Happy Happy Birthday to:
TaSin Yasmin Sabir, my daughter, Horace Silver, creative musical artist, John Coltrane, another musical giant, Ricardo Prada and his daughter, Suzanna, Kwenu Brooks and all the Virgo/Libras within the sound of this Wanda's Picks Shout-out!

I am trying to get over to the Reaching for Change! Elders and Youth Together: Healing and Peace Building in Oakland with Zimbabwean traditional healer and peace carrier Mandaza Kandemwa at the Peralta Hacienda, 2465 34thAvenue (at Coolidge and Hyde) in Oakland, 1:30 to 6 p.m., Sunday, August 29, 2010. There is another healing gathering, a pre-Maafa ceremony for the Pan African community (black people) at Wo’se House of Amen Ra, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010, 6-9 p.m. Check www.maafasfbayarea.com for Maafa 2010 activities. The ritual is Sunday, October 10, this year. We plan to host a report back regarding Hurricane Katrina survivors in the Diaspora next month and a talk about my recent trip to Haiti.

Our beloved sister, Abbey Lincoln born Anna Marie Wooldridge in Chicago, joined the ancestors last month, we want to wish her a safe journey. Born August 6, 1930 she exited August 14, 2010. Known for her strong presence on stage, lyrically and intellectually stimulating and shaping the black arts movement, first with the seminal statement in Max Roach’s We Insist!—Freedom Now Suite, so powerful, the album was banned, to her essay in Toni Cade Bambara’s Black Woman (1970), Lincoln’s selection entitled: “To Whom Will She Cry Rape,” not to mention her starring role in Nothing but a Man, with our friend, photographer and composer/musician Kimara Dixon’s father, the late Ivan Dixon. Her film roles were many, in the 1956 film, The Girl Can’t Help It, she wore a Marilyn Monroe dress performing with Benny Carter. In For Love of Ivy, the classic with Sidney Poitier and Beau Bridges, she received a 1969 Golden Globe nomination.
 
When I spoke to her years about her CD: It’s Me (Verve 2003), a new work at that time, what I recall most was her statement that she was multifaceted, that most artists were, so why wouldn’t she also be a painter or fine artist, actress, writer and singe? Why not indeed. I will miss her, as I am sure we all will—thankfully she left a substantive body of work.

Remember the story when she and now the late Hank Jones found out they wee both at the same nursing home and the reunion the two had?  I’m sure Jaz Sawyer has many stories of the wonderful woman, as I believe he was her last drummer and worked with her for many years.  I’m sure there are tributes in the works, so stay tuned (smile). Check me out on-line www.wandaspicks.com and www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks (the show, now in its third year, is an extension of the on-line and published Picks. Wanda’s Picks Radio Show is available free on I-tunes as well as on the show website.

My friend Vivienne Crawford made her transition Monday, August 30 after a prolonged stay in hospice, enough time to let go and let those who cared about her visit and let go as well.  I will cherish an afternoon spent with her while she was lucid and funny and not in pain. I was able to ask her how it felt to be dying and had she resigned herself at any point in the diagnosis prior to its return. She told me that up to its return she was still fighting, but now she was letting go. That she'd lived a full and complete life, been of service to others and was ready to depart.

I drove by the hospice yesterday; I'd planned to visit Vivienne Monday after work. It feels strange knowing that she is no longer at the end of the short hall down the longer one to the right. I'd just figured out the maze and now she has departed . I remember when her conservator told me Vivienne had written her obits and the program for her memorial. She was organized. I can certainly say, I have never witnessed a transition like this one before. My father went quickly--Vivienne did not. When I last saw her she was awake and miserable. I told her I was back from Haiti as she nodded and the medicine began to take effect and she fell to sleep.  It was one of those very warm days we have been having for the past few weeks. I can't get over the fact that she and I were born the same day, not the same year and had a lot in common.

Vivienne Louise Crawford of Oakland, California passed away peacefully on August 30, 2010. Born June 20, 1951 in Cleveland, to the late Dr. Robert Percy Crawford and Vivian Louise Walker, she lived in Oakland for 30 years. Survived by sisters; Dr. Camille Crawford of Ohio, Murriel Crawford of Maryland, and brother Robert Crawford of California; aunt Florence Cuspard and uncle George Walker of Pennsylvania; nieces; Amber Melvin, Camille Gray, nephews; Toussaint, Theron, Howard, Robert, Isaiah, Matthew, Daniel, Zachariah, Joshua. Visiting hours are September 9, at The Chapel of the Chimes, Oakland from 4-8 p.m. Services will be September 10, at St. Columba’s Church, Oakland at 11:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be to The Charlotte Maxwell Complimentary Clinic, 610 - 16th Street, Suite 426, Oakland, California, 94612.

Viewing
Thursday September 9, 2010, 4:00p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, CA 94611-4293, (510) 654-0123.
 
Funeral Service & Reception
Friday September 10, 2010, 11:00 a.m., St Columba's Church, 6401 San Pablo Avenue, Emeryville, CA 94608-1233, (510) 654-7600
 
Donations in Lieu of Flowers
In Memory of Vivienne L. Crawford, Charlotte Maxwell Complementary Clinic, 610 16th Street, Suite 426, Oakland, CA 94612, (510) 601-7660; Fax: (510) 601-7669

 
Oakland Alliance of Black Educators Event

Oakland Alliance of Black Educators host the First Annual State of Oakland Unified School District's Strategic Vision, September 14, 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM at the Phillip Reeder's Auditorium Castlemont/Business and Technology High School, 8610 MacArthur Boulevard Oakland, CA 94605. For information call: (510) 553-1366


Berkeley Celebrates Enkutatash Ethiopian New Year Festival

On Sunday, September 5th, the public is invited to take a walk on the cultural side at Enkutatash, the 7th Annual Ethiopian New Year Festival at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, 2151 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in downtown Berkeley, from 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM.

