Faustin Linyekula's ‘Festival of Lies'

Politicians are liars. The people who run governments are liars. If you are not a part of the liars' club, someone will kill you. Governments are illusions, democracy is a lie and those who believe in it are fools. If you don't play the game correctly, you are eliminated. Oh, most importantly, Black people didn't invent the game; therefore, we don't have anything to do with how it's played, nor can we change the rules. All we can do is refuse to play and suffer the consequence, which in the case of the Congo is death. The case of Burkina Faso is death, the case of Rwanda is death, Haiti, exile or death.

That was the message of Faustin Linyekula's new dance theater performance, on stage at the Yerba Buena Center Nov. 8-10. Linyekula is a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It took me a minute, well, several minutes to figure out where Faustin was going with the narrative about all the leaders to come through the current Democratic Republic of the Congo, but after a while I was like ... wow, Mobuto and Kabila and the president of France and the Belgian were all speaking so logically. They made sense - so what happened?

Ah, they're liars! Faustin had their political speeches to the U.N. and other august bodies played off and on throughout the evening. Except for Patrice Lumumba, who was killed just six months after giving his acceptance speech, whereupon Faustin shouts, "This is not a lie. We're all liars."

There was food and drink - Faustin stopped the show more than once and told the audience to get up and frequent the bar, grab a bite to eat. He said, "There are no Africans begging here, so support us and buy some food."

The live Soukous band came on and soon the dance floor filled. Faustin sang while the other company members joined us on the dance floor. After a while we returned to our seats as Faustin and the other dancers began to set up the props and the supertitles appeared on the wall.

I loved the stories ... one of the company members, a narrator and the only woman, told about civil servants and other citizens who hadn't been able to vote, even though the message abroad was they were a democracy. The members' stories were woven into the narrative - the truth as illusive as the foundation these nation states were grounded in.

The three biggest lies are "Democratic Republic of the Congo," Faustin said near the end of the two-and-a-half-hour performance. How creative, how sacrilegious, how wonderfully clever - his piece begins with the disclaimer that it's all a fiction - the dancers, the room, the story ... none of it is real. There is a stage, a table in the middle of the room with mutilated doll parts on it, and fluorescent light bulbs the members carry, stack, and use as pens to draw alliances on the floor.

The light embraces and alienates as do the dancers' clothing which they use as props , their semi-nude bodies in stark contrast to the heavily embossed rhetoric or lies masked as truth. I wanted a companion text so that I could read the speeches. It was so wild that these villains had lied so convincingly when taken out of context, a context that was covered in blood. I wonder if the decapitated dolls represented the death of the future? I also wondered why they were white dolls since Congo is Black.

After the show ended we all joined the cast on the dance floor and we danced together. It was typically African, to have a sad story relayed to a danceable beat. The Soukous band was hot and as we danced I was reminded of the second line in New Orleans and the party that follows the funeral procession homeward.

Lies ... liars, the theme chased me all weekend as the next day I went to the play "Stardust and Empty Wagons" and listened to Katrina nightmares. From the New Orleans mayor to the governor of Louisiana, it was a festival of lies - one great party! I thought about Oakland and Dellums, the ticket he ran on and the reality on the streets. More police never equaled more justice, certainly not safety. Besides that, didn't Dellums say he would look at causes, not symptoms? And what's with the Sen. Clinton endorsement? She has the best "urban plan"?! What's to say she'll keep her word if it's not real? If a corporation is a legal person, what keeps a politician human?

‘Stardust and Empty Wagons'

Rock and CC – more formally known as Raymond Rock and his wife, CC Campbell-Rock – at the world premiere of “Stardust and Empty Wagons.” CC is the associate producer. Photo: Wanda Sabir

The Festival of Lies continues here of course with little movement on the bayou, Katrina survivors like these 14 archetypes in a saga too vast and too recent to measure accurately. Two years later and not only does the injustice continue, so does the tragedy as people continue to lose their homes and their lives. One person interviewed last year has since died, two have returned to FEMA trailers. CC Campbell-Rock's husband said afterwards that the "struggle continues."

During intermission I had an opportunity to catch up with Rhodessa Jones, who is off to Paris to see her brother Bill T. Jones perform a solo work in the Louvre. The Medea Project has been invited to South Africa, so if there are any year end deductions you'd like to make to a more than worthy organization, send money to Cultural Odyssey for The Medea Project, a theatre for incarcerated women.

