Don’t forget the legacy of the Hon. Marcus Mosiah Garvey (b. 8/17/1887-6/10/1940) this Black August. There is an annual program at Marcus Books in Oakland, Sunday, Aug. 20, 12:30-3:30 p.m. Happy Birthday to Karla Brundage (8/29), Cousin Jeffery Lewis (8/29), Gene Howell, Jr. and to all the ancestors lost in the Great Storm—Katrina (8/29/2005), and to those still swimming home on rafts and other flotilla. Follow the light.

Solar Eclipse August 21

There is a solar eclipse August 21. The best place to view the eclipse in the western hemisphere is in Salem, Oregon. If you can’t get away, locally, the event will be livestreamed. This article has a list of events in the Bay Area: http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/How-to-watch-next-month-s-eclipse-if-you-aren-t-11401240.php

James Forman Jr. at Marcus Books

James Forman Jr., attorney, educator, will be reading from his new book, “Locking Up Our Own; Crime and Punishment in Black America,” at Marcus Books, 3900 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, in Oakland, Sunday, August 13, 2-4 p.m.

AfroSolo Concert at Yerba Buena Gardens

This year at the Annual AfroSolo concert, features, Dr. David Hardiman Sr. Quintet and Charles Hamilton Quintet. The free concert is Saturday, August 5, 1-3 p.m. at The Esplanade, Yerba Buena Gardens. For information: 415.543.1718.

Million Prisoner’s March at the Nation’s Capital August 19

Saturday August 19, 11:30am-12:00 p.m. is the March; 12:00pm- 5:00 p.m. is the Rally at the White House (Lafayette Park), Pennsylvania Ave NW & 16th Street, Northwest, Washington, DC 20001 Visit http://www.iamweubuntu.com/millions-for-prisoners-human-rights.html (Look for information about solidarity marches throughout the country. In the SF Bay, one is being planned in San Jose).

Destiny Muhammad presents: Alice Coltrane: In Celebration of a Sonic Legacy

The celebration of Alice Coltrane’s work is Sunday, August 13, two shows: 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. at The Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice Street, Oakland. For tickets visit: http://destinymuhammadproject.com/

Oakland Youth Art Explosion Festival, 1 p.m., Sunday, August 6, 2017

Admission is Free – Donations accepted at the Oakland Youth Art Explosion, 1 p.m. at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street, Oakland. The Youth Arts Festival will feature: Hip Hop and Jazz Bans Performances, Urban Youth Farmers Market, Live Painting Mural Projects, OYAE ‘Youth Cinema, Dance Group Performances, Spoken Word/Open Mic, Painting Workshop with Professional Artists, Youth Art Exhibits.  For sponsorship, donations or info “Joyce Gordon Foundation of the Arts contact: info@joycegordongallery.com or 510-465-8928

African American Townhall

Barbara Lee hosts an African American Townhall, Wed., August 2, 6-7:30 p.m. at the Phillip Reeder Performing Arts Center at Castlemont High School, 8601 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, Wednesday, August 2nd, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Speakers: Congresswoman Barbara Lee, National Urban League President Marc Morial, and members of our community

School Fundraiser

Meadows Livingstone School Fundraiser: “A Night if Music and Culture,” Sat., Aug. 6, 7-9 p.m. at Freight & Salvage, 2020 Addison Street in Berkeley. Hosted by Reyna Amaya, the event features: Linda Tillery & the Cultural Heritage Choir, Jennifer Johns, Afia Walking Tree and Yele. For information call: 415.695.7735. Tickets are $40 in advance and $44.00 at the door.  For over 30 years, the Meadows-Livingstone School has specialized in educating African-American children to reach their full academic, social, emotional and creative potential. The school solves Black parent’s dilemma: finding an academically challenging school that also cultivates their children’s self-respect. The school builds students’ strength through a holistic approach—teaching the whole child. It is a small school, fewer than 30 students, where teachers, students, parents and families are valued members of a caring community. Visit meadowslivingstoneschool.com

Azucar con Ache Farewell Show

Sunday, August 27, 2017 at Freight and Salvage, 2020 Addison Street, Berkeley, 7 p.m., Tickets are $20 in advance, $24 at the door. freightandsalvage.org or 510.644.2020

Black Butterflies, A Collaborative Youth Arts Project

Darren Canady’s play, directed by Lauren Spencer, is presented by A.C.T.’s Education & Community Programs and Young Conservatory, and Destiny Arts Center in Oakland. The play, which opened for a week run in San Francisco, continues in the East Bay, Thursday-Friday, August 4-5 at Destiny Arts Center, 970 Grace Avenue, Oakland. Visit destinyarts.org, 510.597.1619.  It features a cast of youth from schools throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. The story is of the often forgotten girls, in this case: Aisha, Mercedes, and Dani, caught in the web of juvenile detention and what happens to them there. The youngest girl is 12, the oldest 18. There is no pretense, warehousing, not education is happening there, until the girls meet, Ms. Constance, the new teacher, who opens the girls’ eyes to their power through literature, what she calls her Brown Warriors: characters like Shug, Esperanza, and Winter, authors: Alice Walker, Sandra Cisneros, and Sistah Soldier.

Listen to an interview with the director and playwright rebroadcast July 28 at Wanda’s Picks Radio  Canady says he takes much of his inspiration for the stories of the three girls from Monique Morris’s “Push Out: the Criminalization of Black Girls in School.” Opening night was awesome! Present were the many supporters such as teachers, Elizabeth Carter, author, Monique Morris, poets, Black Achilles, Madeline Clifford, Young Women’s Freedom Center, Youth Speaks, Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco, and Each One Reach One.

California Shakespeare Theater presents “black odyssey” by Marcus Gardley, directed by Eric Ting, August 9-September 3, 2017

Many of us have been waiting a long time to see Marcus Gardley’s masterpiece, “black odyssey,” in full production after the staged reading hosted by Lorraine Hansberry Theatre four years ago.  I wish my friend, Hubert Collins were still alive. I remember his tears at the performance as he shared how moved he was by Ulysses’s journey.

Margo Hall and Aldo Billingslea are the only two members of that cast in the present production and at least Aldo character is different. Joining Margo and Aldo are: J. Alphonse Nicholson, Omozé Idehenre, Dawn L., Safiya Fredericks, Lamont Thompson, Michael Gene Sullivan, and Michael Curry to tell this remarkable story.

Based loosely on Greek playwright Homer’s “Odyssey,” this journey was one most in the audience recognized, yet perhaps had not articulated it so masterfully prior to this production. We know the trail of bones, whether it is Black Mary Wilkes following Aunt Ester Tyler: a former slave and a “soul-cleanser’s” instructions so that Citizen Bartlow can get right with himself in August Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean” or Great Aunt Tina (Athena) pleading with her dad, Great Grand Daddy Deus (Zeus) to talk to Great Grand Paw Sidin (Percedian) to save her kin from drowning.

It is interesting that like Wilson’s “Citizen,” Gardley’s “Ulysses Lincoln,” a Gulf War veteran who has blinded Polyphemus, a one eyed cyclops, Great Grand Paw Sidin’s or Poseidon’s son, which is why Sidin is trying to drown him, also has to go to the City of Bones. He needs to find his story or learn his history so he can get home.

As Ulysses Lincoln travels, he meets friends and foes – even family. Maps are etched in hands and he finds paths or trails similar to his own. These familiar markings make the journey, if not less harrowing, certainly more satisfying for Ulysses, who has been lost so long his memories are legends he shares with his new friend, Nella Pell. She saves his life.

Stranded people with limited rations are not the most sympathetic rescuers, but the child Nella Pell convinces her dad not to shoot him and her mom to let him stay.

There is a lot of water imagery, floods and heavy rains. Is it New Orleans after the levees break or some other water odyssey? Ulysses is at first confused, until he realizes that he is in the future, the journey a memory past, one previously inaccessible, thus the forced journey. He will not get a pass home until he knows where he comes from, not physically, which, when asked, he’d say New York City, but a deeper look at home as in who are his people? How many generations can he name? What ancestors’ stories does he carry in his bones?

Gardley writes of blood memories, trapped energy, clotted or stuck souls unable to get home. Ulysses meets a family floating on a roof – there is a flood and Artez and Alsendra Sabine wait as the water rises for the “government” to save them. Ulysses, a bit less optimistic, tries to get them to notice the water rising and abandon the hope of something outside themselves saving the couple and their daughter, Nella Pell.

What is blood but water? First blue and then when air hits it the color changes? The human body is 90 percent water and if the planet is a metaphor for our vehicles for this journey, then what does this memory-blood-water connection mean . . . (http://sfbayview.com/2013/05/wandas-picks-for-may-2013/).

Discounted ticket previews are August 9, 10, 11 at  8 p.m. with the Press Opening August 12 at 8 p.m. The show runs Tuesdays through Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., and weekends, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Saturday Matinee at 2 p.m. Sunday Matinees at 4 p.m. Cal Shakes is located in the beautiful Bruns Amphitheater, 100 California Shakespeare Theater Way, Orinda (just off Highway 24 at the California Shakespeare Theater Way/Wilder Rd. exit, one mile east of the Caldecott Tunnel. There is a complimentary shuttle from Orinda BART beginning 2 hours before curtain. There is also complimentary parking onsite and the facility is wheelchair accessible.

Tickets start at $20 and there are many discounts, ranging from student, senior, group rates and the $20 preshow rush throughout the season. Call Cal Shakes’ Box Office at 510.548.9666 between noon and 2pm to purchase. Get tickets and information online at www.calshakes.org, or at the Bruns box office on the day of the performance (pending availability).

Ubuntu Theater Project Explores Revolutionary Themes at Its Fundraiser

For those who almost missed the provocative workshop production at Ubuntu Theatre: Tori Sampson’s This Land Was Made, directed by Williams Hodgson, the play has been extended one week, Friday-Sunday, August 4-6. There is a special fundraising performance, Sunday, August 6, 2 p.m. at the Brooklyn Preserve, 1433 12^th Avenue, Oakland. Tickets are $15-45 online and pay what you can at the door.

Friday, August 4 at 7:15 p.m.

Spoken Word artists Bobbi Kindred, Leo Lyons, Jerrie Johnson and Nekela share selections and discuss their work at this pre-show panel hosted by Ubuntu company member Michael French.

Sunday, August 6   11 a.m.–6 p.m.

Following this special fundraising performance, join Ubuntu Theatre Project for a community panel with artist Randolph Belle, gallery owner Kelly Paschal-Hunter, and Oakland Voices’ Tony Daquipa.

Ubuntu Theater Project’s 2017 season looks at the themes of polarization, poverty and state sanctioned violence, whether this is sexual violence against undocumented women in Lisa Ramirez’s To the Bone or police brutality in Sampson’s story set in Oakland in 1967, at a time when police terror in black communities gave rise to the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The village listens as the djali or griot tells us the story of Troy, UC Berkeley student who wants to be a judge, Sassy his girlfriend who is also a journalist, her mother Miss Trish, who is from Louisiana like Huey P. Newton who visits the restaurant Miss Trish owns, a restaurant-bar serving southern cuisine. Sassy also runs a barbershop there. Other characters are: Mr. Far, who owns an auto garage, Gail, Sassy’s friend and the girlfriend of her brother and Trish’s son—a Vietnam War casualty. There is also Drew, armchair revolutionary, who challenges Troy’s decision to stay within the system whenever he can.

