Wanda's Picks

We open with a prerecorded interview with Lusiah Teish, Yoruba Priestess, Educator, Activist, Writer and Visual Artist who speaks about the monthly gathering for African Women at East Bay Mediation Center in Oakland, 4-6 p.m. She will be conducting a healing ritual. We close with a conversation with Andrew Wood, director, San Francisco International Arts Festival and Alisa Froman, director, PlazaCUBA about the opening of the Festival this year with Juan De Dios Ramos Morejon, Artistic Director, Raices Profundas. The ensemble has never been to the United States, so the engagement beginning May 2-6, at the Marine's Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter Street, in San Francisco, will be a rare treat for Bay Area audiences. The ensemble will also host workshops while they are here through SFIAF. For discount tickets through April 1, visit www.sfiaf.org or call (415) 771-6900.

Aya de Leon joins us to talk about the 20th Anniversary of June Jordan's Poetry for the People, this weekend at UC Berkeley.  While we wait for Aya to join us, we play an interview with Rene Marie, recorded in June last year. We open with her arrangement of "Just My Imagination" from Songs of My Beautiful Nation.

Mama Lola Hanif, founder of Sacred Space Spiritual Support Group, third Thursdays monthly, at 2147 Broadway, Oakland, 4-6 p.m. For the past five years this Sacred Space has hosted over 130 African American women in a spiritually-based, emotionally safe and supportive environment for African American women to gather, network, experience a sense of community. Sacred Space serves as a means of advocating healthy, peaceful African American families. Excerpt from an interview with Mama Naomi Diouf, Artistic Director of Diamano Coura West African Dance Company, celebrating the 17th Anniversary of Collage de Africaines, beginning today, March 8-11, 2012, at the Malonga Casquelord Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice Street, Oakland, CA.  Sullivan is head writer for the political satire-minded San Francisco Mime Troupe; he recently penned a re-interpretation of A Christmas Carol for the masses, which was performed at Occupy Oakland and SF, and LA's famed Actor's Gang is currently remounting his adaptation of Orwell's novel 1984 this February, directed by Tim Robbins, as a highlight of its 30th anniversary season.

Michael Gene Sullivan, director of Othello opening at the African American Shakespeare Company this weekend,  has performed in, written, and/or directed over 20 San Francisco Mime Troupe productions, a company he joined in 1988.   Filmmaker Yuriko Gamo Romer’s film Mrs. Judo: BE STRONG, BE GENTLE, BE BEAUTIFUL opens at the SFIAFFMarch 11 in SF. She holds a master’s degree in documentary filmmaking from Stanford University, a BFA from UCLA, a brown belt from World Oyama Karate and lives in San Francisco with her husband and son.

Today is International Women's Day. In its 101st observance, this year, we honor women past, present and future, with an interview with three women: Mama Naomi Diouf, Artistic Director of Diamano Coura West African Dance Company, celebrating the 17th Anniversary of Collage de Africaines, beginning today, March 8-11, 2012, at the Malonga Casquelord Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice Street, Oakland, CA. The second woman is Mama Lola Hanif, founder of Sacred Space Spiritual Support Group, third Thursdays monthly, at 2147 Broadway, Oakland, 4-6 p.m. For the past five years this Sacred Space has hosted over 130 African American women in a spiritually-based, emotionally safe and supportive environment for African American women to gather, network, experience a sense of community. Sacred Space serves as a means of advocating healthy, peaceful African American families. The third woman we feature is one whose voice was formally silenced behind prison walls. Convicted as a child, LaKeisha Burton, born and raised in Compton, spent 18 years in California Institute for Women (CIW) when at 15 she was arrested and tried as an adult and sentenced to life plus 9 years consecutively, which meant she had to serve 9 years first and then life—she was first at youth authority at Camillo in Southern California, for 90 observation where they recommended she stay in the juvenile facility. The sentencing judge said no, send her to prison. In CIW—she was the youngest person there, so she was in a segregated housing unit or in solitary confinement until she turned 18. She served 18 years before release in 2006. No one died. Ironically, she met her victim in CIW, asked for and received her forgiveness. The victim, who killed someone, was released from CIW after 9 years.Visit www.womenprisoners.org

Rebroadcast of Sam Pollard speaking about his film: Slavery by Another Name broadcast nationally February 13, 2012. Live interview with Esailama G.A. Diouf, filmmaker, scholar, about Diamano Coura's 17th Annual Collage des Cultures Africaines's  "Knowledge Transporters," beginning March 8-11, 2012 in Oakland. Ms. Diouf's original goal of documenting West African dance's influence on American culture in three specific cities: Oakland, St. Louis, and Chicago, has now expanded to include not just West Africa, but other places in the Pan African Disapora, such as Haiti, Brazil and elsewhere, like Congo. This weekend there will be a preview of the work, which will have a debut in 2013. Visit http://www.diamanocoura.org/dc/ Music: Meklit Hadero from On a Day Like This.

