Wanda's Picks

Keith Josef Adkins' joins us to talk about a reading Monday, April 15, 2013, at LaMama Theatre of his The Patron Saint of Peanuts, first produced a play based on the life of George Washington Carver, commissioned and produced at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's Southern Writer's Project 2004). Other plays include Farewell Miss Cotton (Black Dahlia Theater February 2006), Crossing America (Mark Taper's New Works Festival 2005), Wilberforce (National Black Theater Festival 2005, Cleveland Public Theatre New Plays Festival, Hartford Stage New Voices). Honors include: Alliance Theater's August Wilsom Memorial Commission, Mark Taper Forum's Richard Sherwood Distinguished Emerging Theater Artist Award, two Best Play Awards at the Cleveland Public Theatre New Plays Festival (Wilberforce and On the Hills of Black America), a Van Lier Fellowship (New York Theater Workshop), and an EST/Sloan Science Foundation playwriting grant. http://www.playscripts.com/author?authorid=348#playdetails We close with cast and the director of The Expulsion of Malcolm X, Americ's world premiere at Southside Theatre in Ft. Mason Center, in San Francisco: DeJuan Conner (Malcolm X), Abbie Rhone (Elijah Muhammad), Michael Lange (director).

Keith Josef Adkins' joins us to talk about a reading Monday, April 15, 2013, at LaMama Theatre of his The Patron Saint of Peanuts, first produced a play based on the life of George Washington Carver, commissioned and produced at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's Southern Writer's Project 2004). Other plays include Farewell Miss Cotton (Black Dahlia Theater February 2006), Crossing America (Mark Taper's New Works Festival 2005), Wilberforce (National Black Theater Festival 2005, Cleveland Public Theatre New Plays Festival, Hartford Stage New Voices). Honors include: Alliance Theater's August Wilsom Memorial Commission, Mark Taper Forum's Richard Sherwood Distinguished Emerging Theater Artist Award, two Best Play Awards at the Cleveland Public Theatre New Plays Festival (Wilberforce and On the Hills of Black America), a Van Lier Fellowship (New York Theater Workshop), and an EST/Sloan Science Foundation playwriting grant. http://www.playscripts.com/author?authorid=348#playdetails We close with cast and the director of The Expulsion of Malcolm X, Americ's world premiere at Southside Theatre in Ft. Mason Center, in San Francisco: DeJuan Conner (Malcolm X), Abbie Rhone (Elijah Muhammad), Michael Lange (director).

We open the show today, which is dedicated to freedom fighter, Mrs. Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (Feb. 4, 1913-Oct. 24, 2006) with an interview with scholar and Parks biographer, Jeanne Theoharis, Ph.D., a professor at Brooklyn College, CUNY NY.  Her new book, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, comes on the 100th year of Mrs. Parks's life. Dr. Theoharis is the author and coauthor of six books and numerous articles on the black freedom struggle and the contemporary politics of race in the United States. We open with Lift Ev'ry Voice/Star Spangled Banner by Rene Marie and Rosa Parks speaking Oct. 16, 1995 at the Million Man March. Note the interesting coincidence of her departure from this realm is also in October. We close the program with an interview with Larry Americ Allen, playwright whose The Expulsion of Malcolm X opens this evening at the Southside Theatre at Ft. Mason Ctr., Bldg. D, 3rd Floor, for a month long run Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m., Sundays, 3 p.m. April 12-May 5, 2013. Call (510) 213-0401 or brownpapertickets.com

We open the show today, which is dedicated to freedom fighter, Mrs. Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (Feb. 4, 1913-Oct. 24, 2006) with an interview with scholar and Parks biographer, Jeanne Theoharis, Ph.D., a professor at Brooklyn College, CUNY NY.  Her new book, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, comes on the 100th year of Mrs. Parks's life. Dr. Theoharis is the author and coauthor of six books and numerous articles on the black freedom struggle and the contemporary politics of race in the United States. We open with Lift Ev'ry Voice/Star Spangled Banner by Rene Marie and Rosa Parks speaking Oct. 16, 1995 at the Million Man March. Note the interesting coincidence of her departure from this realm is also in October. We close the program with an interview with Larry Americ Allen, playwright whose The Expulsion of Malcolm X opens this evening at the Southside Theatre at Ft. Mason Ctr., Bldg. D, 3rd Floor, for a month long run Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m., Sundays, 3 p.m. April 12-May 5, 2013. Call (510) 213-0401 or brownpapertickets.com