The drama hinges on Troy’s desire to believe in justice when he experiences racially motivated violence.  Well-programmed, he recites his constitutional rights like a catechism, yet the trauma he experiences after a beating almost breaks him. The setting is a beautiful circle where audience can sit just outside the window that is Miss Trish’s restaurant, bottles filled with color liquid sit on shelves, tables and chairs fill the space with room for dancing. The cast joins the audience from time to time, as roles are shed and taken on.

William Hartfield’s “Huey P. Newton” asks Troy questions he cannot answer as he places black Americans’ current situation into historic context.  Newton gives Troy examples of people similarly oppressed and how they fought and won their liberation against the power structures threatening them.  This political education and analysis causes Terrance White’s “Troy” to change despite himself.  It is the incoherent fear that makes Troy act, almost without thought of the consequences that scares him the most. It is a volatile time for all. From scene to scene we are not certain who will be the next casualty. Though Newton is the catalyst for Troy’s transformation, Nathalie Autumn Bennett’s “Sassy” has been holding space for Troy’s development; she builds him up when he is ready to return his blackness to God for another skin. When filled with self-loathing, Troy shatters, she reassembles his scattered pieces. However, even Sassy has her limits and at that point Troy realizes to keep her, he is going to have to be a man and take responsibility for his actions. For information visit ubuntutheaterproject.com/this-land-was-made
Avoid fried, greasy buy viagra in india or high-fat cuts and highly seasoned or spicy servings. One can order kamagra polo for sale online in different viagra without rx flavors as well. Fee structure: this is another vital thing that you need to consider is the class prescription de cialis timings. In cases where ED is due to low testosterone, bioidentical hormone replacement therapy viagra prices australia (BHRT)is often suggested.
One City, One Book 2017

San Francisco Public Library 13th Annual One City One Book selection is Black against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party by Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin, Jr.

“Black against Empire”  is the first comprehensive overview and analysis of the history and politics of the Black Panther Party. “Black against Empire,” published by the University of California Press, is the winner of the American Book Award. The book has been banned by the CA Department of Corrections and CA inmates are currently forbidden to possess or read it.
Read Black against Empire this summer and join the SF Community this fall for the 13th Annual One City One Book program extravaganza.

Copies of Black against Empire will be featured in all San Francisco libraries and at bookstores around the city.

During September and October, look forward to book discussions, view themed exhibits, attend author talks and participate in many other events. One City One Book Exhibits and Events Guide coming soon.

Detroit, the film, opens August 4 Nationwide

Detroit, the film, directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal, looks at structural racism and how that powder keg set off the Wayne county community 50 years ago. The reasons then are uncannily similar today as under Trump’s administration, black life has fallen even lower on the Richter scale. Violence against black and brown people has not only escalated, it is encouraged. In a speech to law enforcement July 28 on Long Island, President Trump told police to treat suspects roughly. Referencing MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha) an international criminal gang he said:  “Please don’t treat them too nice.” He told city government he was happy they were becoming more militarized and that combat weapons armory tanks were literally flying off Pentagon shelves.

Then and now, if a person has black skin he or she is game for the hunt. The film does not spare its audience the gruesome details. We watch youngsters gunned down, beaten senseless, shot in the back and killed.  Detroit focuses its attention on the incident at the Algiers Motel during the first two of five days of civil unrest, July 23-24, 1967 dubbed by some, “The 12^th Street Riot.”

The 12^th Street Riot starts after a late night, early morning police raid on an illegal afterhour’s club. 82 people were arrested.  The party was to honor two black soldiers returning home from war. As the police filled one wagon after another, those citizens watching were angry at the treatment of their friends.  Fed up with the structural and systemic violence leveled at the community for no other reason than their blackness, onlookers attempt to burn the city down over a period of five (5) days where the Michigan State Police, the Michigan Army National Guard are assigned to bring order. Later in an independent investigation,

At the Algiers Motel incident three black teens were shot and killed by white policemen while nine others, two white women and seven black men were beaten and humiliated by Detroit police.  The Algiers Motel incident held as suspect Detroit Police officers on duty at the time and a black private security guard who was witness to almost all the events. “In the five days and nights of violence 33 blacks and 10 whites were killed, 1,189 were injured and over 7,200 people were arrested.  Approximately 2,500 stores were looted and the total property damage was estimated at about $32 million.  Until the riots following the death of Dr. Martin Luther King in April 1968, the Detroit Race Riot stood as the largest urban uprising of the 1960s” (blackpast.org).  The weekend the film opened was the 100^th anniversary of the Silent March, the largest march against racial injustice in the United States. It was in protest against the East St. Louis Race Riots where black people: men, women and children were indiscriminately attacked by white mobs. Its centennial (7/2/1917) was honored the same weekend Detroit opened at select theatres (blackpast.org).

The film, starring John Boyega, Will Poulter, Algee Smith, Jason Mitchell, John Krasinski and Anthony Mackie, is 143 minutes and has MPAA Rating: R (for strong violence and pervasive language).  Here is a short clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsANKUwfETs

On the Fly:
Ashkenaz Music and Dance Center has great shows all the time, as does La Pena Cultural Center. SFJAZZ has a great line-up this Fall Season too. Also check out Oakland Public Conservatory, Cal Performances, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, AfroSolo 2017, Impact HUB Oakland, MoAD-SF, Fine Arts Museums, SOMarts Gallery’s The Black Woman is God through August 20. , Museum of Capitalism in Oakland, Art and Soul Festival in Oakland, August 19-20; Jazz on Sundays in August at Golden Gate Library in Oakland, 5606 San Pablo Avenue, 3-6 p.m.

A Black Heaven: A Review of Marcus Gardley’s black odyssey at Cal Shakes through Sept. 3
By Wanda Sabir

Marcus Gardley’s “black odyssey,” currently on stage at Cal Shakes in Orinda, translates the Black Holocaust into modern language. Gardley takes an oral history, Homer’s Grecian hero’s tale, then ruptures and reinterprets it so the folks submerged in the waters of confusion gain clarity. Those ancestors at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean are resurrected in “Ulysses Lincoln”—a hero and a warrior. Though the journey takes longer than expected, Ulysses tells Nella Pell (Penelope) that he will be back before their child is born – the key here, is the promise of return.

Can Nella hold onto that? Is Ulysses’s promise enough to keep their boy safe and free? Will Ulysses come home in time to save his family from the vendetta Great Grand Paw Sidin (actor Aldo Billingslea) plans for the murderer of his son?

Gardley’s Ulysses transforms, translates or reinterprets his people’s story(s) into a parlance his generation can understand.  Similar to other transcontinental journeys with linguistic resonance—Africans had to make meaning from context clues, necessity birthing new relationships, survival paramount for the group.  It is in this spirit that Ulysses (actor J. Alphonse Nicholson) offers to take Benevolence Nausicca Sabine (actress Safiya Fredericks) to higher ground to repay the reluctant kindness of her parents: Artex Sabine (actor Michael Gene Sullivan) and Alsendra Sabine (actress Dawn L. Troupe).  Floating on a rooftop, the water rising—it does not look like the government is coming to save black people past or present who find themselves caught in a hurricane real or symbolic.

If ever a story pointed to the inevitability of life and the choices we make, “black odyssey” is an intellectual argument against freewill.  How many of our choices are connected to a legacy we do not understand? Human beings think they are acting alone, but as we see through Ulysses’s lineage, there is a whole posse ready to get down on his behalf and do from his Great Aunt Tina (Athena) to his blind ancestor who tells him to listen to his dreams—ancestral wisdom lives there.  We also see the opposing force (Paw Sidin), who though kin to Ulysses is nonetheless ready to chop his head off.

“black odyssey” crosses landscapes—designer, Michael Locher’s set a large ruin, concrete pillars reminders of the black removal in Oakland, shelter-less wayfarers living in similar decay—under freeways, in fields, bus shelters – in doorways, on park benches.   It is spiritual warfare and the innocent are armed with whispered songs—invisible ancestors dancing between the beams—hands touching.  The gods are all that keep Ulysses safe—Ulysses of course larger than a singular body, he is all black men stranded and isolated, shipwrecked, alone on a sinking vessel.

When the orphaned Ulysses discovers he is not alone, this communion saves him. Ubuntu, from the Zulu proverb, says we cannot afford to lose one soul. Each loss decreases our human value and potential. The gods know this and eventually so does Ulysses. He realizes that even flawed, his wife and son need him and want him to return.

The remembering aspect of the healing process, that is, the assemblage of the severed parts, is an important step in Ulysses, and by extension black people’s, march home.  Just as Auset (Isis) re-members Ausar (Osiris) and together they make Heru (Horus) who ends the war between warring family, Ulysses as prodigal son, Lazarus risen from the dead, Joseph left to tarry in the prison— has a key role to play as well in the ordering of the universe.

Diaspora black people carry “home” within their persons. Along the journey Ulysses learns sanctuary is in the connections between other human beings which shape and mold community. This is one of the lessons of the “Flood,” the shipwrecks, the Long Walk black people are still walking, still repaving. Ulysses realizes that if he wants his family to survive, he has to save it. The gods are watching, but the work is a human one. It is literally in his hands.

“black odyssey” by Marcus Gardley, Oakland’s sun-kissed native son, directed by a visionary Eric Ting at California Shakespeare Theatre through Sept. 3, tells this story—the calculated destruction of black America from chattel slavery to the black codes, segregation, and the myth of black inferiority and white supremacy.  “black odyssey” stays with the internal struggle actor J. Alphonse Nicholson’s “Ulysses,” a war hero, faces when he looks at what he has become for the nation state: a killer. Like August Wilson’s “Citizen Bartlow,” Ulysses needs his soul cleansed so he can return home. Aunt Ester provides the key, but it is the entire community gathered that sings Citizen into the storm so he can reach the City of Bones—

In Ulysses case, it is his Great Aunt Tina (actor Margo Hall) who holds off the wrath of another god, Great Grand Paw Sidin (actor Aldo Billingslea). Sometimes one has to perform a ritual to correct an error. How can the veteran get his humanity back? He’s been wandering for 16 years. Distracted by intentional detours, he has forgotten home. Lost in the Bush of Ghosts, he encounters many deities, but these are false gods, whether it is a police arrest to fill a quota or one of the many spirits at a variety of crossroads the protagonist meets as he follows the life line imprinted on the palm of his hand— All seem intent on stealing what is left of Ulysses’s soul.

In a coma for seven days – a deep deep sleep, Ulysses finds himself roused or awakened, then washed onto the roof of a house where he meets a stranded family— He has awakened to his past, a place where he knows the outcome.  How did Ulysses manage to survive the shipwreck, the bondage, the captivity . . . without direction—16 years wandering without an anchor?

