Podcasts about Black Panther Party

"elected Revolutionary" Charles Barron is a member of the original Black Panther Party, a longtime reparationist, and a former NYC city councilman. On this "FreedmenFriday segment Barron explains the multiple stall outs, challenges and the forward progress of New York's state and municipal reparations efforts.https://www.instagram.com/diprimaradio/

"I just loved it. At that point, all I wanted to be was a criminal defense lawyer."In this episode of Killer Cross Examination, host Neil Rockind sits down with legendary Detroit criminal defense attorney James L. Feinberg. With over 50 years of legal experience in the city, Jim shares incredible stories from the front lines of Detroit's legal history—from the massive 10th Precinct narcotics case to defending members of the Black Panther Party.Jim also opens up about his high-profile representation of legendary Detroit athletes and cultural figures, highlighting the deep, lifelong relationships he builds with his clients and their families.#CriminalDefense #DetroitLaw #TrialLawyer #KillerCrossExamination #LegalLegend #BlackPanthers #CourtroomStories⏱️ Timestamps0:00 – Introduction: Welcoming a Detroit Legend1:02 – Finding the Calling: Reading Clarence Darrow at 152:15 – Early Career: Neighborhood Legal Services & The First Juvenile Defender3:10 – The Defender's Office & The Post-Riot Era4:55 – Defending Detroit Icons: Athletes, Philanthropists, and Unforgettable Courtroom Dynamic Duos7:20 – The 10th Precinct Case: A Six-Month Preliminary Examination9:15 – Bridging Communities: Teaching at Foch Junior High10:45 – Representing the Black Panthers & Standing Up to the System13:10 – Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the Aceval Case, and Staying Calm Under Pressure15:40 – Founding CDAM and Creating the Hispanic Bar Association of MichiganAbout Neil Rockind - Neil Rockind is a trial lawyer. Neil Rockind is often considered a bet the farm/company type of lawyer, taking on cases where the stakes are “all in.” Neil Rockind appears regularly on television and in the news, defends people in serious court cases, is a regular guest on the Law and Crime Network and also discusses popular trials and cases and current events with other top lawyers around the country. Neil Rockind has won just about every award imaginable, has represented athletes, celebrities, musicians, public figures and has obtained acquittals in all varieties of cases. His nickname is "The Rockweiler" and he's known for his cross examination style.Neil Rockind:Https://www.X.com/neilrockindlawHttps://www.instagram.com/rockindlaw https://www.rockindlaw.com/http://www.killercrossexamination.com/*************************************Subscribe to Killer Cross Examination® PodcastAPPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/424RIys...GOOGLE PODCASTS: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0...AUDIBLE:https://www.audible.com/pd/Podcast/B0...******************************************Fair Use DoctrineThe contents are under fair use. It may contain copyrighted materials whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This, in our view, is fair use pursuant to section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Fair use allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as for commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching or scholarship. We retain no rights to that material. To the extent the videos capture images or likenesses, we do not own the rights to those images, likenesses, etc and only use them pursuant to the fair use doctrine.All other rights are reserved.

Former AFL Player Che Cockatoo-Collins joins Duff and the Doctor. They discuss Cockatoo-Collins' AFL debut game, the Black Panther Party, his time at Essendon, his thoughts on James Hird for Bombers coach, 1995 ANZAC Day game and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Breht is joined by writer, intellectual, and poet Too Black to discuss his essay "Nonviolence is Violence, Too (Part 2)—We're All in the Gunk." Together, they critically examine the liberal mythology of "nonviolence" as a pure moral alternative to violence, arguing instead that all movements operate within conditions already structured by state, colonial, racial, and imperial violence. Drawing from the Black freedom struggle, Ghana's independence movement, Kwame Nkrumah, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, the Black Panther Party, Gandhi, Indian independence, riots, armed resistance, and the "positive radical flank," Too Black shows how so-called nonviolent movements have often depended on the threat, presence, displacement, or redirection of violence in order to win concessions. Rather than offering a simplistic celebration of violence, this conversation asks us to think more honestly about power, confrontation, sacrifice, propaganda, state repression, and the real historical conditions under which oppressed people struggle to breathe beneath the boot. At its core, this is a discussion about what movements actually do, how victories are actually won, and why peace is not the absence of conflict, but something that must be fought for.   Listen to our previous discussion on Part 1 of Too Black's essay here: https://revolutionaryleftradio.libsyn.com/nonviolence-is-violence-too-somebodys-gotta-die   Subscribe to Black Myths Podcast ---------------------------------------------------- Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/revleftradio Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio Follow, Subscribe, & Learn more about Rev Left Radio https://revleftradio.com/

Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.  This week, Emily interviews Emory Douglas, the Black Panther Party's Minister of Culture and revolutionary artist. The episode centers on a retrospective of his work, Emory Douglas in Our Lifetime, on view at San Francisco's African American Arts and Culture Complex. About Artist Emory Douglas: The former Minister of Culture and Revolutionary Artist for the Black Panther Party, Douglas helped define the aesthetics of protest at the height of the Civil Rights era, cementing his status among the 20th century's most influential radical political artists. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he designed all but one of the Party's newspapers, each issue marked by the artist's bold, figurative illustrations outlined in thick black line and contrasted with bright colors, block text, and photomontage. The clearly rendered imagery, applied to a range of printed media from newspapers to posters, notecards, and pins, became a hallmark of liberation movements around the world, as supporters calling for an end to the oppression and subjugation of Black, Indigenous, and other communities sought to project a spirit of shared struggle through a common artistic vocabulary. Douglas was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 1951, his family relocated to San Francisco, where he continues to live today. Widely known as an epicenter of radical countercultural politics in the post–World War II era, the city was also deeply divided and segregated, and it was the injustices that Douglas observed as a child that informed his political ideology as an adult. Beginning in the early 1960s, as a student of commercial art at City College of San Francisco, Douglas made frequent trips to nearby San Francisco State University to see civil rights leaders like Amiri Baraka, Stokely Carmichael, and H. Rap Brown speak. He soon lent his talents to the nascent Black Arts Movement, creating fliers and other promotional artworks to advertise events held across the city. These formative experiences solidified his intentions to dedicate his work to the broader struggle for Black liberation that was taking shape around him. In January 1967, Douglas met Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, two young activists from nearby Oakland, who, months earlier, had founded the Black Panther Party (BPP). Black self-determination was the Party's primary motivation, seeking to improve the position of underprivileged people of color in America through “whatever means necessary.” The organization initially focused on an individual's right to bear arms for defense against police violence, but its attention eventually turned to social justice issues like free breakfast for school children and fair housing. Seeking to promote their civil rights agenda to a primarily Black American audience, the Panthers developed a newspaper, the first of which Seale created and published in April 1967. That first issue was simple in layout and design, leading Douglas to offer his expertise in print production, understanding the power that strong visuals could lend to political action. Beginning with the second, he designed every issue thereafter—some 537 newspapers, from 1967 until it ceased publication in the early 1980s. Douglas quickly rose through the ranks of the organization: he was officially named its Revolutionary Artist and, eventually, Minister of Culture, overseeing all aspects of the BPP visual identity. Douglas's familiarity with the print production process was a fruitful asset, as he employed simple tools like markers, rub-off type, and prefabricated texture materials to create his visually impactful designs. To keep costs low, each paper was printed in one or two colors—black ink, often with a contrasting bright color. His illustrations shone a spotlight on state-sanctioned brutality, depicting law enforcement officers and politicians as pigs, while also portraying Black people bearing arms and defeating their oppressors. Some issues featured images of Black suffering, lambasting the political establishment for failing to meet the basic needs of people of color across the United States. Douglas strategically employed photomontage as well, integrating photographs alongside text and illustrations to emphasize urgent issues facing the Party. The impact and influence of Douglas's designs underscored the importance of a consistent graphic strategy in conveying complex political messages in very simple terms. This success was underscored by the massive global distribution of the newspaper and the frequent use of Douglas's illustrations in the political campaigns for organizations like the Organización de Solidaridad con los Pueblos de Asia, África y América Latina, Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, known as OSPAAAL. Despite the popularity of the Panthers' programs and their frequent struggle against the established white political order, the Party was disbanded in the early 1980s. Douglas continues to work as a political artist and activist, producing work that seamlessly translates complex political issues into easily understood illustration, a hallmark of the pieces he produced as a member of the Panthers. His striking figural illustrations connect him to generations of American artists like Elizabeth Catlett, Aaron Douglas, and Charles White, while his combining of type and image draw on generations of political art emanating from across the world, including contemporaries working in Cuba during the Communist Revolution. Deeply bound to American history and politics, his imagery evokes a powerful, globally resonant narrative. For more on Emory, CLICK HERE.   To learn about the exhibit honoring Emory's revolutionary work, CLICK HERE. -- About Podcast Host Emily Wilson: Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Women's Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco. Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast -- CREDITS: Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.  Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License The Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.  For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Join the boys weekly on Patreon for 8+ hours of monthly content! https://www.patreon.com/c/TheModernApes?vanity=user https://www.patreon.com/c/TheModernApes?vanity=user https://www.patreon.com/c/TheModernApes?vanity=user Welcome back to another GLORIOUS week of The Modern Apes Podcast! We are absolutely juiced for out guest this week, the one and only Marito Lopez!! Known for his wit and quick Canadian humor, Marito wanted to come and talk the Black Panther Party, so we thought we would do a whole ep on "Militant Groups" in America. Even though Daniel is actively going through it with the coughing and the nose bleed and all that, he still powered through to talk the BPP. We basically go through all of the beginnings of the organization and how Huey Newton got the thing off of the ground. If you liked this make sure to comment some Black Panther facts! Then toward the end, after the great nose bleed of mid episode Tristan goes DEEP into the Westboro Baptist Church. You know the God Hates (bad word) Guys lol!! Honestly while not that big, and with recent numbers dwindling the group still has a presence at most well attended public events. If you liked this ep and want to help support the boys make sure to follow the boys on all socials, and get on that Patreon cause its juicy! Chapters: 0:00 Patreon Promo 1:10 Opening Riffs 2:55 Organized Blacks 4:35 Mesh T-Shirts 9:13 The Start of The Panthers 14:00 Huey Newton Origins 17:25 10 Point Manifesto 22:01 Daniel's Nose Bleed 28:20 Minister of Defense 30:00 Marito's Age 33:01 Daniel's Lawsuit 37:30 Raised By Conservatives 47:03 Huey Wrap Up 57:45 Westboro Baptist Church 1:09:09 PATREON NAMES! #comedy #blackpanther #blackpanthers #standupcomedy #standup #military #history #breakdown #learn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the 5th session on Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In the Age of Colorblindness. Alexander is a non-white female with one White parent and one non-white parent. Despite 15 years of institutional celebration, Gus T. anticipated this being one of the 5 Worst Books Ever. Racists generally do not promote literature that provides an accurate understanding of the System of White Supremacy. Deception by Omission: A serious exploration of prisons and Racism must account for the systemic forces that built them. This book's failure to center COINTELPRO, the torture legacy of Chicago's Jon Burge, or the raw profitability of caging Black men suggests Alexander is guilty of a whole lot of lying. Last week's review included: 1. The "Basically" Deception & The Audio Patch: Alexander claims the 10th Anniversary edition is "basically" the same book, yet we discovered she began "slipping in" massive, structural data, like the $36B Clinton-era housing-to-prison strike, as early as the 2012 audio book. This is Administrative Concealing of her own original errors. She's been running a "live patch" on her scholarship for 14 years to look more "radical" than she actually is. 2. The COINTELPRO Foundation: Alexander details the prosecutorial work of the drug war involves deceiving black male defendants, the use of paid, unidentified, often coerced informants, wiretapping, and draconian sentences to compel suspects to accept plea bargains and/or plead guilty to lesser sentences. She willfully ignores that most of these tactics were hallmarks of the COINTELPRO campaign against innocent black people who were struggling to counter-racism, not peddle drugs. 3. Black People Have Never Been Free: Michelle with 1 White parent told us: “Once upon a time, it was generally understood that the police could not stop and search someone without a warrant unless there was probable cause to believe that the individual was engaged in criminal activity.” All of the book club members united to point out the insanity of such a claim. White people - including children - with or without a badge have had the authority - if not he mandate - to stop any black person, at any time, for any reason. That's what White means - The Law. Reminded Gus of Trayvon Martin and Ahmad Arbery. #TheRedboneDeception #COINTELPRO #TheCOWS17Years INVEST in The COWS – [http://paypal.me/TheCOWS](http://paypal.me/TheCOWS) Cash App: [https://cash.app/$TheCOWS](https://cash.app/$TheCOWS) CALL IN NUMBER: 720.716.7300 CODE 564943#

