Wanda's Picks Friday, Feb. 1, 2013

We kicked off the show with a broadcast of an interview looking at the musicality of Langston Hughes poetry on what would have been the poet's 111 birthday. When The Weary Blues Met Jazz, Langston Hughes's collaboration with Charles Mingus and Leonard Feather, is a part of the wonderful Poetry Foundation website: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/audioitem/713 (10:34 min.).

We follow this recording with a live interview with narrative features programmer for SF Indie, Holly Roach, who will speak to us about this 15th Anniversary. Visit http://sfindie.com/ There is a special Superbowl event on Sunday, Feb. 3, at the Roxie Theatre.

Joy Elan

Joy Elan, poet, teacher, writer, scholar, whose book Signs of Life, Past, Present, and Future (2011), is next. I first met Joy at the Empowering Women of Color Conference March 2012 at UC Berkeley.

Born with a hearing impairment, author Joy Elan has required hearing aids since the age of 15 months. The vibrant and outgoing single mom was born in Berkeley, CA in July 1983—to a mother who was herself single—and raised in neighboring Oakland. Having grown up without her father and been hard of hearing for her entire life, Elan has encountered numerous obstacles and challenges. She successfully overcame a good number of them as she's far exceeded low expectations that others had for her, including having earned her Master's Degree from Stanford University. When not parenting, studying, or at work for the City of Oakland, Elan fills her literal quiet time with life reflections and imaginations of what life has in store going forward. She penned intimate thoughts—hers and other's—in an alluring book of poetry titled "SIGNS OF LIFE: Past, Present, and Future."  Taken from http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/3/prweb9258327.htm Visit http://www.joyelan.webs.com/ 

Guetty Felin - Co-founder, Belle Moon Productions, joins us to talk about her latest film, Broken Stones. Her film which creatively uses an edifice to depict the tragic events and her people's resilience during and since the earthquake three years ago, concludes the African Film Festival at UC Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive, Feb. 5, 2013, 7 p.m. Visit http://www.bellemoonproductions.com/about-us.html and http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/african_2013

Guetty Felin

Philosophically, as a child of the Diaspora, Guetty's work resonates themes of memory and forgetfulness and the tangible and pliable nature of history and culture in this retention and reclamation process. Her film is proceeded by a short from South Africa. 

We conclude with conversations with Afrikahn Jahmal Dayvs, BAJABA Showcase, who tells us about a special concert and tribute to Billy Higgins tonight and a live concert in the studio at KPFA, Sat., Feb. 3, 11 p.m.See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fahBeAYww2I

Idris Akamoor, Cultural Odyssey, joins us to update us on the success of The Pyramid's European Tour and the release of the boxed set of music which includes a DVD of one of the archival performances. The six concerts which lead up to the formation of a community ensemble begin Feb. 10, 2013 at Floyd Pellom’s 57th Street Gallery, 5701 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland. The other concerts at SF State's Knuth Hall Creative Arts Bldg. (2/13, 1 p.m.), the Jazz Heritage Center (2/15-16, 8 p.m., 1330 Fillmore), and the AAACC (2/21 8 p.m.) and Brava (2/22 8 p.m.) are free.  Visit: www.culturalodyssey.org

Music: Dwight Tribble's "I've Known Rivers"; Donald Duck Bailey

Link to show: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks/2013/02/01/wandas-picks-radio-show