Wanda's Picks Radio, Feb. 17, 2016

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay! 

Guests:
Link: http://tobtr.com/s/8298755

1. From the archives August 29, 2014 show: Middle Passage walk, Theodore Rush, Fetch Clay, William Rhodes

2. Playwright Tanya Barfield joins us to talk about The Call (Feb. 20-Mar.12) at Theatre Rhinoceros in SF. Her plays include: Of Equal Measure (Center Theatre Group), Blue Door (Playwrights Horizons, South Coast Repertory; Seattle Repertory, Berkeley Repertory and additional theaters), Dent, The Quick, The Houdini Act and 121 Degrees WEST. She wrote the book for the Theatreworks/USA children's musical: Civil War: The First Black Regiment. Ms. Barfield was a recipient of the 2003 Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, 2005 Honorable Mention for the Kesselring Prize for Drama, a 2006 Lark Play Development/NYSCA grant and she has twice been a Finalist for the Princess Grace Award. She has been commissioned by Playwrights Horizons, Center Theatre Group, South Coast Repertory, Primary Stages and Geva Theatre Center. She is a member of New Dramatists and serves on the membership committee at The Dramatist Guild.

3. We close with a conversation with Emerging choreographer Wanjiru Kamuyu whose work is a part of Black Choreographer's Festival this weekend, Feb. 20 at Dance Mission. Her career began with its genesis in New York City.  As a performer Kamuyu has worked with Jawole Willa Jo Zollar of Urban Bush Woman, Bill T. Jones (Broadway show FELA!), Molissa Fenley, Julie Taymor (Broadway show The Lion King (Paris, France)), Nathan Trice, Tania Isaac, Dean Moss, amongst others.  Visit http://www.bcfhereandnow.com/

As a choreographer her work has received wonderful reviews from the New York Times and Le Figaro (Paris, France) as well as gaining a Wayne State University (Detroit) Maggie Allesee Department of Dance Copperfoot Award (2012).

Kamuyu’s work has been presented in New York festivals DANCENOW, Cool New York and Harlem Stages’ E-Moves series, LaMama Moves, Joyce Soho, Chez Bushwick and Movement Research, as well as in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Missouri, California, Europe and Africa.

Kamuyu is engaged in various international residences and is commissioned to create work and teach at esteemed US universities such as Wayne State University, University of Michigan, Mills College, Stephens College, Stanford University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Towson University, Spelman College amongst others.  She has also taught in London (UK) Paris (France), Johannesburg (South Africa), Nairobi (Kenya) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso).

In 2007 Kamuyu located to Paris, France collaborating with directors Jérôme Savary (musical theater) and Hassan Kassi Kouyate (theater).  In 2009, Kamuyu founded her dance company WKcollective.  She continues to work between Europe and the US.