(AllHipHop News) Jamal Joseph – the acclaimed author, activist and film maker – has spearheaded an evening in honor of the late Afeni Shakur, which will take place this weekend in Brooklyn, New York. The New York memorial service for Afeni is Saturday, June 18 at House of the Lord Church from 4 to 7 p.m. House of the Lord Church is located at 415 Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn.
AllHipHop.com’s Chuck Creekmur spoke with Joseph about the mother of Hip Hop icon Tupac Shakur in an exclusive interview.
“Afeni, herself was a poet. So when we heard Tupac’s poetry, for those of us who knew Afeni, it made sense that this young man who had grown up around the Black Panther Party with a mom who was an artist, would become a talented artist himself,” states Joseph. “It was her poetic nuances that gave her the ability to craft her moving piece, A Letter to My Unborn Child, while on trial in the Panther 21 case.”
Pam Hannah, another former member of the Black Panther Party, talked about how deeply Afeni’s activism ran in the party as well as the greater community.
“Afeni was the reason I joined the Black Panther Party. She helped form how I gave service to the people, the community and the party,” revealed Hannah. “It was an interaction I had with her after a young brother was shot that forever changed how I saw my participation. Because of her words, from that moment on it became my business when something happened in the community.”
Hannah continued, “To this day it still informs how I act. While Tupac was on trial, she would go support him all day and come back and still have so much energy to care about how we each were doing. I really appreciated her ability to give of herself even when under direst. That is the type of person Afeni was.”
Confirmed speakers for the memorial include:
Reverend Herbert Daughtry
Kathleen Cleaver
Sonia Sanchez
IMPACT Repertory Theatre
Panther 21 (Jamal Joseph, Dhoruba Bin Wahad, Sekou Odinga)
Arthur Toombs
Keith “The Captain” Gamble
Charles Barron
Paul Coates
Watch Jamal Joseph’s interview below.