As the lost man looks at the landmarks—King’s death, the 4 Little Girls at the 16^th Street Baptist Church, Emmett Till’s smile and laughter, he reflects on the similarities between what was then and what is now.  He wonders who started this war and how he could possible win?  Ulysses does not know his people or their story. He and Nella Pell (actress Omozé Idehenre) are all the family either of them know — Nella Pell and son – Malachai (actor Michael Curry), unborn when Ulysses leaves for war, anchor his soul, give his life meaning.

With so much ahead of him—new wife, expectant baby, Ulysses is excited to leave for war in peace time. He wants to be a teacher and figures the GI Bill will help with tuition. He tells his anxious bride he will return long before the baby is born.  But something happens while Ulysses is in the Gulf, he kills a boy—his cousin. The killing twists something precious, cutting the soldier off from his ability to feel and see clearly. He traverses epochs in this country’s history no one would want to live once, let alone twice—but his journey written in his hands forces the character to face aspects of his person he would rather ignore.

There is no mercy and the plan to destroy Ulysses is tied to the disregard Great Grand Paw Sidin (Billingslea) has for his brother Great Grand Daddy Deus (actor Lamont Thompson)—his walking stick shaped like a lightning bolt, is so beyond anything a mere mortal can comprehend or interrupt, the gods have to step in to save Ulysses Lincoln, the last of his tribe.

There is music and humor and ceremony as the gods—brothers Sidin and Deus (Cane and Abel?) play chess, the pieces their people. Ulysses has killed his uncle, Great Grand Paw Sidin’s son, the one-eyed cyclops, and Paw Sidin is out for blood. Slippery, Great Grand Paw Sidin shows up while Ulysses is away and tries to trick Nella Pell.

All that protects Ulysses from Paw Sidin’s wrath is his Great Aunt Tina and her father, Great Grand Daddy Deus— Divine origins, yes.  Nonetheless, the 16 year odyssey is perilous, yet the love Nella Pell has for her husband throughout the years and the belief Great Aunt Tina has that Ulysses will return, keeps air in tires, the road paved and gas in the tank.

The years pass quickly, Great Aunt Tina leaves her throne to take care of Nella and Malachai. She feels some of Ulysses problems are her family’s fault. No one has ever told him he’s a god. When we meet the family, the boy is 16 and Ulysses is revived on the floating rooftop a crucial time in a journey that has lasted longer than anyone expected. How does he return to land? He has been lost for so long. Where are the landmarks? Who are the guides on a journey General Tubman articulated so long ago for those who would listen?

Ulysses shows up at a terminal in Louisiana, but he doesn’t know who he is. His lineage is stunted. He doesn’t know his family and so cannot board the train. How does an orphan claim a heritage he cannot remember? Even when the details are lost, the body remembers the journey—the map etched in our DNA – finger prints, palms of hands, retinal scan.  The ancestors are guides for Ulysses on his journey from the moment he falls overboard they hold him up and keep him from drowning.  Great Aunt Tina, a divine being living with humans, knows her nephew is alive and continues to remind Nella Pell that until a body washes onto the shore, there is a chance her husband will return.
Nella loves her lost husband, yet after 16 years, at a time when their son is challenging “whiteness” and getting beat up in the process—the world not a safe place for such a query, Nella wonders if she needs to marry for her son’s sake.

Artistic Director, Eric Ting’s, direction in this production shows his grasp of the largess that is this story in his excellent choice of cast: Aldo Billingslea, Michael Curry, Safiya Fredericks, Margo Hall, Omozé Idehenre, J. Alphonse Nicholson, Michael Gene Sullivan, Lamont Thompson, Dawn L. Troupe, and collaborating artists: Linda Tillery, master storyteller and scholar, as vocal coach and musical director, Molly Holm as vocal composer and vocal ensemble director, Latanya D. Tigner and Kendra Kimbrough Barnes as chorographers and Dede M. Ayite, costume designer.  It is Mr. Ayite who said Sanfoka, the Akan adinkra or symbol of a bird with its head facing backward[1] that tells us to “go back and fetch it”: our rituals, our stories, our swords, guides his choices in fabrics and design– it’s the ‘60s and revolution is in the air ala T. Carlis Roberts sound design.

In “black odyssey” Gardley has articulated the African Diaspora Odu or story. Set in Oakland, not only is there a specificity to the landmarks anchoring a story which has multiple geographies as Ulysses travels illustrate: Accorn Apartments, Lake Merritt, Bishop O’Dowd High School, Fruitvale BART—these places have electric charges attached which shock certain folks along a circuitry that is the black American experience. Gardley’s Oakland, the “Land of the Blacks,” is heaven.

The Association of Black Psychologists have a healing workshop for community called Emotional Emancipation Circles or EEC, which provides black participants with keys to unlock and dismantle the mythology of black inferiority and white supremacy, through the use of culture, songs, poetry and dance.  Art and culture are key to black survival and black transformation whether it’s Diana Ross, Tina Turner, James Brown or Superfly – all a part of the landscape Gardley’s Ulysses meets along his journey home.

The drum beat opens the procession—Nicholson’s character sets the tone with his percussive beats—he hits buckets and when they are not present wooden sticks or claves act as a reminder to Ulysses to continue to remember his stories, the journey and his goal to reach land and find his family – to go home.

The opening scenes are ones of pageantry—the divine ones make a grand entrance: beauty and power present in the sacred song they sing of ancient rites of passages, sacred journeys undertaken, lost turns and lost ones. Dressed in gold and white, we witness alchemy – floss turned into gold. The djali or griot (Michael Gene Sullivan) tells the audience to enjoy the journey, dance and shout.

As participants in this black odyssey make a grand entrance onto the stage—dressed as the divine beings they are—elegant and fine, singing an African folks song—we remember ancient rites of passages, sacred journeys undertaken, lost turns and lost ones.

Later these same deities reappear, fans swirling along with umbrellas and players join us on stage as a narrator gives us the preamble. It is Alvin Ailey “Revelations”—the Negro Spirituals: coded language, sacred Odu outlined in Ulysses’s palm, his lifeline connected to a larger tapestry his Nella Pell keeps spinning like other great weavers: Great Aunt Tina, the Goddess “Athena” or Anasi—the great trickster, webmaster (spider).  The tapestry holds the past and present and points to the future, the son, 16 years, 16 also the number for Orunmila, the orisha or deity of divination or destiny. His priests use oracles: ikines (palm nuts) and the okuele (diviner’s chain) to tell “where a person’s fate is headed” (http://santeriachurch.org/the-orishas/).

“black odyssey” is not a vacation in the Bahamas.  Similar to other Gardley work, “black odyssey’s” contemporary resonance leaves a taste in one’s mouth chewing gum will not erase— Tickets are flying out of the box office, so buy two tickets and take an elder and a youthful friend.  Sunday, August 27, following the 4 p.m. performance audiences can enjoy a conversation with cast.  Listen to an interview with Also Billingslea (Paw Sidin) on Wanda’s Picks Radio show August 14.[2]

Added performance Saturday, Aug 26, 2 p.m. Tickets start at $39—use code Odyssey39 when ordering online calshakes.org or by phone (510) 548-9666. The Bruns Amphitheatre in Orinda is at 100 California Shakespeare Theatre Way. Dress warmly. It is outdoors. There is a free shuttle from the BART station. There are $20 discount tickets for students, elders, and folks 30 and younger, between 12 noon and 2 p.m. day of performance. Call for details.

[1] The Sankofa bird with its head looking over its shoulder, an egg in its mouth is most common, however, another  symbol for Sankofa is a heart.

[2][2] http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks/2017/08/14/wandas-picks-radio-show-special-black-odyssey-with-aldo-billingslea

Happy Birthday Sister Makinya Sibeko-Kouate. Happy Birthday 1^st Birthday to my grandson, Legend! Happy Birthday day to the Cancers and Leos: Karen Oyekanmi, Alison Gates, Marcus Lorenzo Penn, MD. We will miss creative artist, Geri Allen (June 12, 1957-June 27, 2017). NPR Tribute. Ashay. . . .

What to the American Slave is the 4th of July?

Each year, it is important to revisit this historic classic speech by the powerful orator, Frederick Douglass. Listen to James Earl Jones reading the speech. In the San Francisco Bay Area, Michael Lange and James Brooks with Angela Wellman’s Oakland Public Conservatory, they would perform the work with jazz artists.  Also in the Bay Area, we have a history of the Fourth of the Lie strategy sessions hosted by Nehanda Imara and members of the All African People’s Revolutionary Party.

What is freedom to the descendents of the formerly enslaved? What are the tangible changes less than 200 years later? In James Forman Jr.’s new book, Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America (2017), he revisits legislation and statutes which make black exclusion illegal. He also shows how and why in Washington, DC, for example, black jurists and prosecutors are more inclined to come down more harshly on black offenders. Forman, the son of Civil Rights Activist, and Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee organizer, Forman Sr., is also co-founder of the Maya Angelou Academy in Washington, DC. He is a visiting scholar at Stanford University now and will be having a few more book events through August. Check out his website.

My friend, Gene Dinizulu Tennie says “this year gives us added reason to pause to reflect as we remember what the very situation that Douglass described would produce 65 years later in 1917.

When you use traditional methods, they are quite boring as you will not be able to see the results and effects of this sexual enhancement pill helps to increase energy, vitality cialis samples and vigor naturally. However, with men’s tops starting from $57 and women’s from $62, it is clear that this line is not only for the rich viagra online mastercard and famous. Let your personal doctor viagra price http://icks.org/n/data/ijks/1482456353_add_file_1.pdf know your health fitness, consequently the dosage amount will be directed. The other half depends on how compatible you are between the sheets. icks.org viagra rx

Sister Makinya’s Community Celebration of Life

For those of us to marked July with Sister Makinya’s celebration of her parent’s lives, July 1 each year at Lake Merritt at the Boat House, she is missed. However, the community celebration of her life is July 5 at the North Berkeley Senior Center, July 5, 1-4. Each month the North Berkeley Senior Center honors elders born that month. Just a year ago Sister Makinya was dancing and playing the piano at the celebration. The party or celebration of life continues this year, July 5, 2-4, as community and family are invited to come and share their memories of a remarkable woman, Queen Mother Makinya Sibeko-Kouate (July 1, 1926-Feb. 4, 2017)

The 80^th Stern Grove Festival was really special. Billed the Big Picnic, I was amazed at 11 a.m. how full the Grove was, and by 11:30 a.m. the 30 minute warning was given for all those who had friends still undecided and without hands stamped.  At 12 noon, the place was packed and all those not inside had to be content to listen beyond the trees.

Quinn DeVeaux opened with bluesy gospel tunes which had the audience swaying and bobbing their heads as his Louisiana soul seeped into the soil, a tasty addition to the garlic fries and burgers served to hungry patrons later on. His commissioned composition went over well— especially after singing about the end of a love affair— the commission was about his friends whom Quinn loved to be around. The married couple inspired even the more tainted among us to keep going, that love really will find a way.

This theme, “love” that is, found its way into the Kool & the Gang set as well. Midway through the program, which was high energy, every tune a show stopper, one of three lead singers, asked the audience “who believed in love?” The response tepid or cooler, one woman near the stage stated she didn’t believe in love at all. Startled, the singer dedicated the set to her and joined her in the audience.