What if the biggest culture war in America wasn't a grassroots revolution at all… but a system designed to keep ordinary people divided while the people at the top quietly consolidated more power than ever before? In this episode of Keeping It Real, Jillian dives into the hidden history behind modern DEI, identity politics, Cold War influence operations, and the institutional networks that shaped today's corporate and academic culture. From declassified CIA programs and Senate investigations to the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie foundations, this is the hidden history of modern DEI. This episode follows the paper trail through the Cold War, the CIA's “Mighty Wurlitzer” propaganda network, McGeorge Bundy, the Ford Foundation, and the rise of the Black Panthers — whose free breakfast programs, health clinics, and cross-racial Rainbow Coalition threatened to unite working people around class and economic power. J Edgar Hoover and the FBI actually went after Fred Hampton because message wasn't Black vs. white. It was poor people vs. concentrated power. And according to Hoover that was more dangerous than riots and civil unrest. From the Congress for Cultural Freedom and foundation-funded activism to the rise of corporate HR culture and modern diversity bureaucracy, this episode explores how class-based populism may have been replaced by institutionalized identity management designed to absorb outrage without ever threatening the underlying power structure. You'll hear about: The CIA's “Mighty Wurlitzer” influence network Declassified Cold War psychological operations The Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie foundations connection to intelligence agencies How J Edgar Hoover's FBI went after the Black Panther Party and Fred Hampton's Rainbow Coalition Why cross-racial working-class solidarity terrified elites The Congress for Cultural Freedom and “managed dissent” How DEI became embedded in universities and corporations Why corporate activism exploded while inequality worsened The psychological mechanics of division and outrage politics How media, bureaucracy, and identity conflict distracts from corruption and economic power #DEI #CIA #FordFoundation 00:00 INTRO 00:48 DEI Was Started By The CIA 01:47 Ford Foundation & The CIA 02:51 The Mighty Wurlitzer: Engineering "Organic" Propaganda 03:56 Funding the "Housebroken" Left 06:06 Laundering Ideology Through Foundations (Ford, Rockefeller, Carnegie) 07:28 John J. McCloy and the CIA-Ford Foundation Merger 08:29 How Massive Endowments Provide Cover for Black Budgets 10:11 The "Long Leash": Seducing Intellectuals Over Defeating Them 12:38 Dummy Foundations 14:04 Thomas Braden: Controlling American Radicals 15:55 Case Study: Infiltrating the Labor Movement and Churches 17:02 The Hypocrisy of Institutional Leaders 18:47 McGeorge Bundy and the Strategy of Social Stability 20:06 Black Panters Fred Hampton and the Threat of the Rainbow Coalition 23:28 Unity is the Danger: Replacing Populism with Grants 26:34 Carnegie's Capture of Universities 29:44 Self-Reproducing Ideology in the Corporate Workplace 31:38 Interpersonal Conflict as a Substitute for Accountability 34:01 Divide, Conquer, and the Path to Solidarity Shopify: Launch your dream business with Shopify. Sign up for your $1/month trial at https://Shopify.com/Jillian and start selling today! Superpower: Stop guessing about your health—get $20 off Superpower at https://superpower.com/JILLIAN with code JILLIAN Fox One: Sign up at https://fox.com to watch Keeping It Real and more on-demand with FOX One. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Wesley Brown about how novella, Looking for Frank Wills (McSweenys, 2026). It's 1972. Tricky Dick is in office, James Brown is on the radio, and Wayne Beasley reluctantly presides over the comings and goings of his barbers and patrons at Wayne's Clip and Trim in Augusta, South Carolina. When one of Wayne's former customers, an unassuming small-town son, is designated 4-F, unfit to serve in Vietnam, he seeks refuge in becoming the next best thing—a security guard for a downtown DC hotel. It is there on a hot summer's night, that Wayne's wayward patron interrupts a break-in that will disrupt the course of a nation's history and his own. Wesley Brown, author of Tragic Magic, Darktown Strutters, and Blue in Green: A Novella, once again remaps the tributaries that run into the stream of our American subconscious, by dipping into the headwaters of pivotal memories and histories to tell the tale from the perspective of the real folks whose stories were too long submerged. Without Frank Wills there is no Watergate. And without Watergate the veil of secrecy and corruption that came to define the Nixon years, warping the very fabric of political discourse from that moment on, would have remained firmly in place. Wesley Brown's re-imagining of the life of Frank Wills reconciles the greatest heist of all—our place in the American story. What was stolen from Wills as he was briefly thrust into the spotlight, while excluded from the annals of history, is reclaimed, as Brown gives voice and breath to the people who loved him and the barber who did his best to guide him. Wesley Brown is an acclaimed novelist, playwright, and teacher. He worked with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in 1965 and became a member of the Black Panther Party in 1968. In 1972, he was sentenced to three years in prison for refusing induction into the armed services and spent eighteen months in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary. For twenty-six years, Brown was a much-revered professor at Rutgers University, where he inspired hundreds of students. He currently teaches literature at Bard College at Simon's Rock and lives in Chatham, New York. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Wesley Brown about how novella, Looking for Frank Wills (McSweenys, 2026). It's 1972. Tricky Dick is in office, James Brown is on the radio, and Wayne Beasley reluctantly presides over the comings and goings of his barbers and patrons at Wayne's Clip and Trim in Augusta, South Carolina. When one of Wayne's former customers, an unassuming small-town son, is designated 4-F, unfit to serve in Vietnam, he seeks refuge in becoming the next best thing—a security guard for a downtown DC hotel. It is there on a hot summer's night, that Wayne's wayward patron interrupts a break-in that will disrupt the course of a nation's history and his own. Wesley Brown, author of Tragic Magic, Darktown Strutters, and Blue in Green: A Novella, once again remaps the tributaries that run into the stream of our American subconscious, by dipping into the headwaters of pivotal memories and histories to tell the tale from the perspective of the real folks whose stories were too long submerged. Without Frank Wills there is no Watergate. And without Watergate the veil of secrecy and corruption that came to define the Nixon years, warping the very fabric of political discourse from that moment on, would have remained firmly in place. Wesley Brown's re-imagining of the life of Frank Wills reconciles the greatest heist of all—our place in the American story. What was stolen from Wills as he was briefly thrust into the spotlight, while excluded from the annals of history, is reclaimed, as Brown gives voice and breath to the people who loved him and the barber who did his best to guide him. Wesley Brown is an acclaimed novelist, playwright, and teacher. He worked with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in 1965 and became a member of the Black Panther Party in 1968. In 1972, he was sentenced to three years in prison for refusing induction into the armed services and spent eighteen months in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary. For twenty-six years, Brown was a much-revered professor at Rutgers University, where he inspired hundreds of students. He currently teaches literature at Bard College at Simon's Rock and lives in Chatham, New York. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

