Wanda's Picks

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the writing, visual and performing arts of African people in the Diaspora. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work filled with raw unfettered passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay! Remember to tune in on Wednesdays from 6 AM PST to 7 or 8 AM and on Fridays from 8 AM to 10 AM. We also host special broadcasts from time to time.

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the writing, visual and performing arts of African people in the Diaspora. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work filled with raw unfettered passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay! Remember to tune in on Wednesdays from 6 AM PST to 7 or 8 AM and on Fridays from 8 AM to 10 AM. We also host special broadcasts from time to time.

The third annual African Film Festival is almost upon us. Today we speak to Festival founder and Artistic Director, Chike Nwoffiah. Set in beautiful Silicon Valley, California – the high-tech capital of the world, the Silicon Valley African Film Festival (SVAFF) provides audiences a lens to the real Africa.The mission of the Festival is to promote an understanding and appreciation of Africa and Africans through moving images. The Festival promises "an enchanting journey across the continent in a historic showcase of feature films, shorts and animations from Africa’s seasoned and emerging first-voice filmmakers. Visit http://www.svaff.org 30+ films16 countries1 Weekend We close with an interview with Carolyn Butts, Director & Founder, Reel Sisters Film Festival & Lecture Series in Brooklyn, Oct. 13-14, 2012. In its 15th year, we are happy to speak to the director. Visit http://reelsisters.com/

Author, James Kilgore joins us to talk about his latest book, murder mystery set in Oakland and Zimbabwe, Prudence Couldn’t Swim. He is in town for an author event at Freedom Archives: From Fugitive to Fiction: The Literary and Political Odyssey of James Kilgore, Sunday September 30, 2012: 4-6pm, 518 Valencia Street - San Francisco. From the Archives: Abigail Disney speaks about the Women and Girls Lead Initiative launched in Oct. 2011 on PBS. Halifu Osumare, Ph.D.  Black Popular Culture and Dance Studies Scholar, joins us to speak about her latest book: The Hiplife in Ghana: West African Indigenization of Hip-Hop & the reading at Underground Books in Sacramento, Sat., Sept. 29, 2-4 p.m. Visit http://www.halifuosumare.com/ Professor Halifu Osumare is currently Associate Professor and Director of African American and African Studies at University of California, Davis. She has been a dancer, choreographer, arts administrator, and scholar of black popular culture for over thirty years in the US & in Ghan

Dagmar Schultz, director, speaks about her new film: AUDRE LORDE - THE BERLIN YEARS 1984 to 1992 explores a little-known chapter of the writer’s prolific life, a period in which she helped ignite the Afro-German Movement and made lasting contributions to the German political and cultural scene before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the German reunification. Her film screens as a part of Berlin and Beyond:http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/saf/prj/bby/enindex.htm Director Ayodele Wordslanger Nzinga, MA, MFA, PhD, is a writer, educator, playwright, director and performance artist who uses art as a medium of conversation within marginalized populations. Saturday, September 29, 2012, and October 20, 2012: 3 performances, 4:00PM, 5:00PM, & 6:30PM showings. Theater, Poetry & Bar-b-Q performances of Rag Doll Lullaby, by William Crossman,  a new one-act play about a Black mother’s and daughter’s inseparable bond of love and courage in the face of racism present and past. Directed by Ayodele Wordslanger Nz

Today we speak to Amit Ashraf, director of Runaway (Udhao) and composer, Jacob Yoffee, who are in town for the screening this evening at 3rdi South Asian Film Festival, Bollywood and Beyond, 7:15 PM at the Roxie Theatre. Visit thirdi.org/festival A graduate of NYU’s film and dramatic writing program, Amit is an award-winning film director. Passionate about storytelling, filmmaking and animation, he has been making movies for over ten years.  The true stories of runaways in Bangladesh inspired Amit to write and direct Runaway, which will be his first feature. He has several projects in the works already, both in Bangladesh and outside. Jacob Yoffee: With a jazz background, Jacob graduated from NYU’s film scoring program where he met Amit. He worked on Amit’s thesis film and was later hired for Runaway. His versatility and orchestral composition is what drew Amit to him. Jacob is now working in LA on several studio pictures. We close with an interview with Michael Ross, curator & artists: Stephanie Ann John

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the writing, visual and performing arts of African people in the Diaspora. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work filled with raw unfettered passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay! Remember to tune in on Wednesdays from 6 AM PST to 7 or 8 AM and on Fridays from 8 AM to 10 AM. We also host special broadcasts from time to time.

