Women of Color Resource Center Executive Director Anisha Desai with Shukuru Sanders Photo: Wanda Sabir

I hadn't realized the date was upon me, but I do recall being happy March 1 to be celebrating two women I love, Hafsa and Tomyé. It was Tomye's birthday and Hafsa, having lost her mother that week and a husband , not to death, but divorce, was rededicating her life to herself-the cleansing sage symbolic of her new path, the melodious thikring guaranteed light at the end of a long tunnel, and the circle of sisters, trees in her forest. It was a beautiful afternoon of poetry and tears and hugs and love. Tomyé's birthday party later that evening for me was a gift for all present at her party. Guests were invited to bring cloth as motif for their relationship with Tomyé: love in the shape of hearts, imported, shimmering...

The following week, my college class and I went to see Cynthia McKinney at the Women of Color Resource Center's second annual "Speaking Fierce" event. McKinney, former congresswoman of Georgia, now Green Party nominee for president of the United States, spoke at length statistically about the state of this union and why we all need to stand for something-passive rides over. McKinney was in a reflective mood as were many of the presenters and performers that evening from poets Climbing PoeTree whose work was affirming and encouraging, and Bushra Rehman whose work reflected her life in New York, a child of Muslim immigrants both anecdotally and interpretive-she didn't have a chance this assimilated citizen of the new land, to Sgt. Eli Painted Crow of SWAN who is still suffering from her tour of duty in Iraq-one can see it in her eyes, a representative from TEMPO a program sponsored by WCRC that teaches women to do media work, both radio and film. A clip from a program on sexually exploited teenage girls was shared. Congresswoman Barbara Lee wasn't able to be there but she sent Tina Flores who gave me something to look forward to on the fifth anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, Lee's townhall.

This was the context of an evening that ended so fittingly with Jennifer Jones, whose mother was in the hospital as she sang her well --"my mom's not dying; our women are like the Ice Age," she said. "We're not going anywhere."

As McKinney and Robert H. King hugged and then caught up with one another's news....I looked around the sanctuary at First Congregational Church of Oakland, a place I have so many fond memories of. I remember seeing Yolanda King here at the end of the Season of Peace, April 4, the anniversary of her father's death. I recall the concert Jennifer Jones' mentioned where she sang for the last time with the Oakland Youth Chorus...I remember the many "In the Name of Love" events there, Media Alliance's celebration where Alice Walker and Amy Goodman were in conversation. I can't begin to recall all the excellent author events. Such fond memories. McKinney was seated alone and we just kind of invaded her space-the perfect public persona she took pictures with my students and I, as she put on her buttons: Free SF8 and one with Martin Luther King Jr.'s photo. I thought about Alice Walker again and her home state, Georgia, a state reflective of a country that was not ready for Cynthia McKinney. Barbara Lee's letter, read by Tina Flores, spoke of how "women held up half the sky," McKinney was holding up more than that, if one considered her involvement in setting the record straight on Capitol Hill. She is the one that introduced legislation to impeach the president, his secretary of state, Rice and Vice President Cheney. She led the New Orleans tribunal and if you remember, the fact finding inquiries into the electoral fiasco in Florida and Ohio. "Black men between 16-64 make up half the unemployed in that state." She said stated in a litany of statistics masquerading as a speech. That's Clinton's state, I thought. "In Chicago, it will take 200 years," according to the State of the Dream Report (c/o United for a Fair Economy), "before black Chicagoans quality of life equals that of its white residents." That's Obama's city, I thought. Hum.

"Don't let them cut your tongue out-you are the diamond, not the one mined but the one in the sky," Climbing PoeTree said just moments earlier. "It's time to move like water."

McKinney mentioned Jena, Louisiana, where black boys were charged for their retaliation to the nooses hung on the tree at their high school, but the hate criminals were allowed to walk freely without consequence. She spoke about political power and the power of positioning oneself in the gears of mechanisms until they grind shut. (She also mentioned that the new WCRC executive director Anisha Desai comes from United for a Fair Economy-there are no coincidences.)

The former congresswoman said references to Obama's religion and Clinton's cleavage were diversions to keep the public distracted about the issues of governance. Will either nominee take control of the car and park it while they contemplate alternative transportation?

Eli Painted Crow said, "We forget to stay connected to real relationships. She said she was for peace and that we would not have peace as long as we were always fighting against something-the very nature of protest is violence. She told us about 13 Grandmothers for Peace and the medicine of the drum, a drum created by women for men. "Now women are taking back the drum." She said. We created the drum to teach men to respect women, to respect the earth-this is the story left out. We were born with power and despite the protests by some men and women to women drummers, we have taken it back and they will get used to it. Eli Painted Crow said as she invited us to sing a song with her as she held the circular instrument and mallet in her hands and sang.

