: Vanguard of the Revolution 

IndieLens Pop-Up free screening

Doors Open at 6:00pm

Grand Lake Theatre
3200 Grand Avenue
Oakland, CA 94610

Tuesday, February 9, 2016 from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (PST)

Join us for a multigenerational conversation about the birth of The Black Panther Party, and the resurgence of its voice through the #BlackLives Matter movement.

Featuring: 

• Ericka Huggins ( leading member of the Black Panther Party, featured in the film)
• Cat Brooks (#BlackLivesMatter Bay Area member, founder of Anti Police-Terror Project) 

Spoken word and musical performances, along with light refreshments, will be featured at the event. 
BAM poet-playwright Marvin X appears in the film.

Presenting Partners: 

                 

Community Partners:

                         

Have questions about Free Film Screening: THE BLACK PANTHERS: Vanguard of the Revolution? Contact KQED 

First female member of the Black Panther Party, Tarika Lewis, Fred Hampton, Jr., Black Panther Cub, Marvin X, Ras Ceylon, Alia Sharrief

 Vanguard of the Revolution film Director Stanley Nelson, Marvin X, Fred Hampton, Jr.
Marvin X appears in the film

Left to Right: Marvin X, grandson Jahmiel, director Stanley Nelson, MX's daughter Attorney Amira Jackmon and her daughter Naeemah Joy at Shattuck Cinema, Berkeley showing of Black Panthers, Vanguard of the Revolution. Marvin appears in the film. He and Stanley Nelson participated in the Q and A. Marvin's grandson said, "It was too much shooting!"

 Angela Davis, Marvin X, Sonia Sanchez

 

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On orders from Gov. Ronald Reagan, Marvin X was removed from lecturing at Fresno State University, 1969, along with Angela Davis, who was removed from the University of California,

Los Angeles at the same time.  Entering the State College Board of Trustees meeting, Gov. Reagan said, "I want Marvin X removed by any means necessary!"

Marvin X: Part two:My Life in the Global Village--Notes of an artistic freedom fighter

If my memory is correct, the Black Panthers were at the Black House, San Francisco, when the first issue of the Black Panther Newspaper hit the press. Eldridge Cleaver and I had founded the Black House as a political/cultural center on Broderick Street, 1967,  and after I introduced him to Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, co-founders of the BPP and he became Minister of Information, the Black House morphed into the San Francisco Headquarters of the BPP. The Black House as a cultural center collapsed from ideological differences so the artists eased on down the road, including playwright Ed Bullins, Ethna Wyatt and myself. Ed Bullins fled to New York as did many artists, especially musicians, whom I discovered, especially when I hit Harlem myself, were more politically astute than the so called politicos, especially the Panthers who did not recover from their anti-art or war against "cultural nationalists" stance until they attended the Pan African Cultural Festival in Algeria.

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Eldridge Cleaver and Marvin X

This pic is cerca 1978

photo Muhammad Al Kareem 

But before I departed Black House, I saw the BPP newspaper being laid out in Cleaver's room adjacent to mine. The BPP trip to Sacramento was  planned at Black House. I could hear their planning session from my bedroom that Mrs. Amina Baraka described as Spartan compared to Eldridge's that was "high tech", i.e., he had a speaker phone! She was pregnant with the Baraka's first child, Obalaji, while at the Black House that was visited by such artists and politicos as Sonia Sanchez, Askia Toure, Sarah Webster Fabio, Avotcja, Emory Douglas, Samuel Napier, Judy Juanita, Chicago Art Ensemble, Reginald Lockett, Ellendar Barnes, George Murray,  and a host of others too numerous to remember, including Alprentice Bunchy Carter, Cleaver's close associate from Soledad  Prison.

 



Alprentice Bunchy Carter

Carter was one of most handsome Black men
in the BLM, a former leader of the seven thousand member
Los Angeles Slauson Street gang, poet
and Cleaver's co-chair of the Soledad Prison
Black Culture Club that was the beginning
of the American Prison Movement.

The Black Dialogue Magazine brothers who visited the Soledad Prison

Black Culture Club, chaired by Eldridge Cleaver and Bunchy Carter, 1966.

