Happy Birthday Albert Woodfox, Angola 3! Visit www.angola3.com

Next Wave Choreographers Showcase
Co-sponsored by Dance Mission Theater, is Friday & Saturday, February 22 & 23 – 8:00 p.m. at Dance Mission Theater, San Francisco, 3316 24th Street (corner Mission) and features choreographers: Raissa Simpson, Malia Connor, Victor Temple, Luis Napoles, Traci Bartlow, Delena Brooks…and more. Tickets are: $15.00 General Seating. For reservations call (415) 273-4633.

Human Rights Watch International Film Festival at Pacific Film Archive
The festival concludes in Berkeley this weekend, Sunday, February 24 with Lumo, which screens at 2 p.m., In eastern Congo, vying militias, armies, and bandits use rape as a weapon of terror. Recently engaged to a young man from her village, 20-year-old Lumo Sinai can’t wait to have children and start a family. But when she crosses paths with marauding soldiers who brutally attack her, she is left with a fistula – a condition that renders her incontinent and threatens her ability to give birth. Rejected by her fiancé and cast aside by her family, Lumo finds her way to a hospital for rape survivors. Buoyed by the love of the hospital staff, Lumo and her friends keep alive the hope of one day resuming their former lives, thanks to an operation that can restore them fully to health.

The second film “Sari’s Mother,” is set in Iraq and screens at, 3:45 p.m. Filmed in Iraq over a period of one year, Sari’s Mother is a haunting portrait of the struggle of an Iraqi mother to find help for her 10-year-old son, Sari, who is dying of AIDS. This short documentary enters the lives of this family living in the restive Mahmudiyah area of central Iraq. They make their living by selling milk and butter, and farming land rented from their neighbors. Amidst their work, Sari’s mother administers injections to her son, whose condition is gradually deteriorating as his immune system fails. She seeks help in Baghdad’s hospitals and ministries, but discovers that the Iraqi healthcare system is in even worse condition under US occupation than before the war.
 
Sari’s Mother is followed by “Enemires of Happiness.”  Malalai Joya became one of Afghanistan’s most famous (and infamous) women in 2003 when she challenged the power of warlords in the country’s new government. Two years later, she ran in her country’s first democratic parliamentary election in over 30 years. She campaigned surrounded by armed guards, in a country where the majority of people are illiterate, warlords use threats and bribes to control the ballots, and many women cannot leave their children to vote. Winner of the 2007 HRWIFF Nestor Almendros Prize, and the Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Prize: Documentary.

Visit www.hrw.org/sanfrancisco <http://www.hrw.org/sanfrancisco>  Pacific Film Archive (PFA) Theater:  2575  Bancroft Way (between College and Telegraph), Berkeley, California, PFA Program Information (24-hour): (510) 642-1124, PFA Charge-by-Phone: (510) 642-5249, http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseri

African Film Festival at PFA
Visit http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/africanfilm_2008 for information about the closing film February 28, 7:30 p.m., “Juju Factory.” Set in Congo, the film is about a writer who is trying to keep preserve the integrity of his book as shrinking resources force him to make a deal with someone who does not share his artistic integrity. At times it seems as if what the author is writing characters into life. The parts of the film where he reads his work are really lyrical and lovely.

Paul Robeson: Words Like Freedom - A New Audio CD from the Freedom Archives
CD Release party for the long awaited release of a work celebrating the life of Paul Robeson.  The event is at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Avenue, in Berkeley, next week, Wednesday, February 27th  at 6:30 p.m. Babatunde Lea, Alex Bagwell & poetry with Youth Speaks will be a part of the program.  The cost is $10-20, although no one will be turned away.

In creating this CD, the Freedom Archives offers a unique resource that can be used with history courses and heard by many who may never before heard the passion and eloquence of Robeson's spoken words. For more information or to purchase your copy: http://www.freedomarchives.org/Robeson.html

Quilombo dos Palmares Free Staged Reading
On Sunday, February 24th at Laney College Theatre, 900 Fallon Street in Oakland,  a stage reading of Quilombo, an adaptation of Carlos Diegues' 1984 movie of the same name, will be presented by Kim McMillon.  Quilombo is the true story of escaped African slaves who founded their own community as free men and women in 17th century Brazil.  Quilombo, is an Angolan word that means "encampment."

