A Lifetime of Being Betty Reid Soskin CD Release Party this weekend, August 17
Ms. Betty Reid Soskin’s “Sign My Name to Freedom” (2018) memoir follow-up is a collection of stories tied with a ribbon called, what else? “A Lifetime of Being Betty,” released August 17. There is a special party arranged for Ms. Betty and others at Little Village Foundation Fundraiser that evening at Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, beginning at 8 p.m. (Doors open at 7 p.m.) Tickets are $20 in advance, $24 at the door. Visit: www.thefreight.org/event/1858290-little-village-foundation-berkeley/
Founded by Jim Pugh, Little Village Foundation is a non-profit cultural producer and record label that searches out, discovers, records and produces American roots artists who might never be revealed to the masses. The artists highlighted along with Betty Reid Soskin are: Anai Adina, Mariachi Mestizo, Enriching Lives Through Music, Mary Flower, Saida Dahir, Skip The Needle.
The wonderful selection of stories – the CD release on the eve of Ms. Betty’s 98th Birthday next month, covers territory many have not tread given the storyteller’s longevity. It is not everyone who lives in future perfect. Perhaps best known as the nation’s oldest park ranger and one of Glamour Magazine’s
“Women of The Year,” Ms. Betty holds court weekly at the Rosie the Riveter/ WWII Home Front National Historical Park Museum. Register early, her Tuesday 2 p.m. talks are popular (smile). The address is: 1414 Harbour Way South, Suite 3000, Richmond, CA, (510) 232-5050.
What I love about the stories captured on Ms. Betty’s latest project is her voice and the quality of the narrative: there is suspense when she shares the story of a home invasion and humor when she talks about recruiting drug dealers to register people to vote. Such tales can be savored over a couple of weeks like a rich confection, box too pretty to discard or all at once—like I did, the reflections, laughter and smiles still present after the 11 stories have concluded.
“A Lifetime of Being Betty” begins with a migration story one that takes place decades before Hurricane Katrina, breached levees and finger pointing blame. Ms. Betty’s mother travels with her three girls to Oakland to stay with Papa George Allen, her father, after the levees are bombed in the 7th and 9th wards to save the white occupied Garden District from flooding. The blueprint for Katrina was lit in neon. Ms. Betty’s tone is matter of fact, yet, it is a practiced levity.
Ms. Betty and I have a brief phone interview the week “A Lifetime of Being Betty’s” scheduled for release.
Wanda Sabir: When I was listening to the various tracks on the recording “A Lifetime of Being Betty,” I wondered if you could tell me more about the three generations of women. I am a NOLA native and when you talk about the flooding and what happened to African American people and your family’s migration to Oakland, I am reminded of another great migration after a flood – Katrina.
Ms. Betty Reid Soskin: “I didn’t realize until my 80s how unusual it was for me to have that connection back to my great-grandmother. She was born in 1836 into slavery, enslaved until she was 19 and freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. She married George Allen who was enlisted in the Colored Troops fighting on the side of the north. She lived to be 102, which meant she didn’t die until 1948. That was three years after the second World War.
“My mother was born in 1894 and lived to be 101. My great grandmother lived to be 102. My mother was raised by my Great Grandmother, because her mother died when she was seven months old. My great grandmother became my mother’s mother. I was born in 1921, so the three of us were all adults at the same time. I was 27 years old, married and a mother when my formerly enslaved great grandmother died. I knew her as the matriarch of my family. She raised all the adults who were significant in my life. She was very important throughout my young life– all of the stories came out of those grownups. I actually got to meet her several times before she died.
“Those three lives, because we were all adults at the time, bridged everything in the American narrative: from the Dred Scott Decision to Black Lives Matter. (She laughs). Can you imagine that? And I didn’t realize how unique that was until I began putting those pieces together.”
Wanda Sabir: I was thinking about St. James Parish which you tell us about in this section, and I was thinking about Jamestown, Virginia, Fort Comfort and the 400 Year Anniversary of Africans arrival there. In one of the sections you talk about the end of African imports, yet this did not stop the trade in human beings. You state the southerners started breeding slaves and this is how your great grandmother was born.
Ms. Betty: “[Though they had male slaves whose job it was to impregnate enslaved women,] the slave masters were [also] producing their own stock and that history has been pushed under the rug. We’ve never processed the Civil War, [let alone the sordid history of slavery.] Until we do, we are doomed to live through it again. I think it is so sad. I think that is what we are seeing in the white supremacy movement.”
WS: It is amazing that you have access to this rich history in the first person.
Ms. Betty: “I think the Internet has allowed us to make those connections in ways that former generations couldn’t. Those stories are available to more people than realize it. Everyone needs to be tracing their [histories] as far back as they can go. I know it’s hard to get past the slave trade, but it’s possible.
“I’ve been able to do it. I’ve got my mother’s history, my maternal line back to 1631, and my father’s line back to the 1400s. My father’s family came into the United States before the Revolutionary War and before the Louisiana Purchase. [My mixed family Charbonnet story enters] in the 1830s.”
WS: When did the African side of the family comes in?
Ms. Betty: “I really don’t know. My mother’s background is Cajun. My great grandmother was Cajun and Black. The Cajun people were agrarian; they worked their fields with their slaves. The “brown” Charbonnets — she says with a chuckle, were the result of a French Charbonnet taking up with a Black woman, perhaps a free woman of color in New Orleans when he returned from Haiti. Ms. Betty says it was an unhappy marriage.
“Those would be the parents of my great grandfather. I have been able to back up all that history and because we live in a time where those racial barriers are breaking down there are a couple neighbors of the Allen brothers, a couple of neighbors of the Charbonnets who are white, in tracing their families found me.”
