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Current Picks
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Written by Wanda Sabir
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Monday, 01 February 2010 |
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Happy Birthday Langston Hughes! Happy Birthday as well to my brother, Fred Batin
On the Fly
This is the initial post, check back later for the full blown details. This month is always full of great events, too many to count or attend all. Congrats to Rhodessa Jones and Idriss Ackamour on their 30th Anniversary Season for Cultural Odyssey and the long awaited staging of the Love Project, opening this week. The 20th Annual African American Celebration through Poetry is also this week, Sat., Feb. 6, 1-4 PM at the West Oakland Branch Library. It is the oldest program in the OPL system. Unfortunately the quarterly Be Still, hosted by the Black Women Media Collective is also 2/6, but perhaps folks can go early, 8 AM and then sneak away--we only have a 20th Anniversary once. Nunu Kidane and Gerald Lenoir, Priority Africa Network are back from Italy and elsewhere and will be giving a reportback, I think 2/2. Hum, what else? There are some great plays and art exhibits, and don't forget the UC Berkeley African Cinema Festival continuing Wednesday, Feb. 3, with Jean Marie Teno's "Sacred Places." Black Choreographers Here and Now opens this month and at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Ronald K. Brown, Evidence Dance Company opens this Friday, Feb. 5. There is a open studio class Saturday afternoon--yes, more competition for the Poetry Celebration. Visit the website for Black Choreographers for the details. Tim Wise is at Speakout Feb. 4, at the First Congregational Church of Oakland. Joyce Gordon always has great art and conversation going on and this is a First Friday. I miss the Oakland Museum. The Indie Film Festival opens Feb. 4 as well. We haven't spoken music. I can't afford anything these days, especially since returning from Africa. I can't get tickets to shows even when I do promos, so check the ususal places, and don't forget the great community venues like Ashkenaz which is having another Haiti fundraiser, Sat., Feb. 6, and La Pena and Great American Music Hall. I missed Shabaka Henley yesterday representing the modern prophet, Martin King at Pastor Greggory Brown's annual event. I also missed Avotcja at the Pat Parker event in Berkeley. The deYoung will have a free day for King Tut, first come first served, Feb. 21. This is first Thursdays, which means free admission at many galleries, among them Berkeley Art Museum.
Oh the films: Invictus with Morgan Freeman, The Blind Side, Avatar are all must see films. I haven't gotten to Frog Prince yet or Book of Eli or Up in the Air, but they are on my list. I saw some great films in the SF Indie. I will post reviews soon.
February 1, 2010, 7:30 pm | Wheeler Auditorium at UC Berkeley Writer, playwright and poet, Wole Soyinka has been an outspoken critic of many Nigerian military dictators, of Nigeria’s increasingly divided ethnic and religious groups, and of political tyrannies worldwide. This activism has often exposed him to great personal risk. At the beginning of the Nigerian Civil War in 1967, Mr. Soyinka was accused of helping the breakaway of Biafra buy jet fighters and was jailed without trial for twenty-seven months, mostly in solitary confinement. His experiences in prison are recounted in his book The Man Died: Prison Notes of Wole Soyinka and in a collection of poems entitled Poems from Prison. Mr. Soyinka has also lived in exile at three points in his life, most notably during the government of General Sani Abacha (1993-1998), which pronounced a death sentence on him "in absentia." These personal and national hardships have been at the heart of the works of enlightened art for which Wole Soyinka has become world famous. He has published over thirty books, including a sequence of remarkable plays, novels, poetry, polemical writings, critical essays, a classic memoir of his early life ("Aké," 1982) and a memoir devoted to his father. In 1986, the Swedish Academy commended his works for depicting ‘‘the drama of existence,'' and Soyinka became the first African to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. A consistently courageous voice for human rights worldwide, Soyinka is also involved in numerous international artistic and human rights organizations, including the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the International Parliament of Writers. In 1994, he was named UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the promotion of African culture, human rights, freedom of expression, media and communication. Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010
Follow-up panel discussion with Wole Soyinka, Tuesday, February 2, 2010, 4:00 pm | Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Hall Panelists:
Catherine Cole (Theater, Dance & Performance Studies)
Michael Watts (Geography)
Donna Jones (English)
Moderated by Anthony J. Cascardi, Townsend Center Director The Avenali lecture is a ticketed event. Free tickets will be available at Wheeler Auditorium beginning at 6:30 pm on the evening of the lecture. One ticket per person. No tickets are needed for the panel discussion.