Quilombo dos Palmares was home to not only escaped slaves, but also to mulattos, Indians, and poor Caucasians.   Palmares existed as an impressive and powerful settlement with over 30,000 inhabitants until the death of its leader Zumbi in 1694.  The  play chronicles the lives of the Quilombo leaders, warriors Ganga Zumba and Zumbi.  In Brazil, both men are honored as heroes and symbols of black pride, freedom and democracy. 

Members of the public with an interest in taking part in this stage reading, should contact Kim McMillon at (510) 681-5652.   The rehearsals are 2/19, 2/20 and 2/21, 6-9 p.m.. Actors, dancers, musicians, and stage crew are needed for the  reading.  The February stage reading of Quilombo  will be the percusor to the October 9, 2008 premiere of Quilombo at the Malonga Center in Oakland. The February stage reading  is free to the public.

The production and consulting crew includes: award-winning filmmaker, director and author of the movie Quilombo, Carlos Diegues;  director Benny Sato Ambush;  Brazilian master choreographer Isaura Oliveira; music coordinator and 2005 Bay Area Blues Society Jazz Band of the Year, Avotcja & Modupue;  Brazilian translator and documentarian Renata M.T. Andrade-Downs, Ph.D.

Bay Area producer and playwright Kim McMillon brought this group of international artists together to utilize the arts to highlight injustice and to empower communities in their pursuit of social change.  Ms. McMillon will write and produce Quilombo the play as well as a cultural and educational series that focuses on cross-cultural projects that brings scholars, artists, students and community leaders together through artistic events and collaborative productions to increase public, and international awareness regarding global concerns. One of the goals of this production is to address how communities can work together for the good of the whole.  Quilombos still exist throughout Brazil, and are working communities where each person is valued, and believes that they are an important part of that community. 

The film's musical score, which will be used in the stage reading, is by Gilberto Gil, one of Brazil's greatest pop musicians, and a major force in the defining of Afro-Brazilian identity in Brazil since the sixties, not to mention Gilberto Gil is the  Minister of Culture for Brazil.
 
Quilombo is a sponsored project of PRO Arts (www.proartsgallery.org), a non-profit arts service organization.    PRO Arts serves as the region's primary visual-arts venue by hosting annual exhibitions and special events. For more information on Quilombo The Play, please contact Kim McMillon at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or visit www.quilombotheplay.com.

CANCELED! Live from Chicago: Imam Warith Deen Mohammed's Savior Day Addresses
The event is Sunday, February 24, at the Elijah Muhammad Cultural Center
1702 - 47th Ave., Oakland, CA 94601
 
THERE WILL BE AN A,TERNATIVE FREE PROGRAM INSTEAD. DINNER WILL ALSO BE SERVED FOR $10 A PERSON. Call (510) 261-3296 or This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .  There is also limited vending space available ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it )  The community is associated with the leadership and ministry of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed.


Sonny’s Blues at Lorraine Hansberry Theatre
I caught Margo Hall on her way to a rehearsal at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. The joint Word for Word, LHT production opened to rave reviews a few weeks ago.  Word for Word is a theatre that adapted stories for the stage by producing them word for word. Nothing is excerpted. All directions are spoken. It is one of my favorite theatres, begun by former librarians.

When I caught up with Margo on the phone a couple of weeks ago, she was looking for a quiet spot between Powell and Sutter to chat with me on the phone. When she found a spot I switched on the recorder and began. I am a Margo hall fan, whether that is Campo Santo, Word for Word or Berkeley Rep, she is one of my favorites directors and actresses, married to another actor and director I adore, L. Peter Callender. So this was certainly a treat  to the director and actress for even a short moment. It was Langston Hughes’ birthday, Friday, February 1, so we called his name. Between he and James Baldwin, the journey that morning was guaranteed success, and it was.  I hadn’t known Hall was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, a place known for its music scene.  Again, Hall was perfect as director, “Sonny’s Blues,” has an original score composed by the great Marcus Shelby. 

