Mumia's 55th birthday [Oakland]

(Kulwa, Adimu, Jack Bryson, Angela Davis, M.O.I. JR, Chela Simone, Ambassador Franco, Nakiya, Mistah F.A.B. were all a part of making Mumia's 55th birthday party in Oakland a success!)

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On Friday April 24th, 2009 folks gathered in Oakland, Philadelphia, New York, D.C., Toronto and may other locations to celebrate Mumia Abu Jamal's 55th Birthday and the release of his newest book Jailhouse Lawyers. Admittedly, the events were bittersweet. To celebrate the life and accomplishments of Mumia is an awesome thing simply because he is such a powerful example of scholar activism and stands in a long tradition of deep thinkers. However, the bitterness in reviewing the details of his case, knowing that so many people of all cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds support him, and realizing that so much of his adult life has been spent in a cell, is hard to dismiss.

Nonetheless, folks gathered and organized and pressed forward with the agenda: to "Free 'em All" as the POCC always says. In Philly, we were blessed with the words of Sonia Sanchez along with Chairmen Fred Hampton, Jr, Pam Africa (one of the most underrated organizers I think) & Ramona Africa (of the MOVE Organization), among so many others. In Oakland, Angela Davis (who authored the Foreword of Jailhouse Lawyers) was the guest of honor. POCC Minister of Information JR provides us with a glimpse into the events below, for more information check out blockreportradio.com. Happy Birthday Mumia Abu-Jamal and indeed, Free 'em All!

Mumia's Birthday 2009

JR Valrey is the Minister of Information for the Prisoners Of Conscience Committee, an Oakland based organization founded by Fred Hampton, Jr. with the mission to liberate the minds and hearts of African and colonized people. The POCC takes the stand that all prisoners are political. JR is a regular contributor to The Liberator.

Held on a windy April 24th, 100's gathered into Humanist Hall on the periphery of downtown Oakland to celebrate the 55th birthday of Mumia Abu Jamal, a former Black Panther who has been a political prisoner for the last 12 years, as well as celebrate the book release of his newest creation “Jailhouse Lawyers”, which was just released on City Lights.

Two weeks prior to this birthday party/book reading, Mumia was denied a new trial by the U.S. Supreme Court, which his legal team was petitioning on the grounds that Black jurors were discriminated against in the jury selection process of Jamal's '81 trial, which in the limited minds of people who's vision is dictated by the law, means that Mumia is on the path to spending the rest of his natural life in jail, or to be murdered by a state sanctioned legal injection. This ruling is another example of the people in power not following their own laws. In a previous case known as “Batson”, a plantiff was granted a new trial based on the fact that one potential juror was discriminated against, in Mumia's case 11 were discriminated against. Some describe this behavior by the system as “the Mumia Laws” where the laws change at the drop of a dime, regardless of precedent, to make sure that the system keeps Mumia caged and on deathrow. Others like Mumia himself describe it, as he did in “Jailhouse Lawyers”, in the section titled “What is Law?”, to paraphrase, law is a repressive instrument used by the oppressors against the oppressed to stay in power.

Although this unjust court decision was in the backdrop of this Prison Radio and Prisoners of Conscience Committee sponsored event, it did not put out the flame in people's hearts to continue the fight for justice, to free Mumia and abolish the prison system. A number of spirited speakers graced the stage to read an excerpt from “Jailhouse Lawyers”, and to talk about why they thought that that particular excerpt was important. The hosts for the evening were recording artist Chela Simone and Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio. Speakers included Ambassador Franco who talked about the conditions that Mumia lives and works under, Kulwa who talked about the imprisonment of women, Coordinator Jay related the book to his experience being locked up for almost a decade, and I talked about not forgetting to think about the fact that Mumia writes as well as was active in the community, he is far from just being a commentator. Those speakers were all member of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee. Other speakers included Jack Bryson, the father of 2 of Oscar Grant's friends who were with him on the night that he was murdered by BART police, Richard Brown of the San Francisco 8, legendary activist Angela Davis, musician Adimu of Hairdoo, legendary lawyer Lynne Stewart who was accompanied by her husband, jailhouse lawyer Ed Mead, who was mentioned in Mumia's new book, former Min. Huey P. Newton lawyer Tony Serra, Nina Serrano of KPFA's La Raza Chronicles, who read a birthday greeting for Mumia from the Zapitistas' Subcommandante Marcos, and well known Oakland rapper Mistah F.A.B. also used a section of “Jailhousehouse Lawyers” to talk about his blood brother recently striking out, with the 3 strikes law, and getting 432 years. And these were just a few of the presenters. Tiny, of Poor News Network, and the Molotov Mouths brought a lot of flavor to the event with their political poetry.

The night ended right after Angela Davis, the keynote speaker, spoke on the abolishment of the prison system, Chela sung happy birthday, both, the traditional white and the Black way, Ambassador Franco brought up a chocolate cake with candles burning, and Noelle gave out a number of plaque awards to community supporters of Mumia, accompanied with golden wrenches. At the end of the night, looking from the stage, you could see the cornucopia of ethnicites, generations, and people from all walk of life paying tribute to one of the baddest freedom fighters and coldest journalistic warriors breathing. There were tatted up Black youngstas from the flatlands of Oakland, white hippies from Marin, Santa Rosa, and Berkeley, disabled people rolling around in wheelchairs, as well as children running through the crowd. According to everyone that I talked to that attended this event, this turned out to be one of the best organized Mumia events done on the West coast, this decade. And a shout goes to Philly and New York, who also organized Mumia Birthday parties in their cities, last week.

Editor's note: Former Black Panther and revolutionary journalist Kiilu Nyasha was not able to attend the event because of an accident that kept her hospitalized. We love you Kiilu, for your contribution to the People's Struggles over all of these years.