A life-long human rights activist and peopleâs lawyer in Greenville, SC, Nwangaza is the founder/coordinator of the Afrikan-American Institute for Policy Studies & Planning and Malcolm X Grassroots Movement for Self-Determination, a current representative on the Pacifica Radio Affiliates Board, past national chairperson of the Jericho Movement and ran for U.S. Senate in 2004 as a Green Party candidate.
Nwangaza learned the power of radio as an organizing tool early in life from her parents who worked in international evangelical radio broadcasting. During her early years as a civil rights activist she dedicated herself to the betterment of her community and the oppressed in general. As an established activist and lawyer, with the assistance of her community and Prometheus Radio, she helped launch (June â07) WMXP, a low power community radio station. WMXP (95.5 fm), The Voice of the People, is Greenvilles only non- commercial, community owned, operated, and funded radio station and is a project sponsored by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. The station gives a voice to the voiceless and a home to knowledge, community enrichment and social justice advocacy. Nwangazas interest in forming the station was driven by her desire to use the power of radio in the interest of liberation of people for political purposes, in a culture of consciousness and resistance. As she puts it? âMedia is a life-line, not a commodity.â.
This is a wide-ranging conversation that shows the power of low-cost, low-power FM community radio as a vehicle for community organizing and local artistic, cultural and polictical expression. Topics include a contextual discussion of racism in todayâs culture and the criminal in-justice system along with why the station was developed and examples of hands-on community use of radio as a tool in community empowerment and youth leadership development projects, WMXP programming practices and more.
Recorded at the Grassroots Radio Conference, Portland, Oregon in July, 2008.
Websites of interest? http://www.prometheusradio.org/
Link? http://www.myspace.com/wmxp
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Sue Suprianos Steppin Out of Babylon is a radio interview series covering a broad range of important issues in todays world: peace and war, human and civil rights, communication, the media, the environment, food security, racism, globalization, immigration and matters of the spirit.
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