Between runs to the hospital for tests--I'm going to live (smile), I ran into a sister-friend who went to both Soyinka events and said that the lecture will be on Youtube soon. The panel was a little more intellectually accessible to the non-brainiacs she said. Hatin’ in Haiti "Panel discussion on Haiti in the Media"
A panel discussion on both the current and historic portrayal of Haiti in the news media will be held Wednesday, Feb. 3, 6:30 p.m., in the Creative Space of Leimert Park's Community Build, 4305 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles. A magnitude 7.0 earthquake in the capital of Port-Au-Prince on Jan. 12 has left thousands dead and homeless and the infrastructure destroyed, yet much of the mainstream press coverage has tended to blame the Haitian people for their current predicament, from correspondents calling starving survivors "looters" to a prominent U.S. religious figure declaring that the country had made a "pact with the Devil." Erin Aubry Kaplan, journalist and former columnist with the L.A. Times, Joanne Griffith, freelance journalist and former correspondent with the BBC, and a representative of the Black Journalists Association of Southern California will be are scheduled as the featured panelists. This event is sponsored by the Ida B. Wells Institute. A donation of $5 will be requested at the door to go towards Haitian relief efforts. [Metered parking around Leimert Park and there’s a parking lot right across the street from Community Build/Ackee Bamboo, usually free.For more information, call (213) 321-0575.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 03 February 2010 )
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Wanda's Picks January 2010 |
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Written by Wanda Sabir
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Friday, 22 January 2010 |
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I'm back from Africa! Stronger, determined definitely more focused! This week on Wanda's Picks Radio http://www.wandaspicks.asmnetwork.org we have had conversations with organizers and folks on the ground in Haiti post-earthquake(s).
There are many organizations hosting fundrasiers, and with Katrina on my mind, I am skeptical of the povery and traagedy pimpswho profit from another's misfortune. We recommend: Haiti Emergency Relief Fund. Visit http://www.haitiaction.net/about/HERF/ Dr. James Farmer's organization, "Partners for Health," Doctors Without Borders, and the California Nurses Association which is sending nurses to Haiti.
The 20th Annual African American Celebration through Poetry is Saturday, February 6, 2010 at the West Oakland Branch Library, 1801 Adeline Street in Oakland, (510) 238-7352. If you are interested in being a featured artist, call the library and ask for Veronica Lee to get a letter which will go out late December/early January. The event is 1-4 p.m. It is free and open to the public. The rehersal is January 29, 10-12 noon, same location. The theme this year is the African Disapora, and we are dedicating it to all the poets who have graced the stage over these 20 years like the late Kamau Seitu On the Fly
Donald Lacy’s One-Man Show COLORSTRUCK closes this weekend in San Francisco, California at the Buriel Clay Theatre in the African American Art & Culture Complex, 762 Fulton Street in San Francisco. Fri. thru Mon., Jan. 15-18 & Fri. thru Sun. Jan. 22-24, 2010. Shows Friday and Saturday are at 8 PM; Sun. at 3 PM. Tickets are $20 for general admission, $15 for students and seniors, $10 for students 13 and under. For tickets, call (510) 663- 5683 or visit www.colorstruck.net. Also at UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (UCBAMPFA) there is a series of musical classics like Hairdoo and West Side Story, along with an African Cinema Festival beginning this month and extending into February. There are also a few notable art exibits opening and closing. A new exhibit opened at the African American Art and Culture Complex opened January 20, the one year anniversary of President Obama's inauguration. It's been one year already; isn't that amazing! I'll be glad when the president's policies move from negotiation into concrete action--like health care reform. I still don't understand why he let Bush and Clinton touch Haiti relief. It was like throwing blood on the trail of wolves. Kenny Garrett Quartet@ Yoshi’s San Francisco, Jan 22-Jan 24, 2010, Friday 8pm show $18, Saturday 8pm & 10pm shows $22, Sunday 7pm show $18. His most recent project is the 2008: Sketches of MD Live at the Iridium. Visit http://beta.asoundstrategy.com/kennygarrett/ Nurses to Haiti
