Wishing everyone a blessed Resurrection Day and to those participating a blessed Ramadan fast this 2021 season.

How does one stay connected given the elimination of illusionary landmarks? Were we rehearsing: (-1) minus one, (+1) plus 1? Empty space with masks that cover everything except the windows to a soul living temporarily in flesh and this presents a dilemma.

I am struggling with sanity, reality questionable except those things I can still touch like earth and water. What I see is not to be trusted. Images appear manipulated. We doctor our faces so that in Zoom we look our best or choose to show up silenced or on mute, camera off.  It is easy to lose oneself in such normalized environments. It is easy to lose others. We check the participants listed and can’t see everyone’s name. Who’s in the chat? Is the chat enabled? Can I save the chat? Why would I want to chat?

Reminds me of undergraduate lecture halls at UC Berkeley when I was a student there. The speaker doesn’t know who was in the room or to my knowledge care. However, in the more intimate virtual spaces we do want to know, which is why we enable everything and if possible have transcribing so no one is left out of the conversation which is as rich as it is to accessibility to all thoughts and feelings.

I have been attending a series of Our Freedom Sanctuary meetings hosted by the Acorn Center for Restoration and Freedom. gina Breedlove, Medicine Women, Sacred Sound Healer has been facilitating these free (donation based), workshops for BIPOC (no one turned away), with primacy to Black women. We are sounding through the chakras, the last two weeks heart and throat. To get to the throat we breathed through the pelvis. Had to figure out where that was for a moment and then gina suggested the kegel exercise. I remembered from womb work after and before childbirth to prepare the uterus and then to tone it thereafter. Birthing a rigorous exercise. And for those who did not have a uterus, they could also participate in visioning that space.

I think about Michelle Browder’s “Mothers of Gynecology” project honoring the lives of enslaved women, Anarcha, Lucy and Betsey whose bodies did not belong to herselves, so their white owners leased them to J. Marion Sims to experiment on them, supposedly to cure them of fistula. Instead these Black wom(b)en endured horrific torture without anesthesia. The myth, Black wom(b)en (Black people) feel no pain despite the visible and audible evidence to the contrary present with every slice, cut, intrusive instrument. Think about these wom(b)en when you think speculum, forceps, Black maternal health. Sims’s ghost lives on in the high rates of Black wom(b)en child maternal mortality despite social economic educational level of the mother or family. Blackness still trumps race and gender equity.

Right now, Browder is working with artisan Dana Albany at her Box Shop studio in San Francisco to complete these three monumental statues. May 9 the foundation will be laid in Montgomery where Sims’s offices stood/stand. I saw his office building and in another location at City Hall his stature glorified with that of other criminals. I believe the confederate flag also flew. My visit, for Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Institute’s opening reception for the National Memorial for Peace and Justice (lynching memorial) and the Legacy Museum, from Slavery to Mass Incarceration, was just after Memorial Day where the City of Montgomery honored both outcomes of the Civil War. I wondered what the Black children visiting the capital thought when they realized this alternative celebration was about their freedom. I wonder what the white children thought when imagining what it would feel like to have that kind of power over another human being?

Browder’s “Mothers of Gynecology” centers the focus. The ideology is not lost in abstraction. Black women as breeders kept the slave system supplied with workers. More babies were born in captivity than imported from Africa once this form of capture was outlawed Jan.1,1808. This meant the manufacture of human beings specific to a particular kind of life was a particular kind of demonic enterprise, these three wom(b)en emblematic of the worse capitalism imaginable, presented a problem if the leased “womb” did not function.

In a Wanda’s Picks podcast interview (3/10) with Michelle Browder and J.C. Holman, writer, researcher who is writing a book about Anarcha, the woman whose history is more easily traced and documented than the other “Mothers,” states that what he learned that from the barbaric medical practices on Black women emerged a system of care developed in response, where these women took care of each other. This kind of caregiving continues today.

While the Mothers of Gynecology story is not as well-known until recently, the story of Henrietta Lacks, whom I call the Mother of Modern Medicine, is, her centennial birth, August 1, 2020. Her immortal HeLa cells are still curing disease.

