Hundreds of young people attended the third annual Black College Fair at Laney College, the second year the Oakland community college has hosted the event.
The Bay Area celebrates the life of El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, Malcolm X, in many ways. Oakland has the Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival each May. The Peralta Colleges designated Malcolm's birthday as a holiday, while Laney Colleges students and members of Club Knowledge held the Malcolm X Consciousness Conference from 2003-2005, while the Laney Black Student Union recently held the Malcolm X Summit in 2010.
No Sell Out by Keith LeBlanc was a 12" put out in 1983 with the approval of Malcolm's widow, Betty Shabazz. It features quotes from Malcolm over a funky, electro rap beat.
The Bay Area is a vital aspect of our collective history, yet many youth are not familiar with the story of their ancestors. Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson is organizing a unique Black History Month event on Saturday, February 19 at the Black Repertory Theater in Berkeley. Family Journeys: The Migration of African Americans to the Bay Area and Intergenerational Dialogue will feature an informative panel discussion where audience members will learn about the Great Migration and the contributions of African Americans to the Bay Area. They will hear the stories of the men and women who arrived to work in the shipyards and stayed to raise families, worship and create a flourishing and diverse community and Bay Area history.
Panelists include: Professor Dr. Oba T'Shaka, former Chair of the Africana Studies Department at San Francisco State University; Pastor Dr. Martha Taylor, Elmhurst Presbyterian Church; and Betty Reid Soskin, Outreach Specialist at Rosie the Riveter WWII/Home Front National Historical Park. The panel will be moderated by Davey D of Hard Knock Radio.
Following the panel, audience members will have the opportunity to participate in an intergenerational breakout session in which youth and elders will listen to each other and absorb knowledge about family histories and African American culture. Youth participants have been invited from the Berkeley High School African American Studies Department, McClymonds High School Culture Keepers, Beyond Emancipation, Berkeley Youth Alternatives, East Oakland Youth Development Center and Leadership Excellence.
In addition to the discussion, the goal is to make certain that African Americans in Alameda County receive the resources and information they need to research and create their own family tree. Audience members will learn about the Regional Family Resource Center and how to research their own ancestry online, with genealogy software, at libraries and with County resources.
The Family Journeys event will kick off a semester-long project that will introduce high school youth to the study of genealogy and get them excited about documenting their own family histories. With the help of experts from the African American Genealogy Society of Northern California, the youth will learn about research tools and resources, interviewing their relatives, and documenting their findings with web and video tools. Each student will produce their own family tree and tell the story of their ancestors through pictures, documents and video. The results will be presented in a final event in May that will showcase the youth projects front and center.
Family Journeys is being sponsored by Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, The Socially Responsible Network, The California NAACP and The Oakland Black Firefighters Association.
This week's Music Monday is the debut video for Long Beach-based artist, poet, educator and singer Rashondra Angelle. "Rise" has an inspiring, smooth, laid back groove that makes you want to move. Or, better yet, rise!
Black elected officials, religious leaders gather in Oakland with law enforcement officials to strategize on crime reduction.
By Reginald James
Elected officials and clergy gathered in Oakland on Wednesday to strategize and share best-practices on crime prevention. The breakfast meeting, hosted by the Black Elected Officials and Faith Based Leaders of the East Bay and chaired by Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, featured a policy expert and four Bay Area police chiefs.
“We have every one of these programs operating in our community but we need to use all the resources in a systematic and coordinated way." Junious Williams Urban Strategies Council
Oakland has many violence prevention programs, including street outreach workers—community members with information about job opportunities, substance abuse services and health resources. There are also vocational training programs, conflict resolution and youth leadership and mentoring programs. Because of a lack of coordinated effort, the overall impact to the community has not been maximized, panelist said.
“We have every one of these programs operating in our community but we need to use all the resources in a systematic and coordinated way,” said Junious Williams of the Urban Strategies Council. He added that there was also a need to bolster efforts to get neighbors and families to know one another. “The lack of social connection in neighborhoods has created a whole culture about snitching that makes it impossible for law enforcement to intervene when violence has occurred.” Police chiefs agreed, adding that budget cuts have pitted services against each other, making it difficult to decide how to prioritize spending. Despite the need for increased public safety, more community involvement was needed.
“We need to move from locking people up to community engagement,” said Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts. Besides intervention, there’s a need for prevention, he argued. “We have to make a difference in people’s lives before people are in the system,” Batts said.
Other panelists include Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan, San Leandro Police Chief Sandra Spagnoli and BART Police Chief Kenton Rainey. With reduced budgets and police layoffs, law enforcement said the need for community involvement was greater than ever. “I tell my people all the time, ‘There is no more help coming. It’s only us’,” said BART Police Chief Kenton Rainey. “But ‘us’ is not just police. When we work together, there [are] so many more of us than them.” The meeting’s topic struck a deep chord with the group as one of its founding members, Berresford “Berry” Bingham, was found dead Tuesday. Police have not said how Bingham was killed, but are investigating his death as a homicide.
“Many of you knew him as an active member of SEIU, and from founding this organization nine years ago,” Carson said at the beginning of the presentation. “It’s sad that a person who epitomized public service found himself dying in a way he dedicated his life to overturning.”
Despite this most recent tragedy, both panelists and attendees were optimistic about the potential to prevent crime, but said more coordinated, community involvement was needed.
Before the meeting ended, attendees were encouraged to get involved with a number of youth-serving and violence prevention organizations, including The Mentoring Center, Youth Alive, and the Alameda County Public Health Department. Recently, a faith-based group, Soldiers Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE) pledged to rally every Saturday between 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at sites where murders occurred in Oakland the week before.
Visit the Facebook page of the Black elected Officials and Faith Based Leaders of the East Bay for more information about the group.
Disclosure: Reginald James is the New Media Specialist for Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson.
The Bay Area celebrates the life of El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, Malcolm X, in many ways. Oakland has the Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival each May. The Peralta Colleges designated Malcolm's birthday as a holiday, while Laney Colleges students and members of Club Knowledge held the Malcolm X Consciousness Conference from 2003-2005, while the Laney Black Student Union recently held the Malcolm X Summit in 2010.