The goal of this Festival is to commemorate Ethiopian traditions, art, and culture. This celebration will include: delicious traditional dishes, national costumes, poetry, music, children’s programs, Reggae Band Selamta, West African Highlife Band, Ethiopian Musicians Haileye Tadesse, Neway Afardew, and much more. This family friendly event is free of charge and open to all.

Enkutatash means the "gift of jewels", and is an important festival in the lives of Ethiopians. Its celebration dates back to the days of the Queen of Sheba. After three months of heavy rain, spring comes creating a beautiful clear fresh atmosphere in Ethiopia. The highlands turn to gold as the daisies burst into flower, gifts from nature to Ethiopia. Enkutatash is traditionally celebrated in a big way in Ethiopia; just as we Americans celebrate our New Year.

ECCC, the sponsor of this event, is a non-profit organization founded in 2001 to provide services and assistance to Ethiopians and Ethiopian Americans in such areas as education, employment, health, language barriers, and community resources. Funding for this Festival has been provided by the Christensen Fund. Local vendors, businesses, and artists have been invited to participate in this day of cultural diversity, and fun. If you are interested in having a booth, or need more information about the Festival, call (510) 681-5652.


FREE DAY AT THE CHABOT SPACE & SCIENCE CENTER

Instituting Science in School's Science & Culture Festival with World Renown, Bay Area Soul Singer Goapele as host Sunday, September 5th at the Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland.

At the event there will be NASA's first ever holographic presentation featuring Rapper/Actor Mos Def & Astronaut Leland Melvin, encouraging the youth to embrace Science, Math & Discovery, plus Science & Tech Inspired Poetry by Youth Speak's top young poets
special presentations by NASA speakers with special appearances and more @ the Chabot Space & Science Center
10000 Skyline Blvd, Oakland, CA from 11AM to 5PM. It is a free event for the entire family.

On the Fly:
Besides Genny Lim’s” Paper Angels,” I noticed a couple more interesting artists: Rotimi Agbabiaka's “Homeless,” Karen Bankhead’s “The VO5 Experience,” and Fred Blanco’s Stories of Cesar Chavez at the SF Fringe, Sept. 8-19, 2010, www.sffringefestival.org, 53rdAnnual Monterey Jazz Festival, also the same weekend as the Black Native American Pow Wow, Sept. 17-19. Visit http://www.montereyjazzfestival.org/2010/Earth Dance, Sept. 17-20, in Laytonville. Visit http://earthdancelive.com/tickets.html Featured are Michael Fanti and Spearhead, Zap Mama, and Trombone Shorty and New Orleans Avenue. Looks good. 12thAnnual Power to the Peaceful at Speedway Meadows in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, 9-5 PM. There is an after party at The Fillmore in San Francisco, and a before party Friday, Sept. 10, 7 p.m., with Michael performing his new album: The Sound of Sunshine. Visit http://www.powertothepeaceful.org/There is an all day family event, also at the Fillmore on Sunday, Sept. 12, 10 a.m. with a 3 p.m. kids and family concert with Michael Franti. Visit www.lapena.org At the “Cantor Arts Center” at Stanford University don’t miss “Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas,” Aug. 4-January 2, 2011. The Center is open Wednesday-Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday until 8 p.m. Admission is free. The Center is located off Palm Drive at Museum Way. Parking is free on weekends and after 4 p.m. weekdays. Call (650) 723-4177 or visit www.museum.stanford.eduIn October another exhibit opens: “Vodoun/Vodunon: Portraits of Initiates,” October 13, 2010 through March 20, 2011. The exhibit features 25 diptychs by the Belgian photographer Jean Dominique Burton. There are events connected to the exhibit on the following dates: a blessing Oct. 13 at 5; a series of films, Nov. 4, 11, 18 at 6 p.m., dance and storytelling Dec. 2, 6 p.m., and a lecture, January 13, 6 p.m. All the programs are free. Checkout Pacific Film Archive’s series on Shakespeare and other film series: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/ San Francisco Jazz Festival is coming up. Visit www.sfjazz.org Cal Performances starts: Visit www.calperfs.berkeley.edu Stanford Lively Arts might also be launching its season, not to mention the African American Shakespeare Company and  Brava Theater both open their 2010-2011 seasons with playwright Colin Teevan’s adaptation of Euripides’ Greek tragedy Iphigenia at Aulis, “IPH…” featuring acclaimed actor and incoming African-American Shakespeare Artistic Director L. Peter Callender, Bay Area favorite C. Kelly Wright, and up-and-coming talent Traci Tolmaire,. Sept. 25-Oct. 16 at Brava Theatre in San Francisco. Visit www.brava.org  and www.African-AmericanShakes.org. The Tarell Alvin McCraney trilogy, another grand collaboration this fall at Bay Area theatres, opens at the Marin Theatre Company with “Water” directed by Ryan Rilette, September 9 - October 3; Visit See www.marintheatre.org; Part Two at Magic Theatre: “The Brothers Size,” directed by Octavio Solis, Sept – Oct 2010, concluding at ACT-SF, Part Three: “Marcus; Or The Secret Of Sweet,” directed by Mark Rucke, Oct – Nov 2010. and www.brothersisterplays.org for more information about the plays. Margo Hall, starring in Alice Childress’s Trouble in Mind is in “Marcus.” The Latino Film Festival is mid-month in San Francisco (more later). I also found out that the San Jose Opera is opening with a work starring a Haitian Soprano Jouvanca Jean-Baptiste in ANNA KARENINA, the West Coast premiere of a new American Opera (the show was featured on Sunday the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, August 29, 2010). Opera San Jose opens September 11.  San Francisco Mime Troupe wraps up their season this months. Visit www.sfmt.org They perform at Dolores Park in San Francisco, Labor Day Weekend, 2 PM Saturday-Monday, Sept. 4-6.

