Posted Courtesy of Wright Enterprises Community Spotlight~~~

For Crying Out Loud…

Chadwick Boseman Gone Friday, August 28th

Kali O’Ray Gone Friday, August 7th…

I don’t mean for a while but Gone From This Earth!

Saturday, 7 a.m. dashed off a quick, who knows if it was understandable email to friends and associates asking them to join me in a 3:00 p.m. Sunday, August 30th “Live Talk @ SFBFF conversation ”The Power of the Heroic Figure to Fight Racism” that would be in Honor of Kali O’Ray and Chadwick Boseman.

There was no let me think about it.  No, it was do this at “3:00 p.m. Sunday!  Honor Kali and Chadwick Boseman with the topic “The Power of the Heroic Figure to Fight Racism” using the films & video clips: “Racial Facial” by Jeff Adachi; “Equal Standard” by Taheim Bryan; “42,” “Marshall” and “Black Panther” starring Chadwick Boseman; and “60 Years and Still” by Sally Tran.

The cognitive dissonance pounding my brain backwards and forwards realizing that August started with Kali O’Ray, the Director of the San Francisco Black Film Festival dead from a degenerative heart condition at 48 YEARS YOUNG!  And now out of the inconceivable that was already inconceivable Chadwick Boseman gone ya’ll at 43!  I had to say something because there was absolutely nothing I could do.  Hey, Hey… these have got to be the end times!  Where are you end time, Revelation’ Christians healing the sick and raising the dead? Jackie, aren’t you one of them, as Peter was asked. Deafening silence came back from my soul.  “I’m one but..Abba Abba Abba…not at that level…yet!” So the pounding of the dissonance declaring this is not happening but knowing it is happening, all I could offer up in my distress signal was to talk about it.  Oh for the day to come "to be about it.”  Sooo I did what I could.  I asked, something the American Red Cross taught me.  Ask for resources when the cause is of value and can help someone.  Prior to working for the American Red Cross Bay Area Chapter, I suffered with what most people suffer with, the inability to ask for help because it makes you feel powerless and positioned for shame if the answer is no.  But I learned the power is in the ask and the shame is on the denier if they hold back what can help someone else forgetting that it’s not their’s anyway. I mean really… Yee Gads!  The worst kind are the ones who came from nothing have donated dollars they are working with and can’t seem to be able to help with anything and they hold on to what’s not there’s corroding the value of the dollars they covet rather than use for good.  They are only a steward.  Billions of dollars in the bank? That stuff does not belong to you.  It All Belongs To God.  The only thing we really own is our choice about things. We have a choice of how to use what’s not ours in the first place and we have a choice on how we treat people.  God is not interested in the stuff/things we accumulate.  Revelation says it’s all burning up anyway. That’s where James Baldwin got his title, “Next Time Fire.” God’s interested in saving every soul!

So I ran with it, “3:00 p.m. Sunday, August 30th “The Power of the Heroic Figure to Fight Racism!” San Francisco Human Rights Commissioner and the former yet first Black Administrative Judge for the California PUC Karen Clopton, Supreme Court winning civil rights Lawyer Pamela Price, San Francisco Arts Commissioner Linda Parker-Pennington  and Taheim Bryan of New York City answered the call.

The whole process of coming together and getting the clips in place definitely had my mind on that scripture in the Book of James “The Lord Willing.”  You can’t boast about what you gonna do because you are not the ultimate arbiter, God is.  If Coronavirus worldwide pandemic has not taught us that I don’t know what will.  Psalm 9:22, “Let them know they are mere men.”
Here goes something:

Tribute to Kali O'Ray & Chadwick Boseman- "The Power of the Heroic Figure To Fight Racism"-Live Talk @SFBFF 3:00 p.m. Sunday, August 28, 2020 with panelists: Karen Clopton, SF Human Rights Commissioner and   former California PUC Judge; Pamela Price, Oakland based Supreme Court Winning Civil Rights Attorney; Linda Parker Pennington, San Francisco Arts Commissioner; Taheim Bryan, Writer, Director, Producer of "Equal Standard" with Ice-T and Treach of "Naughty by Nature;"

The conversation flowed organically.  I forgot to intro the fact that Racial Facial by Jeff Adachi is 8:52, 8 minutes and fifty two seconds significant in light of George Floyd’s life taken away ion 8 minutes and forty six seconds.  It would have been appropriate to have a moment of silence at the top like we did on August 8th as “Riot! Atlanta 1906” by playwright Micah Penn became a virtual cenotaph in tribute to Kali, who loved Atlanta and was excited about the planned reading of excerpts of the five act play. So all the thoughts and words of tribute were not actualized but we did mark a place in time to say as Oprah said of Chadwick Boseman, It’s his presence we will miss. His absence will be felt.

Kali O’Ray provided a platform for emerging and established artists to give what mainstream media would consider contra intuitive perspective about the worldwide Africa Diaspora as he called to audiences of all races and cultures to come see.

Chadwick Boseman performed heroic roles that open the eyes and hearts of all to the majestic soul of a Black man.