Wanda's Picks Radio Special

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay! Shaka Barak is the Minister of Education for the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA & ACL) through appointment by current President General Senghor Baye. Located in Chicago, he joined the Garvey Nkrumah Memorial Progressive Division #429 of the UNIA & ACL forty years ago under Dr. Charles L. James. President General James was a Graduate under the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey the Dean of the School of African Philosophy. Shaka Barak after years of service asked President General James to teach him the same Course of African Philosophy. Shaka Barak in 1981, was taught the course along with a few other hand-picked men and women. Only he was told publicly when he graduated by President General James that he knew because he had been taught and that he must “tell the story, and “if you don’t tell the story then you are no damn good”.  Since President General James death in 1990 Shaka Barak co-founded over 24 years ago with his wife Qamar, The Marcus Garvey Institute (MGI), an organization that does research on the life and works of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey and the UNIA & ACL.