Update on Kenya

Priority Africa Network & Akili Dada invite you to a community dialogue on what Kenya and the geo politics of East Africa with speaker: Dr. Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, Asst. Prof of Politics, University of San Francisco, and Executive Director, Akili Dada. Nunu Kidane, Priority Africa Network, will make introductions. The event takes place at Shashamane Bar & Grill, 2507 Broadway, Oakland. Visit http://www.shashamanebarandgrill.com/

There are food and drinks to buy but no cover charge; please come early and join Priority Africa for lively informal discussions on current issues like: What does the recent adoption of a new constitution in Kenya mean for the rest of Africa?  While the violence that marked the 2007 Kenyan elections were widely portrayed an example of typical African ethnic barbarism, for some the new constitution and the process that led to its ratification represents an argument to the opposite. How can we understand the substance and context of this recently adopted document?  Is the new constitution robust enough to reconstruct Kenyan society in more equitable ways or does it merely redistribute the poverty of the masses?

Dr. Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg is an assistant professor in the Politics department at the University of San Francisco.  Her research and teaching interests center on issues of democratization, political economy, Philanthropy and international development,  gender, ethnic politics, and human rights.   One of her current research projects looks at challenges to meaningful philanthropy towards Africa.

RSVPs requested, email This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or call (510) 663-2255.
 
VELMA'S
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2010

Just Got In From Texas, One Show Only BIG DADDY DEAN, A rising Star in the Texas Music Scene. Showtime: 8:00. No Cover
2246 Jerrold Avenue, San Francisco, 415.824.7646 / This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
 

Theatre

San Francisco’s Brava Theater and African-American Shakespeare Company open their respective seasons with a collaborative production, the US Premiere of IPH… by playwright Colin Teevan. Dylan Russell helms this edgy, lyrical adaptation of Euripides’ Greek tragedy Iphigenia at Aulis, featuring acclaimed actor and incoming African-American Shakespeare Artistic Director L. Peter Callender, Bay Area favorite C. Kelly Wright, and up-and-coming talent Traci Tolmaire. IPH… plays September 25 through October 16 (press opening September 27) at Brava Theater in San Francisco. For tickets ($15-35) and information, the public can call the Brava box office at 415-647-2822, visit www.brava.org or www.African-AmericanShakes.org.

Birthday Party for Leonard Peltier

Sunday September 12, 2010, Leonard Peltier, Native American freedom fighter and political prisoner, is 66 winters old. Celebrate his life as those present make a strategy to set him free, now. Only President Obama has the authority to do! Convicted on the basis of fabricated and suppressed evidence, as well as coerced testimony, Leonard has been imprisoned for over 34 years for a crime he did not commit. This is an issue of right versus wrong! The event is at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley. Visit www.lapena.org
 
Special guest speaker Leonard Foster. Performances by Goodshield, Lorna D. Cervantes, Matt Callahan, and Coyotess Tails! Drumming by All Nation Singers and traditional dancers.  Sponsored by AIM West and Leonard Peltier Support Group of Northern California.  For more information call 415-577-1492, or www.aimwest.info  

Dreamgirls

I loved Dream Girls…the music and choreography, the singing, the story, the acting. It was all around the best musical I have seen in a long time. It was sad, but the sad part ended right before intermission—Moya Angela’s Effie White’s song: “I’m Telling You I’m Not Going.” And then “Effie” is gone, until the last act when we see her again after motherhood and feeling sorry for herself.
 
The first act was stellar! So you know I was shocked when I ran into one of my favorite actresses, Margarette Robinson in line at one of the many discount stores which shall remain unnamed—I was shopping for curtains, after five years it’s time for the butcher paper to come down (smile), and she tells me that the Oakland Tribune review said Dreamgirls didn’t have soul. I was like, Chester Gregory’s James “Thunder” Early had enough soul for the entire cast—he was that dynamic especially when he was “on.” It was like how low can he limbo and how high can he reach.

Go see the show, especially if your spirit needs boosting. It is guaranteed to make one feel good about those things that money can’t buy—family and friendship and talent. It will also help one realize that the only person who can make your dream come true is you—so get with it, just as Effie and Deena do in the end.

This coming of age story features a girl band, loosely based on the Diana Ross and the Supreme’s story, although artistically I don’t think the ending reflects the true story. There wasn’t a happily ever after I don’t think in real life.

In Dreamgirls the three friends: Effie White (Moya Angela), Deena Jones (Syesha Mercado), Lorrell Robinson (Adrienne Warren) and later Michelle Morris (Margaret Hoffman);  their manager/song writer C.C.White, Effie’s brother (Trevon Davis) who get swept up in the business and forget the friendship that brought them from Detroit to the big city—Chicago, in the first place when Chaz Lamar Shepard’s Curtis Taylor ingratiates himself on the group and eventually takes their dream away and inserts his own.

Taylor is quite the master at the game and Deena shows how hard it is to tear oneself away from such a strong personality. Effie has a strong voice and personality and she is not easily ignored. Once she is pushed to do back up because the Dreams’ manager wants a lighter sound, he also wants a more standardized look—lighter complexioned skinny girls with long hair. With Effie gone, the girls look like clones of Deena—the lead singer.