We open with an interview with Larry Americ Allen re: the World Premiere of "The Expulsion of Malcolm X," which opens in San Francisco at the Southside Theatre in Ft. Mason Center, Bldg. D., 3rd floor, (510) 213-0401. Directed by Michael Lange, the play runs F-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun., 3 p.m. April 12-May 5, 2013, browntickets. The next interview is with the subjects: Amlan Ganguly, Salim Shekh, and Sikha Patra, in Nicole Newnham and Maren Granger-Monsen's film, which opened in SF Bay Area theatres, April 5, 2013, The Revolutionary Optimists: How Far Would You Go to Change Your World?  Amlan Ganguly empowers children to become activists and educators, with powerful results. The Revolutionary Optimists follows him as he attempts to replicate his work in the brick fields outside the city, where children live and work in unimaginable conditions.Using street theater, puppetry, and dance as their weapons, the children in Calcutta's slums have cut their neighborhoods' malaria and diarrhea rates in half, and turned former garbage dumps into playing fields. Now, pushing at the limits of optimism, Amlan is attempting to take his work into the brickfields outside Calcutta, where spend their days making and carrying bricks using methods unchanged by centuries. The Revolutionary Optimists proposes a workable solution to intractable problems associated with poverty, including preventable diseases and ineffectual governance. Ganguly's story suggests that education and child empowerment are crucial keys to lifting entire societies out of hopelessness. Visit http://revolutionaryoptimists.org/ The film airs in June 17, 2013 on http://www.itvs.org/films/revolutionary-optimists

We open with an interview with Larry Americ Allen re: the World Premiere of "The Expulsion of Malcolm X," which opens in San Francisco at the Southside Theatre in Ft. Mason Center, Bldg. D., 3rd floor, (510) 213-0401. Directed by Michael Lange, the play runs F-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun., 3 p.m. April 12-May 5, 2013, browntickets. The next interview is with the subjects: Amlan Ganguly, Salim Shekh, and Sikha Patra, in Nicole Newnham and Maren Granger-Monsen's film, which opened in SF Bay Area theatres, April 5, 2013, The Revolutionary Optimists: How Far Would You Go to Change Your World?  Amlan Ganguly empowers children to become activists and educators, with powerful results. The Revolutionary Optimists follows him as he attempts to replicate his work in the brick fields outside the city, where children live and work in unimaginable conditions.Using street theater, puppetry, and dance as their weapons, the children in Calcutta's slums have cut their neighborhoods' malaria and diarrhea rates in half, and turned former garbage dumps into playing fields. Now, pushing at the limits of optimism, Amlan is attempting to take his work into the brickfields outside Calcutta, where spend their days making and carrying bricks using methods unchanged by centuries. The Revolutionary Optimists proposes a workable solution to intractable problems associated with poverty, including preventable diseases and ineffectual governance. Ganguly's story suggests that education and child empowerment are crucial keys to lifting entire societies out of hopelessness. Visit http://revolutionaryoptimists.org/ The film airs in June 17, 2013 on http://www.itvs.org/films/revolutionary-optimists

We open with an interview with Bay Area author, journalist and political columnist J. Douglas Allen-Taylor about his  first novel, Sugaree Rising, set in the South Carolina coastal area Lowcountry in the late Depression years and discuss his well-crafted female characters like narrator Yally, Aunt Soo, Na'Risa, Nana'Timbi, Eshy. . . to hold the bridge between the past and the present as this community of Gullah people face an enemy threatening to end their collective lives. They resist while Yally feet in the middle of the path finds no rest, as her beloved community seems to be unraveling and withit her identity. Sugaree shows there are many ways to die, some more painful than others. And what do we do with the dead who refuse burial? http://www.sugareerising.com/

Our next guest, David Roach is the founder of the Oakland International Film Festival, Apr. 4-7, 2013 http://www.oaklandinternationalfilmfestival.com/film-schedule/ 

We close with an interview with Bernadette Cooper her DIVA AND A TURNTABLE TOUR, Saturday, April 13, 2013, 8pm $29 & 10pm $27, open dance floor for 10pm show at Yoshi's in Oakland, CA. KLYMAXX, the legendary platinum-selling all female band, is synonymous with such chart hits as “The Men All Pause,” “Meeting in the Ladies Room,” “Sexy,” “I'd Still Say Yes,” “Divas Need Love Too,” and the band's biggest hit, the top five Billboard single, “I Miss You." And when you think of the groundbreaking Pop/R&B funk unit, you can't help but also think of its founding leader, musician, writer and producer, Bernadette Cooper.

