Mama Africa: Miriam Makeba passes March 4, 1942 to Nov. 10, 2008
Mama Miriam Makeba suffered a heart attack while performing at a benefit concert in Southern Italy Nov. 10. She’s just sung her famous hit, Pata Pata, and collapsed on stage. She recovered and then suffered a second heart attack which proved fatal. See http://wandasabir.blogspot.com

Radio Dispatches
Listen to http://www.wandaspicks.asmnetwork.org for a great conversation this week (11/12) with a directors of 3rd-I film festival (www.thirdeye.org), Anuj and Ivan, and director, Mehreen Jabbar ""Ramchand Pakistani." I also spoke to, Kambale Musavuli, a member of www.friendsofcongo.org. Also visit www.congoweek.org. 

Tomorrow, Nov. 15, is an international day of solidarity for the Congolese people. If one can't give up one's cell phone, she can educate her friends about the war there and and our tacit responsibility as consumers in providing a market for the genociden harvested products. 

Friday's show, Nov. 14, featured an interview with members of Vukani Mawethu Choir (9:30-10:10 a.m.) on the eve of their 22 Anniversary Gala, silent auction, and awards ceremony, this year honoring Fania Davis. Visit www.vukani.org  The gala begins at 6-7 p.m. with a silent auction, followed by dinner and presentation and entertainment from 7-10 p.m. at the First Presbytarian Church of Oakland, 27th and Harrison Street. I also had a great talk with Amana Johnson, artist about the new San Francisco Art Commissioned sculpture at the Joseph P. Lee Recreation Center, 3rd and Newcomb. Also on the air with her was Jill Manson, director of Public Art for the Commission (8:30-9 a.m.).

Tickets for Inauguration
Want to see the first Black President sworn in? Well here are links to ticketing sources. The event if free but you need tickets.  Here is how: http://www.inaugural.senate.govFashion Extravaganza for


Social Change: "Seam of Consciousness"
Local Women Designers Host Fundraiser for Darfur Women's Center, Saturday, November 15, 2008

A fashion-dance-show, special performance art, a silent auction, special guest speakers, and music throughout the evening raising awareness and funds for the Darfur Women's Center. See www.darfurpeaceanddevelopment.org/womens for more information.

Seam of Consciousness features designs and special performances by Kari Koller, Angela Dix, Rachel Znerold, Nikole Lent, Moriah Lueders, Jasmin Hoo, Roja, and Lula Chapman and is the brainchild of fAction, a San Francisco fashion collective comprised of socially minded women designers and artists, seeking to mobilize local community to create positive change worldwide. 
 
The event is at The Box Factory, 865 Florida St. #1, in San Francisco. Doors open at 8 p.m., and the show is at 9 p.m.  The cost is Sliding Scale $10-20.

Dafur Committee Meeting and Update

Monday, November 17, 2008, 1-3 p.m. the San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition Meeting at 121 Steuart Street (between Mission & Howard), in San Francisco, 2nd floor library. It's near BART/MUNI Embarcadero stop; garage parking nearby. Free and open to the public.  All are welcome.  Please bring a friend. To RSVP call (415) 221-8400, to facilitate building security check-in.

Valerie Cooper Sings @ It's A Grind Coffee House

Valerie Cooper performs Saturday, Nov. 15 and Nov. 22, 2-4 p.m., with guitarist, Larry White
performing Jazz, Blues, and Pop songs at It's a Grind Coffee House, 555-11th Street @ Clay Street in Oakland, (510) 830-8665. There's no cover. www.myspace.com/valeriecoopergroup

"With Head & Heart: The Life and Legacy of Howard Thurman" at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco

Join OneLife Institute on Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008 at the Museum of the African Diaspora's Sunday Salon series: Howard Thurman.  Dr. Thurman's life and work reveal the powerful synergy between spirituality and social engagement, the inseparability of personal and social transformation. This post-election salon, timed to honor Thurman's birthday, will consider the relevance of his wisdom for contemporary struggles and the journey ahead.

2:30 p.m. - Refreshments & viewing of Arleigh Prelow's documentary short, "Howard Thurman: Spirit of a Movement"

3:00-5:00 p.m. - Lecture/Discussion with excerpts from video interview "Conversations with Howard Thurman" - facilitated by OneLife's Dr. Liza Rankow.  For directions and RSVP www.moadfs.org (museum admission $10). The event is sponsored by OneLife Institute for Spirituality & Social Transformation www.onelifeinstitute.org 
 

Conferences and Awards Galas

This is a busy weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area: Conference on Race: Nov. 14-16 at the Marriott Convention Center in Oakland; the Green Festival in San Francisco; the 35th Anniversary of Dimensions Dance Theatre and Vukani Mawethu Choir's Gala dinner and first Community Awards Ceremony; .

