­RESISTANCE, REMEMBRANCE, REGENERACIÓN

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28
1:30 - 3:30
Laney College Gymnasium
Doors open at 1:00 pm­

­The weekend is ending, but the beauty, power, and necessity of our collective struggle continues. How do we move forward in solidarity to build the world we have been envisioning, and creating, here together? As we continue our work to abolish prisons, policing and punishment in our communities, how do we do so in ways that are sustainable, supportive and effective? Our collective work at CR10 closes with a session that launches us into the next decade with powerful vision, critical political analysis, and celebration of our shared commitment to a world without walls. Come launch the next ten years of radical movement building!!


SPEAKERS AND PERFORMERS INCLUDE:­

Sundiata Acoli is a New Afrikan political prisoner of war, mathematician, and computer analyst. In 1969, he and 13 others were arrested in the Panther 21 conspiracy case. He was held in jail without bail and on trial for two years before being acquitted, along with all other defendants, by a jury deliberating less than two hours. Continued COINTELPRO harassment, surveillance, and provocations drove him underground. In 1973, he and Black Liberation Army comrades Zayd Shakur and Assata Shakur were ambushed by New Jersey state troopers on the NJ Turnpike, and both Zayd Shakur and a state trooper were killed. After a highly sensationalized and prejudicial trial, Sundiata was convicted of the death of the state trooper and was sentenced to life plus 30 years consecutive. He has been denied parole despite more than 30 years of time served and overwhelming support for his release. He is participating in the plenary via a recorded message from prison.

Piper Anderson is a performance artist, writer, healer and educator based in Brooklyn, NY who believes she has an obligation to serve her community by using her creative work to speak for social change and serve as a catalyst for action. Piper is a member of Blackout Arts Collective (BAC), a national organization committed to using the arts as a tool for social change in communities of color, where she has worked to coordinate youth development programming and organize four national tours around prisons and policing under the banner of "Lyrics on Lockdown". Her latest one-woman show, "In Her Memory," tells the story of one young woman's journey to find the true meaning of love in a crazy violent world, and has spawned the creation of the "Love Power-Self" curriculum and Seeking Wisdom: Joyful Tools for Inner Peace and Spiritual Healing.

Mrs. Dee Dee Chamblee is the founder and Executive Director of LaGender Inc., an organization created to serve the unique needs of the transgender community of the metro Atlanta, GA area. LaGender provides educational services and responds to other related needs, including those around HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, mental health, incarceration, homelessness, intimate partner violence, and spiritual counseling.

Erika Gonzalez is a Co-Director of PODER (People organized in Defense of the Earth and Her Resources). A native of Eagle Pass, Texas and the border of Piedras Negras, Coahuila Mexico, she now lives in southeast Austin. At PODER Erika coordinates all youth related activities, supervises all youth organizers and co-coordinates the Nahui Ollin Healthy Communities Project and other projects around transportation and juvenile justice. She is a board member of the Highlander Research and Education Center and a core group member of the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice's Youth Leadership Development Campaign. Erika also is a poet and flautist, teaches theatre at an elementary after school program, and co-facilitates poetry workshops in a local high school.

Yuri Kochiyama is a grassroots civil rights activist who has been involved in a wide range of political struggles throughout her life, from international political prisoner rights, nuclear disarmament, Japanese redress for World War II internment, and freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal. In the 1940s Yuri Kochiyama and her family were among the many Japanese Americans to be sent to internment camps following the bombing at Pearl Harbor. In the 1960s, she was a member of the Harlem Parents Committee organizing protests for more streetlights in her neighborhood, and was a close friend and associate of Malcolm X as a member of the Association of Afro-American Unity. She was by his side when he was assassinated in 1965. In 1977 she and 29 others from the Puerto Rican group the Young Lords stormed the Statue of Liberty to bring attention to the issue of Puerto Rican independence.

Ida Luz "Lucy" Rodriguez was born in Puerto Rico in 1950. She studied at the University of Illinois in Chicago and participated in struggles in the Puerto Rican community for jobs, housing, education, and against healthcare discrimination. She worked at the Puerto Rican High School and with the Committee to Free the Five Nationalists. In 1981, she was sentenced to 83 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and associated charges related to her activism with the Puerto Rican independence movement and against US imperialism. In 1999, along with 14 of her comrades, including her sister Alicia Rodriguez, she accepted clemency by then President Bill Clinton and returned to Puerto Rico, where she lives today.

The Oakland Youth Chorus is a multi-cultural music education and performance program for youth, fostering talent, confidence and community. OYC serves over 1,000 children and youth ages 5-25 each year in chorus, percussion and dance programs in school and community sites. Our mission focuses on creating and sustaining programs of high artistic merit that are accessible to and supportive of children and youth who might otherwise not be able to experience the joy of making music with others. OYC youth develop self-confidence, a knowledge of the music of several cultures, and a lifelong love of music.

Danza Xitlalli is a community-based ceremonial Aztec dance group that practices traditional ceremonies as a way to strengthen cultural pride in their community. They dance under the banner of Mexico's "Mesa del Santo Nino de Atocha," one of several organized branches of Aztec dancers who have kept this tradition alive since pre-Columbian times. Maestra Macuilxochitl and Maestro Francisco Camplis started Danza Xitlalli more than 20 years ago in San Francisco. Since then the group has grown in size and responsibilities, helping other groups get established in communities throughout the Bay Area.

The Palestine/Israel Education Project (PEP) is an initiative of educators and activists based in New York City, created to engage students in critical thinking about the culture, history and current living conditions of Palestinians and Israelis. PEP uses Palestinian hip hop videos, lyrics, digital stories, role play exercises, documentary footage, and more to facilitate conversations around racism, occupation, and resistance. They explore ways to raise awareness about the Palestinian struggle while developing with youth in the U.S. ways to articulate and address their own connections to the issues of colonialism, racism, and militarism. PEP provides concrete activity suggestions, lesson plans, curriculum development, and audio-visual materials for educators and others in similar roles to use on their own.