Left to Right: Aubrey LaBrie, Marvin X, Abdul Sabrey, Al Young, Arthur

Sheridan (founding editor of Black Dialogue) and Duke Williams. Most of

us were students at San Francisco State College/University when we visited

Soledad Prison. There was thus a unity in the Black Liberation Movement between students, prison inmates, Black intellectuals, artists and activists. There can be no revolution until all sectors of the

community unite and become one fist, i.e., youth, students, workers, intellectuals,

artists, women, progressive bourgeoisie and the spiritual leaders.

The staff of Black Dialogue Magazine visited the club

at Cleaver's invitation that we received from

his lawyer/lover Attorney Beverley Axelrod,

to whom he dedicated Soul on Ice and promised

to marry upon his release.  She smuggled his manuscript

out of Soledad in her legal papers. She won a percentage of
royalties by default after Cleaver went into exile from America.
Ironically, a few days before I performed his memorial service
in Oakland, her Pacifica house slid down the hill in a mudslide.
I didn't know she was at the memorial until years later when I
viewed the video of the memorial.

Bunchy was killed in the BSU meeting room on the campus of UCLA, along

with BPP member John Huggins, supposedly by members

of Ron Karenga's US organization, although Geronimo Pratt

absolves US of this twin murder. For sure, it was a Cointelpro affair,
have no doubt about this. See Senator Church's hearings on Cointelpro
and the Black Movement, including the Civil Rights Movement.


Comrade John Huggins

Black Panthers in Sacramento

The climax in my relationship with Cleaver and the Panthers occurred when I got into a confrontation with Lil' Bobby Hutton over the youth club in the basement. True, the youth were out of control and Hutton told me,"The Supreme Commander, i.e. Huey Newton, said close it down because it could be an excuse for the pigs to raid Black House." Of course Lil' Bobby and the BPP were correct, I was being emotional. We had received information from some progressive Black bourgeoisie sisters that the Black House was indeed going to be raided as they had information the police knew the youth were taking liberties with women or young girls, playing hookie from school and partying in the basement. Years later though, I met those youth who were grown and quite conscious culturally, and they thanked me for their Black House experience.





I identified with the youth and was their mentor, so I told Hutton, "Fuck the Supreme Commander! I'm not closing down shit!" I could see in his eyes, Hutton wanted to get me that instant but restrained himself, saying, "We'll deal with you later, dude!" That night all I heard was the click of 45 automatics outside my door. I wasn't intimidated and didn't give a fuck. I knew I was just as crazy as Huey, Bobby and Eldridge, but shortly after the incident,  Eldridge evicted Ed Bullins, Ethna and myself. Ethna and I joined the Nation of Islam. After dropping out of San Francisco State College/now University, I was drafted but under Panther and Nation of Islam influence, I fled to Toronto, Canada, later Mexico City and Belize, from which I was deported and spent five months in jail and Federal prison at Terminal Island. The Panthers said, "We must not only resist the draft but resist arrest as well! Actually, no matter where I was, whether in exile or prison, the task was the same, i.e., to teach the deaf, dumb and blind the reality of our condition. So I did so in Toronto, Mexico City and Belize, Central America. And for doing so, one can be killed, exiled or jailed.
Somehow God saved me to tell this story. Years later, San Francisco County Jail Sheriff Charles Smith (who threw Muhammad Speaks newspaper in my cell during the three months I spent in jail at 350 Bryant Street) told me he attended a Interpol Conference in Belize at which they discussed my presence in Central America.

The killing of Denzil Dowell in Richmond was the first case of pigs killing North American Africans the BPP tackled. Fifty years later, where are we and the police? It seems another Denzil Dowell is murdered by the pigs every day coast to coast. Fifty years ago the Panthers took up arms to defend the community. Before them were brothers in the South such as the Deacons for Defense and Robert Williams in North Carolina (Negroes With Guns).