The Vowel Movement
This collective features some of the best performers of what some term, the “fifth element of hip hop” Beatboxing. Check them out at Ashkenaz Music and Dance Center, 1317 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, Friday, Nov. 14, 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance and for students, $12 general admission. Visit www.ashkanez.com or call (510) 525-5054.

Kalbass Kreyol; Sila and the AfroFunk Experience plus DJ Jeremiah and the AfroBeat Nation

Two great shows, also at Ashkenaz: Kalbass Saturday, Nov. 15, 9:30 p.m., (8 p.m. Kompa dance class), and Friday, Nov. 21, Sila, 9:30 p.m.

Other shows this month at Ashkenaz

Glen Washington and Ras Kidus and Undah P on Friday, Nov. 29, looks good as doe, Afro-Polynesian singer Mahealani Uchiyama, Nov. 30. I’m trying to get her on my show. We’ll see. Stay posted.


Afro Uruguay

La Peña Cultural Center Presents Premier Bay Area presentation of Uruguayan Candombe music with: Urubanda  Wed. November 19, 2008. 8pm $13 adv.  $15 dr. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley. (510) 849-2568 www.lapena.org.   Direct from Uruguay, Master Candombe drummer  and director of Montevideo's re-known group Mundo Afro, Sergio Ortunio on tambor repique. 

With Urubanda: Edgardo Cambon, lead vocals and percussion. Walter Gonzalez, tambor piano. Natalia Bernal, tambor chico & vocals. Jorge Dominguez, tambor chico. Marco Diaz on piano and trumpet. Jorge Pomar, bass. Hugo Wainzinger, guitar.  Candombe rhythm drumming by Lonjas Del Golden Gate with additional drummers Ramón Farias, Jorge Otormin and Joni Custodio.

Amana Brembi Johnson’s “Time to Dream Unveiled”

The dedication and unveiling of the work will be held at the Joseph P. Lee Recreation Center, 1395 Mendell Street, on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 from 3:00 to 4:30pm. Time To Dream is a life-sized figure carved from a 3,000-pound block of Basalt Spring Stone found only in Zimbabwe, Southern Africa. The figure, which took Johnson over nine months to carve, is deliberately not identified as either male or female in order to be inspirational to all children. A circular bench of colored concrete, beautifully embellished with sculptural medallions, glass, and ceramic tile, supports the sculpture. The figure holds an open book whose pages are engraved with an inspirational text by Johnson that reads: “We need time to dream, time to remember, and time to create the world we envision.” Art is not optional— it is integral to community life and its sustainability. Visit www.sfartscommission.org/pubart

KRS-One in Skoman Build and They Will Come concert series

Hip Hop artist, spoken word sage, KRS-One is in town this weekend for two concerts. Friday night, he’s at the Shattuck DownLow, 2284 Shattuck Avenue, in Berkeley. The doors open at 9 p.m. Also on the bill are: Mistah FAB, Mavrik, BoRat, and DJ True Justice. Tickets are $25 in advance at ticketmaster.com Saturday, November 15; he’s at Blake’s on Telegraph, 2367 Telegraph Avenue. Friday night is 21-up and Saturday is 18-up. Tickets for 11/15 are $20 presale at ticketweb.com

Chuck D Weekend
So if you catch him at the Green Festival and tomorrow afternoon, if it's a go and then tomorrow night, my goodness--I guess one could say, I'm full!

Chuck D and MC Lyte
I read earlier this week somewhere that Chuck D and MC Lyte were going to be at EastSide Cultural Center Saturday, Nov. 15, 2-5. Now when I went to EastSide's website, this event wasn't posted, so I would call before I go over. The venue is located at 2277 International Blvd. in Oakland.

Chuck D Party
On November 15, 2008, CHUCK D returns to Oakland to host a show with local artist Suga-T, Spice 1, Eyezon and Jahi who is on the SLAMjamz/Onefam label and Crew Grrl Order in their first Bay Area appearance at the Uptown, 1928 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland, (510) 451-8100. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. Tickets are available at www.ticketweb.com. Contact: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it    The show starts at 9 p.m.

