Wanda's Picks Radio Show, Wed., August 31, 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!


1. We speak to Dr. Desmond Carson about Immediate Care San Pablo.

There is a special program this evening, 8/31, 5:00-7:30 p.m.: Navigating Health Care in West Contra Costa County with Danny Glover, Actor, Philanthropist, Dr. Ramona Tascoe, and Dr. Carson. It is a free program at East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, 339 11th Street, Richmond, CA.

Dr. Carson is one of the physicians at LifeLong Medical Care-Brookside located at 2023 Vale Road, San Pablo, CA 94806

Urgent Care Services; Walk In Available (510) 231-9800

From the Archives:

2. We conclude with a special on Geronimo ji jaga Pratt on the occasion of his passing (b. Sept. 13, 1947, Morgan City, Louisiana- June 2, 2011, Tanzania).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GCvWo26JBI

Music: Zion Trinity; Victoria Theodore

Direct link to show: http://tobtr.com/s/9157563

Wanda's Picks Special Broadcast: Pushfest, plus From the Archives: Hurricane Katrina Special (2009)

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!

We open with  PUSH Company Artistic Director Raissa Simpson with composer/collaborator  Erica Mulkey
Bios

Hailed by Dance Spirit Magazine as “Reflective Contemporary Choreography,” multi-disciplinary choreographer Raissa Simpson has presented her works in over 50 venues across the United States. Recent highlights include Dance St. Louis Spring to Dance Emerson Festival (MO), Links Hall in Chicago (IL), Ferst Center for the Arts at Georgia Tech (GA), Joyce SoHo (NY), Washington Ensemble Theater (WA), Evolve Dance Festival (NY), Los Angeles Theater Center (CA), and Black Choreographers Festival (CA).

Simpsons guest teaching includes UC Davis, Sacramento State, Stanford University, SF State University, Alonzo King Lines Dance Center, Ferst Presents, San Jose Dance Theatre, Marin School, and many others.

Seamlessly integrating interdisciplinary dance, Simpson’s pieces do not reside merely on stage—they are also site-specific installations in public spaces like museums and city centers. Her work is sweeping, vibrant, multi-layered, and socially relevant often involving multiple aspects such as video projection, live music, and cutting-edge choreography. Her works have been honored with awards & funding from the Magrit Mondavi Award, Margaret Jenkin’s CHIME, Choreo-Project’s People’s Choice Award, San Francisco Arts Commission, Zellerbach Family Foundation, CA$H, Dancers’ Group Lighting in Dance Award, San Francisco Foundation, BADw’s 2012 Choreographer of the Year, ODC Theater’s Fleishhacker Opportunity Fund, The Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Grants for the Arts, and AATAIN, a William & Flora Hewlett Foundation program.

Simpson danced with a variety of dance companies and had an extensive performance career with Robert Moses Kin and Joanna Haigood’s Zaccho Dance Theatre. Village Voice dance critic Deborah Jowitt notes, “Simpson dances big.”

From the Archives, August 29, 2009:

We will reflect on the Gulf Region, 4 years later on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. We will speak to policy makers and activists, those affected who left and those who now live elsewhere. We will talk about the cultural legacy of New Orleans and the South, what is needed to preserve this legacy and how people can help.

Guests are: 6:00-7:00 AM Carole Bebelle & Viola Johnson: Aché Cultural Center and the New Orleans Rebuild-a-thon, New Orleans natives, Jordan Flaherty, Left-Turn Magazine, CeCe Campbell-Rock, Survivors for Survivors, Antor Ndep, Executive Director, Common Ground Health Clinic, and Malik Rahim, co-founder, Common Ground Relief, Katrina survivor.


7:00-8:00 AM Lolis Elie, Dawn Logdon, director, producer/subject: Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans with Angela Wellman, musician, scholar, founding director, Oakland Public Conservatory of Music.


There is a benefit this evening for OPC. Visit www.opcmusic.org. Sunday, August 30, 2009, is "Maafa 2009: Hurricane Katrina," our 5th annual benefit/report back for Common Ground Health Clinic and LIFE of MS, Biloxi site, at Shashamane International Bar & Grill, 2507 Broadway Street in Oakland, (510) 868-4318.