Holding her tight, he sang “Cherish.” As he sang, on stage the duet complete with saxophone soloist, Sherrie melted.  The nearly 1000 voices in the audience were also invited to sing to Sherrie. By the time the song ended she was in tears.  We learned she’d lost her husband of 37 years two years ago.

This was one of many amazing moments Sunday afternoon. The first was that at 11 a.m. we were able to find a spot right near the stage.

The band was funky, jazzy and full of soul, the kind of soul that keep your head above water when the arms are tired and one is getting a bit cold. Kool’s repertoire is one of hope and liberation if you can just hang in there and believe in justice or Maat.

I remember when I was a child and a member of the Nation of Islam, Kool & the Gang performed not far from Stern Grove, just up the street at the Masonic Auditorium on 19th Avenue. They were in concert with Joe Tex. I hadn’t known the two brothers were also Muslim until that moment.  I think they were the first famous Muslims I’d ever met up close.

To hear them perform “Celebration” at my birthday party was pretty amazing. I have had some great birthday parties at Stern Grove. One year Angelique Kidjo was there, many times the Preservation Hall Jazz Band performed. Paragon Ragtime Orchestra’s production of Scott Joplin, whose centennial birth is this year. He died at 49. Treemonisha at Stern Grove Festival in 2003 was another highlight. This year Kool & the Gang were singing for me (smile). The lineup this 80^th Anniversary of free music is pretty phenomenal. Visit sterngrovefestival.org  Among the July artists are: Fantastic Negrito (7/2), Eric Burdon & The Animals (7/16), Los Angeles Azules (7/23), and the San Francisco Ballet (7/30), to name a few. Visit sterngrovefestival.org.

24th Annual Laborfest July 1-31

The theme this year is “The Future is in Our Hands.” Visit laborfest.net or call (415) 642-8066. Recommended: Paul Robeson: A Portrait in Story & Song, a musical biography of Paul Robeson, the great African American artist, athlete and activist, presented by The Rockin’ Solidarity Labor Chorus, Saturday, July 29, 7 p.m., ILWU Local 34 Hall, 801 2^nd Street next to AT&T Ball Park, San Francisco.

San Francisco 37^th Jewish Film Festival, July 20-August 6
Visit sfjff.org or call (415) 621-0523 in San Francisco (7/20-30); Albany (7/27-8/6); Oakland (8/6); Palo Alto (7/22-27); San Rafael (8/4-6). Recommended: “Body and Soul: An American Bridge” with a live concert afterward featuring The Marcus Shelby Quartet at the Castro Theatre screening, Sunday, July 23, 6:45 p.m.

9th Annual Oakland Symphony Independence Eve Celebration at the Craneway Pavilion, Monday, July 3, 8:00 pm (Doors Open & Pre-Show: 6:30 pm)

Program:

FAMILY FUN – LIVE MUSIC – FIREWORKS

5:00 pm: Paid parking will be available.

6:30 pm: Doors open

8:00 pm: Oakland Symphony concert

Scott Key/J.S. Smith Star Spangled Banner
Ward/arr. Carmen Dragon America the Beautiful
Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard Theme from Gladiator
John Williams Star Wars
    Main Title
Princess Leia’s Theme
Rodgers/Hammerstein Sound of Music (sing along)
Jule Styne Overture to Gypsy

– INTERMISSION –

9:15 pm: Spectacular Fireworks Display over the water, accompanied by the Symphony

John Philip Sousa
Washington Post
The Thunderer
Hands Across the Sea
The Fairest of the Fair
King Cotton
Stars and Stripes

AFTER THE FIREWORKS

John Williams Complete Star Wars Suite for Orchestra

Pre-Concert Performance by: OAKTOWN JAZZ

Brownsville Song (B-side for Tray) at Ashby Stage through July 15

Tray is more than a statistic.  Even before he made his exit the way so many young black men do, he told his step-mom that he was more than his circumstances.  He stated he was not interested in playing any woe is me-games.  The B-side is his epitaph; however, branded like his ancestors of old, the cipher spins off key on a broken turntable. His grandmother Lena lifts the needle from the record and sets it straight.

Many themes skate across the Brooklyn landscape Tray calls home.  Themes of home, abandonment, grief, addiction, poverty, escape—Tray speaks of the loss of his dad and how confused and bereft of support his family felt except in each other, frail and unsteady as this might have seemed at the time.

Grandmother Lena is his rock. She is the sun and the moon. Her love is dependable and steady. Her grandchildren can depend on her. Brownsville, one of Brooklyn’s most notorious neighborhoods, is the story of a youth gunned down; however, the story starts before this.  The tragedy is Tray’s melanin container, one which convicts him without a trial.

In Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Son,” another Lena waits for the insurance check. Her husband Walter Lee Younger works himself to death in order to provide for his family. Tray’s father is killed and so is he. The similarity between the two deaths read like a cursed destiny Tray inherits before birth. In a beautiful moment in the play, Lena tells Tray’s childhood buddy, Junior (actor William Hartfield), that he deserves to live, that his life is valuable.

I am not certain that black people need to see a play which begins with the death of another innocent black boy at the hands of another black boy. For an audience that does not see Tray’s humanity, an audience distanced from the events that precipitate such tragedies then perhaps Brownsville Song (B-Side for Tray), by Kimber Lee, directed by Margo Hall, adds perspective to a tired media event.  The dirge which has top billing.

There is a lot going on in a story where ghosts join the family at meal time as invited guests. Perhaps what is more important in the production which includes talk backs at each performance, is the discourse opened up between patrons who might not have considered Tray’s backstory. How many people hear about black men, especially black boys killed – a five second commentary on network news, the boys’ characters often maligned—his epitaph reduced to this last event, rather than the loss to his family and to our communities? By allowing Tray to have a history before he is killed opens a void audiences cannot trespass or cross. It just sits there inviting action.

Brownsville is also the story of the children, young men like Tray’s friend, Junior (William Hartfield), whose life reflects an apathy he finds hard to transcend. When Ms. Lena asks Junior to tell her what happened to her grandson and he does and vows revenge, she stops him and tells the remorseful youth that she wants him to get to be an old man. She tells him that to honor Tray he has to live.

Cathleen Riddley (Lena) who facilitated the conversation afterward when I attended said the task is for white people was to take the conversation to their friends. Black people know what it is to lose family to violence, to lose friends to violence, and to live with the threat of this violence daily. Black people live with the emptiness created by this loss, a loss unrecognized as the victim is often blamed for his own death. The loss framed by the dominant society as earned or deserved.

This is the narrative “Brownsville Song (B-side for Tray)” interrupts.

The actress says since becoming a part of Tray’s world, an action she has adopted is to call network news stations when she hears a report on a young black victim of violence. She gives them better language, a language that acknowledges the sorrow the family feels and the loss to our community the death of a person so young is bound to have. These streets are battlefields, similar to those overseas without the honor given to the lives taken unnecessarily and too soon.

The cast is excellent as is Margo Hall’s direction. What is especially compelling is Davied Morales as “Tray.”  The actor’s portrayal of the complexities of a youth navigating a precarious terrain is compassionate and realistic. Tray is also a boxer and a big brother. The boxing gives him an outlet and the little sister gives him responsibility. The relationship with Devine (Mimia Ousilas) is also sweet. His death is perhaps felt most in his little sister’s life, a sister who refuses to let her brother go. The 11 year old actress allows her character to sit with this loss and hold onto Tray even when she is urged to move on. Perhaps her tenacious and what is seen as “unreasonable grief” reflects an unarticulated trauma? The child lost her father to violence, her mother “Merrell” to drugs and now her brother.  When Erin Mei-Ling Stuart’s “Merrell,” reappears, Tray begins the work in helping mend his family’s brokenness.

Kimber Lee says in an interview she was inspired by a blog entry she read about a young black man in Brownsville, New York.  She says, “the brief post only contained a few facts about the young man who died. But it lodged in my gut and wouldn’t let go. I kept thinking about this boy’s family and loved ones. I kept thinking about the tremendous loss of life in some of our communities, and how easy it is in this soundbite world for these losses to disappear from our consciousness, and how especially true for a neighborhood like Brownsville, which only makes the news when something bad happens.  Then everyone forgets about it until the next incident, and nobody bothers to look more deeply into the fact that Brownsville has been an underserved, ignored section of New York City since its inception. Often there can be this sort of head-shaking resignation – ‘Oh well. That’s just what happens there – or an assumption that if you look a certain way and live in a certain zip code, your life is worth less, you matter less, and this sort of wall of silence descend around the loss.”

The playwright says she wanted to bear witness in a “meaningful way.” “Brownsville Song: B-Side for Tray” is her response. For tickets and information visit: shotgunplayers.org
The Ashby Stage is located across the street from the Ashby BART Station in Berkeley, 1901 Ashby Street, Berkeley. For information call: 510.841.6500 or info@shotgunplayers.org

Ain’t I A Woman March

Saturday, July 15, 2017, Black Women United will host our first event; the “Ain’t I A Woman” March. This is an all-inclusive event and Black women from ALL walks of life are encouraged to attend. Whether you’re straight, LGBTQ, Christian, Muslim, disabled, and more; you are welcome.

The concept of ‘Ain’t I A Woman’ (AIAW) is a challenge, but also an affirmation. It is not a question, but rather a powerful statement or declaration of our womanhood and demanding all of the respect and acceptance that should come with it. The purpose of this march is to give all Black women a platform to express themselves and fight for their civil rights.  Visit www.bwusac.com

On the Fly:
Bay Area Playwrights Festival July 13-23 at Custom Made Theatre in San Francisco; “Walls” at SF Mime Troupe opens July 1-2 at Cedar Rose Park in Berkeley and July 4 at Dolores Park in San Francisco. Showtime, 1:30 (music), 2 p.m. (show). Listen to an interview with Marilet Martinez (Actor) http://tobtr.com/10113269 ; 26th Annual California Black Expo features Minority Businesses, Job Fair, Diverse Entertainment, Praise & Worship Service, and More!  Sat.-Sun., July 22-23, 2017 | Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum; Clausen House 50^th Anniversary 1967-2017 Celebration, Sunday, July 16, 2017, 5:30-9:00 p.m. at Preservation Park, 1233 Preservation Park Way, Oakland. RSVP via Eventbrite or Jerry@clausenhouse.org by July 7. The San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival at San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, July 8-9; July 15-16. Visit sfethnicdancefestival.org  Featured are 24 Bay Area-based world dance and music groups. The lineup includes six groups making their Festival debuts and the season will feature five world premieres created specifically for the 2017 Festival. Each weekend are two different programs. There will be world premiere performances by Ballet Afsaneh, BITEZO BIA KONGO, De Rompe y Raja Cultural Association, John Santos Sextet + Alayo Dance Company, and Te Mana O Te Ra.  There will also be preshow performances, so arrive early to see artists: Zena Carlota, West African Kora (new to the Festival this year); Leung’s White Crane Lion & Dragon Dance– Chinese Lion Dance; Vinic-Kay (Le Gente y El Canto) – Mexican Folkloric; Gamelan Sekar Jaya – Balinese Jegog.