Did you know American music legend Nile Rodgers is helping the Trust plant and protect woodland in Northern Ireland? Alongside generous donations to Faughan Valley Woodlands from the We Are Family Foundation (WAFF), Nile has got stuck in with planting on site. Nile and the foundation he co-founded with his partner, Nancy Hunt, are working with us to reconnect fragmented native woods in a region where less than 1% of ancient woodland remains. We caught up with the multiple Grammy Award winner on his latest visit to find out why. We also hear from David Saddington, trustee of both WAFF and the Trust, on why empowering young people to take direct action is key to this work, and we chat to some of those volunteering at this special event. Please note this episode contains references to drugs. Don't forget to rate us and subscribe! Learn more about the Woodland Trust at woodlandtrust.org.uk  Transcript You are listening to Woodland Walks, a podcast for the Woodland Trust, presented by Adam Shaw. We protect and plant trees for people to enjoy, to fight climate change and to help wildlife thrive. Nile: But it just made me feel so good. It was so real, it was almost like a drug. So my parents were doing heroin, I was doing music *laughs*. Nile: So I always thought that an artist was the guy trying to be the smartest person in the room, that everybody said, 'well, I wish I could play like him, I wish I could do that'. No, it was the person who touched people's hearts. Nile: We actually had them locked out the studio because we still hadn't finished the lyrics to We Are Family. Nile: Trees do, all plants, but trees, you know, especially, do so much for life. Let's not just talk about the overall environment, life, all life forms that exist. Adam: For 40 years, if you've been on a dance floor, you'll have been dancing to the music of one of our guests today. He co-founded Chic, produced and collaborated with David Bowie, Madonna, Richard Jackson, and well, to be honest, too many others to mention. But to give you an idea of the sort of musical success he's had, I can say that he has produced and performed on records which have sold more than 750 million albums and 100 million singles. Born to teenage parents in an environment where drug use was very much part of his every day, he has come from that background with an attitude to life which is as upbeat and as positive as his music. And together with his partner, Nancy Hunt, they have established the We Are Family Foundation, focused on empowering young people around the world. Together, they're in Northern Ireland, in Derry, to support and protect and indeed restore woodland in this country, and indeed Nile is on the Woodland Walks sofa and joined by one of the trustees of the We Are Family Foundation and indeed the Woodland Trust, David. So we'll come to David in a moment. Why don't we start now where it all started with the music? Reading about you and listening to stuff you've done, my impression is you're the most positive person I've read about and that surprises me because of the disjointed background you grew up in. So two questions. Do you think that's a fair description and if so, why? Nile: So the... the interesting thing about my childhood was that though my parents were heroin addicts, they were extremely loving and they believed in me so much so that, believe it or not, I was never, ever told what to do. They knew that I instinctively would figure it out. Or I was just one of those nerdy, nice kids that they knew would never get into trouble. I mean, I have never stolen anything. I've never, I bullied one kid once and the reason why is because everybody bullied me because I was a nerd. And when I bullied this kid, he started crying and I started crying. He's probably forgotten that incident. I will never forget it. It'll bother me my entire life. I could not believe that I did that. So my childhood was actually on one level very happy, but at the exact same time, and I don't know how these two situations could have coexisted, except only now forensically, but it was super happy, but then I actually called my childhood a fear-based childhood. I was afraid of things, so I did things to make me unafraid or happy. And music was that thing. But it just made me feel so good. It was so real. It was almost like a drug. So my parents were doing heroin. I was doing music *laughs*. Adam: I mean, it's weird you describe yourself as a nerd. You're the least nerdy-looking nerd I've ever come across, but fair enough. Nile: Oh God, test me. Adam: Oh really, okay, we'll do a nerd off *both laugh*. Fair, fair enough. But that positivity, I mean, you talk about being nice, but what I think is striking about your music, and perhaps problematic for some of it, is that it's relentlessly positive. And I think sometimes it's seen as sort of very surface level because of that and yet you talk about the deeper meaning behind the music, which I think some fans of yours perhaps don't see, or that's not what they're getting from it. Nile: But that's okay, though. Adam: That's fine. Nile: It's okay. Yeah, you're so correct. I mean, I'll try and quickly just tell you this story. So when I said I was a nerd, believe me, I studied music on a level that was so intense, that was ridiculous. So I thought it was my job to prove to my tutors and various teachers how smart I was, how well I learned the rules and the discipline of music. I wrote symphonic music when I was a child, I wasn't even 10 years old yet. And I remember I was going to one of my tutors. I was around 22 years old and I was a very serious jazz student. And I went into him one day with a very sourpuss attitude and look, and that was not me. He just was like, no, you're always so happy and you're always so upbeat. What's wrong with you today? And I said, well, look at this ******** pop music that I have to play tonight. Now, maybe I thought it was sort of ******** but maybe I was just trying to score brownie points with him because I always thought being a great musician was being the smartest guy or the greatest virtuoso in the room. So what happened was my teacher, I showed him the list of songs that I was playing that night. And I said, look at what I have to start my set with. This song by The Archies called Sugar, Sugar. He said, yeah, but now what's wrong? Why are you so sad? And I said, because I got to play Sugar, Sugar. You know, I want to play straight ahead jazz. He was like, that's okay that you want to play straight ahead jazz, that's what I love. But why is it bothering you to play Sugar, Sugar? And I said, because it goes, *sings* Honey, do, do, do, do, do, do, oh sugar, sugar, do, do, do, do, do, do, you are my candy girl, and you got me wanting you. And he said, Nile, that's a great composition. I went, you call Sugar, Sugar a great composition? He said, absolutely. He said, what do you think about it? He says, and I went, well, it sucks. It's some ******** bubblegum pop music. And he went, now, do you know that Sugar Sugar's been number one for about three weeks? And I said, yeah, but what does that got to do with anything? And he went, so those millions of people around the world, they're wrong, but you, Nile Rodgers, are right? And all of a sudden I felt, uh-oh, *laughs* something weird's getting ready to happen. So he held me behind my head and he pulled my face close to him and he said, Nile, let me explain something to you. Every record in the top 20 is a great composition. And so remember, we're going back now 50 years. I'm 73 years old, so we're going back a long time. And I say, every record in the top 20 is a great composition? He says, yes. I said, why would you say something so absurd? He says, Nile, because it speaks to the souls of a million strangers. And I literally started crying at that moment because in one spark, in a nanosecond, he explained to me what an artist was. So I always thought that an artist was the guy trying to be the smartest person in the room, that everybody said, well, I wish I could play like him. I wish I could do that. No, it was the person who touched people's hearts. It was the person who made people feel something, be it happiness, be it sadness or whatever. But a lot of my friends who are virtuosos, we just would go, wow, he can play his *** off. That was the thing. We didn't feel anything necessarily. Sometimes we did, but I was determined to try and make people feel something every time. And to me, I wanted people to feel happy because I wanted to feel happy. Why do I want to write sad music? Adam: So that phrase, speaking to the souls of a million strangers, it's clearly an iconic thing about your music. The other striking thing, I think, which you've talked about, is about life, not just your music, but I think obviously connected, is not about surviving the storm, but learning how to dance in the rain. Is that one of the tenets of your approach to music and life? Are they the same thing? Nile: That's exactly it. That's why people wonder why I do so much music, and it's because I believe that I could always, I honestly, and this is not an egotistical statement, I always believe that I can add something to the song. I believe that I can make it better, even if it's just a little better, but you can hear it. I mean, five minutes before I came down here, I asked an artist that I sent a piece of music to, I said, you never wrote me back. How do you feel about the guitar streams that I sent you? And Kygo just wrote me, he said, he just literally just wrote me, where the hell is it? I went, cool. He went, oh, yes sir, sounding really cool *laughs*. Minutes ago. Adam: Okay. So look, we need to talk more about that, but I want, you're here not for the music, but for the work of your, and Nancy, your partner's, foundation. And David Saddington, sitting next to you, is a trustee of that foundation. You also happen to be a trustee of the Woodland Trust as well. So the purpose of the We Are Family Foundation is what? David: I mean, the We Are Family Foundation, Nile and Nancy started 20, 25 years ago now, which is insane *both laugh*. And Nile, I mean, you'll tell it better than me in terms of sort of your origin story, which came from, you know, a horrendous event of 9/11. And Nile and Nancy wanted to do something positive for the world, to heal the world. And thankfully, you know, when they sort of asked that question around how do we sort of have more peace in the world, how do we have more harmony, young people came out as the answer and actually finding that hope, finding that positivity, finding those solutions. So the foundation really is built upon curating, nurturing and growing this talent and giving these young people visibility. Adam: And the work that the We Are Family Foundation is starting to do in Northern Ireland, we were today at a planting with Nile and Nancy and you. What is the project here? David: Yeah, my God, like, you know, I work on climate change every day. It's really sort of hard and difficult, but actually by doing something very local with the Woodland Trust, you make such a tremendous difference, not only just about place, but the communities which you bring along. So this partnership just made a lot of sense. And then when we started talking after that visit around sort of why it made sense to support from the foundation, Northern Ireland came out really as a winner. And the beautiful site we visited earlier in the Faughan Valley is so special because, in a sad way really, because so little of the ancient woodland is left in Northern Ireland, less than 1%. And the vision of the Woodland Trust in Northern Ireland to preserve those tiny fragments of ancient woodland, but protect them by restoring the land around it, letting them expand, is so special. And particularly given that site is, what, I mean, like 10 minutes away from Derry? That's so cool. It is right on the doorstep of so many people to restore such a precious habitat, but make sure that people can actually enjoy it and be part of that as well. Amazing. Adam: A little before Nile and I sat down to speak, we both visited Faughan Valley Woodlands with a group of young people who were there to help plant some trees. Now, this is an important area. Since 2000, the Woodland Trust has brought small clusters of native woodlands, including Brackfield, Oaks, Red Brae, Burntollet, Killaloo and Auter, all fragmented along the Faughan Valley, which is a site of special scientific interests. And it's been a vision of the Woodland Trust Northern Ireland for well over a decade, really, to try and connect these fragments for both people and nature. And so when I met the younger people who are busy planting trees, I asked them why they felt what they were doing was important. Speaker 1: So usually it's around every Sunday morning. We go around and it's just odd jobs, like it's never the same thing every week. It's usually planting trees, but recently we've been building fences to keep sheep out and removing tree guards. Adam: And why are you interested in that instead of watching TV or playing Xbox or whatever? Speaker 1: Well, I've always kind of liked outdoorsy stuff in nature and usually I wouldn't really do much on a Sunday. So it's just better to get out rather than do nothing on a Sunday morning so. Adam: And you're about to plant a tree. Speaker 1: Yeah. Adam: Do we know what type of tree that is? Speaker 1: I think it's oak. Adam: Oh, there we are see, I don't know, but you know, go on plant away. Speaker 2: I'm Sophie McGee. Adam: And what are you doing, Sophie? Speaker 2: Well, we're planting trees today for the 30th anniversary. It's just more interesting because we're actually doing something that's worthwhile for the environment and for ourselves. Adam: And do you feel you're making a difference? Speaker 2: Yes, every tree will help. No matter if it's a wee tiny stick or a big massive one. Speaker 3: Well my name is Evie, I'm 13 years old and I've always been interested in nature and plants and animals and stuff and then my auntie decided, or she showed me the Woodland Trust young volunteers so I thought that sounds right up my street. So I joined, I've only been here for a few weeks and so far I've really enjoyed it. We've been trimming down, we've been trimming away trees that'll grow back to let light into the forest floor. We've been looking at different kinds of moths and caterpillars and we've been for walks and here we are planting trees and meeting celebrities! Speaker 4: My name's Milo and you know we're with the Woodland Trust, you know, planting trees and stuff because, well, you know, trees are important and they support a lot of species and insects and wildlife and it's great for the water quality and soil erosion in general. And in my opinion personally, I think biodiversity is really important, especially in, the UK and Northern Ireland in general. It's just seem to be really sort of nature depleted and, you know, I kind of want to change that. I think it doesn't seem fair, you know? Adam: Nile, I think the phrase we've already used many times is We Are Family, the name of one of your most successful songs, but obviously the name of your foundation. And we've talked about your family. That's an obvious theme, family. I'm struck by that because of a disjointed background, even though loving and literarily full. Your family were artists and you had a full and rich literary life. The connection to family, clearly a theme for you. Why? Nile: It wasn't my idea. It was other people's ideas. And they talked me into it. I, as an artist, I wrote We Are Family for Sister Sledge and for Sister Sledge alone. I didn't write it for the world. I wrote it for them. And they, it was their job to now take it out into the world, which they did very well. But what happened as a byproduct of the composition was just the love that I put into the song that my partner Bernard Edwards and I put into the song, we were trying to talk about this wonderful family, you won't believe this, that we never met. We never met Sister Sledge until they came in to sing the song. The entire album was already produced. We didn't know any other way to make records except for by ourselves. So we made the record and said, okay, now sing this. And they were like, what? We've never been treated like this. We're like, we don't know any other way to make records. Me and Luther Vandross and Bernard Edwards and Tony Thompson, and we go in and we write and produce, and there you go, here's your record. But so the love that we projected onto Sister Sledge was something that we superimposed upon them. We don't know whether they liked each other or not. We just presupposed that they did. And that's what we wrote, this loving, anthemic, wonderful dance song. And Kathy Sledge, at 15 years old, came in and just gave the performance of her life. We actually had them locked out the studio because we still hadn't finished the lyrics to We Are Family *both laugh*. It was the final song that we wrote, right? So we wouldn't let them come in. We're inside trying to be professional. And they're like, why can't we come in and hear what you guys are making as demos? Making as demos? No, we made, it's the record. But anyway, what happened was, as a result of the popularity of the song, this baseball team in America, the Pittsburgh Pirates, adopted it as their theme song. And they're not women, they're men. And we saw these big burly men going, we are family, I got all my sisters with me. And I was like, whoa. And anyway, they won the World Series *laughs*. Adam: But I mean, that's a fascinating insight how you made that song. But what I'm struck by is that you have talked about this deeper hidden meaning, your phrase, right, behind your songs. So that's an obvious question to ask. You talk about family. It's a key song in your career. It hints of the deeper meaning here is about the importance of your family. And your family are unusual. Super talented people, not particularly stable, I hope that's not insulting or anything. But it's sort of, I'd expect you to maybe be more traumatised by that or to have, but no, it's all good. It's all good. Nile: It wasn't, you see, it wasn't traumatic because I developed my own survival mechanism and it was actually good. But I don't think you realise this. I said, everybody told me, oh, you got Grammys, you got this, you're the head of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, you're the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I said, you know what? The thing that I am the most proud of in my life is at seven years old, I set the national truancy record for the United States of America *both laugh*. I cut school 75 days in a row and went to the movies. I learned more at the cinema in 75 days than everybody in my class learned in an entire semester. You could see Fellini, you could see Truffaut, you could see anything. My mom, when she had her second child, suffered from postpartum depression and threatened to murder my brother every day. So after a few weeks, and I can't remember how long it took because I was a child, but after her going to psychiatrist every day, that's how bad it was, they decided that she had to be separated from her children. She was a danger to herself and others. So they sent me off to Los Angeles to live with my maternal grandmother. And my youngest brother, who was just born, was sent to live with his paternal grandparents. And so while I was in Los Angeles, I was treated ah man, boy, talk about bullying. Every place in LA was sort of run by gangs. And I didn't know anything about the gang culture. And I spoke like a New Yorker. And everybody in LA was, you know, street slang. And, you know, and now look at how big hip hop is. You know, that's the way that that everyone spoke. I didn't know half the stuff they were saying. So kids would try and beat me up. They only beat me up once, no, twice, sorry, twice. And then I just decided, I'm not going to where those kids are. I'm going to where adults are. Because I got along with adults and I went to the cinema every day for 75 days straight. Adam: There's lots to talk about, not much time. But I do want to ask one more question around this sort of area. In actually the podcast we've just done, I spoke to quite a significant business leader who has ADHD. And I said to him at the end of the chat we had, if you had a magic wand and could wave away your ADHD, would you do it? And he went, no, I absolutely wouldn't do it because it's part of who I was, I am, and it's informed and helped me. And I wonder if there's a similar question about your drug past, whether if you could wipe it away, would you? Nile: Never, never, ever, ever, ever. I, you know, I developed a very horrible drug habit. I actually, my heart stopped six times in one night. I don't remember the medical phrase, but it's called something like multiple drug interaction. Like, so if you take cocaine and then you take alcohol and then you take either LSD or something else, your brain doesn't know which one is dominant, right? So it starts going, it tells your heart, do I expand or contract? I don't know. And every time they tried to revive me, I would only stay alert or alive, my heart would only pump a couple of times and then stop again. Adam: So what did that bring you as an artist in retrospect? Nile: Nothing. Because to me, all I remember was driving home, Not getting into an accident, not getting a ticket, driving home, parking in my same parking space, going up to my apartment. However, I mistakenly pushed the number 14 instead of 28. That saved my life. I didn't know that I did, I didn't know I made a mistake. I was so high, I thought 14 was 28. The way that they emptied the garbage in my building, they started at the top and they went down floor by floor. When the elevator hit 14, the doors opened, I fell out onto the floor dead. They just happened to be on the 14th floor and they saw me lying there dead. They go over, I have no pulse. They probably tried to do, I don't know any of this for a fact because I was, out, yeah. So I just assumed they must have tried to help me. They liked me, so they must have tried to do something. Fortunately, the hospital was two blocks away from my house. And they get me to the hospital. The doctors revived me six times. After the sixth time, they figured this is hopeless because they did everything they could possibly do. And he said that, we worked so hard to save your life, but in fact, I was filling out the death certificate and the orderly in the room said, hey doc, we got a live one here. And my heart just started going automatically again by itself. Adam: Amazing. I want to bring you back to your foundation. So we're here because of the good work you're doing for the environment. But the environmental issue may be relatively new, but you've been a political activist since your early days. This is not a recent conversion. You're super plugged in to these sort of big debates, aren't you? Part of the Black Panthers in your early age? Nile: Yeah, I was a subsection of the Black Panther Party when I was 16 years old. Adam: So lots of political issues. Why now the environment? Nile: It's just one of many issues that We Are Family Foundation supports. You asked me about being a nerd. So I grew up as a scientist. I have a scientific background. So I understand how these things in our environment are fundamentally to life itself. That, if you think about it, in today's world, there are a million different species on this planet, but that's only 1% of all the life that's ever lived on this planet. So it just goes up and down and up and down. And prior to humans, we were never the cause. Now we're the cause of things dying and species going away. Before, it was just the fact that Earth was this very volatile planet and over millions, billions, in fact, years, things were changing. But now we're doing the bad stuff. We're killing ourselves, which is incredible. And it's mainly because most people don't know that all these life forms are dependent upon one another. Last night I heard someone talking about plankton. And I was saying, yeah, well, look at how important plankton is. You know, like hydrogen, we need, we don't have hydrogen, we have no life. You know, it's like, so, I mean, trees do, all plants, but trees, you know, especially, do so much for life. Let's not just talk about the overall environment, life, all life forms that exist. Adam: We're running out of time. Just one last question each. David, first, you set the context of what that foundation is doing here and what the Trust is doing here. What are your hopes for if Nile, us, we all gather, come back in ten years' time? Your hope for the project by then would be what? David: I mean, my hope for the project in that time is to see the forest grow, because what I find so encouraging is when you let nature recover with a little bit of help from us, it doesn't take that long to actually start putting it right, you know, to restore those habitats, to protect that ancient woodland, to let it regrow, rejuvenate, with the help of people supporting communities at the same time. It can recover in such a remarkable amount of time, which I just find really quite hopeful and empowering in the world we're in at the moment. Will it restore very precious nature here in Northern Ireland? Will it inspire people to make a difference with all the volunteers we're bringing in? Absolutely. And who knows what the catalytic sort of nature of that will be, which I think is sort of magical to see. So it's a pleasure to bring this partnership together between the We Are Family Foundation and the Woodland Trust and see that grow and grow over the years. Adam: And I think often with trees, people think it's 100 years, their great-grandchildren will come. That's not the case, is it? 10, 20 years is a reasonable time frame to see significant change in this landscape we just visited this morning. David: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, some of the trees we were walking around this morning, the beautiful silver birches, which looked like a woodland, were 20 years old. And actually, it is incredible, actually, it doesn't take a huge amount of time for nature to recover. Adam: Nile, last question. It's been an amazing life. It is an amazing life, perhaps a great life. Your third act? Hard to imagine what new things you could do, but do you, what are the, how do you see your future and what you want to spend that third act doing? Nile: Wow, I'm doing so much now. I'm almost going back to where I started, which was with theatre performances that are more story-ented instead of just going out and playing a whole bunch of hit songs. I think I got super inspired completely accidentally. I wrote a song for Diana Ross years ago. And the first time I worked for the Prince's Trust, he said, now, my dear fellow, I wish I knew more of your music, everybody seems to love it so much. And then he became the King and he printed out his top 10 favorite songs. Number 3 was one of my songs. And he didn't realise it because, you know, the King, what have you got time to sit around and read, you know *laughs* And I said to him, I said, you know, Your Majesty, I promise you, you know some of my songs. But then his list comes out and my #3 song, I mean my song, Upside Down by Diana Ross is #3. He was like, that's one of my favorite songs, and there's a whole video that we put out of him sort of like doing his best dance to Upside Down. It's quite funny. I just thought that the one thing I've not really explored or worked hard on, I'm at the part of my life where I really do want to do all the music that I can do. And I want it to have the same effect as the pop music that I do. So I want my jazz music to make people feel good. So I did Candy Dulfer's last record and she's just unreal. So that's really, I think, where I want to be. And honestly, and I'm being very, very honest, I never keep track of any of this stuff. I did a conference a few weeks ago, and it was all these billionaires and all these tech guys and blah, blah, blah. And I said, you know, I did the biggest selling Madonna album in the world, we sold 10 million copies. All of my memories are from when I first heard this stuff. And somebody hollered out from the back of the room, 23 million copies, you know Nile, it keeps selling and keeps adding up. And I went, oh. In the first few weeks, we sold 10 million copies. And that's all I remember. And I move on to the next record and the next record and the next record. I had huge success with the last two Beyoncé records. But I've done that, and obviously you can see with Kygo, I continue to do that. That's never going to go away. But when I think in terms of full projects, it's going to be more theatrical and maybe more film. David: There's about two things as well. There's one thing that you said to me before, which I think is just so great about the foundation, about how you want the foundation to be bigger than the song, which I think is a pretty epic aspiration there to have, the We Are Family Foundation and We Are Family the song, but I just think that's amazing to think around, the impact which has been achieved over twenty-five years and thinking about the years to come, and then secondly, because with your audience, Adam, we have so many obviously sort of people who love getting out on walks and nature. And my goodness, you won't be up as early as this guy doing his morning walks. And you definitely need to follow him on Instagram at a moment because he's on a roll doing sort of walks all over the world. Nile: It's true. I love, you know, I wake up every morning very, very early. Right now, life and enjoying nature and being out in it is really exciting. Like when I was younger, being indoors, like I used to, there was a joke I used to say, I used to go to like clubs every night and go, ah the great indoors *all laugh*. Adam: Well, look, a sample of how busy you are is I know you have other meetings to go to and other jobs to do, so I won't keep you anymore. Here's to the good times. Thank you very much indeed, both of you. Nile: Thank you. I hope I wasn't too long-winded. David: Thank you. Adam: You were brilliant. It's a real treat to talk to you. David: A pleasure. Thank you for listening to the Woodland Trust Woodland Walks. Join us next month when Adam will be taking another walk in the company of Woodland Trust staff, partners and volunteers. And don't forget to subscribe to the series on iTunes or wherever you are listening. And do give us a review and a rating. If you want to find out more about our woods and those that are close to you, check out the Woodland Trust website. Just head to the Visiting Woods pages. Thank you.