Donations for either of these organizations LIFE or CGHC can be sent to P.O. Box 30756, Oakland, CA 94604. Please make checks out to the organization. We are targeting care for the disabled community and the elderly. Robert King, advocate, prison abolitionist, author, was on the air listening--that's technology for you. I didn't see his number and therefore missed his call. King was on my first show a year ago, and has been my most avid supporter. He is also a Katrina survivor in the Diaspora--Austin, TX.

Wanda's Picks Friday, August 19: "From the Archives features a show first aired: August 10, 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/s/9157551

From the Archives features a show first aired: August 10, 2016.

We feature artists Ajuan Mance and Destiny Muhammad from the Black Woman Is God exhibit at SOMarts Gallery in San Francisco.

They are followed by an interview with CJ Jones (USA), http://www.cjjoneslive.com/, and Antoine Hunter (USA), curator, founder, Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival.

Zaccho

Bandaloop

We close with a conversation with Joanna Haigood, founder and choreographer, Zaccho Dance Company, and co-curator, with Christopher Wangro, of the Bay Area Ariel Arts Festival this weekend, 8/19-21 at Ft. Mason Center in San Francisco.


Featured choreographers: Amelia Rudolph, Bandaloop and Jodi Lomask, Capacitor, also join us: https://fortmason.org/event/the-san-francisco-aerial-arts-festival

Capacitor -- "Micah Waters" (RJ Luna, photographer)

Wanda's Picks Radio Wed., August 17, 2016 The Hon. Marcus Garvey Special

Honoring the Hon. Marcus Mosiah Garvey (8/17/1887-June 10/1940) on his birthday!

Guests: Dr. Oba T'Shaka, Brother Don Rico, Brother Gene Dinizulu Teenie, Sister Sheba Makeda Haven

Sister Sheba Makeda Haven is a former BPP member, artist and craftswoman, and African Orthodox Church Deaconess. As a deaconess I was one of the clergy invited by the UNIA to establish a charter in Northern California.  Thanks to Elder Freeman and his brother Roland, a charter and active membership was founded in Los Angeles.

Dr. T'Shaka is an activist's scholar, renowned public speaker, professor, workshop leader, author, organizer and visionary of exceptional influence who addresses audiences in the United States, Britain, France and Africa. For 38 years, Dr. T'Shaka was a Professor at San Francisco State University, where he is now Professor Emeritus (http://www.obatshaka.com/biography)

RAs Don Rico has been a community activist and organizer since his teens in the early 1960s, in Jamaica, as a co-founder of a youth club at the start of what became an island-wide Youth Club movement.

He has been an activist/motivator and organizer/mentor in various areas since:  youth clubs, sports and social clubs, trade unions, etc etc.  Now an elder in the Rastafari international community, RAs Don Rico has been an ardent Garveyite Pan-Afrikanist Rastafari organizer.

RAs Don is a graphic designer, painter, illustrator, poet, writer/diarist, public speaker, among other ‘content-producing-and-presenting' abilities. 

‘Head Cook and Bottle-Washer' for South Florida's Annual Marcus Garvey Celebrations Committee, which has been hosting the events since Mwalimu Marcus Garvey's Centenary since 1987.

The AMGBC (Annual Marcus Garvey Birthday Celebrations) includes two signature events; the Annual Marcus Garvey Lecture/Afrikan Community Forum (Aug.17), and LIONSPLASH: which is a Pan-Afrikan Birthday Bash, “Forward2School” Family Fun Day; KulchaConcert (Aug. 27). Both events are at Florida Memorial University Auditorium.


Dinizulu Gene Tinnie is a New York-born, Miami-based visual artist, writer, independent researcher, semi-retired educator, and activist in cultural arts, historic preservation, and social justice issues, with a formal academic background in foreign languages, linguistics, and literature. He is the Co-Director, with Mr. Harmon R. Carey of Wilmington, Delaware, of the Dos Amigos/Fair Rosamond Slave Ship Replica Project, and is active in creating a Middle Passage Coalition network and information clearinghouse for organizations and individuals engaged in Middle Passage history and heritage. Mr. Tinnie serves on several museum and historic preservation boards (http://www.cada.us/2015-panelists/).

