It’s all about the ancestors, believe it or not. The invisible realm controls the outer. Those who believe in magic are in touch with reality—a truth, the initiated, those beings open to a creation story they participate in. Life is a collection of unedited stories, the end of a chapter does not mean the end of the book.
With that said, the 23rd Anniversary of the MAAFA Commemoration is upon us once again. It is a time to recommit oneself to Black humanity and our belonging to a vision higher than that promoted in narratives we acknowledge yet do not occupy. In Marcus Gardley’s “black odyssey,” (back at Cal Shakes for two weeks), Ulysses picks up his grandmother, whom he calls “Queen Mother,” in his arms and sets her on a throne. For those who know Homer’s tale, in Gardley’s hands not only is the diction black or Ebonics, heaven is Oaktown back when International Blvd was East 14th.
The MAAFA Commemoration gives the active mind pause to consider perhaps another tributary, another course of action, another opportunity to right the rhythms that remain untapped—those rhythms our ancestors play on hearts tied together across national borders, redrawn state lines, voting districts—amended constitutions, bills and rights, continents separated by seas and historic time zones . . . all of that we contemplate with urn in hand as the water touches the earth and we say Ashay—so be it, let the words have power.
Original custodians of the planet, we can never forget it is our duty to fight for the well-being of the creatures (plant, animal, mineral) who live here with us. We need to support and strengthen these relationships with our kinship beings, other earthlings especially those who are so tiny we often forget they exist until it is too late.
This year lifting up and calling the names of black women and girls and demanding their right to life and liberty and safety especially in public spaces (but private too). We need to turn up the volume on value and we need to amplify the defense strategy in visible, tangible ways this coming year. There are performances and conversations listed here that are in alignment with this thinking.
for colored girls at African American Shakes closes
African American Shakespeare’s recent production of Ntozake Shange’s “for colored girls who’ve considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf, directed by Elizabeth Carter couldn’t have come at a more apropos time. Salient, sexy and provocative these seven characters spanning the breath that is a rainbow—the hope and promise present there, speak to the resiliency that is black womenhood—her belief in love and the forgiveness during recovery from toxic love she allows her heart to feel. I don’t think there are any examples of happiness ever after in for colored girls. . . love is hard to find, hard to keep and harder to let go of when it ceases to work out right.
The poetry in motion that are certain characters, the lyricism that is the speech embodied literally in the carefully crafted monologues and ensemble work makes this production one of the best I’ve seen recently to date.
Simple set—rolling frames imply a variety of scenes from apartment window to subway station as the women who live across the country compare notes on love and being in love as hopeful girls to mature women. Perhaps what one is left with as she sits in the theatre, the characters holding candles, an altar in the center where they have placed relics of the past, creating an altar—a burial of that which did not serve them, parts of themselves lost on the battlefield.
This rainbow is a trophy for making it through the storm. It is the sign in the window; it is hope for today and tomorrow. Though the play ends in the death of two innocent children—a story of trauma and abuse, we see in this final tale the need for a place within black community . . . a way to address the mental illness, economic hardships and parental support necessary for better outcomes. Too bad there was no Emotional Emancipation Healing Circle for these sisters to process their legitimate feelings of stasis or a safe place to escape for the mother whose partner, a veteran, suffered from PTSD.
MAAFA Commemoration 2018
Ritual@ Ocean Beach
The 23rd Annual MAAFA Commemoration is Sunday, Oct. 7, 5:30 AM at Ocean Beach, Fulton at the Great Highway in San Francisco. The Ritual is open to people of African Descent. For information visit maafasfbayarea.com or call 641-715-3900 ext. 36800# If you need a free bus ride from Oakland to the beach call Sis. Lola: 510-879-7019. There are still seats left. There will be a gathering later in the month to talk share experiences of the MAAFA Ritual 2018. Visit our https://www.facebook.com/maafabayarea/
Film Series@ Joyce Gordon Gallery
Friday, October 12, 6-9 p.m. at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th Street in downtown Oakland, we are showing the film, “Bound: Africans vs. African Americans,” dir. Peres Owino who is flying up for the screening. The event is hosted by the MAAFA Commemoration Committee and will also have a panel discussion about themes that come up during the film. “Bound” looks at the misconceptions between Africans who are more recent immigrants to America and those African Diaspora Americans whose citizenship here is traced through bondage. Listen to an interview with the director last year when the film screened at the SF Black Film Festival Wanda’s Picks Radio, June 15, 2018 RSVP at 510-255-5579.