L. Peter Callender portrays Charles Hawkins Jr. in "Stardust." He'll be directing Robert Henry Johnson's "The Othello Papers" at the African American Shakespeare Company next year. Elizabeth is painting a series on Black women. When it's up, I'll let you know the location.

Elizabeth Carter, an actress in “Stardust” Photo: Wanda Sabir

Michael Sullivan was in the house to support his lovely wife Velina Brown, who portrays one of the survivors. His sage adaptation of Orwell's "1984" will make a stop at UC Davis next year in March before heading overseas. I'll let you know more later.

The initial cast was great last year, but this one nails it. The show is tighter and the archival footage certainly adds a nice ambiance to the piece. "Stardust and Empty Wagons" continues at the Brava Theater, 2789 24th St., San Francisco, Wednesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m., and Sundays at 3 p.m. through Nov. 25. Visit www.brava.org or call (415) 647-2822. Visit the web exclusives for an interview with Hot 8 Band members Raymond Williams (trumpet) and Big Peter (souzaphone) and with CC Campbell-Rock, one of the producers and a Hurricane Katrina survivor well known to Bay View readers for her extraordinary coverage of New Orleans.

Pippa Fleming

Sunday I was at MoAD to see Pippa Fleming's "Living in the Mainstream" or "The Ks. KIA Chronicles." It was a tour de force which looked at the Butch Warrior phenomena and how hard it is for Black lesbians to live out loud because society often silences their voices. The writing was elegant, and Ms. KIA was diva personified as she berated her sisters for cowering to abuse. Opening with a lovely tribute to warrior goddess Omeyocan in a piece called "Awakening," the actress stood at the center of the stage - bare chest, small waist wrapped in sirong as Caroline Acuna danced with a fan, blessing the directions as Trevelyn D. Lee sang. Lights dimmed. It was powerful. When they reach Pippa, she then began to dance up and down the aisle, arms flying, legs and feet in motion.

The one-act musical, which featured Pippa accompanied by an outstanding band, will be staged early next year in the Bay Area. Hopefully she will release a CD of the original music, which was very good as were the new arrangement of standards and popular hits like "Strange Fruit," "I'm a Woman," and "Keep Looking." Visit www.pippafleming.com.

Quilombo communities in Brazil

Okay, so I'm searching for truth and I keep turning up lies. Integrity is so underdeveloped. In the closing week of the Maafa Commemoration we looked at resistance movements, the Quilombo communities in Brazil, as examples of resistance to imperialism and commitment to Black liberation.

One of the key architects of this movement was Zumbi of the Palmares, who was killed Nov. 20. This day is a national holiday in Brazil and celebration of what my friend Kim McMillon calls Black Joy. Kim is writing a stage adaptation of the 1985 film "Quilombo" by Carlos Carlos Diegues. When Zumbi escaped from the mission where he'd been reared after the Portuguese stole him from his home, he was determined to fight for his people's liberation and autonomy, and his legacy spurred a movement that continues to this day in the Quilombos, which have resisted Western infiltration. Zumbi didn't trust the colonizer, whom he said only wanted to see Black people as a free labor force. Gentrification is a modern manifestation of the colonial complex.

There are 5,000 Quilombos, and the day Zumbi was killed, Nov. 20, is nationally recognized in Brazil as a day to celebrate African heritage and self-determination. The Garifuna - Africans in Belize, Honduras, and Nicaragua - also celebrate their independence and liberation around this time of year. In his Diaspora Talk on Oct. 31, Robert King reflected on his visit to Vale do Ribeira, Estado de São Paulo, where he visited Quilombo de Ivaporunduva and Quilombo Sapatu. Watch a podcast at http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=fMGUecsc0z4.

There is another great film, "Quilombo County," which we showed this final week also. Look for an interview with the director Leonard Abrams soon. Kim made a link between the stories of healer, Malidoma Patrice Some and Zumbi, which was so right on! Some writes of his kidnapping from his village in Burkina Faso when a child by priests who were angry that his father refused to deny his indigenous tenets in favor of the Catholic church's. Some, like Zumbi, is cloistered in the seminary-boarding school where he is stripped of his culture and subjected to other terror until like Zumbi he resists, escapes and finds his way back to his people.

