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Courtesy photo

LATE-BREAKING KPFA DISPATCH
16 November 2009

It is with deep sadness that we bring you the news of the death of our own Andrea Lewis. She died this weekend of an apparent heart attack at her San Francisco home. She was just 52. Andrea’s parents are on their way from Florida. We are planning a memorial service and will let you know as soon as we have details.

Andrea came to KPFA in 1999 as a co-host of the Morning Show. She later became host of Sunday Sedition and an Evening News co-anchor. Andrea was a true Renaissance woman with an interest in politics, world affairs, sports, science, music and the arts. She was dedicated to discussing on and off the air the issues of social justice, especially in regards to racial and gender equity. Her booming laugh filled the hallways of the station. Andrea occasionally hosted Pacifica National broadcasts; she was an early host for Free Speech Radio News. Andrea wrote for the Progressive Magazine, sang with the S.F. Community Chorus, was a former Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. [Her study at Stanford focused on the role of alternative journalism in contemporary American culture and democracy.] And she was an avid golfer. We — and the listeners — will all miss her tremendously.
— Staff of KPFA

Max Pringle remembers Andrea Lewis
(Common Dreams, 17 November 2009)

Andrea Lewis – KPFA journalist – dies
by Bob Egelko
(San Francisco Chronicle, November 18, 2009)

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Courtesy photo

Andrea Lewis in 1993, holding the San Francisco Symphony & Chorus’ first Grammy.

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A memorial to celebrate the life of Andrea Lewis
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
First Unitarian Church of Oakland
685 – 14th Street
Oakland, CA 94612

KPFA Pacifica Radio invites you to join us for this event honoring Andrea’s life. The program will include speeches, songs, poems, and will feature some of Andrea’s favorite people and performers. Family, friends and listeners are welcome to join us in appreciating Andrea’s brilliance and her lifelong commitment to journalism and the arts.

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Victoria Z and Andrea Lewis at the 2007 Power to the Peaceful live Pacifica Radio broadcast.

© KPFA/Pacifica Radio

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Andrea Lewis was born and raised in Detroit and earned her bachelor’s degree from Eastern Michigan University. She moved to the Bay Area in 1983 and began her career in journalism as a calendar, arts & entertainment editor for Plexus: West Coast Women’s Press. In 1988, she began working for Mother Jones magazine, and within a few months was hired as a research editor. She became an editorial assistant in 1991 for HarperSanFrancisco, a division of HarperCollins Publishers. In 1993, Lewis became a senior editor for Third Force magazine (now Color Lines), after working with the publication as a freelance editor for many years. She joined the staff of Pacific News Service in San Francisco (now New America Media) in 1996 as an associate editor and an editor for YO! (Youth Outlook). Since 1999, she has been the co-host and producer of “The Morning Show” at KPFA Radio in Berkeley, the first listener-sponsored radio station in the country. In addition to her work in radio, she contributes to several other news outlets, including the Progressive Media Project, which seeks to increase the diversity of representation on the op-ed pages of daily newspapers. She was the recipient of a National Federation of Community Broadcasters Golden Reel Award in 2002 and the John Swett Award for Media Excellence 2004 from the California Teachers Association. She was a fellow in the Society of Professional Journalists Diversity Leadership Program from 2006-2007.

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LISTEN TO ANDREA LEWIS
(including conversations with Al Young)

Radio Tribute to Andrea Lewis at KPFA’s Morning Show, November 18, 2009

Sunday Sedition | July 19, 2009

Sunday Sedition | March 1, 2009

Sunday Sedition | February 15, 2009

The Morning Show | December 18, 2007

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ARTICLES BY ANDREA LEWIS

‘Lord of the Rings’ vs. ‘Matrix’: Patriarchy vs. the Rainbow Coalition
(for Pacific News Service, 2004)

What If Students Went on Strike? — Students Want Teachers Who “Won’t Leave You Alone”
(Nell Bernstein & Andrea Lewis co-writing for Pacific News Service, 1997)

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A Facebook exchange (November 16, 2009)

© Facebook
Pacifica producer and broadcaster Mitch Jeserich

Dear Mr. Young, I don’t know if you heard of the passing of KPFA’s Andrea Lewis. This morning in remembering her we played excerpts of the interview you two did. It was loving, warm and poetic. Thank you for that.