Since the BPP took up arms, many pigs were killed and many many Black Panther Party members were murdered by the pigs. When Eldridge Cleaver returned from exile as a Born Again Christian, I traveled with him throughout the Western hemisphere, America, Canada, Jamaica. After giving his testimony about finding Jesus Christ in the moon, the white Christians would embrace him and confessed they used to hate him and Blacks in general but since they were Born Again, they no longer hated him nor Blacks. On one occasion the police confessed they had murder squads who killed Panthers in particular and Blacks in general.  The pigs and Cleaver embraced, both exclaiming, "Praise the Lord!"

Because the Born Again pigs and Cleaver confessed their new found love for each other, do not think they trusted him one iota. Before he had me organize his ministry independent of the whites, there were white Born Again Christians who traveled with us to maintain their surveillance of him. After all, he was the Black superstar on the white Born Again Christian circuit. Charles Colson of Watergate was the other, along with Billy Graham, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Pat Bone, Jim and Tammy Baker, et al. I met most of them on more than one occasion. Since Black Christians were mortally afraid to work with Eldridge, as his chief of staff, I hired a crew of fearless Black Muslims that he fronted off as "heathens" he'd converted to Christianity. After giving his testimony, we'd usually have dinner with the white Christians (for a long time, he didn't deal with Black Christians), and they would ultimately turn to me with the question, "Marvin, when did you find the Lord?" And being an actor from Black Arts Movement Theatre, answered, "One Tuesday night!" The Christians would also ease up to me with the question, "Marvin, is Cleaver for real, did he really see Jesus Christ in the moon?" Of course I said yes. They also wanted to know if I was his bodyguard, even though he was twice my size at the time. I told them I was his just his travel companion and photographer, although he did provide me with a 45 automatic I carried in my camera bag.

When he went to Vancouver, Canada for a speaking engagement, they shook us down at the airport returning to the US and shook us down a second time when we arrived at San Francisco airport. They weren't sure Cleaver was truly Born Again and might still be a Communist dedicated to destroying America.

But it was a different feeling having the police greet us in a friendly manner when we arrived at the airport of various cities and accompany us to his engagements. I recently had a positive experience with the police while in Newark, New Jersey for the funeral of Amiri Baraka and also when I returned for the inauguration of his son, Ras Baraka, as Mayor of Newark NJ.

During the funeral, the police were all over the Baraka house as friends and security. Even before becoming Mayor, Ras had told me, "Marvin, we got brothers with legal guns on our side!" Indeed, many Black police supported the Baraka family, the "first family" of Newark, NJ.

Mrs. Amina Baraka told me that since her son became Mayor, the killing of Blacks by the police has stopped. Now it is only Blacks killing Blacks. During the time I was in Newark, I called California to tell friends there was a more positive relationship between the people and the police. They said I was crazy, this was unimaginable. I was tripping, they said. But it was true none the less, the antagonistic relationship between the people and the police in Newark was subsiding.

In Oakland, I recently asked my childhood friend, Paul Cobb, one of the elders in Oakland politics, are there any Black police on our side? He was not able to answer the question. In my mind, there must be some Black officers on the side of the people. They can't all be pigs, devils, beasts in blue uniforms. We know some of them can be won over to the cause of the people. We saw this in Egypt during the short lived Arab Spring. For a moment, the police and people became one.

As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Black Panther Party, we need to think about how we can come to a more civilized relationship with the police, even if it is symbiotic, it need not be totally negative. But the police cannot be allowed to continue their murder of Black people and other minorities under the color of law. Every human being in American has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And every human being has the right to self defense. Must we conclude the police are constitutionally unable to restrain themselves from killing us? Or is it possible for them to reach a higher level of understanding than the beast plane? If they can do it in Newark, they can do it in Oakland and Ferguson. Isaiah said let us reason together.

We know we cannot outgun the police. We saw in the 60s and we see now, the police have plenty back up, i.e., National Guard, Army, Air Force, Navy, FBI, Homeland Security, CIA, snitches and agent provocateurs. Yes, the Panthers in particular and the Black community in general suffered a military defeat during the 60s and 70s. Guns weren't the only weapon: there was disinformation, chemical (drugs)  and germ warfare(HIV/STDs), toxic food and water.

Isn't it time to do something that works? Shall we continue doing the same thing but expect different results, the mark of insanity?

