Wading through the waters . . . Katina and other Submerged Stories and Legacies
Pan African Black Family Day
Beautiful people of the African Diaspora, our annual celebration under the sun is here! The 5th annual Pan African Family Reunion on September 6th 2015 has been carefully curated to bring you 12 hours of reinvigorating joy for your mind, body and soul! Don’t miss a single minute!
Here’s a quick schedule of things to look forward to.
9:30 am – Site Prayer with Greg Hodge
10am – Mindful Mediation with Clark Weatherspoon
10:30am – Tai Chi with Alonzo Young
11:00am – Yoga with Kevin Craft of Mohari Wellness
12pm – Free lunch for the first 300 guests
12pm – Music by DJ Nina Soul
1pm – Music by DJ Davey D
1:30pm Spoken word by Kev Choice
1:40pm Capoeira class and demo with California Bay Area school of Capoeira
2pm Youth drumming class and performance (Class at 1:30 in youth space)
2:20pm Youth sing along with Asheba
2:40 Prescott Family Circus
3pm GAME TIME
– Adult and youth potato sack race
– Musical Chairs
– Obstacle Coarse race
– Finale race between top two winners race in the human hamster wheels (Zorb Balls) for a GRAND PRIZE!
– Candy give away for the youth
4:30 Spoken word by Jazz Hudson
4:40 Performance by Abyssinic Culture Dancing
4:50 Music by DJ Mena
6:20 Spoken word by Ryan Nicole Austin
6:30 Performance by Rara Tou Limen
7pm Music by DJ Tsedi
8:30pm Movie viewing – Do The Right Thing (Parental discretion advised)
There are also work shops through out the day! Please sign up on the poll posted in the comments section to participate.
12pm – History of Pan Africanism with Nehanda Imara
1pm – Navigating Communications within the African diaspora with MXGM
5pm – Healthy Eating with Gary Whitaker
5:45pm Black relationships with Malik and Karen Seneferu
12pm-5pm Seed planting Demo
12pm-5pm Arts activities led by Sasha Kelly
-We’ll have great arts, crafts and food vendors so bring some cash to treat yourself to something special
– The youth area will be where it’s at this year with a 70 foot long obstacle coarse, human hamster balls, 12 foot beach ball, 40 foot bounce court for volleyball, soccer, basket ball and twister, bubble play station, face painting, free cotton candy, snow cones, and popcorn.
I can go on and on about all the great things you’re going to enjoy at this year’s event, but you’ll just have to wait until you get there to find out. MacArthur Bart station is 4 blocks away if you don’t want to fuss over parking. Bring water, a warm coat for the movie and a chair to rest in between playing and dancing.
Donate! This is a free event that has only been made possible by donations made by good people like you. If you are able, please make a comfortable donation to this community event. No donation is too big or small. Every penny counts!
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/oakland-s-5th-annual-pan-african-family-reunion#/story
Twitter: @PanafricanOak
Website: AfrocentricOakland.com
Hash us: #PAFR5e
Theatre
The Lower Bottom Playas’s present August Wilson’s King Hedley at The Flight Deck through Sept. 6, 2 p.m.
Film
In Search of the Sacred Coconut at the New Parkway, Sept. 13
Honoring Black Veterans of the WWII
Tuesday, Sept. 8, 7-9:30 p.m., there will be an evening presentation commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II hosted by The San Francisco History Museum and Historical Society. Guest Speakers are Bay Area African American historian/exhibitions curator, Bill Doggett and Port Chicago Naval Magazine Memorial Spokesperson, Reverend Diana McDaniel.
The event is at the Milton Marks Auditorium, Hiram Johnson State Office Building, 455 Golden Gate Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102
Admission is Free for SFMHS Members $10 for non-members $5 for Seniors and Students
Visit: http://www.sfhistory.org/events/monthly-programs
www.billdoggettproductions.com
Prisoners Rights Conference in Oakland
All of Us or None and Legal Services for Prisoners with Children host the Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted People’s Movement Western Regional Conference: From Civil Rights to Prisoners’ Rights . . . The Fight for Our Human Rights Continues
The Conference is Sunday, Sept. 20, 9-5 p.m. to Monday, Sept. 21, 9-4:30 p.m. at The Oakstop, 1721 Broadway Street, Oakland (near 19th Street BART). For information, (415) 255-7036 ext. 337 and visit prisonerswithchildren.org
Second Annual Black Eyed Peas Festival, Saturday, September 12, at Mosswood Park in Oakland
The Oakland Black-Eyed Pea Festival is a celebration of African and African American culture using a cherished foodway as its theme. The Black-Eyed Pea Festival features traditional musicians, artists and storytellers, craft vendors, health and community resource information, and corporate sponsors. Children will have an opportunity to make crafts. Black-eyed pea-themed dishes will be sold, and the Festival will feature a farmers’ market.