We open with an interview with Bay Area author, journalist and political columnist J. Douglas Allen-Taylor about his  first novel, Sugaree Rising, set in the South Carolina coastal area Lowcountry in the late Depression years and discuss his well-crafted female characters like narrator Yally, Aunt Soo, Na'Risa, Nana'Timbi, Eshy. . . to hold the bridge between the past and the present as this community of Gullah people face an enemy threatening to end their collective lives. They resist while Yally feet in the middle of the path finds no rest, as her beloved community seems to be unraveling and withit her identity. Sugaree shows there are many ways to die, some more painful than others. And what do we do with the dead who refuse burial? http://www.sugareerising.com/

Our next guest, David Roach is the founder of the Oakland International Film Festival, Apr. 4-7, 2013 http://www.oaklandinternationalfilmfestival.com/film-schedule/ 

We close with an interview with Bernadette Cooper her DIVA AND A TURNTABLE TOUR, Saturday, April 13, 2013, 8pm $29 & 10pm $27, open dance floor for 10pm show at Yoshi's in Oakland, CA. KLYMAXX, the legendary platinum-selling all female band, is synonymous with such chart hits as “The Men All Pause,” “Meeting in the Ladies Room,” “Sexy,” “I'd Still Say Yes,” “Divas Need Love Too,” and the band's biggest hit, the top five Billboard single, “I Miss You." And when you think of the groundbreaking Pop/R&B funk unit, you can't help but also think of its founding leader, musician, writer and producer, Bernadette Cooper.

Wanda Sabir welcomes Simone Missick, (Camae) in Katori Hall's TheMountaintop at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto, CA, through Apr. 7, 2013 with performances Thursday, Friday and Sunday afternoon. Visit www.theatreworks.org Wanda's Picks is a black arts and culture show. Mountaintop looks at the evening before Martin Luther King is killed. The one act play  takes place at the Lorraine Motel the night before. King and Camae, a maid, spend the night together in conversation, comradery and comfort. We meet a King who smokes Pall Malls, is honest about his fears, loves his family, and is a devoted servant to his creator even when the two disagree. Visit http://www.theatreworks.org/ Our next guest Jovelyn Richards joins us as scheduled to speak about her Nappy Hair Love Stories and the kickstarter campaign to mount them all (4) this summer. Ms. Richards joins us to talk about her Nappy Headed Love Stories Series kickstarter campaign. We close with Konda Mason who speaks about the benefit program she is hosting for East Bay Meditation Center: The Dream Never Dies at UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall, Thursday, April 4, 2013, 7 p.m. Visit http://www.eastbaymeditation.org/

Music: Rene Marie's Just My Imagination; Sweet Honey's Hope; Sowethu Gospel Choir's Grace.

Wanda Sabir welcomes Simone Missick, (Camae) in Katori Hall's TheMountaintop at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto, CA, through Apr. 7, 2013 with performances Thursday, Friday and Sunday afternoon. Visit www.theatreworks.org Wanda's Picks is a black arts and culture show. Mountaintop looks at the evening before Martin Luther King is killed. The one act play  takes place at the Lorraine Motel the night before. King and Camae, a maid, spend the night together in conversation, comradery and comfort. We meet a King who smokes Pall Malls, is honest about his fears, loves his family, and is a devoted servant to his creator even when the two disagree. Visit http://www.theatreworks.org/ Our next guest Jovelyn Richards joins us as scheduled to speak about her Nappy Hair Love Stories and the kickstarter campaign to mount them all (4) this summer. Ms. Richards joins us to talk about her Nappy Headed Love Stories Series kickstarter campaign. We close with Konda Mason who speaks about the benefit program she is hosting for East Bay Meditation Center: The Dream Never Dies at UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall, Thursday, April 4, 2013, 7 p.m. Visit http://www.eastbaymeditation.org/

Music: Rene Marie's Just My Imagination; Sweet Honey's Hope; Sowethu Gospel Choir's Grace.