Artists for 2017 Ethnic Dance Festival include:

The Academy of Danse Libre – European Social Dances
Ballet Afsaneh – Persian-Iranian Contemporary
Ballet Folklórico México Danza – Mexican Folkloric
BITEZO BIA KONGO* – Congolese Traditional
Fogo Na Roupa Performing Company – Brazilian Folkloric (Maracatu)
De Rompe y Raja Cultural Association – Afro-Peruvian
Gamelan Sekar Jaya ± – Balinese Jegog
Gurus of Dance, an Aditya Patel Company – Indian Bollywood
John Santos Sextet + Alayo Dance Company*– Cuban Contemporary Folkloric
Leung’s White Crane Lion & Dragon Dance ±– Chinese Lion Dance
LIKHA – Pilipino Folk Ensemble – Filipino Folkloric (Mandayan and Tboli)
Māhealani Uchiyama –Zimbabwean Mbira
Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu – Hawaiian Hula
Natya at Berkeley* – Indian Bharatanatyam
San Francisco Awakko Ren* – Japanese Traditional (Awa Odori)
Te Mana O Te Ra – Tahitian Oteʻa
Theatre Flamenco + La Tania – Spanish Flamenco
Vinic-Kay (Le Gente y El Canto) ±– Mexican Folkloric
YaoYong Dance – Chinese Folkloric (Mongolia)
Zakir Hussain + Antonia Minnecola* – Indian Kathak
Zena Carlota*± – West African Kora

*Artists who are new to the Festival
±Denotes artists who are performing pre-show at the Opera House

Wanda’s Picks June 2017

Happy Father’s Day! Ramadan Mubarak to those fasting during this blessed month.Congratulations to all the graduates and their happy families, special congratulations to my eldest niece: Widya Batin, Lowell High School, San Francisco, Youth Leader Award, National Council of Negro Women Golden Gate Section 2016, Member, Design Task Force “New Buchanan Mall” between Fulton and Eddy.

The Black Father Project.com

Join Dr. Khalid Akil White, dir. “Black Fatherhood: Trials & Tribulations, Testimony & Triumph” at Oakstop, 1721 Broadway in Oakland, Thursday, June 8, 6-9 p.m. (for men and boys) and at Bayview Opera House: Ruth Williams Theatre, (everyone welcome) 4705 3^rd Street in San Francisco, Sunday, June 25, 3 p.m. for a film screening and conversation about Black Fathers. Ticket price includes a meal.

Libations for the Ancestors

12^th Annual International Libations for African Ancestors of the Middle Passage, Sat., June 10, 8:30 a.m. We begin at 9 a.m. sharp, at Lake Merritt in Oakland (Lakeside at E-18^th) by the fountain. Bring instruments, children, something to share such as poetry, song, and reflections. Omnira Institute’s 10th Annual Juneteenth: Ritual of Remembrance Celebrating the Roots of Freedom is also that day, at 11:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. by the Lake Merritt Boathouse Picnic Area, 562 Bellevue Ave. Visit maafasfbayarea.com and remembertheancestors.com

Avoid taking the heavy meals and alcohol https://unica-web.com/ENGLISH/permanent-english-pages/members-of-unica.html purchase viagra after or before sustenance both. No pressure; no http://www.unica-web.com/archive/2013/german/UNICA2013-AGM-minutes3.html order levitra online stress; no insecurities; no worries; and no anxiety. The natural testosterone push into unica-web.com levitra prescription online your body will only do the much needed magic and which is put everything back on track for you. Apart from consuming cialis sample these herbal pills, you should make lifestyle changes and consume healthy diet.

Art Makes My Life Matter at the African American Center, San Francisco Main Library 6/17-8/10

Curator Kheven LaGrone wondered what the Black Lives Matter movement means in the San Francisco Bay Area, and asked several local black artists to depict how they use their art to make their lives matter.  Artist talk and discussion 1:30 PM June, 17th, 2017 in the African American Center, 3^rd Level, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco.

Dance
Soul to Soul with Between Me and the World, ODC’s The Walking Dance Festival, June 3 & 10

Curated by Laura Elaine Ellis, artistic Director of the African American Performing Arts Coalition is performed in thematic collaboration with and on the same ODC program with Joanna Haigood’s remounting of excerpts from her 2013 performance installation Between Me and the Other World, which explores the relevance of W.E.B. Dubois’s concept of “double consciousness” to the experience of people of color in the United States today. Ellis’s work which follows Haigood’s continues the discussion with two seminal texts in conversation: Ellis’s work titled Soul to Soul: An Artistic Response to Baldwin and Coates, draws on the writings of James Baldwin and Ta-Nehisi Coates to illuminate contemporary issues related to race and social justice. Both choreographers’ work sits in the collaborative process, Haigood’s project includes composer Anthony Brown, video artist David Szlasa and scenic designer Sean Riley, while Ellis collaborates with Gregory Dawson and Marc Bamuthi Joseph and includes musicians and poets, dancers and other creative stakeholders. This free event will have two showings each day on June 3 and June 10 beginning at 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. at the Joe Goode Annex, 499 Alabama Street in San Francisco as part of ODC’s annual summer festival, the Walking Distance Dance Festival. Visit odc.dance/wddf or call 415-863-9834. Listen to an interview with Laura Elaine Ellis:

Oakland  Ballet

Oakland Ballet presents two: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Thursday–Saturday, June 1–3, at 7:30pm, and Saturday June 3 at 2:30pm and East Bay DANCES ’17, Sunday, June 4, 4 p.m. Both programs are at the Odell Johnson Performing Arts Center at Laney College, 900 Fallon Street, Oakland.

Now in its 53rd Season, Oakland Ballet offers two matinee performances of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” to K-12 schoolchildren from Oakland Unified School District on Friday, June 2 at the Odell Johnson Performing Arts Center at Laney College. Tickets are free for Title I schools and $5 for students and teachers from non-Title I schools. Tickets may be arranged at www.OaklandBallet.org or by calling 510-893-3132. Listen to an interview with Graham Lustig, Artistic Director: http://tobtr.com/s/100040455

San Francisco Silent Film Festival

San Francisco Silent Film Festival presents: Body and Soul dir.by Oscar Micheaux (USA, 1925, 93 min.) starring Paul Robeson in his film debut. With a new score by Paul D. Miller, DJ Spooky, whose recent project “Pioneers of African American Cinema” covers work from 1915-1946. Race films features Micheaux who was quintessentially a race man, his canon unparalleled and unflinchingly focused on stories about the black experience in America. Of the filmmakers 22 silent feature films, only three survive, scholar Charles Musser writes in the film notes which accompany the five CD box set.

The prolific director’s “Body & Soul” is both controversial and provocative. With a majority black cast, the question to Micheaux was why he’d make a film with black villains—a preacher who rapes, lies and steals. Musser’s explains that Micheaux often used cinema as conversation and in “Body and Soul” his Reverend Isiaah T. Jenkins “is a southern version of [Eugene O’Neill’s] Brutus Jones—an escaped convict and dangerous sociopath who uses his authority as a preacher to extract money and sex from parishioners” (19). Other films Micheaux samples are another O’Neill work, also starring Paul Robeson, “All God’s Chillin Got Wings” (1924) and Charlie Chaplin’s “The Pilgrim” (1923).

Almost a psychological thriller, we see Robeson playing two roles, that of Rev. Jenkins and his twin brother Sylvester whom Isabelle loves, to her mother’s chagrin. The antagonist externalizes the split self W.E.B. Dubois articulates so carefully in “The Souls of Black Folk.” The preacher is sly, cunning and a master at deception while his quiet alter ego is his complete opposite. The mother is victim to her pastor’s charm, even when she knows better. We see her polishing his shoes and giving him  her hard-earned money. The score propels the movement as it supports the narrative structure.

Almost a caricature, the wily preacher is a character Michaeux returns to, without Robeson who at 27 so excels in this questionable role, he later distances himself from it. The film is surprisingly current and its reception recalls the film version of “The Color Purple.”  The film with live accompaniment by DJ Spooky screen Friday, June 2, 7 p.m. at Castro Theatre in San Francisco. Visit silentflm.org

Juneteenth in Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco, Richmond . . . California

Join the Friends of the Negro Spirituals Juneteenth at the West Oakland Branch Library, 1801 Adeline Street, June 17, 1-4 p.m. in the West Auditorium.

Juneteenth San Francisco is also, Sat., June 17-18: http://www.sfjuneteenth.com/

Juneteenth Richmond, June 17: http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/427/Festivals

Juneteenth Allensworth, June 10: http://friendsofallensworthsandiego.com/calendar.htm

Juneteenth San Jose: https://www.everfest.com/e/juneteenth-in-the-park-san-jose-ca

Juneteenth Santa Cruz: https://www.everfest.com/e/santa-cruz-juneteenth-santa-cruz-ca

Berkeley Juneteenth, Sunday, June 18: http://www.berkeleyjuneteenth.org/

Vallejo 29^th Annual Juneteenth, June 17: http://www.vallejojuneteenth.com/

Everfest listing of Juneteenths US: https://www.everfest.com/seasonal/juneteenth-festivals

Ms. Susan Burton, founder, A New Way of Life, Book Party

The long anticipated story of Ms. Susan Burton’s life is finally out (May 2017) and she will be in Oakland to celebrate its release Monday, June 5 at the Laurel Bookstore, 1423 Broadway, Oakland from 6-8 p.m. One of the founders of All of Us or None, Susan Burton is a CNN Hero, a Starbucks “Upstander,” a Soros Justice Fellow, a winner of Harvard’s Citizen Activist Award, founder of the internationally-recognized non-profit A New Way of Life, and someone that Michelle Alexander has compared to Harriet Tubman. She is also one of the millions of American women who have been incarcerated—in her case over 15 years—for non-violent offenses.”

In “Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight got Incarcerated Women” (The New Press) Burton and writer Cari Lynn tell the story of Susan Burton’s life, and use it as a lens through which to see the desperate need for criminal justice reform.

Born in the housing projects of 1950s Los Angeles, Burton’s world changed in an instant when her five-year-old son was killed. Consumed by grief and without access to professional help, Burton self-medicated, becoming addicted first to cocaine, then crack. As a resident of South L.A., an impoverished black community under siege by the War on Drugs, it was but a matter of time before she was arrested. Burton cycled in and out of prison; never was she offered therapy or addiction treatment. On her own, she eventually found a private drug rehabilitation facility.

Once clean—and against all odds—Burton was able to buy a small house, and ever since has dedicated her life to supporting women facing similar struggles.

Part memoir, part political awakening, and part criminal justice reform manifesto—which Bryan Stevenson has called “a must-read”—Susan Burton’s story brings vividly to life the human cost of mass incarceration.

