Wednesday, November 29, 2017

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. Dinizulu Gene Tinnie joins us to talk about “The International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, Dec. 2.

He is a visual artist, educator, writer, and community activist based in Miami, Florida.  Among the projects with which he is involved are a Slave Ship Replica Project and an annual Middle Passage remembrance; the restoration of Historic Virginia Key Beach Park, Miami’s fondly remembered onetime “Colored Beach” of the Jim Crow era; the Key West African Cemetery; the historic home and legacy of theologian Howard Thurman in Daytona Beach; and the preservation and commemoration of the Native and African American Seminole heritage at Loxahatchee Battlefield in Palm Beach County.

He recently collaborated on the design and installation of an exhibition at Fort Lauderdale’s Old Dillard Museum on the history of Black educational philosophy from ancient times to the present, before during, and after slavery.

2. Dr. Marsha Guess, MD and Dr. Kathleen A. Connell join us to talk about women's pelvic health.

BIOS:
From 2006 until 2015, Dr. Guess was an assistant professor of both obstetrics and gynecology and urology at the Yale School of Medicine’s Urogynecology and Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery division in New Haven, Connecticut. She joined the University of Colorado’s Urogynecology division in 2016.

Dr. Guess’s research interests include increasing women’s knowledge about pelvic floor disorders and understanding the pathophysiology of these conditions, particularly as they relate to pregnancy, childbirth and sexual dysfunction.

Dr. Guess has been the recipient of the Excellence in Teaching award on three occasions and has also been recognized for her commitment to community service. She has donated her time and efforts locally, as well as in Africa and Central America, where she has participated in medical missions treating underserved women who suffer with pelvic floor disorders.

BIOS con't.:

Dr. Connell’s practice focuses on the female pelvic system with special medical interests in pelvic organ prolapse, incontinence, reconstructive pelvic surgery.

Dr. Connell’s practice focuses on the female pelvic system with special medical interests in pelvic organ prolapse, incontinence, reconstructive pelvic surgery.

As a leader in the field of urogynecology, Dr. Connell participates in a number of professional organizations, including as a fellow of American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and a member of American Urogynecologic Society and the Society for Gynecologic Investigation.

She is passionate about advancing scientific research in the field of female pelvic medicine, running the Anschutz Medical Campus science laboratory for University of Colorado Hospital where she leads the OB/GYN department’s clinical and translational research.

Dr. Connell’s own research focuses on the effects of aging and other women’s issues on pelvic support, with the ultimate goal of preventing pelvic organ prolapse and developing new treatment options.

3. Angela Wellman, (BA-University of Missouri/Kansas City Conservatory of Music 1983; MM-University of Rochester/Eastman School of Music, 1994) Trombonist, scholar, educator and activist Angela Wellman has performed with the McCoy Tyner Big Band, Joe Williams, Al Grey, Slide Hampton, and other noted musicians. Raised in Kansas City, Missouri, she was nurtured in a musical family, and is a third generation musician and music educator. She is a recipient of national, state, and city Arts awards and fellowships for performance study and music education, among which is the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Study Fellowship to study with trombonist Steve Turre. In 2005 she founded the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music (OPC) to provide quality, affordable music education. In 2016 she received the Cultural Key to the City from Mayor of Oakland. She is presently pursuing a Ph.D. in Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and plans to have it completed in 2019.




4. Taiwo Kugichagulia-Seitu, storyteller, and praise singer, joins us to talk about the Jazzy Nutcracker and Go Tell It: A Harriet Tubman Christmas Story, Dec. 9 and Dec. 16, 2017 at Fremont
High School in Oakland.