Theatre
24th Annual AfroSolo Arts Festival presents its Black Voices Performance Series (Thursday-Sunday, Oct. 18-21): Our Stories Our Lives at the Buriel Clay theatre in the African American Art and Culture Complex, 762 Fulton Street in San Francisco.
Program 1: COURAGE UNDER FIRE: The Story of Elroy
written and performed by Thomas Robert Simpson, on Thursday, Oct. 18, 8 p.m. General Admission $20, Seniors and Students $15
Program 2: Black Voices Performance Series: Our Day Has Come features: Nina Causey, Marshal Jearreau, Ayodele Nzinga, Kathryn Seabron and Thomas Robert Simpson, Friday-Sunday, Oct. 19-21 various times: 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19 (0-$20), Thursday-Sat. Sun. 3 p.m. matinee. There is a gala on Sat., Oct. 20 at 6 p.m. Visit the website for the specifics: http://events.afrosolo.org/events
Marcus Gardley’s “black odyssey” dir. by Eric Ting at Cal Shakes through Oct. 14 at Bruns Memorial Amphitheatre in Orinda. Visit http://www.calshakes.org/ 510.548.9666 boxoffice@calshakes.org
To listen to a recent interview with the playwright, tune into Wanda’s Picks, Friday, Sept. 28, http://tobtr.com/10986667 To listen to a special broadcast with Professor Aldo Billingslea, Great Grand Paw Sidin’, on Wanda’s Picks, August 14, 2017: http://tobtr.com/10208983
Aldo is back, so is Margo Hall as Great Aunt Tina; Safiya Fredericks as Benevolence Nausicca Sabine (ensemble); Michael Gene Sullivan as Artez Sabine (ensemble); Michael Curry (Malachai), joined by new cast Cleavant Derricks (Great Grand Daddy Deus; ensemble); Velina Brown (Alsendra Sabine; ensemble); Santoya Fields (Nella Pell) J.D. Mollison (Ulysses Lincoln); Ruthie Price (drummer). You don’t want to miss this production. The production is over the top with costumes fitting the celestial plane that is Oaktown. Scenic design is superb and the lighting, while great by day, is best appreciated at night (smile). Linda Tillery’s compositions and direction have patrons testifying, while LaTonya Tigner and Kendra Kimbrough’s choreography make perfection look easy.
Taking its form from Homer’s “Odyssey,” Gardley’s “black odyssey” is the story of every black man who wants to do right for his family yet lacks the resources. Most men enlist because such careers promise entre into the middle class: education, home and work. The playwright said in a recent interview that he gives a nod to the veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD), the residual price so many men who came of age in the sixties paid to get in line for the American dream. Ulysses Jones thinks he’ll return soon, as three months stretch into 16 years. Forgiveness is an inside job and war turns human beings into monstrosities they cannot face. Following a map etched in his hand, Ulysses meets ancestors who’ve been waiting for him to share stories of the family’s past, history their kinsmen missed when his mother died in childbirth and the boy grew up in an orphanage. Great Aunt Tina even leaves the heavenly realm to make sure her nephew’s family keeps the faith despite his absence for so long. Questions such as atonement arise. How does one pay back a family for the loss of a loved one? While the two Great Grandfathers: Paw Sidin and Grand Daddy Deus Ulysses grows wiser as he tells his story, his adventures . . . each telling an opportunity to evolve, take responsibility for what is his and to let go what is not. Sunday, Sept. 30, Cal Shakes treat its audience to a Second Line Dance Class, taught by LaTonya Tigner and then after the show to a performance featuring Dimensions Dance Company and its youth company along with a live Brass Band. The audience and cast paraded out of the theatre—a fitting conclusion to this redemption psalm.
Protection Shields
Lower Bottom Playaz’s “Protection Shields, The Prequel to the Magical Adventures of WolfHawkJaguar, written and directed by Ayodele Nzinga, Ph.D., tells the story of men who want to change but don’t know what to do in a situation where they feel unsafe without carrying a gun.