When I read "Of Water and the Spirit," I thought how wonderful it would be if African-Americans could return home in a similar fashion. Some's family saw his ordeal as a blessing because, through him, an initiated member of the community, he could stand with one foot in both cultures, an articulate vehicle to protect and guide.

Celebration of Black Joy in Oakland

In Oakland, in honor of our ancestors Pastinha and Zumbi, Mestre Themba's Capoeira Angola Preto Velho host a commemoration of these great warriors at the Sankofa Academy, 581 61st St. at Shattuck Ave., Sunday, Nov. 18, at 2 p.m. It's a potluck. People are asked to wear white and bring vegan and vegetarian dishes, candles and flowers. Visit http://www.mltranslations.org/Brazil/Zumbi.htm and http://capoeira.union.rpi.edu/history.php?chapter=Pastinha.

Sen. Barack Obama in San Francisco

The presidential candidate is in town Wednesday, Nov. 14, at Bill Graham Auditorium, 99 Grove St., in San Francisco. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Obama is certainly worth the admission: $30 general and $15 student and senior. Visit www.my.barackobama.com/SFC2C. Even if it's a show, he puts on a good one. Did anyone see him on Jay Leno last week? Funny guy! He's making the rounds. What I liked was that he said he isn't taking any corporate money. It's grassroots - nickel and diming it all the way.

Jane Jackson Memorial

Jane Jackson's memorial is Saturday, Nov. 17 at 1 p.m. at St James Episcopal Church, 1540 12th Ave., Oakland, (510) 533-2136. Visit www.stjamesoakland.com. Jane was a pioneer in gaining accessibility for disabled people and a pillar of KPFA and many worthy causes.

‘Autumn's Eyes'

I saw this lovely film at the San Francisco Black Film Festival this summer. I say lovely - the story is a fictional take on a young mother who is incarcerated, her family that is evicted and the process of trying to keep this family together. Autumn is the glue that holds everything together. The director was present at the screening and he talked about the film - I was my usual "Why do white directors mine stories from the Black experience?" - but that aside, Autumn is so sweet. Go see it for yourself, Thursday, Nov. 15, 6:30 p.m. reception, 7 p.m. screening, 9 p.m. discussion at Ellen Driscoll Auditorium at Havens School, 325 Highland Ave., near Oakland Ave., Piedmont. Visit www.diversityfilmsseries.org. The film is free.

Kendra's 10 Year +

Kendra Kimbrough Dance Ensemble's 10th Anniversary Celebration Concert is Friday and Saturday, Nov. 16-17, at 8 p.m. at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. For information, call (510) 801-4523, email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit www.kstarproductins.org. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. They are available at Marcus Books and brownpaertickets.com.

Amnesty

Come to any Oakland Public Library from Nov. 24 through Dec. 14 and they will forgive your fines and fees for overdue or lost items, and welcome you back to the library! Lost tools are the only exception to this amnesty. More information can be found at www.oaklandlibrary.org and by calling (510) 238-3134.

204th Year of Haitian Liberation

The November 1803 Battle of Vertieres, Napoleon's first major defeat, resulted in the end of slavery in Haiti and culminated in the only successful slave rebellion in world history. Haitians in the Bay Area celebrate "Vertieres Day, a Haitian Cultural Extravaganza Marking Haiti's 204th Year of Liberation from Slavery" at Ashkenaz Music and Dance Center, 1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley, this Saturday, Nov. 17, at 8 p.m.

The host band Kalbass' repertoire stretches from traditional Haitian styles such as kompa and rara to zouk, reggae, salsa and merengue. The six-member band's mission is to promote awareness about Haiti by sharing with its audience the hopeful and inspiring side of the island through music. Guests that evening are Alafia Dance Ensemble, rap artist J-W and Suzette Chaumette. Vegetarian Haitian food will be sold at the event. Tickets are $12 in advance and for students, $15 at the door. Tickets are available at www.kalbasskreyol.com. The event is a fundraiser for the Bellot Idovia Foundation, a Bay Area nonprofit working to end clear-cutting and replant deforested areas in Haiti. The show begins at 9 p.m.

