Wanda's Picks

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 we will celebrate the life of Geronimo ji jaga, decorated US veteran, Black Panther, father, husband, sibling, friend, humanitarian, former Political Prisoner and POW, and founder of Kuji Foundation. Guests include: Kathleen Neal Cleaver, JD, former Communications Secretary, BPP, writer, professor,activist; Emory Douglas, author, artist, former Minister of Culture BPP; Robert King, author, prison abolishionist, Angola 3; Mujah Shakir, Ph.D., Detriot native & former member of the Nation of Islam, is a founding member of the International Campaign to Free Geronimo ji Jaga (Pratt) in 1987 and served as its Chair for 8 yrs. She is also a founding member of the national Jericho 98 Campaign to Free U.S. Political Prisoners and the local bay area Jericho Amnesty Campaign; Tiyesha Meroe, activist, member of Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality and State Repression. She worked with the ICFGjj for 7 yrs.. She ,will co-host the the memorial and tribute to Geronimo with Emory Douglas at East Side Arts

William Rhodes and Crystal Azul Barajas Barr join us to talk about SOMArts Cultural Center Presents, Visions at Twight: Dia de los Muertos 2014, Oct. 10-Nov. 8  www.somarts.org/visionsattwilight. William Rhodes is a sculptural furniture designer who studied at the Baltimore School for the Arts. He then earned a BA in Furniture Building and Design from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and a Master's of Fine Arts from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Rhodes' work is in the collections of various galleries and museums.  In addition, they are featured in several major publications. Visit http://williamrhodesart.com/  William is joined in the studio by artist and Oakland teacher Crystal Azul Barajas Barr. Her interest in the cyclical nature of all things has informed her creative practices, including her use and reuse of found, discarded, and biological materials. After a lengthy adventure learning ancestral survival skills, she earned a BA in Studio Art from Humboldt State University, with an

1. Idris Ackamoor, Founder, Executive Director, Cultural Odyssey, is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, tap dancer, actor, director and producer, joins us to talk about the Healing through Music Tour(Oct. 11-Nov. 10). There will also be a performance artists retirement workshop with Rebeka Black Visit culturalodyssey.org 2. Joanna Haigood and Chelsea O Riley join us to talk about the San Francisco Aerial Dance Festival Oct. 5-12, 2014 @ Zaccho Dance Studio. Visit http://www.zaccho.org/ and http://chelseao.com/ 3. Donald E. Lacy Jr. joins us to talk about Color Struck 2014-2015: Conversations N Color Tour written and performed by Donald E. Lacy Jr. Friday-Sat., Oct. 3-4, 8 p.m. at Laney College Theatre, 900 Fallon. For tickets visit or call 510 One Love or colorstruck.net Proceeds benefit LoveLife Foundations Art and Media Training Academy Foundations Art and Media Training Academy. Visit http://www.lovelifefoundation.com/ Featured Music: The Pyramids'sMemory Ritual 1 and Otherworldly    

Rebroadcast MAR 28, 2014:Cultural Odyssey @ 35 with Idris Akamoor, Rhodessa Jones and Lyrika Holmes. Visit http://www.culturalodyssey.org/ Second guest: Joanna Haigood, choreographer, Zaccho Dance Theatre with dancers Antoine Hunter and Travis Santell Rowland speak about Dying while Black and Brown.  Visit http://www.zaccho.org/  Mr. Ackamoor is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, tap dancer, actor, director and producer. He is the founder and Executive/Co-Artistic Director of Cultural Odyssey. Idris curates and produces the Cultural Odyssey Performance Festival, and also records and tours with his acclaimed jazz ensemble. Ms. Jones is an actress, dancer, singer, writer, and teacher, Ms. Jones is Co-artistic Director of Cultural Odyssey and Founder/Director of the Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women. Rhodessa tours her performances and speaks to "Theater for the 21st Century: art which precipitates community transformation.Lyrika Holmes joins us as featured artist at the 35th Anniversary gala. Ms.

