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Culture Currents Wanda’s picks
Culture Currents Wanda’s picks
| Wanda’s picks |
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| by Wanda Sabir | |
| Tuesday, 15 May 2007 | |
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Happy birthday We wish Yuri Kochiyama, born May 19, 1921, a happy birthday. Yuri was a friend to El Hajj Malik (Malcolm X), whose birthday was May 19, 1925. She continues to be a friend to all people involved in revolutionary work! Crescent moon and bright star planet May 19 In the SF Bay on Saturday, May 19, just after sunset – 8:15 p.m. – the moon, 15 percent illuminated, will appear in close proximity to the brightest planet in the sky, Venus, which has adorned the western twilight sky since late December. According to skywatch.com, “No other star or planet can come close to matching Venus in brilliance.” The darker part of the moon will have a bluish-grey hue interposed between the sunlit crescent and the much darker sky. This vision is sometimes called “the old Moon in the young Moon’s arms.” Venus is currently setting about three and a half hours after sunset, which means it’s in the night sky until past 11 p.m. Russell Simmons in town I went to the “All Diamonds Are Blood Diamonds” event Tuesday evening. Presented by Uhuru, the event at the Humanist Hall had a small but enthusiastic audience. I felt like I was the only sober person at an AA meeting, but my dad’s good friend was doing security, so I gave it a chance even after the body search by a man. I found a chair near the back of the room and sat down and listened to this really fine brother with immaculate locs, Omavi Bailey, director of Burning Spear Media, preach. He was singing the usual praises to the movement where he learned media literacy — well, ok, I thought, start the freaking show. The program was too long because the film said it all. The only thing left out was the development plan, which Dr. Aisha Fields ran through pretty fast. I was disappointed in the book, which was a pamphlet. We could have just gone to a Q and A. The film, shot on location in Sierra Leone in the mines, with incorporated footage from South Africa, Europe and elsewhere, covered a lot of important historic territory going back to Cecil Rhodes and his conquest of Zimbabwe, then called Rhodesia. In D.C., Uhuru media representatives interviewed key stakeholders at a diamond conference. The accusations masked as questions went unanswered as employees skated around the issues concerning their theft masquerading as business development. I mention Russell Simmons here because he is in the film. Simmons is mentioned in the same breath as De Beers to note the connection between his De Beers-sponsored diamond line, the continued exploitation of Black labor and the loss of Black lives in Africa. Until Africans control their resources rather than Western interests, then, as Uhuru organizers stated that evening, “We should ban all diamonds.” What I thought was funny was that after Dr. Aisha Fields, physicist, spoke about her development program, which sounded good, she didn’t state how close organizers were to starting it and where the Sierra Leone government was in relationship to this process. The sales pitch to potential donors was “Give your diamonds to us.” Anyway, as we sat there waiting for the last speaker, author of the $3 pamphlet, “All Diamonds Are Blood Diamonds,” Penny Hess, a white woman and chair of the African People’s Solidarity Committee, no one gave away any diamonds but they did raise about $400. I got up and went over to the publication table looking for the video. I wouldn’t have minded buying the video; that is something all the hip hop generation needs to see. It certainly puts the “bling bling” in perspective. The connection between the exploitation of resources, whether human or mineral, in Africa or in the Diaspora, and a life expectancy of 36-46, is real. The film showed how major hip hop entertainers play into the whole diamond psychology when songs and videos promote their trade. As conscious people, we certainly need to watch where our U.S. dollars go. One doesn’t want to fund another African’s death either directly or indirectly. This is why Dan Hoyle’s “Tings dey Happen” at the Marsh Theatre in San Francisco has been extended again, this time until June 1. The connection between death and oil, death and coffee, death and chocolate, death and aluminum, death and gold, death and cell phones is undeniable, and every time we spend thoughtlessly, we have blood on our hands which doesn’t wash out. Ask Lady MacBeth. So after Simmons reads from his “12 Steps to Success” book, May 22, 12 noon, at the Alexander Book Company, 50 Second St., San Francisco, near Montgomery or Embarcadero Street BART, ask him about his diamond jewelry line and his claim that De Beers was not dealing “conflict or blood diamonds.” ‘Arrivals and Departures’ at the SF International Airport  Joanna Haigood's Zaccho Dance Theatre performs an aerial world premiere, “Departure & Arrival,” overhead at San Francisco International Airport’s International Ticketing Hall. Set