Deena unlike Effie is more easily molded and steps into Curtis’s dream— and doesn’t wake up for at least seven years.

The Dreamette’s story isn’t new and probably because it is so typical; no one blames the girls when the favorite flavor gets tossed out and eventually pushed out of her own group. One would think love will find a way and that blood is thicker than water, but all is cliché when the lights are on and one is a star and with the fantastic set and production—it doesn’t get much brighter or finer for quite a long time…time enough to forget Effie, forget one’s past, compromise one’s values (Lorrell) and eventually become someone new who is not necessarily one’s best self.

But hey, this is a play and there is an Act 2.

Some stories translate better on film, some on stage and others are better left on the page—so that one’s imagination can dress the characters and add music to the duller moments between chapters. Dreamgirls –forget the movie—Jennifer Hudson was good, but compared to live theatre –the wonderful staged Dreamgirls, do yourself a favor and get over to San Francisco’s Curran Theatre on Geary (next door to ACT-SF). You will not be disappointed from the opening number to the spectacular bigger than life close.

In 2010 how many times have you gone to a show where the entire cast is black? Look out Afro-Solo, which is now integrated (smile). Dreamgirls employs on stage 26 black men and women—perhaps more if one counts the musicians and others connected to the production like costumes, lighting, set and who knows what else. The set is a state of the art technical marvel—four panels that rotate, the designer employing video, lighting, and larger than life projected images pretty much all on cue. It is amazing.

The show is up through Sunday, Sept. 26. Visit www.shnsf.com or call (888) SHN-1799.

Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress at the Aurora Theatre

As I was sitting in the theatre watching the scene unfold, I wondered at the end of Act 1, what I was doing sitting there and why would anyone want to see the piece. But Margo Hall was the female lead and she wouldn’t waste her time on a script which didn’t have a certain attitude…and besides that, Alice Childress, the author of one of my favorite childhood novels, A Hero Ain’t Nothing but a Sandwich, wrote, Trouble in Mind, so it had to be good, right?

The first act is a stairway to the second, is all I can say, now that I am back home in the kitchen typing out this review at almost midnight—and I certainly recommend the climb, even if the ending leaves one next to the fire escape, with flames licking their chops at you.

Can a white playwright write black authenticity and can a director, known for his eccentric style recognize his bias? Does Broadway—read the American public want truth or more palatable lies? Is American theatre about truth or is it a sophisticated mechanism used to normalize and legitimize popular stereotypes?  If theatre is no more than a forum to make the privileged Americans feel less guilty about their privilege, then the stories told there are lies.

Margo Hall’s character, “Wiletta Mayer” raises such in Trouble in Mind.

Wiletta Mayer, a veteran actress, is playing a starring role in this supposedly contemporary play about black life. It’s a time when black people in the South are demanding equal rights and certainly equal access to education and public facilities like libraries, and transportation, swimming pools and jobs.

The play that brings the cast to Broadway is written by a white man about a family in the south and the action on the set is as much a microcosm of what is wrong with the script as the script itself.
 
The director comes across as an arrogant know it all—he is so full of himself, when a person in the cast asks for jelly donuts instead of Danish, he poopoos his request over his own with “You don’t really want jelly donuts and orders Danish even though no one wants Danish, except him.”

He doesn’t know how to separate his personal life from his professional –he talks about his ex-wife and custody issues with her over his son, as he talks about the cost of this production which he is footing along with directing. His is the only voice of reason, never mind he hasn’t lived the lives depicted in the script. A chilling moment is when in the second act, Rhonnie Washington’s character, “Sheldon,” tells the cast that he has witnessed a lynching and the director invites him to tell them about it.  Yet, after such a horrific moment, all the cast does is take a coffee break—a coffee break!

Childress’s insertion of this literal reality check doesn’t shake the arrogance inherent in white privilege enough to create even a semblance of understanding when Wiletta Mayer takes the director to heart when he tells her to speak her truth and realizes that her truth is not on the page—that her character would not say or do what she is asked and she asks him to change the lines.

This moment in the second act reminds me of a film I just returned where a prosecutor makes a deal with a known murderer and the father of the murdered child, goes off the deep end, literally and not only kills the murderers of his child and wife, he also kills others who uphold a flawed judicial system where criminals are freed and deals are made with devils on a regular basis.

After Sheldon’s depiction of a real lynching, verses the one in the script…it seems as if, Sheldon would now be the authority and as a black mother, Wiletta should have been given the authority to question the authenticity of her character’s lines. Instead, the director, “Al Manners” goes off on a personal tangent and then says a few things about privilege he should have left unsaid—he says things about the American audience he is playing to, which does not look like her, which was best left unsaid.
 
Tim Knifflin’s “Al Manners” tells her to take the ride, that no one cares about the truth. The white audience doesn’t want to feel guilty and if the lynching of her character’s son will make his mother the guilty party, just pass go and collect her paycheck, and be happy she has a paycheck.

It is an interesting phenomenon—this truth stuff. All truth is not equal…only the truth that fits into the popular discourse, what historian Ronald Takaki calls the “dominant narrative.”

Childress’s cast is multigenerational, yet despite the age differences and training, some college graduates, others trained on the stage itself—not a lot has changed. New York after all had huge slave holdings. It is a port city and at the time of the story, black people were not allowed to live in certain neighborhoods, something unnoticed by Patrick Russell’s Eddie Fenton, the director’s assistant, or Melissa Quine’s “Judy Sears,” a young affluent actress on her first job. 