From the dawn of the digital age to the current era of “artificial intelligence,” the future of literacy, reading, and book publishing is facing an existential threat. But Paul Coates—legendary activist, publisher, former Baltimore Black Panther Party member, and founder of Black Classic Press—has some critical wisdom to share in these perilous times about the revolutionary necessity of books. At a live event organized by Tubman House and Eddie's Front Porch and recorded at the TRNN studio in Baltimore, MD, on March 6, 2026, community organizer and creator of Healing Justices Erica Woodland sits down with Coates for a wide-ranging discussion about propaganda, publishing, Black literary production, and the past and present of revolutionary politics.Guests:W. Paul Coates is the founder of Black Classic Press and BCP Digital Printing. Black Classic Press, established in 1978, specializes in republishing obscure and significant works by and about people of African descent. A former member of the Black Panther Party, Coates led the effort to establish the Black Panther Archives at Howard University.Credits:Producer / Editor: Cameron GranadinoVideographer: Phil GlaserBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-news-podcast--2952221/support.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Follow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkBecome a member and join the Supporters Club for The Real News Podcast today!

A rich history of cross-racial coalitions and alliances of the Sixties' freedom movement, acclaimed historian Alice Echols's Black Power, White Heat reshapes our understanding of the entire era. One of the most divisive issues in recent progressive politics has been what role, if any, allies might legitimately play in other people's movements. Despite the significance of this debate, it has taken place in a historical vacuum.In Black Power, White Heat: From Solidarity Politics to Radical Chic, (Oxford UP, 2026) the Sixties historian Alice Echols explores what happened some sixty years ago when whites and Blacks came together in the fight against racism. She tells this story by focusing on two Black-led organizations that bookend the Sixties: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Black Panther Party. In SNCC, whites were, in part, meant to generate a "white heat" so searing it would accelerate change. Results were mixed, and white activists formed new movements, from women's liberation to draft resistance.By 1967, the Black Panther Party was advancing its own unique brand of "revolutionary nationalism," and seeking out white supporters. Partnering with whites brought the group visibility and resources, but it also put the Panthers at odds with other Black radicals, with unfortunate consequences.Black Power, White Heat explains how solidarity lost credibility, and not just from within the movement. Here, the FBI played a key role, and so did the discourse of "radical chic," advanced most effectively by the journalist Tom Wolfe. Still, even as Black-white solidarity lost steam, it was not entirely played out. In some of the era's most important political trials, even courtrooms became sites of solidarity as predominantly white juries returned verdicts that suggested they trusted Black Panther defendants more than the District Attorneys prosecuting them. Clear-eyed about the difficulties of solidarity, Black Power, White Heat nonetheless emphasizes the achievements and considerable promise of uniting across difference, and in ways that will inform and deepen current debates roiling progressive politics. Alice Echols is Professor of History at the University of Southern California. She is the author of numerous books, including Daring to Be Bad, Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin, Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube Channel: here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

From the dawn of the digital age to the current era of “artificial intelligence,” the future of literacy, reading, and book publishing is facing an existential threat. But Paul Coates—legendary activist, publisher, former Baltimore Black Panther Party member, and founder of Black Classic Press—has some critical wisdom to share in these perilous times about the revolutionary necessity of books. At a live event organized by Tubman House and Eddie's Front Porch and recorded at the TRNN studio in Baltimore, MD, on March 6, 2026, community organizer and creator of Healing Justices Erica Woodland sits down with Coates for a wide-ranging discussion about propaganda, publishing, Black literary production, and the past and present of revolutionary politics.Guests:W. Paul Coates is the founder of Black Classic Press and BCP Digital Printing. Black Classic Press, established in 1978, specializes in republishing obscure and significant works by and about people of African descent. A former member of the Black Panther Party, Coates led the effort to establish the Black Panther Archives at Howard University.Credits:Producer / Editor: Cameron GranadinoVideographer: Phil GlaserBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/rattling-the-bars--4799829/support.Follow Rattling the Bars on Spotify or Apple Podcasts Sign up for our newsletterFollow us on:Bluesky: @therealnews.comFacebook: The Real News NetworkTwitter: @TheRealNewsYouTube: @therealnewsInstagram: @therealnewsnetworkHelp us continue producing Rattling the Bars by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer

A rich history of cross-racial coalitions and alliances of the Sixties' freedom movement, acclaimed historian Alice Echols's Black Power, White Heat reshapes our understanding of the entire era. One of the most divisive issues in recent progressive politics has been what role, if any, allies might legitimately play in other people's movements. Despite the significance of this debate, it has taken place in a historical vacuum.In Black Power, White Heat: From Solidarity Politics to Radical Chic, (Oxford UP, 2026) the Sixties historian Alice Echols explores what happened some sixty years ago when whites and Blacks came together in the fight against racism. She tells this story by focusing on two Black-led organizations that bookend the Sixties: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Black Panther Party. In SNCC, whites were, in part, meant to generate a "white heat" so searing it would accelerate change. Results were mixed, and white activists formed new movements, from women's liberation to draft resistance.By 1967, the Black Panther Party was advancing its own unique brand of "revolutionary nationalism," and seeking out white supporters. Partnering with whites brought the group visibility and resources, but it also put the Panthers at odds with other Black radicals, with unfortunate consequences.Black Power, White Heat explains how solidarity lost credibility, and not just from within the movement. Here, the FBI played a key role, and so did the discourse of "radical chic," advanced most effectively by the journalist Tom Wolfe. Still, even as Black-white solidarity lost steam, it was not entirely played out. In some of the era's most important political trials, even courtrooms became sites of solidarity as predominantly white juries returned verdicts that suggested they trusted Black Panther defendants more than the District Attorneys prosecuting them. Clear-eyed about the difficulties of solidarity, Black Power, White Heat nonetheless emphasizes the achievements and considerable promise of uniting across difference, and in ways that will inform and deepen current debates roiling progressive politics. Alice Echols is Professor of History at the University of Southern California. She is the author of numerous books, including Daring to Be Bad, Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin, Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube Channel: here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