Today we feature the Artistic Director of the Monterey Jazz Festival, Tim Jackson and one of this year's featured artists: Tammi Jackson. We close with an interview with Alicia Jrapko - Committee to Free the Cuban 5.

Maro Chermayeff, Half the Sky Executive Producer and Director, which launces on PBS Oct. 1-2, 2012. She is the founder and chair of the MFA program in Social Documentary Film at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She is also an executive producer of the Facebook game and the 3x Mobile games for Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide with Games for Change. Locally, there is a community screening Sept. 18, 2012, 5:15 at the San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, in the Koret Auditorium. The event is free and is followed by a panel discussion. Visit http://communitycinema.org/Wayne Harris is the consummate storyteller. His Tyrone "Shortleg" Johnson & Some White Boys has one more performance at Club Solo, 50 Mason St., SF, 7 PM, a part of http://www.sffringe.org/wordpress/tyrone-3/ We close with a dynamic conversation with three drummers at the top of their craft: Marshall Trammell, (http://www.mutualaidproject.com/bios.html); Don Robinson (http://www.bayimprovi

This morning we played excerpts from a few achived interviews: Joanna Haigood, co-founder of Zaccho Dance Theatre speaks about Sailing Away, which opens at Market Street & Powell, Sept. 13 and continues through Sept. 16, with free performances at 12noon, 1:30pm and 3 pm. Follow the dancers along Market from Powell to Battery Streets as they illuminate the lives of selected historic characters who tell the story of a black migration 150 years ago from San Francisco to Victoria, British Columbia. These prominent citizens charter a ship and literally sail away. There is a free reception following a panel discussion Thursday, Sept. 13, at 5 p.m. at the CA Historical Society, 678 Mission Street. Visit zaccho.org Jorge Argueta joins us live in the studio to talk about a wonderful children's poetry and music festival in El Salvador Nov. 14-16, and the first annual Flor y Canto this weekend, Sept. 15, 9 AM to 12 noon at Brava Theater Center, 2781 24th Street in San Francisco. The event, which is for children,

The 4th Annual Cine+Mas 2012 San Francisco Latino Film Festival kicks off Sept. 13 to 28 with films from 14 countries including the United States. We speak to Festival Director Lucho Ramirez who took the helm three years ago, because he loves independent cinema. The Festival begins with a concert and preview Sept. 13 with two events one at 5:30 and the other at 8 PM. Visit www.sflatinofilmfestival.org or call 800-838-3006 and for tickets visit http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/16776 We also speak to directors Catherine Murphy, Maestra, the story of the Cuban Literary Campaign in 1961, where the goal was 100 percent literary for its citizens. This is also the same year the US started the Bay of Pigs assault. We conclude with a talk with Kimberly Baustista, whose film Justice for My Sister is also a movement to stop assault against women in Guatamala and elsewhere in the Latin Disapora.

It is sometimes referred to as the “San Francisco Exodus of 1858” a little-known part of the City’s history in which hundreds of African Americans fled discrimination and the threat of slavery for the safety of a Canadian exile. Choreographer Joanna Haigood and her Zaccho Dance Theatre (www.zaccho.org) are marking the iconic event with free public performances of her powerful work Sailing Away. Performances will be given in three continuous cycles, September 13, 14, 15, and 16 at 12noon, 1:30pm and 3pm daily starting at Market Street and Powell. Tuesday, School Assembly with performance at Bayview Opera House, 4705 Third Street, San Francisco, Tuesday, September 11, 10:30 a.m. The artists from Sailing Away will perform excerpts, joined by a lively discussion, and a performance from Dr. Susheel Bibbs’ one woman performance portraying 19th Century civil rights activist, Mary Ellen Pleasant.  Panel Discussion at California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street (at 3rd Street), san Francisco. Thursday, September

