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<h1><b>Free At
Last</b></h1><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2006/12/21/free-at-last" eudora="autourl">
http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2006/12/21/free-at-last<br>
</a></font><h3><b>A Citypaper.net exclusive:Remembering fallen activist
Kuwasi Balagoon.</b></h3><font size=3>by Jessica Loughery<br>
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Published: Dec 21, 2006 <br><br>
Candles burned and the scent of incense flowed as talkative activists
squeezed chairs around small tables at Saturday’s Kuwasi Balagoon
Memorial Dinner. Photocopies of a largely unavailable collection of
writings by and about Balagoon titled A Soldier’s Story were passed out
and read. Former Black Panthers, younger anarchists and socially minded
students met and spoke of change.<br><br>
Philadelphia Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) organizer Nicole Roskowski
recognized this spectrum of individuals in her opening speech.
Encouraging disregard for divisions of race, economic upbringing and even
political views, she underlined the point: celebrating the life, work and
writing of anarchist Kuwasi Balagoon.<br><br>
Born in Lakeland, Md., in 1946, Balagoon dove headfirst into radical
politics as a 17-year-old American soldier in Germany fed up with racism.
He formed a collective on his base called the De Legislators. Back in the
U.S., he joined the Black Panthers, then the Black Liberation Army and
the New Afrikan Anarchists. Spending much of his last 20 years in jail
for rebellious and radical activities including his part in the
expropriation of an armored car in 1981 he died of an AIDS-related
illness during his final 75-year sentence at Auburn Correctional Facility
in Auburn, N.Y.<br><br>
While in prison, Balagoon married his devotion to direct action with
anarchist ideas, producing essays that speak to anarchists like the
members of Philly ABC, who focus on connecting political prisoners with
their families and communities. The organizers hoped this memorial dinner
would raise awareness of Balagoon’s thoughts on creating effective
counter cultures.<br><br>
Held at Lava on Lancaster Ave., the evening commenced with an ancestral
libation ritual conducted to underscore the importance of ancestors to
today’s collective efforts. Sharifa Malik, a Yoruban spiritual guide
known by her spiritual name Sha’Ifa Ma, dimmed the lights, lifted a
pitcher of water and asked everyone to voice the names of those who had
died in revolutionary struggle.<br><br>
Balagoon’s name was offered first and water was poured for him, followed
by Nat Turner, W.E.B. DuBois, Tupac Shakur and others. Each name brought
murmurs and nods, along with a chant of “ashé,” a Yoruban word meaning
“so let it be done.”<br><br>
Balagoon’s fearlessness provided a common thread among the speakers that
followed. Graduate student and writer Dan Berger, anarchist and former
Black Panther Ashanti Alston, activist and poet Walidah Imarisha and
writer Kazembe Balagun offered poetry, essays and general commemoration
that centered on Balagoon’s determination in the face of prison,
illness and finally, death to free his people from an oppressive
system.<br><br>
Alston, co-chair of the Jericho Movement, a Jamaica, N.Y. organization
similar to Philly ABC, spoke as a comrade who shared goals with Balagoon.
“If we’re going to be free, we have to take risks,” he said, noting that
Balagoon would have gotten along with Harriet Tubman. He said as humans
we all experience fear, but Balagoon’s life teaches us to move forward
for freedom, concluding, “I wouldn’t be who I am today without Kuwasi
Balagoon.”<br><br>
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<font size=3 color="#FF0000">The Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
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