Events
Marin Wildfire Forum: Countywide Collaboration Key to Maximizing Wildfire Prevention
Free public event set for Saturday, May 4, in San Rafael
There are more than 260,000 people living in Marin County, served by 11 municipal governments and 16 fire agencies. But when it comes to wildfire, jurisdictional boundaries disappear.
“Like a flood or an earthquake, a wildfire knows no boundaries,” said Marin County Fire Chief Jason Weber. “It’s imperative that we work together to prevent wildfire and to be prepared for wildfire for the good of our entire community.”
Assuring that countywide coordination will be a key topic during the Marin Wildfire Forum, scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, May 4, at the Embassy Suites in San Rafael.
Following the devastating fires that hit Sonoma and Napa in 2017, fire chiefs in Marin collaborated with other officials to develop the “Lessons Learned” report that created a roadmap for Marin’s own wildfire prevention and emergency preparedness efforts. The report emphasized that in addition to expanding on existing work, a coordinated countywide approach to wildfire prevention and community preparedness will be critical to meeting the local wildfire challenge.
“The fire chiefs have always been a cohesive group, but these recent fires have certainly brought us closer together,” Chief Bill Tyler, Novato Fire Protection District and current president of the Marin County Fire Chiefs Association told the Marin County Board of Supervisors recently. “These events make it very clear that we must address our wildfire challenge at a greater community level rather than by individual jurisdictions. We know it has to happen. Now it’s just about how to do it.”
The free countywide public forum is an opportunity for residents to learn about local wildfire prevention happening in neighborhoods throughout the county, vegetation management projects on open space lands, emergency preparedness efforts at the community level, and what needs to happen next to meet “Lesson’s Learned” goals. Attendees will also hear from former Paradise, California, resident Shannamar Dewey, learn what they can do to protect their home and property, and discover ways to work together to make Marin as wildfire safe and emergency ready as possible.
At the forum, Tyler plans to present work areas identified as best approached strategically and collaboratively across the county.
“The fire chiefs all agree that countywide participation and coordination is needed to ensure that we have the resources we need to be effective, that those resources are managed efficiently, and that communities throughout the county are as safe and resilient as possible,” Tyler said.
The forum is being hosted by the nonprofit FIRESafe Marin, the Marin County Fire Chiefs Association, the County of Marin, and Firewise USA. Although the forum is free to attend, attendees are encouraged to register online Embassy Suites is located at 101 McInnis Parkway in San Rafael.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of October 30 – November 5, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of October 30 – November 5, 2024
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Activism
Oakland Post: Week of October 23 – 29, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of October 23 – 29, 2024
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Arts and Culture
Soaring Birds and Towering Waves Greet Attendees at 29th Annual Maafa Commemoration at Ocean Beach
The 29th Annual MAAFA Commemoration San Francisco Bay Area was held at Ocean Beach, Sunday, Oct. 13. Warm and cloudy with waves as high as tall buildings, we gathered to honor African ancestors who died by the millions over the centuries of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
By Wanda Sabir
Special to The Post
The 29th Annual MAAFA Commemoration San Francisco Bay Area was held at Ocean Beach, Sunday, Oct. 13. Warm and cloudy with waves as high as tall buildings, we gathered to honor African ancestors who died by the millions over the centuries of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
The 50 or so children and adults attending Maafa, Kiswahili word meaning ‘great disaster,’ came from as far as Monterey and Sacramento to just up the block. We all felt the ancestors’ ethereal embrace as Min. Imhotep and Min. Alicia of Wo’Se Community Church poured libations and invited us to call their names with our mouths, feet, and hands.
Birds on the beach lifted their wings in flight moving towards us and flying overhead the way legends say African ancestors flew away from plantation fields. Their collective Aṣé!
The theme for the 29th Maafa event was accountability and as Zochi led us through Mu-i (pronounced moo-ee, a movement meditation) we embraced our power from our roots through our crown chakras. Dr. Uzo Nwankpa, a healer in residence at Freedom Community Clinic, taught us the Igbo war chant —“Eyinmba” which was also an embodied movement.
Our ancestral poet this year was Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911), born in Baltimore to free parents. She was a poet, abolitionist, suffragist, educator, and freedom fighter who lived in Philadelphia.
“It’s time to be a grown person,” Wanda Sabir, Maafa CEO stated. “Own up, fess up, get righteous. Accountability means we don’t blame others for our poor choices and their consequences. We don’t blame the system, genetic weakness, structural racism, poverty of the soul, families of origin, peer pressure, ignorance….
“We are more than the worse thing we have suffered. We are more than what our ancestors survived.
“Our ancestors do not want us to be functional. Our ancestors want us to be free.”
The drummers were phenomenal, and the section of the program open to reflections was filled with song, poetry, dance and prayers. A special treat was “Amkara Music” by Karamo Susso and Amina Janta, who will perform at Bissap Baobab in San Francisco on Oct. 20.
Join us for a Zoom dialogue on adrienne maree brown’s article, “Murmations: Love Looks Like Accountability” (Yes! Magazine, 7/25/22): Sunday, Nov. 10, 2-4 pm PT. Register in advance: MaafaSFBayArea.com, 510-397-9705. Here is the MAAFA 2024 program (https://qr1.be/CPFI).
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