A rich history of cross-racial coalitions and alliances of the Sixties' freedom movement, acclaimed historian Alice Echols's Black Power, White Heat reshapes our understanding of the entire era. One of the most divisive issues in recent progressive politics has been what role, if any, allies might legitimately play in other people's movements. Despite the significance of this debate, it has taken place in a historical vacuum.In Black Power, White Heat: From Solidarity Politics to Radical Chic, (Oxford UP, 2026) the Sixties historian Alice Echols explores what happened some sixty years ago when whites and Blacks came together in the fight against racism. She tells this story by focusing on two Black-led organizations that bookend the Sixties: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Black Panther Party. In SNCC, whites were, in part, meant to generate a "white heat" so searing it would accelerate change. Results were mixed, and white activists formed new movements, from women's liberation to draft resistance.By 1967, the Black Panther Party was advancing its own unique brand of "revolutionary nationalism," and seeking out white supporters. Partnering with whites brought the group visibility and resources, but it also put the Panthers at odds with other Black radicals, with unfortunate consequences.Black Power, White Heat explains how solidarity lost credibility, and not just from within the movement. Here, the FBI played a key role, and so did the discourse of "radical chic," advanced most effectively by the journalist Tom Wolfe. Still, even as Black-white solidarity lost steam, it was not entirely played out. In some of the era's most important political trials, even courtrooms became sites of solidarity as predominantly white juries returned verdicts that suggested they trusted Black Panther defendants more than the District Attorneys prosecuting them. Clear-eyed about the difficulties of solidarity, Black Power, White Heat nonetheless emphasizes the achievements and considerable promise of uniting across difference, and in ways that will inform and deepen current debates roiling progressive politics. Alice Echols is Professor of History at the University of Southern California. She is the author of numerous books, including Daring to Be Bad, Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin, Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube Channel: here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Today, we're putting The Tonearm's needle on Caroline Davis, a saxophonist and composer based in New York.Her new album, Fallows, just came out on Ropeadope Records. Caroline made it alone during a residency in Ucross, Wyoming - improvising and recording in a cabin, using prepared saxophone techniques and a unique little instrument called an Organelle to process and build sounds she'd never put to tape before. The result is twelve tracks that use the saxophone as raw material rather than a lead voice.We talk about how that music got made, what it means to deliberately avoid the sound of your own instrument, and Caroline's work teaching music inside Sing Sing prison.(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Caroline Davis's album Fallows )—Dig DeeperArtist and AlbumVisit Caroline Davis at carolinedavis.orgPurchase Caroline Davis's Fallows from Ropeadope Records, Bandcamp, or Qobuz, and listen on your streaming platform of choiceLabel and ResidencyRopeadope RecordsUcross Foundation — the Wyoming artist residency where Fallows was recordedCivitella Ranieri Foundation — the Italian residency Caroline attended in 2025Tulu Bayar — Turkish artist who made the paper artwork for Fallows (please verify link)Instruments and TechnologyThe Organelle — Critter & Guitari — the hardware synthesizer/processor central to FallowsORAC by Technobear — Patchstorage — the community-built patch framework Caroline used on the recordCollaborators, Influences, and ReferencesSteve Lacy — soprano saxophonist (1934–2004), honored in the track "Lacy Steve"Geri Allen — pianist and mentor; "Barbara Allen (for Geri)" closes the albumThích Nhất Hạnh — Vietnamese Buddhist monk; a sample of his voice appears on "She Know She Is Water"Connie Crothers — pianist from the Lennie Tristano lineage; a sample of her playing appears on "Cloudburst"Lee Konitz — Caroline's teacher; alto saxophonist (1927–2020)Sam Newsome — soprano saxophonist; prepared saxophone pioneer cited by Caroline as a major influenceChristine Abdelnour — French experimental alto saxophonist; a formative reference for prepared saxophone techniqueAnna Webber — saxophonist and composer, cited for her work with venting vocabularyJames Falzone — clarinetist whose solo tour performance is discussed in the episodeKris Davis — pianist and founder of Pyroclastic Records; cited as a touchstone for prepared pianoSylvie Courvoisier — pianist cited for her prepared piano work (please verify link)Qasim Naqvi — New York-based composer and modular synthesist; a frequent collaboratorLabels and Organizations — Current ListeningOut of Your Head Records — Adam Hopkins's artist-run label; praised in the episodePyroclastic Records — Kris Davis's artist-run label; praised in the episodeAdvocacy and JusticeMusicambia — the organization through which Caroline teaches music at Sing Sing Prison and other facilitiesFREER Records — nonprofit label for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated musicians; Caroline is on the boardKeith LaMar — keithlamar.org — death row prisoner in Ohio whose execution is scheduled for January 13, 2027; wrongfully convicted per advocatesJalil Muntaqim — political prisoner (Black Panther Party) with whom Caroline corresponded; released from prison in 2020The New School — Jazz & Gender course — co-taught by Caroline Davis and Sarah Elizabeth Charles—Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com—• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. • Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice. • Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn. • Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, we're putting The Tonearm's needle on Caroline Davis, a saxophonist and composer based in New York.Her new album, Fallows, just came out on Ropeadope Records. Caroline made it alone during a residency in Ucross, Wyoming - improvising and recording in a cabin, using prepared saxophone techniques and a unique little instrument called an Organelle to process and build sounds she'd never put to tape before. The result is twelve tracks that use the saxophone as raw material rather than a lead voice.We talk about how that music got made, what it means to deliberately avoid the sound of your own instrument, and Caroline's work teaching music inside Sing Sing prison.(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Caroline Davis's album Fallows )—Dig DeeperArtist and AlbumVisit Caroline Davis at carolinedavis.orgPurchase Caroline Davis's Fallows from Ropeadope Records, Bandcamp, or Qobuz, and listen on your streaming platform of choiceLabel and ResidencyRopeadope RecordsUcross Foundation — the Wyoming artist residency where Fallows was recordedCivitella Ranieri Foundation — the Italian residency Caroline attended in 2025Tulu Bayar — Turkish artist who made the paper artwork for Fallows (please verify link)Instruments and TechnologyThe Organelle — Critter & Guitari — the hardware synthesizer/processor central to FallowsORAC by Technobear — Patchstorage — the community-built patch framework Caroline used on the recordCollaborators, Influences, and ReferencesSteve Lacy — soprano saxophonist (1934–2004), honored in the track "Lacy Steve"Geri Allen — pianist and mentor; "Barbara Allen (for Geri)" closes the albumThích Nhất Hạnh — Vietnamese Buddhist monk; a sample of his voice appears on "She Know She Is Water"Connie Crothers — pianist from the Lennie Tristano lineage; a sample of her playing appears on "Cloudburst"Lee Konitz — Caroline's teacher; alto saxophonist (1927–2020)Sam Newsome — soprano saxophonist; prepared saxophone pioneer cited by Caroline as a major influenceChristine Abdelnour — French experimental alto saxophonist; a formative reference for prepared saxophone techniqueAnna Webber — saxophonist and composer, cited for her work with venting vocabularyJames Falzone — clarinetist whose solo tour performance is discussed in the episodeKris Davis — pianist and founder of Pyroclastic Records; cited as a touchstone for prepared pianoSylvie Courvoisier — pianist cited for her prepared piano work (please verify link)Qasim Naqvi — New York-based composer and modular synthesist; a frequent collaboratorLabels and Organizations — Current ListeningOut of Your Head Records — Adam Hopkins's artist-run label; praised in the episodePyroclastic Records — Kris Davis's artist-run label; praised in the episodeAdvocacy and JusticeMusicambia — the organization through which Caroline teaches music at Sing Sing Prison and other facilitiesFREER Records — nonprofit label for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated musicians; Caroline is on the boardKeith LaMar — keithlamar.org — death row prisoner in Ohio whose execution is scheduled for January 13, 2027; wrongfully convicted per advocatesJalil Muntaqim — political prisoner (Black Panther Party) with whom Caroline corresponded; released from prison in 2020The New School — Jazz & Gender course — co-taught by Caroline Davis and Sarah Elizabeth Charles—Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com—• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. • Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice. • Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn. • Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A rich history of cross-racial coalitions and alliances of the Sixties' freedom movement, acclaimed historian Alice Echols's Black Power, White Heat reshapes our understanding of the entire era. One of the most divisive issues in recent progressive politics has been what role, if any, allies might legitimately play in other people's movements. Despite the significance of this debate, it has taken place in a historical vacuum.In Black Power, White Heat: From Solidarity Politics to Radical Chic, (Oxford UP, 2026) the Sixties historian Alice Echols explores what happened some sixty years ago when whites and Blacks came together in the fight against racism. She tells this story by focusing on two Black-led organizations that bookend the Sixties: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Black Panther Party. In SNCC, whites were, in part, meant to generate a "white heat" so searing it would accelerate change. Results were mixed, and white activists formed new movements, from women's liberation to draft resistance.By 1967, the Black Panther Party was advancing its own unique brand of "revolutionary nationalism," and seeking out white supporters. Partnering with whites brought the group visibility and resources, but it also put the Panthers at odds with other Black radicals, with unfortunate consequences.Black Power, White Heat explains how solidarity lost credibility, and not just from within the movement. Here, the FBI played a key role, and so did the discourse of "radical chic," advanced most effectively by the journalist Tom Wolfe. Still, even as Black-white solidarity lost steam, it was not entirely played out. In some of the era's most important political trials, even courtrooms became sites of solidarity as predominantly white juries returned verdicts that suggested they trusted Black Panther defendants more than the District Attorneys prosecuting them. Clear-eyed about the difficulties of solidarity, Black Power, White Heat nonetheless emphasizes the achievements and considerable promise of uniting across difference, and in ways that will inform and deepen current debates roiling progressive politics. Alice Echols is Professor of History at the University of Southern California. She is the author of numerous books, including Daring to Be Bad, Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin, Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube Channel: here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

A rich history of cross-racial coalitions and alliances of the Sixties' freedom movement, acclaimed historian Alice Echols's Black Power, White Heat reshapes our understanding of the entire era. One of the most divisive issues in recent progressive politics has been what role, if any, allies might legitimately play in other people's movements. Despite the significance of this debate, it has taken place in a historical vacuum.In Black Power, White Heat: From Solidarity Politics to Radical Chic, (Oxford UP, 2026) the Sixties historian Alice Echols explores what happened some sixty years ago when whites and Blacks came together in the fight against racism. She tells this story by focusing on two Black-led organizations that bookend the Sixties: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Black Panther Party. In SNCC, whites were, in part, meant to generate a "white heat" so searing it would accelerate change. Results were mixed, and white activists formed new movements, from women's liberation to draft resistance.By 1967, the Black Panther Party was advancing its own unique brand of "revolutionary nationalism," and seeking out white supporters. Partnering with whites brought the group visibility and resources, but it also put the Panthers at odds with other Black radicals, with unfortunate consequences.Black Power, White Heat explains how solidarity lost credibility, and not just from within the movement. Here, the FBI played a key role, and so did the discourse of "radical chic," advanced most effectively by the journalist Tom Wolfe. Still, even as Black-white solidarity lost steam, it was not entirely played out. In some of the era's most important political trials, even courtrooms became sites of solidarity as predominantly white juries returned verdicts that suggested they trusted Black Panther defendants more than the District Attorneys prosecuting them. Clear-eyed about the difficulties of solidarity, Black Power, White Heat nonetheless emphasizes the achievements and considerable promise of uniting across difference, and in ways that will inform and deepen current debates roiling progressive politics. Alice Echols is Professor of History at the University of Southern California. She is the author of numerous books, including Daring to Be Bad, Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin, Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube Channel: here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A rich history of cross-racial coalitions and alliances of the Sixties' freedom movement, acclaimed historian Alice Echols's Black Power, White Heat reshapes our understanding of the entire era. One of the most divisive issues in recent progressive politics has been what role, if any, allies might legitimately play in other people's movements. Despite the significance of this debate, it has taken place in a historical vacuum.In Black Power, White Heat: From Solidarity Politics to Radical Chic, (Oxford UP, 2026) the Sixties historian Alice Echols explores what happened some sixty years ago when whites and Blacks came together in the fight against racism. She tells this story by focusing on two Black-led organizations that bookend the Sixties: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Black Panther Party. In SNCC, whites were, in part, meant to generate a "white heat" so searing it would accelerate change. Results were mixed, and white activists formed new movements, from women's liberation to draft resistance.By 1967, the Black Panther Party was advancing its own unique brand of "revolutionary nationalism," and seeking out white supporters. Partnering with whites brought the group visibility and resources, but it also put the Panthers at odds with other Black radicals, with unfortunate consequences.Black Power, White Heat explains how solidarity lost credibility, and not just from within the movement. Here, the FBI played a key role, and so did the discourse of "radical chic," advanced most effectively by the journalist Tom Wolfe. Still, even as Black-white solidarity lost steam, it was not entirely played out. In some of the era's most important political trials, even courtrooms became sites of solidarity as predominantly white juries returned verdicts that suggested they trusted Black Panther defendants more than the District Attorneys prosecuting them. Clear-eyed about the difficulties of solidarity, Black Power, White Heat nonetheless emphasizes the achievements and considerable promise of uniting across difference, and in ways that will inform and deepen current debates roiling progressive politics. Alice Echols is Professor of History at the University of Southern California. She is the author of numerous books, including Daring to Be Bad, Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin, Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube Channel: here

Black Panther Park has officially opened in Skyway, Seattle, marking a significant community achievement dedicated to preserving the legacy of Seattle's Black Panther Party. The new space, spearheaded by Nurturing Roots and founder Nyema Clark, aims to commemorate the Party's historical contributions to community empowerment, food justice, and self-determination. It features public art, community resources, and designated areas for gathering, reflection, and healing, reflecting a long-standing community effort to honor this impactful heritage. Interview by Chris B. Bennett.

On today's show, activist Ericka Huggins talks about women's prominence in the Black Panther Party. Then, we meet Caroline McCaskey, the new music director of the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers. And "The Compton's Cafeteria Riot" play transports audiences back to the 1966 uprising of transwomen and drag queens in the Tenderloin against police violence.

Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.  This week, Emily chats with Kara Maria, a painter and printmaker based in San Francisco Episode Highlights: Kara discusses her large-scale wood panel print on display at Chase Center in San Francisco, created at Magnolia Editions in Oakland with master printer Tallulah Terrell How a monarch butterfly painting became the starting point — and then had to be modified — for the Chase Center commission Her colorful aesthetic, rooted in 1970s cartoons, Spirograph, comic books, and Japanese woodblock prints (particularly Hokusai) The influence of her husband, Mexican artist Enrique Chaya, and their travels to Mexico on her color palette Childhood memory of a school librarian who gave her a shelf in the library for her handmade illustrated books Her journey from music school to painting — and why she knew she could never stop making art Her love of Bay Area edges: the Marina, Ocean Beach, and the view from Mount Davidson Why her studio, SF MoMA, the de Young, and the Legion of Honor all hold special meaning About Artist Kara Maria: Kara Maria is a visual artist working in painting, drawing, printmaking, and public art. Her recent work addresses climate change, biodiversity loss, and their significant impact on humanity. She meticulously paints miniature portraits of threatened, endangered, and extinct animals amid fields of flying shapes, twisting lines, and swirling colors. These works celebrate the joy and exuberance of life, emphasizing the incredible variety of existence on our planet. Maria received her BA and MFA from the University of California, Berkeley. She has exhibited work in solo and group shows across the United States at venues such as the de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University, CA; the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Sonoma, CA; the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV; the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX; and the Katonah Museum of Art in New York. Maria has been selected for awards and honors, including the Masterminds Grant from SF Weekly; a grant from Artadia; and an Eisner Prize in Art from UC Berkeley. Her work has received critical attention in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, and Art in America. She has been awarded artist residencies at the Montalvo Arts Center, the Recology Artist in Residence Program, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and the de Young Museum Artist Studio. Maria's work is part of the permanent collections of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University; the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento; the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the San Jose Museum of Art, among others. Born in Binghamton, NY (1968), Kara Maria now lives and works in San Francisco, CA. Links & Resources: Visit Kara's Website: KaraMaria.com Follow Kara on Instagram:  @Kara Maria Art Kara Maria's work is on display at Chase Center as part of the Homegrown Series (alongside work by Masako Miki, featured in Episode 60) CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO -- Coming Up Next: Episode 70 on May 19th — Emery Douglas, graphic artist and former Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party. His show Emery Douglas: In Our Lifetime is at the African American Art and Culture Complex in San Francisco through October. -- About Podcast Host Emily Wilson: Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Women's Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco. Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast -- CREDITS: Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.  Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License The Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.  For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Movie of the Year: 1971Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss SongThe Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song PodcastThe Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song podcast brings Ryan, Mike, and Greg to one of 1971's most radical and uncompromising films. Melvin Van Peebles wrote, directed, produced, scored, edited, and starred in this landmark independent work — entirely outside the Hollywood system. The result is a film unlike any other in the bracket. Above all, it challenges every assumption about who gets to make movies, and why.This week, the Taste Buds dig into three major threads: the film as a revolutionary political act, its polarizing form and style, and its complex treatment of sex and gender. Furthermore, they induct a film into the PopFilter Hall of Fame and take on Recast the Podcast. It is a wide-ranging, debate-heavy episode from first minute to last. The Movie of the Year 1971 bracket has produced bold conversations — and this one may be the boldest yet.About the FilmSweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song follows Sweetback (Van Peebles), a Black sex-show performer raised in a brothel. When police use him as a convenient patsy, he fights back — killing two racist cops and becoming a fugitive. He runs south toward the Mexican border. Along the way, the Black community shelters him. Bikers, revolutionaries, and sex workers cross his path. Consequently, the film becomes less a conventional chase narrative and more an odyssey of Black survival and defiance.Van Peebles privately funded the film after walking away from a studio deal at Columbia Pictures. He served as one-man auteur across every department. The film opened in just two theaters in March 1971 — Detroit and Atlanta. Nevertheless, it broke box office records on opening night and went on to gross over $15 million. The MPAA assigned it an X rating. Van Peebles turned that into the defiant tagline: "Rated X by an all-white jury." The Black Panther Party declared it required viewing for all members.Learn more at the Wikipedia entry for Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song and the IMDb listing. The Criterion Collection has released a definitive edition of the film — explore it at Criterion.com. The American Film Institute has also recognized the film's landmark status — read the AFI Movie Club entry here.A Movie Revolution: Van Peebles and the Politics of IndependenceVan Peebles did not simply make a film — he staged a full act of defiance. Studio backing, the ratings system, and traditional distribution were all refused outright. Moreover, he financed part of the production by borrowing $50,000 from Bill Cosby, keeping total creative control throughout. The result was a film the industry could not co-opt, contain, or dismiss. For listeners of any Melvin Van Peebles podcast or documentary, the story of how this film got made is as remarkable as the film itself.The release strategy was equally radical. Van Peebles released the soundtrack before the film — an unusual move at the time — to build word-of-mouth in Black communities without spending money on traditional advertising. The score featured a very young Earth, Wind & Fire. By contrast, Hollywood in 1971 was still releasing social-problem films that sought respectability over truth. Sweetback rejected that approach entirely. Notably, its commercial success proved that Black-led, Black-financed films could find a massive audience without white institutional gatekeepers.Ryan, Mike, and Greg debate what Van Peebles' revolution actually accomplished. Was it the birth of a genuinely new Black cinema? Or did it also open the door for the blaxploitation genre — a category Hollywood quickly co-opted and stripped of its radical politics? Additionally, the Taste Buds ask whether the DIY model Van Peebles pioneered holds lessons for independent filmmakers working today. As a blaxploitation film podcast discussion, this episode goes deeper than genre classification — it asks what political filmmaking actually costs.Form, Style, and Watchability: A Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song Podcast Deep DiveThe film's style is not subtle. Van Peebles employs jagged jump cuts, kaleidoscopic superimpositions, and psychedelic sound design throughout. These choices feel closer to Jean-Luc Godard than to anything playing at an American theater in 1971. However, they also produce a film that polarizes audiences to this day. The Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song podcast tackles this polarization head-on.Some viewers find the style exhilarating — a sustained howl of rage rendered in pure cinematic form. Others find the loose structure and repetitive sequences frustrating. The Taste Buds confront this tension directly. Furthermore, they ask whether "watchability" is even the right standard for a film that never set out to be comfortable or conventional.The soundtrack adds another dimension entirely. Van Peebles composed and performed the score himself, with Earth, Wind & Fire providing the instrumental backing. The music pulses through the film like a second heartbeat. Consequently, sound and image work together to create a sensory experience unlike any other 1971 film in the bracket. Ryan, Mike, and Greg weigh in on whether Van Peebles' formal choices ultimately serve the film's political goals — or occasionally work against them.Sex, Gender, and ControversySweetback's sexuality is central to the film's identity. His sexual power is his primary weapon and his means of survival. Van Peebles frames this as a form of liberation — a radical Black body asserting itself against a system designed to destroy it. However, the film's treatment of women and of queer characters draws sharp criticism from contemporary audiences.Women in the film exist largely in relation to Sweetback's desires. The film includes graphic sexual content, some of it deeply uncomfortable by any modern standard. Moreover, the film's portrayal of lesbian characters is explicitly homophobic. The Taste Buds wrestle with how to hold these contradictions honestly. A film can be genuinely revolutionary and genuinely problematic at the same time. In fact, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song may be the most complex example of that tension in the entire 1971 bracket.Additionally, the film's opening sequence — depicting a child's sexual initiation — has unsettled audiences for over fifty years. Van Peebles cast his own son Mario in the role. That decision raises serious ethical questions that Ryan, Mike, and Greg do not avoid. Ultimately, the conversation around sex and gender in this film is not a comfortable one — and that discomfort is precisely what makes it essential. This is one of the most challenging discussions in the 1971 film podcast series to date.PopFilter Hall of FameEach season of Movie of the Year, the Taste Buds set aside the bracket to recognize films that define an era. The PopFilter Hall of Fame is not about winning a head-to-head matchup. It honors the films that changed cinema itself — the ones that opened doors, broke rules, and made everything that came after possible.The Hall of Fame carries special weight in this episode. Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song raises the question of what "greatness" means for films that operate outside mainstream critical frameworks. A film does not need to be comfortable, polished, or widely loved to be important. The Hall of Fame exists precisely to honor that distinction. This week, the hosts make their cases for a 1971 inductee. Tune in to hear which film earns the honor — and whether all three Taste Buds can agree on the pick.Recast the PodcastIn Recast the Podcast, Ryan, Mike, and Greg take on one of cinema's great thought experiments. They choose a film and rebuild the cast from scratch — drawing on actors from any era, any genre, any corner of film history. Each host makes their picks. Then the debate begins.Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song presents a unique challenge for Recast the Podcast. The film was defined by Van Peebles' decision to cast himself. Sweetback's blank-faced, nearly wordless presence was a deliberate choice — not a performance in the conventional sense, but a statement. Who could step into that role today? Who has the gravity, the physicality, and the political weight to carry the film's central conceit? The Taste Buds bring their full range of cinematic knowledge to the question. Listen in to hear their picks, the reasoning behind each choice, and where the three hosts inevitably disagree.Why Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song Still MattersSweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song was never meant to be easy. Van Peebles built it as a provocation — a film that demanded a response. More than fifty years later, it still gets one. The film's influence runs through Spike Lee, John Singleton, Ava DuVernay, and virtually every Black filmmaker who followed. However, its importance is not only historical. The questions it raises about representation, power, and who controls the means of production are still urgent today.Furthermore, the film's DIY model anticipated the independent film movement by decades. Van Peebles proved that a filmmaker could retain complete creative control, bypass the studio system entirely, and still reach an enormous audience. That lesson has...

What happens when you realize the entire justice system is a scam?

Thursday, April 9 on Urban Forum Northwest:Aaron and Elmer Dixon Co Founders of the Seattle Black Panther Party.Dr.Angela Griffin, president & CEO, Byrd Barr Place.Shaude' Moore, president & CEO, Central District Community Preservation & Development Authority (CDCPDA).Tana Yasu, Executive Director, Joe Brazil Legacy Committee.Urban Forum Northwest streams live at www.1150kknw.com. Visit us at www.urbanforumnw.com for archived programs and relevant information. Like us on Facebook.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Cat Brooks talks to Nana Gyamfi about Birthright Citizenship, the 14th Amendment and the implications of the Trump administration trying to reverse these rights. Nana Gyamfi is the Executive Director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration or BAJI. Anniversary of Murder of Bobby Hutton with Chairman Fred Hampton Jr.Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. is a Chicago-based community organizer, activist.  He is the president and chairman of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee and Black Panther Cubs.  He is the son of the Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton.   Dream Beyond Bars Film Festival (CURYJ) w/ George Galvis is the Co-founder and executive director of Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice.   Screenshot Event: Dream Beyond Bars Film Festival (CURYJ) Tuesday, April 7, 2026 at 05:00 – 9:00 PM at The New Parkway Theater• 474 24th St, Oakland 94612    — Subscribe to this podcast: https://plinkhq.com/i/1637968343?to=page Get in touch: lawanddisorder@kpfa.org Follow us on socials @LawAndDis: https://twitter.com/LawAndDis; https://www.instagram.com/lawanddis/ The post Birthright Citizenship and the 14th Amendment. Remembering the Murder of Bobby Hutton. And, DBB Film Fest appeared first on KPFA.

