Wanda's Picks

Today we feature interviews with two artists: Billy Woodberry, director, Bless Their Little Hearts; The Pocketbook, both screening as a part of LA Rebellion at UC Berkeley Pacific Film Archivein Berkeley tonight at 7 PM. Visit bampfa.edu for tickets and information about the series which continues through Oct. 31. The director is flying up from Los Angeles and will be at the screenings. Billy Woodberry is an independent filmmaker who graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles Film/Television Department with an MFA in production. He has appeared in several films by Charles Burnett, Thom Anderson and James Benning. His works have screened at the Camera Austria Symposium, Harvard Film Archive, Human Rights Watch Film Festival and Museum of Modern Art. He has taught in the Art School and the Film/Video School at CalArts since 1989 and has been a member of the Board of the Film Forum, Los Angeles since 1998. Our first interview is with Navarasa Founder and Artistic Director: Dr. Aparna Sindhoor. Navarasa is at La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley for two nights, Thursday-Friday, Oct. 11-12, 8 PM, presenting their work: Encounters. Dr. Sindhoor is a choreographer, director, actor and singer. Critics have hailed Sindhoor as a powerful voice for creating contemporary works of extraordinary artistry and works that challenge the boundaries of traditional Indian dance, yet contribute to strengthening that tradition. We feature music from the company repertoire.

Music: Luisa Maita: Amour & Peace; Archie Shepp: "Arrival [Horace Parlan]."

We open the show with a conversation with Khary L. Moye, Michael Lange, Gift Harris, all cast from "A Soldier's Play," Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1982). (Fuller also founded the founder of the Afro-American Arts Theatre in Philadelphia, 1967). Directed by Abbie Rhone, the play, which opened Sept. 28 continues Friday-Sat., 8 PM, Sun. 3 PM in San Francisco at the Southside Theatre, Bldg. For tickets and information call: (510) 213-0401. We then shift to an archival interview with director, Robin Fryday, who speaks in Feb. 22, this year about "Barber of Birmingham," nominated for a Grammy. We close with an interview with Professor Manu Ampim about The Save Nubia Project. The classical African civilizations of ancient Kush and Nubia are in jeopardy of being permanently flooded by a series of dams along the Nile River in northern and central Sudan. Time is limited for Prof. Manu Ampim and his research team to document the remaining archaeological evidence before the flooding begins. The mission will require $50,000 to complete and help convince UNESCO to begin protection of the sites. The fundraiser is Saturday, October 13, 2012 from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM at the Linen Life Gallery, 770 E 14th St., San Leandro, CA 94577, (510) 273-2456.

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the writing, visual and performing arts of African people in the Diaspora. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work filled with raw unfettered passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay! Remember to tune in on Wednesdays from 6 AM PST to 7 or 8 AM and on Fridays from 8 AM to 10 AM. We also host special broadcasts from time to time.

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the writing, visual and performing arts of African people in the Diaspora. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work filled with raw unfettered passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay! Remember to tune in on Wednesdays from 6 AM PST to 7 or 8 AM and on Fridays from 8 AM to 10 AM. We also host special broadcasts from time to time.

The third annual African Film Festival is almost upon us. Today we speak to Festival founder and Artistic Director, Chike Nwoffiah. Set in beautiful Silicon Valley, California – the high-tech capital of the world, the Silicon Valley African Film Festival (SVAFF) provides audiences a lens to the real Africa.The mission of the Festival is to promote an understanding and appreciation of Africa and Africans through moving images. The Festival promises "an enchanting journey across the continent in a historic showcase of feature films, shorts and animations from Africa’s seasoned and emerging first-voice filmmakers. Visit http://www.svaff.org

30+ films16 countries1 Weekend

We close with an interview with Carolyn Butts, Director & Founder, Reel Sisters Film Festival & Lecture Series in Brooklyn, Oct. 13-14, 2012. In its 15th year, we are happy to speak to the director. Visit http://reelsisters.com/