The free event is 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and is located at Mosswood Park, Broadway and MacArthur Blvd. in Oakland.
To listen to an interview with the event founder, Wanda Ravenall, visit http://tobtr.com/7914855
The Brothers Size, by Tarell Alvin McCraney @ Ubuntu Theatre, A Review
Ubuntu Theater’s production of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brothers Size is simply phenomenal. Let’s start by saying this theatre company which has distinguished itself with a remarkable three summer tenure is amazing when you learn that the directors and most of the cast are students or alumni of the University of California, San Diego, that is, seeped in academia the rest of the year—Lucky for Bay Area theatre lovers, Ubuntu is their practicum for a few months each summer.
Wednesday evening, my friend and I are driving down San Pablo looking for a garage, as in repair shop. This is where The Brothers Size is staged. I am looking, pass the garage and have to turn around. When we pull up we see a sign, and three actors walk by us. We hurriedly close the car doors and follow the cast into the rear of the shop where there are folding chairs for the audience; the seat of a vehicle which doubles as Oshoosi’s bed, complete with a teddy bear, is in front of us along with cars in various stages of repair. We learn later that Oshoosi believes in Santa Claus. You have to love a man who admits this at twenty-one.
Big brother, Ogun Size works on cars. It’s his gift. He and iron get along well. The ore speak to him and he can make engines purr and horns sing basslines. He’s happy his kid brother is back from a stint in prison. Like all families of incarcerated persons, he suffered and felt the bars surrounded him just like his brother. When Oshoosi walked back into his brother’s arms, both experienced freedom.
Oshoosi is the talkative brother. Ogun is annoyed and happy to hear the chatter. Cars and metal don’t fill the space like another human being does. Handsome, yet practical, Ogun has been taking care of Oshoosi for most of his life, at least since their mother died and their Aunt Ellegua reluctantly took the boys in. They laugh about it as adults, but one can see the pain, loneliness and abandonment the two experienced as children.
Actor, Deleon Dallas’s Ogun Size is a man of few words but with a large heart, while Terrance White’s Oshoosi Size has a youthful exuberance that is contagious. We can see in Ogun’s eyes pride in his little brother who has big dreams and the intelligence to succeed in whatever he puts his mind too. As he listens to his brother speak about his dreams of travel and college, he worries about Oshoosi, what he attracts and what he can’t see in others whom attach themselves to his good nature like lint or cockleburs. Elegba (actor William H.P.), a man he met in prison is like this. Ogun tells his brother, “you don’t meet friends in prison,” yet Oshoosi doesn’t understand what his elder brother means until it’s too late.
This is a story about black gods who are reduced to playing out their huge lives on a stage drafted by their magnificence. Even William H.P.’s Elegba is larger than the town which threatens the dignity of every black resident. The one policeman, a black man, sees as his duty one of humiliation towards every black citizen. That Elegba works at a funeral home, could foreshadow the death sentence lingering in the shadows.
Brothers Size have each other. Elegba seems an outsider. He latches onto Oshoosi like a puppy eager for a home. The home he knows best is prison, while Oshoosi is free and does not plan to return. There is a subtle conditioning we see in Elegba’s aura, absent in his friend’s. It is Ogun who holds the space for his brother, even after he gets too old for lullabies, to feel freedom. Ogun tries to give his brother space to live his life and make his mistakes, but Oshoosi doesn’t have the luxury of living and learning. No black man does. One mistake and the living is gone. Lessons are costly for the Size brothers.
Ogun is practical. He loves Oya , but knows he cannot compete when she turns her gaze towards Shango. Shango is a player; he also has Oshun. The god of iron and war, the goddess of the winds and rains, hurricanes, storms; the goddess of beauty and love . . . meet at the crossroads (Elegba). Choices have to be made. What will be the outcome for the Size men?
