Featured Writers – Page 13 – The Pen Hustle With Brandy Cavalli

The Black Panther Party Pens Heartfelt Letter To Afeni Shakur

The Black Panthers wrote this touching letter after the passing of Black activist, organizer & fearless leader, Afeni Shakur Davis.

We are deeply saddened by the passing of our sister Afeni Shakur.

Afeni was a sister, mentor, comrade and leader within the New York chapter of the Black Panther Party.
As the section leader of the Harlem branch, Afeni was the one who personally welcomed many of us into the party. As the communications secretary, she was one of the highest ranking members on the East Coast and her leadership was the reason many young women joined.

Afeni had a deep and profound love for the community and a passion for the people that made her a dynamic organizer and dedicated activist. She embodied the spirit of what it meant to be a Black Panther, waking up at 5AM to cook for the free breakfast program, coordinating the day to day office duties and personally being in the field.

Afeni’s organizing laid the seeds for a legacy we still bear witness to today. While working with tenant organizations, Afeni led numerous rent strikes, resulting in several tenant owned buildings, some of which still exist today. She was instrumental in organizing health care professionals and patients at Lincoln Hospital and Harlem Hospital to develop the first patient bill of rights, a fore runner of the patient bill of rights now posted in every hospital.

After the Black Panther Party, Afeni continued her work in the community as a paralegal helping save hundreds of families from eviction and criminal convictions. She left an everlasting impact on the community and the arts world with her life long contributions that will never be forgotten.

We send our deepest condolences and heartfelt sympathy to Sekyiwa, Jean and the entire Shakur family. We ask that young people everywhere continue Afeni’s legacy by lifting up her name and continuing to organize in their communities wherever they see injustice.

We Love you dear sister Afeni. Long live your revolutionary spirit!

All Power To The People!

Sincerely,

The National Alumni Association of the Black Panther Party

Kate del Castillo Still Moving Forward With “El Chapo” Movie

Via Mexico News Daily– Work on a biographical film about drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is going ahead, according to Harland Braun, attorney for Mexican actress Kate del Castillo.

He said the woman who portrayed a drug cartel boss in the television series La Reyna del Sur, or Queen of the South, will continue to work on a film portraying the life of the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.

It will tell how Guzmán succeeded in rising from humble beginnings to become the world’s biggest drug trafficker, Braun said, and will tell the good along with the bad.

The film will be “done correctly because Joaquín Guzmán is part of Mexican history just as the Mafia has been part of the history of the United States.”

The lawyer also said there is no sign that the U.S. is investigating the actress, although he suspected there might be one into the links between her and the cartel boss. But they won’t find anything, he predicted.

The film about Guzmán has been discussed since 2014 when his lawyers contacted del Castillo about the project. According to information compiled by Mexico’s Attorney General’s office, del Castillo was to act as an intermediary with well known filmmakers and actors.

An Argentinean writer was to be contracted to write the script.

The plan was reportedly discussed further when the actress secretly visited Guzmán, along with actor Sean Penn, in October last year while he was on the run.