in the main “Departures Ticketing” hall, the huge audience was seated on the floor when I arrived, walking around and in between the three stages or looking up at the aerial dancers suspended between three orange house-frames as dancers moved through the spaces between what was above and what was beneath — music scoring the video projected on two screens facing each other, completing the open, yet closed space. It was, in a word, fantastic. I’d left work too late for the press party which Rhodessa Jones had said was in the aviation museum. Rhodessa is artistic director of the San Francisco International Arts Festival, “The Truth in Knowing/Now: A Conversation Across the African Diaspora,” May 16-27. Visit www.sfiaf.org for the entire program. I hadn’t known the airport had a museum. But as I walked from the BART train into the airport, looking for the performance, I saw all these people dancing I knew, like Shikiri, Shereel Washington, Joanna Haigood, of course, Robert Henry Johnson and others whom I’d seen before yet couldn’t name. Haigood is so good at what she does. There were slave ships projected onto huge screens seemingly stretched the length of such vessel – one didn’t have to imagine what it was like — we were there. This marine transport reflected in the architectural design above — lighted ships face down. I don’t know how many present would have instantly made the obvious connection between the architectural design in the airport and slave ships, African Diaspora as “a bridge,” Haigood said, “between the arrival and contributions of Africans and Africans in America and the tangible bridge between today’s native and foreign-born citizens,” but then, that’s why the Bayview Hunters Point artist and Zaccho founder and director is the artistic treasure and creative genius she is (www.zaccho.org). The performances, which began at 8:30 p.m., were repeated four times up to 10:30 p.m., so I was able to watch them twice, savoring my favorite parts, which were the dance sequences once the “shout” moved into the “juba,” and then James Brown’s “Say it Loud,” which had folks bogeying. Robert Henry Johnson’s wild Afro was swinging as he and his partner raised their fists, as did many people in the audience. This was certainly a participatory event. After all, didn’t slavery affect everyone? Of course it did and still does, so why not celebrate blackness? If this happened more often, I’m sure the rape of Africa might stop, but then again, maybe not. Look at the exploitation of hip hop culture. Nonetheless, “Departure and Arrival” is a way to make the theatre of life a little more obvious. Having the piece in the middle of an airport, for those entering America or getting out of Dodge, starts the conversation. The three stages or platforms — as in auction blocks — have dancers paired at one point in the work. The couples separate as they approach the audience, singing and clapping. The music, composed and arranged by Walter Kitundu, tangibly controls the mood as the dancers cover so much emotional history in such a short physical span of time. The Lego house is a retreat once it lands; like the VW or slave ship, one wonders how all the people fit inside. The metaphors are intentional here — crowded slave ship, crowded house — which for this piece are important, since there is so much to see, feel and think about. One actor-dancer takes the stage and dances as if possessed. A volunteer called it krumping or hyphy. The dancer calls his ancestors and one appears with a suitcase, inside it a calabash filled with liquid balm the traveler offers to his kinsman who drinks. Libations. It is a healing moment, which I think is the intent of the conversation here. “Departure and Arrival” will be performed in four 30-minute cycles May 16, 18, 19 and 20, 8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., at the San Francisco International Airport’s International Terminal, between Ticketing Bays 6 and 7. All performances are free and open to the public. ‘The Striders Club’ “The Striders Club” is an inside look at a team and its relationship with an ambitious coach, C.C. Campbell, the founder of the track club that is dedicated to female athletes. His ambition is to be better than any college team on the circuit. The young team is ready, they are hopeful, but they are not perfect. In the final hour before the race to make the cut, the four young woman, Lee, CoCo, Ra and Blue, the top runners, have to struggle to make it happen. They sing, they dance, they chant to finish. The play is an adaptation of a play entitled Run ‘92ers which was produced several years ago in New York City at the New Federal Theater, Woody King as producer, Novella Nelson as director. The play won two Audelco Awards, an annual award presented by the Black theater groups in New York City. The writer won for Best Playwright, and Pamela Poitier for Best Supporting Actress. “The Striders Club” runs Friday and Saturday, May 18-19, and the following weekend ,May 25-26, at 8 p.m at the Malonga Casquelourd Center, 1421 Alice St., Oakland. Tickets are $6 in advance and $11 at the door. For information, call (510) 450-0891. Seventh