#foryou #podcast -We're All Insane Plus for Bonus Episodes, Ad-Free Listening, Access to New Show, Guided Mediations: https://wereallinsane.com Zacch was raised in an end-times cult where one man controlled everything—families, money, marriages… even the children. Kids were taken from their parents, underage girls were married off, and abuse was part of everyday life. Zacch's Links: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/boiled-frogs/id1655270404 https://open.spotify.com/show/3UWrUeu5GHx4XMxfGQeuyj?si=PLHNmxaoRtunXxY6hPAe3Q Time Stamps: 00:00:05 – What is it like growing up in a cult from birth? 00:00:17 – How do cult leaders justify their beliefs after criminal behavior? 00:00:44 – How does a cult actually start and gain followers? 00:02:13 – What are early warning signs that a church is turning into a cult? 00:02:57 – Why do cult leaders often blame women for “sin” or “lust”? 00:03:21 – How do cults normalize inappropriate or abusive behavior in public? 00:05:25 – Why do people with traumatic pasts join cults? 00:06:09 – How does childhood trauma make someone vulnerable to manipulation? 00:07:33 – What was the Black Panther Party and what did they actually do? 00:10:33 – How does witnessing violence as a child affect later decisions? 00:11:40 – How do cults slowly isolate members from family and society? 00:12:26 – Do cult leaders control relationships and marriages? 00:13:07 – Why do people agree to arranged marriages in cults? 00:14:27 – Why do cult leaders make false “end of the world” predictions? 00:15:15 – What happens when cult members give up all their money and assets? 00:16:13 – What is daily life like inside a remote cult commune? 00:17:20 – Do cults deny medical care and what are the consequences? 00:18:14 – What happens when deaths occur inside isolated religious groups? 00:19:52 – How can cult leaders manipulate life-or-death decisions? 00:21:14 – Why would a cult defend or support violent criminals? 00:23:01 – What happens when a community turns against a dangerous cult? 00:24:59 – Is physical abuse normalized inside extreme religious groups? 00:26:16 – How are children punished and controlled in cult environments? 00:27:55 – What does “being cut off” or isolated punishment feel like in a cult? 00:29:44 – Do kids in cults receive a real education? 00:31:28 – How does starvation or food control get used as punishment? 00:32:15 – How are children dehumanized or treated as disposable in cults? 00:34:18 – How does growing up in a cult affect emotional development? 00:37:21 – What happens when someone tries to leave a cult? 00:39:56 – Why do former members struggle to reconnect with family after leaving? 00:41:55 – Why do cult leaders take children away from their parents? 00:45:51 – What is it like experiencing the outside world for the first time? 00:49:13 – When do victims start realizing something is seriously wrong? 00:50:30 – How do children find the courage to leave abusive environments? 01:02:00 – What are the long-term psychological effects of growing up in a cult? 01:14:30 – How do survivors rebuild their identity after leaving a cult? 01:27:00 – Why do some members stay loyal even after abuse is exposed? 01:40:15 – What lessons can people learn to avoid manipulation or control? 01:52:30 – How does someone fully heal after escaping a cult upbringing? If you have a unique story you'd like to share on the podcast, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/ZiHgdoK4PLRAddiB9 or send an email to wereallinsanepodcast@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Simma Lieberman and Elmer Dixon go back over 50 years — she was in the Young Patriots, he was co-founding the first Black Panther Party chapter outside California. In this conversation, they cut through the lies, revisionist history, and current attacks on DEI to talk about what the Black Panther Party actually stood for, why erasing Black history will never work, and what it takes to stay courageous when the political winds turn ugly. Elmer shares what it was like to transition from revolutionary to corporate diversity consultant, corrects the record on the myths about the Panthers, and gives three direct pieces of advice for anyone trying to stay grounded right now. What You'll Hear •      Why Elmer and Simma were part of the original Rainbow Coalition — and who actually coined that phrase (hint: it wasn't Jesse Jackson) •      The two biggest lies still being told about the Black Panther Party — and the truth behind them •      What it felt like to leave the movement and step into "Babylon" with four kids to feed •      A Black student who compared the Panthers to the KKK — and what that tells us about deliberate historical distortion •      How the Netherlands teaches Black Panther history in school while the U.S. tries to erase it •      The Seattle Black Panther Legacy Center opening this June in Pioneer Square •      Why DEI is not affirmative action, and what "DEI hire" really reveals about the people saying it •      Elmer's three things everyone needs right now: self-education, self-love, and courage Timestamps [01:30] Introducing Elmer Dixon — 52 years of knowing each other, Black Panthers and Young Patriots [03:00] Elmer's full bio — Seattle BPP, city cabinet, Executive Diversity Services, global work [06:30] Is it still important to talk about race? Elmer answers directly [08:00] From revolutionary to corporate America — the transition, the trauma, and the four kids [11:00] The early days: co-founding the Seattle chapter, Bobby Hutton's funeral, J. Edgar Hoover's threat designation [15:00] Bobby Seale for Mayor, political prisoner, shifting eras inside the party [18:00] Simma's question: What do you say to people spreading lies about the Black Panther Party? [20:00] Correcting the record — Japanese BPP member Mike Tagawa, mixed-race members, Huey Newton's own words on racism [23:00] The Rainbow Coalition — who really coined the phrase, and which organizations were part of it [25:00] The two lies: "They were racist" and "They were violent" — and what the party actually stood for [29:00] The art school student who compared the Panthers to the KKK — and how deliberate distortion works [32:00] Speaking in France, and why Dutch schoolchildren learn the real Black Panther history [36:00] The attempt to erase Black history — why it won't work, and who's holding the torch [39:00] The Seattle Black Panther Legacy Center — Pioneer Square demo site opening June 2025, permanent site search [43:00] Young people picking up the torch — the Black Panther Park mural, the historic family home as landmark [46:00] DEI is not affirmative action — what "DEI hire" really means, and why companies are wrong to be scared [50:00] Paper tigers — how the Panthers faced Nixon and Hoover, and what that means for today [53:00] Elmer's three pieces of advice: self-educate, love yourself first, be courageous Guest Links •       Elmer Dixon website: elmerdixon.com •       Book: Die Standing: From Black Panther Revolutionary to Global Diversity Consultant (Two Sisters Writing and Publishing, 2023) •       Elmer's TEDx Talk: Stories from the Revolution's Front Lines   Connect with Simma •       Website & episodes: raceconvo.com •       Email: simma@simmalieberman.com •       Donate to support the show: raceconvo.com   Guest Bio Elmer Dixon has spent his life fighting for justice, equality, and belonging—values rooted in who he is and the experiences that shaped him. At 17, inspired by the Black Liberation Movement of the 1960s, he co-founded the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party with his older brother, Aaron. It was the first chapter outside of California, and together they built a movement that provided essential services to Black and Brown communities in their city.   Connect with Simma Lieberman Need a speaker, facilitator, or dialogue leader who helps people talk with each other—not past each other? Contact Simma: simma@simmalieberman.com Learn more and support the show: RaceConvo.com  Instagram Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Tiktok Website Share the Conversation If this episode made you think, please share it with a friend or colleague. Real conversations across differences start when someone decides to listen. Please help these necessary conversations continue- Make a one-time, or monthly tax-deductible donation of $5.00  https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/everyday-conversations-on-race-for-everyday-people All donations are tax deductible through Fractured Atlas. Loved this episode?  Leave us a review and rating   Previous Episodes Why We Can't Stop Talking About Race: A Conversation with Carole Copeland Thomas What Happens When a White Neighbor Writes a Black Woman's Story? Do We Still Need to Talk About Race?

On today's show, guest host Kalonji Jama Changa is in conversation with W. Paul Coates, a former Black Panther Party leader in Baltimore. He established the George Jackson Prison Movement to bring Afrocentric literature to inmates. He is the founder of Black Classic Press, and an advocate for, and practitioner of, solidarity as a form of resistance to systemic oppression.  In addition, Paul Coates has organized Black Publishers and Writers Delegations to Havana Cuba for cultural exchange. Kalonji Jama Changa is an organizer, founder of the FTP Movement, and the co-chair of the Urban Survival and Preparedness Institute and is co-founder of Black Power Media. He is also author of the bestselling book, “How to Build a People's Army” and co-producer of the documentary “Organizing is the New Cool.” —- Subscribe to our podcast: https://plinkhq.com/i/1637968343?to=page Get in touch: lawanddisorder@kpfa.org Follow us on socials @LawAndDis: https://twitter.com/LawAndDis; https://www.instagram.com/lawanddis/ The post Paul Coates on Solidarity as a Form of Resistance to Systemic Oppression w Guest Host Kalonji Changa. appeared first on KPFA.

In this exclusive sit-down interview, NBT Millz sits down with Paul Birdsong, Chairman of the Black Lion Party, formerly known as the Black Panther Party, for a raw, unfiltered conversation about the mission behind one of Philadelphia's most talked-about organizations.Birdsong opens up about:- The evolution from the Black Panther Party to the Black Lion Party and what it means for the movement- Ongoing efforts to collaborate with Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker on a community food initiative-His stance on law enforcement and why he doesn't trust the police-Why he refuses the label of Black Nationalist and what he actually stands for-And the statement that has everyone talking what he says he's willing to do for the causeThis is the interview Philadelphia didn't know it needed. Watch until the end.TIME STAMPSIntro - 0:00Mission of party - 2:25Solidarity Bringing Conflict And Resistance - 4:00Child Hood & Upbringing - 6:15 Rewiring the mind - 8:30Navigating Noteriety and Paranoia - 13:00Working With The Police - 14:00 What it takes to join the party - 22:30Responses from other leaders/Taking The Black Panther Name Back - 27:25Dying Behind The Mission - 36:25Succession Plan - 38:15Working With Mayor Parker - 40:15Impact For the next year - 43:00Should People be Afraid - 44:15Support the show

On December 4, 1969, a pre-dawn police raid at 2337 West Monroe Street in Chicago left 21-year-old Black Panther leader Fred Hampton dead. Authorities called it a shootout. Evidence later suggested something far more deliberate.In this episode of When Killers Get Caught, Brittany Ransom examines the assassination of Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and a rising national leader targeted under the FBI's COINTELPRO program. We break down the role of informant William O'Neal, the alleged drugging of Hampton, the 99 shots fired during the raid, and the 13-year legal battle that exposed federal coordination with local law enforcement.But this story goes beyond one night.We explore Hampton's Rainbow Coalition, his community programs like the Free Breakfast Program, and why multiracial, working-class solidarity was viewed as a threat by powerful institutions. This episode also connects the political climate of the 1960s — including the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War protests, and urban uprisings — to ongoing conversations about government surveillance, police violence, and state power today.Was this a tragic raid gone wrong or a calculated political execution?The truth always leaves a trail.If you're interested in true crime, political history, FBI surveillance, civil rights, and the psychology of state violence, this episode is essential listening.

Omari Richins, MPH of Public Health Careers podcast explores the deep connections between Black History Month and public health, emphasizing how historical struggles and initiatives within Black communities have shaped modern public health policies and practices. Omari highlights the contributions of the Black Panther Party and other historical figures in advocating for health equity, community health, and social justice, urging listeners to recognize and continue this legacy in their own work.

It's the last week of Black History Month, so we're bringing you some of our favorite episodes about Chicago's contributions to Black history. In 2023, the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party was listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the culmination of a yearslong effort to landmark a collection of sites associated with the Black Panthers. About a year before they won that historical recognition, host Jacoby Cochran talked with Leila Wills, executive director of the Historical Preservation Society of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party. They discuss where the Black Panthers worked in Chicago and about Wills' personal connection to the history as the daughter of party members. Good News: ⁠Rooted & Radical Youth Poetry Festival Want some more City Cast Chicago news? Then make sure to sign up for our Hey Chicago newsletter. Follow us @citycastchicago You can also text us or leave a voicemail at: 773 780-0246 Learn more about the sponsors of this Feb. 23 episode:  Steppenwolf Theatre Griffin MSI South By Southwest — Unlock a 10% discount on your Innovation Badge when you use code citycast10 Become a member of City Cast Chicago. Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info HERE

I had the honor of sitting down with my mentor, veteran activist Norman Clement, for an incredibly insightful and inspiring conversation.Norman shares his experiences from a lifetime of activism, starting in the 1970s. We take a deep dive into the profound impact of the Black Panther Party, with a special focus on its local history and influence right here in New Haven, Connecticut. We explore how the Party's work continues to shape the laws and government programs we see today.The conversation also turns to the current political landscape. We discuss the Trump administration and, more importantly, explore concrete ways we can resist and build working-class power in this moment.This was a powerful discussion with someone I deeply respect. I hope you all enjoy it and take away as much as I did.Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell for more conversations like this!

Elmer Dixon, a longtime activist for racial justice, grew up a witness to the Civil Rights Movement and marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Seattle, WA in the 60s.He was one of the founders of Seattle's chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1968. Only 17 at the time, he helped to shape a new world, a new place, a new country, where all people were respected, regardless of color and position in life.Now Dixon runs his own business in Seattle and . is a diversity trainer who speaks about his experiences with the Black Panther Party. He is the author of Die Standing: From Black Panther Revolutionary to Global Diversity Consultant; a memoir that can help instruct today's social justice activists on how to organize the community based on the successful strategies of the Black Panther Party to achieve change in a continued climate of police brutality, institutional racism, and vast socioeconomic discrepancies for Black and Brown people.

