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.

We have a prerecorded interview with David Roach, Executive Director and Founder of the Oakland International Film Festival, kicking off its 10th Annual Festival, Apr. 6-8, 2012 at the Oakland Museum of CA in Oakland, 10th and Oak. Visit www.oiff.org  We open with a conversation with Javier Reyes, poet, playwright, activist who is bringing his lastest work and collaboration to the Bay Area for one night before the company heads for New York (smile). His Each One Reach One & Urban Healing Tour Present "Toy Soldierz," a joint collaboration to raise funds for Bay Area Youth Theater programs on Monday, April 9, 2012, doors open at 7, show 8-11 p.m. at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, will showcase UHT's critically acclaimed multi-media, hip-hop theater production "Toy Soldierz." UHT will be showcasing One Act Plays written by incarcerated youth working through EORO's award winning theater programs. Youth poets from "Youth Guidance Center Integrational Center perform as well. Proceeds from the show help fu

Today on the anniversary of MARTIN KING's killing we reflect on healing and survival via a variety of perspectives, beginning at 7 a.m. with a conversation with Ifa Priestess Oyafunmike Ogunlano who portrays the role of "Mona" and "Shola," in Haile Gerima's classic: Sankofa. Beginning her career on the theatrical stage, Ms.Ogunlano first graced the stages of Washington, D.C. as a proud member of the D.C. Black Repertory Company under the direction of Robert Hooks in such powerful productions as The Blacks, Imamu, Day of Absence, Changes and more.   She has appeared in many stage productions including North Seventeenth Street, Homecookin’ and Oursides as member of the renowned the Negro Ensemble Company.  With the Nuyorican Poet’s Café she performed in Shango de Ima, Julius Ceaser set in Africa and Obatala.  She was a member of the Ebony Impromptu Theater Company, under the direction of the late Harry Poe and is also an accomplished African dancer who has danced with the dynamic Olatunji's Drums of Passion, Wo

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 our guests are artists: Betty Kano and L. Frank, with curator, Eric Murphy. They speak about the current show at Joyce Gordon Gallery: SheRose Of Our Time: A Tribute to the First Lady, Michelle Obama through April 19, 2012. JGG is located at 406 14th Street, Oakland, CA 94612, (510) 465-8928. We speak later in the show to Terence Nance, director of the Sundance hit, An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, Terence Nance, USA, 2011. His film is featured at the SFIFF 2012. Playdates: SUN APR 22  8:30  at PFA, MON APR 30  9:00 at the KABUKI; TUE MAY 1  12:15 at the KABUKI; WED MAY 2 4:00 at KAB

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 are joined by author, Queen Kay, to talk about her memoir, The Reconstruction and Transformation of Queen Kay; this live interview is followed by a prerecorded interview with Tim Wise about his latest work, Dear White America (canceled); we close with a conversation with the cast of The Old Settler by John Henry Redwood, directed by Tico Wells, a member of the original cast in 1997, Angel Lands as Elizabeth, Paula Martin as Quiley, Clarence Ray Johnson as Husband Witherspoon, and Tavia Percia as Lou Bessie a.k.a  Charmaine. Dr. Mona Vaughn Scott, Executive Director, joins us as a surp

Kehinde Kujichagulia-Seitu, Reagan Griffith,  Taiwo Kujichagulia-Seitu, join us to talk about Stopping Our Silence 2012, the theme this year is "Silencing the inner critic," and this year's sexual assault and domestic violence healing conference, is April 14th and 15th, 2012. The weekend will kick off on Saturday April 14th at 8:30a.m., On Stage Studio (Kids N' Dance), 3840 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, with a full day of workshops. That night's performance will begin at 7p.m. Sunday's matinee performance will begin at 3p.m. and will be followed by a question and answer session with the cast and S.O.S. founder Ms. Kehinde Kujichagulia-Seitu (510) 434-6773 stoppingoursilence@gmail.com Sheena Johnson's REBEL HOME DANCE presents: LANDHOME, March 30-31, 2012, 8 p.m., at the Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th Street, Oakland. We speak to Sheena and collaborating artist, Chris Evans, a multimedia artist, with an emphasis on sound and dance. We close with Brian Copeland, who speaks about his latest show: The Waiting Period

Tim Wise speaks about his latest book Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority. Anita Wills, Oscar Grant Committee, speaks about the Million Hoodies March on the UN in New York, here the march is to UN Plaza in San Francisco, 5:30 p.m. 1 Million HOODIES March: Show the World we are all Trayvon. Rally at Bradley Manning Plaza at 5:30 PM March to UN Plaza at 6 PM! Oakland fam: gather at 14th & Broadway BART to ride together to Embarcadero: 4:30P, 5P and 5:30P. Lets meet folks with stay-away orders underground at the BART station since the BART station is not part of the stay-away. Visit http://www.change.org/petitions/prosecute-the-killer-of-our-son-17-year-old-trayvon-martin and http://www.facebook.com/events/318735908182032/ We close with Zack Rogow is the author, editor, or translator of nineteen books or plays. His seventh book of poems, My Mother and the Ceiling Dancers, was published by Kattywompus Press in February 2012. He is the editor of an anthology of U.S. poetry, The Face of Poetry, publish

