Wanda's Picks

As BTR concludes, here are some highlights from a career that began in 2008 to 2025. Thanks for all the listens. The shows are available @Wanda's Picks at iTunes https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wandas-picks/id297197493 and via Spreaker at https://www.spreaker.com/tags/wandaspicks. Stay in touch. I am revamping my website, wandaspicks.com However, you can email me there as well as follow my i...

Introduction or Abstract           Nancy Ross Gooch was a Black woman whose family—the Gooch-Monroes, owned most of Coloma, specifically the area around Main Street. Coloma, a small city in El Dorado County, is where James Marshall discovered gold at Sutter’s Mill in 1848. If it weren’t for her family’s stewardship of the land, this town might not exist, yet Californians do not know her name. Chil...

Damu Sudi Alii began his musical career playing trombone in junior high school, then switched to piano in the United States Air Force.  He went on the road in 1969 with a group called "The Mint Juleps" led by trumpeter, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Clarence Pinckney. The group toured the midwest, southwest, and northwest United States.  Damu later joined a group in Los Angeles called the "G...

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...

Meditation "The Invitation" in Ten Thousand Beloved Communities by Kristen Lynn Zimmerman, forward by adrienne maree brown (2023). We close with the poem: "Random Blessings" for Agu, by Wanda Sabir, performed to Agu's song, "Reaching In." Presentation: 1. Grace Lee Boggs 2. Beloved Community, Zimmerman 3. Ethics of Knowledge Creation and Acquisition, Fernandes Module 5 Theme: Bringing Spiritual Ac...

Theme: Bringing Spiritual Activism into Community Materials: Read select readings from Part 4: Direction of the Youth in Fleshing the Spirit (eds. Facio and Lara)Read Chapter 4: Knowledge in Transforming Feminist Practice (Fernandes)Read Part 2: Community Accountability and Transformative Justice in Feminist Accountability (Russo)Read first half of 10,000 Beloved Communities graphic novel (Zimmerm...

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...

We speak this afternoon with Deborah Vaughan, Artistic Director and Founder of DIMENSIONS DANCE THEATER about the premiere of a new work, HEALING TO JOY OCTOBER 12, 2024. This new work by Haitian-American Choreographer Laurie Fleurentin and Ms. Vaughan explores the transcendent power of joy to empower unity and growth. The work includes composer/performer Jeff Pierre and guest spoken-word artist a...

Thursday, August 29, 2024, was the 19th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Ms. Wanda Sabir gave a talk at a BIPOC Al Anon principles meeting. 

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...

What do Black-eyed peas have to do with Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower? Much! Join Iya Wanda Ravernell this morning and she will share about this African Disapora staple at The 9th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival, Sat. Sept. 14, 2024, 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. @Marston Campbell Park, 17th and West Streets, Oakland CA, 94607.  Enjoy Jazz, Second line bands, Black entrepreneurs, soul food and a s...

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via 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...

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...

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...

Today we speak with Dr. Zoe Franklin, an Africana Studies Professor at a community college in Chicago, Illinois. We speak by phone. Dr. Franklin and I discuss the inner child, her acknowledgment, reclamation, and healing. She shares a series of journal reflections (100 completed) to let us hear the voice of her inner child. What does repair or mending sound or look like?  We appreciate Dr. Frankli...

This is a poem I wrote to document the end of my first two semesters in the Women's Spirituality Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco. I am working on a doctorate. I am supposed to complete the rest of my coursework in the next year. I have learned a lot. This semester we looked at Radical Birthing and Revolutionary Mothering. What a concept! I also took...

We speak to Marcus Anthony Shelby about Zaccho Dance Theatre & Dancers' Group Co-Presentation of "The People's Palace" (World Premiere), a site-specific performance installation and artistic intervention inside San Francisco's City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, in San Francisco. Performances are Thursday & Friday, May 9, 10 and Sunday, May 12, 8-10:30 PM. It's free. On Friday, May...

We are hosting a series of conversations with women about their motherlines. We began in March this year and continue through March 2025. In these conversations over the next year, we will speak to Black women about their motherlines. Our guest today is Makeda Esi Ohemaa aka Sandra Hooper Mayfield. She is the youngest daughter of Ruby Mae, granddaughter of Evie, great-grandaughter of Hester, and g...

We are hosting a series of conversations with women about their motherlines. Join us monthly. We began in March and continue through March 2025.  We speak with Stephanie JT Russell, poet and visual artist, Poet Laureate for Dutchess County, New York.  Poet,interdisciplinary artist, and cultural worker Stephanie JT Russell’s most recent creative nonfiction book is One Flash of Lightning, a poetic t...

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...

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...

As the series kickoff, I start with my own Motherline Story. Here is a brief bio:  Ms. Wanda Sabir, is a poet, essayist, arts editor and retired professor. Wanda’s Picks column, podcast and YouTube channel are a local and national staple. Her interest is in Art for Social Change. A depth psychologist, Ms. Sabir’s area of research is on trauma and its impact on memory. Ms. Sabir served as board mem...

In these conversations over the next year, we will speak to Black women about their motherlines. Our guest today is Kathryn Waddell Takara, Ph. D., who taught and developed the first Black Studies in the Ethnic Studies Department beginning in 1971. She transferred to Interdisciplinary Studies where she continued to develop new courses including Africana Studies. Her primary research was African Am...

1. We are joined by the erudite playwright, musician, and scholar Ishmael Reed, Carla Blank, director, and an illustrious cast tospeak about The Shine Challenge online at The Nuyorican Poetry Cafe in New York. Reservations and further information can be found at www.nuyorican.org Reed says:  "In my grandmother’s brother’s house, the only painting on the wall was that of the Titanic. The sinking of...

Part I proceeds Part III  In querying the text, Sacred Pleasure: Sex, Myth and the Politics of the Body (1995) by Riane Eisler, Ph. D., I spend too much time wading through Western dominator theories. The land is too far from the shore for safety. I do not swim. I respect water, and its power to interrupt and separate my spiritual home from me. If I board the ship, I am stuck, so I keep my body sa...