Tshaka Menelik Imhotep Campbell, Santa Clara County Poet Laureate Emeritus, will be our esteemed guest, in conversation with Basil Saleh, community organizer and political activist, as we reflect through poetry and more on the U.S. and genocide, past and present.

This in-person event is on April 23, 2024, 7:00-8:15PM at San José State University, WSQ HALL 207.

Reserve your free ticket by clicking here.

Note: On December 17, 1951, Paul Robeson and William Patterson submitted a petition from the Civil Rights Congress (CRC) to the United Nations. The petition was titled, “We Charge Genocide: The Crime of Government Against the Negro People,” and it was signed by almost 100 U.S. intellectuals and activists. Robeson led a delegation to present the document at U.N. Headquarters in New York, while CRC Secretary Patterson delivered it to a U.N. meeting in Paris. 

W. E. B. Du Bois was scheduled to accompany Patterson to Paris, but the U.S. State Department prevented him from leaving the country.

You would be justified in seeing modern day parallels to the aforementioned action, and that is where we’ll begin the discussion.

The U.S. has through settler colonial projects, imperial expansion, and its exertion of power, arbitrated, or been complicit in arbitrating genocide. As artists we are compelled to create, educate, and participate in collective action that will free minds and save lives.
#freepalestine

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Tshaka Campbell’s Bio:
Tshaka, a London expat, is recognized internationally as an accomplished artist, featuring at the legendary Apollo Theatre and the O2 in London England. He was on the Nuyorican national poetry slam team and the Da Poetry Lounge (DPL) slam team. He also earned the Grand Champion title in San Francisco and Hollywood, and was honored with the UK Unsigned Artist award in poetry.

Tshaka was Santa Clara County’s first Black, Poet Laureate. He has authored three books of poetry entitled “TARMAN,” “MUTED WHISPERS,” “STUFF, I will write more,” and  “TUNNEL VISION,” with his most recent being “LETTERS TO MY DAUGHTER.”

Tshaka has 4 spoken word albums entitled “ONE”, “BLOODLINES”, “SKIN vol.1”; and “NKISI,” available on streaming platforms.

His words have been featured in Bridges Review, BBC UK, Content magazine, Speakeasy vol 1, Liminal Animals, and Rigorous Magazine among others.

Tshaka is a City of Milpitas and City of Sunnyvale recipient of the Commendation in the Arts Award. He has collaborated on projects with the World Health Organization (WHO), the De Young Museum in San Francisco, the NUMU (New Museum, Los Gatos) and the Triton Museum of Santa Clara. He is a director on the Board for Silicon Valley Creates arts council and for Poetry Center San Jose. He has partnered with the Silicon Valley Transit Authority and community members to deliver youth programs centered around expanding poetry and literature.
His work compels everyone to “listen different.”

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Basil Saleh’s Bio:
Basil’s experience lies in politics, neighborhood leadership, and school board campaigns. He’s advocated for community voices to shape policy and equitably address issues facing marginalized neighborhoods in Silicon Valley.

Pursuant to this, he is now earning a master’s degree with an interdisciplinary focus on “Civic Design and Emerging Media.” He describes this educational journey as bespoke but informed by disciplines that align with the political groundwork he cultivated early in his career.

Basil, like many of his contemporaries born and raised in a burgeoning Silicon Valley, is attuned to new technologies, processes, and design innovation. He would be the first to say his goal to change communicative paradigms and to bridge political divides, is something that will not only transform our cities but meet the actual needs of our people.