WS: Oh.
Ms. Betty: “And we began to exchange information. At this point we have Charles Charbonnet, who is a member of the white Charbonnets. We met at the grave of our ancestor in common (another laugh).
“I feel so grounded in those stories because they come from a wide range of family members.”
WS: Tell me about the Little Village Foundation that published your work and is having a benefit this weekend at Freight and Salvage, Saturday, August 17, 8 p.m., Marcus Garvey’s birthday.
Ms. Betty: Oh really, she says with a smile. I didn’t know that. [She then shares a story of a family member who was a member of the UNIA.] The Little Village Foundation is presenting 5 new albums at 8 p.m. at the Freight and Salvage. I think they do this annually. There are 3 that are musical albums, mine and a spoken word album. We will all do something from our albums in an impromptu concert and the albums will be for sale on that day.”
WS: In the first track: “From Lincoln to Obama” you cover a huge territory. How does it feel to embody all this history? And you are articulate. There are other people who have lived as long, or longer than you, but we don’t hear from them, we don’t know them like we do you. You are a public person sharing this narrative with us in multiple mediums. When you talk about Rosie the Riveter not representative of the Black women you know who worked outside their homes long before WW2 and Kaiser opened a shipyard, we get a story absent from the nostalgic reflections by whites.
You talk about your first job as a domestic, because that’s what Black women did. Your mother told you about the job and how much is paid–50 cents an hour and you worked Friday-Sunday, cleaning and cooking and taking care of the children and then on payday, the woman handed you a 50 cent piece. Crazy.
And you talk about the Black Panther Party and your entree through the Unitarian Church in the story called: “Bag Lady” – she carried monetary donations to Kathleen Cleaver and Eldridge Cleaver in paper bags. Ms. Betty also advocated with the City of Berkeley to clean up the drug trafficking on Sacramento Street (1970s) and build affordable housing in South Berkeley—what became known as Byron Rumford Plaza, after the assemblyman who authored the California’s first and most important fair-housing law. There is a stature of the Assemblyman across from Reid’s Records.
Ms. Betty and then husband, Mel Reid opened Reid’s Records, 3101 Sacramento in June 1945—(to close October 2019), for economic independence. They were tired of working for white people and the philosophical sharecropping that characterized Black employment. With the success of the record store which sold “race records” as well as gospel records, the couple had the kind of economic independence that demands respect despite structural racist mores.
You tell the story of taking your great grandmother and granddaughters to the White House, a building built by people of African descent, to meet President Obama.
Ms. Betty: “You just put one foot in front of the other as you live your life. You do not know you are making history. I have been so fortunate, because I have been allowed by life to be able to now only chronicle my story, but the context that story came. Being able to share that is a real privilege. I don’t think my life is different from anyone else’s. I think that what’s different is that I’ve simply stayed on stage. I haven’t retired. I’ve gone on being Betty.”
WS: It’s so beautiful how you tell the story of being the “Bag Lady” for the Black Panther Party and now given the kind of official permissions given to white racists to kill those they do not like, you have the kind of expansive view to reflect on similar times in our nation’s past.
Ms. Betty: “That’s who we were as a nation. It does not mean that that’s who we are now.”
Stay tuned for two films, one in December produced by the National Park Service, the other early 2020 with a soundtrack featuring Ms. Betty’s original music (smile).
On the Fly:
Dr. Zethu Cakata, visiting scholar from South Africa, is giving a workshop/talk: “Ubugqirha: A Healing Beyond the Western Gaze,” Friday afternoon, August 2, 4-6 p.m., hosted by Dr. Tony Jackson, ABPsi Bay Area chapter chair at the Prana Mind Center, 459 West MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. Dr. Cakata looks at reclamation of indigenous culture through renaming and reclamation of African spiritual and linguistic healing practices. She says, “My medicine is my indigenous language. Human functioning, that is, psychology specific to its people’s behavior is something that grows from those communities.” For the Western theorists to think they can take their infested or contaminated blanket and wave it across African Diaspora culture is both arrogant and costly to the multiple generations affected/infected by this psycho-social practice. To hear the conversation this morning with Dr. Zethu Cakata, Dr. Patricia Nunley and Dr. Wade Nobles (who joined briefly), visit: http://tobtr.com/s/11446947
Also this weekend, August 2-4, 52 Letters opens at Ubuntu Theatre Project in Oakland, and continues through Aug. 25. Conjure-woman Regina Evans’s award-winning work looks at child sex-trafficking. The State of California is a huge market and Oakland is its national epicenter.
JAZZ @ Yerba Buena Gardens+ Youth Art Explosion in Oakland
AfroSolo has a free concert tomorrow at Yerba Buena Gardens, Sat., Aug. 3, 1-4 p.m., and tonight, Friday, Aug. 2, at Joyce Gordon Gallery there is a reception for the youth art exhibit. Tomorrow, Sat., Aug. 3, 11-6, is OYAE! Oakland Youth Arts Explosion at 14th and Harrison in Downtown Oakland, sponsored by JGG Foundation. There are several art exhibits that are closing this weekend, Aug. 2-4 such as the exhibits at MoAD and SF Main Library, How We Play.
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UC Berkeley Haas School is hosting a symposium this month on the 400 Year Marker of the Jamestown landing of African people. Register here:
https://haasinstitute.
Remembering August 1619- August 2019
Ms. Betty Reid Soskin’s life reflects the history commemorated this year nationally in the 400 Years of African-American History Commission, established by Congress on January 8, 2018, to develop, and carry out programs and activities throughout the United States to recognize and highlight 400 years of African-American contributions. The bill which had bipartisan support, and included sponsors from 23 States and the District of Columbia, was signed by President Trump Jan. 8, 2019.
