For inquires about the Sankofa Exhibit email csu@csuinc.org 

Sankofa is a multi-media ongoing research project that delves into our past to understand and inform our present & envision and shape our future!

Community Services Unlimited Inc. was originally created to serve as the non-profit arm of the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party. This legacy is our lifeline, it keeps us rooted in community and guides us as we build a model of Revolutionary Intercommunal practice.  Sankofa is displayed throughout the Paul Robeson Community Wellness Center and explores some of the key moments that have shaped who we are and how we choose to be in praxis in the world. Each item in this exhibit has a political significance in the history of the work of Community Services Unlimited Inc. Our gaze on this history is not romantic, but is respectfully critical and designed to hone our current trajectory. In navigating a climate where everything that has value to us is quickly co-opted, monetized and made meaningless we have found much enlightenment and inspiration in “going back and getting it”.

Sankofa Exhibit – Personal Statement

Community Services Unlimited’s current work has been a result of the collective experience of all that was learned from the organization’s history and the experiences of those involved in it. Most of this history has been shared verbally and is stored in the memories of those involved in these events, some of whom we have already lost. The Sankofa project seeks to illuminate the understanding we have gained from our past, and also to create avenues for sharing the history, which is still largely unknown. 

This exhibit is one of those avenues and my personal history is interwoven throughout it. These items became attached to me over the years. Having never consciously sought to “collect” these were things that I simply could not discard, despite at times serious pressure to “get rid of all that junk”. The first version of this exhibit appeared at the William Grant Still Arts Center as part of the culminating show of a series of workshops for local collectors. I am grateful to the Center and to Amitis Motevalli for the workshops, for their deep understanding of the importance of regular people telling our stories and for their encouragement. 

I was one of the founder members of Panther in the UK, the first financial officer, a regular contributor to and later editor of the newspaper. During my first visit to LA, I met members of the newly formed New African American Vanguard Movement (later became the New Panther Vanguard Movement). As a result of on going conversations we published a special edition joint newspaper that was distributed by both organizations. 

A few years later, I moved to Los Angeles and began to work with NPVM and CSU. This was a time for me of intense reflection about the Panther experience in England and what I saw around me in the organizations in LA. I met and was fortunate enough to learn from numerous Panthers and other activists locally and around the country. I became the editor and graphic designer of The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service. Ultimately, NPVM went into decline and inactivity and I focused my attentions on building our social justice work through the non-profit vehicle of Community Services Unlimited Inc. 

As a non-profit, created by one of the most radical and effective grass roots organizations to ever exist in the Black Diaspora, we have a huge responsibility. How do we create innovative, community driven work that truly engages and serves the people, find the resources to do this work, protect it from co-option and not become just another of the thousands of non-profits in the United States and globally that at best, simply perpetuate the status quo which keeps most of us ignorant and poor. The Sankofa project and this exhibition seek to cast light on these concerns. 

Neelam Sharma – August 8th 2019