Author, James Kilgore joins us to talk about his latest book, murder mystery set in Oakland and Zimbabwe, Prudence Couldn’t Swim. He is in town for an author event at Freedom Archives: From Fugitive to Fiction: The Literary and Political Odyssey of James Kilgore, Sunday September 30, 2012: 4-6pm, 518 Valencia Street - San Francisco. From the Archives: Abigail Disney speaks about the Women and Girls Lead Initiative launched in Oct. 2011 on PBS. Halifu Osumare, Ph.D.  Black Popular Culture and Dance Studies Scholar, joins us to speak about her latest book: The Hiplife in Ghana: West African Indigenization of Hip-Hop & the reading at Underground Books in Sacramento, Sat., Sept. 29, 2-4 p.m. Visit http://www.halifuosumare.com/ Professor Halifu Osumare is currently Associate Professor and Director of African American and African Studies at University of California, Davis. She has been a dancer, choreographer, arts administrator, and scholar of black popular culture for over thirty years in the US & in Ghana, Nigeria, Malawi &Kenya. Her teaching and writing spans the traditional African to the contemporary African American. She holds a M.A. in Dance Ethnology from San Francisco State University and a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Hawai`i at Manoa.Members of The Pyramids:Idris Ackamoor, Kenneth Nash & Kimathi Asante, on the occasion of their 40 Anniversary release: “Otherworldly” join us to talk about The Underground Jazz Cabaret performance Nov. 1-3 at The African American Art and Culture Complex Burial Clay Theater, 762 Fulton Street, in San Francisco. Visit www.culturalodyssey.org/season or (415) 292-1850 for tickets.

Dagmar Schultz, director, speaks about her new film: AUDRE LORDE - THE BERLIN YEARS 1984 to 1992 explores a little-known chapter of the writer’s prolific life, a period in which she helped ignite the Afro-German Movement and made lasting contributions to the German political and cultural scene before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the German reunification. Her film screens as a part of Berlin and Beyond:http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/saf/prj/bby/enindex.htm Director Ayodele Wordslanger Nzinga, MA, MFA, PhD, is a writer, educator, playwright, director and performance artist who uses art as a medium of conversation within marginalized populations. Saturday, September 29, 2012, and October 20, 2012: 3 performances, 4:00PM, 5:00PM, & 6:30PM showings.

Theater, Poetry & Bar-b-Q performances of Rag Doll Lullaby, by William Crossman,  a new one-act play about a Black mother’s and daughter’s inseparable bond of love and courage in the face of racism present and past. Directed by Ayodele Wordslanger Nzinga the work is performed by The Lower Bottom Playaz www.lowerbottomplayaz.com The classical African civilizations of ancient Kush and Nubia are in jeopardy of being permanently flooded by a series of dams along the Nile River in northern and central Sudan. Time is limited for Prof. Manu Ampim, our guest, along with Ammnah Babikir, whose people are being threatened, the professor's research team to document the remaining archaeological evidence before the flooding begins. The mission will require $50,000 to complete and help convince UNESCO to begin protection of the sites. The fundraiser is Sat., Oct. 13, 2012 from 3-6 PM at savenubia.org

Today we speak to Amit Ashraf, director of Runaway (Udhao) and composer, Jacob Yoffee, who are in town for the screening this evening at 3rdi South Asian Film Festival, Bollywood and Beyond, 7:15 PM at the Roxie Theatre. Visit thirdi.org/festival A graduate of NYU’s film and dramatic writing program, Amit is an award-winning film director. Passionate about storytelling, filmmaking and animation, he has been making movies for over ten years.  The true stories of runaways in Bangladesh inspired Amit to write and direct Runaway, which will be his first feature. He has several projects in the works already, both in Bangladesh and outside. Jacob Yoffee: With a jazz background, Jacob graduated from NYU’s film scoring program where he met Amit. He worked on Amit’s thesis film and was later hired for Runaway. His versatility and orchestral composition is what drew Amit to him. Jacob is now working in LA on several studio pictures. We close with an interview with Michael Ross, curator & artists: Stephanie Ann Johnson, Patricia A. Montgomery, Lisa Ramos, re:the exhibit Race: Art Before Answers in the African American  Center at the San Francisco Public Library, 100 Larkin Street, through Oct. 18, 2012. This exhibit is a part of AfroSolo Festival 19. Visit afrosolo.org The reception and artist talk is Sunday, Sept. 23, 2-4 in the Latino Heritage Room, lower level. Visit sfpl.org (415) 557-4277. Music: from Huun Huur Tu: Prayer & Ancestors; Avery Sharpe's Ain't I a Woman; MoRockin Project's Tajine; Ben Vereen's Defying Gravity.

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the writing, visual and performing arts of African people in the Diaspora. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work filled with raw unfettered passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay! Remember to tune in on Wednesdays from 6 AM PST to 7 or 8 AM and on Fridays from 8 AM to 10 AM. We also host special broadcasts from time to time.

Today we feature the Artistic Director of the Monterey Jazz Festival, Tim Jackson and one of this year's featured artists: Tammi Jackson. We close with an interview with Alicia Jrapko - Committee to Free the Cuban 5.