April 20, 2024

4:00 - 6:00pm

Reserve tickets here.

Meet and experience work by Playwrights Foundation’s 2024–25 Resident Playwrights Cat Brooks, Ruben Grijalva, Sloka Krishnan and Leigh M. Marshall at a mini showcase. Reception to follow.

7:30 - 9:30pm

See a performance of Cat Brooks’ Screen Play Bottled Spirits, starring Margo Hall, that has placed and won in several film festivals including the Pan African Film Festival in London, the Houston Film Festival and the Barcelona Film Festival and many more.

FILMS FOR THE PEOPLE:

BOTTLED SPIRITS

Sunday, February 18 at 6pm

The New Parkway Theater, 474 24th St, Oakland, CA 94612

Written by: Cat Brooks

Starring: Margo Hall

Directed by: Elizabeth Carter

Produced by: Black Lives, Black Words

The Black Lives Black Words International Project, in partnership with the Lorraine Hansberry Theater and the Anti Police-Terror Project, is thrilled to invite you to the powerful cinematic experience that is BOTTLED SPIRITS.

A captivating exploration of race, identity and social justice, ‘Bottled Spirits’, was produced by an almost entirely Black Oakland-based film crew in the historic Esther's Orbit Room.

We are also excited to announce that ‘Bottled Spirits’ will be presented following a screening of the film 'Rideshare', a psychological thriller exploring themes of race and power dynamics. The feature promises to be a meaningful cinematic experience.

Following this double feature, we will be joined by celebrated television host and activist W. Kamau Bell who will be hosting a post-show discussion featuring the film's writer, director, and star, Cat Brooks, Elizabeth Carter, and Margo Hall.

To purchase tickets please click https://www.lhtsf.org/

ABOUT THE FILM

“Bottled Spirits” tells the story of 50-something Louise, a native of West Oakland, a community once known as the Harlem of the West. Gentrification has turned her beloved community into unfriendly and unrecognizable territory, and the weight of being Black in America now threatens to crush her.

 She straps on the daily armor of alcohol, cigarettes, and a sharp tongue to block out the constant ache of losing everything that ever mattered. On this day, however, a door she has been banging on for years magically opens, an ancestor arrives to help, and Louise battles her demons — and herself — in a desperate attempt to find the courage to walk the difficult path toward redemption. 

As part of the screening event, the acclaimed television host and activist W.

Kamau Bell will lead a post-show discussion. The panel will include the film's writer, director, and star, Cat Brooks, Elizabeth Carter, and Margo Hall.

Sunday, October 22, 1–3pm

Bancroft Dance Studio, 2401 Bancroft Way

Part of the workshop series Exploration of Forms

Register for the Workshop (Free/By Donation)

Cat Brooks and Alecia Harger will share how they utilize research, art, performance, and Healing Justice modalities to examine the role trauma plays in the lives of Black people in America, and explore what is necessary for the transmutation of that trauma into healing and action. The event will include an excerpt of Brooks’ one-woman show, ‘Tasha.

Friday, October 20, 4pm–6pm

650 Social Sciences Building

Hosted by the Black Studies Collaboratory

RSVP (Recommended)

Cat Brooks and longtime collaborator Margo Hall will discuss their community-centered artistic practices. Hall is an acclaimed actor and theater-maker, as well as a continuing lecturer in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley.

The Student Policy Institute at Berkeley (SPIB) invites students interested in public policy and police reform to join us for a Q&A speaker panel of local policing experts and community leaders to discuss public policy as a tool for police accountability. 

The panel will be Wednesday, April 12 from 6:15pm-7:30pm in Goldman School of Public Policy, Room 250 (1893 Le Roy Ave, Berkeley, CA 94709). 

To attend, please use this form to RSVP. Contact mmbui@berkeley.edu for any questions or concerns.

