Wanda's Picks Radio Show: Wed., February 23, 2018

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:

1. NANCY MULLANE, CO-FOUNDER, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AND HOST OF LIFE OF THE LAW joins us to talk about a special live program this Friday, Feb. 23, in San Francisco. The locally produced public radio show & podcast Life of the Law will host Initial Public Offering: a night of storytelling about law, tech and life. Guests include: Fantastic Negrito: Grammy-winning artist bringing us blues with a punk attitude from Oakland
Sirron Norris; Riddhi Shah; Marcus Thompson, Kathy Tu and Troy Williams.

2. Dr. Jeanne Theoharis discussed her book: The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (From the Archives)

Link to show: http://tobtr.com/10583775



LIVE LAW: Initial Public Offering (Live Podcast Recording)

Caption: Fantastic Negrito will be a headlining storyteller on Feb 23rd for LIVE LAW: Initial Public Offering at the Polish Club of SF. Photo by Bridgette Aikens

WHEN: February 23, 2018, 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm

WHERE: Polish Club of San Francisco, 3040 22nd St, San Francisco in the Mission

COST: $30

TICKETS: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/live-law-initial-public-offering-tickets-42443179693

On Friday night, February 23, locally produced public radio show & podcast Life of the Law will host Initial Public Offering: our first night of storytelling about law, tech and life. 

Storytellers include:

• Fantastic Negrito: Grammy-winning artist bringing us blues with a punk attitude from Oakland
• Sirron Norris: Artist, educator and creator of some of San Francisco’s most icon murals and lead artist on Bob’s Burgers
• Riddhi Shah: Digital storyteller with companies like Medium and the Huffington Post
• Marcus Thompson: Lead columnist with The Athletic and author of the best-selling biography "GOLDEN: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry”
• Kathy Tu: Co-host and producer of Nancy a podcast about the queer experience
• Troy Williams: Founder of the San Quentin Prison Report and RISE Coordinator at Chabot College
• and a surprise storyteller...

7pm: Doors open to bar + music

8pm: Showtime!

PARKING/TRANSPO: Garage parking available across the street - Muni lines 1, 24, 38

The night is a fundraiser for public radio show and podcast LIFE OF THE LAW. Meet our storytellers and Life of the Law's team of producers, editors, scholars, and volunteers.

Wanda's Picks Radio Show, Friday, February 16, 2018

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!

Sahleem Tindle (killed Jan. 3, 2018)

1. Asale Haquekyah Chandler and Yolanda Banks join us to talk about the First Cultural Arts Black History Month Parade, Monday, Feb. 19, 2018, beginning at 10:30 a.m. with an ancestral blessing followed by a crowning ceremony a 11:15 a.m. 

The parade is an opportunity for black community to acknowlege its greatness and plan for the present and future. Both women are a part of Mothers Fighting Back and Saving Our Children. Ms. Banks recently lost her son, Sahleem Tindle to police violence. Joseph Matau, BART Police, killed the 28 year old father of two, at West Oakland BART, Jan. 3, 2018. Ms. Haquekyah Chandler lost her son, Yalani Chinyamurindi (19), Jan. 9, 2015. Four (4) young men were killed that day. The First Cultural Arts Black History Parade is also to honor the lives of black children, black parents and to create a world where black children are safe.

Yalani, 13, beams at his Kinseyaba (kinship to truth), a rite of passage ceremony in the African Hebrew tradition, similar to a Bar Mitzvah. The boy, becoming a man, learns the responsibilities of manhood, especially that he is now accountable for his own actions (Davis-Chandler, sfbayview.com (1/2015).

The march is from Bayview's MLK Park, 5701 Third Street (near Carol) to the AAACC, 762 Fulton Street in Fillmore. For more information call: 415-287-7481 or feminitywears@hotmail.com Visit: Inhumanemovie.com There are regular community meetings at 4408 Third Street in San Francisco. 

Show link: http://tobtr.com/s/10583761

Music: Zion Trinity: Opening Prayer to Esu Legba; Billy Harper with Amiri Baraka: Knowledge of Self; Kahil El Zabar (percussion) with Archie Shepp (reeds): Brother Malcolm.

Wanda's Picks Radio Show, Wed., February 14, 2018

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 open with an interview with Wax Poet(s): Artistic Director Heather Stockton is a dance, video and sound artist who created Wax Poet(s) with hopes of cultivating an interdisciplinary community. Originally from Riverside, CA

Wax Poet(s) Executive Director Garth Grimball is a native of North Carolina where he received his BA in Anthropology and Dance at UNC Asheville. 

The two artists join us to talk about Swivel:Hinge:Return, a New Work in Two parts exploring What does your resistance dance look like? How is a radical body in a state of change? March 1-3 at CounterPulse, 80 Turk Street, in San Francisco.

