Danny Glover came with his 3-year-old grandson to the screening and panel on “Bamako,” which he produced.

Benefit Concert for Dr. Angela Perkins

The Benefit Concert for Dr. Angela Perkins on Sunday, May 6, 2-8 p.m., at the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, 1616 Franklin St. in downtown Oakland, one block from the 19th Street BART Station 17th Street exit, features members from six bands Dr. Perkins worked with as a booking agent. Musicians include Angela Wellman of the Conservatory, the Fillmore Farmers Market Musicians and the Fillmore Jazz Preservation Big Band, under the direction of Dr. Karlton Hester and featuring Denise Perrier.

On June 7, 2006, Dr. Angela Perkins, suffered a major stroke. She has been hospitalized since that tragic day, first at Alta Bates Hospital and now at Herrick Hospital in Berkeley.

Marcus Shelby’s ‘Harriet Tubman: Bound for the Promised Land’

The Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra premieres “Harriet Tubman: Bound for the Promised Land,” a secular oratorio for jazz orchestra and vocalists, on Saturday, May 5, 1-4 p.m., in Yerba Buena Gardens, 701 Mission St. at Third Street, in San Francisco. The piece was composed and written by Marcus Shelby and will be performed by his orchestra with guest vocalists Faye Carol, Kenny Washington, Jeanine Anderson and Joseph Mace.

Based on Kate Larson’s book, Shelby’s oratorio tells the remarkable story of Harriet Tubman, who escaped slavery, conducted 300 more to freedom and dedicated her life to challenging the grave injustices in her day. Tubman was a genuine American hero in a period in America’s history that bears a striking resemblance to our own. For more information, call (415) 543-1718 or visit www.ybgf.org/Concerts/Shelby.html.

Spike Lee

The discussion of “Bamako” with panelists Walter Turner, Cornelius Moore, Danny Glover and Nunu Kidane, was a highlight of the San Francisco International Film Festival.

It was a love-in for Spike Lee at the San Francisco International Film Festival Wednesday evening. A smart man whose body of work tells the story of a people who no matter how hard it gets, keep getting up, was in high spirits despite his long flight just hours before. The festival is awarding Lee its Film Society Directing Award.

The evening opened with clips from Lee’s feature films and his notable classic: “Four Little Girls,” and closed with the screening of Act 2 and 3 of “When the Levees Broke,” now available on DVD, which includes an additional Act 5. Lee said he was committed to telling the stories of the people in the Gulf Region until something changes.

“People think the country has forgotten about them.” Lee said. Lee plans to continue the story, this time including more footage on the people in other regions, like Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Boston Globe film critic Westley Morris asked questions which Lee responded to before the discussion opened for comments and questions from the audience. One related to the film “Four Little Girls,” which is the story of the bombing victims of one of this country’s first domestic terrorism attacks. The question had to do with Gov. George Wallace and how Lee got him to consent to an interview.

“He was older and was looking for a way to make amends for his past actions, but it was too late.” Lee commented on the lynchings, murders and discrimination that went unprosecuted and the segregation laws upheld in his administration after the federal government ruled it illegal and unconstitutional. He laughed as he recalled the governor trying to show how much he loved Black people by having his Black male nurse come out on camera so the public could see how he’d changed. “The brother looked like he was wishing Wallace would just go ahead and die.” Lee laughed.

Lee was commended for featuring actors and actresses in positive roles. Other comments were on Lee’s relationship with Denzel Washington and the NAACP’s formal funeral for the n-word, b-word and other language that degrades black women in particular and black people in general.

“Words can be used as weapons to violate and injure people,” Lee said. “I’m not a fan of gangster rap. The excessive use of these words doesn’t elevate anyone. When I was a kid in Brooklyn there were pimps in the neighborhood, but people weren’t aspiring to grow up to be pimps.” He then mentioned 50 Cent and the “loveable pimp, Snoop Dogg,” who appeared at an awards event with two women on leashes. When he was a child, Lee said, “Superfly” came out and though it glorified that industry, its effect on the public was nothing like that of rap music.