Show Link:  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks/2016/08/17/wandas-picks-radio-show

Music: Zion Trinity's "Opening Prayer for Elegba"; Marcus Shelby's Soul of the Movement "We're a Winner."

Wanda's Picks Monday, August 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!

This special broadcast features: Thomas Cokenias (Wyatt Cooke), Norman Gee (Eban Carter), and Danielle Thys (Emma Cooke), for Dominic Hoffman's "Emmitt & Ava," currently up at the Fireside Theatre and Beverly Hills Playhouse in San Francisco, Friday-Sunday, August 12-14. For tickets visit: www.bhpsanfrancisco.com

The Carter and Cooke families have both experienced recent losses. Eban's son, Emmitt and the Cooke's daughter, Ava have died. They were in a horrible car accident. The two victims are young, 19 and 20. The Cookes do not know Emmitt; however both Eban and his son, Evan, know Ava, Emmitt's girlfriend. Both Emmitt and Ava are visual artists, one black, the other partner, white. While race is certainly an element in the work, what is more explored is the nature of grief and loss and how one articulates this when it is still inexplicable. When Eban returns to the Cooke home after their daughter's funeral, he asks a favor. It is this favor that brings into the forefront, hidden prejudices and denial.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks/2016/08/08/wandas-picks-radio-show

Wanda's Picks Friday, August 5, 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/9157535

1. We are joined by Antoine Hunter, founder, Urban Jazz Dance Company, and presenter and producer of the Annual Bay Area Deaf Dance Festival International. In its 4th year this season, Aug. 12-14, 2016 at Dance Mission Theatre in San Francisco. He is joined in the studio by Zahna Simon, Assist. Dir. UJDC and BADDF. Fred Beam, Wild Zappers from Washington, DC, and Isolte Avila, Sign Dance Collective International Collaborations Director, to talk about this year's programming which includes an artist meet and greet (8/13, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.) and Dance Workshops, Wed., Aug. 10, 6-10 p.m. Both events are at the Deaf Community Center, 1550 San Leandro Blvd., San Leandro).

Tickets are available at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2561054.

2. Patricia Milton joins us to talk about her play, "Hearts of Palm," extended through Aug. 21 at Central Works (Berkeley City Club on Durant Street). The satire looks at the politics of food production: trans fat, palm oil, Girl Scout cookies and orangutans. Visit ​http://centralworks.org/season/

Milton’s plays have been performed in New York, Boston, Istanbul, San Francisco, and places in between. Her values are: Laughter, candor, artistic excellence, determination, integrity, generosity, and feminism. She is a Resident Playwright at Central Works in Berkeley, CA.

Music: Zion Trinity's Opening Prayer for Elegba; KebMo's "What's Happening Brother"; Howard Wiley's "Amazing Grace"; Sweet Honey in the Rock's "Greed." 

Wanda's Picks Radio, Wed., August 3, 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!

1. Aundrea Lacy, born and raised in San Francisco, has been a model, a television journalist, and a marketing executive for Fortune 500 companies. She earned her MBA from Golden State University. In 1996, she went from baking brownies for friends to building her own online bakery business, Luv Brownies. In addition, she gives career presentations for girls and women from around the country.

Lacy established Luv's Brownies in October 1996, first preparing her delicious morsels in her apartment—then in a professional kitchen as sales drew exponentially. The treats are sold through

Lacy's Internet bakery and shipped nationwide. Luv's Brownies are prepared in more than 20 savory flavors including rocky road, peanut butter brownie s’more, coconut caramel, mint chip and more.

Luv's Brownies founder is the author of two books. Lacy's first book "Luv Story: From Homemade Brownies to My Own Internet Bakery" is a resource for anyone who desires to start their own small business. In "Luv Story" Lacy shares real life experiences, including how she kept her company thriving through an economic downturn and her personal life crises. "Luv Story: From Homemade Brownies to My Own Internet Bakery" sold more than 30,000 copies.

