Congratulations to Mrs. Tauheedah Wren for 2015 Teacher of the Year for the Emeryville Unified School District. Congratulations Dr. Wade Nobles on being honored this year at The 6th National Black Psychology Conference at FAMU Nov. 6-7, 2015.
Diamano Coura West African Dance Company @40
Congratulations to Papa Zak and Mama Naomi Diouf on the 40th Anniversary of Diamano Coura West African Dance Company. Join the Dioufs, company members, friends and fans, at a reception Nov. 21 at Betti Ono Gallery, 1427 Broadway, in Oakland. The following weekend, there is a performance, Sat., Nov. 28 at 8 p.m. and Sun., Nov. 29 at 3 p.m., at the Odell Johnson Theatre at Laney College, 900 Fallon Street. For the reception and performance combined, tickets are $55. For information: 510-504-3444, brownpapertickets and http://www.diamanocoura.org/upcoming-events.html
CCWP’s 20th Anniversary Gala
Twenty Years of Speaking Truth to Power, Saturday, Nov. 7, 7 p.m. at the Women’s Building 3543 18th Street, San Francisco. For information call (415) 255-7036 x4 and if you’d like to volunteer at the event. Visit womenprisoners.org
Featured Guests Include:
Patrisse Cullors – Co-founder of Black Lives Matter
Jayda Rasberry – Organizer with Dignity & Power Now
Thao Nguyen – Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
Heiwa Taiko Drummers
Raffle of 20th Anniversary Quilt donated by Linda Evans
A major highlight of the event will be the presence of many formerly incarcerated women and trans people who have been leaders and members of CCWP over the years. https://www.facebook.com/events/575704199238835/
Theatre
August Wilson play, set in 1968
“Two Trains Running,” by August Wilson, directed by Terrence Tyrie Ivory is at the Historic B.D.E.S. Hall, 140 West J, Benicia, (707) 746-1269. Final performances are Nov. 1, 6, 7. Listen to an interview with cast and director: http://tobtr.com/s/7984425 Visit http://www.beniciaoldtowntheatregroup.com/
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet set in 1970s
Romeo and Juliet is at African American Shakespeare Company Saturday and Sunday, through Nov. 8 at the Burial Clay Theater, 762 Fulton Street in San Francisco. What is special about this production are the lead roles feature San Francisco Bay Area youth. Visit africanamericanshakes.org To listen to an interview with the cast: and co-director Sherri Young, visit: http://tobtr.com/7984419
Dance
Wishah Popular Dance Troupe, based in Palestine, has performed in several countries including Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon and Spain. Established in 2003 by a group of Palestinian students who believe in the arts as an effective communication tool, the dance troupe present shows which are based on the artistic inheritance of our music and songs stemming from Arab and Palestinian heritage.
The event is November 14th, 7 pm at the Nourse Theater City Arts & Lectures, 275 Hayes St, San Francisco. All Proceeds will benefit local organizing for Palestine and relief work in Gaza. To purchase low-income or student tickets contact AROC info@araborganizing.org
Maafa Commemoration Film Festival
Maafa Commemoration San Francisco Bay Area presents: Homecoming: Films form the African Diaspora featuring two films by directors: Adimu Madyun’s In Search of the Sacred Coconut Tree and Eliciana Nascimento’s The Summer of Gods.
We open with a teaser or work in progress, by another director, Elita Tewelde. Tewelde’s “Drum Beat Journey” was shot in Chicago and just outside Dakar, West Africa.
The films screen at Wo’se Community of the Sacred African Way Spiritual Center, 8924 Holly Street, Oakland, (510) 632-8230, 7-9:30 p.m.
PARTY WITH CHELLE! And Friends in November!
Dance in the Holidays New Orleans style!
11/20 10:00 pm at Bissap Baobob Oakland, 381 15th Street, Oakland, (510) 817-4722
www.bissapbaoboboakland.com
11/27 7:30 at The Red Poppy Art House, 2698 Folsom Street, San Francisco, (650) 731-5358 redpoppyarthouse.org
Author Event for Slaves of the State with Dennis Childs
Wednesday, November 18th, 5:30 -7 pm
University Press Books – across from the UC Berkeley campus
2430 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94704
Please Join UPB in welcoming Dennis Childs reading from his book, Slaves of the State.