Lee said Black people had a lot of work to do, but that didn’t mean gangster rap was responsible for Imus’ remarks. “No one is looking at the profitable industry rap music is for the corporations that publish and produce the music. Rap artists make money, but don’t let the corporations getting rich from this off the hook.”

All of Lee’s films weren’t a part of the compilation of clips. Missing were “Suckerfree City,” shot in Bayview Hunters Point, and “The Huey P. Newton Story” about the local hero and co-founder of the Black Panther Party. This was an omission or slight that didn’t go unnoticed by the audience.

New projects include either a film about the LA riots or James Brown, Lee said, with a comment about the LAPD’s overkill at the Immigrant Rights March the day before. “I thought the NYPD were bad,” he said. Though clearly tired, Lee greeted a few people as he exited the theatre headed for a meal and then bed.

It was the second highlight for me this year at the San Francisco International Film Festival’s 50th anniversary, the first. last week’s panel discussion of the film “Bamako,” which opens theatrically in June. The panelists, who included the film’s executive producer, Danny Glover, plus Walter Turner, professor and radio host for Africa Today (KPFA), Nunu Kidane of Priority Africa Network and moderator Cornelius Moore, California Newsreel, was an education in the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. It was also a lesson, though, in how under-reported news is from Africa, where this year the United States has bombed Somalia twice, China is becoming a serious threat to the mercantile industry in Africa, and the U.S. is brokering with African nations on establishing a permanent military base there. “Bamako” opens theatrically June 1 in the San Francisco Bay Area.

‘Bamako’ screening at Stanford University

The Center for African Studies at Stanford University, on Monday, May 7, 7:30 p.m., Room 002, will screen the feature film “Bamako.” The film opens here in June. See the NY Times review at http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=350452) Professors Jim Ferguson and Sean Hanretta will moderate a discussion after the film.

Tavis Smiley hosts Road to Health Expo

Road to Health is the first traveling broadcast (radio and television) series aimed at communities of color to promote the benefits of health and fitness and to help communities of color develop healthier lifestyles. At Oakland Marriott City Center, 1001 Broadway, Oakland, Friday, May 11 at 9:30 a.m., Tavis Smiley, Mayor Ron Dellums, and Congresswoman Barbara Lee will take a quarter-mile walk with 4,500 students inside the expo hall. Following his walk, Smiley will moderate a symposium at 10 a.m. in the Calvin Simmons Ballroom at the Marriott on “Eliminating Childhood Obesity in Communities and Schools.” The Road to Health is free and open to the public. Register online at www.roadtohealthtour.com/ or on site. For more information, visit www.tavistalks.com/ or call (213) 694-1883.

Actor Don Cheadle: ‘Not on Our Watch’

Don Cheadle, star of the acclaimed films “Hotel Rwanda” and “Crash,” and John Prendergast, human rights activist and senior advisor at the International Crisis Group, are co-authors of the highly anticipated book, “Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond,” (Hyperion, May 2007). With a forward by Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel and an introduction by U.S. Sens. Barack Obama and Sam Brownback, “Not on Our Watch” is a model for citizen action that offers a comprehensive history of the struggle in Darfur, as well as the dual narratives of how the authors became involved in this cause and where their paths crossed. Cheadle and Prendergast have both spent time in Darfur, including a trip in 2005 that was featured on ABC’s Nightline.

At “Community Conversation: Not on Our Watch,” Tuesday, May 8, 7-8:30 p.m., at Nob Hill Masonic Auditorium, 1111 California St. at Taylor, San Francisco, the two will speak about the genocide in Darfur as well as other mounting humanitarian crises throughout the world and discuss what can be done to help put an end to these tragedies. Supplies are limited. This is a free, ticketed event. RSVP to reserve your tickets, which are limited to four per person. Contact Karen Foster at (510) 786-2500, ext.226, or www.facinghistory.org/campus/reslib.nsf/ for more information.

Immigrant solidarity and ‘Lysistrata’

Considering the fact that just two years ago, three in August, African Americans in the Gulf Coast region were called refugees by this administration, everyone with vacation time or a floating holiday should have been out May 1, May Day, for A Day without Immigrants and International Worker Solidarity.

