Gala: Celebrating
20 Years of N’COBRA!
Guest Speaker: The Reverend Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Jr.
Please join N’COBRA on Thursday, June 21, 2007 at 7:00 P.M. at 3801 Market Street, Philadelphia as we recognize some of our most committed organizers and supporters. Our special keynote speaker will be the Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. We will celebrate Twenty Years of N’COBRA leadership and commitment to the Reparations Movement with Message Music provided by The Sound of Philadelphia, sponsored by Kenny Gamble, co-founder of Philadelphia International.
9:00 – 10:30 Post-Traumatic Slavery
Syndrome
Panelists: Dr. Faruk Iman, Elaine Alvarez, Umar Johnson
Panel description: The effects of the Holocaust of African Enslavement, lynching, segregation and racism are still evident in our tortured psyches, broken families and devastated communities. This workshop examines the long-term impact of enslavement and its vestiges on present day Africans in America and offers possible remedies.
9:00 – 10:30 Political Prisoners
Panelists: Pamela Afrika, Dr. Imari Obadele, Linn Washington, Theresa Shoats
Panel description: A panel discussion on the struggle to free political prisoners and prisoners of war in the United States.
10:45 – 12:15 Internal Repairs for African Descendants
Panelists: Bob Law, Dr. Ed Robinson, Nana Kwama Topra Asonahene
Panel description: The active process of repairing and restoring our families, businesses, communities and dignity through love of self and race as we develop the capacity to fight the reparations battle will be examined. Participants in this workshop will be exposed to the essential prerequisites for helping our communities develop an African consciousness.
10:45 – 12:15 N’COBRA on the Ground
Organizing
Panelists: Ron Johnson, Baba Hannibal Afrik, General Kuratabisha Rashid, Asinia Lukata Chikuyu,
Milton McGriff, Ari Merretazon
Panel description: This panel will provide an overview of the various organizing projects taking place around the country to increase awareness about the demand for Reparations. Spokespersons for projects such as the Take Back the Land housing initiative, The August Month of Prayer, The Wachovia Divestment Campaign, The Mississippi Youth Initiative, the Slavery Disclosure Acts, and A Year of Black Presence will provide an overview of their organizing projects, and suggest ways that other reparations activists around the country can implement them in order to build momentum.
12:15
– 1:45 Lunch Break/Dr. Blockson
Collection Tour,
Video – A Case for Reparations
2:00 – 3:30 Operational Unity
Panelists: Rob Gray, Attorney Michael
Coard, Dr. Conrad Worrill,
Dr. Imari Obadele, Abdur-Rahim Islam
Panel description: Coalition building among the various organizations in our communities can provide the groundswell needed to make Reparations a movement of the masses.
2:00 – 3:30 Reparations,
Repatriation, Transformation, and Reconciliation: Towards Pan African Reparations and Remediation of Massive
Oppression
Panelists: Queen Mother Dorothy Benton Lewis, Sababu K. Shabaka,
Evelyne Laurent-Perrault
Panel description: NCOBRA's International Affairs Commission panel will report
on its collaborative work to promote a global Pan African reparations movement,
why it is important to domestic success, strategies to deepen African and other
Indigenous peoples' understanding of the global reparations movement; and its
progress in promoting mutual understanding and support among
continental Africans and Afro-descendants throughout the Diaspora seeking
reparations.
3:45 – 5:15 Call for Justice: Corporate,
Institutional & Government Responsibility
Panelists: Charles Barron, Wilson Goode, Jr., Leodus
Jones, Bob Brown
Panel description: The United States government has incurred a tremendous debt for its role in the enslavement of African people. Several corporations, churches, and academic institutions, including Aetna, Wachovia, Brown University, and the Episcopal Church have acknowledged their complicity in the enslavement of African people. Justice demands that the government and these corporate and religious institutions pay the price of restitution for their unjust enrichment and crimes against humanity.