"We are drumming for peace," she said as she recalled meeting a soldier in Iraq from Ireland with a drum. "We all have drums in our culture. (These) songs are my prayers...and I added dance is my worship. The grandmothers are supporting this drumming for peace movement which will happen again this October in Washington. She invited all of us to stand and raise our vibrations, to get up and stand for something.

"The revolution starts within," Climbing PoeTree said in the poem before Jennifer Jones came on.

McCoy Tyner Trio with Savion Glover

McCoy Tyner is a consummate pianist with over 80 albums to his name. He is one of the greatest and most influential jazz artists of all time. The former member of John Coltrane's quartet, received the President's Award this year at the Grammy's. He spoke with reporters via a telephone conference call where the questions ranged from how he met Savion Glover and how travel influences his playing, to the relationship between jazz and dance.

Tyner sounded strong. Always pleasant, he complimented reporters on questions and thanked us for our time when the interview concluded. As we waited for the session to begin the host played a cut from Tyner's 2007 release on his label, "Walk Spirit, Talk Spirit." I wished I'd had the opportunity to listen to it in its entirety. Blue Note didn't give the publicist any copies and didn't send me one when we asked. That disappointment aside, as I prepared for the occasion I couldn't help but reflect on one of my favorite artists and human beings, McCoy Tyner. His integrity is reflected in his music, which is something Savion Glover shares with him in his medium, dance. It is not surprising that Glover and Tyner share such an affinity. Several times during the interview, Tyner spoke of Glover's musicality, and rhythm. He said Glover was like a horn-his dancing a saxophone solo.

Though Tyner and Glover first worked together at the Blue Note in New York in 2005, Tyner studied dance when he was a teenager in Philly where he grew up. He made it clear that the piano came first but those brothers tap dancing and the others playing drums and doing African dance drew him in.

"It was interesting to me to see people studying tap," Tyner recollected.
"I connected with Savion right away. He's very musical, so the connection happened. He's like a horn player-he hears what you're doing rhythmically-he's very fluid when it comes to music."

"If you look back in the history, most tap dancers tapped to jazz, the rhythmic patterns of the music I've been involved in all these years. Even before my coming on the scene, if you look back historically-tap played a enormous part and I'm happy to see it happening again."

Tyner spoke of the piano as a percussion instrument and tap as an indigenous African use of percussion in dance when the drum was banned. "Tap is a rhythmic concept which is definitely a part of the African American experience and American experience as well." He said.

"The thing is that the piano is a string and percussion instrument, because you have to strike it -strike the keys and the hammers which in turn hit the strings. It is a very unique instrument in that sense. I'm just glad that I studied piano. It was my only instrument when I was growing up, but I found it to be very unique and so I've been doing it a long time.

When asked what next? Tyner waxes philosophical. "I take (life) a step at a time -he says and laughs. "I don't want to get ahead of myself. I enjoy each day. Everyday is different. Every experience is different. Every place is different. I accept it that way rather than try to be presumptuous make things happen in a certain way-I learn that way. I appreciate the moment.

He agreed with one reporter that there was artistic territory he hadn't covered but said he was in no rush to leave this moment for the next. "It (inspiration or next work) will make itself known as I go along." He said. "Sometimes it springs from something else that I'm doing-offspring of something else. I think everything's connected; I really do."

Tyner didn't answer the question completely when asked how the program Friday evening, March 14, would proceed-completely improvised or rehearsed. I've seen Glover do both. I saw him at Stanford Lively Arts last year I think with a classical orchestra and his jazz band. It was all improvised in the second half which was pretty amazing to watch.

Tyner seemed to be looking forward to the gig as much as we were. He said, "Glover's a great improviser. He's just using his feet-you know. We connect that way rhythmically, melodically as well. His feet are instruments and like I said I was affiliated with dancers in the past and this bring back wonderful memories."

Catch the McCoy Tyner Trio with special guest Savion Glover, Friday, March 14, at Davies Symphony Hall, Grove at Van Ness in San Francisco, at 8 p.m. Visit www.sfjazz.org or call (866) 920-5299. Other highlights this Spring Season are: Charles Lloyd's New Quartet, Friday, March 28; Hiromi, Friday April 4; Wayne Shorter with Imani Winds Friday, April 11; Bobbie McFerrin, Chick Corea and Jack DeJohnette, Thursday, April 17; Lura, Friday, April 18; Ernestine Anderson, Saturday, April 26; Diane Reeves, Saturday, May 24... and on my birthday, the season finale, June 20, is Taj Mahal and KebMo.