Fifty years later, it is almost impossible for me to attend rallies against the police for murdering our young men and women. I applaud  people like Oakland's Cat Brooks,Chepus Johnson and the Black Lives Matter Movement. Thank God they have the energy. After fifty years, I'm emotionally and mentally drained, especially after losing my own son to suicide. Imagine, on psycho drugs, he walked into a train, a brilliant young man who graduated from UC Berkeley, attended Harvard and studied in Syria at the University of Damascus. Dr. Nathan Hare says suicide and homicide are but different sides of the same coin, often situational disorders caused oppression. Often homicides are suicides because the person didn't have the never to kill himself so he made someone else do the job. Franz Fanon said the only way the oppressed can regain their mental health is by engaging in revolution to end oppression. Revolution is seizing power. Ras Baraka has demonstrated this in Newark, NJ. And he was blessed with revolutionary parents, so he is well trained for his mission to transform Newark, NJ, a city much like Oakland.



Newark, NJ Mayor Ras Baraka and Marvin X

For sure, we are at war with the oppressor and the police are his first line of defense. Many of us are in denial we are at war until one of our children are killed. The tragedy is that there is no Black family in America that has not been impacted by police actions under the color of law, not to mention incarceration.

We know for a fact police behavior is quite different in the white community than in our community.
I've lived among white people in Castro Valley and they don't even treat Black people the same as they treat us a few miles away in Oakland. The son of a rich friend of mine was repeatedly stopped for speeding and driving without a license in Castro Valley. Did the police kill the boy? No. Did they give him a ticket? No. They called his father to come get the car and his son. Yes, they knew the father was a rich Black man so they treated him with respect. Once the youth had a party that got loud so neighbors called the police. Of course the youth were drinking and smoking. When the police came, they only wanted to know if there was an adult at the house. When I came to the door, the police said, "Are you the adult here, Sir?" I said, "Yes, Sir." The police said, "Good night, Sir."

Now we know money ain't gonna save you all the time, ask Harvard's Skip Gates! But we know if those armed white men in Oregon were Black, they would have surrendered or they'd be dead by now. Still we must make a way out of no way. We cannot continue going to funerals of our children from police homicide under the color of law or Black on Black homicide due to our addiction to white supremacy. We must arise from this morass of savagery. We must regain our self respect and demand others respect us.

I have called for the Red, Black and Green flag to fly up and down the Black Arts Movement Business District along the 14th Street corridor, downtown Oakland. Saluting the flag should help us regain our mental equilibrium and make others, including police, recognize we are a nation of people and must be respected as such. I often give the example of the gay/lesbian flag that flies down Market Street in San Francisco as one goes toward the gay/lesbian community. By the time one gets to the  community, one gets the feeling that we must have respect for this community and not engage in homophobic language and behavior. It should and must be the same in the BAM Business District. This must be a sacred space that we must respect. And this vibration must spread throughout our community. I suggest the Red, Black and Green fly throughout our community to let ourselves and the world know we are a people with cultural consciousness, who originated from the womb of civilization. It will help us understand when we kill our brothers and sisters, we kill ourselves. When others kill us, they kill themselves as well. James Baldwin said, "The murder of my child will not make your child safe!"
--Marvin X
1/17/16

Marvin X is a poet, playwright, essayist, organizer, one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement. He attended Oakland's Merritt College along with Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. He introduced Eldridge Cleaver to the Black Panthers. He was a member of the Negro Student Association/Black Student Union at San Francisco State University, 1964. Marvin co-founded Black Arts West Theatre, San Francisco, 1966, Black House, San Francisco, 1967, and was a member of Harlem's New Lafayette Theatre, 1968. He taught at Fresno State University, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, San Francisco State University, Mills College, Laney and Merritt Colleges, Oakland; University of Nevada, Reno. He lectures at colleges and universities coast to coast. Marvin is prolific: he's written 30 books. His current project is the Black Arts Movement Business District, downtown Oakland.  He is in the Black Panther film Vanguard of the Revolution directed by Stanley Nelson. See his memoir of Eldridge Cleaver: My friend the Devil, Black Bird Press, 2009, Berkeley CA.

