FREE Mumia + RIP to Dr. Johanna Fernandez
Dr. Fernandez was my confidente & for a time, my muse from a classic Eddie Kendricks song & always my intellectual superior. But I didn’t even know her fav color or fav 💐 We never discussed such things. We spoke of books, revolution, dismantling a system, Mumia, her obligation to care for her papi, good food & rum. When we 1st met, I had just launched We Act Radio So she arranged for @mumiaabujamalofficial to appear on our station. I assigned the interview to our biggest show. Unbeknownst to me, they gave Mumia a hostile interview, rehashing the facts of his case that landed him on death row & not his new book! I was out of town at the time, so I wasn’t in the studio to hear the interview, but boy did Johanna blow my phone up! She cursed me out like only a Black woman & an Afro-Latina can! She punched me in my chest like a man when she saw me & told me I wouldn’t be able to go to Philly again if I don’t fix this.
After several people intervened, incl Dave Zirin chimed in as character witnesses on Mumia’s behalf that he was not deserving of such treatment reserved for cop killers. That he was in fact, a journalist himself & in an equitable, fair world, of superior stature. That was the 1st crisis I had ever managed in my new capacity at the helm of an indie broadcast station. Challenging Neo-liberal ideology, pushing the status quo to recognize the validity & beauty of radical politics & history.
This is all the strength & inspiration I gleaned from the late great Dr. Johanna Fernandez This is the power that forced her to finish her book on “The Young Lords: A Radical History.” This masterpiece would have made the historian, playwright & activist Howard Zinn proud! Many times I saw her writing that book. Like Zinn, she utilized a people’s POV accounting of history. I was the playwright & of course we both were activists. When my play #NiteMJDied appeared in NYC at the historic @sobsnyc Johanna of course came & gave me notes on the production. I saw she had lost weight, but knew from her eyes it wasn’t from a diet & she didn’t want to talk about it. Now, whatever Lil fear i had left in me died w/ her. Until we meet again, my revolutionary 💜