Directed by Keith Wallace, with Stephanie Ann Johnson’s lighting design, Steve Leffue’s sound design, Mary Hill’s set and Candance Thomas’s vocal couching and directing, the weather Wednesday evening was lighting with occasional sprinkles. The drama enhanced the production, especially when the men sang the prologue, then again when Oshoosi and Elegba danced – it was more deceptive. An Elegba kept entangling Oshoosi who was finding it harder and harder to escape the widening net–
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Ogun dreams as they dance, then wakes to a premonition he cannot articulate.
There are many moments like this, where time stands still – dark moments, moments where the humidity moans and mosquitos buzz and bite. Sitting with an umbrella up in the second row worked out pretty well since there was no on behind us. I was amazed that Ubuntu theatre (for this production) is in an auto garage and yes, it was cold.
Bring a blanket and wear a coat. Bring a hot beverage in a thermos too. Ubuntu co-founder, Colin Blattel and his mother traveled by car from Oakland to Albany or further on San Pablo Avenue looking for a garage to sponsor the play. The shops were not clamoring to say yes, but I would certainly support a shop that supports Ubuntu Theatre. The neighbors called the police multiple times during the first few days, requiring the theatre to get permits and still the neighbors didn’t check out the theatre and the performance. Perhaps they will before the show closes Wednesday-Saturday, August 19-22.
The Brothers Size is the new premiere this season. Grounded and Waiting for Lefty are back. Crying Holy opened the season. Again site specific, George Brant’s play, “Grounded” is at the Oakland Aviation Museum, 8252 Earhart Road, Oakland for one week, closing August 15, 8 p.m., and Clifford Odet’s Waiting for Lefty is at Classic Cars West, 411 26th Street, September 3-12, Wednesday-Sunday. I don’t see that Maya is being performed this year. There is no show, Sept. 11. For all the details visit ubuntutheaterproject.com
For a recent interview listen at: http://tobtr.com/7831321
The 3rd Annual Matatu Film Festival feature: The Spectacular Walks of Ordinary People, September 23-26 2015
After two successful initial years, the Matatu Film Festival returns to Oakland September 23 to 26. For its third edition, the festival is reframed as a Festival of Stories, more greatly emphasizing story as the fourth most precious resource known to man. #MATATU15 is produced by, curated by, and features a collective of creators spanning a multitude of mediums.
Not at all, conventional, #MATATU15 activates several contemporary spaces in Oakland including Duende, Miss Ollie’s, Owl N Wood, SoleSpace, Starline Social Club, and The Flight Deck as its festival sites.
The film festival takes its name from matatus (Swahili), privately owned minibuses or easily accessible share taxis. Decorated with popular icons and sounds, they offer a means of travel and often, access to another world and time. Traveling from that idea, #MATATU15 navigates through four days of music, film, and performance inclusive of artists and films from all over the world.
Partnering with KQED and Blavity, The Voice of Black Millennials, the Matatu Festival of Stories takes you on a matatu journey, exploring some of the world’s most spectacular stories. Tickets begin at $12 for each event. For more info, please visit www.matatufestival.org and www.matatu.eventbrite.com
Opening Night: An Evening with Saul Williams
The festival will launch Wednesday, September 23 with a two-part evening featuring musician, poet and writer Saul Williams, and curators of the #MATATU15 music program, Black Spirituals. The music performance is prefaced with only the second U.S. screening of NECKTIE YOUTH, which premiered at TriBeCa Film Festival earlier in the year.
A pre-festival dinner is hosted by Saul Williams and Mahader Tesfai, #MATATU15 Artist in Residence, at Miss Ollie’s (901 Washington St., Oakland, CA 94607) on Tuesday, September 22. The Opening Night film screening and performance Wednesday, September 23 at Starline Social Club (645 W. Grand Ave, Oakland, CA 94612).