Before heading to work, I donned my white tee-shirt and tennis shoes, just in case I decided to march. I even ironed an Africa shaped patch with the Lion of Judah embroidered on a green, yellow and red background. I settled on those colors instead of my other patch in the African liberation red, black and green. I then put my pin above that, beaded by girls in South Africa at an AIDS victims orphanage. Visit www.topsy.org.za to get yours.

I told my students that anyone who wanted to attend the march on Tuesday had an excused absence. I’d planned to link up with Gerald Lenoir, Alona Clifton and Wilson Riles Jr., all members of the African American Alliance, a little after 10 a.m. I ended up grading papers instead. I just wasn’t feeling it. I wanted to hear about the immigrants of African descent — the Haitians, Cubans, Brazilians, Eritreans, Somalis, Ugandans.

The boat floats a little differently if you’re Black and undocumented.

The perception is Southwest, when in the San Francisco Bay Area there are people here from everywhere, and even if people were afraid to show up for fear of being picked up by ICE, the media at least should have been more inclusive.

On KPFA, Hardknock programmers canvassed the audience to get a feel for who was there. They were alone in this more comprehensive coverage. Many of the people interviewed were those I knew, a Bay Area sample that looked like the reality rather than the projected fantasy that California is like Texas, majority Mexican immigrants.

I certainly think that we should all learn Spanish and that everyone living in the United States should be fluent in English, but I didn’t hear anyone from my community talking about immigration and how the current administration’s policies are affecting Black people.

A student of mine shared a story about her neighbor, who was holding his sister-in-law and other undocumented immigrants as sex slaves. Another student spoke of an ICE stake-out in front of his home. He couldn’t go home, and as long as no one came out the house immigration couldn’t arrest them.

I was told that a lot of African immigrants are here illegally. What happens is, they come on student or visitor visas and then the permits expire and they don’t go back home. “You won’t find illegal immigrants at rallies,” this first generation Nigerian said.

So after listening to coverage on the radio as I graded papers in the parking lot, I left Alameda and drove over to Laney College to see “Lysistrata.” It was a great production, extremely well done. The director, Michael Torres, said that there were lots of explicit references to sex, so Laney was the first college to produce the play. Perhaps this translation is a first, but Contra Costa College produced “Lysistrata YK2” about five years ago.

The comedic antiwar play is about a clever woman, “Lysistrata,” who convinces her girl friends to take a vow of celibacy until the men of Sparta and Athens sign a peace treaty. There’s music, dance, even a singing penis. The production continues this weekend Thursday- Sunday, May 3-5, 8 p.m., at Laney College, 900 Fallon St., Oakland. Tickets are $5 for Peralta college students, employees and seniors. General admission is $10.

San Francisco Young Playwrights Festival

The Second Annual San Francisco Young Playwrights Festival at the Diego Rivera Theatre, on the San Francisco City College campus, 50 Phelan Ave., San Francisco, showcases the works of some of today’s brightest and most talented high school writers. Featured this year are original plays by Nina Moog, Juliana Caccavo, Tanea Lunsford and Romolo Wilkinson, directed by Alan Quismorio, Sara Staley, Thea Gold and Deborah Shaw, May 18-20, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. with a 2 p.m. performance on \Sunday. A discussion with playwrights follows Sunday’s performance. General admission is $10 in advance, $12.50 at the door. Students and TBA members are $5 in advance and $7.50 at the door. For more information and to purchase advance tickets, visit www.sfyoungplaywrights.org or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Chad Lowe hosts Epidemic Film Festival

Experience the excitement as Emmy Award winning actor Chad Lowe hosts the Academy of Art University’s first annual Epidemic Film Festival at the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro St., San Francisco, Wednesday, May 9, 7 p.m. Presented by the School of Motion Pictures and Television and the School of Animation, guest jurors will honor the next generation of emerging artists for Best Short Narrative, Documentary, Commercial, Music Video, Experimental and Animation. Complimentary tickets are available the day of the event on a first come, first serve basis. Visit www.academyart.edu for more information.

Annual Postmodern Pachuco Party!

Dr. Loco’s Rockin’ Jalapeño Band performs Friday, May 11, 9 p.m., at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. Tickets are $10. Visit www.lapena.org or call (510) 849-2568.