Rebroadcast of interview with Rene Marie followed by an interview with A’Lelia Bundles, president of the Madam Walker/A’Lelia Walker Family Archives and author of On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker, the award-winning, New York Times bestselling biography of her great-great-grandmother. After a 30-year career as an executive and Emmy award winning producer with NBC News and ABC News, she now devotes her time to writing and serving on nonprofit boards. She is president and chair of the board of the Foundation for the National Archives and a trustee of Columbia University. She is joined by Sheryl Grant, president, 100 Black Women, to talk about the 14th Annual Madam CJ Walker Awards Luncheon, Friday, March 23, 2012 in SF, CA http://www.onehundredblackwomen.com/ Verna Brooks & Patricia Van Hook join us to talk about the Third Annual Girls Day Out, March 31, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Kingdom Builders Christian Fellowship, 7272 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. For information call (510) 823-3665. W

We open with a prerecorded interview with Lusiah Teish, Yoruba Priestess, Educator, Activist, Writer and Visual Artist who speaks about the monthly gathering for African Women at East Bay Mediation Center in Oakland, 4-6 p.m. She will be conducting a healing ritual. We close with a conversation with Andrew Wood, director, San Francisco International Arts Festival and Alisa Froman, director, PlazaCUBA about the opening of the Festival this year with Juan De Dios Ramos Morejon, Artistic Director, Raices Profundas. The ensemble has never been to the United States, so the engagement beginning May 2-6, at the Marine's Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter Street, in San Francisco, will be a rare treat for Bay Area audiences. The ensemble will also host workshops while they are here through SFIAF. For discount tickets through April 1, visit www.sfiaf.org or call (415) 771-6900.

Aya de Leon joins us to talk about the 20th Anniversary of June Jordan's Poetry for the People, this weekend at UC Berkeley.  While we wait for Aya to join us, we play an interview with Rene Marie, recorded in June last year. We open with her arrangement of "Just My Imagination" from Songs of My Beautiful Nation. 

Mama Lola Hanif, founder of Sacred Space Spiritual Support Group, third Thursdays monthly, at 2147 Broadway, Oakland, 4-6 p.m. For the past five years this Sacred Space has hosted over 130 African American women in a spiritually-based, emotionally safe and supportive environment for African American women to gather, network, experience a sense of community. Sacred Space serves as a means of advocating healthy, peaceful African American families. Excerpt from an interview with Mama Naomi Diouf, Artistic Director of Diamano Coura West African Dance Company, celebrating the 17th Anniversary of Collage de Africaines, beginning today, March 8-11, 2012, at the Malonga Casquelord Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice Street, Oakland, CA.  Sullivan is head writer for the political satire-minded San Francisco Mime Troupe; he recently penned a re-interpretation of A Christmas Carol for the masses, which was performed at Occupy Oakland and SF, and LA's famed Actor's Gang is currently remounting his adaptation of Orwell's nove

Today is International Women's Day. In its 101st observance, this year, we honor women past, present and future, with an interview with three women: Mama Naomi Diouf, Artistic Director of Diamano Coura West African Dance Company, celebrating the 17th Anniversary of Collage de Africaines, beginning today, March 8-11, 2012, at the Malonga Casquelord Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice Street, Oakland, CA. The second woman is Mama Lola Hanif, founder of Sacred Space Spiritual Support Group, third Thursdays monthly, at 2147 Broadway, Oakland, 4-6 p.m. For the past five years this Sacred Space has hosted over 130 African American women in a spiritually-based, emotionally safe and supportive environment for African American women to gather, network, experience a sense of community. Sacred Space serves as a means of advocating healthy, peaceful African American families. The third woman we feature is one whose voice was formally silenced behind prison walls. Convicted as a child, LaKeisha Burton, born and raised in Comp

Rebroadcast of Sam Pollard speaking about his film: Slavery by Another Name broadcast nationally February 13, 2012. Live interview with Esailama G.A. Diouf, filmmaker, scholar, about Diamano Coura's 17th Annual Collage des Cultures Africaines's  "Knowledge Transporters," beginning March 8-11, 2012 in Oakland. Ms. Diouf's original goal of documenting West African dance's influence on American culture in three specific cities: Oakland, St. Louis, and Chicago, has now expanded to include not just West Africa, but other places in the Pan African Disapora, such as Haiti, Brazil and elsewhere, like Congo. This weekend there will be a preview of the work, which will have a debut in 2013. Visit http://www.diamanocoura.org/dc/ Music: Meklit Hadero from On a Day Like This.

