MarShawn McCarrel | Activism Kills

Explicit content warning

06/06/19 • 41 min

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The first episode of the Black Moon Podcast honors the life of MarShawn McCarrel. MarShawn, or “Shawn” as his friends knew him, was a community organizer, a poet, and a bringer of joy to everyone around him. He inspired people to help others. His tribe described him as “living the commitments that many of us talk about everyday.” They said that “MarShawn was a soldier for the liberation of all people. His spirit was effervescent with visionary beauty, creativity, and love.”
On Monday, February 8th, 2016 around 6pm, at the tender age of 23, it is said that Marshawn McCarrel committed suicide in front of Ohio’s Statehouse. He was pronounced dead at the scene from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. There were no witnesses to the shooting.
Topics touched on in include; activism, police brutality, depression, suicide, racism, and the suspicious deaths of Black activists all around the nation.
Referenced in this episode:

A Year in the Death of Tyrone West - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG-8jardyX4
Original music by: Siddy Beats

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Trailer: The Black Moon Podcast

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The Black Moon Podcast is an exploration and interrogation into Black death. This podcast aims to deepen our knowledge about the life stories of Black people who have passed away and situate their death in the societal context in which they died. The Black Moon Podcast is additionally here interrogate the understanding of death in the western world and provide vital information that will hopefully help Black people be better prepared to engage with death. Lastly, this podcast is here to hold space for collective healing. Rather than experiencing the death of Black people through viral trauma-porn and hashtags centered around the last moments of life, BMP aims to remediate the harm being done to our psyches from watching Black people die. This podcast is written and produced by Gambian-American Poet Olka Baldeh.

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Korryn Gaines | The Myth of The Angry Black Woman

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The second episode of the Black Moon Podcast honors the life of Korryn Gaines. Korryn Gaines was the third child of Rhanda Dormeus. Rhanda describes her daughter as a voracious reader, precocious, outspoken, extremely honest as a child but respectful. At 23 years old Korryn Gaines was tiny, standing at 5’2 and weighing only 106llbs. In adulthood Korryn stayed true to her childhood character. She was honest, outspoken, and defiant. She was also fun, creative, loved her Blackness, and she was very aware of the history of exploitation experienced by Black people in America.
On August 1, 2016, Korryn Gaines was killed, shot several times by Officer Royce Ruby Jr of the Baltimore County Police Department. Her 5 year old son Kodi would also be shot in the face and the elbow. Both the shot to Kodi’s cheek and elbow were a result of ricocheting bullets shot by Officer Ruby.
Topics touched on in include: police brutality, anger, and white supremacists who in similar standoffs with police got to keep their lives.

Referenced in this episode:
40 day timeline of Bundy standoff in Oregon:
https://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/10/oregon_standoff_timeline_41_da.html
Audre Lorde's keynote presentation at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference in June 1981:
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/speeches-african-american-history/1981-audre-lorde-uses-anger-women-responding-racism/Original music by: Siddy Beats