‘Knocking,’ a free screening

They are moral conservatives who stay out of politics and the Culture War, but they’ve won a record number of court cases expanding freedom for everyone. They refuse blood transfusions on religious grounds, but they embrace the science behind bloodless surgery. In Nazi Germany, they could fight for Hitler or go to the concentration camps. They chose the camps. Following two families who stand firm for their controversial and misunderstood Christian faith, “Knocking” reveals how one unlikely religion helped to shape history beyond the doorstep.

The film is being shown at the Oakland Museum, 1000 Oak St., Oakland, on Wednesday, May 9, at 6:30 p.m. There is a reception at 6 p.m. RSVP before Monday, May 7, at 5 p.m., to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it A panel discussion follows the film with guest Stan Yogi, co-author of “Vying for History: How Strikers, Runaway Slaves, Suffragists, Miners, Immigrants and Poets Shaped Civil Liberties in California.” For information on the ITVS community screenings, call the Oakland Film Office at (510) 238-4734.

African Diaspora Films series continues

African Diaspora Films present “The Tracker” (2002) at the Parkway Theater, 1834 Park Boulevard, Oakland, on Sunday, May 5, at 2 p.m. Admission is $5.

This is a wonderful film set in Australia. The year is 1922. The Tracker, David Gulpilil, (“Walkabout,” “Rabbit-Proof Fence”), has the job of pursuing The Fugitive, an aborigine who is suspected of murdering a white woman, as he leads three mounted policemen – The Fanatic, The Follower and also The Veteran – across the outback. The Tracker, a mysterious and enigmatic figure whose true character remains unknown, assists them in their quest.

As they move deeper into the bush and further away from civilization, the toxic forces of paranoia and violence begin to escalate, stirring up questions of what is black and what is white and who is leading whom. Their journey becomes an acrimonious and murderous trek that shifts power from one man to another, challenged by the indigenous people they come across as well as each other.

2005 Riots in France

A lecture on current affairs in France pertaining to immigration, race, poverty and injustice will be held Wednesday, May 9, from 7-8:30 p.m., at the Alliance Française San Francisco, 1345 Bush St., between Polk and Larkin. For information, email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or call (415) 775-7755.

Sebastian Roché is a political scientist at the Centre de Recherche sur le Politique, l’Action Publique et le Territoire. Roché presents us with a nuanced and well-informed perspective on this new wave of unrest that is sweeping contemporary France. During the course of the lecture, we will learn about the driving forces behind this societal crisis, which include issues of economics, education, religion and race. In collaboration with the Délégation Générale de l’Alliance Française.

‘Lumumba: La Mort Du Prophete’

Raoul Peck’s “Lumumba: La Mort du Prophete” screens Wednesday, May 9, 7:30 p.m., at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Screening Room, 701 Mission at Third in San Francisco. For information, call (415) 284-7800. The film offers a unique opportunity to reconsider the life and legacy of one of the legendary figures of modern African history. Like Malcolm X, Patrice Lumumba is remembered less for his lasting achievements than as an enduring symbol of the struggle for self-determination. This deeply personal reflection by acclaimed fimmaker Raoul Peck on the events of Lumumba’s brief 12-month rise and fall is a moving memorial to a man described as a giant, a prophet, a devil, “a mystic of freedom” and “the Elvis Presley of African politics.”

If “Lumumba: La Mort du Prophete” is a film about remembering, it is even more a film about forgetting. It is not so much a conventional biography as a study of how Lumumba’s legacy has been manipulated by politicians, the media and time itself. Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck meditates on his own memories as the privileged son of an agricultural expert working for the regime which displaced Lumumba. He examines home movies, photographs, old newsreels and contemporary interviews with Belgian journalists and Lumumba’s own daughter to try to piece together the tragic events and betrayals of 1960. General admission is $8, $6 for MOAD and YBCA members, students and seniors. The film’s running time is 69 minutes. It’s in French, fully subtitled in English, and it is not rated.

Bay View Arts Editor Wanda Sabir can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Visit her website, www.wandaspicks.com, for an expanded version of Wanda’s Picks and for exciting “web exclusives.

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