Event Description:

Join us for our Keynote panel featuring trailblazers, who have driven change within institutions and on the streets. This panel will unpack a diversity of strategies to move the needle towards abolition including interim strategies and harm reduction approaches. The panel will also connect the dots between community organizing and policy. This event is for anyone who wants to engage in meaningful change.

Session objectives:

• Discuss the multiple strategies used to abolish carceral systems and address the immediate needs of systems impacted people through harm reduction

• Raise awareness about policies/strategies for abolition and harm reduction within the criminal Justice system

• Inspire students of color in public policy to continue to advocate for change

Moderator: Haleema Bharoocha

Speaker: Cat Brooks and Protima Pandey

Students of Color in Public Policy's 13th Annual Race and Policy Symposium:

This keynote panel is part of the Students of Color in Public Policy's 13th annual Race and Policy Symposium. This symposium is a multi-day event that aims to center the experiences and lift the voices of people most affected by white supremacist policies. Another World is Possible: Public Policy By Us, For Us is an invitation to fuel the revolution within ourselves and within our communities to advance equitable policies that create and sustain a liberated and joyful future for all.

To see all the other events we are hosting during the week of April 10th through April 14th, linktr.ee/raceandpolicy.

Join BSC Activist in Residence Cat Brooks and Alecia Harger for conversation and an artistic journey exploring the role trauma plays in the lives of Black people in America. Cat and Alecia utilize research, art, performance, and Healing Justice modalities to examine the pathways North American Africans chart to surviving trauma, consider how that trauma interrupts the building of thriving lives and liberation movements, and explore the healing modalities necessary for the transmutation of that trauma into healing and action. The event will include an excerpt of Cat Brooks’ one woman show ‘Tasha, about the in-custody murder of Natasha McKenna inside the Fairfax County Jail in Virginia.

Join us at A Case for Reparations, a powerful conversation between Oakland community leaders as a part of OMCA’s special exhibition Angela Davis: Seize the Time.

In September 2020, California enacted the first-in-the-nation Reparations Task Force to study the institution of slavery and its lingering negative effects on the prosperity of Black Americans. Five areas of study for this task force include property ownership, devaluation of Black-owned businesses, housing discrimination, mass incarceration and over-policing, and healthcare. 

Listen to a powerful discussion between Oakland leaders who are working to eliminate these injustices. Ndidi Love, strategist, consultant and housing advocate with a commitment to Black Liberation and economic justice, and Cat Brooks, co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project and Executive Director of The Justice Teams Network, will unpack these urgent themes.

The conversation will be moderated by Ayana Omilade Flewellen Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology Stanford University and Co-Founder of the Society of Black Archaeologists.

• $1 – $30 |  Sliding Scale

From: https://museumca.org/event/a-case-for-reparations/

Join us for Abolition: A Multigenerational Perspective as a part of OMCA’s latest special exhibition Angela Davis: Seize the Time.

Centering past and contemporary abolition movements, this powerful event will feature the activist, scholar, and author celebrated in Seize the Time, Angela Davis, in conversation with former Oakland Youth Poet Laureate and author of the critically-acclaimed novel, Nightcrawling, Leila Mottley, and National Movement Building Director from the Black Organizing Project (B.O.P.), Jessica Black, whose long-term and ultimately successful efforts abolished the OUSD police force. The conversation will be moderated by Cat Brooks, co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project and Executive Director of The Justice Teams Network”

Special performances will include a spoken word by director, playwright, arts educator and Oakland Poet Laureate Ayodele NzingaPhD, and a dance performance by Destiny Junior Company.

Special performances will include a spoken word by director, playwright, arts educator and Oakland Poet Laureate Ayodele NzingaPhD, and a dance musical performance by Destiny Junior Company.

Tickets

• $1 – $50 |  Sliding Scale

Program Schedule: 

1–1:15 pm – Reading 

1:20–1:45 pm – Destiny Junior Company 

1:45–2:45 pm – Panel Discussion

2:45– 3 pm – Q&A

Accessibility 

The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) is committed to providing programs that are accessible, welcoming, and inclusive of our community. Assistive listening devices and wheelchairs are available for checkout on a first come, first served basis at the Ticketing Desk. To request other accommodations, like American Sign Language (ASL), Cantonese, Spanish or another language interpreter, please email visitor@museumca.org at least three weeks before the event.