This man is committed to recording artist careers. CHUCK D is collaborating with Jahi, who hosted the 2007 Public Enemy U.S. Tour and as a featured MC in the new act PE 2.0.  He is also a supporter of the Bay Area’s legendary performers Suga-T and Spice 1.  Suga-T new project, “The Game Needs Me” and a Television show titled, “Hip Hop Moms”. CHUCK D is the Executive Producer of Crew Grrl Order next CD and their documentary that is being filmed in the Bay area by Command Pictures.

For 20 years, CHUCK D has been “Louder than a Bomb.” Emerging in the group Public Enemy consisting of Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Terminator X, Professor Griff, the Bomb Squad and the S1Ws – defined   hip-hop’s “Afrocentric Age” with a string of politically-charged, sonically-powerful, critically-acclaimed, and commercially-successful classics albums, including It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, and Fear of a Black Planet. After 58 tours spanning 47 countries and over 1,300 shows, PE has earned a place as not just one of the greatest rap groups of all time, but one of the most seminal and influential artists to emerge in any genre.


Festivals

The Green Festival in San Francisco http://www.greenfestivals.org/media/ features many notable speakers, among them: Dr. Cornel West, Chuck D, Amy Goodman, Winona LaDuke, Van Jones and Greg Palast. There also many workshops and hundreds of vendors. The festival is located at the San Francisco Concourse Exhibit Center, 685 8th Street @ Brannan Street, and in the Gift Center Pavilion Theatre, 888 Brannan Street, just up the street. Tickets are $15 for one day and $25 for all three. Friday Nov. 14, the festival is open 12-7; Saturday, Nov. 15, the festival times are 10-7, and Sunday, Nov. 16, 11-6.

3rd-I South Asian Film Festival Nov. 13-16 in San Francisco
Screenings are at Brava Theatre 11/13-15 and Sunday at the Castro Theatre.
http://www.thirdi.org/festival/film/index_film.htm

AXIS Dance Company’s 20th Anniversary Dance Concert, 11/14-16

Axis Dance Company celebrates it’s 20th anniversary this weekend, 11/14-16 at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice Street, in downtown Oakland. There will be many world premieres. This theatre company is unique in its use of dancers with varying levels of mobility –those using assistive technology and those without. It is a poetically beautiful experience and I don’t know how I am going to fit, or how I can fit Axis into an already impossible schedule, but if I can…I will and if I can’t, I will rely on you to tell me about it.  Tickets are $20 and $22 for Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday tickets are $10 for all seats.  Visit www.aisdance.org or call (925) 798-1300.

Dimensions Dance Theater 35 Years

DDT is pulling out all stops this weekend in a retrospective of work created over the company’s illustrious 35 years. The celebration takes place at Oakland Inter-Stake Center, next to the Mormon Temple, 4780 Lincoln Avenue, in Oakland. The evening also features special guests Khalil Shaheed and Band, plus Jacqueline Hairston and Larry Sampson.

Tickets need to be purchased in advance and can be bought at Marcus Bookstore, 3900 MLK Jr. Way in Oakland, (510) 652-2344 and www.ticketweb.com. Visit www.dimensionsdance.org for dress code information and directions or call (510) 465-3363.

San Francisco Bay Area Latino Film Festival

I just heard about the festival this week, so we’re coming in on closing week Nov. 23, but there are still some great films left in the festival line-up—well maybe not. Just a quick perusal looked like all the Afro-Latino films are already past, films like “Uprooted” from Columbia and “Basic Sanitation: The Movie,” from Brazil. I see a few from Cuba that might be cool, but I don’t know.  Visit www.latinofilmfestival.org

McCoy Tyner Trio with Marc Ribot

The veteran pianist is coming to town Nov. 18-23 for an extended visit at the Oakland venue, 510 Embarcadero, West, this coming week. He has a new CD out too, which I need to listen to again before I make any comments (smile). So check out our brother, one of the only working artists left who lived through bop and still knows how to swing and play the blues. Visit www.yoshis.com or call (510) 238-9200.  I missed Preservation Hall Jazz Band Monday night, writing deadline, but I caught Cyro Baptista and Banquet of the Spirits, after I left the Van Jones event at First Congregational Church, Tuesday, Nov. 11. Everyone who was hip and cool and on the right lists was there. I wasn’t on any, but I happen to listen to KPFA enough to hear announcements of their events –Alice Walker was there, Bobby Seale, Barbara Lee opened for Jones, as did Aya de Leon and Danny Glover. Glover’s recitation of the Langston Hughes’ poem about America was moving.