The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, passed in 1865, has long been viewed as a definitive break with the nation’s past by abolishing slavery and ushering in an inexorable march toward black freedom. Slaves of the State presents a stunning counter history to this linear narrative of racial, social, and legal progress in America.
Dennis Childs argues that the incarceration of black people and other historically repressed groups in chain gangs, peon camps, prison plantations, and penitentiaries represents a ghostly perpetuation of chattel slavery. He exposes how the Thirteenth Amendment’s exception clause—allowing for enslavement as “punishment for a crime”—has inaugurated forms of racial capitalist misogynist incarceration that serve as haunting returns of conditions Africans endured in the barracoons and slave ship holds of the Middle Passage, on plantations, and in chattel slavery.
Childs seeks out the historically muted voices of those entombed within terrorizing spaces such as the chain gang rolling cage and the modern solitary confinement cell, engaging the writings of Toni Morrison and Chester Himes as well as a broad range of archival materials, including landmark court cases, prison songs, and testimonies, reaching back to the birth of modern slave plantations such as Louisiana’s “Angola” penitentiary.
Slaves of the State paves the way for a new understanding of chattel slavery as a continuing social reality of U.S. empire—one resting at the very foundation of today’s prison industrial complex that now holds more than 2.3 million people within the country’s jails, prisons, and immigrant detention centers.
Black Women’s Stories in Film
Omi Gallery @ Impact Hub Oakland, 2323 Broadway, Oakland, presents Women’s Film Forum, Vol. 2 featuring:
(11/4) “A New Color: The Art of Being Edythe Boone,” dir. Marlene “Mo” Morris;
(11/5) “BadDDD Sonia Sanchez” dirs. Barbara Attie, Janet Goldwater and Sabrina Schmidt Gordon with a pre-film performance by YGB: The Black Sheros and
(11/6) “Treasure – From Tragedy to Trans Justice: Mapping a Detroit Story” dir. Dream Hampton with pre-film “TransJustice” workshop w/ Emani Love (Ruth Ellis Center)
Door open at 6:30; the films are from 7-9:30 p.m. There will be a Q&A and panel discussion each evening. Tickets are $10/$8. Visit https://oakland.impacthub.net/event/womens-film-forum-vol-2-2/
Oakland Museum of California
I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but every Friday evening, at the Oakland Museum of CA the doors are open until 9 p.m. and programs are featured which appeal to the entire family, kids, youth and adults. Visit museumca.org
Presently there are a few exhibitions which are worth checking out before they leave, the Dia de los Muertos, and the Pan Pacific World Exhibition which is amazing – oh my goodness. When you step into the galley, you are surrounded by the Pacific Ocean on both sides and hear the waves and the music and see the people. As you walk forward there are so many directions your feet and eyes want to take you, as the huge boats and nets, costumes, and faces of people that look like you and me – black. The bark work, fishing equipment, spears and then there are the stories of colonization, of queens and kings and resistance. There are ritual items and sacred garment. It is awesome, don’t miss it. The exhibit up through Jan. 3, 2016, is presented as a ritual space and invites meditation. Visit http://museumca.org/exhibit/pacific-worlds
The OM Dia de los Muertos exhibit is always wonderful. I didn’t realize that the 21st annual exhibition will be going to a biannual schedule, so the next exhibition will be 2017. Bryan Keith Thomas’s new work, I’ll Fly Away, honors African ancestors who certainly had travel options. We see the images of two black men, eyes open and shut, medicine bags filled with necessities for travel or staying put. Quite magnificent are the feather, huge feather, I think one is from a rooster. I’ll Fly Away uses vocabulary we know as Thomas—found objects, heirloom cotton, weathered and worn fabric and church fans. Our condolences to the artist on the loss of his father this year. May his journey home be without incident.
