Friday, April 29, 2016

Wanda's Picks Radio April 27, 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!

Link:
http://tobtr.com/8558981
 
1. Noel Schwerin’s documentary IN AN IDEAL WORLD will have its U.S. television premiere Tuesday, April 26, 2016, at 8 p.m. on WORLD Channel (check local listings), as part of the fourth season of AMERICA REFRAMED, public media’s newest documentary series. The film will be available for free streaming on http://worldchannel.org/programs/episode/arf-s4-e413-ideal-world/  starting April 27, 2016.
 
Shot over seven years, with unprecedented access, IN AN IDEAL WORLD follows three men in California’s infamous Soledad prison—John Piccirillo, a white separatist murderer, Sam Lewis, a black ex-gang member and Ben Curry, a warden. Each entered the system young and learned its codes of conduct not only to maintain order and safety, but also for their personal survival.

2. From the Archives. 

3. We close with an interview with Mfoniso Udofia about her two plays: "Sojourners" & "runboyrun" at The Magic Theatre through May 8/May 15. Visit themagictheatre.org

Music: Zion Trinity's "Opening Prayer Elegba"; Miguel Zenon's "Second Generation Lulluby."



Wanda's Picks Radio Show, Friday, April 29, 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!

Link: http://tobtr.com/s/8558989


1. San Francisco Arts Festival 2016 is May 19-June 5: Joining us are: Genny Lim (artist), Andrew Wood (Executive Director, SFIAF), Charlie Levin (artist), Jon Jang (artist). sfiaf.org

2. Alice Aziza Jefferson, Artistic Director of Sankofa Akili Dance Ensemble, speaks about the 2016 Spring Benefit, Apr. 30 at DeFremery Recreation Center, Lil Bobby Hutton Park, 1651 Adeline Street, in Oakland. She is first generation West Oaklander, Founder & Artistic Director of The Sankofa Akili Dance Ensemble. She founded the dance company in 1998 to pay tribute to the artistic legacy of her mentor Ms. Akili Denianke, under whom she studied at CSU-Hayward and elsewhere as a member of the Harambee Dance Ensemble. It is the mentorship of Ms. Denianke that she attributes the clarity she has attained regarding her life purpose. Info: 510-735-5150.

3.  L. Peter Callender and Leontyne Mbele-Mbong join us to speak about ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA — which closes the African American Shakespeare Company 2015-16 season. Shakespeare’s epic love story — is set in modern day. Mark Antony has traded his power over an empire for the forbidden love of one woman, Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt. Jealousy, betrayal, death, and war cannot refute their undying love for each other. With award winning actors L. Peter Callender and Leontyne Mbele-Mbong in the title roles of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Visit http://www.african-americanshakes.org/productions/antony-and-cleopatra/

Music: Zion Trinity and Wolf Hawk Jaguar-- Opening and Closing for Esu-Legba

Friday, April 22, 2016

Wanda's Picks Friday, April 22, 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!

Link: http://tobtr.com/s/8558973

1. Noel Schwerin’s documentary IN AN IDEAL WORLD will have its U.S. television premiere Tuesday, April 26, 2016, at 8 p.m. on WORLD Channel (check local listings), as part of the fourth season of AMERICA REFRAMED, public media’s newest documentary series. The film will be available for free streaming on http://worldchannel.org/programs/episode/arf-s4-e413-ideal-world/  starting April 27, 2016.

Shot over seven years, with unprecedented access, IN AN IDEAL WORLD follows three men in California’s infamous Soledad prison—John Piccirillo, a white separatist murderer, Sam Lewis, a black ex-gang member and Ben Curry, a warden. Each entered the system young and learned its codes of conduct not only to maintain order and safety, but also for their personal survival.

Music: Zion Trinity; Sweet Honey in the Rock

Friday, April 15, 2016

Wanda's Picks April 15, 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!