So anyway, I headed over to Yoshi’s on my way home and got waylaid by this band a feast of spirits. I felt bad that I’d missed the funeral of my Brother Benjamin Ahmed Sunday, Nov. 9, because no one told me, and the one call received came a day too late. I was also thinking about veterans the ones who made the ultimate sacrifice and how little mind is paid to the loss to our collective family is one life taken or sacrificed needlessly. I was in the groove fro some deep channeling. Deep is not necessarily what I got, the band was funky and lots of fun as Cyro Baptista, Brazilian, percussionist played all kinds of percussion and sang along with a very talented trap drummer who played the ngoni kabir, ankle shakers, and sang. The bassists also played an oud and the pianist played a keyboard he also blew into. It was wild, wildly fun. I have to get their CD.

Oh, Eric Benet is coming in at the end of the month in Oakland, Nov. 28-30, and Tuck and Patty are bring in the Holiday Season in San Francisco club, 1330 Fillmore, Nov. 28-30.  Bela Fleck and the Flecktones “the Holiday Tour” with Victor Lemonte Wooten, Future Man and Jeff Coffin, are at the San Francisco Club, 11/18-23. I’ve heard of Bela Fleck, but have never seen him before. The draw for me is Wooten, who is an awesome bassist and human being also. Visit www.yoshis.com
Sold out “Angry Black White Boy” extended an extra week: Thursday-Sunday, Nov. 19-Nov. 23

Featuring Myers Clark, Keith Pinto, Tommy Shepard and Dan Wolf, Wolf’s adaptation for stage of Adam Manbach’s novel is a look at race and class in America from a perspective not seen often enough. Manbach and by extension Wolf take Tim Wise’s observation and recast them in a catchy irresistible guise—the audience might resist but is affected nonetheless. The intimate 90-seat theatre is the perfect setting for a topic, even a black president elect can’t solve overnight—I mean really, it took over 500 years of incessant programming from religious and cultural indoctrination and miseducation to economic and social exclusion, to get here in the first place. Intersection for the Arts is located at 446 Valencia Street (between 15th and 16th) in San Francisco’s Mission District. For information call (415) 626-3311.
Visit www.theintersection.org The tickets sell out fast. Reserve on-line.

3 Events @ Marcus Books 11/15-16

There are some great author events this weekend at Marcus, two on the same day at the same time: Congresswoman Barbara Lee: Renegade for Peace and Justice and Terri McMillan with a sneak preview of her sequel to Waiting to Exhale: Getting To Happy. The Lee event is at the San Francisco store, 1712 Fillmore, (415) 346-4222, at 2:30 p.m., 11/16, and the McMillan event is at East Bay Church of Religious Science, 4130 Telegraph Avenue, in Oakland at 3 p.m., 11/16.  Both are free.

Saturday evening at the Oakland Store, 3900 MLK Jr. Way, Robert Greer is back with another mystery novel, Blackbird, Farewell, a CL Floyd Mystery. This event is at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15.


Judy Juanita & Cathleen Riddley in Counter-Terrorism, Nov. 19, 7:30 p.m.

Homeless, pontificating Ann (Cathleen Riddley) invades the mind of educated, shopaholic Tylea (Judy Juanita) in this two-woman play about identity, sexuality and acknowledging “the other” in troubled times, directed by directed by Jayne Wenger.
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Judy Juanita’s “Counter-Terrorism,” was a Bay Area Playwrights Festival 2004 winner. Her plays include “Theodicy” (1st runner up in the 2007 Eileen Heckart Senior Drama Play Contest at Ohio State);  “Heaven’s Hold,” (Brava Theatre and 2001 National Black Theater Festival); ‘Knocked Up”, a commedia dell’Arte she co-wrote about RU-486 which tours periodically with the SF Mime Troupe; and farces “Famine,” “The History of Sweat” and “Samaritan-ism” (Julia Morgan Theater, Berkeley). She received an MFA from San Francisco State University.

Cathleen Riddley, an alumna of The Juilliard School Drama Division, stars in “The America Play” at Thick Description this November. She has also appeared at Magic Theatre, TheatreWorks, MTC, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, A.C.T., Willows Theatre Company and Center Rep. As vocalist for Sweetie Pie and the Doughboys, she belts out Blues, Rock & Roll and R&B.

