On Malcolm X’ Birthday, Black Movement Leaders Launch New Renegade Culture Podcast
By Tamika Morrison
ATLANTA, GA — Today, longtime political activists Kalonji Jama Changa and Kamau Franklin launched the Renegade Culture podcast offering new political, cultural and social perspectives, music, art, culture, and humor.
Renegade Culture touches on topics such as whether or not socialism is good for Black people, the rights of Black people to bear arms, the state of hip-hop, and much more.
Podcast creators Changa and Franklin released the podcast on the birthday of the leader Malcolm X as a tribute and hoping to bring new life to the national conversation on race
and politics. The podcast has new episodes every week and is available on Soundcloud, iTunes, and at renegadeculture.com.
Kamau Franklin is a former movement attorney and dedicated community organizer for over 25 years, first in New York City and now in the South. Kalonji Jama Changa is an award winning Political Activist who is hailed one of the most effective community organizers in the U.S. through the Feed The People (FTP) Movement.
“I want to push beyond conversations of policy and talk a-bout more fundamental questions for the Black community—brave questions that Malcolm X posed half a century ago—like self-determination, culture, ideology, and economic control,” said Kamau Franklin. “We’re doing so in a way that’s entertaining, informative and that pushes boundaries.”
“Renegade Culture is the most audacious, sociopolitical, witty — and seriously funny — pavement poetry packaged and presented as the perfect podcast,” said Kalonji Jama Changa. “We are opening up a conversation on Black issues that can be digested by people from the streets to the board-rooms.”
They have teamed up for this podcast and joint comm-unity organizing efforts un-der the banner of the Siafu Movement. They bring a natural comradery that delivers on content with sharp humor and knowledgeable story telling.
Changa and Franklin say listeners can expect commentary that is relevant, insightful, humorous, and irreverent.
By exploring power dynamics, historic and systemic racism, Renegade Culture promises to speak truth to power in the name of the powerless, as did the historic Black leaders who inspired the podcast co-creators. Both Franklin and Changa are deeply involved in their community in a wide breadth of issues, and their special guests, music and arts features come from an extensive national community of activists, thinkers, artists and social justice leaders.
As Founder/National Coordinator of the social justice organization FTP Movement, Kalonji Jama Changa steered the growth and development of programs such as International Feed The People, Urban Survival Preparedness Institute, Siafu Youth Corps, National Coalition to Combat Police Terrorism, Mama’s Army, and more. Changa is author of the bestselling book, “How to Build a People’s Army” and co-producer of the documentary “Organizing is the New Cool.” He can be followed on Twitter @KalonjiChanga Kamau Franklin along with being a former movement attorney and community organizer recently started a new grassroots entity called Community Movement Builders a grassroots organization dedicated to the ideas of self-determination and Malcolm X. Kamau helped drive critical campaigns against police misconduct and creating sustainable urban communities. Franklin has led and developed community Cop Watch programs, youth freedom school programs, electoral and policy campaigns, large scale community gardens, organizing collectives and alternatives to incarceration programs. He can be followed on Twitter @kamaufranklin.
Most popular episodes include: “Dr. Khalilah Ali- “Are Black Men the WHITE Oppressors of Black Women?”, “Sunni Patterson w/Malik Rahim “Katrina and the New Orleans Robbery”, and “Is Socialism or Communism Good for Black People?”