7:00 – 9:00 Town Hall Meeting: Spiritual Leaders and Reparations (Free and open to the community)
Panelists: Rev. Hilda Campbell, Minister Ishmael Abdul Salaam, Minister Rodney Mohammed
Panel description: The Reparations movement has deep roots in the African American faith community. Just as Black churches and mosques played a crucial role in the Civil Rights struggle, our spiritual leaders can galvanize people in support of Reparations. The Town Hall will focus discussion on the role contemporary religious leaders and organizations can play to make Reparations a reality.
Saturday, June 23
9:00 – 10:30 Primer on Reparations
Presenters: Dr. Raymond Winbush, Attorney Mawuli Davis
Workshop description: This workshop examines the Holocaust of Enslavement and the horrific injury to African people that demands repair. Participants are expected to gain a better understanding into why Reparations is a moral issue and why African Americans deserve Reparations. The workshop will trace the historical development of the Reparations movement from the ending of slavery in 1865 to the present day demand.
9:00 – 10:30 Reclaiming Our Sacred and Stolen Past
Presenters: Dr. Mario Beatty, Richard
Watson
Workshop description: This topic is an important aspect of the Peoplehood injury area as defined by N’COBRA. What is the extent of the physical, mental and spiritual damage brought on by the theft and destruction of our spiritual belief and practice systems? How has the theft of our sacred implements affected us even until today? The return of or compensation for our “artifacts” is an important part of our quest to repair, heal, and restore ourselves.
10:45 – 12:15 Questioning Violence: An Examination of Community Confusion
Panelists: Kenny Gamble, Eric Grimes, Butch Slaughter, Dorothy Speight, Kenyatta Johnson, LeTava Mabili Jenko
Panel description: This workshop will explore the historical and contemporary challenges to the Black community’s struggle for self-determination under persistent internal and external attack.
10:45- 12:15 If We Won Reparations
Today, What Would It Look Like?
Panelists: Dr. Imari Obadele, Dr. Greg Kimathi Carr, Ari Merretazon,
Dr. A.S. Mahdi Ibn-Ziyad, Wautella Yusuf
Panel Description: An exploration of some of the options for making the most effective use of reparations once we have won this struggle.
12:15
– 1:45 Working Lunch/Regional
Meetings
2:00 – 3:30 Plenary Session: Apologies, and
Then What?
Panelists: Attorney Adjoa Aiyetoro, Dr.
Iva Carruthers, Attorney Esther Stanford, Queen Mother Dorothy Benton Lewis
Plenary description: An assessment of the recent commission reports and other reports generated by universities, church institutions, corporations, and governments is required to identify appropriate responses that will enable Reparations activists to remain focused and better prepared to respond to these institutions’ efforts to dismiss the legitimacy of the African descendant demand for Reparations, and re-write history in their own interests.
3:45
– 6:45 General Session
Elections, general organizational business.
7:00
– Until Cultural Program and
Concert
Sponsored
by The Young Black Activists Committee
Location: Diamond
Park, 18th Street and Diamond Avenue
Sunday, June 24
9:00 – 11:30 Saba Uhuru Healing Circle (Free to the Community)
Facilitators: Onaje Muid, Jumoke Ifetayo
Workshop description: The workshop is based on the premise that
anytime African people come together, the location must be transformed into a
healing space. It is also based on the principle of spiritual self
determination; we must be in charge of our own healing, and this healing must
start before receiving reparations so that we will be able to sustain unity in
the community.
Additional Information:
The "whole" Conference is "free" for
youth under 18!
Entire Conference:
Elders (60 and older): $60.00
Students (18 and over): $35.00
Individual Workshops for Adults 18 and older is $15!
One Day Pass:
General Admission $50
Elders (60 and older) $30
Students 18 & Older: $20
Individual Workshops: $15
Friday-Town Hall: Free
Sunday-Saba Uhuru Healing Circle: Free