Other artists I interviewed were Charles Valoroso whose work celebrates his Filipino and Hawaiian cultural heritage with an altar, hanging mango seeds and paintings on the ground (as above and so below) and Nancy Hom who has created a 6-foot mandala which incorporates photos of people who have transitioned famous and personal and communal. The curator then paints a labyrinth which invites a walk both entering and exiting the centered work.
Though they were not present, I really liked the stories in the exhibit by MetWest High School where the youth spoke about their ancestry and whose blood runs through their veins. It is a fine exhibition, using both traditional Mexican ancestor totems like the marigolds and paper flowers, skulls, papel picado banners or folded cut paper or prayers and then there are creative excursions like those mentioned and other artists’ work.
SOMARTs 16th Annual Dia de los Muerto
SOMARTs 16th Annual Dia de los Muertos: “Today is the Shadow of Tomorrow,” closes Nov. 7. Visit http://www.somarts.org/exhibitions/day-of-the-dead/ The gallery is located at 934 Brannan St. (between 8th & 9th). Admission is free.
MoAD San Francisco Reopens
After being closed for a month, the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) reopens with new exhibits, including an emerging artist series featuring digital graphic arts designer, Tim Roseborough’s Four Themes. Other new exhibits opening this month are Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle’s “Who Among Us…” and Alison Saar’s Bearing.
Alison Saar, is in conversation with Camille Dungy, November 11, 2015 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm. Cost: $10 General | $5 Student/Senior | Free MoAD Members. The museum is located at 685 Mission St (at 3rd), San Francisco. Visit http://www.moadsf.org/for a complete listing exhibits and programs.
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Magazine Launch
Race, Poverty & the Environment Magazine Launch: Movements Making Media, Thursday November 19, 6 pm – 9 pm@ Oakstop, 1721 Broadway, Oakland, (510) 698-9370. http://reimaginerpe.org/node/7467
Sections include topics:
* Black Lives Matter: Allies in Change
* Strategies for Healing: Urban Gardens, Urban Peace Movement
* I AM SAN FRANCISCO: (Re)Collecting the Home of Native Black San Franciscans with Kheven LaGrone and Wanda Sabir
* Planning for the People: from Homelessness to Housing
* Hotspot: Riders, Renters & Workers in Silicon Valley
Performers include members of Capoeira Ijexa, Jiridon and AudioPharmacy. Speakers/panelists include: Kheven LaGrone, Wanda Sabir, Jarrel Phillips, 3.9 Collective; Nicole Lee, Urban Peace Movement; Kelly Curry, Planting Justice; Karina Muniz, Mujeres Unidas y Activas, Members of Asians4Black Lives. Please rsvp@reimaginerpe.org.
Watch the Auditions for the 2016 San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, November 7 – 8 and November 14 – 15, 2015
This is the liveliest and most diverse celebration of dance this season! Viewers can watch as more than 100 of the Bay Area’s finest companies present dances from around the globe, hoping for a place in the June 2016 San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. Dances are from Algeria, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Congo, India, Mexico,
the Middle East, Okinawa, Peru, the Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, Tajikistan. Come for an hour, or stay all day— it’s up to you. You can even step out for lunch and come back for more (space permitting).
It all takes place at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, 3301 Lyon Street, San Francisco for a $10 admission at the door (cash only) and free for children age 12 and under. Volunteer ushers and lobby volunteers needed for Auditions! Visit http://worldartswest.org/main/schedule.asp
Two @ the African American Museum and Library, Oakland, 659 14th Street, 510-637-0200
The Sentence Unseen: Celebrating Resilience opens with a reception, Thursday November 5, 2015, 5:30 PM – 7:30 p.m. The exhibit looks at the impact of imprisonment on children and families through individual stories. Listen to an interview with Zoe Willmott, Program Manager and alumnus, Project WHAT! and Tailani Crawford, Project WHAT! Youth Advocate and an artist featured in this exhibit: http://tobtr.com/7914933
The Sentence Unseen looks at the high price we pay when our loved ones are entangled in a punitive justice system that often leads to incarceration. The Sentence Unseen bears witness to the impacts of the US criminal justice system when family members are taken away from our community. The exhibit sheds light on the collateral consequences of arrest and incarceration on children, youth, families, and communities while celebrating the heart and resiliency of those impacted.