Lacy's second literary offering, "Brownie Points: Lessons for Woman Entrepreneurs from One Who Made It," is a greatly expanded version of "Luv Story," one which answers the many questions she had been asked on her speaking engagements by girls and women who were considering starting their own business. Without changing her simple and straightforward style, she went into detail on how to write a business plan, bookkeeping; marketing and much more. Visit luvsbrownies.com

2. We close with an interview with Thomas Simpson, AfroSolo founder, who will speak about the August 2016 season which opens with a free concert at Yerba Buena Gardens, in San Francisco,

Ms. Tammy Hall and Dr. Linda Ricketts, both featured at the
AfroSolo 2016 Concert at YBCA

Mission @ Third Streets, this Sat., August 6, 1-3 p.m. Featured are two artists and their ensembles, Ms. Tammy Hall and Dr. Linda Ricketts. Dr. Ricketts will join us this morning.

Linda Ricketts is a vocalist who began performing at age 15 with a classical vocal ensemble, and has been involved in the performing arts ever since. Born and raised in the Midwest, Linda co-founded a Caribbean Dance & Folklore Company in Indianapolis, Indiana, and co-founded the ‘Black & White & Dread All Over’ Puppet Company of St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. After moving to the Bay Area in the mid 1980’s, Linda worked closely with local jazz artists to create The ‘Oakland Bay Area Jazz Preservation Society’, a non profit organization dedicated to preserving jazz music by offering programs in the public schools of Oakland and San Francisco, and in after school music programs for children in the Greater Bay Area.
In 1988 she founded an Oakland based performing arts group, ‘The Gospel Theatre Ensemble.’

Linda is an experienced studio artist. She has recorded at Skywalker Ranch with the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir (OIGC) on Linda Rondstadt’s Grammy winning Cry Like a Rainstorm, soloed on OIGC’s debut recording, and has provided background vocals on several studio projects. She is a frequent soloist at special events and at jazz and dinner spots here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Linda frequently appears on various venues in cities across the country stylizing ballads, blues, spirituals and jazz in a fashion uniquely suited for the deep resonance of her contralto voice.

Known to many as Ricketti Rick, Linda has shared the stage with such local and nationally acclaimed artists as, Pharaoh Sanders, Ricardo Scales, William Bell, Ed Kelley, John Turk, Rhonda Benin, Robert Stewart, Willis Kirk, The Neville Brothers, Jackie Hairston and many others. She was recently featured at the Throckmorton Theatre in northern California with The Friends of The Negro Spirituals.

Linda regularly sings with the Allen Temple Baptist Church Choirs in Oakland, and has performed in a variety of venues in the U.S., France, Japan, Mexico, and Africa. A professional speaker and Education & Training consultant, Dr. Linda Ricketts delivers music that fuels the spirit and feeds the soul.

Thomas Simpson Bio
 (from website)
Thomas Robert Simpson, actor, director, producer, and writer, is the founder and artistic director of AfroSolo Arts Festival. Since 1991 he has concentrated on presenting African American and African Diasporan art and culture through solo performances and the visual and literary arts.

For the past seventeen years Mr. Simpson has produced the award winning and critically acclaimed AfroSolo Arts Festival in San Francisco, presenting over seventy-five artists. He has also showcased celebrity artists such as award-winning actor Ruby Dee, comedian and political activist Dick Gregory, beloved teacher, poet and social activist June Jordan, sensational black gospel singer Emmit Powell, and many others.

In 2006 Mr. Simpson won a coveted Bay Area Jefferson Award for Public Service. In 2009 he was awarded a prestigious Certificate of Honor from the San Francisco Board of Supervisor, as well as award from San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s Black Brothers Esteem Program, The Reggie Williams Achievement Award and the Oakland Supper Club for his contributions to our community.

Since 1999 Mr. Simpson has also used this Arts Festival to focus on the health of African Americans, he has collaborating with the medical community to present health fairs as well as sat on committees charged with decreasing the health disparity in the African American community.

Link to show: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks/2016/08/03/wandas-picks-radio-show