On the Fly:
13^th Annual Queer Women of Color Film Festival 2017, Friday, June 9-11 at Brava Theatre, 2781 24^th Street, San Francisco. Visit qwocmap.org 20^th Annual United States of Asian American Festival – apiculturalcenter.org  Berkeley World Music Festival 6/9-6/11 (various locations); Bay Area Book Festival, June 2-3 in Berkeley (Listen to an interview with Cherylin Parsons, Founder & Executive Dir.); San Francisco International Art Festival (Wanda’s Picks interview with Andrew Wood, director of SFIAF); Frameline41 June 15-25 (Genre Queer Cinema at its finest: 5 venues, including 1 week programming in the East Bay; 19 countries); 16^th Annual SF Docufest May 31-June 15 at the Roxie/Vogue/Alamo Drafthouse. African Diaspora Interest: “Bangaologi, the Science of Style” (Coréon Dú, Angola/Portugal/USA 83 min. Roxie 6/10, 5 p.m. & Wed. 6/14, 7:15 p.m.); “Bight of the Twin” (Hazel Hill McCarthy III, USA, 63 min, Vogue Sat., June 10, 4:45 p.m.; Roxie Mon., June 12, 9:30 p.m.); “City of Joy” (Madeline Gavin, USA, 74 min., Roxie, Sat.,une 3, 9:30 p.m.); “Double Digits: The Story of a Neighborhood Movie” (Justin Johnson, USA, 76 min.), Roxie, Tues., June 6, 9:30 p.m., & Sun., June 11, 2:45 p.m.; “Gip” (Patrick Sheehan, USA, 74 min.), Roxie, Sun., June 11, 5 p.m.; “Nat Bates for Mayor,” (Bradley Berman & Eric Weiss, USA, 75 mins.), Roxie, Sat., June 10, 2:45 p.m. and Thurs., June 15, 9:30 p.m.; “Shelter,” (Brent Renaud & Craig Renaud, USA, 76 mins.), Roxie, Sat., June 3, 2:45 p.m. & Thurs., June 8, 7:15 p.m.; “Street Fighting Men,” (Andrew Jame, USA, 110 mins.), Roxie, Sun., June 4, 5 p.m. & Tues., June 6, 7:15 p.m.; “True Conviction,” (Jamie Meltzer, USA, 84 mins.), Roxie, Sat., June 3, 7:15 p.m.; “Uhuru”, (Tom Gentle, UK/ Tanzania, 60 mins), Vogue, Sun., June 11, 4:45 p.m., Roxie, Wed., June 14, 9:30 p.m.; “Unseen,” (Laura Paglin, USA, 78 mins), Roxie, Thurs., June 8, 9:30 p.m. & Sun., June 11, 7:15 p.m.; “The Work (Centerpiece film), Jarius McLeary ( Gethin Aldous, USA, 87 mins, Roxie, Friday, June 9, 7:15 p.m.; “Resistance is Life,” (Apo W. Bazidi, USA, 73 min.), Roxie, Sun., June 11, 9:30 p.m. & Mon., June 12, 7:15 p.m. “Working in Protest,” (Michael Galinsky & Suki Hawley, USA, 74 min.), Roxie, Sat., June 10, 9:30 p.m.  80^th Annual Stern Grove Concerts, June 25-August 27, opens with Kool & the Gang and Quinn DeVeaux who blends New Orleans soul and early blues with contagious dance rhythms. Highlights this season of free music are Marvis Staples & Kev Choice (8/27), Amadou and Miriam (8/8), Negrito (7/2), War (8/13); African American Shakespeare Company’s “The Winter’s Tale” by William Shakespeare, directed by L. Peter Callendar is up June 10-18 (6 performances) at the Taube Atrium Theatre, 401 Van Ness Avenue, 4^th Floor, San Francisco. Teacher’s Night Out is Thursday, June 9, 7:30 p.m. Visit Shakes.org/Education/Teachers-Night-Out Opening is 3 p.m. June 10. Ubuntu TheatreProject presents: Confirmation and Machinal, June 1-11at Brooklyn Preserve, 1433 12^th Avenue, Oakland; Samm-Art Williams’s HOME, dir. by Aldo Billingslea, at Lorraine Hansberry Theatre through June 4 at the Burial Clay Theater at the African American Art and Culture Complex, 762 Fulton Street (at Webster), in San Francisco. Friday-Sat. 7 p.m. Sat., 2 p.m. matinee, Sunday, 4 p.m. For tickets call: (415) 474-8800 To listen to an interview with the director, visit Wanda’s Picks Radio: http://tobtr.com/s/10012965

Theatre

Theatre Rhinoceros presents: “Pricilla: Queen of the Desert, the Musical,” directed by John Fisher, at the Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson St., (at Battery St.), May 27-July 1. Listen to a recent Wanda’s Picks interview with AeJay Mitchell, choreographer and Charles Peoples III, (Felicia/Adam) at: http://tobtr.com/10044411

Dance Performance

Cherie Hill, Artistic Director, IrieDance, joins us to talk about her new work, Terrestrial Footprints Part 2, June 2 & 3 at Alena Museum, a West Oakland space for African Diaspora art, 2725 Magnolia Street, 8 p.m.  Listen to an interview on Wanda’s Picks: http://tobtr.com/10040455

Theatre First’s production of HeLa

In Laura Gunderson and Geetha Reddy’s “HeLa,” the dead woman never leaves the stage.  Actress Jeunee Simon’s “Henrietta Lacks,” opposite Desiree Roger’s “Deborah” weave magic on stage. Mrs. Lacks is engaging and prescient as scientists and business men profit from her immortal cells. She orbits the planet with a Russian dog, peaks through a microscope as a scientist laments his inability to meet the woman responsible for his research. The play which puts Henrietta Lacks and her daughter Deborah Lacks Pullum at its center, is a refreshing treatment of a topic which is very much in the news today, yet in this tale the only story that matters is the Lacks women.

Deborah asks astute questions of scientists who take her blood. She asks why people are always taking, taking, taking.  When asked why they wanted the family’s blood, the clinician lies and says they are testing to make sure Henrietta children do not have cancer or the potential for contracting it.  Much later the family learns that they were never at risk.

A large cell, porous and magnified provides the backdrop for the story of a woman who died at 31, yet her cells are alive today.  Deborah sets out to find her mother, once she learns her mother, Henrietta Lacks, is alive somewhere. If her mother’s cells are so important to science, then why doesn’t anyone say her name she asks throughout her search.  Why is her mom hidden in the cryptic term: “HeLa” Deborah asks over and over again, as scientist squirm, apologize and then think, perhaps for the first time, about the woman’s body these cells were a part of.  An indigent black woman patient in the Colored Ward in John Hopkins Hospital, Henrietta Lacks was vulnerable and at risk.  She knew these white people were not to be trusted. We see her suffer needlessly as doctors’ care only about research and samples, not the woman dying.

Marketing would have been difficult if the public, especially other doctors whose research also looked at gene propagation had known the woman whose cells were rapidly changing medical science forever, was black.  In 1951, no one wanted to hear this, so they named the line HeLa and hid her identity for 25 years.

As Deborah unravels the remarkable and extraordinary story of her mom, Henrietta Lacks reaches across the spheres which separate flesh from the divine— it is her cells that create a bridge for her little girl to cross. HeLa, the play, makes immortality tangible.

Everything is left to the imagination except the cells sitting like a constellation all aglow. Bailey Hikawa’s scenic design and Stephanie Anne Johnson’s lighting, allow the tangible yet nuanced subtleties of science to serves as backdrop to everything— HeLa cells are a mystery, a wonderful mystery that envelops the audience too as we sit enraptured by the story and like Deborah learn to believe in the unseen.

TheatreFirst’s production of HeLa is up through Sat., June 17. The play runs Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m. and Sunday, 2 p.m., at Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley. Call 510.981.8150 or visit theatrefirst.com

There is a conversation with special guests following each performance. Sat., June 10, Prof. Wanda Sabir will participate in the discussion with hopefully some of her student scholars. The Freshman Comp class read Rebecca Skloot’s book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” spring semester.  To listen to an interview with Desiree and Jeunee listen  here: http://tobtr.com/s/100040455

Happy Mother’s Day! The mothers honored includes, Mother Earth (smile), Incarcerated mothers, especially those mothers whose children were stolen or adopted out and are now lost to their families.

Congratulations to all graduates, whether this is from one grade to the next, from a vocational program or from a college or university. Education is a lifelong endeavor. Knowledge is power!

Save the date: International Libations for the Ancestors, second Saturday, June 10, 8:30 a.m. We start at 9 a.m. exactly. It is a simultaneous libation. Everyone is pouring at the same time. In the San Francisco Bay Area, we meet at the fountain at Lake Merritt, Lakeside Drive and E18th Street (across from the old Merritt Bakery; Out of the Closet is across the street too). Visit maafasfbayarea.com and remembertheancestors.com

Dance

Dimensions Dance Theatre presents its annual youth showcase titled: The Village Matters, Sunday, May 7 at 4 p.m., at the Phillip Reeder Auditorium at Castlemont High School, 8601 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$20. Group discounts and a limited number of advance free tickets are available to students and teachers within Oakland Unified School District. Contact (510) 465-3363 and dimensionsdance.org  For tickets visit Eventbrite.com

Participants include:  Rites of Passage, Dimensions Extensions, LIKHA School of Philippine Dance, On Demand, BAY-Peace, Oakland Technical High School, Oakland High School, Bret Harte Middle School and Kipp Bridge Academy. The program also features guest artists Destiny Muhammad, “Harpist from the Hood,” and Batalá San Francisco.

Listen to a recent interview with Deborah Vaughn, co-founder and Artistic Director, of DDT. Find out how you can financially support Dimensions in a special fundraising drive, East Bay Gives, through Thursday, May 4.

Dance Benefit

Sankofa Akili Dance Fundraiser is Saturday, May 6, 1-4 p.m. at Defremery Recreation Center, 1651 Adeline Street in West Oakland, features: Avotcja, Bisola Marignay, Vulindlela and Nozipo Wobogo, Ron Williams, Tacuma King, Stones of Fire, Wanda Sabir and more.

Jazz Films

Films to catch quickly @ the Roxie in San Francisco, I Called Him Morgan (2017) April 28-May 4, a new film, Swedish dir., Kasper Collin, tells the story of 33 year old jazz trumper star, Lee Morgan who was shot by his wife, Helen. The film’s narrative is an interview with Helen upon her release with of course archival performances and interviews with artists and critics. The director is known for his profile of another jazz musician, My Name is Albert Ayler. Like Morgan, Ayler, saxophonist, also had an unexpected and violent end, his body found in New York’s East River. He was 34. Deeply spiritual, one of his well-known works is the album, Spiritual Unity, selection here is: “Ghosts First Variation.”

Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary (2017), dir. John Scheinfeld, is screening at the California in Berkeley, Landmark Embarcadero and Rialto in Sebastopol theatres through May 3.

Author Event

W. Kamau Bell’s New Memoir

Saturday, May 6, W. Kamau Bell, comedian, political commentator, TV and radio show host, will be reading from, and discussing, his new book: The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6’4″, African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama’s Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian at Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore at the Starline Social Club, 645 W. Grand Avenue in Oakland. Tickets are $30-$40.00

Bell will joined in conversation by Adam Mansbach, the award-winning novelist, writer and cultural critic behind Go the Fuck to Sleep, Rage is Back, Angry Black White Boy, and more.