© Rafael Alvarado

Dear Mitch Jeserich,

Just a couple of hours ago I was stunned to hear on KPFA the saddening news of Andrea’s death. Andrea was indeed a lovely, compassionate person whose vast curiosity and eclectic interests were altogether incalculable. Our on-air conversations rank among my favorites. That the station ran excerpts of one of them this morning in tribute to Andrea touches me enormously. I am still choked up.

Andrea and I were also fellow Detroiters.

Kindly keep me informed of any forthcoming memorial tribute or celebration to which I might contribute.

Thank you for taking the time to notify me personally of this irreplaceable loss.

Yours in mutual sympathy,
Al

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A memorial to celebrate the life of Andrea Lewis
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
First Unitarian Church of Oakland
685 – 14th Street
Oakland, CA 94612

KPFA Pacifica Radio invites you to join us for this event honoring Andrea’s life. The program will include speeches, songs, poems, and will feature some of Andrea’s favorite people and performers. Family, friends and listeners are welcome to join us in appreciating Andrea’s brilliance and her lifelong commitment to journalism and the arts.

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Courtesy of KPFA

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Adam David Miller

WHEN MY SISTER, WHEN

To Andrea Lewis and all the other black sisters dead when they reach their prime.

Mother, Mother, Mother,
There are too many of you crying

Sister, Sister, Sister,
There are too many of you dying
We’ve got to find a way, yes
We’ve got to find a way

The roll call:
If I say Toni Cade
You say                                           BAMBARA
I say Audre
You say                                          LORDE
If I say Shirley Ann
You will say                                        WILLIAMS

If I say June

You will say                                 JORDAN

Barbara    Christian
Octavia        Butler
My plumber       Pauline Gordon
Bebe Moore       Campbell
Zelma Brown      of My Sister, My Sister

You will add your own roll call

Sister, Sister, Sister
You the Striver, the Striver, bearer of the too heavy load,
The too heavy load

Did you wander too far from home?
Would you be Audre Lorde, our Sojourner,
who bared her breast, defiantly,
She bared it, Yes she did, so
Other women could be free from shame

Sister, Sister, Sister,
Did you discover the loneliness
Of the great?, that you might die alone?

We’ve got to find a way,
got to got to got to find a Way

————

One way I know, among the many, is to

Keep sending love out, so
Keep sending love out
To where the heart clutches and the soul sings
Where the heart clutches and the soul sings

Keep sending love out
Send it into the lighted dark, over the fog swept sea
Send it where it may die a dusty death

Send it where there may not be an echo, no return
Send love, that drug of madness, the poet’s bane,
some fool’s delight
Send it where there may not be an echo, no return
Send it where it has never been, a new address,
Keep sending, sending, sending ….

With a bow to Marvin Gaye

— Adam David Miller

© 2009 Adam David Miller

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AWAY, AWAY, AWAY — WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

in memory of Andrea Lewis, 1957-2009

With no away, you can’t get lost or drown.
You can’t just disappear; you’re trapped right here.
This sticky, spidery web still holds its own.
What does it mean when we think far or near?

What do we do when we throw stuff away?
What happens when we flush? What follows what?
The other ends of dreams unfold. You stay
in place, right where you are, yes, you stay put –

or so you think. Imagine how the sun
felt back in feudal days, when we assumed
our earth was flat. Imagine everyone
asleep in such belief. What insight bloomed,

what twilight rose to open people’s eyes?
“I’m up here moving, folks,” the sun might feel.
“How long before you Christians realize
there’s more than gold that shines? Light shines for real.”

And where does sunlight go? What does it do?
Light feeds each breath we take, light circulates
and in its round-and-round produces you
and me and everything that jumps or waits.

Away, away, away — what does it mean?
To fly away means sailing out of sight,
but who or what is racing from whose scene?
Perspective reigns. Day never knows it’s night.

— Al Young

© 2009 by Al Young

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