Radio Reimagine

West Oakland is a place known to activists worldwide as a 'food desert’, where you can go, walk, ride, drive for blocks and not encounter one living thing to eat, so when one week later Bikes for Life asked us to come and table at their healthy living event, I brought a little table, my Vitamix, a few pounds of bananas, some pineapples, bags and bags of greens, some ice,  and set up shop. Buy the Book!   |  Make a donation! More info:  www.electricsmoothies.org or instagram @theelectricsmoothie

On November 15, our community will celebrate the launch of Kelly's podcast, the 10th anniversary of the Streets of the Hood Manifesto and KELLY’S Birthday. (RSVP for event details) [email protected]. (RSVP for event details) [email protected] the Streets of the Hood Flood with Green.  Buy the Book! To find out more about this project go to www.electricsmoothies.org or visit instagram @theelectricsmoothie

Bertha Lewis is president and founder of the New York-based action think tank, Black Institute and former president and chief organizer for the community organizing group, ACORN. A veteran organizer and powerful public speaker, Bertha has been organizing since the 1980s. The following is an excerpt from a conversation recorded for Radio RP&E on the occasion of Urban Habitat’s State of the Region where Lewis gave one of the keynote addresses to the equity advocates gathered. Whether we call ourselves the new majority or just the majority, I do not accept the idea that we are going to wait until 2050 and then shazam! all of a sudden, we will be the majority. We already are. Look from city to city and from region to region and you can see people of color are already the majority. We’ve got to realize that we are the majority already and act like it. We don’t need to wait until we get to critical mass, we are at critical mass. We’re here talking about changing demographics, what do you think the Right is doing? Voter ID and voter suppression, the American Legislative Exchange Council, the attack on healthcare and contraceptives, access to healthcare for poor women—what do all these things have to do with each other? Fear of a black planet! We have an opportunity right now to move people to the polls based on their own self-interests and issues. So, the message is this: If we are the new majority, start acting like it! Let us make sure that electoral politics, as well as real, on-the–ground, knock-on-doors, face-to-face organizing is part of that.

Carl Anthony died this month on April 4, 2026. May he rest in power. In this short message, Jess Clarke, Editor of RP&E, shares a few thoughts about Carl. Carl Anthony co-founded a lot of organizations and convened imnumerable gatherings of people across race, class and gender divides. (See obits: Berkeleyside, Urban Habitat.) One of...

Kelly is on a pollinating mission to connect and spread the invitation "Welcome Home to the Garden."  But recent events are calling out to be addressed. And Kelly is responding. Eulogy to Good - From Berlin to Minneapolis is a two part commentary on the deeper reasons for the patriarchal violence in Minneapolis.

I confront a 20th century war criminal who is offered an “endowed chair” at Columbia University.  Former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger must endure the gauntlet of student protest to land the position. My roommates, sister and I launch a campaign of resistance. We win! This story was recorded live at...

Working as a lab assistant at the Columbia University Psychology Department, I’m called to work on a unique project: chimp-proofing a mansion at the Delafield Estate in Riverdale. Professor Terrace is experimenting with raising a chimp in as close to a human home as possible in an effort to see if a chimpanzee can be...

Trapped in KKK Maryland with no friends, I am completely miserable. My step-sister gets a horse from her father and the story takes a turn as two lonely animals sort out a way of connecting. Performed and recorded at the Marsh Theater SF on May 15, 2024. Want to support radical storytelling and journalism?   Become...

Every day after school I have to hitchhike across Howard County Maryland to get back to my father’s hippy haven mansion. As a femme-looking teenager who can be seen as a girl or a boy, this is no simple mission. Performed and recorded at our own Third Thursday storytelling series co-sponsered by Joyful Raven Studios...

At 13 years old, I head to Mendocino California to try and reconnect with  my mother. She used to be a straight, uptight, Catholic, Montessori teacher and is now an acid-dropping free love hippie shacking up with the boy-man next door. Our relationship takes a turn and I begin to explore who I will become....