The opening reception will feature jazz musician and activist Marcus Shelby presenting Beyond the Blues: Ending the Prison Industrial Complex other special performers. The Marcus Shelby Trio will feature songs, instrumental compositions, and interactive dialogue about the history of prisons in the US, the history of prison blues songs, mass incarceration, the School to Prison Pipeline, and alternative criminal justice practices such as Restorative Justice, ending the death penalty, and prison abolition. Visit http://communityworkswest.org/exhibits-publications/thesentenceunseen/
AAMLO 2
The Annual Festival of Black Dolls, Saturday November 14th, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The American Black Beauty Doll Artists Festival of Black Dolls each year is a wonderful opportunity to see black history and black life exemplified in these toys which are collected and enjoyed nationally and internationally. Dolls hold spirit and for a black child, this is an important part of their development – Black dolls have not always been the big commercial hit they are today. At one time, the black dolls black children played with were all made by hand. To have all these artisans or craftswomen under one roof each year makes shopping so easy.
There are usually doll making workshops where adults and children can make a paper doll or pin or magnet to take with them. There are antique dolls, dolls made from ceramics. There is always an auction and dolls depicting famous women like Angela Y. Davis, Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston. The women who create dolls, pins, and other doll-like art for this show specifically make this show one we cannot miss.
As people shop there is a youth jazz ensemble performing live music, sometimes with dancers. It is an amazing and fun day of art with prices for the serious collector and the person who wants something to remind her or him of #blackdollsmatter (smile). Take advantage of the free parking (for Festival of Black Dolls) at City Center Garage West, 1239 Jefferson Street. It is risky to park on the street in Oakland. For information: 1(800) 579-5495 weloveblackdolls@gmail.com
More Dance
dawsondancesf/Sidra Bell Dance New York
Two companies, Dawson DanceSF collaborate in this shared program at ODC Theater, 3153 17th St
San Francisco, November 20th & 21st 8 p.m. and November 22 at 5 p.m. If you missed Dawson DanceSF’s performance of part three of a trilogy at Black Choreographer Here & Now’s bustin’ out of February, Summer Showcase in August this year, well no worries, you have an opportunity to see Drop Bend Dent at ODC. It is awesome. http://tobtr.com/7858225
Kim Nalley’s Blues People
If Kim Nalley is not a household name it is certainly not because she has not done the kind of work which lends itself to such acclaim. An historian whose artistic work sings the sorrow songs and triumphs inherent in blues people narratives, especially blues women. Nalley is probably remember for her celebrations of blues women each Februarys at her club, Jazz at Pearls, the musical Lady Day and her canon which features the music of Nina Simone (I Put a Spell on You). Her recent “Blues People” is hats off to Amiri Baraka’s genius combined with Nalley’s, what listeners agree is a winning combination. When I asked Nalley recently in an interview if Blues People was her dissertation, the doctoral candidate and lecturer at UC Berkeley, told me her program was more traditional, so she was writing a book. Listen to her talk about her work: http://tobtr.com/7984419
Blues People features Nalley in traditional tunes or standards from both gospel and blues, like Summertime and Trouble the World; however, the inclusion of original work which laments the loss too soon of young black men and women, in Ferguson Blues and Big Hooded Black Man, make her “Blues People,” like all great art, relevant. With Movin’ On Up we recall the Jeffersons sitcom (1975-1985) and how then and now black people with means are anomalies, rather than actual fact. Her Trombone Song (Big Long Sliding Thing) and The Chair Son (If I Can’t Sell It) both illustrate the craft and finesse involved in such writing (Thomas Kirkland and Hill/Razaf), a skill lost in recent pop music. Adults can play Nalley’s “Blues People” at home where children can hear and not worry about literal interpretations (smile). She is joined by a fine ensemble, longtime friends and colleagues: Tammy Hall on piano and organ, Greg Skaff on guitar, Michael Zisman on bass, and Kent Bryson on drums, which creates an intimacya sojourn which depicts the sorrows and joys that makes a blues people who they are.
