From the Desk of Zayid
Muhammad
973 202 0745
“A turtle cannot go forward until he first sticks his neck
out…”
Malcolm X
January 11, 2018
ACTIVIST POET ZAYID MUHAMMAD
BRINGS IN NEW YEAR BUSY!
SUNDIATA!
MISSION OF MERCY!
January
14th marks the 81st birthday of beloved political
prisoner Sundiata Acoli, one of the
longest held political prisoners in this country!
Through the NJ Black Panther
Commemoration Committee, Muhammad hosted the 70th birthday for
Sundiata’s exiled comrade Assata Shakur in January and vowed to begin a
humanitarian campaign called Clergy For Sundiata to help him in his bid for
Parole Reconsideration after being given another ’15 year hit’ when he was last
before the parole board in 2016.
This campaign will seek to secure 45
Clergy members from all faiths to come out in support of Sundiata’s parole bid
to mark his 45 years in prison.
A state judge recommended Acoli for
Parole several years ago.
The NJ Parole Board has only
responded to the recommendation with the utmost hostility.
Persons wishing to help launch the
campaign and clergy wishing to take part, please contact Muhammad at the
information above…
January
14th marks the 70th birthday of beloved political
prisoner Herman Bell. Like Sundiata
Acoli, Bell is also one the longest held political prisoners in this country!
Bell survived a savage attack by six
Correctional Officers several months ago!
He has been a model prisoner and in
the Panther Community Survival Program tradition, he has initiated incredible community
service projects on both the outside and the inside like his Victory Gardens
which brought fresh produce to food drives to outside allies in New York and in
New Jersey.
He has been up for parole some 10x and
is due for parole consideration again soon.
Go to his webpage…www.freehermanbell.org…to
see how you can support his campaign for release…
HONORING
DR. KING!
On Monday, January 15th, Muhammad will help lead the P.O.P.
annual March honoring Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr.
The march will begin at 12 noon at
the new MLK Monument next to the Essex County Courthouse, just off W. Market
St. and MLK Blvd.
Lead by Lawrence Hamm, P.O.P. has
hosted this march for over 20 years.
Muhammad is the press officer for
P.O.P and has security for the organization for years…
Later that afternoon, Muhammad will
speak and perform at the Ironbound Community Corporation’s tribute to Dr.King.
A pioneering environment justice
force in Newark’s Ironbound neighborhood, and engendering a number of young
organizers, the call for this gathering is Black And Brown Unity In The Age Of
Trump!
It takes place from 3-5pm at St.
Stephan’s Church Wilson Av and Ferry St., Newark……
On Tuesday, January 16th, he will speak and read at Rutgers
University Newark in an exciting gathering called ‘My Racial Healing Looks
Like-A Night of Speaking Truth Through Poetry, Prose and Music.’
It takes place at the Paul Robeson
Campus Center 350 Martin Luther King Blvd from 6-9pm
Muhammad is a Rutgers Newark Alum
and a former vice chair of the bold Black Organization of Students (BOS).
January 15th marks the 89th
birth anniversary for the immortal Drum Major For Justice. This year also marks
the 50th anniversary of his assassination…
PACK
THE COURT FOR MUMIA ABU JAMAL!
On Wednesday, January 17th, Muhammad will be among the many
packing the court Mumia Abu Jamal!
AbuJamal has been in prison for 37
years. He has survived two death warrants on death row and most recently the
ravages of Hepatitis C.
A Pennsylvania judge recently
ordered the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office to turn over all documents
pertinent to his call to determine the existence and the degree of the obscene racial
bias that governed his wrongful prosecution.
The DA has been noncompliant.
Legal observers say that this may be
a turning in the case.
The hearing will take place at the
Philadelphia Criminal Justice Center, 1301 Filbert at 9am.
Muhammad has been a key supporter
for AbuJamal since 1990…
KNOW
YOUR RIGHTS WITH NCAP VISITS ARTS HIGH
On Tuesday, January 23rd, Muhammad will conducts a Know
Your Rights Seminar for students and faculty at Arts High School.
The Seminar will take place at
1:30pm.
In addition to his press work for
the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee, the People’s Organization for Progress
and the Newark AntiViolence Coalition, Muhammad is the interim organizer for
Newark Communities for Accountable Policing-NCAP, the support vehicle for those
community organizations represented on the City of Newark’s new Civilian
Complaint Review Board.
Mayor Ras Baraka and Newark City
Council created the new Civilian Review Board with full subpoena and
investigative powers, stronger than any other Civilian Review Board in the
country answering a longstanding call for police reform that goes back more
than 50 years! Police Unions are
opposing the legal authority of the new Board and have secured a court
injunction temporarily stopping the new Board from becoming functional. Hearings are likely to place on those issues
in the coming months.
Persons and organizations wishing to
know more and become involved or to host a speaker on the issue, please contact
Muhammad at the contact information above…
MXCC
22ND ANNUAL POLITICAL PRISONER TRIBUTE READY!
On Saturday, January 27th, the Malcolm X Commemoration
Committee will host its 22nd Annual Dinner Tribute To Our Political
Prisoners And Their Families.
This will take place for the first
time at All Souls Church Community Room, located at Lexington Avenue and 80th
Street in Manhattan.
The event will take place from
3-7pm. Dinner served promptly at 4pm.
This year’s theme ‘Honoring Our
Revolutionary Griots-Journalists and Artists Who Have Honored Our Political
Prisoners.’ Among those honored are Nayaba Arinde of the Amsterdam News, Sally
O’Brien of WBAI’s Where We Live, Poet Ngoma Hill and Photographer Solwazi Afi
Olusola.
Special guest cultural workers will
be revolutionary poet Amina Baraka and the Red Microphone and Jersey based poet
Shelly
Spinelli.
Muhammad will open with his
revolutionary libation and Dequi Kioni Sadiki, MXCC’s chair, will moderate.
Tickets are $40 in advance and $45
at the door…
KWANSABA
FOR BABA EUGENE REDMOND AT 80!
True to his Jazz poetry form,
Muhammad closed 2017 with a praisepoem for the master teacher and ‘Father’ of
East St. Louis’ Black Arts Movement, Eugene
B. Redmond to mark Redmond’s 80th birthday on December 1st!
Among Redmond’s many contributions
to the Black Arts Tradition is his creation of the poetic praise form the ‘Kwansaba’! Inspired by the Nguzo Saba, the
Seven Principles of Kwanzaa, the form calls for seven lines, seven words per
line, each word with no more than seven letters…
Kwansaba
for Baba Eugene B. Redmond* @ 80!
by ‘bro.zayid’
8 decades bravely snaking thru
Midwest wilds
seeding souls legacy loaded
baring memory sounds
hardbop hard pushing voices like
philly joe
kente kept more solid than p.c.’s
bass
sun sure like dunham’s golden
vodun dance
he is an unsung harness of fires
arking our missing bones ra-ward
for miles…
*Eugene B. Redmond is both the Father of the Black
Arts
Movement in E.St.Louis and the Father of the
AfroAmerican
poetic form…The Kwansaba…7 lines, 7 words per line,
each word
7 letters of less…
©2017
“Baba Eugene gave us so much, my
first Kwansaba absolutely had to be for him,” he said smilingly…