BAMBD Media Team Drafted

Black artists gather at Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall, prior to City Council vote that established the Black Arts Movement Business District, January 12, 2016.
Front: Khalid Waajid; Amir Aziz, Duane Deterville, Judy Juanita, Eric Arnold, Tureada Mikell, Marvin X, Tarika Lewis, DeMar-con Gibson, Blystk Kmba, Crsna Cox, Jaenal Peterson, Jahaninh Omi Bahari, Janeah Taylor, Yancie Taylor, Tracy Mitchell, Ron Linzie, Dennis X, Wanda Ravernell
photo Adam Turner

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Graphics by Blystk Kmba

 Marvin X in Philly, interviewed by WURD Radio

The following persons have been drafted to establish the BAMBD Media Team. The team will be in charge of media matters, e.g., press releases, interviews, feature stories, promotional materials. BAM ancestor Amiri Baraka said we must be prepared to shoot down any negative stories about BAMBD that are not factual but only part of the disinformation campaign by you know who. Baraka said we have the intelligence to immediately counter-act  and smash any lies and distortions spread by you know who and the playa haters, jealous and envious Negroes, yes, those with the crabs in the barrel mentality.

Writers:
Dr. Ayodele Nzinga
Aries Jordan
Eric Arnold
Duane Deterville
Aquella Lewis
Wanda Sabir
Ishmael Reed
Askia Toure
Nefertiti Jackmon

Photographers/videographers
Adam Turner
Gene Hazzard
Kamau Amen Ra
Ken Johnson
Malaika Kambon
Harrison Chastain
Khalid Waajib
Amir Aziz

Painters, graphic artists:
Adam Turner
Randolph Belle
Muhammad Kareem
Mical Free

Blystk Kmba
James Gayles
Malik Seneferu
Refa One
Emory Douglas
Kalamu Cache'
Claude Clark
Joyce Gordon

Graphic design by Adam Turner

h
Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra
Photo collage by Adam Turner



Art by James Gayles

l

Graphics by Mical Free, photo Kamau Amen Ra

Photo by Gene Hazzard

 BAM co-founder Amiri Baraka
Art by Emory

 Photo by Ken Johnson

 

Graphic art by Emory 

 Negro es bello/Black is Beautiful

Art by BAM Ancestor Elizabeth Catlett Mora

Toward the BAM Business District National Advisory Board (Proposed, unconfirmed)

The following persons are requested to participate on the Black Arts Movement Business District National Advisory Board:

Danny Glover
Delroy Lindo
Sonia Sanchez
Nikki Giovanni
Mrs. Amina Baraka
Mayor Ras Baraka
Amiri Baraka, Jr.
Askia Toure
Woody King
The Last Poets
Felipe Luciano
David Murray
Marshall Allen
Danny Thompson
David Boykin
Haki Madhubuti
Toni Morrison
Alice Walker
Angela Davis
Muhammad Ahmad
John Burris
Gus Newport
Walter Riley
Eleanor Mason
Dezie Woods Jones
Maxine Ussery
Ruth Beckford
Ellendar Barnes
Dr. Mona Scott
Dr. Nathan Hare
Ishmael Reed
Al Young
Fahizah Alim
Kalamu Ya Salaam
Eugene Redman
Dr. Cornel West

Chicago's David Boykin produced conference on BAM Master Sun Ra at University of Chicago.
BAM Master's Marvin X, Marshall Allen and Danny Thompson of Sun Ra's Arkestra particpated,
May 22, 2015.

 The Black Dialogue Magazine brothers who visited the Soledad Prison Black Culture Club, chaired by Eldridge Cleaver and Alprintice Bunchy Carter, 1966. This club was the beginning of the American prison movement. Black Dialogue Magazine was edited by students in the BSU at San Francisco (most of the above). FYI, the Bay Area played a critical role in radical publications of the BAM National Movement, sister of the Black Power Movement (Larry Neal). While the East Coast is credited with founding BAM, critical journals of BAM were produced in the Bay Area: Soulbook Magazine (Merritt College), Black Dialogue, Journal of Black Poetry (San Francisco State College/University and community), Black Scholar Magazine, founded by Dr. Nathan Hare, edited by Robert Chrisman. There were the critical BAM journals, along with Liberator (New York City) and Negro Digest/Black World (Chicago). Prior to BAM journals was Umbra, published in NYC.