2. Laura Elaine Ellis is Executive Director of the African & African American Performing Arts Coalition (AAAPAC) and co-founder with Kendra Barnes of the Black Choreographers Festival: Here and Now. She joins us to talk about the 14th Annual Black Choreographers Festival Here 2018: Feb. 17-March 4.  Visit bcfhereandnow.com

Cherie Hill (week 2 @ SAFEhouse Arts) is a creative artist, dancer, performer, teacher and scholar, whose art explores human expression and how it is conveyed through the body in collaboration with nature, music and visual imagery.

3. Central Works 2018 Season opens Feb. 17--March 18, with "Bamboozled: A New comedy about Family Valuables" by Patricia Milton, directed by Gary Graves. Shows are at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Avenue, Berkeley.
CW Resident Playwright Patricia Milton and actors Susan Jackson (Opal Anne) and Jeunée Simon (Abby) join us to talk about "Bamboozled."

Susan Jackson (Opal Anne) has performed as Joan Crawford, Jackie Kennedy, British poet Stevie Smith and Sarah Bernhardt. Other roles include Ouisa, Six Degrees Of Separation; Dr. Bearing in Wit; Martha, Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?; “B” in Three Tall Women,and the mother in Look Homeward, Angel. Most recently, she performed the role of Marion Peallin in Death Be Not Loud! with the Southern Railroad Theatre /3Girls Theatre Co./Entropy Productions, (TBA recommended) and last year at the Capital Fringe, where it received a positive review in The Washington Post. She’s thrilled to be in Bamboozled, testing her North Carolina Liberal roots.


Jeunée Simon (Abby) has worked with Bay Area Children's Theatre Company, Shotgun Players, Bread Box, Ragged Wing, Aluminous, Town Hall Theatre and more. She is a board member at TheatreFirst, where she was seen most recently in the world premiere of HeLa. She is also a company member at the Custom Made Theatre Company, where she recently appeared in Isaac's Eye. Jeunée kicked off 2018 performing with Killing My Lobster in the San Francisco Sketchfest. And finally, she was honored to be the 2017 recipient of the RHE Artistic Fellowship from the RHE Charitable Foundation in partnership with Theatre Bay Area.


Patricia Milton is a Resident Playwright for Central Works and a long-term member of the Central Works Writers Workshop. Plays written for Central Works include: Bamboozled (2018), Hearts of Palm (2016), Enemies: Foreign and Domestic (2015), and Reduction in Force (2011). She is a recipient of the 2015 Outstanding World Premiere Play by Theatre Bay Area for Enemies: Foreign and Domestic, and Reduction in Force was voted 2011 “Best Local Play” in Broadway World’s annual poll. Her comedy Believers has enjoyed productions in Monterey and San Francisco, and has played for the past two years in Istanbul, Turkey. Her drama about the death penalty, Without Mercy, was presented at the Newfoundland Women’s Work Festival and was produced by Off Broadway West Theatre Company in San Francisco in 2017. Ms. Milton has had more than one hundred productions and readings of her plays internationally, including at the 3Girls Theatre, San Francisco Exploratorium, PlayGround SF, Woman’s Will, Women’s Theatre Project, Bay Area One Acts, and City Lights Theatre.


Additional Music and Audio:
We open with Zion Trinity: Opening Prayer for Esu Legba.  We close with Mama C's "Hug a Thug or the Malcolm X Factor" and the speech by El Hajj Malik El Shabazz: "You Can't Hate the Roots of a Tree."
Link to show: http://tobtr.com/10583753

Wanda's Picks Radio Show: Friday, Feb. 9, 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. Compton, California native and CEO, Dr. Theresa Price founded the National College Resources Foundation (NCRF) a 501c3 non-profit organization in 1999 in a direct response to the passing of California’s proposition 209 that banned affirmative action programs in California colleges. Since its inception, the organization has secured and distributed more than $300 million in scholarships & grants to over 400,000 students (over 200,000 first generation students) through 100 College Expos produced by NCRF. The next stop is Oakland, CA at the Marriott on Sat., Feb. 17. https://www.thecollegeexpo.org/events/oakland

2. Jovelyn Richards joins us to talk about her latest project with show featuring with other artist/storytellers, among them: Ciara Lovelace, Feb. 11, 7-8:30 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley. lapena.org

3. John Santos, composer, educator, joins us to talk about, an upcoming concert, The Sacred Roots of Latin Jazz, 2/11, 4 p.m. One (1) show (two sets) at the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland. https://santoslatinjazz.brownpapertickets.com/  510-533-6629  No one is turned away for lack of funds.