Nurse Talk Radio presents: "Send a Nurse to Haiti" fundraising benefit featuring
Top Shelf's "From the Heart" Gospel, Motown & Classic Soul, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010 | 6:00 pm - reception | 7:00 pm - remarks by National Nurses United | 7:30 pm - project update by Nurse Talk & California Nurses Association | 8:00 pm - live performance at JJ'La Chic Theatre39 on PIER 39, San Francisco. The funds raised will pay for nurses’ transport to Haiti. The emcee is Gerry Dove, Community Affairs Director, Clear Channel Radio. Donations are: $60 pref. seating; $50 gen. seating Visit www.jlachic.tix.com/Event.asp?Event=237954 On Tuesday, January 12, 2010 a devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Since then several strong aftershocks have buried and injured even more citizens. Though news coverage has focused on the capital city Port-au-Prince, where the quake leveled nearly all of the region's structures, killed more than 80,000 people, and caused injury to tens of thousands of children and adults, aide has been slow to reach the outlying areas near the capital where the need is still critical.
The 501(c)(3) nonprofit Registered Nurse Response Network (RNRN)--a national network of volunteer registered nurses--coordinates sending RNs to disaster-stricken areas. RNRN, in conjunction with the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United* (NNU) has launched a relief effort to send experienced nursing professionals to Haiti to provide emergency medical support to the victims of the earthquake. "We are calling on nurses throughout the U.S. to join us in this critical effort," said NNU executive director Rose Ann DeMoro. "Charitable contributions to this fundraiser will fund travel-related costs and supplies for volunteer nurses." Info: www.calnurses.org; to make a donation online, visit www.sendanurse.org.
SOLES 4 SOULS program through Jan. 31, 2010
Here's a simple thing we can ALL do to help those in Haiti. Sports Chalet is asking for people to Donate your old shoes, (gently worn shoes), to those in need in Haiti. It's so simple, just drop off your old shoes at the nearest Sport Chalet Store, which collects to the end of the month. Tell your friends and the people in your neighborhood - help spread the word: http://www.sportchalet.com/category/soles+4+souls+and+sport+chalet.do
For store locations nearest you call 1.888.9CHALET or go to www.sportchalet.com.
Women on the Way
COUNTERPOINT In association with Footloose cordially invite you to be our guest Jan 23 & Jan 24 at 8pm for The West Coast Premiere of “I USED TO WRITE ON WALLS,” written by Bekah Brunstetter & directed by Allison Troup-Jensen at the10th Annual Women on the Way Festival www.ftloose.org, located at Shotwell Studios 3252 19th Street, San Francisco Jan 14, 15, 23, 24, 28 & 29 at 8pm
Critically acclaimed, New York playwright, Bekah Brunstetter brings her cutting-edge wit to the San Francisco stage in this dynamic, anti-romantic comedy. Tough-talking lady cop Diane is looking for love. Slam poet Georgia just wants to be heard and Joanne is making the world more beautiful one makeover at a time. Three dramatically different women share one common bond: the man between their sheets. Trevor, a sexy but clueless charmer, seems to fill the holes they cannot heal… temporarily. When Trevor’s beautiful twelve year old cousin Anna and a mysterious astronaut Mona enter the mix, Trevor finds himself in more trouble than he can handle. Brunstetter asks, “When all we crave is love, how far will we go to cover up the truth that is so clearly written on the walls?” Brunstetter’s language, called “exquisite” by Broadway World, has a “dialogue that sings and expresses character with telling detail.” NYTheatre.com calls her “Remarkable… Brunstetter goes way past the expected to rip through the gut while you're laughing…Marvelously perverse humor.”
