Black Agenda Radio 05.31.21

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and
analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host
Glen Ford. Coming up: Performance art used to be a sideshow of movements for social
change, but nowadays art has become central to political organizing. We’ll explore the
artistic side of mass mobilizing. And, the George Floyd protests of last summer, when
tens of millions of people marched under the Black Lives Matter banner, have had
profound and sometimes strange effects on the ruling class and the institutions that
keep the rich in power. Now, even the CIA claims to be a benign, multi-cultural force for
good in the world.

But first – the Black Lives Matter movement has been enormously reinforced by
activists from the widest range of ethnic and racial backgrounds. But how can
organizers keep this multi-ethnic, multi-cultural army on the march for social change?
Kovie Biakolo is a widely published writer, editor, and scholar specializing in culture and
identity. We asked Biokolo what needs to be done to keep a mullti-cultural army on the
move.

That was writer and scholar Kovie Biokolo, speaking from New York City.

Performance art is an important part of modern political organizing. Troizel Carr is a
doctoral candidate in performance studies at New York University, and holds a teaching
fellowship at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City. We asked Carr
about the role art plays in abolitionist organizing since the murder of George Floyd.

That was Troizel Carr, a doctoral candidate specializing in performance
studies.

The CIA – the guys that specialize in political assassination, overthrowing governments
the US doesn’t like, and lying to the public about EVERYTHING – is now trying to
package itself as a politically benign institution, staffed by “woke”young Black and Latino
intelligence agents. But anti-imperial activist Ramiro Sebastion Funez is using his
podcasting skills to strip away the CIA’s new camouflage. Funez calls it “Unmasking
Imperialism.” He interviewed Erica Caines, of the Black Alliance for Peace, who said
Joe Biden is also trying to act like he’s always been a friend of Black and brown folks.