“In the latter end of August, a Dutch man of War…arrived at Point Comfort,” wrote Virginia Colony secretary John Rolfe in 1619. Rolfe further noted that the White Lion commander delivered “20 and odd negroes” who were traded for provisions and other supplies. They would become either servants or slaves. Originally from Angola, they may have been captured from the Kingdom of Ndongo during the 1618-20 Portuguese war against African kingdoms. These natives of west central Africa are believed to have been traded for food and supplies. They were the first Africans to be brought to English North America. The site of the ship’s arrival is the present site of Fort Monroe National Monument in Hampton, Virginia.
“Fort Monroe was the arrival site of the first recorded Africans. On the same site, the first move toward emancipation occurred when Frank Baker, James Townsend and Shepard Mallory sought sanctuary during the Civil War. At Hampton University, the education of newly emancipated individuals began in 1868 and 150 years later is going strong. It is the legacy of the human computers like Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughn who helped to set the national course to the stars through their work at NASA Langley, and that of so many more individuals who helped to shape our nation,” said Hampton Mayor Donnie Tuck. “While we do not celebrate the reason the first Africans arrived on our shores, we marvel at how far we have come during this 400-year journey, and maintain hope for a future of unity and equality.”
Virginia’s 2019 Commemoration, American Evolution, in partnership with Fort Monroe Authority, Fort Monroe National Monument, and the City of Hampton, will host the 2019 Commemoration of the First African Landing on August 23-25, 2019 in Hampton, Va. On Sunday, August 25, 3 p.m. ET, people throughout the nations are encouraged to ring a bell for times, one ring per 100 years for the African Ancestors arrival here 400 years ago.
Black August Connection Continues
This 400 year acknowledgement of the crucial role Africans have played in the establishment of this nation adds a global dimension to Black August principles. Black August, a time to commemorate our fallen comrades is also a time of resistance.
Libations to those born this month on both sides of the realm –from General Harriet Tubman Ross to Janie Porter Barrett, Educator, Reformer, Social Worker and Founder of the Virginia State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs; to Marcus Garvey, Leader, Founder UNIA-ACL; to James Baldwin, Writer, Civil Rights Activist; to Maxine Waters, Congresswoman (D-LA); to George Jackson, father of the Prison Liberation Movement; to Barack Hussein Obama, First African-American President; Benjamin Mays, Mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King; Alex Haley, author, Roots; The Autobiography of Malcolm X; Ralph Bunche, political scientist, academic, and diplomat, first person of color to receive a Nobel Peace Prize; Matthew Henson, Explorer who was the first man to reach the North Pole; Anna J. Cooper, Author and Educator, was one of the most important Black American scholars in United States history; Charles Bolden, Astronaut, first Black American head to NASA on a permanent basis[ Isaac Hayes, Grammy Award winning Singer/Songwriter whose score for 1971 Shaft, earned Hayes an Academy Award for Best Original Song (the first Academy Award received by an African-American in a non-acting category) and two Grammy Awards; Michael Jackson; Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther Party, author, “Soul on Ice.” Visit http://www.blackintime.info/black-birthday-monthly.html
For more information about the 2019 Commemoration of the First African Landing at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Va., please visit: firstafricanlanding.com
The multi-day event serves to recognize the 400thanniversary of the landing of the first enslaved Africans in English-occupied North America at Point Comfort in 1619. It will feature a commemorative ceremony, a preview of the new Fort Monroe Visitor and Education Center, Black Cultural tours, living history demonstrations, storytelling, and youth and musical performances. The event will also feature cultural group displays from Project 1619, the Contraband Historical Society, and the U.S. Colored Troops, and exhibitions from Virginia institutions and museums, including the National Park Service, American Evolution, Hampton History Museum, Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site, Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, Casemate Museum, and more.
“The First African Landing Commemorative Weekend will be a pilgrimage for African Americans and all Americans who are interested in learning about the heritage, struggles and triumphs of the first Africans who were brought to the shores of Point Comfort,” said Terry Brown, first African American superintendent at Fort Monroe National Monument. “African American history is complicated, but it’s important for us as Americans to examine the events of the past and understand the stories of slavery, resistance and emancipation and the impact on our nation.”
Here in the San Francisco Bay Area the Commemoration of 400 Years of African American History and Life and its impact on this nation continues with:
August 2 52 Letters opens at Ubuntu Theatre Project in Oakland, and continues through Aug. 25. Conjure-woman Regina Evans’s award-winning work looks at child sex-trafficking. The State of California is a huge market and Oakland is its national epicenter.
UC Berkeley Haas School is hosting a symposium this month on the 400 Years of African American History re: Fort Comfort landing of African people, to kick off a year-long series of events. Register here:
https://haasinstitute.berkeley.edu/400-years-african-american-history-symposium
This day-long symposium will kick off a year of events at UC Berkeley to mark the 400 year anniversary of the beginning of slavery in North America. The events are being co-organized by the Haas Institute, the African American studies and history departments, the African American Student Development Center, and the Black Staff & Faculty Organization.
The symposium will include remarks by Haas Institute Director and African American Studies Professor John A. Powell, plus several panels and performances. The event is August 30, 2019, 9am – 6pm at the International House Auditorium, 2299 Piedmont Ave, Berkeley, CA. This event is wheelchair accessible.
Equal Justice Society is hosting a play/concert on the 400 Year History of African Americans in the US (1619-2019) https://remembering1619.org/ (Sold out. Waitlist available).