Annual Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival  Billy Harper Harper met Brother Malcolm (May 19, 1925 – Feb. 21, 1965) at a protest rally when he came to New York in 1963, running away from North Texas State University in Denton, where he and 99 other Africans integrated the institution. They lived across the tracks and had to walk miles to the school if they couldn’t get a lift from one of the guys with a car. The town’s attitude was hostile and the young men in Harper’s class were supportive of Martin Luther King’s strategies even if El Hajj Malik’s fit their temperament a lot better. This is what Harper plays. His horn is the gun he didn’t pick up or die from; it’s a driving force he says that scares some white people. “I play what I felt about the revolution through the horn,” he said. “My style of playing is a hard driving playing that expresses a lot of what happened when I was coming up during the integration times. It expresses a lot of what ‘Trane was talking about in relation to integration times, talking about Alabama and so forth and all that stuff happening in the South. I play with that kind of fire.” Harper and Amiri Baraka played together with the late Malachi Thompson and have just finished a recording, “Amazing Grace.” No, not like any rendition you’ve heard unless it’s Howard Wiley’s from the perspective of the captured Africans. This “Amazing Grace,” Harper said, is a look at how amazing it is “that the Blacks were able to survive and live and let the music live through them. It’s a part of an amazing grace.” Harper’s Quintet features special guest Amiri Baraka and his regular band, with the exception of Aaran Scott, a different drummer. Keyon Harrold’s on trumpet, Francesca Tanksley on piano and Clarence Seay on bass. The Billy Harper Quintet is headlining the Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival this weekend and a special pre-concert Friday night at EastSide Arts Cultural Center, 2277 International Blvd., in Oakland, Friday, May 18, at 8 p.m., $20. The concert in the park is free, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday, May 19. There are multiple stages, information, food and craft booths. Harper will be back for the Healdsberg Jazz Festival June 8, 8 p.m., with George Cables, Cecil McBee and other for The Night of the Cookers Band: Eddie Henderson on trumpet, George Cables on piano, Cecil McBee on bass, David Weiss on trumpet and Victor Lewis on drums. Visit www.billyharper.com/harperitinerary.html for the latest. To read the rest of the recent interview, visit www.wandaspicks.com “web exclusives.” ‘Spunk’ at Lorraine Hansberry Rocking chairs sit idle on the porch. A fence borders the perimeter and the house has multiple rooms, a table in the one. The place is “O, Way Down Nearby” in a time “Round About Long Go.” The cast comes on stage singing a rhetorical “How Do You Get to the Get” as if the answer were a Mapquest or Google map search away. The song shifts almost imperceptibly into the opening scenes of the first story, “Sweat,” C. Kelly Wright’s Delia gathering her laundry. A petite woman, the men on the porch talk about her as she passes in her buggy, how she used to be so sweet and cute, her mean husband wrung her dry – all that’s left is bones and sweat. Delia has paid for her life and her husband, Sykes (Donald E. Lacy Jr.), with sweat. This is a story of soured love and just desserts. It is certainly a Hurston classic and a warning to anyone who thinks oppression isn’t date stamped. Jazz singer Kim Nalley is great as Blues Speak Woman in this first story. Her ability here and elsewhere to sing as she shifts in and out of characters without upsetting the subtleties of each is amazing and fun to watch. The addition of her original songs, “Killer Diller” and “Groceries Poppa” (“Complete My Recipe”) make this production something special, a bit more special than I thought as I ran up the hill Mother’s Day. Directed and choreographed by Darryl V. Jones, with Rodney Street as the “Guitar Man,” adapted by George C. Wolfe, with music by Chic Street Man, Hurston’s work takes the audience to a time in the past when Black community was a continuum uninterrupted. Life was what it is: a little good, a little bad, a little ugly. Sometimes good would win, other times it lost, but people stayed on the path ‘cause the train was coming. What lifts the three stories from the page besides Nalley’s pretty legs is this attention to detail and characterization. Hurston is masterful in her depictions of Black life. In “Gilded Six Bits,” not only is the language superb, the director’s clever use of props — song and chorus to tell the story of Missy Mae’s infidelity and her husband Joe’s forgiveness — is what makes this my favorite story. The other stories, “Sweat” and “Story in Harlem Slang,” a cute skit about two pimps, Jelly and Sweet Back, trying to get over on a street savvy sister, round out the two-hour production. It didn’t do much for me. Maybe it works better on the page? “Gilded Six Bits,” in terms of setting, props and acting, brings out the best in all. The play runs till June 3 