Press Release 2

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact:

CAD National

Decatur, GA 30036-1270

770-987-9390

info@cadnational.org

“SISTAS 4 ASSATA” BACK FOR ITS 5TH RUN

The Malcolm X Grassroots movement returns with its 5th annual benefit concert in honor of Assata Shakur and Nehanda Abiodun.

Lithonia GA (November 2013)-  “ Sistas 4 Assata” returns for its 5th consecutive year to grace us with another showing of beautiful and inspiring performances on November 29, 2013 at Origin Studios in Lithonia, GA.

The tribute concert, in honor of exiled political activists Assata Shakur and Nehanda Abiodun, will feature a new lineup of talented women and performers including Akua Taylor, The Tallowah Dance Ensemble, Born To Sing, Nefertiti and the nefTUNES, Monica Raye, Aja Ray and many more in celebration and spreading awareness of Shakur and Abiodun’s many contributions to the Human Rights Movement.

Proceeds from the concert will go to the Kilombo Academic and Cultural Institute, a private school, educating children from grades Pre-k to 8.

Tickets are available now for a $10 tax-deductible donation at http://www.cadnational.org/. Doors open at 8pm.

For More information on Sistas 4 Assata, contact CAD National at info@cadnational.org or call 770-987-9390

Origin Nile Studios 3026 Miller Rd. Lithonia, GA 30038.

 

ABOUT SISTAS FOR ASSATA

Sistas 4 Assata and Nehanda (2009- present)  is an annual concert to benefit Kilombo Academic and Cultural Institute, a private school, that educates children from Pre- K and Kindergarten to the 8th grade. The concert is also a tribute to political exiles Assata Shakur and Nehanda Abiodun in celebration of their many contributions to human rights movement.

ABOUT ASSATA SHAKUR AND HANDS OFF ASSATA

ASSATA SHAKUR is a social justice activist, a poet, a mother and a grandmother. She has lived in Cuba since the early 1980s. During the 1960s and 1970s, she found herself a victim of both racial profiling and political targeting. After being spotted on the New Jersey turnpike on May 2, 1973, it was discovered that she and her two companions were known members of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. After police stopped them, a shoot out occurred. When the smoke cleared one police officer, and one of Assata's companions, Zayd Shakur lay dead. Assata, shot in the back and dragged from the car, lay wounded. Only belatedly taken to the hospital, Assata was then chained to her bed, tortured and questioned while injured. She never received adequate medical attention even though she had a broken clavicle and a paralyzed arm. Nonetheless, she was quickly jailed, prosecuted and incarcerated over the next few years for the series of trumped up cases. In five separate trials charges were dismissed because of lack of evidence or she was acquitted of all charges ranging from bank robbery to murder. Only in the final trial in 1977, where she was charged with the Turnpike killings, was she found guilty, even though forensic evidence taken that day showed that she had not fired a weapon. She was sentenced to life + 33 years in prison. In 1979, and after nearly six years behind bars, she escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey and some time later emerged in Cuba where she applied for and received political asylum. Since being in Cuba, she has continued her college education, published an autobiography, and writes on global issues facing women, youth, and people of color.

The Hands Off Assata Campaign is a coming together of organizations and individuals who are outraged by the heightened attempts by the federal government, congress of the united states and the state of new jersey to illegally force thru kidnapping a return of Assata Shakur from Cuba to the plantation United States.

We know that Assata Shakur is a bona fide political exile living in the island nation of Cuba. She was persecuted for her political beliefs and tortured while in prison. We support the international human rights and Geneva conventions, which enabled her to seek and secure political asylum in Cuba, and we support the right of the Cuban people to grant it to her.

ABOUT NEHANDA ABIODUN

Nehanda Abiodun, former member of the Black Liberation Army, continues her activism, fighting for the rights of political prisoners and prisoners of war while in exile.

Since 1981, Nehanda has been living underground, pursued across the United States by the FBI on (alleged) charges of armed robbery, murder, racketeering, and federal conspiracy in connection with a string of armored-car holdups in the New York City area. She was wanted as well on charges connected to the 1979 New Jersey jailbreak of Black Liberation Army figurehead, Assata Shakur, who had been convicted of charges stemming from the murder of a police officer in 1973. In her home in Havana, she provides informal sessions about African-American history, poetry, and world politics.

*EDITED* 4:44AM 11/23