Directed by celebrated African-American artists Chris Johnson and Hank Willis Thomas, in collaboration with Bayeté Ross Smith and Kamal Sinclair, Question Bridge: Black Males on view January 20 through July 8, 2012 @ the Oakland Museum of CA, is an innovative video installation features dialogue between 150 black men recruited from eleven American cities and towns. The project includes multiple video screens placed in two arcs in the OM's Gallery of California Art that will play videos of black men responding to questions edited in a way so that it appears as if the men were having a conversation. We are delighted to have Chris Johnson and Bayeté Ross Smith on the air for an extended conversation to talk about Question Bridge. We'd planned to open with an interview with Adoubou Traore, director of African Advocacy Network, an organization that provides legal and other services to immigrants in the Bay Area. Sunday, Mar. 4, 2-5 PM, AAN at its offices, is honoring the life of one of its board members, Yvette Ho

We speak to Tracy Taylor, Wardrobe Assistant, for Disney on Ice since 1995, about this show, how he got into the business and the magic of Disney. The toys are back in town with Disney On Ice presents Disney•Pixar’s Toy Story 3!  The Academy Award®-winning blockbuster, Toy Story 3, and memorable moments from Toy Story and Toy Story 2 are hitting the ice in this sensational live production, coming to the Bay Area.  Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Jessie and the Toy Story gang escape from the rambunctious tots of Sunnyside Daycare and race for home, in their most daring adventure ever.  A few new faces join the fun, including Barbie’s groovy bachelor Ken and Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear.  It’s the biggest Toy Story experience on ice, jam-packed with fast-paced adventures such as Buzz’s galactic battle with Emperor Zurg and a hoe-down at Woody’s Roundup.  Audiences will rediscover the humor, friendship and charm of Toy Storywhen Disney On Ice presents Disney•Pixar’s Toy Story 3 takes family fun to infinity and beyond! We close w

We open with an extended conversation with Will Bellot, co-founder of Bellot Idovia Foundation, started in 2004, with his brother, Antoine, both natives of La Toti, Haiti. "Konbit La Tourtue," a fundraiser, is coming up, March 10, 2012, 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz Music & Dance Center, San Pablo at Gilman Street, in Berkeley. Konbit will raise money to purchase water filter systems for the people this organization serves. Visit http://bellotidovia.org/about/ We are also joined by Lakay & Mystik Man who is performing with his band that evening which will feature the folkloric dance of El Wah Movement Dance and Ezili Racine Drum Ensemble. Tabia African-American Theatre Ensemblefounder and director, Viera Whye joins us with the directors of two performances which open this evening: Rome Neal in "Monk" and Cheryl B. Scales in "Mirror, Mirror of My Soul" at the “School of Arts and Culture” at the Mexican Heritage Plaza, 1700 Alum Rock, Ave., San Jose, CA 95116. 408/272-9924, www.acteva.com/go/sjmag. I saw the awar

We interview Robin Fryday, co-director of the Academy Award®nominated film: The BarberofBirmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, and has screened across the country throughout the year including the Library of Congress and on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Robin Fryday is a photographer residing in Marin County, California. The Barber of Birmingham is Fryday’s first film. Visit http://barberofbirmingham.com/ Today is the groundbreaking of the National Museum of African and American History & Culture (NMAAHC), the first national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, art, history and culture. Scheduled to open in 2015, the museum will be the first green building on the National Mall. Building designed by Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup. Construction by Clark/Smoot/Russell. We speak to Paul Gardullo, Museum Curator, about this historic event and San Francisco Bay Area connections to this wonderful instituti

Dr. Albert L. Brooks, MD, speaks about Physicians Medical Forum, Sat., Feb. 18, 2012, and Doctors on Board. Marshall Curry, speaks about his Academy Award Nominated film, If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front.Michael Dailey, tenor, speaks about his role as "Albert Germont" in the current production of at Opera San Jose. He appears: 2/12, 2/18, 2/21, 2/26. During his fourth year as a resident artist, Michael Dailey performs the roles Beppe (Pagliacci), Alfredo (La traviata) and the title role in Faust. Last season, Mr. Dailey appeared as Konstantin Levin (Anna Karenina) and Count Almaviva (The Barber of Seville), and has also performed the roles of Des Grieux (Manon), Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola), Prunier (La rondine), Lensky (Eugene Onegin), Nemorino (The Elixir of Love), Ferrando (Così fan tutte) and Don José (Carmen). Don't miss Jouvanca Jean-Baptiste, soprano, who portrays the lead character "Violetta." She has been a frequent guest on the show, on these dates: Cast for 2/11, 2/16, 2/19, 2/

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.

Slavery by Another Name, a 90-minute documentary produced and directed by Sam Pollard, who is our guest this morning, premiered at the Sundance Festival January 23, 2012, and the screening resulted in tremendous applause post screening with award-winning director Sam Pollard appearing at the podium for the Q&A. The film will make its U.S. national television debut Monday, February 13, 2012 at 9:00 PM ET on PBS, 10 PM PT. Slavery by Another Name challenges one of Americans’ most cherished assumptions: the belief that slavery in this country ended with the Emancipation Proclamation. The film tells how even as chattel slavery came to an end in the South in 1865, thousands of African Americans were pulled back into forced labor with shocking force and brutality. It was a system in which men, often guilty of no crime at all, were arrested, compelled to work without pay, repeatedly bought and sold, and coerced to do the bidding of masters. Tolerated by both the North and South, forced labor lasted well into th