Theatre

“Richmond Renaissance” by DeAndre Evans, directed by Safiya Fredericks and Donté Clark,  Saturday-Sunday, May 6 and May 7, 6-8 p.m. at El Cerrito High School Performing Arts Theater, 540 Ashbury Avene, El Cerrito.

Richmond Renaissance is an original play written and performed by Richmond youth. Set in AnnaBelle’s, a Black-owned juke joint in 1940s North Richmond, Richmond Renaissance counters the often negative Richmond narrative of poverty and violence by highlighting the community’s wealthy cultural past as an epicenter for blues, jazz and zydeco. “It’s important that we understand the history of our people and what happened in our city,” lead playwright DeAndre Evans said. “So many people are hurt, confused, and feel like they are nothing.”

Richmond Renaissance emerges at time when gentrification not only displaces Bay Area residents, but threatens to erase the history of communities.

To prepare the script, Evans researched Richmond history and interviewed elders in local senior centers. Writing the play helped him learn more about his own family, culture and identity as an artist coming out of Richmond. “I am hoping this play can teach community members about themselves and instill a sense of ‘Pride and Purpose.’ My dream is to spark an artistic and cultural renaissance in Richmond,” Evans said. The play’s cast features all Richmond youth. This is a youth-led ode to what once was and what could still be of a city whose single story has become one of perpetual violence.

The play is directed by Safiya Fredericks, a Richmond native, most known for her work in Independent Lens, Mafia III (2016), and America is Still the Place (2015). Donté Clark, Richmond’s poet laureate and creative coordinator at RYSE, is the play’s assistant director. Clark’s recent work includes Romeo is Bleeding and the web series The North Pole. Evans participated as a cast member in three other productions.

Tickets are $15 for adults (24 and older) and $10 for youth in advance, $20 for adults and $15 for youth at the door. VIP tickets are $50. Tickets can be purchased at the RYSE Center or online at: tinyurl.com/richmondrenaissance. Discounted tickets are available for groups of five or more, and can be purchased by contacting tavae@rysecenter.org.

Films on Independent Lens, NetFlix, HBO

Roger Guenveur Smith’s Rodney King, a Netflix film, premiered August 28, on the 25^th Anniversary of the verdict that set LA on fire. True, the events which precipitated the uprising were deeper than the unfavorable verdict; however, the wick was connected to a ticking bomb set to blow, and it did. Several films, panels and programs characterized that weekend, which is appropriate – 25 years later. April 29 also marked President Trump’s 100^th day in office; what better time to access, analyze and reflect on American policies then and now.

Work like Smith’s “Rodney King,” directed by Spike Lee, disrupts the narrative that has become the Rodney King Story, as does another King themed work, “K-Town’92: Who Gets to Tell the Story,” an interactive media project, Grace Lee directs.  The 15 minute companion short film features three journalists hired by the LA Times to get the black, Korean and Latino stories: Hector Tobar, Tammerlin Drummond, and John Lee. The journalists reflect candidly on their coverage and the difficulty in telling the LA Rebellion story. Lee and Drummond reflect on the atmosphere at the LA Times, a majority white publication.  For a newsperson, the job is to get the story, and the idea that a Korean, Latino or black journalist is neccessary to a story involving a nonwhite subject.   The Pulitzer Prize the paper received for its coverage all the journalists, specifically Tammerlin Drummond, Oakland resident, feels there was so much left unsaid.

Smith’s piece is more intimate. A playwright, we watch him portray “Glen,” (what King was called by friends). Rodney King, Smith tells us, was the persona the incident created March 3, 1991, when the public beating was captured on video. Early on in the solo performance, we meet Glen, a fun loving guy who worked at his dad’s business, enjoyed his beer, and watching a game on Friday night with the boys.

We learn King lost his dad to an accidental drowning and years later, alcoholism and water would take his life too. Smith deconstructs Glen, then King’s life and shows his fear and compassion. When he shares the May 1, 1992 speech King delivers to his community to stop the killing in his name, the Laney College theatre grew silent. Smith says the speech is one of the greatest of all time.  Smith who is well-known for his biographical works, “Frederick Douglas Now” and the stellar “Huey P. Newton Story,” also directed by Spike Lee. He has taught at UC Berkeley and California Institute for the Arts, where he runs his Performing History workshop.

With K-Town’92: Who Gets to Tell the Story, Grace Lee convenes a space for discourse in her 25^th Anniversary retrospective. One holds her curser over a frame and listens to archival media coverage 25 years ago and interviews of people then and now. At any one time, there might be 3-4 frames on the screen. There are 30 interviews up presently and the director says she plans to add more and look at how to make it possible for the public to actively participate and document their participation in the discourse. The perspectives presented give an opportunity to viewers to look at what people were thinking and experiencing then, juxtaposed with reflections by some of these same people – older now. The interviews and coverage are controversial and reflect media bias. Some of it is rather shocking.  “Uncensored, K-Town’92” airing on pbs.org WORLD Channel, looks at the interaction between the black community, Korean community and Latino communities within the context of the diseased container–racism and white supremacy. Scholars, journalists, children, citizens . . . get their say. Listen to a recent interview on Wanda’s Picks Radio with director, Grace Lee and playwright, actor, Roger Guenveur Smith.

Quest for Democracy Advocacy Day in Sacramento, Monday, May 8

“My job is to get 50 of you all to come with me to Sacramento on May 8th. We’re gonna have five busloads of formerly incarcerated people and their family members showing up in Sacramento, demanding that we have rights…will you stand with me?”

— Dorsey Nunn, Executive Director, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC)

Join Legal Services for Prisoners with Children / All of Us or None’s 5th annual statewide lobby day in Sacramento for formerly-incarcerated people and family members with incarcerated loved ones. SURJ will be there, along with allied community leaders and activists. Quest for Democracy Advocacy Day supports pending legislation that affects people impacted by incarceration and lifts up the voices and leadership of those most impacted by the prison industrial complex.

Several hundred folks from across the state are coming to lobby for bills that will impact the rights of formerly incarcerated people, such as:

• SB 180 – the RISE Act (Repeal Ineffective Sentencing Enhancement) – to reduce incarceration and free upAOUON-Logo-Circle_w_Spanish.jpg funds to invest in community programs
• SB 185 – Driver’s License Suspensions – prohibits license suspensions for failure to pay or appear in court for minor traffic tickets.
• AB 353 – Trial Jurors – restores the right to serve on juries upon completion of sentence.
• AB 1008 – The Fair Chance Act – extends Ban the Box to private employers, limited background checks to after an in-person interview / conditional job offer.

sildenafil generic from canada The company has spent alot on advertising which has given provillus a good name. The condition does now allow individuals to show best buy cialis of their capability. http://amerikabulteni.com/2011/06/20/supreme-court-sides-with-wal-mart-in-sex-bias-case/ usa discount cialis Erection is a resulting effect of plentiful blood flow near the targeted area. Typically the effects of the drug sildenafil cipla last for around 4 to 6 hours before the sexual intercourse in order to see the results instantly and consuming these natural medications for longer duration will continue to put you and your female partner.
Also on May 8, several thousand police and their supporters will be descending on Sacramento for ceremonies to honor police who have died in line of duty. The same day. The same place.

RSVP: Carpools are being organized (If you can drive or need a ride, SIGN UP HERE)!

Here’s the day’s schedule (subject to change):

9:30 -10:30 am – Opening Rally

10:30 – 12:00 pm – Public Hearing – Impacted folks will share their stories, discuss their rights and demands. Legislators will be invited to listen and participate.

12:00 – 1:00 pm – Lunch

1:00 – 3:00 pm – Impacted folks visit legislative offices

3:00 – 4:00 pm – Closing Rally

[NOTE: If you are a formally-incarcerated person or a family member, and want to participate in the Sunday, May 7 training day as well as the May 8 Lobby Day, find more info here or call Manuel La Fontaine: manuel@prisonerswithchildren.org; 415-625-7051]

• Whether you can go to Sacramento or not, please make a donation! SURJ Bay Area is fundraising to help cover costs for the mobilization. All monies raised will go directly to Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC) / All of Us or None. DONATE HERE

Author Event
Yaa Gyasi Book Tour Bay Area Stops

National bestselling Ghanaian writer Yaa Gyasi is on tour with stops in San Francisco and Berkeley, May 4, 7:30 p.m., at City Arts and Lectures and May 5, 7:30 p.m., at Pegasus Books Downtown in Berkeley, celebrating a newly released paperback edition of her acclaimed novel, “Homegoing.”  Homegoing is a Diaspora tales that spans multiple generations. It is a story where the innocent carry the burdens of the guilty.  Fires set by Maame, a slave, precipitate a series of events that chart the course of the yet-to-be-born. Traded away from her daughter, Effie, Maame trails sorrow; however, her next child, Esi doesn’t learn right away her mother’s story, nor does the sister left behind, the beautiful Effia.

Loved by her dad who fights with his wife over her treatment of the child, Effia learns the truth of her lineage too late to change the course of events of her life. The time is precolonial Africa. These two sisters torn apart in eighteenth-century Ghana have a legacy which spans seven generations, multiple continents and familial ebb and flow. The Asante and Fanta hunt and trade Africans with Europeans who ship them to the Americas and Europe. However, white supremacy and racism fuel this economic engine which spans several centuries collectively known as the transatlantic slave trade. One chief says that even after slavery ends, Africa will not see the end of European exploitation.

It is a risky time for a pretty girl whose stepmother hates her. What chance does she have when one of the British men asks for her? It is a bit more complex than this, nonetheless, away Effia goes from all she knows to Cape Coast where the wretched are held below in dungeons those above pretend don’t exist. She has an apartment where she lives with her husband. The men call the black women, “wenches,” the word “wife” reserved for the white women at home.

Gyasi, Ghanaian, raised in Alabama, crafts a story born in sorrow. It is a creation story, that of a people, names changed, linage ignored or forgotten. It is the story of a people born of rape and war and greed. Over time the genetic markers: language, history, customs, cultural mores vanish. Yet not the people. The people live on in the dreams of their progeny, born much later: characters Marcus and Marjorie. Transported and displaced, these two carry soul wounds, branded in DNA, scarred memories that show up embodied in ghosts without names.

The saga follows the split lineage, descendants of both sisters, Esi and Effia, spread across divergent terrains, a discrete space separated by thin walls. These walls lie philosophically so close to what was ignored, it floats near the surface. This is the world Effia and her son, Quey Collins inhabit, as did Esi Asare who lives below in the slave dungeon at Cape Coast, a place Effia does not speak.

Sister Esi ends up on a plantation in America, while Sister Effia’s grandson James Richard Collins chooses not to participate in the slave trade. His line stays in Africa, yet his choice taints any inheritance his offspring might have received. While across the ocean, Esi’s grandson, Kojo is free. However, tragedy continues to stalk both sides of the river as waves toss characters about, many who have not learned to swim.

An omniscient narrator tells the story, assisted by a family tree in the opening pages of the book. What this means is, the reader knows how close the two sisters’ offspring are to one another, yet cannot share any clues. How can one return home when he is afraid of water, home oceans away, his ancestor, Kojo, a ship builder, the kind of vessels that transported kinfolk from Ghana?

