Sundiata Acoli is a 72 year old prisoner at FCI Otisville, NY, who is sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, afflicted with common old age infirmities and has been imprisoned 36 years to date. He was arrested for the May 2nd, 1973 NJ Turnpike shooting incident in which he shot no one but merely managed to survive but in which his passenger, Zayd Shakur, and a New Jersey trooper, Werner Foerster, were killed. Another trooper, James Harper, was wounded as was Sundiata’s other passenger, Assata Shakur, who was at the time the object of a nationwide “woman hunt” and she was captured. Sundiata was also wounded, then captured 40 hrs later. Sundiata and both his passengers were members of the Black Panther Party at the time. For those reasons, and because Assata escaped prison long ago, the Parole board has twice denied Sundiata parole claiming he’s likely to commit another crime.

Sundiata has endured some of the harshest treatment a prisoner could experience. Still, he maintains a favorable prison record. He is a talented painter and has written numerous published articles about the prison industrial complex. He is a beloved father, grandfather, brother and elder to many with a rich history of making invaluable contributions to his community.

In the 60’s Sundiata left a promising career at NASA as a computer programmer to travel to the South to help register Blacks to vote. During his activism with the NY Chapter of the Black Panther Party, Sundiata contributed to various programs providing the city of Harlem with community control of schools, tenant control of slum housing, free breakfast for school children, free health care, legal clinics and political education classes. He also worked on community programs against drug dealers and police brutality. Numerous Panthers are still languishing in prison and have repeatedly been denied parole despite clear support for their release.

Sundiata comes up for parole hearing again in Feb. 2010 and people concerned about justice are urged to send letters, cards and signature petitions which express in effect: 36 years of imprisonment is enough. Sundiata Acoli NJ#54859/Fed#39794-066 has long ago fullfilled all requirements for parole and is too old, infirmed and is highly unlikely to commit another crime so I urge you to release Sundiata Acoli on parole.

As the attorneys will present your letters formally and keep record of the number of letters received, please do not mail them to the Parole Board directly. Instead mail your letters to:
Atty. Florence Morgan
120-46 Queens Blvd., Kew Gardens, NY 11415.

Letters should be addressed to:
Chairwoman Volette C. Ross
New Jersey State Parole Board
P.O. Box 862
Trenton NJ 08625

To join the Sundiata Acoli Freedom Campaign (SAFC) email list or request additional information, feel free to contact SAFC by email at TheSAFC@gmail.com.

Thank you.

THAT THIS VERY EXCITING PROJECT CAN BECOME A REALITY!

PLEASE SPREAD BY E-MAIL, POST ON THE WEB AND OTHERWISE PASS ON THIS MESSAGE FAR AND WIDE!

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Sundiata Acoli s/n Clark Edward Squire, was reared in a small town in Texas, worked as a Computer Systems Analyst for NASA with astronaut Neil Armstrong, and became known as one of the loyalist activists during the Civil Rights Movement and beyond. With a home front war brewing, a people allegiant to educating and liberating the oppressed was the goal. Former Black Panther Party (herein BPP) member and current prisoner, Sundiata Acoli shares his story via vocal narration and dramatic elements about his journey through the depths of hell and back in the Liberation Movement in America.

A POWER SUN tells of a courageous man, who served as the Party’s Lt. of Finance, and blatant cover-ups by a government who turned its back on justice; taking viewers on an expedition of realism, unveiling the untold experience that stunned Americans in the past…and many people around the world today, making this film – history in the present.

A POWER SUN shares diverse and independent voices that have never been heard, but written about in many books and periodicals. Acoli joins his comrades, family and friends in a chilling, yet true testament of his life from childhood to his current struggles as a prisoner.

A POWER SUN is an extraordinary dramatic documentary exploring the many aspects of the BPP Movement and the climate of the times in New York (herein NY), including the states’ longest and most expensive trial in its history and the Liberation Movement, with direct accounts, historical context and critical perspectives from former BPP NY Chapter members and others while learning the about the New Jersey Turnpike tragedy and life as a prisoner. The film’s plot is navigated by the conversation between a grandmother, Eartha “Mama Earth” Kahn, played by Irma P. Hall (Meet the Browns, Soul Food) and grandson, Cinque Kahn, played by Omar Wiseman (Disney Channel), as “Mama Earth” teaches Cinque about the BPP NY Chapter using a unique game of chess on a recreational park set. As Cinque learns chess, a by-stander in the park, Sun, listens to the instructions and applies the lessons to his life. An exploration of Acoli’s life is revisited. The audience experiences the surreal life of Acoli while hearing thought provoking testimonies and learning about a select cadre of leaders in the Party, as well as, learning the art of chess.