The story, written by James Baldwin, is about two brothers one younger than the other, one a musician, the other a school teacher. Sonny is younger than his brother, an algebra teacher and a veteran, as eventually is Sonny. When the story begins,  the elder brother reads about his brothers arrest for buying and selling heroin, a story confirmed by an old friend of Sonny’s.

Peter Macon as the big brother, an algebra teacher, struggles with ideas about his brother, a jazz musician whom he hadn’t seen in a while when we meet him on stage.  Big brother reflects on the story he read in the newspaper on the way to work about Sonny, his students tease one another the way kids do when the teacher is not attentive.  The lighting and blues motif cast an ambiance on the stage, the two brothers dancing on the floor oblivious to other couples.  Clearly, there love one another, even if big brother is still kind of bewildered over Sonny’s desire to play music let alone his way of handling a shared inheritance— misery.

Big brother creates formulas to work through the abstractions, while baby brother, Sonny, explores the same worlds using other tools to traverse a similar terrain.  A world  Sonny escapes, for a moment.

Marcus Shelby’s score is inspired. I wish I’d been in the house last week at the gala when Shelby performed live.  The music is a fifth character in a work described as a movement or score.  Elder brother plays by society’s rules and younger brother prefers the improvisational approach, yet both play the blues—suffering a motif they can agree one, a riff black men are all to familiar with. It’s inevitable, one just needs to find the proper tools to navigate what often seems impossible to escape.   Big brother doesn’t want to agree with Sonny.  “Isn’t it better, then, to just take it?” he asks.

“But nobody just takes it,” Sonny cried, “that’s what I’m telling you! Everybody tries not to.  You’re just hung up on the way some people try—it’s not your way!”

“I just care how you suffer. Please believe me. I don’t want to see you---die trying not to suffer.”
 
 Da’Mon Vann as “Sonny,” provides the emotional angst necessary to match older brother’s worries.  I like the space Baldwin gives to his two characters make mistakes, forgive each other and start over again or pick up where they left off. Macon’s character  struggles to articulate his feelings to Sonny and breaks. These emotional breaks are similar to the inarticulate space between melodies.

Sonny Blues speaks of the terrain black men walk…like landmines few survive unscathed or whole, but Sonny does because he is loved.  It might not be a love Big brother can express verbally, but he’s there. He’s there to pick up baby brother when he falls, and he’s there to listen to his song.

Baldwin was also the elder brother in his family and while not necessarily clueless like Sonny’s brother about the world his character escapes into to survive—the juke joints, clubs and bars, and the precarious tightrope Sonny must walk by day, as every black man has learned to walk to survive, he writes in his prose about the power of family to protect, if not shield, its black boys from danger. 

He speaks of Harlem, a ghetto, like so many others white America has created to destroy black boys.  His nephew is 15 in 1963, and this is about the age, Sonny is when he begins to cut school to escape into his music.  He says he isn’t learning anything. Later when in prison, Sonny writes his brother in response to a letter from Big brother letting him know him niece Grace has died.

“You don’t know how much I needed to hear from you.” Sonny tells his bog brother. “I wanted to write you many a time but I dug how much I must have hurt you and so I didn’t write. But now U feel like a man who’s been trying to climb up out of some deep, real and funky hole and just saw the sun up there, outside. I got to get outside.”

Baldwin says in an essay, “My Dungeon Shook, Letter to My Nephew,” that “to be loved, hard, at once and forever, (is) to strength you against the loveless world. If we had not loved each other,” Baldwin says, “(N)one of us would have survived. And now you much survive because we love you, and for the sake of your children and your children’s children.”

I’m sort of on a love kick, and having seen Sonny’s Blues on February 14.
What with Martin King, the love guy and now Baldwin and Sonny’s Blues—those hearts all over San Francisco don’t are no help either, I can’t seem to leave the theme alone. I am seeing love everywhere. I find it an unexplored solution to most, if not all society’s ills.  The Greeks called the kind of love I’m feelin’ agape.  In our Maafa song we call it, ìfe. In the Maafa song, sung in Yoruba, we say:  “Ìfé loju o, ìfe-loju,” which means, “Love is supreme. Oh! Love is supreme.”