Angélique Kidjo

This wonderful singer from Benin, West Africa performs at Cal Performances this Friday, March 14, 8 p.m., at Zellerbach Auditorium, UC Berkeley. Visit calperformances.org.

Peru Negro

This wonderful ensemble which preserves the dance and musical traditions of Afro-Peru is back in town next week performing at Cal Performances March 20, 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Auditorium UC Berkeley.
Visit www.calperformances.org.

Gonzalo Rubalcaba

Gonzalo Rubalcaba is in town for two weeks at Yoshi's San Francisco, March 10-12 and Oakland, March 13-16. Call (415) 655-5600 0r (510) 238-9200 or visit www.yoshis.com.

Terrence Brewer

Terrance Brewer CD Release party Monday, March 17 at Yoshi's jack London Square. Call (510) 238-9200 or visit www.yoshis.com

The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo

Human Rights Watch Film Festival, screening of: "The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo," by Lisa F. Jackson, is Thursday, March 13, 7:00 p.m., at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St. at Third in San Francisco. The director will be at the screening to answer questions afterwards. When I watched the film, I was shocked at the cavalier attitude of a society where toddlers and old women were being raped by soldiers, black and white.

Congo, a minerally rich region in Central West Africa is a war zone where international brokers keep conflict stirred up domestically so they can rob the country blind. In the meantime, the women and children suffer as men use rape as a weapon to destroy families and cement the devastation of this nation.

Perhaps it was director Lisa F. Jackson's empathy, herself a rape survivor, something the Congolese women found hard to believe-such are the myths surrounding America, that she'd been raped and her assailants still at large which made this film so much more than another treatise on what's wrong in Africa.

Rape is a problem in industrialized nations like America as well, a place where women are commodified and still, so many laws after the Voting Rights Act, Affirmative Actions and Equal Rights laws, so much is still unequal. But at least we have laws against this, whereas in Congo, the rape crisis team is one officer, the hospitals with beds for the women assaulted a great distance from the more volatile areas -those in the rural areas of the country, and the bordering countries, Rwanda and Uganda, keep things stirred up as soldiers from there kill, rape and maim the civilian population in Eastern Congo.

Women are gang raped, then objects like sticks are shoved in their vaginas or rectums. One woman was held over a fire and her buttocks burned off. The soldiers interviewed said some of the rapes are a part of rituals where they are advised to use rape to ensure success on the battlefield. This reminded me of the lore around HIV and AIDS cures-"rape a virgin and you're cured, so men rape little girls and babies." Other men said that rape was the result of being away from home in the bush too long, so if the woman doesn't give it up freely, they take it. Most men had lost count of how many women they'd raped. The highest number quoted was 25.

One of the physicians at a local hospital interviewed spoke of the horrible wounds he'd treated. At a church, the priest spoke of what most of his parishioners had experienced. There was a support group for women who were rape survivors, most tossed out of their homes stigmatized.

Despite all of this the women fight and on March 8, over the past 7-8 years the women have taken this matter to the streets in a march, somewhat like the movement here "to reclaim the night." The director said the officer and the doctor have all received death threats. She said no one is "safe," but they continue the work anyway. She said the push is to get the men responsible prosecuted and this means the heads of state of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda in Kinshasa, Kampala and Kabila need to recognize rape for the weapon of war it is.

The film is going to have an airing on HBO next month April 8-9. On the HBO website there will also be follow-up information on how the public can get involved, plus more information about the region and the people involved. At one point, the director said, the state turned off the water at the hospital for months because it felt, with the influx of NGOs and camera crews from various media outlets there was also money coming in.

The doctor sent a memo to Kinshasa stating that if it wanted the blood of innocent victims on its hands keep it up and it would be in the international press-they turned the water back on.

Craziness like this is what keeps the rape and subjugation and disenfranchisement of women going here and elsewhere in Africa from the rapes in Congo to the child bride phenomena in East Africa, and female genital mutilation elsewhere. We should all be wailing over the atrocities, perhaps if we were, something would change-perhaps if Africa realized what it lost when so many of its brothers and mothers and sisters were sold and kidnapped into chattel slavery, then this madness would stop-but the connection between this fratricide and the other isn't spoken of despite the linkages.

