PEN OAKLAND EVENTS...

A History of Support for the Literary Arts
within the Multicultural Community

"A Celebration of PEN Oakland"
February 3, 1990

A benefit for the first multi-cultural, multi-ethnic USA chapter of the international writers' organization.

Featuring readings by Isabel Allende and Maxine Hong Kingston.
Also readings by Oakland PEN members Floyd Salas, Reginald Lockett and Jack Foley. Piano by Jesse Beagle

Koncepts Kultural Gallery, Oakland, CA

"Oakland Out Loud"
May 26 1990

A reading/symposium on historical Oakland writers, such as Ina Coolbrith and Jack London, by Oakland writers Al Young, Ishamel Reed, Ed Bullins, Floyd Salas, Lee Mun Wah, and Lucha Corpi.

Koncepts Kultural Gallery, Oakland, CA

"Multiculturalism and the Media: A Forum"
June 28, 1990

Authors and journalists from radio, newspapers and the arts come together in a provocative forum to discuss the roles and responsibilities of the media in relation to the demands and imperatives of multiculturalism.

Panel composed of Patricia Holt, book editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, Diana Ketcham, Book Editor of the Oakland Tribune, Ishmael Reed and Floyd Salas, both poets and novelists, Susan Stone, Drama and Literature Editor, KPFA-FM, Frank Chin, author and playwright, Rose Romano, poet and editor of La Bella Figura. Jack Foley, poet, editor and executive producer of KPFA-FM, moderated.

San Francisco Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, CA

"Tune-Out of Primetime Network News"
Open Mike
March 27, 1991

Part of a nationwide call for a thirty-day tune-out of prime time network news (ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN) to protest televised racism, including depiction of minorities and the lack of significant number of minority, women and alternate-voice journalists in the major newsrooms. The Open Mike is part of a nationwide series of lectures and readings given around the country to discuss media abuses of women, people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds and sexual orientations. The media boycott received coverage in the New York Times, ABC-TV's San Francisco affiliate (Channel 7), the Washington Post, Spin Magazine, The Nation and many other nationwide news forums.

Lakeside Garden Center, Oakland, CA

"Voices Silenced by the Media"
April 26, 1991

A benefit reading as part of PEN Oakland's call for a 30 day tune-out (April 1-30, 1991) of Primetime Network News (ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN).

Readers included Opal Palmer Adisa, Cecil Brown, Bob Callahan, Jeffrey Chan, John Curl, Chitra Divakaruni, Jack Foley, Nabil Al Hadithy, Jane Hirschfield, Betty Kano, Claire Ortalda, Ishamel Reed, Floyd Salas, Joe Sam.

Berkeley Store Gallery, Berkeley, CA

"What is the Future of Arts in Oakland?"
August 3, 1992

A town meeting presented in conjunction with Before Columbus Foundation and There City Cinema.

Panel included Benny Ambush, Oakland Ensemble Theater; Cecil Brown, writer and UC Berkeley professor; Ed Bullins, director of BMT Theater; Marijo, actress; Sharon Ott, artistic director of Berkeley Repertory Theater; Representative Wilson Riles, Jr.; Floyd Salas, president of PEN Oakland; Ronnie Stewart, director of Bay Area Blues Society; Glenn Storek of Storek & Storek, Old Oakland.

Lakeside Garden Center, Oakland, CA

"The Media's Coverage of the Rodney King Verdict and Aftermath"
June 12, 1992

A panel discussion and open mike to question whether the television news media was using tactics designed to pit race against race and group against group in order to sensationalize this issue.

Panelists included: Ishmael Reed, author; Floyd Salas, author; Normon Solomon, media critic and author; Pearl Stewart, reporter for the East Bay Express; Ann H. Park, executive director of the Korean Community Center of the East Bay.

Lakeside Garden Center, Oakland, CA

"The Fairness Doctrine and Media Bias"
September 15, 1992

A panel discussion centering on PEN Oakland's grassroots nationwide drive for Congressional legislation to restore the Fairness Doctrine requiring broadcasters to air contrasting views on controversial issues and to amend the doctrine to include minorities, gays, lesbians and non-conformist religious groups.

Panelists included: Normon Solomon, author and media critic; Julianne Malveaux, economics writer; Barbara Christian, African-American Studies professor, UC Berkeley; Gerald Vizenor, Native American Studies professor, UC Berkeley; Pedro Noguera, Education professor, UC Berkeley; Ann Park, director of the Korean Community Center of the East Bay. Moderator was Wilson Riles, Jr.

"People and Poets Examine the Media"
December 10, 1993

A multicultural media awareness forum examining the following question: Are the mass media exacerbating tensions between racial, ethnic and sexual communities? Is network television news media stereotyping and scapegoating coverage of minorities? Are the mass media censoring minority perspectives?

Panelists included: Jeffrey Adachi, San Francisco Public Defender; Francisco Alarcon, poet; Jesse Greenman, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation; Ann Park; Korean Community Cultural Center of the East Bay; Ishmael Reed, novelist, poet and essayist; Floyd Salas, novelist, poet and essayist; Al Young, novelist, poet and jazz critic. Moderator: John Curl, poet and member, People's Day Committee.