2007 Hybrid Project

"Grounded?" opens with Marc Bamuthi Joseph in an excerpt from "the break/s," a work based on Jeff Chang's award-winning book which looks at the history of hip hop, "Can't Stop, Won't Stop," Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 15-17, at Intersection for the Arts, 446 Valencia St., between 15th and 16th, in the Mission district of San Francisco. This work will premiere at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts June 19-21, 2008. Bamuthi shares this weekend with Suicide Kings in "In Spite of Everything," directed by Joseph. This is Part 1 of a five-week festival through Dec. 15. Visit www.myspace.com/bamuthi and www.theintersection.org. Tickets are $10-$25. Thursdays are pay-what-you-can.

Sheba Makeda Haven

In September, Sister Sheba suffered a heart attack, lost her part-time employment and no longer qualifies for SSI or SSA because she makes $84 too much. When I got this note, she was about to have a nuclear medicine scan, which will indicate whether she needs bypass surgery. I think it's a shame that this sister, whose chief work in the Black Panther Party was to set up the free medical clinic, has to stress over paying her bills.

We should have a fund for older activists who have dedicated their lives to the people. It would be similar to Broadway Cares/ Equity Fights AIDS. Healthcare and housing should not be worries our veterans need fret about. Veteran's Day just passed. How many thanked the many undecorated soldiers who languish behind prison walls, in other lands or next door for their sacrifices?

Sister Sheba Haven caught the train from Sacramento to Oakland for Maafa Issues Forum 3, which celebrated the legacy of Black Panther Party on its 41st anniversary, while looking at all those who continue to die at the hands of police and the Oct. 22 Committee she helped found. It was also her birthday.

She writes: "Other than chest pain, the heart attack caused me to lose work from my second part time job for September, October and November. Since I am not completely disabled, tough nouggies. The second job is as an independent contractor, so no disability applies.

"All is not lost, however. I will be participating in ‘The Gift of Art' on Nov. 16, 17 and 18. On the evening of Friday, Nov. 16, there will be a donation of $10 requested at the door that can benefit one of several designated purposes. If you would like to help me, you can request that your donation go to Sister Sheba. If you can't make it to the show, you can still help me out by purchasing jewelry or crocheted items by appointment or on-line." Call her at (919) 446-1477, visit www.sistershebanaturally.com to purchase her natural bug repellent. You can also send an e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it for further details.

Mary Lovelace O'Neal

Artist Mary Lovelace O'Neal is in conversation with Carol Marie Daniels, writer and cultural historian, Saturday, Nov. 17, 3-5 p.m., at the Togonon Gallery, where she has an exhibit. The two will talk about Ms. O'Neal's life and her work in the current exhibition "Adventures & Misadventures: The Art of Mary Lovelace O'Neal." Togonon Gallery is located at 77 Geary, Second Floor, San Francisco. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. The gallery is open until 8 p.m. on first Thursday of month. For more information, please contact Associate Gallery Director Rafael Musni at (415)398-5572, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or togonongallery.com.

Afro-Joint Celebrates First Anniversary

DJ Said is throwing a "free" appreciation party in honor of patron support for the Afro-beat parties he has been hosting with many luminaries over the past year. The celebration is Saturday, Nov. 17, 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. at 222 Club, 222 Hyde St., between Turk and Eddy in San Francisco. This is a 21 and above event. Visit www.myspace.com/fatsouls.

Harry Belafonte's 1st Annual National Gathering for Justice

This historical event and gathering for justice, inspired by the 5-year-old little girl who was arrested and handcuffed by five police officers for misbehavior in class, is designed to keep or youth out of jail and out of trouble by providing ideas, opportunities and organizational solutions, city and countrywide. Keynote speakers are Harry Belafonte, Mayor Ron Dellums, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Paradise, Connie Rice, Eddie Zheng, James Bell, Juan Pacheco, Don Lacy Jr.'s Lovelife Foundation, youth groups and more. The event is free at the Marriott Convention Center, 12th and Broadway, downtown Oakland, Friday-Sunday, Nov. 16-18. Friday is registration from 5p.m. to 12 a.m.; Saturday, Nov. 17, begins at 8 a.m. and ends at 11 p.m. and Sunday begins at 9 a.m. and ends at 2:30 p.m. with a press conference.

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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