Wombfulness Gatherings™ and MAAFA San Francisco Bay Area is curating the Libations and Prayers Ceremony for Mothers of Gynecology Easter Sunday

On Sunday, April 4, 2021, 10-11 a.m. there will be Libations and Prayers for the Mothers of Gynecology at The Box Shop, 951 Hudson Avenue, San Francisco, 94124. All are welcome, esp. BIPOC. For information Facebook @anarchalucybetsey and anarchalucybetsey.org and Facebook @maafabayarea

Michelle Browder was one of the Gaia Wom(b)an presenters at the first bi-monthly, “Wombfulness Gathering” for Black wom(b)en. The next Gathering is May 22, 10-12 noon. For more information: wombfulnest@gmail.com; FB@wombfulnest or call 510-255-5579.

“Honor the wombs that bore you,” Allah says in the Qur’an (4:1). The root of the word for womb (RHM) is the same as Ar-rahman, Ar-rahim—beneficence, mercy, grace and compassion. At this point in time, all human life comes through a womb. It doesn’t matter if you like it or not, the point is, if this wom(b)an decided not to bear young, there would be no life – yours or mine.  My young mother said she had no prenatal care, that after nine months she went to the hospital and they yanked me out with forceps. Mama said if you complained the white nurses would slap the patients, so she kept her mouth shut.  Hers was such a rare case, the attending physician brought in an entire class to watch her give birth. (Charity was a teaching hospital and in the charity ward, I don’t think the patients were asked for consent probably signed away at admission.)

There was no acknowledgement of the beauty of life and giving birth and the inherently beautiful Black mother- she vessel, she chamber, she force of life.

There was no conversation, no anesthesia. After they pulled me out her young body and stitched her up, they gave me to her, “a living baby doll,” she said. I was born with a string of flesh in my mouth and the doctor took a hot iron and seared it off. Again, no medicine for pain—babies don’t feel pain either.  Could these assumptions be based on the fact that we have no voice? Audible, the absence of power mutes the sound and negates the vibration, an affirmation communication prompts between living beings. The Black wom(b)an (girl child) does not exist—she, inhuman. She, not worthy of contemplation.

Lorraine Hansberry Theatre in collaboration with SF Playhouse, Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s [hieroglyph]

The play currently available on demand at Lorraine Hansberry Theatre in collaboration with SF Playhouse, Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s [hieroglyph], asks a similar question—When will Black wom(b)en and girls voices be amplified publically and behind closed doors? And I include here gender nonconforming Black wom(b)en, all of us together, because we are all included in the silencing. We practice allyship for protect. Allyship is a form of accompaniment— witnessing from the inside.  “I see you,” is a start. Agreement is not a prerequisite for belonging. We will find a place where we agree and build on that premise. We need all our people.

We see this practiced in Dickerson-Despenza’s play. There are so many relationships explicated here between these pages danced on the stage. Margo Hall, new Artistic Director of Lorraine Hansberry Theatre (LHT), is a magician in her elegant navigation of an alternative theatre space – film.  The cast, equally gifted in their ability to capture and translate this wonderful work on the stage via screen gives the urgency of this story primacy: Black girls, Black women are at risk for sexual violence. Black girls and Black women are being violated. There is a direct correlation between a people’s violation especially the women and girls and the earth’s violation in the Great Storm where the levees broke contaminating water and land and killing so many living beings.

In the play, young protagonist davis despenza hayes (13) portrayed brilliantly by actor Jamella Cross, tells her story through her drawings. Her artwork provides a road map none but her astute art teacher, ms. t (actor Safiya Fredericks) can decipher.

davis’s loving father, ernest hayes (actor Khary L. Moye) is trapped in his own demons and worries. NOLA post-Katrina, transplant in Chicago, the father-daughter are still swimming with dead bodies two months later. The mother is not there which further complicates the story.

ms. t establishes a bond with the child right off. There is something about “davis,” who joins the class mid-semester, whose craft and skill she admires. There is even what one could call a soul connection evident in a linked synergy to a shared if unnamed trauma neither can articulate initially. davis has nightmares which are staged really well. Sometimes she is up all night and then drags herself to art class where even on a bad day, she still answers all the questions posed by ms. t.

Art is so powerful; one wonders what davis would have used to articulate so beautifully through those nightmares which woke her from sleep had she not had her drawing pad and pens. What stories is davis sharing? ms. t suggests to “ernest,” davis’s dad, at a parent teacher meeting that he look at the drawings and talk to his daughter about them. davis is failing all her classes except Art.  ms. t suggests her father think about why davis is doing so well in art.  ernest looks at his daughter’s portfolio filled with the faces of people met at the Superdome who died.

