Ericka Huggins

Please join us on Thursday, April 27 for one evening with activist, former political prisoner, and poet Ericka Huggins as she reaches into her own history, reading the words of sheroes and heroes that span the last 50 years of her life. Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, she made a commitment to the Human Rights Movement and is a witness to movements across formations today.

Ericka is introduced by writers Chinaka Hodge and Zoé Samudzi, both sharing their thoughts and works in criticism of the moment. The entire evening features open dialogue with audience members.

Grand Lake Theatre
Thursday, April 27 • 7PM
http://matatu.eventbrite.com/
co-presented by the Oakland Book Festival
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ERICKA HUGGINS is a human rights activist, poet, educator, Black Panther leader and former political prisoner. Her extraordinary life experiences have enabled her to speak to audiences around the world on issues relating to the physical and emotional well-being of women, children and youth, whole being education, over-incarceration, and the role of the spiritual practice in sustaining activism and promoting change.

As a result of her 14-year tenure as a leader of the Black Panther Party (the longest of any woman in leadership), Ericka brings a unique, complete and honest perspective to the challenges and successes of the Black Panther Party and its significance today.
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CHINAKA HODGE is a poet, educator playwright and screenwriter. Originally from Oakland, California, she​ ​graduated from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study in May of 2006, and was honored to be the​ ​student speaker at the 174th Commencement exercise. Chinaka was a 2012 Artist in Residence at The​ ​Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin, CA. In early 2013, Hodge was a Sundance Feature Film lab​ ​Fellow for her script, 700th& Int’l. Since its early days, Chinaka has served in various capacities at Youth​ ​Speaks/The Living Word Project, the nation’s leading literary arts non­profit. During her tenure there,​ ​Hodge served as Program Director, Associate Artistic Director, and worked directly with Youth Speaks’​ ​core population ­­ as a teaching artist and poet mentor. Her poems, editorials, interviews and prose have​ ​been featured in Newsweek, San Francisco Magazine, Believer Magazine, PBS, NPR, CNN, C­Span,​ ​and in two seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry.
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ZOÉ SAMUDZI is a queer black woman whose work is dedicated to reclaiming and reframing narratives both within the academy and outside of it. Wielding black feminist & womanist epistemologies, she interrogates structural whiteness and theorizes on decolonizing ways of knowing and truth-telling.
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The Kenyan matatu, the Thai tuk-tuk, and the Brooklyn dollar van are means of public transport used by people around the world. MATATU replicates these vehicles as a mode of collective and publicly accessible transportation, rooted in local community and global diasporas, that shuttles audiences from one arthouse experience to the next.

MATATU is a fiscally sponsored project of Intersection for the Arts, and supported by KQED, East Bay Express, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Learn more about us at www.matatufestival.org/weare

The OAKLAND BOOK FESTIVAL is an annual celebration of ideas, debate, and the arts that will take place this year at Oakland City Hall on Sunday, May 21st. The 2017 festival revolves around the theme of “Equality” and will feature over one hundred artists, activists, academics, and other public intellectuals that are aiming to achieve it in their own way. All events at the OBF are free and open to the public.