I had the opportunity to chat with a Yale student following the Q and A of the screening of " The Black Panther's ,Vanguard of the Revolution."
We talked briefly about Tecumseh and by innuendo the soon to be released "Birth of a Nation" film pertaining to Nat Turner. The student had also remarked during the video segment below following the film that we were sitting in the home of the Quinnipiac people.
As you know the FBI and related entities considered the Black Panther's to be one of the most serious threats to domestic peace and tranquility at the time.
Such a categorization of being placed on the then terrorist active watch and disrupt list remains a stark reminder of the long trail of tears towards of the past.
And with much foreboding, it seems that the selective present extinction of native sons, contemporary digital freedom fighters and embodied dreams for morning in America swings in the balance like strange fruit.
We hear so often the humdrum and boring beat incantation, iteration and invocation of social activist, food justice advocate, peace this and peace that, but the blood stained bed of Fred Hampton reminds us in the film that freedom might not be free.
Perhaps I have fantasized too much about the fire next time and have seen too many movies.
Movies can in some ways accelerate the deep, dark plunge into living out fantasies and waking nightmares.
Forget for a moment about the media being addicted to trumping our sensibilities and state secrets being communicated by personal emails.
The Black Panthers:Vanguard of the Revolution will air on PBS on February 16, 2016, check your local listing. http://tomficklin.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-black-panthers-premieres-february.html?q=black+panthers.
But until then and after then the epistemology questions remain from Plato to Jefferson to Techumseh to Turner to Hampton to Sanders ie what does Power to the People really mean.
For me I will keep you posted, for regeneration, survival, "thrival", agency, breathing and exhaling might be the sole-soul purpose.
Power to the People!
Black Panther Party In CT Panel Discussion
Ficklin Media Facebook Photo Album
FBI File on Black Panther Party in CT
Murder in the Model City
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