S.O.S. HAITI BENEFIT CONCERT
Reports from Haiti Action Committee with Kevin Pina, Haiti Information Project, Entertainment from: Vukani Mawethu Choir, QB Williams and Thomas McKennie, Mama Kwama, Akinyele Sadiq, Fred Jackson, Saturday, January 23, 3PM - 7PM, Bay Area Christian Connection, 810 Clay Street @ 8th, Oakland.
Sponsors: Haiti Action Committee, Vukani Mawethu Choir, Committee for South, African Solidarity. Endorsed by: Berkeley Gray Panthers, California, Physicians Alliance, Progressive Democrats of America/East Bay, Wellstone, Democratic Renewal Club. Donations will benefit the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund. For those who can’t attend, you may contribute by PayPal at: http://www.haitiaction.net/About/HERF/1_12_10.html http://www.haitiaction.net/About/HERF/1_12_10.html or mail a check made out to: Haiti Emergency Relief Fund/EBSC, East Bay Sanctuary Covenant (EBSC), 2362 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94704
Rally/March for Haiti Relief
Haiti Action Committee calls for a Protest March Monday, January 25, 2010 5 PM Powell and Market Street. The call is: “Respect Haiti! Aid, Not Troops! Life, Not Death, for Haiti!”
As the death count rises in Haiti, the effects of a catastrophic natural disaster are compounded - as in Hurricane Katrina - by political failure, by the consequence of generations of U.S. intervention in Haiti. Six years after it forced out the democratic Aristide government, and replaced it with a brutal coup regime, the U.S. is advancing a massive military operation in Haiti. While thousands of American troops amass in Port-au-Prince, thousands of Haitians are dying from lack of water and medicine, starving while food supplies sit on the airport tarmac.
This is a time for aid, not charity; for solidarity, not a calculated U.S. military take-over. Demand accountability of the US government and the United Nations. Demand respect for the resiliency and courage of the Haitian people, and the return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to his homeland, as the vast majority of Haiti's people demand.
PRIORITIZE MEDICAL AND HUMANITARIAN RELIEF, NOT MILITARY OCCUPATION.
Get the people of Port-au-Prince clean water, food, and medical treatment now
Allow President Aristide to return to Haiti from forced exile in South Africa.
Respect human rights. Do not criminalize a traumatized population that needs aid!
SPREAD THE WORD. LET'S MAKE THIS INTERNATIONAL
DONATE TO HAITI EMERGENCY RELIEF FUND: www.haitiaction.net
Art Show
An Idea Called Tomorrow is on view – now through March 7, 2010 – at two Los Angeles institutions, as part of a unique collaborative partnership between the California African American Museum (CAAM) and the Skirball Cultural Center. With the goal of inspiring visitors to reflect upon the active role we must all play in bringing about a more just, equitable, and peaceful future, An Idea Called Tomorrow showcases new works by fifteen contemporary artists: Abdelali Dahrouch, John Outterbridge, Dominique Moody, Joyce Dallal, Charles Dickson, John Halaka, Graham Goddard, Yong Soon Min, Sonia BasSheva Manjon, Ingrid von Sydow, and Betty Nobue Kano. On view at the Skirball Cultural Center are works by artists Kim Abeles, Castillo, Graham Goddard, Dominique Moody, Azual Kwauumba and Karen Seneferu.
The participating artists’ ethnicities and backgrounds are as diverse as their presentations, which address a broad range of social justice issues of both regional and global relevance, such as environmental sustainability, shelter for all, human equity, equal access and respect, healthy living, reconciliation and forgiveness, and cooperation and peace.
Karen Seneferu's work, Techno-Kisi II. Mrs. Seneferu has created the first Nkisi of its kind to have technology at the core of the form. Techno-Kisi II is the second in this series of work: http://anideacalledtomorrow.wordpress.com/category/karen-seneferu-and-kwahuumba/
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 23 January 2010 )
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