Jon Joseph Gentry’s “John Nevins” is the New Negro, one who though from the south is ready to make acting a career, who believes in the promise of America and then meets s. Wiltetta Mayor, who went to school with his mom, remembered him a baby and asks him why he’d want to be an actor, when there are no roles for real black men.

“They don’t see you.” She tells him while they are alone in the theatre, both early. She then proceeds to tell him how to act around the director—what to say, when to laugh, what to tolerate…how to shuffle and slide through the narrow breathing space allotted for black people.

I’m sure a lot of the actors I saw in the audience opening night could relate to what the black characters were facing with the script and the director and his refusal to listen, let alone make any changes. If he’d at least listened to Wiletta, after all they’d worked together many times prior to this production, he could have waylaid much of the bitterness and ill-will he created when he disregarded her repeated requests for private consultations before and after rehearsals.

There are some things one cannot shut down and that is a determined black woman, especially a mature woman like Wiletta Mayer, who saw this work as her opportunity to really act. 

There is a lot of laughter in the play, and the ending leaves one with a lot of questions. Would I recommend it? For those who are interested in theatre that makes one think, certainly Childress doesn’t answer the question she raises, but Margo Hall’s handling of her character, Willeta leaves no doubt as to what she plans to do.

Trouble in Mind is up Tuesdays at 7 p.m., Wednesday-Saturdays, 8 p.m. and Sundays, at 2 and 7 p.m., through Sept. 26 at the Aurora Theatre in downtown Berkeley at 2881 Addison Street. Visit www.auroratheatre.org or call (510) 843-4822. There are generous discounts for students and patrons under 30 years old (half-price).

Other events at the Aurora:
Friday Forum: September 10—Recognizing Ourselves in Others; Script Club: Monday, September 20, 7:30-8:30 p.m. A Street Car Named Desire by Tennessee Williams; Role Play Night: September 24, Finding the Human Heart in Theatre


First Annual International Multi Cultural Powwow
Black Native American Association presents: The First Annual International Multi Cultural Powwow: Honoring Our Legacy: Past Present, and Future, the Red Black Connection

The event is Saturday-Sunday, September 18– 19, 2010 --1 PM will be a procession both days. There is a pre-Pow Wow panel discussion Friday, Sept. 17, 6:30-8:30 PM, in the Music Department Bldg. at California State East Bay, in Hayward, 25800 Carlos Bee Boulevard, Hayward, in front of Music department  lawn area.   There will be drumming, a dance contest, and an Iron Dance Competition.  Visit www.bnaa.org

For more information contact: Don Littlecloud Davenport, (510) 536-1715 and This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .  Vendors information contact: Harry Jordan: (510) 304-7029.  This is an Alcohol and Drug Free event for the entire family.  Don Littlecloud Davenport will be on Wanda's Picks Radio, the 8:30-9 AM slot Friday, Sept. 3. Tune in at www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks
 
 
A pre-MAAFA event sponsored by: WO’SE Community: House of Amen Ra, A Community of the Sacred African Way and MUUYU DARE’ 
 
A Community Gathering for Africans and Africans from the Diaspora with MANDAZA KANDEMWA from Zimbabwe, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m., Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at WO’SE Community House of Amen Ra of the Sacred African Way, 8924 Holly Street, Oakland, CA. Please RSVP: (510) 654-2620 and (510) 419-0510. Donations are appreciated to support Mandaza’s travel and the Tatenda Project in Zimbabwe. The elder will also present at the shamanism conference in San Rafael Saturday-Monday, Sept. 4-6. Visit http://shamanismconference.org/
 

More San Francisco Fringe Festival 2010
Genny Lim’s “Paper Angels”

Genny Lim’s 1982 play, Paper Angels in a new multimedia production to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Angel Island, the Ellis Island of the West, Wednesday to Friday: September 15, 16 and 17 at dusk in Portsmouth Square, (the heart of San Francisco’s Chinatown, (Grant Street at Clay Street) as a part of the San Francisco Fringe Festival. Visit www.sffringefestival.org and www.directarts.org. I am going Friday, Sept. 17. I have classes the other two nights.

Set in 1915 during the Chinese Exclusion Act, PAPER ANGELS is about an elderly Chinese railroad worker attempting to bring his wife to America after many decades of separation. A seminal play by San Francisco native Genny Lim, the play premiered in 1982 and was subsequently filmed for American Playhouse on PBS starring James Hong and Joan Chen. Dusting off this prescient gem nearly three decades later in the wake of heated debates on America’s immigration policy, Direct Arts’s new multimedia production incorporates projections of archival images, live traditional Chinese music, spoken word and segments of Chinese opera and folkdance.

Rotimi Agbabiaka's “Homeless”

Homeless by Rotimi Agbabiaka has its Bay Area premiere at the EXIT Stage Left, 156 Eddy Street, MON SEPT 13 10:00 PM, THUR SEPT 16 7:00 PM, SAT SEPT 18 5:30 PM, 45 Minutes. Tickets are: $8 ($9.99 online)
It is a solo performance, some profanity, and the work is not for people under 15 years old.
 
What does home look like when you are a black, gay immigrant? And where do you find it? Rotimi Agbabiaka's "Homeless" is a sometimes funny, always poignant trek from Bulgaria to Nigeria to the United States of America. On his journey to find home our protagonist encounters past loves, present obligations and future fantasies. In this piece, Rotimi uses music, dance, storytelling, and shapeshifting to examine the meaning of identity in our global village.
 
