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All You Need is a Good Heart

What does it take to effectively demonstrate for human rights?  Community organizer and writer, Magdaleno ‘Leno’ Rose-Avila reflects on his first protest in high school. (more…)

A Day of Remembrance – A Week of Action

Each February, Japanese American communities nationwide observe the Day of Remembrance, the anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 which led to the mass incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans across the west coast during World War II.

Some survivors of this incarceration and their descendants fight mass incarceration today, because of their community’s experiences during that time. You’ll hear from Tsuru for Solidarity, an organization of Japanese American activists, and La Resistencia, a group advocating for immigrants detained today. Interviews are with Stan Shikuma, Co-chair of Tsuru for Solidarity’s children and family detention campaign and Maru Mora Villalpando, Founder of La Resistencia.

Producer: Yuko Kodama

Friday, February 16
9am
Press Conference
Federal Building 915 2nd Ave Seattle
Virtual Rally
Zoom bit.ly/3HWgwN4
Instagram Live @tsuruforsolidarity

Sunday, February 18
Program
1pm Washington State Fairgrounds’ Agriplex 5th St SW Puyallap
2:30pm Northwest Detention Center 1623 E J St Tacoma

Tuesday, February 20
10am
Press Conference
King County Airport Main Terminal 7277 Perimeter Rd S Seattle

Press Conference – Police Response to Feb 9 rally for Palestine

A press conference was held Monday morning by people who spoke out against police use of force during an event supporting end of US aid to Israel on  February 9th.  Students for a Democratic Society and the Seattle Alliance against Racist and Political Repression chapters held a rally in front of the Seattle World Trade Center.  The event was part of the US Palestinian Community Network‘s week of action.  At Monday’s  press conference, participants in the Feb 9th rally spoke out about the use of force and arrests by the Seattle Police Department. Listen to excerpts of the press conference recording, and the Seattle Police Department’s statement about this event.

Producer – Yuko Kodama (Special thanks to Bob Barnes for help with this story)

Photo: flyer of Feb 9th event

Video: Special thanks to SamidounSeattle for the press conference footage

 

Nina Harding – Local Black Feminist Activist

Washington State legalized abortion in 1970, three years before Roe V. Wade.  Among the key people to advocate for this and many other issues around equity for women and communities of color was Nina Harding, a Black attorney from Seattle.  Nina Harding passed away in 2010, but KBCS’s Yuko Kodama caught up with her daughter, Stephanie Harding who now lives in Washington D.C.

Producer: Yuko Kodama

Photo:

Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Day

 
On Wednesday Feb. 7, the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN) and many immigrants and allies will gather at the state capitol building for a rally in support of WAISN’s 2024 immigrant justice campaigns.  The campaigns are for Health Equity for Immigrants to provide equal access to healthcare for all low-income Washingtonians, regardless of their immigration status, and Unemployment Insurance for Undocumented Workers to create a permanent, separate unemployment system that provides benefits to undocumented workers.
 
The Olympia City Council will also sign a proclamation designating February 7, 2024 as Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Day.
 
KBCS spoke with WAISN Executive Director, Catalina Velasquez about the work by immigrants and allies in the movement of advocating for immigrant communities, the campaigns and the event.
 
Producer: Yuko Kodama
Photo: WAISN

Martin Luther King Jr. Day Rally at Garfield High School

The Seattle Martin Luther King Jr. Organizing Coalition produced the 41st annual MLK Jr. Day rally on Monday, January 15th.  It was held at Seattle’s Garfield High School.

Listen in to sounds and voices from the rally.

Producer: Yuko Kodama

Photo: Yuko Kodama

Garfield High MLK

MLK

Seattle MLK Jr. Organizing Coalition

 

Martin Luther King Day was founded as the only federal holiday designated as a day of service in honor of the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr. It’s referred to as a ‘day on, not off’.

One of the region’s largest planned observances is over 40 years old.  It’s run by an all-volunteer-run Seattle MLK Organizing Coalition. Many people may know it by the news footage of 1000s of people marching in Seattle. The Seattle MLK organizing coalition plans much more than the march.  It features an Opportunity Fair offering resources for apprenticeships and jobs, and experts who can look over resumes, The event also features workshops that start days before MLK day. 

KBCS interviewed Nia Angelique, the Seattle MLK Organizing coalition youth internship coordinator about this year’s lineup of events.

Producers: Yuko Kodama and Widder Sessions

Photo: Yuko Kodama (2023 MLK march photos)

Griot Party Experience

Griot Party Experience is an evening of authentic and inspiring storytelling to heal the soul.   Long time KBCS contributor, Logic Amen directs this event which features griots such as IamChamel, Monique Franklin, Deaunte Damper, Halisi, Na’eem Shareef, Mecca Amen and many others.  

Griot Party Experience is January 13th, 8 pm at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute (104 17th Ave South, Seattle, Washington 98144)

Listen in on KBCS’s series of interviews with some of the griots from this event (more will be added as they’re produced):

Na’eem Shareef is a former Seattle Chapter, Black Panther Party member. Shareef describes his experiences of serving in the community as a teen Party member.

     

Halisi, mom of seven children, is a spoken word artist and coach. She describes how she navigates motherhood and her passions.  Halisi also shares tips on self care as a mother working in what she calls ‘the new earth’ 

Local music artist and rapper, IamChamel reflects on the journey into freestyling, and how rhyming has the power to build and heal and also to hurt within the community.  

Mecca Amen describes what it was like for him when his relationship with his father transformed from one of battling authority, to one of respect.

Joy Sparks is the founder of Hella Black Books aka the Black Book Fairy.  Sparks speaks with Griot Party Experience Director and KBCS Producer, Logic Amen about her background and why she started her business of selling Black centered books.

 
 

Producers: Yuko Kodama, Logic Amen and Widder Sessions

Photos: Logic Amen

Beats: Logic Amen

Fleeing Myanmar (aired August, 2023)

Mohamed Imran has been a student in Washington after having fled Burma years ago as an 12 years old. 

Imran describes his journey to the US and how he has stayed active in working for his community.

Producers: Laura Florez, Lucy Braginski and Yuko Kodama

Photo and drawing: Widder Sessions

Curating the Audience – Monique Franklin

Monique Franklin is the Founder of Inspired Child,  an organization that uses black art forms to encourage self awareness and empowerment and to strengthen the local Black community.  She explains why it’s important to her to ‘not only curate the artwork, but the audience’.

Producer: Yuko Kodama (special thanks to Logic Amen for help with the story)

Photo: from Monique Franklin