Show link:
http://tobtr.com/8558951

1. Brooke Doaks is a Healing Artist, Cultural Curator, Creative Director and Founding Curator of Goddessflow Presents. She is the author of "A Grey Soul."  Brooke graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a B.A. in Visual Production and Marketing Communications. Follow the blog goddessflowpresents.be and visit her websitewww.brookedoaks.com for more awareness. Her Goddessflowpresents involves developing a series of workshops, community and spotlight events all highlighting the black feminine divine. Her next event at the Naming Gallery, 335 15th Street, in Oakland, April 29 honors, artist, activist, Regina Evans, who will perform excepts from "52 Letters,"  stories of sexual trafickking: entrapment, bondage and freedom.

2. Camilla Nielsson (Director), based in Copenhagen, studied documentary filmmaking at the Tisch School of the Arts and holds an M.A. in visual anthropology from New York University. She directed the trilogy Good Morning Afghanistan (2003), Durga (2004), and The Children of Darfur (2005); and Mumbai Disconnected (2009), part of the Cities on Speed series. Since 2007, she has collaborated with Israeli video artist Yael Bartana on the trilogy And Europe Will Be Stunned (Venice Biennale 2011) and Re:Constructed Landscapes.
3. Rebroadcast of interview with Steven Anthony Jones, Artistic Director, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre presenting, "Thurgood," closing this weekend at AAACC. Visit lht-sf.org
4. IDRIS ACKAMOOR speaks to us about a new tour next month locally and internationally withThe Pyramids' new music:"We Be All Africans." Ackamoor is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, actor, tap dancer, producer, administrator, and director. He is the Founder and Co-Artistic Director of the multi-disciplinary San Francisco performance company Cultural Odyssey. Mr. Ackamoor has been honored with TWO Lifetime Achievement Awards for his extraordinary musical and theatrical contributions.

Music: Zion Trinity: "Opening Prayer, Elegba"

Friday, April 08, 2016

Wanda's Picks April 8, 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!

Show link: http://tobtr.com/8558929

Khary L. Moye
Kimberly Ridgeway

1. Katori Hall's The Mountain Top cast: Khary L. Moye (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) is honored to be playing the role of Martin Luther King, Jr. at C.C.C.T. Visit http://ccct.org/the-mountaintop/

Kimberly Ridgeway (Camae), Kim is excited to be back on the CCCT stage for the second time.









2. Alex Saragoza, Ph.D., Associate Professor Chicano/Latino Studies, joins us to talk about a free film/panel April 9, 5:30-8 p.m., "Latino Youth, Familia & Social Change: Cesar Chavez to the Present" at the Center for History and Community; 2488 Coolidge, Oakland. http://www.peraltahacienda.org

Dr. Saragoza's work looks at the historical interface between processes of racialization and inequity in Latin America, especially Mexico and Cuba, and their intersections with immigration to the USA. PhD, 1979, University of California, San Diego, Doctoral program in Latin American history.





3. From the Archives: Simone Missick (as Camae) in The Mountaintop at Theatre Works, (4/3/2013 broadcast). Review: http://wandasabir.blogspot.com/2013/03/through-looking-glass_5130.html
Simone Missick




Wednesday, April 06, 2016

Wanda's Picks Radio April 6, 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!

Today is the anniversary of Lil' Bobby Hutton's killing at the hands of the Oakland Police (COINTELPRO operatives). He was the first casualty (at 17). We want to say: Ashay! Long Live the Spirit of this brave warrior for justice! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l13FYpRuqTI
From the Archives:
1. Aisha Brown, Alameda County Supervisor Carson's office, re: African American Organizations Making Connections II at Laney College (aired 2/24/2013)

2. Alrick Brown, dir., "Kinyawanda" featured at SFIFF54 (aired 4/4)

3. Albert Mazibuko, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Singing for Peace (3/2013 Tour). We reflect on Women's History Month. Music: "Yangiluma" (aired March '13).

Music: Amikaeyla's "Dreamer," from Being in Love; Hunter Poetry's "Every Breath of Life," WolfHawkJaquar's "Esu Exit."

Show Link: http://tobtr.com/8558917

Friday, April 01, 2016

Dr. Mutulu Shakur is Welcome Here

Sunday, March 27, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement hosted a wonderful political education program on behalf of freedom fighter, Dr. Mutulu Shakur who after 30 years behind bars is coming before the parole board April 7. Justice delayed is not justice at all; however, we hope the federal government does the right thing and releases him.