The CD Release party though is at Biscuits and Blues, Saturday, Nov. 21, 401 Mason Street, San Francisco. Visit http://www.kimnalley.net/
Chi-Raq, dir. Spike Lee
Director, Spike Lee’s latest film is an adaptation of in which Chicago women, led by Lysistrata, also tired of the ceaseless conflict between black men decide to use creative tactics to end the warfare. The child killed by a stray bullet in a Chicago Southside brawl, pushes the women over the edge.
It is no surprise to anyone that this could happen. Chicago’s Southside has been under siege with more casualties than the War in Iraq. These brave women see that if Chicago is allowed to go under, it will not be the last. Its perpetrators are infected with a sickness plaguing black communities everywhere. What has happened to a people who do not see their humanity in each other’s faces?
Spike Lee and Kevin Willmott have adapted the Greek play, and have on screen an all-star cast featuring: Nick Cannon, Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Hudson, Teyonah Parris, D.B. Sweeney, Harry Lennix, Steve Harris, Angela Bassett, John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson.
This film, which is not for children (sex, language, violence), shows how the women take the bull by its horns and bring it to its knees. Opening Dec. 4, adults (and mature teens, 15+) need to see this film. With the war on black people raging unabated across the nation, the urgency can not be stressed enough. “Chi-Raq” presents an option. This film can start a much needed conversation.
Bahia in Oakland Festival
Week three:
Friday, Nov. 20- FREE Concerts:
6:30pm Teatro Brasileiro de Dança: the Bahia in Oakland Collective: “de corpo e alma” and 7:00pm Namorados da Lua- Brazilian Band at the Friday’s @ Oakland Museum of CA.
Sunday, November 22: Closing Festival
11 am – Introductory remarks by scholars, Dr. Yvonne Daniel & Dr. Sheila Walker.
Guest of honor MESTRE ACORDEON, speaks on History of Capoeira and his many stories not told yet;
Acknowledgement to the work of: Mestre José Lorenzo and Mestre Themba.
2pm Live Samba de Roda and fresh African-Brazilian cuisine included the ACARAJÉ of Baba Carlinhos @ the Humanist Hall, 390 27th Street, Oakland.
Further info: isaurabrasil@hotmail.com Facebook: Teatro Brasileiro de Dança: the BAHIA in OAKLAND Collective
Discussion
The Spirit of Bandung: Black Liberation & Third World Solidarity
Friday, November 20, 7PM
With U.S. imperialism as a backdrop, the organizations will explore anti- Black violence and movements for resistance, liberation, and self-determination. They will discuss the role of international solidarity in supporting resistance, the relationship of U.S. Black communities to land and landlessness in these movements, and how current protest movements stemming from activities in Ferguson, Baltimore, and other cities are impacting long-term organizing and movements for Black liberation.
The event is presented by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Haiti Action Committee, Black Alliance for Just Immigration.
Haiti Election Delegation Report Back
Sunday, November 22, 3-5 PM, $7-20 sliding scale, no one turned away
By the tens of thousands, Haitians are taking to the streets to demonstrate their determination to contest stolen elections. On November 5th, the Provisional Electoral Council of Haiti (CEP) imposed a functionary of current President Michel Martelly’s PHTK Party, Jovenel Moise, as the top vote-getter in the October 25th Presidential election. The other major candidates, including Fanmi Lavalas candidate, Dr. Maryse Narcisse, officially contested the results and reiterated their denunciation of the election as a fraud and an assault on democracy.
Haiti Action Committee sponsored a fact finding delegation to observe the conditions under which the October 25th elections for President and Parliament took place. They will report back on their trip and provide an analysis of election results. Come hear from Pierre Labossiere, Barbara Rhine and Dave Welsh about this rapidly developing crisis taking place in Haiti.
www.haitisolidarity.net and on FACEBOOK Follow us on twitter @HaitiAction1