The director shows the many children, who have to live with this legacy-their violent conception and the stigma that they can never surrender. Young girls, now 17-18 spoke about wanting to get married, but who would marry them-"damaged goods"? I worried about the guide's family whose first wife had been killed by the Hutus. He and his wife had three girls. Would they be safe? There are Hutus in Congo presently warring with native forces. Since 1998 a brutal war has been raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where over 4 million people have died. No one talks about this genocide-it overtakes that in Dafur.

The UN army official interviewed said the rape situation is at a crisis level, yet, no one talks about it and no one-high level government officials, does anything about it. The native disrespect of African women has leaked into the multinational armed forces there to help-all of them extort money, favors and goods for keep the communities they guard safe. The director gets a lift in a motorcades as gunfire is heard in the background.

The women told their stories on camera with the hope that this film would alert others to their plight, get help for the victims and prevent the rape of others. I hope it does.

Tickets are: Regular $8, Members/Students/Teachers $6. For ticket information: http://www.ybca.org/visit/box_office.aspx For more information, call or go to Human Rights Film Festival http://www.ybca.org/tickets/production.aspx?

Stage Bridge presents: Chicken Sunday

The theatre is at the First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison Street. Show time is 3:00 p.m. Doors open at 2:45 p.m. Tickets are $12 for all those 12 and up. Younger children pay $5. Stage Bridge is the oldest senior theatre in the nation. Experience the joyful and inspired story of neighbors from different cultures and generations who connect through the power of fried chicken and Ukrainian eggs.

Meet the characters after the show and enjoy an egg painting demonstration at the 17th annual old fashioned ice cream social presented by Stagebridge Theatre Company. For more information call Stagebridge at (510) 444-4755, email: 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 or visit www.stagebridge.org

"The Journey Back is the Journey Forward"

Diamano Coura's 13th Annual: Collage des Cultures Africaines is March 13-16, 2008 at the Malonga Casquelourd Center, 1428 Alice Street, in Oakland. There will be 20 dance and drum workshops, taught by leading Masters of African Dance & Drum Culture; free school performance/craft sessions, with a special concert performance highlight, including renowned companies in African and African derived dance and music Saturday, March 15, at 8 p.m. If you attended Black Choreographers Here and Now last month, you saw an except of the larger work premiering this weekend. Visit http://www.diamanocoura.org/html/events.html or call (510) 733-1077. Email: 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

Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company Annual Spring Show: Game Over

The Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company present: Game Over: Escaping the dropout factory A dance/theater/martial arts show with a message straight from the heart. The annual show is Friday, March 14th @ 7:30 p.m., Saturday, March 15th @ 7:30 p.m. ASL interpreted, and Sunday, March 16th @ 3pm ASL interpreted. All shows are at the Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St, Oakland. The venue is across the street from Laney BART and AC Transit accessible. Directions available at www.laney.peralta.edu

Tickets are $12-$20 sliding scale for adults and for youth 18 and under, tickets are $6. Groups rates are available. Advance tickets are available through brown paper tickets at (800) 838-3006 or www.destinyarts.org For more information contact Destiny Arts Center at (510) 597-1619.

Keith Carson-Planning and Caring For Aging Loved Ones Workshop Event

The event is Saturday, March 15, 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Oakland Veterans Building. Visit http://www.acgov.org/board/district5/event.htm and http://www.acgov.org/board/district5/caring/

Blind Boys of Alabama

The Blind Boys of Alabama are Jimmy Carter, Bishop Billy Bowers, and Ben Moore (vocals); Eric "Ricky" McKinnie (drums); Joey Williams (lead guitar); Caleb "Bobby" Butler (rhythm guitar); and Tracy Pierce, bass. Their concerts are joyous celebrations. The Boston Globe observed earlier this month, "In concert, the Blind Boys of Alabama still raise up their bluesy hallelujahs to rarefied soul-groove highs."

For their latest album, Down in New Orleans (released in January of this year), Blind Boys recorded in the Crescent City for the first time in their long history. Like New Orleans itself, the album finds joy even in the depths of the blues focusing on the connection between southern gospel and New Orleans R&B. "Like that Mahalia Jackson song tells us," says Blind Boy singer Jimmy Carter, referring to one of the tracks from the new CD that was originally recorded by the queen of New Orleans gospel, "if we could help somebody in New Orleans-help them by singing a song, help them by recording this album-then we will feel blessed."