Later on when the father asks davis what the coded language in the pictures means, she does not want to share; however, her father “sees” something is wrong and agrees to find his daughter a therapist. davis, who is “grounded” until she picks up her grades, especially in math, invites a friend to help her. leah (actor Anna Marie Sharpe), davis’s friend from school, who likes her and is also good in math, helps her pass her test. For this, ernest, who is sad davis doesn’t want to spend time with him on her birthday—there is a show at the museum where he works he wants to take her too. He instead, lets davis spend the night with her friend. He doesn’t know the girls have other birthday plans.

The playwright paints adults who care about davis, adults who struggle with themselves yet are not so self-centered that they are unreliable. This is especially true for ms. t. Fredericks’s character champions and pays attention to the details and does not stop at unraveling the narrative davis is intentionally drawing. Perhaps this is the beauty of childhood, the kind of childhood davis had prior to Katrina and Superdome experiences and their indelible impact on her life.

Can a man protect and still honor the agency of the girl-child he is protecting? Can he keep her life separate from his? Too often men act like they were raped, when it is their ego that is raped—how dare he harm “my” daughter?! He thinks. davis as possession blinds the protector to the true victim—

This Covid-19 pandemic has increased the danger women and girls are living with. I wonder where they are finding a safe bed. I wonder about homeless children, runaways, sexual exploitation— The playwright was influenced to write one of the characters based on the story of a child in Chicago gang raped whose body was thrown under a bridge.

Trauma is on the table, yet the father who is trying to keep his job and take care of his daughter while in limbo about his marriage—pushes it to the side. Parents need to pay attention; the signs are there. It is not often that we see a Black father play with his daughter like these two characters do. The characters Dickerson-Despenza writes are human and have experienced a tragedy most of us cannot conceive let alone contemplate when sexual violence is added to the cocktail.

[hieroglyph] ignites multiple explosions, like cluster bombs. davis’s friend, leah—book-smart is also traumatized. What [hieroglyph] suggests is we stop judging our children and their friends and pay closer attention.

[hieroglyph] is part of award-winning 10-play Katrina Cycle of plays Dickerson-Despenza is writing focused on the effects of Hurricane Katrina in and beyond New Orleans. [hieroglyph] is fully produced and filmed on stage at SF Playhouse, and is presented as an on-demand video stream through April 3^rd, 2021. Patrons may support the organization of their choice by purchasing tickets ($15 – $100) from Lorraine Hansberry Theatre at lhtsf.org or from San Francisco Playhouse at sfplayhouse.org.  To listen or watch a Virtual Wanda’s Picks interview on Facebook with Margo Hall, Artistic Director of LHT: https://www.facebook.com/wanda.sabir/videos/10224972454289502

Visit wandaspicks.com for the full April Picks which is updated throughout the month, so keep sending fliers and posts about events. Also, listen to wandaspicks.com/radio broadcasts Follow the blog so you don’t miss any updates. The podcast airs from blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks Download the app.

 On the Fly:
Dr. Henry Louis Gates in Conversation, 12 noon to 1 p.m. PT, with Sarah Lidipo Manyika
 
Barnard College honors June Jordan in several programs: 

“And what shall we do, we who did not die?”: A Reckoning with June Jordan Thursday, April 1, 2021 from 3:30-5 PM (PST) (6:30 PM to 8 PM (EDT) featuring Asha Futterman, Conor Tomas Reed, Talia Shalev, Evie Shockley, and Mecca Jamilah Sullivan.   Other programs are on Monday, April 5, Scherezade Garcia and Nadir Souirgi (3:30-5 PM (PST) (6:30 PM to 8 PM (EDT) @46th Annual Art and Political Imagination Conference. Rhiannon Giddens’s concert closes the conference on Fri., April 16, (3:30-5:30 PM (PST) (6:30 PM to 8:30 PM (EDT) .

2021 San Francisco International Film Festival (April 9-18)

Digital Launch Party for Br’er Peach

BR’ER PEACH by Andrew Saito, a radio play in three podcast episodes
Inspired by Southern Black and Japanese folktales and playwright Andrew Saito’s multicultural family, BR’ER PEACH follows Momotaro, a magical Japanese boy born to an elderly Black couple after an encounter with a power-filled peach. While his mother Vonda fights to keep her home in the path of a capitalist technology-ogre,  Momo wanders the wilds of Georgia in search of the stolen peach, meeting animal friends and foes along the way. Can they reunite and thrive together as a family, against all odds?