The show is at The Marsh in San Francisco, 1062 Valencia St. near 22nd Street. All seating for this performance is first-come, first-served.  The 60 minute show is for patrons 14 and older. Tickets are $10-$15 sliding scale.

Cutting Ball Theatre presents: Eugene Ionesco’s “Victim of Duty"

This is one play where less said is best. I can’t really explain the play. I’d certainly recommend reading it, but then I’d also say this is a play one wants to see and Rob Melrose is really good at staging these difficult to imagine works. This play, called absurdist, is no different and the actors, especially Felicia Benefield as “Madeline,” whom I last saw as a principal character in an equally, just in a different way, Suzan Lori-Parks work with David Skillman, and actor David Sinaiko is also great as “Cloubert.”

Okay so what’s it about? Cloubert and Madeline, a Parisian couple, are relaxing after dinner, perhaps reading together on the sofa, her legs on her husband’s lap, when knocking is heard across the hallway. They don’t worry about answering until the knocking is heard on their door. It is an inspector and he is invited in over the husband’s nonverbal objections. After this, everything kind of dissolves into this weird intersection between realism and the subterranean abstract –a realm Ionesco opens to his characters to give his audience access to areas of consciousness one dare not explore for the shear messy dirtiness of the journey. Return trips not guaranteed.

So after the journey, one without intermission, I stayed for the talk back hosted by the dramaturge, Nakissa Etemad, just because the walk to The Exit Theatre on Taylor is a surreal enough experience without topping it with an existential theatre experience. The trauma and assault on the senses and sensibility was a bit much last night—a woman in a wheelchair was urinating as I walked by. I wouldn’t have known the urine wouldn’t have rushed to greet me as I put away the sadaqa I was reaching for in my mind for later, on my way back when she wasn’t busy—this was a first for me. I see men urinating all the time, but a woman? I’m alternating walking in the streets when safe and walking on the sidewalk as I make sure I notice everything and everyone and look everyone in the eyes and try not to smile—I haven’t mastered that one, but I do know how to keep moving and I walk fast.

Though sleepy when I arrive—not enough oxygen to the brain, the cashews and bananas purchased on Eddy helped or was it Ellis? I forget. Anyway, I could follow the story but it helped to know that “Victim of Duty” was Ionesco’s favorite play and that it was autobiographical, so the insertions were basically the writer trying to resolve his father/mother nation/state patriotism/betrayal issues. Such monologues often only make complete sense to the storyteller. It’s almost like reading someone’s diary that they left out on purpose; they wanted to be found out—one needs to keep one’s judgment suspended. Although I thought Choubert’s subterranean adventures and reflections some of the more substantive and invitingly philosophically witty and deep aspects of the play. I could actually identify with the character here and when he was on stage in a theatre (don’t ask me how) I grew annoyed with the patron who was impatient with his brooding contemplation—I’ve known people like her. She brings out the snob in me. Yes, I admit is. There is theatre etiquette.

Of course everyone—fictional and real, wants to kill the voice, the echoes of the subconscious he can’t control, the voice of dissent, the critic. “The detective” character is this critic and the fact that Madeline and Cloubert were just talking about his love or obsession with theater and her love or obsession with film, and Cloubert’s view that the genre lacks fresh ideas is an interesting intro or prelude into their own sitcom where the play is the thing and it's real and they are the stars, the critic also the executioner. 

You can see how "Victims of Duty" lends itself to endless explanatory prose, so let me stop and give you the logistics and details: the theatre is located in the heart of absurdity or existentialist reality—if there is such a thing, the Tenderloin. Take a friend to the theatre with you, especially if you are a woman and it’s nighttime. Don’t carry a shoulder bag or dress too flashy. That said Cutting Ball, the resident theatre company at The Exit Theatre on Taylor is located at 277 Taylor, between Eddy and Ellis, up from the Powell Street BART Station in San Francisco. Visit www.cuttingball.com or call 800-838-3006. The play runs Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m. and Sundays at 5 p.m. through Nov. 23. Tickets are $15-$30. I have never seen a production here that was not well directed and with a cast of superb artists—in Victim of Duty, the principals, Felicia Benefield and especially David Sinaiko and Ryan Oden as the Detective, out do themselves, especially David whose character is climbing up mountains, swimming in mud and tunneling though the earth trying to find an illusive person called Mallot with a “t”.