Eyes of The Rainbow is a 1997 documentary film by Gloria Rolando about Assata Shakur. The film was recorded in Cuba 33 years after Shakur's exile. The film consists primarily of a personal interview with Assata herself on the day her mother died as she recounts her experience as a prisoner in the United States. She reflects on the abuses she suffered as an inmate and the night she escaped from the correctional facility. The film encompasses the African Spirit Oya to illustrate the struggles Shakur has faced as a revolutionary. In the video Shakur talks about her life in Cuba, the influence of her grandmother as well as Afro-Cuban ancestry as a result of the African Diaspora. [1]
Assata Olugbala Shakur is an American political activist who was a member of the Black Liberation Army (BLA). In 1977, she was convicted in the first-degree murder of State Trooper Werner Foerster during a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973. She escaped from prison in 1979 and is currently wanted by the FBI, with a $1 million reward for her apprehension.
John Daniel Singleton was an American director, screenwriter, and producer. He made his feature film debut writing and directing Boyz n the Hood (1991), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, becoming, at age 24, the first African American and youngest person to have ever been nominated for that award.
Gloria Estefan is a Cuban-American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. Estefan is a eight-time Grammy Award winner, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, and has been named one of the Top 100 greatest artists of all time by both VH1 and Billboard. Estefan's record sales exceed 75 million worldwide, making her the second best selling female Latin artist in history and one of the best-selling female singers of all-time.
Jada Koren Pinkett Smith is an American actress and talk show host. She is co-host of the Facebook Watch talk show Red Table Talk, for which she has received a Daytime Emmy Award. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2021.
Afeni Shakur Davis was an American political activist and member of the Black Panther Party. Shakur was the mother of rapper Tupac Shakur and the executor of his estate. She founded the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation and also served as the CEO of Amaru Entertainment, Inc., a record and film production company she founded.
The Black Liberation Army (BLA) was an underground Marxist-Leninist, black-nationalist militant organization that operated in the United States from 1970 to 1981. Composed of former Black Panthers (BPP) and Republic of New Afrika (RNA) members who served above ground before going underground, the organization's program was one of war against the United States government, and its stated goal was to "take up arms for the liberation and self-determination of black people in the United States." The BLA carried out a series of bombings, killings of police officers and drug dealers, robberies, and prison breaks.
Sundiata Acoli is an American political activist who was a member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1974 for murdering a New Jersey state trooper. Acoli was granted parole in 2022 at the age of 85.
"Brenda's Got a Baby" is a song by American rapper 2Pac from his debut album, 2Pacalypse Now (1991). The song was first released as a promotional CD single a month prior to album's release and then, in February 1992, it was re-released as a double A-side single with the song "If My Homie Calls". The song, which features R&B singer Dave Hollister singing background vocals with Roniece Levias, is about a 12-year-old girl named Brenda who lives in a ghetto and has a baby she can't support. The song explores the issue of teen pregnancy and its effect on young mothers and their families. Like many of Shakur's songs, "Brenda's Got a Baby" draws from the plight of the impoverished. Using Brenda to represent young mothers in general, Shakur criticises the low level of support from the baby's father, the government, and society in general. Shakur wrote the song while filming the feature film Juice, after reading a newspaper article about a 12-year-old girl who became pregnant by her cousin and threw the baby into a trash compactor.
Lela Rochon Fuqua is an American actress. She is best known for her starring role as Robin Stokes in the 1995 romantic drama film Waiting to Exhale. Rochon also had roles in the films Harlem Nights (1989), Boomerang (1992), The Chamber (1996), Gang Related (1997), Knock Off (1998), Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1998), and Any Given Sunday (1999).
Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women is a prison facility for women of the state of New Jersey Department of Corrections, located in Union Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, near Clinton. Its official abbreviation is EMCFW. The facility was named for Edna Mahan, one of the first female correctional superintendents in the U.S.
Various American fugitives in Cuba have found political asylum in Cuba after participating in militant activities in the Black power movement or the Independence movement in Puerto Rico. Other fugitives in Cuba include defected CIA agents and others. The Cuban government formed formal ties with the Black Panther Party in the 1960s, and many fugitive Black Panthers would find political asylum in Cuba, but after their activism was seen being repressed in Cuba many became disillusioned. House Concurrent Resolution 254, passed in 1998, put the number at 90. One estimate, c. 2000, put the number at approximately 100.
The National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL) is an American association, formed in 1968, to offer legal assistance to black civil rights activists, it is made up of judges, law students, lawyers, legal activists, legal workers, and scholars.
Nehanda Isoke Abiodun was an African American hip hop activist, black revolutionary, and fugitive who was living in Cuba. Abiodun was wanted by the FBI in connection of the 1981 robbery of a Brink's truck that resulted in the killing of a Brink's guard and two New York police officers. The United States federal government also charged Abiodun in connection with Assata Shakur's escape from prison, along with Susan Rosenberg.
Assata aka Joanne Chesimard is a 2008 biographical film directed by Fred Baker and starring Warly Ceriani. The film premiered at the San Diego Black Film Festival and starred Assata Shakur.
Americans in Cuba consist of expatriates and immigrants from the United States as well as Cubans of American descent. As of September 1998, there are about 2,000 to 3,000 Americans living in Cuba.
Mary Prince is an African American woman wrongly convicted of murder who then became the nanny for Amy Carter, the daughter of US President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn Carter, and was eventually granted a full pardon.
Assata's Daughters is an American Black Power organization of young radical African-American women and girls in Chicago, which operates through a Black, Queer, feminist lens, that focuses on political education, organizing, and revolutionary services. The group is dedicated to radical liberatory activism in the tradition of Assata Shakur, a former member of the Black Liberation Army (BLA). The organization is often criticised for this connection, as Assata Shakur was convicted of first-degree murder, armed robbery, and other crimes in 1977 in the murder of a New Jersey State Trooper.
Assata Perkins, known professionally as Sa-Roc, is an American rapper. In 2016, she became the second female rapper to sign with the Rhymesayers label.
Gloria Victoria Rolando Casamayor, known as Gloria Rolando, is a Cuban filmmaker and screenwriter. Her career as a director spans more than 35 years at the Cuban national film institute ICAIC, and she also heads Imágenes del Caribe, an independent film-making group. Her films, such as Reshipment (2014), characteristically document the history of people of the African diaspora.
Assata: An Autobiography is a 1988 autobiographical book by Assata Shakur. The book was written in Cuba where Shakur currently has political asylum.