Based on a film by the same title, the play is more elemental—the artist wants to live to fulfill his dreams as a recording artist, the father wants to raise his children and be a good example to them and the mother wants to ease her aching heart. Using video, narration and a hip hop soundtrack to tell the story—it is almost a fairy tale set in West Oakland.
There are even dancers who dressed in ethereal white conjure spirit as they hover between realms. Omni and Tulani performed the evening I attended.
The set is a crossroads—red and black juncture where Esu Legba offers each character options.
WolfhawkJagur lies in his bed dreaming—he spends most of the story floating above the activities of the community below. He attends a funeral of a relative he can’t remember who leave him a suitcase full of slips of paper with ancestor stories. Their chatter wakes him at night as the dead fill his head with dreams. While he is sorting out what all this means—again in his sleep, a Wise Old Child shows up on the doorstep of the grieving mother with a note offering his assistance in good not evil: “I will not lie or steal or kill” his note says.
The two embrace with tears. She falls to her knees and the child places one of his cowrie necklaces on her head as a crown. Next he goes to his wagon and lifts a protection shield from it and gives it to her. She places it in front of her torso and then then boy moves on. The child is carrying medicine for the sick and with each stop increases the peace.
Gayle Madyun’s Protection Shields, the inspiration for the film, play and song, are works of art with spiritual connotations— there is an auction right now at Lower Bottom Playaz on five new Protection Shields through the October 6 closing performance at the Flight Deck, 1540 Broadway in Oakland. Shows are Friday-Saturday evening at 8 p.m. Sat. matinee at 2 p.m.
There is also a Protection Shields exhibit, Sept. 7-Oct. 26, at Oakstop, 1721 Broadway and a workshop, Sat., Oct. 6, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the gallery. Friday, Oct. 5, 6-10 p.m., at Oakstop there will be a conversation between Gayle Madyun and Yeye Luisah Teish. Visit http://www.protectionshields.net/events and lowerbottomplayaz.com for tickets to the play.
Life is Living Festival
Life Is Living, Sat., Oct. 13, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at deFremery Park aka Lil Bobby Hutton Park, 1651 Adeline Street in Oakland. Life is Living is a Free Celebration of Oakland Life through Hip Hop, Intergenerational health and Artistic Expression.
40th Anniversary of Cultural Odyssey
Brava for Women in the Arts and Cultural Odyssey present: When Did Your Hands Become a Weapon? Rhodessa Jones and the Medea Project: Theatre for Incarcerated Women, Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m. , Sundays at 3 p.m., Oct. 25-Nov. 4. Special Gala Sat., Oct. 27, at Brava, 2781 24th Street at York, in San Francisco. Visit brava.org or call (415) 641-7657.
Spirit and Bones
The World Premiere of Spirit and Bones, choreographed by Artistic Director Sarah Bush features an intergenerational cast of 15 dancers ranging in age from 23 to over 70, starring such Bay Area dance luminaries as Joanna Haigood, Elvia Marta, Priscilla Regalado, Joan Lazarus and Sue Li Jue. Inspired by Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ book Women Who Run with the Wolves, national large-scale protests and the movement of wolves, birds and systems of the body, Spirit and Bones is an evening-length production highlighting female resilience in times of darkness, the tenacity of the solo woman, and the ferocious love and strength generated by community. These performances of Spirit and Bones mark the 11th season of Sarah Bush Dance Project. Performances are Friday, October 26 and Saturday, October 27 at 8pm and Sunday, October 28 at 7pm at Taube Atrium Theater in the Wilsey Center for Opera, SF War Memorial Building, 4th Floor, 401 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA For tickets visit: www.sarahbushdance.org/tickets
Cardboard Piano @ New Conservatory Theatre
New Conservatory Theatre Center is pleased to present the regional premiere of “Cardboard Piano” by Whiting Award-winning playwright, Hansol Jung, in partnership with Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD). Directed by Tom Bruett, this “deeply moving new play” (Courier Journal) is a sweeping tale of love, redemption, and the ongoing fight for international LGBTQ rights. 16-year old Chris just wants to find a safe place to live with the girl she loves- not an easy task in 1999 Uganda. Determined to be together, Chris, the daughter of American missionaries and Adiel, a local girl, meet in the village church to marry in secret. When the war outside the church walls breaks its way into their sanctuary in the form of a wounded child-soldier, all three lives become tied together forever. Cardboard Piano is a riveting testament to the power of the past to shape the future, and the bonds of love, family, and forgiveness.