Additional Confirmed Highlights
A look at the life and work of the extraordinary artist Asnaketch Worku is explored in ASNI. Known in Ethiopia as well as Billie Holiday to Americans, and Edith Piaf to the French, Asnaketch brought high standars to theater and excitement to music in conservative Ethiopia in the 1950’s and 1960’s.In alignment with the vision of Mutatu film Festival 2015 as a space for storytelling, Zéna will present new arrangements from her upcoming album, “Beautiful News”: a cycle of songs composed on Kora, the West African harp, and ukelele, that use language and stories to explore music, memory and the residual nature of culture in an age of migration. Collaborating with San Francisco based composer, Schuyler Karr, Zéna will be accompanied by a string ensemble for the evening.
In the Spring of 2011, Senegal was pitched into crisis when President Abdoulaye Wade decided to change the constitution to allow for a third term. An artist-led youth movement erupted to protect one of Africa’ oldest and most stable democracies. In a time where democracy is under siege in many parts of the world, INCORRUPTIBLE offers a positive, hopeful example while examining the sustainability of a people’s movement, and the role that youth are taking in shaping the future of their own country.
The first even Ethiopian post-apocalyptic sci-fi feature, CRUMBS tells the story of a diminutive superhero who embarks on a surreal journey when a spaceship hovering above starts showing signs of activity. An additional screening is scheduled, featuring a live score played by BLACK SPIRITUALS, curators of the #MATATU15 music program.
Tickets are available for sale online and cash/charge at the box office. Box Office – Owl N Wood 45 Grand Avenue / Oakland / 11-6 M-F
Prices:
one way – $12
• admission to one screening
Matatu pass – $TBD
AfroSolo Arts Festival 21 proudly joins My Brother’s and Sister’s Keeper/SF and San Francisco’s Unified School District in presenting: BLACK FAMILY: Cradle to College and Career Day Resource Fair
The second annual BLACK FAMILY: Cradle to College and Career Day Resource Fair will take place on Saturday, September 19, 2015 at Mission High School 9:30 AM – 3:00 PM, 3750 18th Street in San Francisco.
The mission of the day long conference is to educate, uplift and inspire young Black youths to successfully transcend childhood to adulthood. Education will be emphasized as a gateway to success. The Conference will be a gathering of students, parents, educators, administrators, community activists, and others in a supportive environment. The day will include panel discussions, parent and teen workshops targeted to different age groups. a resource fair, free food, prizes and computer giveaways.
The conference will also convene the 2nd annual Historical Black College and University (HBCU) Fair where representatives will grant admissions and scholarships on the spot.
“We are very excited about this event,” said Theo Miller, Director, HOPE San Francisco and Senior Adviser, Office of Mayor Edwin M. Lee. “It provides an opportune time for our community to come together to support the growth and development of our youths,” he added.
Landon Dickey, Special Assistant to the Superintendent for African American Achievement & Leadership for San Francisco’s Unified School District (SFUSD) states, “This Black Family event demonstrates SFUSD’s commitment to our African American students and a fervent desire for our youth to succeed.”
AfroSolo will host a panel exploring “How To Have a Successful Engagement with Police.” The goal of the panel is to provide attendees with skills, techniques and an understanding of how best to handle themselves during a police stop. The panel will be moderated by AfroSolo’s Executive Director, Thomas Robert Simpson and panelists from the community and law enforcement.
A free Southern buffet brunch will be served for first 300 registered guests. We will also have limited free shuttle bus serviced through out the city. The event is free and open to the public. For more info and RSVPs’ call 415/516-5247 or email dickey@sfusd.edu
Zimbabwean Dance
Julia Chigamba and Chinyakare Ensemble perform at these venues during September-October:
Sept 19th Chinyakare performs at Peace in the Park in San Francisco at the Children’s stage — check time, perhaps 3 p.m.
http://www.peaceintheparksf.org/venue.php
http://www.peaceintheparksf.org/performers.php#dance
Sept 20th Chinyakare performs at Music for Madera Open Space 6:15-7 p.m.
https://nextdoor.com/events/ca/el-cerrito/2nd-annual-music-for-madera-open-space-397339
Oct 11th Chinyakare performs at A Taste of Africa at 3 p.m.
http://tickets.livermoreperformingarts.org/single/eventDetail.aspx?p=4428
Dance
Gentrification Topic of Dimensions Dance Theatre’s Latest Work
Dimensions Dance Theater, the Bay Area’s preeminent African-American dance company, is proud to announce the world premiere of The Town on Notice. Combining dance, live music, spoken word and stand-up comedy, The Town takes on the subject of Oakland’s gentrification as an invitation for meaningful dialogue.