The Equal Justice Society presents Remembering 1619, marking the 400th anniversary of arrival of enslaved Africans at Jamestown, Virginia. The special presentation that evening will be presented by The Marcus Shelby Quintet, Joanna Haigood and Zaccho Dance Theatre, Actor Steven Anthony Jones, The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol, Pianist Joe Warner, Directorial Consultant and Dramaturg Kim Euell, Set Designer Wayne Campbell, Filmmakers Cheo Tyehimba Taylor and David Goldberg, and Executive Producer Eva Paterson.
This stirring work about 400 years of struggle, triumph, grief, excellence, and resilience experienced by people of African descent here in the United States will be presented in four acts:
Act I — Arrival (1619 to 1644)
Act II — Chattel Slavery (1645 to 1865)
Act III — Reconstruction and Jim Crow (1865 to 1879 to 1956)
Act IV — The Modern Era (1957 to Present)
Art Show
Karen Seneferu’s 1st Solo Show, “Heir Done Pulled,” opens, 6-9 p.m., Thursday, August 15, 2019, at the Sargent Johnson Gallery at the AAACC, 762 Fulton Street, SF. It’s up through November 2019. Don’t miss the God Party – Oct. 31, 6-9 p.m. Gallery Hours are: Tuesday-Friday, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sat., 12 noon to 5 p.m.
August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at Multi-Ethnic Theatre
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM by August Wilson, Directed and Designed by Lewis Campbell, featuring the dynamic Ms. Susie Butler in the title role. This powerful comedy/drama about the “Mother of the Blues” and her band of four musicians is the 7th August Wilson play in MET’s August in August Series.
Performances are at ACT’s Costume Shop Theater, 1119 Market Street in San Francisco, just a few steps away from the Civic Center BART Station. 20 performances: Wednesday, August 7 through Sunday, September 1. 8:00 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays with Sunday Matinees at 2:00 p.m. For information visit http://www.wehavemet.org/index.html
Dance + Film
Cherie Hill’s Détente – Oakland Premiere
Cherie Hill IrieDance presents, Détente, an Oakland premiere, choreographed and performed by Cherie Hill with dancers Andreina Maldonado and Rose Rothfeder. Video by Imani Karpowich, Thursday, 8/22 &; Saturday 8/24, 8pm at the Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St., Oakland. Tickets are $10-20 Sliding Scale (no one turned away for lack of funds) Visit https://detente-oakland.brownpapertickets.com/
Détente investigates displacement, the words meaning, and impact. Through dance, video, and story, performers experiment with the act or process of displacing, and what it means to be removed from the usual or proper place; specifically: to expel or force to flee from home or homeland. The work is inspired by choreographer Cherie Hill’s personal experience with gentrification in Oakland and is titled after an email her landlord sent months after battling to save her home.
The Oakland premiere includes a special film screening of the documentary, Alice Street, and a post-show discussion on gentrification and housing rights with organization Causa Justa: Just
Cause. More info contact Cherie Hill, cherie.iriedance@gmail.com, 909-346 5299, iriedance.com, https://detente-oakland.brownpapertickets.com/
Theatre con’t.
California Shakespeare Theater’s “House of Joy” by Madhuri Shekar, (8/14-Sept. Directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian with Vidhu Singh (dramaturg). Workshopped at Bay Area Playwrights Festival 2018, listen to an interview with Shekar on Wanda’s Picks Radio Show, July 27, 2018: http://tobtr.com/s/10899245
In an Imperial Harem, in a place like India, in a time like 1666: Hamida, a bodyguard, wakes to the oppression in her midst and decides to do something about it. Seduction, skullduggery and swordplay in a mythic, swashbuckling action-romance for the ages! Featuring: Rotimi Agbabiaka (Salima), Raji Ahsan (Thermometer), Rinabeth Apostol (Miryam), Lipica Shah (Noorah), Nandita Shenoy (Gulal), Sango Tajima (Roshni), Emma Van Lare (Hamida); August 14, 8 p.m. (Pay-what-you-can) – September 1, 2019. Opens Aug. 17.
The theatre is at the Bruns Amphitheater, 100 California Shakespeare Theater Way, Orinda, CA (just off Highway 24 at the California Shakespeare Theater Way/Wilder Rd. exit, one mile east of the Caldecott Tunnel.) Complimentary shuttle from Orinda BART beginning 2 hours before curtain. Complimentary parking onsite.
For tickets call 510.548.9666, online at www.calshakes.org, or at the Bruns box office on the day of the performance (pending availability).
Daydreaming and I am Thinking of You. . . Ancestors
“And on the 8th Day, God said let there be Jazz.” And God called forth his sons and daughters to take jazz into the world. There were dozens but, God had his favorites. Lester with his porkpie, Miles with all that attitude, Brubeck, yeah, Take Five, Trane with a Love Supreme, Mary Lou, Dizzy and Bird be bopin, Louis, Billie, Nina, Blakey, Gets, Yusef, Rahsaan and many more. And for good measure, just because God can do it, a Duke, an Earl, and a Count leading the band. God’s abundance. God’s gift.” From Jazz Calendar 2020 by Ramsess.
I have been recovering from teaching two online classes this summer—the evening of the last day, July 26, I went to a reading the final weekend at Bay Area Playwright Festival. “American Son” by Christopher Oscar Peña, directed by Ken Savage with dramaturgy by the incomparable Lisa Ramirez (Down Here Below@ Ubuntu Theatre Project).
BAPF is an opportunity for selected playwrights to have their raw plays workshopped and presented so that they can hear and see the work with an audience who is invited to give feedback an ask questions which the playwright does not have to respond to. I went every staged reading the final reading.
