Filter Commentaries
Mike Africa: Free!
Mumia Abu-Jamal
“Mike Africa: Free!” It has been 40 years since MOVE member Mike Africa has been able to walk the streets. Today, he can do so, because today, he is free! A text from Mike Africa,… Full Transcript
Kaddish for The Tree of Life
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Kaddish, in Jewish ritual, is sung at the graveside of the departed. It is a chant, a song, a psalm of life’s loss, which now, in the quiet city of Pittsburgh, must be sung almost… Full Transcript
Everything That Is Wrong With America
Prison Rebellion And The Struggle Against Mass Incarceration
Mumia Abu-Jamal
“Prison rebellions and the struggle against mass incarceration.” You wouldn’t know it from corporate media, but a struggle is going on across the nation against mass incarceration. Prisoners are waging hunger strikes and other collective… Full Transcript
Right to Rape
Mumia Abu-Jamal
It is difficult to use the title that this commentary bears, but upon reflection, it must be so, for the truth supports it. For the truth is, this nation was born in rape. The rape… Full Transcript
Linking Movements
Kerry “Shakaboona” Marshall
“Linking Movements and Daring to Be Free” by Kerry “Shakaboona” Marshall. What does the Black Lives Matter, immigration movement, J20 protesters, Poor People’s Campaign, and Occupy movement have in common? Their commonality is that the… Full Transcript
Goode Street
Mumia Abu-Jamal
“Goode Street.” Just a few days ago, a street in West Philadelphia was renamed W. Wilson Goode Senior Way. Members of Philadelphia City Council approved the change months ago in honor of the city’s first… Full Transcript
Ramona Fights for Life
Mumia Abu-Jamal
“Ramona Fights for Life.” As many people now know, Ramona Africa has been ailing of late, perhaps the result of her time in the MOVE house, Osage Avenue, after police dropped the deadly bomb on… Full Transcript
A Force For Change
Omar Askia Ali
My name is Omar Askia Ali AKA Edward Sistrunk. On topic is “A Force For Change.” There is a book out by Norman Carter Jr., a former Philadelphia police officer, entitled “The Long Blue Wall.”… Full Transcript
The Politics Of Judges
Mumia Abu-Jamal
We are all trained and conditioned to see judges, clad in their dark and foreboding robes, as people who are superior to normal, average men and women. The robes lend an air of solemnity, wisdom… Full Transcript
National Awareness of Domestic Violence
Charles Karim Diggs
I’m in Pennsylvania state prison Phoenix. Here’s the title of my essay: “Are we as a nation aware that domestic violence is the national character of a larger violence against humanity?” As I write this… Full Transcript
The DOC Goes Cuckoo
Mumia Abu-Jamal
“The DOC Goes Cuckoo.” It began with a 10-day lockdown, almost 50,000 men and women held in 24-hour solitary confinement for almost two weeks in their cell. Why? Ostensibly because of several dozen staffers who… Full Transcript
To Free or Not To Free
Kerry “Shakaboona” Marshall
“To Free or Not to Free: Alveda King: 90, Black celebrities: 0” by Kerry “Shakaboona” Marshall. When Reverend Alveda King, the Atlanta pastor and niece of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. met with… Full Transcript
For Freedom: Kim Kardashian West Strikes Again
Kerry “Shakaboona” Marshall
“For Freedom: Kim Kardashian West Strikes Again” by Kerry “Shakaboona” Marshall. Reality TV star Kim Kardashians West is surprising everyone by championing the cause of freedom for incarcerated Black women and men serving mandatory death… Full Transcript
Corrections to “Man Power”
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Oops. I was wrong. I was wrong. In my last commentary entitled “Man Power,” I assumed that Dr. Christine B. Ford’s claim of sexual harassment would not scuttle judge Brett Kavanaugh’s swift ascension to the… Full Transcript
The Business of Prisons
Omar Askia Ali
The name of my topic is “The Business- The Business of Prisons.” Picture a multi-billion dollar industry with corporate ties ranging from Boeing, Macy’s, Nintendo Starbuck, and Victoria’a Secret. Picture an industry [inaudible] with sizeable… Full Transcript
Domestic Violence
Charles Karim Diggs
Charles Karim Diggs. I’m a Pennsylvania prisoner at Phoenix, a new prison. And the name of my, uh, title is “Domestic Violence, Harassment, and Denial.” Domestic violence has taken front stage because the president and… Full Transcript
PA DOC Juvenile Lifers Initiative Excels Under Robert Hammond
Kerry “Shakaboona” Marshall
“Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Juvenile Lifer Initiative excels under Robert Hammond,” by Kerry Shakaboona Marshall. One of the most successful projects by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections in the past decade has to be the… Full Transcript
Prison Health in an Unhealthy Place
Mumia Abu-Jamal
“Prison health in an unhealthy place.” It is at first blush somewhat odd to expect healthcare in a place where essentially no one really cares about you. Prisons are the slums of the state, for… Full Transcript
The video is stunning. A muscular cop leans over a skinny schoolgirl, flips the chair in which she sits, sending her to a hard fall to floor on her back. Before she can disentangle herself… Full Transcript