This free event includes a live digital launch party with a presentation of episode one, followed by an artist discussion and music. Plus, anyone who makes a sliding scale donation to the Br’er Peach Fundraiser will also receive exclusive access to all three audio play episodes from April 18th through May 10th, before the podcast officially premieres in June.  Listen to a conversation on Wanda’s Picks Radio Show (April 9, 2021) with Andrew Saito, playwright, Michael Gene Sullivan and Resa Mishina (cast members).

April 17, 2021; Digitally, register at www.altertheater.org/peach <http://www.altertheater.org/peach> 

For More info: boxoffice@altertheater.org <mailto:boxoffice@altertheater.org> ; 415-454-2787
www.altertheater.org/peach <http://www.altertheater.org/peach>
www.theparsnipship.com/brer-peach <http://www.theparsnipship.com/brer-peach>

 

The Bluest Eye@ Aurora Theatre

Wanda’s Picks Radio Show, April 9, 2021, also includes interviews with Dawn Monique Williams, Aurora Theatre Company Associate Artistic Director, who directs Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, adapted by Lydia R. Diamond, Apr. 9-May 21. For 50 percent off: BluestCNC50

 

“WORDS ACROSS THE WATERS” proudly presents the second in a series of events, Sun., April 18, 10-12 noon PT, designed to reunite us across the African Diaspora.

The “Words Across the Water” book party and performance series is hosted by Yeye Luisah Teish and Nana Abena Serwaa. Each party in the series consists of music, art, conversation and dramatic readings from Yeye Teish’s book “Jambalaya” and other selected writings. Yeye will elaborate with her wisdom and expertise as an Elegant Elder, which weaves together our common heritage and shared destiny as daughters and sons of Mother Africa. 

 

Mark your calendars for Friday, April 23! Destiny Arts Center and Pixar Animation Studios present a virtual movie screening of Soul and Q&A with film editor Robert Grahamjones. 

Soul tells the story of a New York jazz pianist who, after landing the gig of a lifetime, suddenly finds himself trapped in a strange land between Earth and the Great Before. Released in December 2020, Soul is Pixar’s first film to feature a Black protagonist.

The Q&A will begin at 6:30 PM and the film will be available for registrants to stream from 12 PM – 10 PM.
Once registered on eventbrite, you will receive follow-up communications prompting you to make a Disney Debut account to stream the film, and a Zoom webinar link to access the Q&A. This event is free of charge.

Registration Links:SFPL: 
https://sfpl.org/events/2021/04/15/author-donte-clark-close-caskets
FB event: 
https://fb.me/e/1soqqpcPA

Omar Sosa is in Concert, Sunday, April 18, 2021

 

Omar Sosa has a live stream is Sunday, April 18 at 4:30 PM Pacific from Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society in Half Moon Bay!  In Quartet, with Josh Jones on drums, Sheldon Brown on saxophones and bass clarinet, and Ernesto Mazar Kindelán on bass.  Omar will be playing a few of his signature pieces, as well as some newly created material.
It’s a ticketed event ($20), with tickets available from the venue’s website:  https://bachddsoc.org/concerts-2/

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/into-the-current-tickets-148462379975?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch

 

Friday, April 2, 2021 at 10AM! 

Prison Closures, From Abolition to Administration:
An Honest Conversation

Please join Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and Root & Rebound for a training! CLE credit available!

This will be a panel discussion on prison closures in the state of California and how advocacy groups, “abolitionists,” and administrative agencies perceive the role, purpose, and plan of prison closure in our state landscape. Registration is free, and MCLE credit is available to attorneys who attend.

“First Fridays” is a monthly educational series geared towards expanding political knowledge, advancing advocacy skills, and enhancing the professional development of the LSPC Elder Freeman Policy Fellows. The Ronald “Elder” Freeman Policy Fellowship is a project of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children with the goal of elevating the leadership of formerly incarcerated people in criminal justice reform.

WHAT: Prison Closures (Webinar)
WHEN: 10 A.M. – 12 P.M., Friday, April 2, 2021
WHERE:

http://bit.ly/LAACTraining

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