Waitlisted for a few, I got in for them all with work this year ranging from Jeesun Choi’s “The Seekers” which centered around a Somalian mother and teenage daughter in St. Paul tackling immigration and father-loss in a surreal way, the girl in communication with a boy who is on life support—an out of body spirit connection. I hope in post-show discussions to come, there is more talk about Somalians and what is happening in East African which would cause such an exodus to
Jonathan Spector’s “Siesta Key” which was quite the adventure what happens to the survivors of war— the warmongers, torturers and survivors. How far would you go for a cause? Could you throw your grandmother off a balcony terrace?
Siesta Key humanizes villains who are hosted on a television talk show where survivors and punishers share a traditional meal and talk. Foodie meets Terrorist equals Maalox moment? Right? Laura Espino (as Alia, Edna) is amazing juxtaposed with actor Dan Hiatt (as Dentist, Kayden).
Loved Tori Keenan-Zelt’s “How the Baby Died.” It was a perfect conclusion to the heavy themed Saturday afternoon which included a delightful panel hosted by Amy Mueller, BAPF Artistic Director for 19 years who is retiring this month. Good luck Amy!
The panel featured great women theatre-makers: Claudia Alick (dramaturg, “FLEX”), Vidhu Singh (dramaturg, “House of Joy” at Cal Shakes 8/14-9/1), Duca Knezevic (dramaturg, The Seekers) and Nakissa Etemand (dramaturg The House of Negro Insane) who all spoke about more inclusive Best Practices for Inclusive Programming whether this meant East Asian, African Diaspora or Lesbian playwrights. Veterans in the field, these panelists are pioneers in bringing the voices of marginalized playwrights to stages typically absent of such content.
It was Sunday, however, which many had been looking forward to, the second round of readings for African American playwrights: Terence Anthony, “The House of Negro Insane” and Candrice Jones’s “FLEX” about a woman’s high school basketball team in the American South. Playwright Candice Jones, a former basketball player and coach herself, says that when she played in school her senior year all the girls got pregnant except she and one other player.
“FLEX” looks at pregnancy, game, faith and spirit. It was an awesome high impact reading with dance, balls, baptism—directed by the phenomenal Delicia Turner Sonneberg.
Okay, so we take a break for an Artists of the African Diaspora Mixer which is hosted by Iven Webster, BAPF Associate Producer who has everyone share their names and the name of an ancestor. It was beautiful storytelling ritual. We then got ready for “House of Negro Insane” where in Terence Anthony’s hands we see how art is sanctuary, a place one can hold inside despite outward chaos. It is a lesson Attius (Khary L. Moye) shares with sweet one-eyed child, Madeline (Paige Mayes).
Moye’s Attius or Grimes as he is called, builds coffins in the workshop he works under the supervision of a criminal, Henry (Scott Coopwood). One afternoon, Effie (Santoya Fields) sneaks into the woodshop and meets Grimes. She then brings young Madeline to protect her from the butchers in the asylum who commit surgical and chemical genocide on people assigned to their care. Effie is there because she refused to marry someone. He committed her. Madeline’s aunt got tired of her seizures, said she was possessed by the devil and Attitus is said to have raped a white woman. He is beaten, castrated and sent to the asylum instead of prison. The work is chilling, yet beautifully written and read that evening.
To listen to an interview with playwrights Terence Anthony and Candrice Jones with their directors and dramaturgs visit: https://www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks/2019/07/17/wandas-picks-radio-show
Reflection con’t.
Yes, I have been binging on plays and theatre—went to see so many thought-provoking works this past month, from Cal Shakes’ “Good Woman of Setzuan” —to “Kill Move Paradise” at Shotgun Players in collaboration with Lorraine Hansberry Theatre.
On the same stage as a part of Shotgun Players’ Champagne Reading Series, I witnessed the marvelously directed by Elizabeth Carter, “Citizen: An American Lyric,” Claudia Rankin’s award-winning collection of poetry which tackles microaggressions and toxic fallout from the random explosive moments African Americans navigate in their sleep. There is no shutoff button. We cannot chose to not allow access. It is a dilemma that is a given. Adapted for stage by Stephen Sachs, the cast are also dynamic in a work which can be emotionally exhausting since “Citizen” is your life.
So anyway, I have been playing hooky. Not only have I been enjoying dancing my weekend dance – I attended two jazz festivals consecutively: first the Concord Jazz Festival’s 50th Anniversary Festival and then after I dropped off the sisters at BART, I tuned into Doug Edwards BAJABA on KPFA. The Doug of Edward is an ancestor now, but BAJABA continues at 11 p.m. on KPFA 94.1 FM Safi wa Nairobi was hosting that evening and she had the founder of the San Jose Jazz Festival on the air. This interview followed a wonderful interview with Monty Alexander who was one of the featured artists at the 30th Annual San Jose Jazz Summer Music Festival Aug. 9-11. The Festival actually began with a conference, which I learned about too late to attend, but I did get to two days of the Festival which was eclectic and fun with free music and dance as well as headliners on stages in the parks and theatres and clubs in downtown San Jose.
As I was walking from Brother Tyrone and The Mindbenders on the Blues Stage back to the main stage near the San Jose Museum of Art, I saw all these beautiful card with jazz artists and inside the booth there were quilts and stained glass art and just a wonderland. I knew the artist Ramsess’s work. However, I was not expecting to see him in the booth—amazed to finally meet him.