 

 BAM/Black Power freedom fighters Angela Davis, Marvin X, Sonia Sanchez

 Tarika Lewis, artistic freedom fighter, first female member of the Black Panther Party; Fred Hampton, Jr., Black Panther Cub, BAM Elder Marvin X, BAM/Black Power Babies Ras Ceylon and Alia

 BAM Baby Wanda Sabir. Her parents read to her Marvin X's classic Fable of the Black Bird.
Wanda is a Professor at College of Alameda and writer for the Bayview Newspaper, SF.

 

Promo from Stanley Nelson documentary film Black Panthers, Vanguard of the Revolution

BAM poet Marvin X appears in film.

Bay Area artists: Dewey Crumpler, painter, Author Monroe, painter, Ishmael Reed, author, Conyus, poet, Marvin X poet/organizer, Al Young, California poet laureate emeritus 

photo Tennessee Reed

 Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra, University of California, Merced, 2014.

The BAM 50th Anniversary Celebration produced by Kim McMillan and Marvin X

 

Juan Herrera Felipe, member of original  BAM Poets Choir and Arkestra formed at University of California, Merced, 2014. Juan is now United States of America Poet Laureate 

 The Black Arts Movement Poets Choir and Arkestra at the Malcolm X Jazz/Art Festival, Oakland Ca, 2014
collage photo Adam Turner, Post News Group

Marvin X, daughter Muhammida el Muhajir, Dr. Julia Hare, Nisa Ra (Mother of Muhammida, former wife of Marvin X, still one of his best friends; Dr. Nathan Hare. Marvin adopted Julia and Nathan as his aunt and uncle. Dr. Julia Hare said, "When Marvin X calls you, it's like God calling. When he says jump, you say how high?" Marvin X says, "Oh, let us assist Dr. Nathan Hare in caring for his wife of 58 years. Oh, community, go visit them or send them a generous donation. They need your help at this hour as I write."

BAM artists Zena Allen, Marvin X, Tarika Lewis and Linda Johnson, one of our greatest choreographers. Marvin says, "I've worked with many Bay Area dancers, choreographers. As a child I adored Ruth Beckford who taught at New Century Rec Center in West Oakland when I was a child.
At San Francisco State College/University, I experienced Nontizi Cayou, worked with her. Then Raymond Sawyer, Ed Mock, Debra Vaughn, Suzzette Celeste, Raynetta Rayzetta (no one interpreted my poetry better than Raynetta and Suzzette Celeste). But I can't exclude Debra Vaughn and Traci Bartlow.

Ishmael Reed's classic study of Muhammad Ali. I appreciate Ishmael for allowing me to say what I wanted to say about my NOI brother and fellow traveler. As per the war in Vietnam, Ali and I were the best known NOI members who refused to fight in Vietnam. I endured exile, jail and Federal prison for my beliefs. Ali suffered fighting in the prime of his life as World Heavyweight  Champion.

Stanley Nelson, director of the film Black Panthers, Vanguard of the Revolution, Marvin X and Fred Hampton, Jr., at the screening of film at San Francisco International Film Festival. Fred Hampton was featured in the film as a baby. He was in the womb of his mother when the pigs killed his father while he lay in bed with his pregnant mother. The Chicago police admitted they attacked the BPP house to murder Black Panthers, especially after receiving information from a snitching ass nigguh.

Even as I write here in Oakland CA, even as the Oakland City Council just approved the Black Arts Movement Business District along the 14th Street corridor downtown, the rats are out and about. Even as we took the photo shoot before the City Council vote on the BAMBD, the rats were about, not only were they in the grass outside City Hall as many artists noticed, but they found their way into the group photo, one need only look at the last row on the left to see the rats. We had people on the East Coast check out the pic and they agreed they saw the rats in the pic.