Today we speak to Byb Chanel Bibene about Skin Talk Skin Mood as a part of AfroSolo's Black Voices Performance Series beginning tonight, Friday, Sept. 7, continuing through Sunday, Sept. 10. Performances are at 8 Friday & Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at the African American Art and Culture Complex in the Burial Clay Theater, 762 Fulton Street in San Francisco. Visit www.afrosolo.org Our next guest is the lovely singer, songwriter, Amikaeyla who joins us to talk about her recent release: Being in Love. Visit RootsJazzMusic.com We close with an interview with playwright, poet, Paul S. Flores, whose work Placas: The Most Dangerous Tattoo opened Sept. 6 and continues at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, 450 Post, Thursdays through Sundays, Sept. 6-16. There are special programs or community conversations connected to the work, which is about decriminalizing youth and healing the streets. Visit sfiaf.org or call 1-800-838-3006. Music: Babatunde Lea's African Tapestry, Amikaeyla's Hambone & Lovely Day, an

Anthony Brooks, known as Tony, hails from our nation’s capitol. Tony, as the late legendary Harold Melvin, keeps the smoothness there. His smooth dance style and voice complements the Baritone vocals of Donnell. Tony, along with Donnell Gillespie, Rufus Thorne, Jr., & John Morris will perform Wed., Sept.19-Sun., Sept. 23, at the Rrazz Room at Hotel Nikko in San Francisco. He says about special moments on stage, that a recent one was when Harold Melvin’s Blue Notes performed at President’s Obama’s Red, White and Blue Inaugural Ball in Washington, DC in January 2009! His favorite Blue Note song is the group's signature work, the song used in President’s Obama’s campaign, “Wake Up Everybody.” "My favorite time of the year is spring; it reminds me of the new beginnings and the work of the One who created the earth. Besides singing, I frequently workout. I love performing with the Blue Notes and working out keeps me in tune with the group. Given the opportunity to make a change in this world, I would change th

The show aired at 4 a.m. Friday morning. As guests I featured Karrin Allyson, 'Round Midnight, appearing at the Rrazz Room at Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, August 31-Sept. 2, 2012 and Jacqueline Stewart, co-curator of LA Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema, opening at UC Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive Sept. 6-October 30. I had a lot of technical difficulties getting started on time, but eventually they were ironed out and I was able to play the prerecorded interviews as planned.

This is our annual tribute to the resiliency of black people, who continue to rise despite both natural and manmade obstacles. On the seventh anniversary of the Great Flood, another hurricane loams close to New Orleans. A category 1, it nonetheless has folks evacuating, those who can. Others are staying tight to "ride it out." We will speak to as many on the ground as we can, depending on the phone connections. Electricity is out in many places. Malik Rahim, Commonground co-founder, said from Algiers that the electricity was out, and they were using a generator. We will speak to Mwalimu, Robert King and Parnell Herbert. All are Katrina survivors. We will close the tribute with a conversation with Kimberly Rivers-Rogers who is one of the directors and subject in the film, Trouble the Waters, which was nominated for a Grammy: Best Documentary.

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the writing, visual and performing arts of African people in the Diaspora. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work filled with raw unfettered passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay! Remember to tune in on Wednesdays from 6 AM PST to 7 or 8 AM and on Fridays from 8 AM to 10 AM. We also host special broadcasts from time to time.

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the writing, visual and performing arts of African people in the Diaspora. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work filled with raw unfettered passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay! Remember to tune in on Wednesdays from 6 AM PST to 7 or 8 AM and on Fridays from 8 AM to 10 AM. We also host special broadcasts from time to time.

Today we will honor the legacy of the one of Pan Africa's hero's who did much to further African self-determination. Programming details will be forthcoming.

Sister Lola Hanif joins us to speak about Sacred Space, which meets second Thursdays each month. This is the last month at the East Bay Meditation Center, Thursday, August 16, 4pm – 6pm at the East Bay Meditation Center, 2147 Broadway, Oakland. This month Sister DJENNE BA will lead the workshop. She is dedicated to raising the consciousness of the planet through a Spiritual understanding of the Universe.She is available for private consultations, lectures and hands-on workshops. Visit http://ageofuranus.com/biography.html Lola Hanif is a humanitarian and community activist. She is founder and director of Lola’s Light; an organization established to promote good personal and community mental, spiritual and physical health.She holds a bachelor’s degree in Health Education with an emphasis in health issues in the African American community and a master’s degree from the University of Creation Spirituality. Ms. Hanif established Sacred Space Spiritual Support Group in 2007. Space is a spiritually-based, emotion