Rotimi Agbabiaka comes to the Bay Area from Dekalb, Illinois where he just received an MFA degree in Acting from Northern Illinois University. Before braving the Midwestern cold, Rotimi lived in Texas and grew up in Nigeria. He's also spent a summer studying at the Moscow Art Theatre, two summers studying and performing at The Leon Katz Rhodopi International Theatre Laboratory in Bulgaria, and two summers performing with Shakespeare at Winedale in Round Top, Texas. Rotimi is currently performing with the San Francisco Mime Troupe in "Possibilidad, or Death of the Worker."
 
Karen Bankhead’s “The VO5 Experience”

The V05 Experience by Karen Bankhead and Free Spirit Productions is at the EXIT Studio, 156 Eddy Street, THUR SEPT 9 10:30 PM, FRI SEPT 10 7:00 PM, SAT SEPT 11 1:00 PM, SUN SEPT 12 6:00 PM, 50 Minutes. Tickets are: $5 ($6.99 online)

The V05 experience is a hilarious and inspirational one-woman show that explores show business, depression and how to keep hope alive. In other words, there's a time to weep and a time laugh; a time to mourn and a time dance; and a time to just sit your butt down and watch "I Love Lucy." The show is performed by veteran TV, film and stage actress Karen Bankhead and features the unforgettable "Etta Mae Mumphries," who is guaranteed to bring down the house. Come get your laugh on and take home something to believe in.
 
Karen Bankhead hails from San Jose, grew up in an Air Force family, and received a BA in psychology from UCLA.

Fred Blanco’s “Stories of Cesar Chavez”

From award-winning performer, Fred Blanco, comes this dramatic portrayal of the labor leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez. Blending fact and fiction this bilingual piece offers a compelling look at the man and his struggle for equality as he searches for strength through his undying faith. The solo performance is September 11, 2010 9:00 p.m. through September 18, 2010 1:00 p.m., at the EXIT on Taylor, 277 Taylor Street, San Francisco. The language is coarse and the piece is for people over 14 years old.

Multi-Ethnic Theatre @ The Next Stage presents: August Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean”

I went to the first preview performance, which was fantastic! I can hardly wait until it opens. This particular play in the 10 year—100 years of African American history cycle is the first in the series, although it was the ninth written.  Here we meet characters who know what it means to be enslaved and how freedom is not given, it is what one makes of the opportunities he or she has which makes one truly free.  Gem of the Ocean is about not giving up on oneself, yet, not holding onto weights which do nothing to further the journey.  It’s about family and recognizing the difference between blood and what’s thicker—integrity. Gem is a coming of age tale of a young woman whose patience runs out just in time to meet a proud young man born 41 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. One of the characters says he has to live his truth for himself, if for no one else. Integrity is in itself motivation enough to do what’s right. 

Gem of the Ocean, black people drowned in the triangular slave trade…bones lining the floor of the Atlantic features characters we’ve heard mentioned in other plays like Aunt Ester, the matriarch whose home is threatened by redevelopment offers in Radio Golf. She is mentioned in Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars, and King Hedley II. I think Black Mary’s child is King Hedley II. We meet Solly Two Kings (the first king) in Gem of the Ocean; Rutherford Selig is in Gem as well as in Joe Turner Come and Gone, as the kindly “Peddler” in the former and the “People Finder” in the latter.

Citizen Bartlow is the catalyst of the piece. He arrives at Aunt Ester’s from his native Alabama, heavy with sorrow. He has killed a man and he needs his soul washed.  To cleanse himself, he has to walk backwards to the beginning where it all started and be born again.  "Gem" is a play about memory. No one forgets anything in this world Wilson has created which lives tangibly still on the streets of his Pittsburg Hill District.

A wonderful woman, artist Hilda Jones, said that evening that when she was in Pittsburgh a few years ago, she and her sister got lost and recognized the area from Wilson’s plays…his language so vivid and precise. Their misadventure became a welcome adventure.

The theatre was semi-full the first night of previews, tickets half price, as are every Thursday evening for the entire run, August-September at MET at The Next Stage, 1620 Gough Street (near Bush Street). The theatre is inside a church. The director said one can always find discounts on-line for tickets, so don’t let the $30 price deter you.  Visit www.wehavemet.org
 

Flyaway Productions, in partnership with the Women’s Building, premieres: Singing Praises: Centennial Dances for the Women’s Building

This is a free, site-specific dance by choreographer Jo Kreiter to honor the 100th Anniversary of the Building’s Construction.  Music is by Jewlia Eisenberg, in collaboration with Charming Hostess, with Ava Mendoza. There are only 12 performances: September 10 – 11, 16 – 18 at 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. and September 12 at 8 p.m., only, with a September 17th matinee at 10 a.m. There will also be a series of “Curbside Conversations” on the creative process: Thursdays, August 12, 19 and 26th at 5:30-6:30 p.m. All take place at The Women’s Building (3543-18th Street at Lapidge between Valencia and Guerrero, San Francisco)
 

An Afternoon of Poetry at the Oakland Main Library, SAturday, September 25, 2-5 PM
South Asian American Poetry

Indivisible:An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian American Poetry is the first anthology to bring together established and
emerging American poets who trace their roots to Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Several of the poets who contributed to the anthology will read their work at the Library from 3 PM to 5 PM.

Earler that same afternoon, Roswitha McIntosh, Distinguished Senior Poet at NYU, will read from In Search of the Good Life, her recent volume of thoughts and poems inspired by her extraordinary life journey. Ms. McIntosh was born in Germany, in the year Hitler came to power. Her childhood experiences,surviving under Nazi rule, have figured prominently in her work.

