On Saturday, February 7, 2015 eight thousand people gathered in Oakland to send a clear message to Governor Brown: We need real climate change and an end to fracking. In addition to a labor contingent, a South Asian contingent, and a student contingent, there was a Hawaiian Pacific Islander contingent which stood behind the Native American First Nations indigenous bloc. Robynn Takayama went out to talk with them before the march began with support from Alec MacDonald.
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Tonight, part of the APEX Express crew will forgo our regular programming to cover the recent protests in Oakland in support of Black Lives Matter. We’ll talk with two practitioners from the nationwide call for Healing Justice for Black Lives Matters event from today about the importance of healing work in movement building. We’ll also hear a quick report back from the student protest on Monday.
Finally, we make space to reflect on Monday’s visionary shutdown of the Oakland Police Department. How did this action come together? And what lessons can folks in other cities take from their experience? We’ll talk with organizers from the Black Brunch, Bay Area Solidarity Action Team, and #Asians4BlackLives.
Community Calendar
Lessons and Carols for Advent and Christmas
Saturday, December 20th, 5pm
Episcopal Church of the Incarnation
1750 – 29th Avenue, San Francisco
This musical concert features 88 Keys, an inter-generational choir of Asian Pacific Islander LGBTQ people of faith and allies that was started by the Network on Religion & Justice, and the choir of the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation. $10-$20 suggested donation. No one turned away for lack of funds. The venue is wheelchair accessible.
This Thursday, we look at the “Colorization of America.” We kick off the hour with a report from the streets, as police violence continues to spark protests across the nation. Then we go to a conversation between Jeff Chang, author of Who We Be: the Colorization of America, and Vincent Pan, the executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action. Who We Be remixes art with protests and corporate marketing campaigns providing a cultural history of “racial progress.”
We’ll be offering Who We Be, a beautiful and insightful book, as a thank you gift for supporting KPFA.
Contributor R.J. Lozada compiles different stories from the bay, the country, and around the globe. Every month, a moment, a story-either read on your facebook feed, heard in your conversations, or viewed on broadcast. You’re invited to tune in, and a take an hour to reflect on 2012.
It’s back-to-school season for most Bay Area students – so tonight we hear about a fierce campaign to transform the Oakland school district! We have a full-length interview with the incredible voices of AYPAL youth leaders! 9 API youth organizers, making up the AYPAL Campaign Organizing Team, joined us in the studio to talk about their current campaign to fight to include Ethnic Studies in the Oakland Unified School District. They speak on their work, how they got involved, and how they’re already winning successes on a completely youth-led campaign. Also, their AYPAL adult coordinator – Armael Malinis – joins us live to give us the latest updates and tell us how to get involved. Plus, some exciting musical selections.
This week we bring you another packed show featuring powerful community voices: Police Brutality in Oakland: While we continue to heal from the murder of Oscar Grant, Oakland youth of color continue to be targeted by racial profiling and police brutality. This week we bring you a dynamic interview with Sarn Saechao, a Mien youth and high school student and member of AYPAL, to speak on his experience with racial profiling, his thoughts on the Oakland gang injunctions and what him and other Oakland API youth are doing to combat injustices in their hood. Also, we bring you sounds from February’s “People’s Hearing on Racism and Police Violence,” featuring community leaders Eddy Zheng and Rachel Jackson.
Hopie Spitshard: We sat down for a special interview with Hopie Spitshard, a young hip hop artist originally from the Philippines and San Francisco-raised. As the inaugural segment of a series we’ll be collecting of interviews with API womyn in hip hop, this week we bring you an intimate look at who Hopie Spitshard is, and what has inspired her to blaze through hip hop’s boundaries and stay grounded by family, culture and what’s real.
Community Calendar:
From Thursday, April 7 to Saturday, April 9, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts presents Samoan choreographer Lemi Ponfasio’s Tempest Without a Body. www.ybca.org
On Friday, April 8 and Saturday, April 9, Karl Evangelista and the Grex Quintet perform their special blend of jazz at the Bayanihan Community Center in San Francisco. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=172259806154392
On Saturday, April 9, author Cecilia Gaerlan reads from her debut novel, In Her Mother’s Image. Her book chronicles the story of a family’s ordeal during World War II in the Philippines and the fall of Bataan. www.asiabookcenter.com
Sunday, April 10, join the Bay Area Committee to Stop FBI Repression’s contingent at the anti-war rally in Dolores Park, and call-in on April 12 to support activists like Anh Pham in resisting the FBI’s harassment of activists. www.stopfbi.net
Next Thursday, April 14, four Asian American rock bands perform at the Submission Gallery in San Francisco for Ring the Alarm, a benefit for communities in the Philippines. Entry is $5-8. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=137342599672988
On Saturday, April 16, API musicians, dancers, and performers come together for Japan Restart, a benefit concert for the Northern Japan Earthquake Relief Fund. japanrestart.eventbrite.com
On July 8, 2010, former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of unarmed BART passenger Oscar Grant. The charge carries a possible sentence of two to four years in prison. Sentencing will take place on August 6th. It’s possible that Mehserle could get probation. We take you live to the streets at 14th and Broadway in Downtown Oakland with Apex reporters Miss Renee and Kiwi.
And we cover the elections in the Philippines, with Professor Bobby Tuazon, director for policy studies of the Center for People Empowerment in Governance, and Rhonda Ramiro, with Bayan USA.
APEX Express is a proud member of Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality, or AACRE. AACRE is a network of Asian American social justice groups with shared values that are working to create positive change.
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