He was really gracious. I saw cards with Gregory Porter’s likeness, Dianne Reeves, and so many others. Some looked like pen and ink while others were a tapestry of embroidered colors and designs, where one could still see the likeness—John Handy, Rashaan Roland Kirk, Sojourner Truth, Angela Davis, Maxine Waters— Alice Coltrane was black and white, Michelle Obama and the President had several. I like the layered one of the First Lady against the American flag. Ramsess should have been commissioned to do the portraits for the First Family. The weather was warm, perfect summer days and nights which featured after hours jams and deejay sets.
I got a chance to catch China Moses on Saturday afternoon at the Hammer Theatre and then dashed back to the Sobrato Organization Main Stage to see Gregory Porter – from there I caught the end of Kim Nalley Band with James Carter. Pink Martini concluded the evening after we got lost looking for Jackie Gage Tribute to Nancy Wilson. We could see her through the glass, but there was too much noise to hear her adequately. After standing all day, it was great to just sit down for 40 minutes. Saturday, though I could not be in all spaces simultaneously, I did wish so as missed Richard Howell Plays A Love Supreme, Sons of Kemet from the UK, West Coast Blues Caravan of All-Stars and Aneesa Strings. Sunday missed the Jazz Mass and Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir. There was music on major corners too.
I had a great conversation with China after her performance. Look for that transcription later this month or next month.
I got over to Alcatraz for Future IDs exhibit last month too which is up through October 19, 2019. The work is inspired by the prison identification people are issued and once branded the person often ceases to exist. Future IDs uses art to illustrate agency. All the work in the exhibition is a part of the prison which now functions as a seabird sanctuary—so there were no amplified sounds or loud noises allowed which meant we had to listen well.
Photo Credit: Wanda Sabir
One of the exercises I enjoyed most outside of listening to the artists or friends and family where the artist was not available because he or she was still locked up–share their or the artist’s artistic processes, was Circle of Engagement with Future IDs artists and family member representatives led by Jihan McDonald and Amutabi Haines. The artists made a circle and then everyone stood behind them so that there were concentric circles. Another activity I enjoyed was the Actors’ Gang workshop. Each actor spoke about how the characters they embodied allowed them to experience an emotion outside of anger or fear. Actors Gang gives team members a space to practice being silly and open and vulnerable. It was great experiencing even in a tertiary fashion this highly physical and emotional style of improvisational theatre led by prison alumni with company members, including Chris Bingley, Major Bunton, Kathryn Carner, Hannah Chodos, John Dich, Montrell Harrell, Mo Piquette Haynes, Jason Hoyos, Jeremie Loncka, Rich Loya, and Terri Lynn Scrape.
The Future IDs at Alcatraz Release Party was co-hosted by Gregory Sale and the Future IDs core project collaborators Dr. Luis Garcia, Kirn Kim, Sarina Reid, and Jessica Tully, and the Art in the Parks program of the National Park Service and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.
This project is reclaiming the person of the men and women and children thus marked or identified. At the opening reception July 20, there were panels with family members and those formerly incarcerated, panels with service providers and those in corrections like the warden of Avenal State Prison, the curator, Gregory Sale, Terri Lynn Scrape, Actors’ Gang Prison Project, Angela Wilson, Medea Project
The exhibition which is open daily 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. is a partnership with the National park Service and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy through Art in the Parks program. For information on volunteering, participating in a program visit parkconservancy.org/FutureIDs or FutureIDs@parksconservancy.org Entry is free with the purchase of an Alcatraz ticket. Reserve tickets at AlcatrazCruises.com
Reparations Now?
The talk this year is Reparations, not just for what African Ancestors suffered but for the continued mal treatment of African Descents in the West, whether that is the United States, Western Europe or the Middle East. With the 1619 narrative history marker, the lives of African Ancestors are minimized juxtaposed to that of the European invasion. There was no United States. There was no America. However, there was an African presence in this New World. Spain, France, England and other countries traded in Black bodies as they also used African labor as navigators and as agribusiness experts as these persons looked to make this land their new home.
I always looked at the 15th Century as the start of this travesty; however, with the wholesale season open on Black bodies, Brown bodies . . . nostalgic reflection on white racism and the insanity that continues to rock this nation, self-preservation demands our attention now. Being unmindful could cost one his or her life.
Large family gatherings like the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival, Sunday shopping chores along the El Paso, Texas border towns at Wal-Mart – the epitome of Global inequities is now one of the latest graveyards. Dayton, Ohio—Black community, El Paso, Latino. These shooters are white, male and young. Yes, let’s be careful around all men who fit this description. I found it interested that some killers are homegrown like the Gilroy suspect, others like the latest shooter traveled to his designated killing field.
Civility is such a farce. These lawmakers and political leaders need to turn their backs on Trump whose callous insensitivity and feigned ignorance (which is just masked disinterest) is enough to bar all entrances. Secession might be a god idea. California is wealthy enough to be its own nation state, but what are the politics of the people who live here? I wonder how many shootings have happened while Trump has been in office and if there are any records being set. It certainly feels like it.
At Shotgun Players just a week ago, July 29-30, was a staged reading of Claudia Rankine’s “Citizen: An American Lyric,” a wonderful collection of poetry that looks at the difficulty Black people face whether famous or ordinary, none of us is immune to microaggressions within a contextualized system where such is normalized. Racism is a fact of life. Directed by Elizabeth Carter in an ensemble piece shook the audience I met to its collective core as white guests reflected on how blind they were to this phenomena.
Three shootings in 1 weekend. Watch Spike Lee’s “Black KKKlansman” and read Ron Stallworth’s book: “Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime.” If the FBI does not investigate ideology, it investigates violence, is what an agent said in the aftermath of the recent shootings or domestic terrorists acts, then it should take a leaf from former rookie detective Ron Stallworth’s book. He successfully began an investigation to stem the rise of violence against Black and other nonwhite people and neutralized it before it was set off.