Candi Farlice joins us to speak about SOMArts Cultural Center's VISIONS AT TWILIGHT: DIA DE LOS MUERTOS 2014, the 15th Annual Day of the Dead exhibit, October 10–November 8, 2014 curated by René and Rio Yañezwww.somarts.org/visionsattwilight  Candi takes on social/political issues in her art.  The installation that she is creating for “Visions at Twilight,” the Day of the Dead exhibition at SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco focuses upon the black male and how he is perceived.  The working title is “No Matter What I Wear.” Ms. Farlice also has a solo show up through 10/16 in the African American Center at SF's Main Library, 3rd Floor. Byb Chanel Bibene joins us to speak about "Taboo and Heroes," a multi-media work that addresses the reality and consequences of violence and corruption through the specific experience of the war that overtook the Republic of Congo in the late 1990's. In this piece Bibene narrates his personal experiences, as a survival, in which hope was the only strength for survival. Bri

Professor Manu Ampim is an historian and primary (first-hand) researcher specializing in African and African American history and culture. He earned a Masters of Arts degree in History & African American Studies from Morgan State University in 1989. He joins us to speak about the Save Nubia Project which has a program this Sat., Sept. 27, 1-3:30 at Contra Costa College, 2600 Mission Bell Drive at the John & Jean Knox Center, 2600 Mission Bell Drive, San Pablo, CA http://savenubia.org/about-us/who-we-are Currently, Prof. Ampim teaches history at Contra Costa College (San Pablo, CA), and a Africana Studies/Study Abroad course at Merritt College in Oakland, CA. He also teaches a pioneering 7-Step Primary Research Methodology Course at Advancing The Research. We continue our conversation with Mr. A. Dwight Pettit, attorney and author of the recent memoir, Under the Color of Law (2014). www.iuniverse.com We close with UbuntuTheatreProject.com members to talk about the closing performances this week o

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. Andrew Dosunmu, director, Mother of George (2013). Archival interview. 2. Raissa Simpson, founder & Artistic Director, PUSH Dance Company, with choreographers/dancers: Randee Paufve & Katerina Wong speak about PUSHfest this weekend, 9/19-21 at ODC Theatre in San Francisco. For tickets & info: http://bit.ly/pushfest or visitwww.pushdance.org 3. The Hon. Lauren Lake, joins us to speak about season 2 of her "Paternity Co

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 a rebroadcast of Brothers in Pen(itentiary). We close with a conversation with members of Umbuntu 2014 Summer Theater Festival: Breaking Chains! They speak about the Sept. 2014 Theatre Festival.

Brothers in Pen is the collective name of the writers included in the fiction and memoir anthologies of the Wednesday Night Creative Writing Class at San Quentin State Prison. The Prison Arts Project has been featured in the Bay Area Now7 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission Street, in San Francisco, 6-7 p.m. It is a free event. Joining us on the air are members of Brothers in Pen with facilitator, Zoe Mullery: Ernie Laszlo, Henry Montgomery, Talib Brooks, Carl Irons & Jerry Elster. José Navarrete speaks about The Anastacio Project: Stories of Immigration, Border Violence, Resistance and Hope, having its world premiere Sept. 19-21, 8 p.m. nightly,at EastSide Arts Alliance Cultural Center, 2277 International Blvd. in Oakland.Navarrete’s NAKA Dance Theater, in a multidisciplinary performance investigating race relations, state brutality and border violence. Combining interactive video and sound, a large-format mural, spoken word and dance.Dam/aged, the Musical is a theatrical performance that int

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 continue the SF Fringe Festivalon the Air with a rebroadcast of the special interview with Campo Maldito playwright and director Bennett Fisher & Jesca Prudencio; continuing with Blues for Charles's playwright Harry R. Hall; and closing with the creative playwright duo: Linda Ayres-Frederick and Nancy Cooper Frank'sAssorted Domestic Emergencies (smile). Visit www.sffringe.org or 415-673-3847. All plays are at the Exit Theatre, 156 Eddy

Today Bennett Fisher, playwright and Jesca Prudencio, director, join us to talk about the smashing successful run of Campo Maldito at San Francisco Fringe Festival. There are three more performances: 9/12 at 6 p.m., 9/18 at 10:30 p.m., 9/16 at 7 p.m., and 9/20 at 2:30 p.m. at the Exit Theatre, 156 Eddy Street in San Francisco. See http://www.peopleofinterest.org/ (trailer) & http://www.ubuntutheaterproject.com/  Bennett Fisher is company member of Campo Santo, an associate artist with the Cutting Ball Theater, and a co-founder of the San Francisco Theater Pub. His plays include Campo Maldito, Borealis, Pay Dirt, Hermes, Don’t Be Evil, Devil of a Time, and Whoa is Me. Bennett was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is currently pursuing his MFA in playwriting at UC San Diego, class of 2016. Jesca Prudencio is a director, choreographer, and community based artist. She has worked on new plays, musicals, and dance theater works with companies including The Movement Theatre Company, Fresh Grou