A POWER SUN is produced and executed with the highest professional and ethical standards. The film’s director, writer and producer, Dawn McGhee says, “This film combines the true history of a dynamic movement, while re-creating the accounts of his story”. Through the narratives, A POWER SUN joins the past and the present within an innovative film structure guided by accuracy and strong conviction that will change the lives of all people from the four corners of this world.

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BUILD AND SUPPORT INDEPENDENT MEDIA!!

PLEASE SUPPORT A POWER SUN WITH YOUR DONATIONS!!

Our principle cast is ready to aboard the ship to victory! As many of you are aware, we beginning the dramatic re-enactments this month. Irma P. Hall, Omar Wiseman, and Mutulu “M1″ Olugabala as Sundiata Acoli, and Stic.man as Zayd Malik Shakur are excited and ready to perform.  Words are not enough to express our sincerity and appreciation to these individuals giving their time and talent to help us tell our story. It’s commitment like theirs as others on board that show us how committed to Victory they are…

We’ve only just begun… So let’s pull together our resources and spread the word to family, friends, colleagues, and others to visit the website and donate!!!!

Their and your help is greatly appreciated by political prisoner’s, prisoners of war, exiled comrades, the community, and of course, Field Up Productions.

Yours in sincerity…. Dawn

ALL SUPPORTERS PLEASE VISIT:

www.fieldup.com

Field Up Productions LLC

Dawn McGhee | Rita Acoli

POB 41329 Dallas, TX 75241

For more info: fieldup@gmail.com

www.fieldup.com, www.myspace.com/apowersun

SPREAD THE WORD!!!

I remember your smile
Bright as the sun’s explosion
Wide as the arms of Yemaya
Deep as a gushing well of kindness
I remember your smile

Slow like the dawn of recognition
Quick like the wit of observation
Clear as the logic of common sense
I remember your smile

Frank as a simple declaration
Bold like the taste of naked love
Wasn’t no grinning or smirking or sneering
I remember your smile

Even when you were young
You had an old smile,
deep wrinkles spread across your brow
Like worn paths
Crossing familiar ground
Laugh lines descending from eyes made old
By deadly images
Laughter holding back the tears I remember your smile
Your smile is like an umbilical cord
Pulling me back, pulling us back
to a lost continent
of brown velvet faces with white incandescent teeth
radiating home, radiating peace, radiating love

Your smile
wakes me up from nightmares
turned into day-mares
Reoccurring slave-mares
In the twisted tinsel hell
They call amerikkka

When they came and they took my baby
When the milk in my breast turned to sour curds
When there was no one there to hold me
And the voices that tried to console me
Sounded like empty words
I remembered your smile

Wrote off our lives with reams of paper
Stained with filthy, greedy lies
Turned us into prison statistics
Using legaleeze linguistics
Regurgitating hypocritical diatribes
Like thin white vomit

In the midst of body bags
And toe tags
And the flood of black blood
In the midst of affirmative negation
And mass extermination
I remember your smile

We remember your smile
We call on your smile
We call on your smile
To give us light

They been trying to take your smile
Wipe it off your face
Like they be wiping us off this earth
But you smiled that smile in cages,
Institutionalized outrages
Twenty year hits
Like contemptuous spit
And in spite of a bitter taste
in your mouth
Your smile shines strong

All of us smile lovers
Need to set you free
We need to free your smile
That x-ray smile
Beaming rays of freedom
Unchain that smile
Unchain that smile
Set it free

We love your smile
We need your smile
Your smile is sweet enough
To melt heard hearts
Into love syrup
Sweet and sticky
as the nectar of freedom
We got to free that smile
Unchain that smile

Let it shine out
And warm us
I want to see that smile
Make children laugh
And light up a woman’s eyes at midnight
We got to free that smile
We got to free that smile
That freedom smile
That freedom smile
So we all can smile again