Given this country’s origins the FBI needs to have in place a unit with proactive oversight.
Why was Stallworth’s work was stymied and shut down prematurely? Why wasn’t the model he started used throughout the nation? The police departments historically were and perhaps still have staff with racist and bigoted attitudes, which means Black community needs to set up alternative community safety patrols; while others need to go undercover in these government agencies so we can do what we can to neutralize the bombs before they detonate.
It is August folks and the big news in July was the acquittal of the killer of Eric Gardner.
So back to Shotgun Players in collaboration with the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, we have James Ijames, “Kill Move Paradise,” a play that takes place in a space between life and death—what is after that. These three Black men and a youth find themselves stuck with memories of the moments before death. As they are startled –literally caught unawares, their lives stolen, the debt without consequence. Martin King spoke about these outstanding credit charges.
Photo credit: Wanda Sabir
Photo credit: Wanda Sabir
For their encore, the O’Jays sang a song that addressed mass shootings. Similarly, Dianne Reeves sang a Brazilian song in a duet with Romero Lubambo guitarist discussing the merits of building bridges instead of walls.
Imagine: AileyCamp 2019
By Wanda Sabir
On a warm summer afternoon, boys and girls ages 11-14 were at the Hearst Women’s Gym, UC Berkeley. Designed by Julia Morgan in 1933, the structure houses pools and studios, and along with campus performance venues Zellerbach Hall and Zellerbach Playhouse, is now is the site for the 18th annual Berkeley-Oakland AileyCamp, run by Cal Performances. Artistic Director, David W. McCauley spoke about this year’s class, 45 youth who represent a microcosm of children brave enough to cross peer lined precipices to try something new. Not everyone who enters has been exposed to performance arts or is interested. However, this unique opportunity is something 11 year old Mario was well aware of in advance and Jamaica was so excited to learn about from a friend who is a former AileyCamp student.
Mario Barragan, one of the younger campers is so excited to be a part of the 2019 Ailey Camp. Wearing his AileyCamp sweatshirt the articulate youngster starts reeling off his accomplishments and performances, one I was in the audience—when Oscar López Rivera, Puerto Rican Political Prisoner’s sentence was commuted by President Obama, January 2017, and he came to Berkeley May 31. Dressed in white, the children—Mario and others, were marvelous.
“When I first saw the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre perform Revelations. I was amazed,” Mario rhapsodizes, “so when my teacher brought up the AlvinAiley Camp, it seemed like a great opportunity [especially] since I want to move into something bigger, and what’s bigger than Alvin Ailey? What indeed? When Mario’s mother was pregnant, she was a part of an AfroPuerto Rican folklore group on tour—Mario starts his resume there.
“And then I was born,” he says, and I just started dancing. Then at the age of one, I started playing bomba, which is AfroPuerto Rican folklore music. It has a combination of singing and dancing and drumming. At the age of two, before I could speak, I knew 8 rhythms. I started dancing a lot when I was in fourth grade, and we toured to Puerto Rico and performed all over the country. It was the best experience ever! I got to dance in front of like 10,000 people in San Juan.
I left an excited Mario to speak to Jamaica Rodriguez who agreed with Mario, that AileyCamp is the hot ticket this summer, as she shared a bit of wisdom from her Personal Development class, about setting boundaries. She also looked forward to taking a dance class with her mom at the AileyCamp Open House for parents the following day. The choreographer and budding photographer says: “When I dance I feel in this moment.” Dance helps ground her.
Each year the summer camp has a national theme, this year: “Imagine,” includes a bit of Ailey Company choreography that the campers learn and integrate into the culminating program, Thursday, August 1, 2019, 7 p.m. Admission is free, but tickets are necessary. Tickets may be obtained in person at the Cal Performances Ticket Office at Zellerbach Hall on the UC Berkeley campus in advance (limit 4 per person).
The camp, celebrating its 20th anniversary nationally, 18th anniversary locally, is situated in certain rituals, which given its founding company legacy, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre which just celebrated its 60th Anniversary last year, is not unexpected. One of the rituals is the “Daily Affirmation which each day has a different camper selected to lead the entire group. It is just one of the traditions that extends to all AileyCamps across the country.” Artistic Director McCauley says. The first is: “I will greet this day with love in my heart,” followed by others like “I am a winner”, “I think before I act”, “I will pay attention with my mind, body, and spirit” to “I will not use the word ‘can’t’ to define my possibilities.” Imagine each camper embodying such truisms which in practice for six weeks can become habits which guide further behaviors for a lifetime.
As I peek quickly into Celine O’Malley, the Creative Communications Instructor’s class, the room is papered with sticky note butcher paper filled with poetry, images and art where the campers are responding visually to the lesson: Boundaries and Communication, sharing stories through an “I Am From” poetry lens as well as reflections on the National AileyCamp theme: “Imagine.”
I meet briefly with Camp managers, Joyce Ting and Erik Lee whose relaxed pose hide, I am sure, all the planning that goes into the pre-during and post-AileyCamp. The two hired all the staff whom not only “reflect the ethos of Alvin Ailey, but also are really ready and passionate to be part of an ensemble [of artist teachers, mentors].” AileyCamp is about character development, similar to Katherine Dunham and her legacy offspring: Ms. Ruth Beckford, Dr. Albirda Rose, Ms. Deborah Vaughn, Ms. Latanya Tigner, Mr. Reggie Ray Salvage – even Mr. Alvin Ailey who saw the company when still a youth in Los Angeles.