Tickets for the Blind Boys of Alabama, presented by Stanford Lively Arts on Saturday, March 15 at 8:00 p.m. in Memorial Auditorium, range from $24 to $48 for adults and $12 to $24 for Stanford students. Half-price tickets are available for young people ages 15 and under and discounts are available for groups and non-Stanford students. For tickets and more information, call 650-725-ARTS (2787) or visit http://livelyarts.stanford.edu.

Jazz at the Chimes presents: Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet

Sunday March 16, at the Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland, at 2 p.m. the jazz series continues. This is a crematorium though the dead are content to stay in their draws, urns or other containers there and elsewhere on the block that hosts some of Oakland's more famous inhabitants. Tickets are $15 general/$10 seniors & students Kids under 12 are free. Purchase tickets at the door; cash only. The box office opens at 12:30 p.m. There is plenty of free parking. For information call (510).228.3218 or email 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

'Blade to Heat'

Set in the 1959 in a boxing ring, more is at stake than the prize belt and all its trappings for the two men, one a challenger, the other a king aging out of his crown. Not set in San Francisco, but certainly staged here, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that sex was a thinly veiled subplot which eventually became the entire story, that and its companion violence-but I was, surprised, that is.

In the world we enter, it seems as if the black boxers can only fight Mexicans, Afro-Latinos like Cuban Mantequilla Decima, fights up-and-coming Pedro Quinn. The two retired coaches who run the gym, Rhonnie Washington's "Three-Finger Jack" and Carlos Baron's "Alacran." Not able to really compete, Three-Fingers says at some point, the men now live through the younger fighters who come through the doors. In the end, as each man stands in their champ's corner advising and soothing, the ring is a place where brutality and life vie with one another, as does love.

Johnny Moreno's "Pedro" loves L. Peter Callender's "Decima." He says he dreamed about being in the ring with him, it was so unreal, he kept smiling and apologizing as he hit his idol. Pedro knew no softness, all he knew was war, fighting, even when caressing his lover, he didn't know how to do this without injuring the one he loved.

He even killed the one thing that cared about him, his dog and then lied about it. The boy was searching for a place for himself in the world, while rumors were flying about his and his opponents sexuality. Boxing is a masculine activity.
I guess like the military, one shouldn't ask and I guess if it comes up, kiss your opponent.

The acting is superb. I really liked the young boxer, and his confusion over his life and everything except his one vocation-fighting. The ensemble work is great too, the coaches and the news reporter. Melissa Navarro is great as Decima's girl and Vontress Mitchell's "Garnet" as Pedro's friend. Garnet is a great singer, or as he says, impersonator-. It's funny how Decima's girl grew up with his contender, Pedro, and that her dad trained him. What manhood has to do with any of this is interesting, when one looks at the sport 50 years later and sees women in the ring fighting professionally. Would a male boxer kill his opponent today if he called him a faggot? Would a boxer tell the world he was gay? Would anyone care, would it matter?

The story is based on that of Emile Alphonse Griffith and Benny "Kid" Paret, both world champions in both the Welterweight and Middleweight divisions in the late ‘50s. In a bout in 1962 the Kid calls Griffith a name and the referees have to hold him back. Not known for having a string punch, Griffith fires off 15 ounces at Paret, who is stuck on the ropes. The referee doesn't stop the fight and Paret never regains consciousness. Though Blade to the Heat, makes no direct reference the players or the bout that almost ended professional boxing, telling the story from the contender's perspective humanizes the sport and the people who make their living from it, trainers, lovers, journalists, referees, fans who wager for money and those who just enjoy its primal brutality.

It is said more than once that one can look at the sport homoerotically-even as a spectator. The instigator who accuses Decima of being homosexual when he loses the bout causes Decima to question his own manhood. He sees the upcoming fight with Pedro as a way to defend his manhood. Our society defines manhood as brutal and violent. We see this in the ring in 1959. We see it in military games, rap videos, toys boys are encouraged to buy, popular games and the stigma still attached to love between men whether that is physical or fraternal.

Blade to Heat attempts to peel away the social improprieties so that we can see the true men in the ring-the ring life -in fact on the floor it says: "Beyond complete immortal now" and "Only the music and he swings, oh swings."

Performed in 90 minutes without an intermission, Blade to the Heat -with it's great music and lighting design, awesome set and great frontal nudity, courtesy of L.Peter Callendar as Decima, closes Sunday, March 16. Shows are Thursday-Sunday at 8 p.m. at Thick House, 1695 18th Street, San Francisco, (415) 401-8081 or http://www.thickhouse.org/

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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