4. Billy X, Its About Time Black Panther Programs in the Oakland Public Library: West Oakland (2/17, 1-4 pm), Golden Gate (2/10, 2-5 pm). Visit itsabouttimebpp.net

Direct show link to listen: http://tobtr.com/10578853

Wanda's Picks Radio Show: February 7, 2018

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. Kiara Boone, Deputy Program Manager, earned a degree in Political Science from Davidson College in 2011 and a nonprofit management executive certificate from Georgetown University in 2012. Prior to joining EJI, she worked with the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, DC, and managed support for community development in Florida for the Jessie Ball duPont Fund. The National Memoria for Peace and Justice and The Legacy Museum: From enslavement to Mass Incarceration April 26-29, 2018. https://eji.org/national-lynching-memorial & https://eji.org/enslavement-to-mass-incarceration-museum

2. Billy X, Its About Time Black Panther Programs in the Oakland Public Library: West Oakland (2/17, 1-4 pm), Golden Gate (2/10, 2-5 pm). Visit itsabouttimebpp.net

3. John Santos, composer, educator, joins us to talk about, an upcoming concert, The Sacred Roots of Latin Jazz, 2/11, 4 p.m. -- One (1) show, two (2) sets, at the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland. https://santoslatinjazz.brownpapertickets.com/  510-533-6629  No one will be turned away for lack of funds.


Show Link: http://tobtr.com/s/10578847

Wanda's Picks Radio Show: Friday, February 2, 2018

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/10558583
 
1. Halifu Osumare, Ph.D., author of the new work, Dancing in Black, A Memoir (2018, University of Florida Press). Dr. Osumare is professor emerita of African American and African Studies at the University of California, Davis, is the author of The Hiplife in Ghana: West African Indigenization of Hip-Hop and The Africanist Aesthetic in Global Hip-Hop: Power Moves. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. 

2. WO2WO members: Karla Brundage, Tyrice Brown, Sanda "Makeda" Hooper-Mayfield, and Zakiyyah Capehart-Bollings, join us to talk about African Diaspora conversations through the Japanese poetic form, Renshi.

3. Archived interview 2/24 (Geoffrey Grier and Jeffery Smith)

4. SF Indie 2018 directors: Cathy Lee Crane, director, The Manhattan Front (2/10:4:30 PM); 2/14: 7 PM); Rocky Capella, dir., Guitar Man (2/11:7 PM; 2/15: 9:15).

Cathy Lee CRANE, 2000 MFA graduate from SF State's Cinema Program has been charting a speculative history on film since 1994. Her award-winning films (which include the experimental biographies Pasolini’s Last Words and Unoccupied Zone: The Impossible Life of Simone Weil) have screened at the Viennale, San Francisco International Film Festival, Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Cinematheque Francais, BFI, and Arsenal/Berlin. Her body of work received its first survey in 2015 as part of the American Original Now series at the National Gallery of Art.  She is joining us to talk about The Manhattan Front: "Women, anarchists, and spies conjure the fantastically true story of how America entered WW1", which is having its world premiere at the SF Indie Festival 2/10 4 PM and 2/14 7 PM at the Roxie

Synopsis: Once upon a time, in 1915, a German saboteur arrived to Manhattan to interrupt the export of American munitions to Britain. He soon finds a collaborator in a wayward stevedore who unwittingly leads him to a group of labor anarchists. Sabotage and betrayal soon turn these bedfellows into agents of the other’s tragic end. In the spirit of a silent film from the era, this musical melodrama plays itself out through the interaction of archival images and the theatrical rendition of lives as they might have been lived on The Manhattan Front.

Film Website:
http://www.themanhattanfront.com/

Film Clip:
https://vimeo.com/234138455/f7b4d818d0

Rocky Capella, dir., "Don't Shoot I'm the Guitar Man," has worked in the film industry on more than six hundred films, commercials, television and internet projects as an award-winning action director, stunt coordinator and performer. Rocky has been a member of the Director's Guild of America for more than 25 years.

Synopsis:
"Don't Shoot! I'm the Guitar Man" is a...personal story as it relates with the author's unique style and subtle humor.   It gives the average person an "inside look" at prison and the inner workings of a music program in San Quentin State Prison.

LIFELONG MUSICIAN BUZZY MARTIN began teaching at-risk kids about music to help them through the trial of their daily lives.  Through this experience he was given the opportunity to teach a music class inside San Quentin State Prison.  Intimidated at first by the brutal surroundings, he soon found a common language between him and the inmates: music.  He returned to his younger students with stories about the reality of prison life, desperate to teach them that prison was not a streetwise "badge of honor."  The dangerous paths down which they were headed could be replaced by real dreams, hope and the redemptive muscle of liberating jailhouse rock.  And it is Buzzy Martin's dream to make it work!

Film Website:
http://www.prodigymotionpictures.com/DS_about.html


Stills and Multimedia:
http://www.prodigymotionpictures.com/DS_multimedia.html