Cardboard Piano runs Oct 26 – Dec 2, 2018. Opening Night is Saturday, Nov 3, 2018 at 8pm. Tickets are $25–55 and available at nctcsf.org, by emailing boxoffice@nctcsf.org or by calling 415-861-8972.
On the Fly:
Sounds of African at Ashkenaz Music and Dance Center, San Pablo Ave. @Gilman in Berkeley, (510) 525-5099: Zimbabwe with Piwai plus Adrian West Band on Friday, October 12; to West African with Baba Ken and his West African Highlife Band; then on Friday, Oct. 26, soak up the sounds of Northern Africa’s deserts and beyond with Mamadou Kelly. The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol Residency featuring pianist Joe Warner, at The Back Room in Berkeley, Sundays at 5 p.m. 1984 Bonita Avenue, $25 cash at the door or in advance at backroommusic.com 9th San Francisco Dance Film Festival (October 4-14 at Brava Theater Center and other venues in San Francisco). Featured are American Tap (90 min), dir. mark Wilkinson; The Town on Notice featuring Dimensions Dance Theatre (5 min.), dir. Umi Vaughn and Sonia Pina; TOO MANY BODIES (5 mins.), dir. Reena Dutt, Choreographed by Nancy Dobbs Owen http://www.sfdancefilmfest.org/2018; Epiphany Dance Theater celebrates its 15th anniversary of San Francisco Trolley Dances— A two-day, free (with Muni fare) public performance curated by Epiphany Dance Theater artistic director Kim Epifano, pairs artists and ensembles with specific sites along San Francisco’s MUNI route, where they are invited to create an 8- to 15-minute piece in response to the physical environment, architecture and history of the area. Night Trolley, Friday, Oct. 12, 6 and 7:30 p.m. and Sat. and Sunday, Oct. 20-21, 11 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Tours are every 45 minutes. Tours start both weekends at 4th and Channel Street, Mission Creek Park. Tours end at SFMOMA’s Howard Street Entrance. Free with MUNI fare along the N-Line. Visit http://epiphanydance.org/san-francisco-trolley-dances/ Lynn Nottage’s SWEAT at the Geary Theatre in San Francisco; Barbershop Chronicles by Inua Ellams at Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, Oct. 26-28; The Routes of Slavery: Memories of Slavery (1444-1888) by Jordi Savall, Nov. 3 also at Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley. Visit calperformances.org Cultivate Empathy for All: Because We Are Interconnected, Berkeley Candidate Forum, Oct. 20, 5-8 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 858-776-5557 or cultivateempathyforall.org; Oakland Black Cowboy Parade, Sat., Oct. 6, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at deFremery Park, 18th and Adeline Street. There will be Music, Horse and Pony Rides, Educational Exhibits. Visit blackcowboyassociation.org; Jess Curtis/Gravity presents: Beyond Gravity, featuring jose e. abad, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Abby Crain, Gabriel Christian, Rachael Dichter and Mira Kautto, Thursday, October 25 at 8 p.m., Friday, October 26 at 8 p.m*, Saturday, October 27 at 8 p.m. with ASL interpretation (*Pre-Show Haptic Access Tour at 7 pm; Live audio description available via headset; Reservations required. Please call 415-483-5996 or email info@jesscurtisgravity.org) at CounterPulse, 80 Turk Street, San Francisco, BOX OFFICE: http://counterpulse.org/event/beyond-gravity/ or 415-626-2060, TICKETS: $15-30, MORE INFO: www.JessCurtisGravity.org 41st Annual Mill Valley Film Festival in a variety of locations, Oct. 4-14 https://www.mvff.com/ or call: 415.383.5256, African American interest: GREEN BOOK (OPENING NIGHT FILM); THE HATE U GIVE (SPOTLIGHT ON AMANDLA STENBERG); IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK (CLOSING NIGHT FILM); LITTLE WOODS; LONG TIME COMING: A 1955 BASEBALL STORY; OBEY; CHARM CITY. There are also concerts, talks, awards, workshops, and other special events. Freight & Salvage highlights: Sunday, Oct. 7, 7 p.m., Fatoumata Diawara; Oct. 12-13, 8 p.m., Ferron & Her All Star Band; Oct. 26, 8 p.m., Ron Miles Circuit Rider Trio; Sundays in the Redwoods: Oct. 7 and 14
Matatu Film Festival
