In 1967, the students at San Francisco State invited the poet Amiri Baraka to the campus for a semester. He attracted other influential black writers such as Sonia Sanchez, Ed Bullins, Eldridge Cleaver. What emerged was something we called the community communications program. That's how I got involved; I got involved in a little play

You have this response of angry young people, with a war going on in Vietnam, a poverty program that was insufficient, and police brutality.

The Second Amendment comes from the right to protect themselves from slave revolts, and from uprisings by Native Americans. A revolt from people who were stolen from their land or revolt from people whose land was stolen from, that's what the genesis of the Second Amendment is.

I was able to do To Sleep with Anger, a very powerful film about African Americans, their spirituality, and the things that happened within a small community and a family.

Every day of my life I walk with the idea I am black no matter how successful I am.

The Black Power Mixtape is a documentary, first of all. It brings us closer to the voices we heard at that particular point in time.

I've always been able to make choices that don't embarrass me.