Wanda's Picks Radio Show, Wednesday, May 9, 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. Libations for Kiilu Nyasha (May 22, 1939-April 10, 2018) rebroadcast. There is a memorial, Community Celebration of Kiilu's Life, May 20, at the African American Art and Culture Complex, 762 Fulton Street, San Francisco. It is free and open to all.

2. WAAfrica 123 (May 3-June 2) just opened at TheatreFirst and it is phenomenal story of love, trust, and courage to take a stand against tradition. One of our favorite playwrights: Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko is joined by director Lisa Evans and two members of the cast: Damieon Crown (Chief) and
Troy Rockett (Awino) at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley. Runs Thurs thru Sat, 8pm and Sun 2pm theatrefirst.com


For a 25 percent discount, use the promo code: WANDA25

Bios:

Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko / Playwright

Trans, queer, NB, African, poet-playwright-fiction-essayist NICK HADIKWA MWALUKO: Plays include: 37, S.T.A.R: Marsha P. Johnson; two queer African trilogies Waafrika and Waafrika 123; the QTPOC trans masculine S/He:THEY/THEM; the queer apocalypse Homeless in the AfterLife; Blueprint for an African Lesbian; SH/eroe; Asymmetrical We; Brotherly Love; Trailer Park Tundra; Once A Man Always A Man; Mama Afrika; Queering MacBeth; Life Is About the Kill; That Day God Visits You; Ata; To Dyke Trans; Gayze and many more. Residencies include Resilience and Development (R&D) Writers’ Lab with Crowded Fire Theater Company in San Francisco; New York City’s EWG (Emerging Writers’ Group) at the Public Theater sponsored by Time Warner; New York City’s Groundbreakers Group, Djerassi Artist Residencyin northern California, Freedom Train Productions, Ragged Wing Ensemble and more. Nick is a two-time recipient of the Creativity Fundissued by the Public Theater and Time Warner, and a 2017 Spring grantee of a Theatre Bay Area (TBA) Individual Artist Cash grant. Nick graduated Magna Cum Laude at Columbia University and completed an MFA at Columbia University as a Point Scholar, the nation’s largest LGBTQIA scholarship fund, and Columbia University Fellowship.

Lisa Evans / Director

Lisa Evans is a black non-binary actor, poet, and cultural worker and a lover of bad horror movies and good comics.

They have worked with several different Bay Area youth development and arts organizations including Youth Uprising, the QT Network of Alameda County, Peacock Rebellion, Destiny Arts Center, The California Shakespeare Theater and more.

They can be seen in award winning fBlack Is Blue. Lisa was also a 2016 YBCA Fellow and is the co-founder of both the How Spirit Moves Us Project, a healing arts project focused on using performance art to celebrate the struggles, resistance and resilience of Black Queer and Trans folks, and the #BreakingtheBinary Project, a initiative that works with theater arts organizations across the United States to create sustainable practices for TGNCNB2-S (trans, gender non-conforming, non-binary, Two Spirit) inclusion.

Dameion Brown / Chief

Dameion played Macduff in 2015 under the direction of Lesley Currier as part of Marin Shakespeare’s Arts in – Corrections programs. He played “Othello” in 2016 with the same company, a performance that earned him the best principal actor award from Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, as well as a nomination for best principal actor for the Falstaff awards. He has also worked with Utopia Theatre Project. Dameion also works in the community as a Case Manager for the Transitional Age Youth ((TAY) population. He also holds Restorative Justice circles in the community with (TAY) youth. He is honored to be working Theatre First and is equally “thrilled to be on a team with such amazingly talented artists”.

Troy Rockett / Awino

Troy Rockett received a joint MFA/MA degree in English Literature at Holy Names University. An avid reader she finds liberation through honest and radical story-telling. She is thrilled to be apart of a current truth-telling movement where Indigenous, Migrant, Trans, Queer and POC stories are taking the stage and rising on new platforms. She would like to give a special thanks to past production families as well as deep bows to artists D’Lo, Cherríe Moraga, Staceyann Chin  and Adelina Anthony, in which she was first able to see herself reflected on stage.