Sonny’s Blues continues at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, 620 Sutter Street, San Francisco, through March 8, Wednesday-Saturday, at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m. for information call (415) 474-8800 or visit www.lhtsf,org or www.zspace.org.

An interview with Margo Hall, director
Wanda Sabir: We’re speaking on Langston Hughes birthday. Just wanted to pour literary libations on the brother’s memory.  Talk about Baldwin and his literary as well as political l legacy. Was either of these attractive to you the director? I’m thinking of your direction and participation in the Peoples Temple Project at Berkeley Rep and as a founding member of Campo Santo, a theatre that produces cutting edge work.     

Margo Hall: “I was exposed to James Baldwin very young, as well as, Langston Hughes and other African American writers,. I grew up in Detroit, Michigan, in a predominately black neighborhood and was enrolled in a black school system. So I’m always surprised when I meet other African Americans and they say, ‘Oh, I wasn’t exposed to any of their works until I was in college’ and different things like that. I just feel like— Wow! You are so deprived. The very first play I ever did, when I guess I was eight or nine years old, was at the Langston Hughes Theatre in Detroit. Again, I was reading Langston Hughes poetry before I read any of the others.

“As far as James Baldwin concerned I find him fascinating because he’s a literary artist and I think that unfortunately because he wasn’t as appreciated here in the United States, he had to go a abroad to France, but he always came home, and all of his work reflected the black experience here. I think as far as how I relate to this play, he talks about feeling like an outsider, and feeling like a person who has an appreciation for literature, something his family and maybe some of the people in his community didn’t understand. I think that Sonny in Sonny’s Blues, is similar in that he also has this appreciation for jazz which his brother doesn’t quite understand. Within this piece, Sonny and his brother—the narrator who is not named. He is referred to as the brother of Sonny, but during our rehearsal process we talked a lot about how Baldwin parallels both these characters.

“The brother character is the school teacher, very smart, very articulate, in the community, still living in impoverished surroundings, however, he somewhat escapes the poverty of Harlem, in that he has a family, a job and in that sense he’s similar to Baldwin in his ability to be articulate and a writer. Whereas Sonny is the other brother who took a different path, who took the path of pursuing the arts as a musician, not necessarily always understood, and I think that is also part of Baldwin.

“In just thinking of Baldwin politically, in the story, it doesn’t come out as much, he touches on areas—this is prior to the gains of the Civil Rights Movement. You have these instances where we don’t actually see overt racism in the story, but we understand the conditions of the African American, and he had this poignant monologue of the mother character, of how Sonny and Brother’s uncle was killed back in the South and it is a very hard story that they never knew. They never knew they had an uncle because she told the father to keep the story away from them, but then he shows, not only is this taking place in the early ‘50s, but he reaches back to earlier times when it was even more dangerous to be an African American.

“He brings that into the story, and he brings both the brothers part of the army. Sonny joins the navy; the brother is part of the army. He also touches on the fact that he has these two brothers who feel like part of their mission is to be a part of the armed forces because nothing else was offered to them.  Even though blacks weren’t represented well in the military, they still make that choice. It echoes a lot of the choices today of the young African Americans who are struggling with, “I need to get out of Oakland.’ So I go and join the army and be a part of this projection of America where they are not always classified as an equal citizen. So he touches on that as well in the story.”

WS: Tell me about this production of Sonny’s Blues and the collaboration between Word 4 Word and Lorraine Hansberry. Have you worked with either theatre before? I think you’ve worked with Word for Word.

MH: “Yes, I’ve worked for Word for Word several times. I’ve acted in plays and also directed a couple of short stories and so I really love the company. I love what they represent. I love how they bring literature to life and it’s always a fascinating experience to work on these stories. The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, I have known Stanley and Quentin for years and haven’t had the opportunity to work there, so this is an opportunity to work in this space. It is so exciting to be in the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, a theatre whose mission is to promote and support African American work. And finally to be doing a production during Black History Month that’s not a condition. It’s not ‘we’re doing this play because it’s Black History Month. It’s Black History year at LHT. It’s exciting to be at a place where you’re doing another work of another fabulous African American artist.”