A chartered bus picks up the Oakland campers at three stops each morning: Elmhurst, Calvin Simmons, Westlake, beginning at 6:30. Each young person has what Erik Lee referred to as a “shepherd,” an adult who accompanies the child to all of his or her classes perhaps as an advocate friend, maybe a process buddy. When the children, all 45 of them arrive, they have breakfast. Lunch is also provided during this fun-filled full day which ends at 3:30 p.m. The commitment to this free opportunity to translate art into positive attitudes is six (6) weeks, June 24-August 2. All children are not here for the same reasons Mario and Jamaica expressed. Some youth are signed up by parents who hope their children, often the boys, stay. Erik Lee says that he sees the look in some boys’ eyes who feel affirmed by his presence at AileyCamp, while other boys look ready to bounce.
Mr. McCauley, AileyCamp Artistic Director since its Bay Area inception in 2001 is a professionally trained dancer, enjoying 15 years with Alvin Ailey as student, instructor and performer, now with Wing It! Performance Ensemble and Omega West Dance Company. He comments during our recent interview on the many boys who swallow their interest because of peer pressure.
It is not mandatory for any of the children have dance experience, yet some like Mario who performs professionally and Jamaica who recently had choreography in Destiny Art Center’s JEWELS— do. However, the goal is to have participants who are outside these performance circles. Lee says: “I didn’t see a lot of Black bodies encouraging me to dance and so I think for me as a Black man it’s a huge honor and a privilege to be able to model that for other young men.” Though no one is called out, Lee says staff notices boys who initially resist slowly begin to open up.
I popped into visit Sierra Marie Gonzalez who teaches Personal Development, one of the core courses in AileyCamp. The Chicago transplant with roots in educational theatre, wholistic wellness and resiliency, said that she had the youth reflect that afternoon on what they’d learned so far in PD now that they were halfway through the program. Gonzalez sees AileyCamp in alignment with her values, ones that believe “Arts are a powerful tool.” She asks: “How can we utilize the Arts as a way to transform and evolve humanity? To make healthy impactful transformational decisions?”
“Every day, every moment, depending on where these young people are going [where we are headed] could change, you know. It’s real fluid and it’s wonderful if you can talk about sort of how holding imagination and holding, you know, holding space for the fluidity of it – like not expecting things to be static. How do we do imagination? It’s going to look differently in PD than it does in ballet or that it does in Modern or African Dance or even in Creative Communications. We use imagination here for creating empathy [and] as a tool to get the students out of their own heads and out of the ‘I can’t’ or ‘I don’t know.’”
Imagine 12 year old Alvin Ailey leaving his small Texas hometown for Los Angeles where he excelled academically and came to love dance and decided to pursue it? He was introduced to dance “by [watching] performances of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and the Katherine Dunham Dance Company.” His formal training began when his friend, Carmen de Lavallade, introduced Ailey to Lester Horton whose company Ailey would eventually direct in 1953. Horton founded one of the first racially diverse companies in the United States (Ailey website). Ailey still inspires through the institutional vision he has created and his life which shattered social sound barriers, because he dared imagine himself in a world he was absent from.
“Imagination has really been useful and powerful in this space.” Gonzalez says. “There is a reluctance to do an activity they can’t imagine or they can’t access. So that’s how we really use [the theme: imagine] to really just keep it going. Keep it moving, get there. Right? And then we have Alvin Ailey— [as guide].
“AileyCamp is really more about personal development through the discipline that it takes to become a dancer. This discipline is really shaking up [campers’] world[view]. Many of these children haven’t had [this] level of accountability [or this] level of support, at least not on a daily basis. When they’re in school, you know, they’re just sent off. [There is no one watching over them, looking out for them.]”
When Jazz Dance Teacher, Ashely Gayle says: “The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in particular is really inspirational because when I was about eight or nine (1998), I actually saw the Alvin Ailey Company perform right here at the Zellerbach stage. It was my first time being exposed to professional dance. I’d never seen it before. I remember just moving in my seat. I didn’t know what was happening to me. I felt it in my soul. Like Mario, it was Revelations: the sections, “I’ve Been Buked” and “Wade in the Water.” The soloist moved so powerfully and in Wade the water energy was cleansing. Gayle recalls.
“And I remember just looking at my mother [and saying] I want to do that. She’s like, ‘Okay. Sure let’s figure it out.’ I was blessed to have a mom who [though] she didn’t know anything. I didn’t know anything. We pieced it together and you know, it worked out for me. So when this opportunity came up to teach at AileyCamp it just felt like a Dream Come True— a full circle moment for me. So I taught in 2017 and I wasn’t here last summer. So this is my second summer coming back this year.”
Fast forward, Gayle tried out for Ailey Camp in New York from 2007-2009 before she gets in. Each time she was told what she needed to do to prepare for the rigorous summer intensive and each time Gayle would return home and develop her skillset and fly to New York to audition again. A UC Irvine graduate now with a BFA in Dance Performance and a minor in Business Management, you can catch Gayle this fall in the Bay Area Deaf Dance Festival, August 9-11, at Dance Mission, and the Pushfest, September 20-22 at ODC.
Ashely Gayle has three takeaways for her students: 1. Confidence in who they are and what they can do; 2. That they are deserving of all joy; 3. That they finds a calling: A Purpose. A Passion. A Thing that makes them happy.
She says for many of the children, they have not had an opportunity to be in their bodies, to allow their bodies to be in conversation with the music or emotions the music might inspire. In this class, the children will choreograph new work on themselves and each other. August 1, 7 p.m., when the lights are low and the performances lift its audience into the imaginal realm, we witness where magic is born.
By the way, the performance was outstanding.