In memory of... Gil Scott Heron, Curtis Mayfield, Allen Ginsberg

Today's show includes some exclusive interviews made with Gil Scott-Heron, Curtis Mayfield and Allen Ginsberg by Maurice Di of A Love Supreme Broadcasts, Amsterdam.
Di made radio with a number of stations in Amsterdam between 1985 and 1997.

Gil Scott-Heron died on May 27, 2011; Curtis Mayfield and Allen Ginsberg were born on June 3, Curtis in 1942 and Ginsberg in 1926 - plenty of reasons to hear from all of them in a couple of hours.

In the next couple of shows you'll finally hear COINTELPRO 101 part 2 and the programmes we made earlier this year for the birthdays of Angela Davis and Huey P Newton.

You can't say we don't bring you some great treats.

Celestial Navigation Rides Again

After a somewhat precipitate removal from our spot on local radio, we have had a few weeks to lick the wounds and are now ready to clamber back behind the mic.

We're really happy to become part of the Catalyst Radio network and hope to build an audience that is not offended by hearing some Black history when it's not October.... Well, without putting anyone down, I think our mix of truth and healthy criticism was a little too much for some people. As for balance - how do you balance the history of the Black Panther Party - with a diatribe from J Edgar Hoover? By that token we should have put Hitler's point of view as balance in a programme we once made on the Holocaust...

Tra la la and so it goes.... Starting on May 12 you can tune on on Saturdays from 5pm for a couple of hours on Catalyst Radio. We will start with a few programmes from the archive, swiftly followed by spanking new programmes from our very own studio.

In the near future we may also resurrect some of the shows made in the 80s and 90's by poet, painter  and activist Maurice Di for A Love Supreme Broadcasts on Radio 100 in Amsterdam.... so keep listening, we have a treasure trove of interviews and poetry.... to drop just a few names, think the Last Poets, Chuck D, Curtis Mayfield, Gil Scott-Heron, Jessica Care Moore, Sharrif Simmons, Mother's Finest ..... I think I have your attention....

I hope you are pleased - we are!

Happy Birthday Huey P

Today is the birthday of Huey P Newton who, together with Bobby Seale, founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in Oakland, California in 1966.

Today's show is crammed full with historical documents of Huey and others involved with the BPP at that time. On September 8 1968, FBI Director J Edgar Hoover announced that the BPP was 'the greatest threat to the internal security of the country'.....

Many Panthers were killed by the police and FBI - not least Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, John Huggins and Bunchy Carter - some went into exile in Algeria and other places, and many were sent to jail - where some are still languishing all these years later. - Sounds familiar?

Last week we spoke about the King Alfred Plan dreamed up by John A Williams in  The Man Who Cried I Am... all the while, the Counter-Intelligence Programme (COINTELPRO) was working on something very similar - dubbed the Garden Plot Plan...

Last weekend we had the opportunity to take part in the Community Radio Hub at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival at the Sage, Gateshead. This was both nerve-wracking and huge fun; nerve-wracking because we had to submit plans for the programmes more than a month in advance and because the BBC were building the studio. Huge fun because live radio is always huge fun and this was a wonderfully special occasion. Both shows were uploaded before the festival finished and are available on www.celestialnavigation.podomatic.com

The theme of the festival was change - so our first broadcast in our usual Friday slot was on outer change; changes in the city, changes from the ways things were when we were growing up - After an interview with Matthew Dodd, head of speech at BBC Radio 3 on the upcoming delights at the festival, we did a short tribute to Wilfred Owen, who had been killed on 4 November 1918 - just days before the end of the war. After this we had invited the 'Daughters of Tyne' with whom we made a programme a few months ago - Catherine Graham and Yvonne Young read from their collections of poems about growing up in the Newcastle area. This show we called 'The Changes that Change Us'.

 Catherine Graham and Yvonne Young at the NE1fm studio

On Saturday we welcomed Mandy Maxwell and AJ McKenna to speak about their personal changes; Mandy having battled through anorexia and mental health issues, AJ who is on the brink of gender reassignment, a journey which has been an ongoing process for many years while struggling to be 'normal' and finally 'coming out' as wanting to stop the charade and be who ze feels ze is.
We'd specially like to thank AJ and Mandy for their willingness to speak in public about their personal battles and for reading from their work. - Listen to the programme 'The Changes we Make' to find out more.

Thanks also to the BBC for their experiment in featuring local radio stations at the festival - it seems they were as pleased as we were and plan to do it again next year.
By the way, NE1fm was the only local station to broadcast live during the festival, so we were also very pleased about that.

International Day of Peace --- and executions

- barring miracles, which we never want to bar...
21 September, the International Day for Peace and the day chosen by the State of Georgia to deliberately and with malice aforethough end the life of Troy Anthony Davis.
This evening we spoke with Sister Helen Prejean - author of Dead Man Walking, and The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions moments after she heard the news that Troy Davis' appeal for clemency had been denied.  We entered an unused classroom to avoid being disturbed, I set up the recorder and we sat there sharing a deep deep sadness for the last hours of a man's life. We talked about death row as a form of torture; of the pressure on victims' families to support the death penalty; of the families of victims in New Jersey who stood up and demanded an end to the death penalty in their state because it achieved nothing positive for anyone, least of all help them to get over the deaths of their loved ones. We talked about Christians who oppose abortion yet support the death penalty... well, mostly she talked and I listened. Well worth hearing. Friday live from 4-6 in Newcastle and Gateshead on 102.5, online at www.ne1fm.net and later in the evening (all things being equal) on www.celestialnavigation.podomatic.com

Where did the summer go?

Hard to believe that we haven't posted any news since just before Lulu James came on the show. She just turned 21 last week and is now loaded with bling and handbags :-)
The whole summer (without the sun) flashed by and circumstances haven't given us the chance to sit down and put our feet up - but we made special programmes for George Jackson, and Attica - so many major anniversaries in the past few weeks.

This week's show was dedicated entirely to the impending execution of Troy Davis in Georgia. There are lots of petitions that can be signed to try to save his life. It turns out that the DA also has the power to request the judge to withdraw the execution warrant, so all is not lost. On Monday he will have one more hearing where it is hoped new evidence can be brought in - not least that 7 of 9 witnesses have retracted their testimony which was clearly co-erced by the police.

Here are links for more information and to the petitions:
http://www.ajc.com/news/troy-davis-life-in-1183243.html
http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/cases/usa-troy-davis
http://troyanthonydavis.org/

Please read about Troy's case and sign the petitions - spread the news to your friends. Saying 'oops' afterwards if they execute an innocent man.

Lulu James

We have just turned a year old and we are excited to be having a special guest on the next, the 52nd show - the wonderful singer Lulu James.

 Be sure to listen in at 4 on Friday for this. 102.5 in Newcastle/Gateshead and online at www.NE1fm.net

Later - all things being equal - we'll post the podcast on Podomatic.