WS: What you look for when deciding to direct a production?  You said you like Baldwin anyway, but what made you want to direct this play in particular?

MH: “I think in all the work I’ve ever done, it has to be a catalyst for change. It has to be a story or a play that I feel is relevant to current situations and it has a possibility to change someone in the audience.  I’ sure this is what most artists strive for. I don’t think there is a particular type of work I look for as a director, but I do weigh my choices very carefully, because I think whatever it is, it has to have an impact. I’ve been exposed to a lot of artists of color and I’m always fascinated by cultural differences. If I have a preference, I am more prone to work with an artist of color, just because I think those stories are very rarely told, unfortunately, in the overall picture of theatre. That is another thing I am drawn to as a director. And Baldwin…you know, how can you turn down an opportunity to do a short story of Baldwin. Word for Word is a fantastic company that stretches the boundaries in it production of stories from all walks of life from Sandra Cisneros, Alice Monroe, Langston Hughes, Tobias Wolff and here’s a beautiful James Baldwin story. I jumped at the opportunity to work on this. “

WS: Tell me about the cast and their relationship with the material and their characters and each other on stage.  I’m sure you probably know many of the members of the cast already.

MH: “Peter Macon is playing ‘Brother,’ and he is an actor who was once in the Bay Area and has moved to LA. He was so excited about coming back to San Francisco to be a part of this production.  Peter and I worked together on the very first Word for Word project I ever did, which was a Langston Hughes story, called ‘The Blues I’m Playing.’ The ensemble cast,  Da’Mon Vann is playing Sonny—fabulous actor! Allison L. Payne is playing the wife of brother, who also plays ensemble characters. Margarette Robinson, who’s been around the Bay Area for years. She’s know for her fabulous work in Crowns at the Marine’s Memorial Theatre as well as a lot of other theatre. She is an amazing singer and actress whom I’ve worked with when I first came here.”

WS: Is she the actress who was in The Colored Museum?

MH: “I don’t know. She did do The Trial at Lorraine Hansberry. She’s a wonderful actress. Mujahid is an actor—he did Fences out in San Jose. I actually worked with him when I directed some scenes of August Wilson, we did at MoAD and Muhjahid Abdul-Rashid and I said the next time I get an opportunity to work with him, I will, so I got him in on this project. Robert Hampton who has worked with me at Campo Santo and I directed him in Ragtime last summer and he was my Coalhouse Walker, Jr.  The cast, they are all really great. Sometimes you hear that and you say, yeah, that’s a great ensemble.  But genuinely, when we came together we all knew the purpose of the piece, we knew the importance of the piece—it has been kind of an easy process. It scares me sometimes. I wonder why I’m not having nightmares; why am I not waking up in the middle of the night saying, oh I can’t drop this scene. As someone said to me, this production is charmed and I said, oh, that’s interesting. ‘Cause I feel that way.  It’s kind of a charmed production. Everyone came together who needed to be there. Lorraine Hansberry was available so we could do this piece.  We’re also taking this piece to France for a month. it’s also the 20 anniversary of James Baldwin’s death. 

I have an amazing set designer, Lisa Dent, African American who I work with at Campo Santo (her theatre company out of Intersection for the Arts), on the last show I did there. I’m glad to have her on board. Of course the fabulous Marcus Shelby. The first person I thought of was Marcus Shelby. We’ve got to get Marcus to compose the piece. I’ve worked with Marcus before and he’s wonderful and we’re got that piece. Tom Ontiveros who is doing the lights, I’ve worked with before.  Everybody came together and I think it is a really strong piece.”

WS: What shows did you and Marcus work on before together? Talk about the musical element—Marcus Shelby score and is this your first time working with him?

MH:  “We did ‘The Trail of Her Inner Thigh.’ I co-directed that with Rhodessa Jones.’