The programs opened with a film and slide presentation followed by poetry and music. It was quite festive and uplifting, certainly change and transformation were in the air. We hope the energy shifted for those who think they control outcomes just because they happen to have a few keys dangling from belts. Write Dr. Shakur. For more information: http://mutuluiswelcomehere.com/

I shared this prose poem:


A Black God Reclaims His Throne
by Wanda Sabir

On Harrison Street, a mural with Malcolm X wrapped in dragon imagery bears witness to one of many forgotten geographic legacies – Oakland’s Chinatown was once home to a thriving black community

Etched in survival spaces with prism colors, Black men hover between worlds
They sit between sky and earth signing their names with chromosome markers – XY
There is nowhere where black means safety, especially for those who have taken off from here and live in regions beyond imagination. Hidden in historic patterns fractals reveal, more stable than limbo, one such man wore his robes proudly as he sat on a shopping cart on a busy Oakland street

I wanted to ask him: What happened, but didn’t feel I had the right to request a song, ask him to tell his story—certainly not require him to self-publish.   With civility creating a thin layer between us, did I disrupt this superficial veneer with chatter? Was the space between us big enough to hold funeral rites if he disappeared into previous occupations?

I decided to not disturb the peace and remained silent as:

Ancestors walked between us while Angels flew around us sprinkling libations and anointing what was sacred. As people walked by him and then walked by us, I wondered why this elder sat naked on a shopping cart at 2 p.m. between a Good Friday and a scheduled Resurrection

Had Jesus returned?

I was stunned. I walk away and call a friend to ask what should I do, who could I call – he suggests I go to the Salvation Army store and buy the black god shoes and clothes—

Cloth for the shrine, a bowl for the altar . . . a salute to his Black wonder, I go into the store and make my purchase. It takes longer than I anticipate and I hope he hasn’t left the spot he claimed.
Perhaps this gesture will provide an opening, a way to articulate or put words to my awkwardness – a Black bewilderment which occupies my soul as I gaze at a black god without robes.

The wandering dervish has limited freedom given the descriptive prison black bodies’ represent here in a landscape of whiteness where blackness is criminalized

Why is this man naked?  Why did I see him while others walk by as if he does not exist? Has his value decreased since 1865?  Why did I have to buy clothes for him when the clothes I purchased were a gift? What is a salvation army? How does one enlist?

Later, I see another black man scurrying long as if his carriage is about to turn into a spaghetti squash, the coachmen police or prison guards, a Grimm tale, we all know—day laborers, cinder mattresses . . . levees breached . . . floating bodies

The emperor’s feet are black, his sole callous, hardened . . . yet he whispers “thank you ma’am”

He asks for nothing
Sits on his red shopping cart
Treasures hidden within
Smoking a cigar

With shaven head, this blackened Buddha or enlightened one, sits boldly in Black beingness – his is a silent, yet eloquent expressive blackness,  a black fractal billions of lightyears old; he marks a global landscape, a system of racism (or white supremacy) which wishes us gone . . . back to Africa, out of America, off the planet

Blackness is all things to all things . . . it is where life began.

Displaced in a transatlantic journey still making us sick, we pitch vomit into bags thrown overboard . . . then without thinking drink the water.

The Maafa is real, yet we are here despite the plot to discontinue our genetic line . . . if only we knew who we are, then we would be free—

Hidden from view
Boldly occupying or disrupting viewpoints which would erase him
The emperor sits naked upon a throne at Eighth and Webster Streets in Oakland’s Chinatown
Papa Legba, smokes his pipe undisturbed
Oblivious to all, who do not recognize his greatness – distracting forces disappear while his presence becomes more tangible

I hurried because I thought he would leave if I didn’t return soon. But there he was as when I left him, seated on his throne, invisible servants with plumes fanning their king—the circulating air keeping away the heat and other potential disturbances.

The creator gave Papa Legba the Ashay or life force – Esu/Legba alone awakens the potential lying dormant in all beings; therefore:

I am because he is
We are, because I am
He will, because we do

Ashay!
Ashay!
Ashayo!