Conceived and directed by Deborah Vaughan with choreography by Latanya d. Tigner and Colette Eloi, The Town features composer and pianist JooWan Kim, poet Marvin K. White, comedian Micia Mosely and percussionists Kiazi Malonga and Guy DeChalus. The Town runs for one night only, Saturday, October 17 at 8pm, at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts in Oakland. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door, and may be purchased online at Brown Paper Tickets.
“Gentrification is one of those hot-button issues,” says Vaughan, co-founder and artistic director of Dimensions Dance Theater. “In creating The Town my approach has been to observe and reflect without offering pat prescriptions. From beginning to end, the evening is designed as an invitation for the audience to share and interact, to create a meaningful dialogue.”
Vaughan invited Tigner, who has performed professionally with Dimensions since 1986, and who has choreographed several recent works in the company’s repertory, to lend her artistic voice to The Town. “Through purposefully blending traditional African, house, jazz and modern dance idioms, I have been inspired to create movement with ritual force that will call forth the ancestors of this place we call home,” says Tigner.
She notes that the recent displacement of many Oakland residents on account of gentrification is only the latest episode within a long history of displacement that stretches back to the arrival of the first European colonists. In addition to choreographing, Tigner will dance with the company.
Vaughan commissioned Eloi to join Tigner as co-choreographer. Director of El Wah Movement Dance Theatre, Eloi specializes in dance of the African diaspora especially Haiti. “The movement Latanya and I have created serves as a vehicle for storytelling, prayer and healing,” explains Eloi.
First among the evening’s three featured performers is Korean-born, Oakland-based composer Kim, founder of Ensemble Mik Nawooj, “one of the Bay Area’s most innovative hip-hop acts” (SF Weekly). The group is known for its trademark blend of classical, jazz and hip-hop styles. A graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Kim will perform an original score for piano, accompanied by Malonga and DeChalus on percussion.
The Town on Notice will also integrate spoken word performed by White. In addition to authoring four collections of poetry, including two Lambda Literary Award-nominated books, White is pursuing a Master of Divinity at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. He is also a former member of the critically acclaimed PomoAfroHomos. The Town marks White’s second collaboration with Dimensions Dance Theater.
The third featured performer of the evening is Mosely, the rare stand-up comedian with a doctorate. She completed her studies in education at the University of California-Berkeley, and now alternates between performance gigs and consulting jobs at schools and foundations. Her solo show Where My Girls At? has toured the U.S. at numerous comedy clubs and universities. Mosely currently divides her time between Oakland and New York City.
Bookending The Town will be a 1970s-style “rent party” with an open bar in the lobby serving wine and beer. The party will run from 7 – 8pm, resuming with the company and guest artists in attendance at 9:30pm. Throughout the evening a live Twitter feed will project comments from attendees and performers alike.
Funding for the development of The Town on Notice was made possible by generous gifts from the San Francisco Foundation, the Oakland Cultural Funding Program and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
ABOUT DIMENSIONS DANCE THEATER
For more than four decades under the leadership of Co-Founder and Artistic Director Deborah Vaughan, Dimensions Dance Theater has dedicated itself to creating, performing and teaching dance that reflects the lives and historical experience of African Americans. Under Vaughan’s artistic leadership, Dimensions Dance Theater presents traditional African dances, as well as original contemporary choreography drawn from African, Jazz, and Modern dance idioms. Its repertory includes original works by its award-winning artistic director along with commissioned works by some of the most acclaimed choreographers in Africa and the African diaspora.
Dimensions has garnered national and international acclaim for its performances. In 1984 Dimensions was chosen to perform at the Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival, and in 1988 the company appeared in the first National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta. Then in 1995 Dimensions performed in the Forum for Contemporary Dance/Dance for Tolerance Festival in Bonn, Germany. More recently, the company has traveled to the Congo, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Jordan, and Cuba, performing its critically acclaimed Between Shores and In the Shadows of Our Ancestors…Mudzimu. Dimensions also tours regularly throughout California and the U.S.
The event is Saturday, October 17, 2015 at 8 p.m. at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice Street
Oakland, California 94612. Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door. To purchase tickets online visit brownpapertickets.com or call 800-838-3006. Visit: dimensionsdance.org