Both readings are at the Main Library —West Auditorium, 125 14th Street, (510) 238-3138. Visit www.oaklandlibrary.org


Dan Hoyle's "The Real Americans"  review at The Marsh Theatre in San Francisco through Nov. 6,  2010

I always wonder why white artists don’t look to their own communities for stories to showcase, rather than the easier route of passive objectification of the known villain: black people and other people of color, often poor and similarly objectified. Dan Hoyle who is a fine writer and actor has done just this with his latest one man show in an extended run at The Marsh Theatre in San Francisco. In an uninterrupted 90 minutes Hoyle takes his audience from comfortable San Francisco to the American Heartland, Texas and then to Alabama…maybe elsewhere. I get lost geographically –I just know we are in the southland—not the mall in Hayward, CA (smile). I can smell the crickets and the turpentine and feel Hoyle’s frustration with Americans whose values shape the country no matter how any delegates we send or electoral votes California casts.

The overt racism is so common –it's almost a ritual the blind participate in because they can’t see any way to compromise and not lose face in themselves, not necessary to their neighbors or friends.

Hoyle makes fun of his California friends who are trying to protect the planet –consume less, participate in the global exploitation of the economy and the disenfranchised populations, yet sacrifice none of their creature comforts like brunch on Sunday mornings –what Hoyle calls an “elitist” pastime that points to how disconnected they really are from the suffering of the majority of the population here and elsewhere.

Raised in a liberal family of artists who use their work to illustrate the inequities surrounding most of us—Hoyle looks at how easily California liberals find solace in the shields we can inflate at will even before the collision with situations and people we find uncomfortable. His friends make light of the issues killing fellow human beings never mind the planet. It's all cliché with none of the panache. What Hoyle finds is that he can do the same, yet refuses--must be the artist or writer in him, the desire to feel uncomfortable, out of place. . . .  So he leaves the creature comforts and goes on the road with his friends' blessings whom he calls often to let off frustration and disbelief steam.

The Real Americans is slapstick fun at times, the characters almost unbelievable, but with Hoyle, truth is stranger than fiction and given his stellar track record at bringing to the stage stories that ring with an authenticity one can't fake--we believe as we look to the concession stand for a drink of clear powerful white lighting.  

Hoyle's character sings accompanied by Hoyle on an acoustic guitar, raps and dances across the stage--I guess comic relief if his saving grace, how else can he survive this culturally shocking nightmare? The raps are so funny. Often so inebriated on moonshine he can barely walk, let alone think, intoxication is another theme that comes from The Real Americans.

Doyle is just passing through, but for those he leaves behind, often the only way a Vietnam veteran can get through the days and weeks which have stretched into years since he was last employed. The same is true of another character who is unable to walk, so he drinks, and then there is another veteran who stopped drinking and counsels youth against joining the military—a source of pride for many families who have served their country for consecutive generations.

Youth returning from Iraq are committing suicide, yet this fact does not keep others from filling their shoes. Hoyle’s characters talk about homosexuality and creation theories, while trying to get him to use his van as a brothel on wheels. Hoyle refuses and they go to the fireworks show that July 4th weekend. This is where the play starts with the founding of the country— no one remembers which birthday it is.

Hoyle runs into a Dominican friend who worked with him on a production in New York. Imagine see a large Dominican family in a Southern café –Hoyle just one of two white patrons. His friend is also a veteran and Hoyle depicts his interaction with the customer whose son is a veteran and once discharged went to New York to live. Hoyle portrays the Dominican’s character’s anger at the father’s query about his military service—he thinks the man is saying that he doesn’t look like a “real American,” and then realizes it’s a bit more complicated than that, which I think is the point of the entire piece, what makes an American real or fake is a matter of perception, perceptions which are often based on lore and popular opinion which on many occasions is wrong.

Patriotism is a clear theme in The Real Americans, which already mentioned begins on July 4. It seems that real Americans are willing to die for their country, even if they are not ready to live and let others live here as well. With such a grim future ahead it's no wonder kids are committing suicide and adults are drinking themselves to death.

When asked by a character who relied on FBI reports and other government sources for his information where he gets his information from, Hoyle replies “from talking to people.” How simplistic, yet what happens in the café is proof that much of what is dysfunctional about our country is the fact that people are not talking to one another.

Fear and anger keep much of our country divided and silent to policies which do not serve the majority population well.  What Dan Hoyle’s “Real Americans” says is that no matter how uncomfortable these personal, one-on-one encounters makes one feel, this is the only way to really find out who the “Real Americans” really are and in that conversation learn that there is no much difference between us after all despite the historic debts that need to be paid…checks that according to Martin King need to be covered. 

A truth and reconciliation tribunal, like that held in South Africa and Rwanda, would do this country a lot of good. What Hoyle in his latest work uncovers has not had a national hearing.  Racism and bigotry, recent immigration and historic slavery connected to present inequities is a conversation neither the president nor Congress can have for the American people. What the real American looks like is a flat paper doll with so many attributes that one cut out couldn’t hold them all. Real Americans look like the world’s majority populations: people of color, yet for most of the world and even in this country, Real Americans are white people, descendents of the Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, the principle writer. Of the 56 signators, John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton, among the more well-known or famous white men—not one signature was that of the new nation’s indigenous hosts.

America is founded on a farce. Real Americans, like beauty, is a concept solely in the eye of the beholder, and we know how arbitrary and biased that is. Visit http://www.themarsh.org/dan_hoyle_real_americans.html  The show continues through November 6, Wednesday-Sunday, at The Marsh in San Francisco, 1062 Valencia Street, (near 22nd street in the Mission) San Francisco.  For tickets, the public may call Brown Paper Tickets at 800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org

Don Reed's East 14th Extended Again!