In 2020, we witnessed a racial reckoning, with the mass protests all around our nation after the murder of George Floyd—millions taking over the streets to demand racial justice and liberation of Black Lives. But there is another kind of racial reckoning underway, one that is oppositional to racial progress: a white supremacist backlash. Now even talking about racism in America in our classrooms is being challenged and legislated against, along with a proliferation of laws aimed at voter suppression and election subversion designed to weaken the political power of communities of color.

In this, the first of five events, join leading anti-racism scholars and community leaders as they discuss the contemporary challenges to Black liberation, promising practices and pedagogies in overcoming anti-Black racism, and how we can carry forward the legacy of John R. Lewis in the ongoing struggle for racial justice.

Register here - https://ucsc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bYft9YXtQ76wfzxOSPdrAw

A Conference with a Purpose: Virtually hosted and focused on advocacy and exploring the intersection of abolition and decolonial psychology.

About this event

Conference will take place on Saturday, September 25th from 10 AM - 5 PM and Sunday, September 26th from 10 AM - 4 PM, Pacific Time.

Keynote speakers include:

• Chairman Fred Hampton Jr., Black Panther Party Cubs

• Cat Brooks, Justice Teams Network and Anti Police-Terror Project.

• Tierra T. Ellis, 2020 Fellow in the Youth Justice Institute within the National Juvenile Justice Network. Founder of Psyches of Color.

Keynote panels will discuss:

• The Chances of Survival Without Abolition - Moderated by Dr. La’Shawn Littrice

• The Palestinian Prisoner Experience - Moderated by Dr. Lara Sheehi

Presentations will discuss a range of topics regarding decolonial psychology and abolition, including:

• Police Abolition

• Alternative Mental Health Interventions

• Disability and Policing

• Healing Justice and Assessment within the Carceral System

• School to Prison Pipeline

• Rehabilitation and Re-Entry

• Social Justice Education and Public Collaboration

• Healing Arts

Online registration information and conference links will be provided closer to the conference date.

Please visit the PsySR website to learn more about the organization: https://psysr.net/

For accessibility or accommodation requests, please complete this brief form by September 10, 2021.

Apply for a fee reduction or fee waiver by filling out this form by September 20, 2021.

AMP Seeds Fall Series | Reimagining Safety

Community activists and abolition movement builders will explore reimagining communal safety and a life beyond police and prisons.

About this event

How do we co-create a world without prisons? We must cultivate the communities that support change, empathy, and accountability. Reimagining Safety gathers years of organizing wisdom through a conversation between Feedom Freedom’s, Myrtle Thompson-Curtis, and In Our Names Network member, Cat Brooks moderated by Tawana Petty. Together we will learn how they are reimagining communal safety and reclaiming their healthy and safe communities without police.

ASL, CART (English) provided

Featuring:

Cat Brooks is an artivist, mother, community leader, and passionate public speaker. She is the co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project, whose mission is to rapidly respond to and eradicate state violence in communities of color, and Executive Director of the Justice Teams Network, a statewide project that supports organizations working to radically transform the way communities of color are policed through organizing, communications, and policy.

Myrtle Thompson-Curtis is a life-long Detroiter and the Co-Founder and Director of Feedom Freedom Growers, a nonprofit that fosters health, education and creativity through participation in an urban garden. She is a member of the James and Grace Lee Boggs Council and serves on the Board of the Jefferson-Chalmers Farmers Market. She is currently working to promote community safety and accountability by hosting workshops for ‘Green Chairs, not Green Lights,’ as well as transforming a once-abandoned house into the 291 Manistique Kulture Hub.