Berkeley Store Gallery, Berkeley, CA

"Is Media Coverage Making Minorities Sick?"
October 25, 1994

A panel discussion presented in conjunction with Before Columbus Foundation, UC Berkeley's African-American Studies Department, and the African-American Law and Policy Report.

Panelists included: Dr. Michael LeNoir, Oakland physician; Ishmael Reed, Oakland activist and writer; Jerri Lange, author of The Power, Magic and Imagination of Media; Dr. Benjamin Tong, psychologist; Normon Solomon, author and media critic; Dr. Nathan Hare, chairman of the Black Think-Tank. Presentation included video presentation by award-winning filmmaker Allen Willis on "Violence in the Media."

Booth Auditorium, Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA.

"School Colors or Media Colors?"
May 18, 1995

A public hearing and open mike on PBS-TV's Frontline portrayal of Berkeley High School in the documentary "School Colors."

Panelists included: Jim Henderson, Berkeley High School principal; "School Colors" executive producer Sharon Tiller; Pedro Noguera, UC Berkeley Professor. Moderator was Jerri Lange, author.

Berkeley Store Gallery, Berkeley, CA

"Women in the Media: Included or Excluded?"
April 28, 1996

A panel discussion presented in conjunction with the Center for the Visual Arts.

Panelists included: Carla Marinucci, San Francisco Examiner; Kim Benita Furumoto, Managing Editor of Crossroads Magazine; Candice Francis, KRON-Bay TV producer; Noemi Sohn, activist filmmaker in the area of gender, race and disability; Elena Featherston, award-winning writer and filmmaker; Cathy Chapman, KPFA Producer for Native American programming,; and Cristina Azocar, researcher for the Native American portion of News Watch, a critical look at coverage of people of color.

Center for the Visual Arts, Oakland, CA

"Did the CIA Dump Crack in Oakland?"
January 25, 1997

A town hall meeting and panel discussion.

Panelists included: Ishmael Reed, author and activist; Peter Dale Scott, author of Cocaine Politics, Deep Politics and the Death of JFK; Dennis Bernstein, associate editor for Pacific News Service; Norman Solomon, author and media critic; Makani Themba, director of the Praxis Project, a media and policy activism group; and Phyllis Zorrick, SF Weekly columnist. Moderator: Emil Guillermo, independent journalist and former host of NPR's All Things Considered.

Lakeside Garden Center, Oakland, CA

"The Kerouac Legacy: Who Owns a Writer's Work?"
June 27, 1998

A panel discussion on the writer's right to determine his or her literary legacy, the public's right to access to writers' manuscripts and papers, and the writer as commodity, with specific focus on the literary legacy of both Jack Kerouac and his daughter Jan Kerouac.

Panelists included: Gerald Nicosia, author of Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac and Jan Kerouac's literary executor; Jerome Field, San Francisco attorney specializing in intellectual property rights; Alberto Huerta, SJ, professor of literature at University of San Francisco; John Allen Cassady, son of Beat legend Neal Cassady; and Carol Ross Shank, Kerouac family friend. Moderator: Floyd Salas, author.

First Unitarian Church, San Francisco, CA

"Mumia and the Death Penalty"
September 24, 1999

Panel discussion and open mike on how the case of death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal have highlighted injustices and social consequences of the death penalty.

Panelists included: Ishamel Reed, author; Bruce Cain, UC Berkeley political science professor; Rory Little, Hasting Law School professor; Jeff Mackler, social activist; Melody Ermachild Chavis, author; Kiilu Nyasha, radio journalist. Moderator: Emil Guillermo.

St. Joseph the Worker Church, Berkeley, CA

"An Evening of Dangerous Plays"
May 8, 2000

Featuring four short plays or portions of plays, the evening included dramatic works by Floyd Salas (Steve Nash), Cecil Brown (King Kong's Revenge), Kim McMillon (Confessions of a Thespian) and Marvin X (One Day in the Life). Each work used humor, song and/or dance to lighten extremely serious sides of American society, while examining the role of victim and victimizer, and our ability to transcend circumstances. The evening concluded with a question-and-answer session between audience and the playwrights, moderated by author and activist Ishmael Reed.

Berkeley Repertory Theater, Berkeley, CA

"Our Right to Know: Local and Global Perspectives"
October 18, 2000

Panel discussion and question-and-answer period on citizen access to information.

Panelists included: Karleen Lloyd, organizer, People United for a Better Oakland (PUEBLO), on the impact of the High Street medical waster incinerator in East Oakland; Nicole Sawaya, journalist with Pacific News Service on the dangers of media monopolization and the crisis at Pacifica/KPFA radio; and Andrea Buffa, executive director, Media Alliance on global issues relating to the public's right to know. Moderator: Floyd Salas, author.

Oakland Public Library, Melrose Branch, Oakland, CA