at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, 620 Sutter St., San Francisco. Call (415) 474-8800 for tickets or visit www.lhtsf.org. Mother’s Day was a family matinee — all tickets were $16. The next family matinee is May 27, 2 p.m. Not only are all seats $16, there is a free catered luncheon afterwards. Shades of Jazz - Ballads, Blues and Braziliana “Shades of Jazz” features Claridee on vocals and an incredible line up of musicians: guitarists Bruce Forman and Julian Lage, saxophonist Greg Abate, bassist Jeff Chambers, drummer Alan Hall and pianist Ken French, Sunday, May 20, 3 p.m., at the Main Theatre, Canada College, 4200 Farm Hill Blvd, Redwood City. Tickets are $35 general, $30 Palo Alto Jazz Alliance and Palo Alto Adult School members, $20 student. For information, call (650) 345-9543 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it The event is co-sponsored by KCSM FM 91.1. Jazz on Fourth Street this weekend The 11th Annual Benefit Festival on Fourth Street between Hearst and Virginia in Berkeley is Sunday, May 20, 12-5 p.m. This free outdoor music festival benefits the Berkeley High Performing Arts and the award-winning Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble and Combos. Visit www.fourthstreet.com/events.html. The street and the plaza will be filled with Fourth Street merchants with food and their wares. The free musical performances by several of today’s best musical groups – legendary R&B from Sugar Pie DeSanto, Latin jazz from Wayne Wallace and the classic jazz sounds of Marcus Shelby. The festival kicks off with two Berkeley High School Combos and the grand finale of the Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble to close out the day. City of Oakland Writing Contest Eighth grade students from 16 Oakland middle schools will recite their poetry before a panel of judges. Winners will receive a college scholarship and be published in an anthology. Please join us to support Oakland’s young poets this Saturday, May 19, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Jack London Square, 98 Broadway at Embarcadero in Oakland. Call (510) 272-0120 for information. The 22nd Bay Area Storytelling Festival will take place May 19-20 Outstanding storytellers from around the world visit the Bay Area each Spring to bring to life tales old and new: folk tales, family stories, fables, recollections, ghost stories, tall tales, fairy tales, and classic stories from many cultures. Join the Bay Area Storytelling Festival May 19-20 for a weekend of outdoor concerts of oral storytelling and treat your imagination to the power and elegance of the well-told story. Featured tellers for 2007 are Sheila Kay Adams, Charlotte Blake Alston, Bill Harley and Kevin Kling. For information, visit the festival at the Kennedy Grove Regional Recreation Area, El Sobrante, from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. the first day and 9:30 to 5:15 day two. For information, visit www.bayareastorytelling.org/, call (510) 869-4946 or send query to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it. Films On Feb. 7 in Durban, South Africa, shantytown dwellers staged a solidarity action for Haiti. The film, “Six Percent of Nothing,” directed by Giles and Khan, talks about these dwellers, who after 13 years of free and democratic rule still don’t have electricity or indoor plumbing. Other labor videos from South Africa are also a part of the program, Sunday, May 20, 7 p.m., at 522 Valencia St. at 16th Street, San Francisco. Tickets are a $5 donation, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Twelve years after the fall of apartheid, the loyal and patient shackdwellers all over the country are mobilizing against what they perceive to be a new oppression. The shackdwellers movement, Abahlali base Mjondolo, evolved in Durban, a city on the east coast of South Africa. It incorporates various informal shacklands in and around the city. Using the might of their united numbers, Abahlali is mobilizing against slow delivery and relocations planned by municipal councilors. Their struggle is ongoing. In order to repress this struggle, the government has framed five housing activists in Durban, and the Durban Kennedy Five Defense Campaign is ongoing. Fazel Khan, one of the directors of the film “Breyani and the Councilor,” has been not only an activist around the housing issue but for union and democratic rights and an organizer against privatization at the KwaZulu-Natal University in Durban. As a result of his union leadership with COMSA and community activism, he has recently been fired and there is an international defense campaign ongoing. A website in support of Fazel Khan has also been established at http://fazel.shackdwellers.org. You can find out more about the housing issue by going to www.abahlali.org. For an audio interview about the housing issue, go to http://www.pambazuka.org/media/PZ0028.mp3. The films are sponsored by the Labor Video Project, P.O. Box 720027, San Francisco, CA 94172, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , (415) 282-1908. 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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