Tawana Petty is a mother, social justice organizer, youth advocate, poet, and author. She is intricately involved in water rights advocacy, data, and digital privacy rights education and racial justice and equity work. She is the National Organizing Director at Data for Black Lives and director of Petty Propolis, a Black woman-led artist incubator primarily focused on cultivating visionary resistance through poetry, literacy and literary workshops, anti-racism facilitation, and social justice initiatives.

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reimagining-safety-tickets-164210081775

A recurring podcast episode taking place during BAMBDFEST, featuring Cat and a host of incredible guests. Tune in each Monday during August!

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_AYFjaLIjTHGLzWelaChQXQ

Part 1 Monday August 2nd 7:00pm, Part 2 Monday August 29th 7:00pm

Virtual (RSVP information to be posted soon)

Journey of Names by Will Crossman was written for a Black Cast and will be read by The Lower Bottom Playaz in two parts. This complex work looks at the history of a Black family from multiple vantages across time. A complex tale about a quest for freedom, roots, and a story of self. This is a work in development. It will be presented with a q&a with the cast and author.

Part 1
Registration

Register in advance for this webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xuNhxnwqTMqPTVf3w51z-g


Part 2
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tSKqbZ8vTPqlqmOb6CjreQ

"Meet the Janga's House collective, a group of Black Female Creatives art-ing for life, change, & the continuum. Join us for a rebroadcast featuring work by collective members and post show discussion. All funds raised will go towards BAMBDFEST 2021 International."

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jangas-house-a-collective-of-of-black-women-creatives-tickets-167641715885

Approximately 1,000 people each year are shot and killed by police in the United States, with Black Americans killed by police at more than twice the rate for white Americans. While the widespread media reporting and social media sharing of videos of these killings has increased public awareness of the issue, it has also caused significant mental trauma for Black and Brown Americans. 

As research studies continue to emerge to quantify the impact, you are invited to join the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative’s August Collaboratory, which will explore how police brutality is impacting the mental health of Black communities and how communities are coming together to create change. 

For more information, visit: https://pretermbirthca.ucsf.edu/events/police-brutalitys-impact-black-and-brown-mental-health

RSVP

Monday, August 23, 7-9pm

Part of BAMBDFEST 2021, THE LOWER BOTTOM PLAYAZ PRESENTS “BLACK HOUSE” BY CAT BROOKS

August 19th and August 23rd at 7pm

Virtual (RSVP information to be posted soon)

Black House, written and directed by Cat Brooks, is a delicious piece of Afrofuturism that considers what lies beyond the end of empire in a world where the leadership is both Black and female.

Learn more here: http://www.bambdfest.com/Events.php

A recurring podcast episode taking place during BAMBDFEST, featuring Cat and a host of incredible guests. Tune in each Monday during August!

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_AYFjaLIjTHGLzWelaChQXQ

The Diamond & Bullets Experience is an audio play designed for organizational teams, project staff or adult learning communities as a provocation for deeper self-reflection and dialogue about race, equity and empathy. For this special BAMBD Fest edition, we will be hosting a discussion with directors, artists and producers to talk about the development of and inspiration for the piece. All attendees will receive a link to the music, a reflection guide and lyric book.

Registration/access link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYpc-yorj8oG9f7yW_4sjAkuHHShpZVRksd 

Thursday August 19, 7-9pm

Part of BAMBDFEST 2021, THE LOWER BOTTOM PLAYAZ PRESENTS “BLACK HOUSE” BY CAT BROOKS

August 19th and August 23rd at 7pm

Virtual (RSVP information to be posted soon)

Black House, written and directed by Cat Brooks, is a delicious piece of Afrofuturism that considers what lies beyond the end of empire in a world where the leadership is both Black and female.

Learn more here: http://www.bambdfest.com/Events.php

A recurring podcast episode taking place during BAMBDFEST, featuring Cat and a host of incredible guests. Tune in each Monday during August!

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_AYFjaLIjTHGLzWelaChQXQ