(I remember this play.)

WS: You seem to have had a lot of input into who works with you.

MH: “It’s not just the actors and it’s not just me. It’s who is the collaborative team.

The director and I spoke more about her childhood and her dad who was a musician. I'll post the final segment soon.  

Short Cuts/Spontaneous Combustion Art Series
Jakmel Mwen Fou Pou Ou (Jakmel, I'm Crazy for You) is a part of the Haitian Artist Exchange...
currently exhibiting at The Luggage Story Gallery. This exhibition is a part of Short Cuts/Spontaneous Combustion Series: which features spontaneous exhibitions (organized in less than a month) with short runs of up to two weeks that respond to immediate issues. It opens Wednesday, February 20, 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. (This is an alcohol free event)

The event is in The Luggage Store Annex, 509 Ellis Street (near Leavenworth) and the exhibit contineus through Saturday, March 1. Gallery hours are Wednesday-Saturday, 12-5 p.m.
"Jakmel Mwen Fou Pou Ou" ("Jakmel I'm Crazy for You") Haitian Artist Exchange is a video, installation, photography, painting and mixed
media work by:

BAYARD JEAN BERNARD
EBBY LOUIS ANGEL
AMBROISE ANDERSON
SUSAN FRAME
IVY McCLELLAND
FLO McGARRELL
ALEX POLOTSKY
SARAH TOMBOLESI

Bayard Jean Bernard and Ebby Louis Angel from Haiti will be here for one more day, so please try to come to the reception to see their work and meet/greet/welcome them! For more information please see the website visit www.luggagestoregallery.org

The Haitian and American Artist Exchange (HAAE) is a grassroots collaborative effort between 7 Haitian and American artists. They have organized "Jakmel, Mwen Fou Pou Ou," a loving look at the town of Jakmel from both insider and outsider perspectives.

Kalbass  
It may still be mid-winter in Berkeley, but inside Ashkenaz it's tropical dance party time! DJ Miller has revived his hot Caribbean parties, the bimonthly island nights that he used to put on at Ashkenaz years ago. Tonight's lineup features Haitian band Kalbass; guest DJs Emmanuel Nado (of KKUP and KALW) and Linden B; and, of course, DJ Miller spinning the hottest selections from around the Caribbean. Acclaimed poet and music-word artist Avotcja, host of music programs on KPFA and KPOO, serves as MC. The event is this Saturday, February 23, at Ashkanez Music and Dance Center. Doors open at 8:30 pm; The show is at 9:05 pm. Tickets are $15 / $12 advance & students. Visit www.ashkenaz.com  and www.kalbasskreyol.com 

Capturing the Moment Photo Exhibit
James Knoz will giving an artist discussion on his current Jazzschool exhibit, "Capturing The Moment: Jazz & Photography", on Sunday, February 24, 2008 from 1:30-3:30pm at The Jazzschool, 2087 Addison Street, Berkeley, California. Cost $10. Following the artist discussion, Bay Area sax great Howard Wiley will perform a tribute concert celebrating the music of sax legend Dexter Gordon at 4:30pm. Artist discussion and concert $20.  The exhibit runs through March 29, 2008.
For more information visit  www.j-notes.com


“All That Jazz” and the naming of Women’s Cancer Resource Center’s Art Gallery after the founders of the Art of Living Black

Women’s Cancer Resource Center (WCRC) will name its gallery, now in its tenth year, after the late co-founders of The Art of Living Black (TAOLB) the Bay Area Group Exhibition and Tour for artists of African Descent. Jan Hart Schuyers and Rae Louise Hayward founded TAOLB twelve years ago. The WCRC gallery opened in 1998 with a memorial show for Jan Hart-Schuyers who had passed away in August 1998 from cancer. Hart-Schuyers taught art at Studio One in Oakland, was a board member at ProArts and created the art publication 510. Her creativity spanned innovative stained glass, paintings, lyrical cloth dolls, and striking African-inspired papier-mâché masks. WCRC’s gallery offered Rae Louise Hayward her first solo show in 1999 and several other subsequent shows. Hayward’s colorful acrylic paintings, oil pastel works and drawings were uplifting and powerful. In addition to her work with TAOLB Hayward was a board member of the Richmond Art Center and the Women’s Caucus for Art. Hayward passed away from cancer on January 3rd this year. The WCRC gallery worked with Hayward to participate in six satellite shows of TAOLB and over the past ten years the gallery has featured the work of over 30 TAOLB artists.