Crystal L. Bass is an American author, playwright, freelance writer, and motivational speaker. Bass has used her platform to uncover and illuminate issues that are important to young women, to ultimately empower and strengthen them. Her hit stage play titled, "Ain't No Love Like A Mother's Love," opens in Baltimore City Nov. 15. Kehinde Koyejo, Artistic Director, InterACT Works, is curator of the 10-minute one-act play series “Don’t Call Me Crazy: A Glimpse into the World of Mental Illness: An Afternoon of Short Plays and Dialogue at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 3 p.m. 406 14th Street in Oakland, Sun., Sept. 7, then in a reprise “Through the Eyes of Buddha at SGI-USA, Oakland Buddhist Center, 3834 Opal Street in Oakland, Sept. 14, at 1 p.m. Kehinde (“Next Step”) is joined by participating playwrights: Nathan Yungerberg (“Golden Gate”) and Kineithea Carter (“Depression Daughter”). Visit http://www.interactworks.org/upcoming-interactions.htm Poets Genny Lim and Steve Dickison join us to talk about “Struggle for a

Friday, August 29, we didn't get to complete our conversation with William Rhodes, who is just back from South African with more panels to complete the Nelson Mandela International Quilt Project. We are rebroadcasting the first part of the show; however, stay tuned for a longer conversation with William. Our first guest is: Melinda Holm, director, Middle Passage Pilgrimage, West Coast Premiere, 8/30, 7-9:30 p.m. at the East Bay Meditation Center, 287 17th Street @ Harrison (3 blocks from 19th Street BART). http://www.eastbaymeditation.org 8:30 AM Theodore Lush, Katrina survivor, Maafa Commemoration founder in Montgomery, Alabama 9:00 AM Cast members: Katherine Renee Turner, Eddie Ray Jackson and Roscoe Orman, from Marin Theatre Company's production of Will Power's Fetch Clay, Make Man, a play about a young Muhammad Ali and Stepin Fetchit, based on a true story (through Sept. 7) www.marintheatre.org 9:30 AM William Rhodes, just back from South Africa, where he took quilt pieces from children at the Dr.

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! Our first guest is: Melinda Holm, director, Middle Passage Pilgrimage, West Coast Premiere, 8/30, 7-9:30 p.m. at the East Bay Meditation Center, 287 17th Street @ Harrison (3 blocks from 19th Street BART). http://www.eastbaymeditation.org 8:30 AM Theodore Lush, Katrina survivor, Maafa Commemoration founder in Montgomery, Alabama 9:00 AM Cast members: Katherine Renee Turner, Eddie Ray Jackson and Roscoe Orman, from Marin Theatre Company's pr

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 cast from Multi-Ethnic Theatre's production of August Wilson's Jitney, running through August 31 at the Gough Street Playhouse, 1620 Gough Street (near Bush), in San Francisco. From www.wehavemet.org: "Some of the most talented Bay Area actors are people with day jobs who work in theater for sheer passion and true meaning.  Jitney, set in the 'early fall of 1977,' in the Hill District in Pitsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a play about working class men, who provide 'transportation service' to their communities. Then and now, city cabs did not venture into certain communities. This play allows MET actors to bring their real life experience to the stage. The cast is a close knit group passionately dedicated to stories about an important public service: gypsy cab rides to and from African American communities." Joining us are: BENNIE LEWIS as Becker, a well respected man who runs the Jitney Station; VERNON MEDEARIS as Turnbo, a jitney driver who is always interested in the business of others; CHARLES JOHNS

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 rebroadcast an interview with Rodney Leon, architect, African Burial Grounds, and The Ark of Return in New York. First aired Wed., August 13, 2014.

Rodney Leon, founder and principal of Rodney Leon Architects PLLC has an architectural background as a designer on a diversity of building types including housing, churches and transportation projects in the U.S. and abroad. Mr. Leon is the designer of the African Burial Ground Memorial in New York City which is the only National Monument in the United States dedicated to the contributions of people of African descent. Mr. Leon has focused his professional efforts and developed an expertise in modern “Culturally Contextual” design, Master Planning and Mixed Use Housing Development for faith based and international development organizations. Current projects include the Gospel Assembly Church, the King Emmanuel Baptist Church Senior Housing and Community Center and the historic Convent Avenue Baptist Church expansion. In addition, Mr. Leon has developed and is partnering with manufacturers to design and implement sustainable “Green” housing development models for emerging global economies. The first such proje