“Our family began here, in Cape Coast,” Old Lady said [to her granddaughter Majorie]. She pointed to the Cape Coast Castle. ‘In my dreams I kept seeing this castle, but I did not know why. One day, I came to these waters and I could feel the spirits of our ancestors calling to me. Some were free, and they spoke to me from the sand, but some others were trapped deep, deep, deep in the water so that I had to wade out to hear their voices. I waded out so far, the water almost took me down to meet those spirits that were trapped so deep in the sea that they would never be free. When they were living they had not known where they came from, and so dead they did not know how to get to dry land. I put [your umbilical cord] here so that if your spirit ever wandered, you would know where home was” (268).

The world here is one of separation, loss and abandon. People disappear never to be heard from again. Cut off, their children and their children’s children inherit the restlessness—the two girls amulets, black with flecks of gold.  Willie Black also inherits a voice with “notes float(ing) out of her mouth like little butterflies, carrying . . . sadness away, [a sign] . . . she knew, finally, that she would survive [her parent’s death, but more so her life] (204).

“Homecoming” cautions us to talk to our children. Tell them who they are and where they come from. There is so much left unsaid here. People die and then that tributary is gone, like “H” Black’s first name. All he is left with is the initial consonant.

Back home in the Motherland, powerful men and women vie for prestige from their king and/or the white man.  The missionaries are a part of the story too. In the name of foreign gods these men commit atrocities on indigenous people, many children. It is the same in America among the freed and condemned Africans. H’s daughter, Willie, learns quickly that racial bias is big in Harlem for dark women. However, while dreams appear in relief only to vanish like ancestral lines across the water, there is a certain intuition that speaks louder than silence.

Ghosts need quieting and Willie’s son Carson finds it in the heroin needle. Willie’s salvation is her song, Marjorie’s is her grandmother, Akua Collins, Marcus, Carson’s son, finds his in his research into a history he says, “is not going well. Originally, he’d wanted to focus his work on the convict leasing system that had stolen years off his great-grandpa H’s life, but the deeper into the research he got, the bigger the project got. . . . When Marcus started to think this way, he couldn’t get himself to even open a book” (289).

When the family met for Sunday dinners, and his [G]randmother [Willie] sang the blessing, Marcus thought, [h]is grandmother’s voice one of the wonders of the world” (290). When she sang, Marcus could see the villages in Africa with all the family members left behind and would wish them present.

By the end of the narrative journey, Yaa Gyasi makes his wish come true.

National bestselling author Yaa Gyasi in conversation with Jeff Chang on Thursday, May 4^th at 7:30 p.m. at the Nourse Theater, 275 Hayes St, San Francisco. Visit http://www.cityarts.net/event/yaa-gyasi/

The following evening, Friday, May 5^th at 7:30 p.m. she will be at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley. Visit: http://www.pegasusbookstore.com/yaa_gyasi

HeLa, the Play @ TheatreFIRST, Explores the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

TheatreFIRST closes its first season of in-house new works with the world premiere of HeLa by Lauren Gunderson and Geetha Reddy, dramaturgy by Lisa Marie Rollins, and directed by Evren Odcikin. The play is based on Henrietta Lacks incredible story. It is not science fiction, but the woman’s cells has been alive since 1951. HeLa evokes and explores the story of Henrietta Lacks, the African-American woman whose hard life and young death produced the most powerful line of immortal cells the world has ever seen. This lyrical theatrical mash up will explore the science, legacy, tragedy, poetry, and universal truths that one woman’s story and biology can offer the world. TheatreFIRST is at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. Previews are: May 18^th and 20^th @ 8pm, May 21^st @ 7pm. The play opens: Monday, May 22^nd @ 8pm and closes June 17^th.  HeLa runs Thursday – Saturdays, 8pm, Sundays, 2 p.m. Visit www.theatrefirst.com

Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (film)
Review

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (HBO 2017), directed by George C. Wolfe, starring Oprah Winfrey as Deborah Lacks, tells the story of the Mother of Modern Medicine, Henrietta Lacks, whose cell line changed medical research. Lacks’s cells, renamed HeLa were the first cells to survive outside the donor’s body and her cells have been multiplying from 1931 to now.  Dr. George Gey (actor Reed Birney), research physician at Johns Hopkins Medical facility is responsible for taking the sample (without consent) then sharing HeLa cells with other scientists throughout the world. Henrietta Lacks, mother of five died at 31 of cervical cancer. These cancerous cells were scraped from Henrietta’s cervix while she was a patient at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, the only hospital in the area with a ward for “colored patients.”

One could say marketing HeLa is the birth of the biotech industry. The HeLa saga shifted black exploitation to a new and unpresented level, if one considers the money made then and now from the HeLa cell line.  Medical exploitation was not just limited to Henrietta Lacks either.  After her death other scientific tests were conducted on the remaining children, included her institutionalized daughter Elsie, and her husband.

Though the family moved to Baltimore to work in the Steel Mills, Henrietta, a country girl at heart, returned to Roanoke, Virginia, as often as she could to farm.  She never got used to the big city, she liked wide open spaces.  Wolfe’s screenplay based on the bestselling book by Rebecca Skloot highlights an act of medical malfeasance with immeasurable public benefit. Vivacious, compassionate, loving Henrietta (1920-1931) dies much too soon; however, Rebecca and Deborah, like Thelma and Louise, with legal guns swinging, revisit places haunted by inequity and violence. One such place is Crownsville State Hospital, (for the mentally ill) where Deborah’s sister, Elsie Lucille, was tortured until she died. Another, the cemetery the two women visit where Henrietta lies in an unmarked grave near her mother’s grave. The cemetary near the Lacks family home, a part of the plantation where their ancestors were enslaved. Skloot writes in her book of the white Lacks and Black Lacks part of town.  One of the more powerful scenes is in a laboratory at John Hopkins hospital in Baltimore, where Christoph Lengauer, a Hopkins researcher, invites Deborah and her brother, Zakariyya (actor, Reg E. Cathey), to his lab to show them HeLa cells. After holding a vile, looking at the cells through a microscope, the researcher then dims the lights and projects the HeLa cells on a wall. Deborah and her brother stand in front of the projector as the cell imagery floats across their faces, arms, torsos, hips. It is as if Henrietta is kissing her children, baptizing them with her love.

Another scene which stands out is the burial procession.  It reminds one of choreographer Alvin Ailey’s work, “Revelations.” Sanctified! It is as if Orisha or nature spirits, Oya—goddess of change and transformation, winds and rain and Shango, god of thunder, are preparing the way for a woman who is not leaving without a fight.  Henrietta lets the family make its way quietly to the burial spot, where her casket is lowered into the ground. Shortly thereafter the rains begin to fall, the soil drenched as rivers of waters chase the mourners to their cars. Torrential winds blow the roof off a nearby house. Henrietta is not a woman to mess with, Deborah says often in the film (and in the book).

The juxtaposition of Henrietta Lacks and her daughter is the story the film tells. Rebecca Skloot’s tale includes this important piece, however, there is so much more. With audacity and power, Skloot tells the story of a black woman who was treated unfairly by the established medical profession. The story of the treatment of black patients is rendered saliently and effectively for a lay audience. It is a scientific book, but it reads like a whodunit. Skloot also explores the legislation around the treatment of human subjects and legally what body parts or fluids a patient has rights to and what the treating physician and institution can take with or without written or even verbal permissions. She looks at media coverage, potential and actual scammers out to exploit the Lacks family, one whom we meet in the film, portrayed with audacity by Courtney B. Vance, “Sir Lord Keenan Kester Cofield.

Skloot’s entire life seems to have prepared her to tell this story.  She learns about Henrietta Lacks in a community college biology class taken to make up for missed high school credits. There she learned the name of the woman whose cells she was studying. The teacher knew nothing more than her name, but that was enough to spark an interest which never flagged until finally Skloot met the Lacks family and the indefatigable road buddy, Deborah Lacks (who dies before the book is published (May 13, 1949-Nov. 2009).

Similarly, George C. Wolfe, director, (Bringin Da Noise, Bringin Da Funk, Lakawanna Blues), was a perfect choice to tell this abridged story. Branford Marsalis’s soundtrack is powerful, especially the invitational or ceremonial drumming which opens the work and sets the tone as we witness Henrietta’s biopsy, the elation her propagating tumor is met with; Dr. Gey’s publicity over the discovery, and then a roll out of all the scientific breakthroughs HeLa was responsible for.

Henrietta’s name is not associated with the scientific breakthrough, because she is a black woman. If we want to look at the Mother of Civilization, the original Eve, HeLa is her name.  Racism and white supremacy taints the glass Henrietta Lacks’s cells occupy, yet this is not the story the film tells.  Nor does it tell the story of poverty, black strivers, health risks and environmental toxicity Day Lacks and other black men experienced daily. Instead, this treatment focuses on Deborah and her mother, Henrietta.

The story moves easily between past and the present, between Deborah, Rebecca, and Henrietta, Henrietta and Deborah, Henrietta, Deborah and Zakariyya.  Oprah’s Deborah allows the investigation into her mother’s life and her medical past release the trauma or harm haunting her and her brother. Filmed in Baltimore after several weeks in Atlanta, the work resonates with Winfrey on another level as well. Her broadcast career started in Baltimore.

Henrietta’s two youngest children suffer when their mother died.  Sepia tones color the flashbacks, sometimes Deborah and her mother in the same frame—so many time signatures merge in a moment then separate in the next.  When Deborah enters John Hopkins Hospital the first time, she touches the feet of a huge marble statue in the foyer, we see her mother years prior making the same gesture. These moments are philosophically in keeping with the spiritual quest Deborah is on.

A reviewer in the New York Times called the film, a Cliff Notes version of the story; however, “Immortal Life,” the film, gives audiences the story of a mother and daughter. Deborah is testament to what happens to girls when there is “mother loss.” Perhaps if Day, Deborah and Zakariyya’s father, had protected his two children from their abusive caregivers, they might have developed emotional stability.

Family history, even the bad or unsavory parts is vitally important to one’s identity. The Lacks family saga shows a resilience and generosity the villains do not deserve.  The author, Rebecca Skloot spoke recently at City Arts and Lectures in San Francisco. She was in town to raise funds for the Henrietta Lacks Foundation.  The foundation is to support the Lacks with educational scholarships as well as help with medical expenses. HLF also supports the well-being of other persons who have been victims of medical apartheid.  HLF was something Deborah wanted for her mother, that and a statue or monument. Deborah also wanted Oprah Winfrey to portray her.  Oprah as Deborah Lacks, Renée Elise Goldsberry as Henrietta Lacks and Rose Byrne as Rebecca Skloot are supported by an all-star cast featuring: Rocky Carroll, Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Leslie Uggams and others.

In San Francisco, at the Exploratorium, there is an exhibit up currently on HeLa cells. Patrons can look through microscopes and see these amazing immortal cells. I am not certain how close Hopkins is to naming a hospital wing after Henrietta lacks. Perhaps the next Black Heritage stamp could have Henrietta Lacks on it. There needs to be streets names after her.