The WCRC gallery will be named the JanRae Community Art Gallery in recognition of Hart-Schuyers and Hayward and all the work they did to build community among local artists. There will be a tribute to Rae and Jan and a naming ceremony at the reception for the current Satellite show, “All That Jazz” Visual Art with a music theme – featuring the delightful art of James Gayles, Nannette Harris, Leroy Parker, & TheArthur Wright. Curated by Rae Louise Hayward.

Live jazz by Gemini Soul. Refreshments from Jesso’s. Everyone welcome. Free. Wheelchair accessible.
We hope you will be able to join us in celebrating art and culture.

The event is Friday, February 22nd, 7-9 PM, at the JanRae Community Art Gallery at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5741 Telegraph Avenue (at 58th St.), Oakland 94609 510-601-4040x111 or This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it Visit'; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text2955 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //-->\n This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it : http://www.wcrc.org

"BEAUTY and STRENGTH in Diversity" is the theme at 5th Annaul City of Oakland African American History Month.
The Fifth Annual Black History Celebration Flyer for NAS International on Saturday February 23, 2008, 2-5 p.m.,  at Oakland City Hall Council Chambers 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza in Oakland. There is free parking at the car park on Clay and Fourteen Street, Downtown Oakland California.. For more information visit www.nas-int.org

Feature speakers:
Jerri Lange, author of "A Black Woman's Life in the Media" Artists Embassy International Award Winner
Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq author of "Live Your Aboundant Life" from Chicago
Bill Patterson EBMUD Director, Former President Oakland Black Caucus
Kola Thomas-President Oduduwa Heritage Organization.
Professor Stevina Evuleocha- California State University East Bay
Special Reading by Michael Lange Reciting Malcolm X "The Ballot or the Bullet"
Master of Ceremony Osagie Enabulele, Commissioner Oakland Parks and Recreation, City of Oakland California

The program will be taped live by K-TOP Channel 10, City of Oakland . The program followed by Book Signing.
 
"A Greater Day In The Bay Photo shoot
Saturday, February 23, 2008 at 10 a.m. at Eastside Arts Alliance, 2277 International Blvd. Oakland with photographer Carlos Richardson. The photo will include everyone and anyone who has been involved in the Bay Area's activist performing arts community in the spirit of "A Great Day In Harlem" and Black History Month.

Around ten one morning in the summer of 1958, 57 musicians representing three generations of jazz history showed up at 126th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues in Harlem to be photographed taken by Art Kane, a freelance photographer working for Esquire magazine. The photo was eventually published in the January, 1959 issue. This photo also became the basis of a documentary film produced by veteran radio producer, Jean Bach of New York.

"A Great Day In Harlem" was a triumph in that a historical moment, a legacy, a timeless gaze into innovation was forever caught on camera and immortalized. We can forever look at that photo and be reminded of Jazz's great legends, of the time period ripe with chaos and love and imagine what great conversations and ideas must have been shared that day. Now is the time for the Bay Area to do the same! "A Greater Day In The Bay" is needed now more then ever. We as the members of the activist performing arts community in the Bay Area need to unite and document this historic time in the Bay Area. Never have we seen such prolific writing, performing, musicianship, activist work, collaborations, and creativity all developing at the same time, and with such a strong voice. But times are also full of chaos, of hopelessness and urban decay. This is not a youth movement or a movement being fueled by the elders in the community but one involving everyone from a myriad of aesthetic nuances moving in solidarity. We owe it to our community and to our creator who has blessed us with these gifts, to leave a legacy with this portrait that will surely last forever.

For more information contact: Martin Boston, 509-432-4198/ This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , and ESAA, 510-533-6629/ This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it