Patients sildenafil samples look at here now may also experience dyspepsia, heartburn, chest pain, headaches, fatigue, myalgias, urologic dysfunction, gynecological symptoms, anxiety, or depression. However, if cipla generic viagra you are one of these items. Since cialis prices you are nothing but a collection of beliefs, they better are well formed. Take all the stories about men who send lowest viagra price off their hard-earned dollars expecting nights of passion to be couriered their way by return, only to find their money disappears and nothing appears in their mailboxes. Matatu Film Festival is a place to have conversations about blackness and black people within a Diaspora where blackness is topical. Sept. 26, the Festival opened with a conversation between Saul Williams and the brilliant Zoé Samudzi. They discussed literature and politics, entertained questions from the audience. It was a provocative and stimulating evening of art and thought. Visit http://www.matatu.co/
Matatu is a festival that integrates the arts—the through line is nonhierarchical; there is poetry and live music at many or most of the screenings. When one leaves, she is full and ready for revolution. It is a decolonized space where we are too busy loving blackness in all its melanin facets to worry about “other.” Michael orange, the quiet presence behind the greatness happening at these spectacular events, shared a bit of the history behind this year’s theme, TransAfrica, Building a Foreign Policy Library and the legacy of Randall Robinson. His mother, Satia Orange, is/was an ambassador. We get to see Zoé Samudzi again Nov. 4, 7 p.m. as a part of the Notebook: The Living Archive at Red Bay Coffee.
The Festival this year has launched a new campaign, “Pay What Makes You Smile,” which perhaps allows for a diversity previously absent. It also means shows sell out quickly, but I would still show up, just in case. I also suggest folks go to the website and watch trailers and read the descriptions which are too well-written to cut or post here. I will say that Saturday, 7 p.m., there will be a film and then live East African music at Red Bay Coffee and Roastery off Fruitvale in Oakland.
Oct. 3 – Jinn (2018) dir. Nijla Mu’min (93 mins) screens at Grand Lake, 7:30 p.m. Mu’min is a director to watch. The 2013 dual-degree grad from CalArts with a MFA Film Directing and Writing Programs degree was named one of 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine in 2017. You probably know her short Dream (2017)- 70,000 views; Queen Sugar, her directorial debut for television and now her debut feature JINN. http://www.matatu.co/routes/jinn-film
Synopsis: Summer is a carefree teenager whose world is turned upside down when her mother abruptly converts to Islam and becomes a different person. At first resistant to the faith, Summer begins to reevaluate her identity while falling for a Muslim classmate. As she and Tahir build a connection based on laughter, curiosity, and beef pepperoni, a budding sexual attraction ignites, causing a major conflict between physical desire and piety.
Dance
Zacho Dance Theatre & Bayview Opera House present: Picture Bayview Hunters Point
Zaccho Dance Theatre & Bayview Opera House present: Picture Bayview Hunters Point
Free Performance Gives Voice to the Community, Thursday – Sunday, Oct. 11-14 and 18-21, 2018; 8 pm Listen to an interview on Wanda’s Picks with Joanna Haigood, Artistic Director, Zaccho, Sept. 21, http://tobtr.com/10986655
Zaccho Dance Theatre brings the dreams and aspirations of local Bayview Hunters Point residents to life in a new, full-length work entitled Picture Bayview Hunters Point, with free performances over two weekends October 11-14 and 18-21, 2018. This interdisciplinary, site specific performance centered in, on, and around the historic Bayview Opera House is a celebration of the community in which Zaccho has made its home for the past 28 years and a response to the economic and demographic changes impacting the neighborhood.
All performances are free and open to the public. Picture Bayview Hunters Point takes place at the Bayview Opera House, 4705 3rd St., San Francisco, CA. For more information and to register for performances, visit zaccho.org. Post-show discussion panels will be held Saturday, October 13 and Friday, October 19 with lifelong community residents, Memliek Walker and Toni Carpenter, and moderated by San Francisco City College African American Studies Chair Aliyah Dunn-Salahuddin.