Nigger for Life, poems by Dr. Neal Hall, MD

Nigger For Life Book Awards:

• 2015 Pacific Rim Book Awards – 1st Place, Poetry
• 2015 Amsterdam Book Awards – 1st Place, Poetry
• 2015 Greater Southeast Book Awards – 1st Place, Poetry
• 2014 Florida Books Awards – 1st Place, Poetry
• 2013 GRAND PRIZE WINNER – The Do-It-Yourself Book Awards
• 2013 London Book Awards – 1st Place, Poetry
• 2013 The Great Midwest Book Awards – 1st Place, Poetry
• 2013 Southern California Book Awards – 1st Place, Poetry
• 2013 Do-It-Yourself Book Awards – 1st Place, Poetry
• 2013 Finalist: International Book Awards by USA Book News
• 2013 San Francisco Book Awards – 1st Place, Poetry
• 2013 Paris Book Awards – 1st Place, Poetry
• 2013 National Beverly Hills Book Awards – 1st Place, Poetry
• 2013 Great Northwest Book Awards – 1st Place, Poetry
• 2013 Great Southwest Book Awards – 1st Place, Poetry
• 2013 GRAND PRIZE WINNER – Los Angeles Book Awards – The First Poet to Ever Win The L.A. Grand Prize
• 2013 Los Angeles Book Awards – 1st Place, Poetry
• 2012 New England Book Awards – 1st Place, Poetry
• 2012 New York Book Awards – 1st Place, Poetry
• 2012 Hollywood Book Awards – Runner Up, Poetry
• 2012 Poetry Contest Winner, Ubud Writers & Readers International Festival, Bali, Indonesia
• Named Conversation Magazine’s 2012 Top 10 Best Poetry Books
• National Black Authors Tour’s Distinguished Honor Award

City of Oakland downtown Plan meeting

Connect
Please join us to consider policy and design options to make Downtown Oakland the thriving, diverse, safe and equitable neighborhood that Oaklanders want to see at their city’s core. Based on the community’s feedback from two months of extensive public conversations, the City will be presenting ideas for solutions in a specific plan for Downtown to help meet the community’s needs, including:

• Policies and programs to protect and support artists, small businesses, and residents at all income levels, including options to develop funds needed to meet these needs
• Plans to encourage development that will fill in the gaps in our neighborhoods with living-wage jobs, new housing, new retail space and community benefits
• Designs for public streets and gathering places that welcome and connect all residents, with a focus on transit-accessible public spaces that are safe for bicyclists and pedestrians of all ages

An open house will follow the presentation, where you can take a closer look at the options, offer new ideas and revisions, and talk with the designers, staff, and other community members.

Monday, February 1, 2016, 6:00 to 8:30 pm
Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice Street

Schedule
6:00 pm: Arrival & Reception
6:30 pm: Presentation
7:30 pm: Open House

Play
To experience some of the future possibilities firsthand, come to Frank Ogawa Plaza from February 4th through 6th for the Our City: Oakland Public Design Fair. The Plaza will be transformed into a place for people of all ages to play in new ways. Ten locally-built public design projects will premiere at the Fair, inviting residents and visitors alike to reimagine the future of our public space.

Festivities start on Friday, February 4th at a kickoff celebration with food, drinks and PLAY at the Museum of Children’s Art (1625 Clay Street) from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. Visit the Our City: Oakland website for details.

Heal
The City of Oakland is committed to advancing policy and institutional change to address structural inequality throughout Oakland. To support concrete steps toward this goal the Planning Department is issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP) to develop a social equity strategy that will guide this and future specific plans. The strategy would ensure that policies are developed to address the physical environment and economic conditions for all people, including those with the fewest resources, through the promotion of participatory engagement and positive social change.

Please forward this email and the link to the RFP to any organizations and consultants who are leaders in social equity policy, planning and participation: RFP for Oakland Social Equity Strategy.

Please feel free to forward this email or repost the Facebook event link to the February 1st meeting for your friends, neighbors and coworkers who care about their city: Community Meeting Facebook Event. For more information on Plan Downtown, please visit www.oaklandnet.com/plandowntownoakland.

We hope to see you on Monday, February 1st!