Don Reed's EAST 14TH - TRUE TALES OF A RELUCTANT PLAYER has been extended at The Marsh Berkeley through November 21, 2010. The show has now entered its second sold-out year – it started at The Marsh San Francisco in May, 2009! – and its 15 or 16th extension.

Recently, Reed shared one of the stories from EAST 14TH with Oprah's new television network. Entitled BUTTER, it is already available on her website at http://www.oprah.com/own/innerview.html?page_id=14 and will air beginning 1/1/11.

Reed, who is the comedian/warm-up host for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno during the week, is delighted to be spending his weekends performing on his home turf in the East Bay. When playing on Fridays, the show will start at 9:00 pm, on Saturdays at 8:00 pm and on Sundays at 7:00 pm. All shows take place at The Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way in Berkeley. For tickets, the public may call Brown Paper Tickets at 800-838-3006 or visit www.themarsh.org

EAST 14TH chronicles the true tale of a young man raised by his mother and ultra-strict stepfather as a middle class, straight A, God-fearing church boy. The boy, however, wanted to be just like his dear old Dad. Too bad he didn't know dear old Dad was a pimp. Very funny, definitely poignant — a ride down a street you won't soon forget. The San Francisco Chronicle described Reed as an "Irresistible presence," and the East Bay Express declared the show ‘...Nothing short of amazing." The show is a best Bay Area Critics Circle Award Solo Performance nominee.

Friday, August 6; Sunday, August 8
Saturday, August 14; Sunday, August 15
Friday, August 20; Sunday, August 22
Saturday, August 28; Sunday, August 29
Saturday, September 4

After September 12 and through November 21:
Saturday at 8:00 pm; Sunday at 7:00 pm except for: Friday, October 8th at 9:00 pm and Saturday, October 9th at 8:00 pm (no performance on Sunday, October 11), Friday, October 29th at 9:00 pm and Saturday, October 30th at 8:00 pm (no performance on Sunday, October 31)

Through September 12:
Saturday, August 28 at 8:00 pm; Sunday, August 29 at 7:00 pm
Saturday, September 4 at 8:00 pm
Saturday, September 11 at 8:00 pm; Sunday, September 12 at 7:00 pm

San Francisco Mime Troupe
www.sfmt.org

Dolores Park
Sat, Sep 4th @ 2:00 PM (Music 1:30)
Sun, Sep 5th @ 2:00 PM (Music 1:30)
Mon, Sep 6th @ 2:00 PM (Music 1:30)
18th St. & Dolores St., San Francisco
Ticket Info: FREE (donation)

Nevada Theatre
Thu, Sep 9th @ 7:30 PM (Music 7:00)
Fri, Sep 10th @ 7:30 PM (Music 7:00)
401 Broad Street, Nevada City
Ticket Info: http://www.paulemerymusic.com
Tickets on sale in early August, flat rate - $20

Community Park
Sat, Sep 11th @ 7:00 PM (Music 6:30)
East 14th & F St., Davis
Ticket Info: FREE (donation)

Southside Park, Bandshell
Sun, Sep 12th @ 5:00 PM (Music 4:30)
6th & T St., Sacramento
Ticket Info: FREE (donation)
ASL Interpreter on site

Chabot College Performing Arts Center
Wed, Sep 15th @ 7:00 PM (Music 6:30)
25555 Hesperian Blvd., Hayward
Ticket Info: FREE (donation)

Benefit Performance
Marines' Memorial Theatre
Fri, Sep 17th @ 8:00 PM (Music 7:30)
609 Sutter Street, San Francisco
Ticket Info: http://tinyurl.com/2daok6h
Tickets in advance and at door: $29

Analy High School
Sun, Sep 19th @ 7:00 PM (Music 6:30)
6950 Analy Ave., Sebastopol
Ticket Info: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/116097

Tickets with brownbag: $20 adults, $15 student ($1.99 service fee). Tickets at the door: $25 adults, $20 students


Sundays Under the Redwoods Concert Series in Oakland begings Sept. 19

The City of Oakland’s Office of Parks and Recreation (OPR) invites the public to its fifth annual outdoor “Sundays In The Redwoods” – a community-inspired music concert series that uplifts the individual recreational experience nestled in the Redwoods of Oakland. Each concert begins at 2:00pm with a Youth performance, and showcases over four consecutive weeks, beginning September 19 at the Woodminster Amphitheater, 3300 Joaquin Miller Road, Oakland, CA. There is a minimum donation of $5 and can be made by calling 510-238-3052; or by visiting www.SundaysInTheRedwoods.com . The array of local and nationally renowned artists will give the community a taste of creative compositions that have received wide acclaim across the country. This year’s blending of energetic and traditional musical genres are: 

September 19 - World Music Day: LAVA; Bobi Cespedes; and Pete Escovedos

September 26 - Soul of the Symphony: Oakland Civic Orchestra; The Oakland East Bay Symphony conducted by Maestro Michael Morgan featuring Goapele.

October 3 - The Rhythm Section: Baby Jaymes; Martin Luther; and Angie Stone; and

October 10 - Talking All That Jazz: Ray McCoy; Stabe Wilson; and George Duke

Last year, Sundays in the Redwoods encore presentations attracted well over 6,000 appreciative audiences. Tables and entry tickets can be reserved by calling 510-238-3052; or visiting www.sundaysintheredwoods.com. For more media information, please call Kola Thomas at 510-238-3095.