Stephen Shames: A Lifetime in Photography – Lessons on Social Documentary, the Black Panthers, and Child Poverty (Part 1) Introduction In the latest episode of “10 Frames per Second,” host Molly & Joe interview legendary American photojournalist Stephen Shames. Over a 50‑year career, Shames has documented everything from the Black Panther Party to child poverty in America, testifying before the U.S. Senate and publishing twelve monographs. If you're a photographer, journalist, activist, or anyone who cares about visual storytelling, this interview is a goldmine. Below we break down the most actionable takeaways, organize them into easy‑to‑read sections, and show you how to apply Shames's methods to your own work. Who Is Stephen Shames? Fact Detail Profession Photojournalist & documentary photographer Career span 50+ years (1960s‑present) Focus Social issues – child poverty, racism, civil rights Notable achievements Testified before the U.S. Senate (1986), 42 museum collections, 12 monographs (e.g., Power to the People, Outside the Dream), new book Stephen Shames – A Lifetime in Photography – Purchase Directly with Autograph and Print from Stephen via eBay HERE Key collaborations Black Panther leader Bobby Seale, New York Times reporter Earl Caldwell, various grassroots organizations How Stephen Shames Discovered Photography College activism – While studying at UC Berkeley during the 1960s, he witnessed the civil‑rights movement and anti‑Vietnam protests. First camera purchase – After hitch‑hiking to New York's East Village, he bought a camera at a pawn shop. Choosing the “artist of the movement” – Frustrated by student‑government politics, he decided to capture the larger picture rather than be a “politician.” “I just wanted to look at the big picture and try and move people with photography.” Working with the Black Panther Party Why the Panthers Accepted a White Photographer Shared goals – Economic and social justice, not just race. Pragmatism – Panthers needed allies outside the Black community to build coalitions (Peace & Freedom Party, Young Lords, Young Patriots). Personal connection – Bobby Seale liked Shames's images and invited him to use them in the Panther newspaper. Key Facts About the Panthers (From the Interview) Founded: October 1966 (initially ~20 members). National expansion: Post‑1968, 10,000+ members, 50‑60 chapters. Community programs: “Breakfast for School Children,” feeding 10,000+ kids daily. Self‑defense model: Legal gun ownership (California) + law books; later, they shifted to “cameras are better weapons.” Lesson for Photographers Build trust by aligning with a group's mission, not merely your identity. Stephen Shames Research‑First Approach “Journalism is two‑dimensional; you need to experience the culture you want to document.” Steps to Deep‑Dive Research Read nonfiction – History, journalism, policy reports. Read fiction – Novels written by members of the community. Listen to music – Understand emotional tone and cultural references. Watch movies / documentaries – Visual language and storytelling cues. Live the bubble – Immerse yourself in daily life, food, rituals. Why It Matters Breaks the “bubble” of your own biases. Helps anticipate reactions and capture authentic moments. Stephen Shames on Building Trust & Relationships Core Principles Honesty: Be transparent about your intent. Respect: Never mock or look down on subjects (e.g., drug addicts, police). Reciprocity: Offer subjects control—let them tell you when to stop. Presence: Stay physically in the community (sleep on sofas, eat meals together). Practical Tactics Find a community “gatekeeper.” Example: a nun from Catholic Social Services who introduced Shames to Chicago projects. Sit down for a conversation before shooting – explain the project, listen to concerns. Share your work later (photos, stories) to reinforce the relationship. “If you're honest, people will accept you, even if you're a ‘liberal New York Jew.'” Bullet‑Point Checklist Identify and contact a respected local figure or organization. Explain your project in plain language. Offer a clear “opt‑out” for subjects. Spend time off‑camera – meals, conversations, errands. Follow up after the shoot with thank‑you notes or shared images. Cameras vs. Guns: The Evolution of “Weapons” 1960s‑70s: Panthers used firearms legally to patrol police. Today: Shames notes that cameras and smartphones are the most powerful weapons for exposing injustice. Why the shift? Legal restrictions on open carry. Instant global distribution of visual evidence. “The camera is a much better weapon because it puts the story directly in front of the world.” Lessons for Modern Photographers Insight How to Apply Research beyond headlines Read novels, watch local films, listen to playlists from the community. Immerse, don't observe from a distance Stay in the neighborhood for days or weeks, not just a single shoot. Earn trust through honesty Share your intent, give subjects a “stop” word, and be transparent about usage. Leverage community allies Partner with NGOs, churches, or trusted locals to gain entry. Think of yourself as a “doctor,” not a “tourist” Your presence should be accepted as part of the environment, not an intrusion. Use the camera as an activist tool Publish work on platforms that reach decision‑makers, not just art galleries. Document, don't dictate Let subjects tell their own story; avoid imposing your narrative. Why Shames's Story Matters Today Media fragmentation & AI‑generated images: Shames emphasizes that authentic, verified photography is more vital than ever. Social justice resurgence: The same patterns of protest, police scrutiny, and grassroots organizing repeat across generations. Educational relevance: Teachers can use Shames's methods to teach research, empathy, and ethical storytelling. Conclusion Stephen Shames's career shows that powerful photography comes from empathy, rigorous research, and deep community ties. Whether you're documenting the modern Black Lives Matter movement, child poverty, or any social issue, the principles he shares—exit your bubble, build trust, and let the camera speak—remain timeless. Ready to start your own documentary project? Apply the checklist above, stay authentic, and remember: your camera can change policy just as much as any courtroom testimony. Call to Action Start a research journal today for the community you wish to photograph. Subscribe to our blog for more interviews with visionary photojournalists. Share this post with classmates, activists, or anyone interested in visual storytelling. Steve is represented by: Amar Gallery, London, UK (vintage & contemporary art prints Steven Kasher Gallery, New York (vintage & contemporary art prints Polaris Images, New York (editorial & stock) _____ child poverty, Black Panther Party, civil rights movement, Vietnam War, documentary photography, social justice, racism, university protests, student government, activism, police brutality, COINTELPRO, gun control, media ownership, AI-generated deepfakes, fake news, community immersion, research methodology, cultural immersion, trust building, ethics in photography, hunger crisis, farm crisis, poverty in America, Senate testimony, camera as weapon, Rainbow Coalition, Young Lords, political coalitions, storytelling through imagesThe post Episode 175: Stephen Shames (Documentary Photography) Part 1 first appeared on 10FPS A Photojournalism Podcast for Everyone.

Our radio adaptation of the film, The Murder of Fred Hampton, produced by filmmakers Mike Gray and Howard Alk, provides a glimpse into the life of Hampton and the Illinois Black Panther Party.  On December 4th, 1969, exactly 50 years ago, Black Panthers Fred Hampton, age 21, and Mark Clark, age 22, were shot to death by Chicago police. In an infamous moment in Chicago's history and politics, over a dozen policemen burst into Hampton's apartment while its occupants were sleeping, killing Hampton and fellow Panther Mark Clark, and brutalizing the other occupants. As Deputy Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, Hampton built a solid reputation as a community organizer and brilliant speaker. The FBI, threatened by the activities of the BPP and its dynamic youth leaders, set on a course to neutralize the organization and anyone they deemed a threat to the agenda of white supremacy. "You can jail the revolutionary, but you can't jail the revolution…You might murder a freedom fighter like Bobby Hutton, but you can't murder freedom fighting." – Fred Hampton. Featuring: Fred Hampton Bobby Rush Rennie Davis Edward Hanrahan Credits: Special thanks to Facets DVD and Filmmakers Mike Gray and Howard Alk Host: Anita Johnson Executive Director: Jina Chung Engineer: Jeff Emtman Digital Media Marketing: Lissa Deonorain Music:  "Grand Caravan", Blue Dot Sessions elling Easements Viola Trio Long", Barbara Bernstein  "Long Cory", Cory Learn More:  The Murder of Fred Hampton A Facets Cine-Notes Booklet The Assassination of Fred Hampton Freedom Archives: Fred Hampton Audio Samples Freedom Archives: Honoring Fred Hampton on the 50th Anniversary of his Murder Making Contact is an award-winning, nationally syndicated radio show and podcast featuring narrative storytelling and thought-provoking interviews. We cover the most urgent issues of our time and the people on the ground building a more just world.

On Feb. 17, 1942, Huey P. Newton was born in Monroe, Louisiana. He would go on to co-found the Black Panther Party and become one of the most influential figures in the Black Power movement. This episode revisits his legacy, the rise of the Panthers and the impact of their community programs and activism. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed with the latest news from a leading Black-owned & controlled media company: https://aurn.com/newsletter Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On Feb. 17, 1942, Huey P. Newton was born in Monroe, Louisiana. He would go on to co-found the Black Panther Party and become one of the most influential figures in the Black Power movement. This episode revisits his legacy, the rise of the Panthers and the impact of their community programs and activism. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed with the latest news from a leading Black-owned & controlled media company: https://aurn.com/newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Portland author David F. Walker and illustrator Marcus Kwame Anderson have worked together before - on a 2021 graphic novel about the Black Panther Party. This time they’ve teamed up on something a little different: an update of the classic American novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” In their version, the escaped slave Jim is more than just Huck’s companion; he’s a fully imagined character. Walker joined us on Dec. 2, 2024 to talk about the work of updating an American classic.  

Send a textBaltimore's Panthers complicate the easy narratives. They were neither reckless radicals nor romantic revolutionaries. They were pragmatic idealists, adapting to legal constraints, financial scarcity, and relentless surveillance while insisting that political struggle begin with feeding children and keeping neighbors housed. Their story is a reminder that grassroots movements are most vulnerable where they are most necessary and that the state's gaze has often been sharpest when Black communities attempt to govern themselves. For organizers today, working without the insulation of wealth or patronage, Baltimore's Panthers offer both a model and a warning: that meaningful change is built locally, sustained collectively, and contested at every step.Support the showIn Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS). The internet show is published in collaboration with Black Liberation Media (BLM)

Celebrating Black History Month 2026 and this year we look back at Blaxploitation which is the film subgenre of action movie derived from the exploitation film genre that began in the 1960s and flourished throughout the early to mid 1970s, consequent to the combined cultural momentum of the black civil rights movement, the black power movement, and the Black Panther Party, political and sociological circumstances that facilitated black artists reclaiming their power of the representation of the black ethnic identity in the arts.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Van and Rachel discuss the documentary ‘Melania' before reacting to Nicki Minaj's appearance at a Trump event and the congressional fight over DHS. Plus, Ashley Allison, owner of The Root, joins to discuss the importance of Black media. (0:00) Black Panther Party (14:53) The ‘Melania' movie (27:47) Nicki Minaj and Trump (52:26) Congress's fight over DHS (1:18:27) Ashley Allison joins the show (2:10:16) Ray J's health Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Guest: Ashley Allison Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Jade Whaley Social Producer: Bernard Moore Video Supervision: Chris Thomas Vote here for the NAACP Image Awards: vote.naacpimageawards.net Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today, we meet an artist who's been screen printing protest posters for more than forty years. Then, an Oakland mural honoring the women of the Black Panther Party. Plus, a poem. 

Conventional wisdom holds that the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and early 60s neglected the question of police violence, only to be remedied by the Black Panther Party and decades later by the Movement for Black Lives. But historian Joshua Clark Davis argues that that assumption is inaccurate. He also discusses the extensive involvement of local police departments, above and beyond the FBI's COINTELPRO, in disrupting and repressing the Civil Rights movement. Joshua Clark Davis, Police Against the Movement: The Sabotage of the Civil Rights Struggle and the Activists Who Fought Back Princeton University Press, 2025 The post Policing the Civil Rights Movement appeared first on KPFA.

The Philadelphia Black Panther Party is Challenging ICE - hear more about this story on today's podcast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Van and Rachel react to a weekend of sports before discussing Stephen A. Smith and frat life, the Black Panther Party in 2026, and military aid in Israel. Plus, Gavin Newsom caves to Ben Shapiro, and Candace Owens has a theory … a conspiracy theory. (0:00) Intro (0:58) Sisqo or Ne-Yo (9:01) Feeling for Josh Allen (24:21) Stephen A. Smith misspeaks (44:20) A Divine 9 discussion (57:50) The Black Panther Party in 2026 (1:11:20) AIPAC and congressional funding (1:36:07) Gavin Newsom sits with Ben Shapiro (1:53:33) The Charlie Kirk conspiracy Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Jade Whaley Social Producer: Bernard Moore Video Supervision: Chris Thomas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Breht speaks with veteran organizer, revolutionary strategist, Elder of the movement, and author Eric Mann. Together they discuss Eric's life and work, including his book on George Jackson, the Hard Hat riot against Vietnam protesters, how to organize effectively in the work place, Eric's personal relationship with Howard Zinn, the importance of revolutionary  journalism, combatting chauvinism, and SO much more. Check out Part One of Breht's discussion with Eric HERE Opening clip from Mother Country Radical podcast More Biography of Eric Mann: Eric Mann (born December 4, 1942) is a civil rights, anti-war, labor, and environmental organizer. He has worked with the Congress of Racial Equality, Newark Community Union Project, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Black Panther Party, the United Automobile Workers (including eight years on auto assembly lines) and the New Directions Movement. He was also active as a leader of SDS faction the Weathermen, which later became the militant left-wing organization Weather Underground. He was arrested in September 1969 for participation in a direct action against the Harvard Center for International Affairs and sentenced to two years in prison on charges of conspiracy to commit murder after two bullets were fired through a window of the Cambridge police headquarters on November 8, 1969. He was instrumental in the movement that helped to keep a General Motors assembly plant in Van Nuys, California open for ten years. Mann has been credited for helping to shape the environmental justice movement in the U.S. He founded the Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles, California and has been its director for 25 years. In addition, Mann is founder and co-chair of the Bus Riders Union, which sued the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority for what it called "transit racism", resulting in a precedent-setting civil rights lawsuit, Labor Community Strategy Center et al. v. MTA. Mann is the author of books published by Beacon Press, Harper & Row and the University of California, which include Taking on General Motors; The Seven Components of Transformative Organizing Theory; and Playbook for Progressives: 16 Qualities of the Successful Organizer. He is known for his theory of transformative organizing and leadership of political movements and is acknowledged by many as an veteran organizer on the communist left. ---------------------------------------------------- Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/revleftradio Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio Follow, Subscribe, & Learn more about Rev Left Radio https://revleftradio.com/