Directed by celebrated African-American artists Chris Johnson and Hank Willis Thomas, in collaboration with Bayeté Ross Smith and Kamal Sinclair, Question Bridge: Black Males on view January 20 through July 8, 2012 @ the Oakland Museum of CA, is an innovative video installation features dialogue between 150 black men recruited from eleven American cities and towns. The project includes multiple video screens placed in two arcs in the OM's Gallery of California Art that will play videos of black men responding to questions edited in a way so that it appears as if the men were having a conversation. We are delighted to have Chris Johnson and Bayeté Ross Smith on the air for an extended conversation to talk about Question Bridge. We'd planned to open with an interview with Adoubou Traore, director of African Advocacy Network, an organization that provides legal and other services to immigrants in the Bay Area. Sunday, Mar. 4, 2-5 PM, AAN at its offices, is honoring the life of one of its board members, Yvette Hochberg. Instead we play an excerpted interview with Ericka Huggins speaking about the film:The Blackpower Mixtape. We close with artist and Mills College professor Ajuan Mance, about her latest project, 1001 Black Men Online Sketchbook at 8-Rock.com. Music: James Brown: I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing & Black Woman.

We speak to Tracy Taylor, Wardrobe Assistant, for Disney on Ice since 1995, about this show, how he got into the business and the magic of Disney. The toys are back in town with Disney On Ice presents Disney•Pixar’s Toy Story 3!  The Academy Award®-winning blockbuster, Toy Story 3, and memorable moments from Toy Story and Toy Story 2 are hitting the ice in this sensational live production, coming to the Bay Area.  Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Jessie and the Toy Story gang escape from the rambunctious tots of Sunnyside Daycare and race for home, in their most daring adventure ever.  A few new faces join the fun, including Barbie’s groovy bachelor Ken and Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear.  It’s the biggest Toy Story experience on ice, jam-packed with fast-paced adventures such as Buzz’s galactic battle with Emperor Zurg and a hoe-down at Woody’s Roundup.  Audiences will rediscover the humor, friendship and charm of Toy Storywhen Disney On Ice presents Disney•Pixar’s Toy Story 3 takes family fun to infinity and beyond! We close with an interview with Paul Gardullo, Museum Curator for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which will open at the National Mall in 2015 as the 19th Smithsonian Museum. Last Wednesday, Feb. 22, the NMAAHC broke ground in a wonderful ceremony attended by President Obama and the First Lady, Michelle Obama. Phylicia Rashad was host of the program.I watched the ceremony on the Whitehouse website. I am sure it is archived there.

We open with an extended conversation with Will Bellot, co-founder of Bellot Idovia Foundation, started in 2004, with his brother, Antoine, both natives of La Toti, Haiti. "Konbit La Tourtue," a fundraiser, is coming up, March 10, 2012, 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz Music & Dance Center, San Pablo at Gilman Street, in Berkeley. Konbit will raise money to purchase water filter systems for the people this organization serves. Visit http://bellotidovia.org/about/ We are also joined by Lakay & Mystik Man who is performing with his band that evening which will feature the folkloric dance of El Wah Movement Dance and Ezili Racine Drum Ensemble. Tabia African-American Theatre Ensemblefounder and director, Viera Whye joins us with the directors of two performances which open this evening: Rome Neal in "Monk" and Cheryl B. Scales in "Mirror, Mirror of My Soul" at the “School of Arts and Culture” at the Mexican Heritage Plaza, 1700 Alum Rock, Ave., San Jose, CA 95116.

408/272-9924, www.acteva.com/go/sjmag. I saw the awardwinning production of Monk while in Dakar for the FESMAN or the World Festival of Black Art and Culture in 2010. Small world (smile). We close with an extended conversation with Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe, whose direction of Lorriane Hansberry Theatre's current production of Joe Penhall's disturbingly insightful piece, "Blue/Orange" is stellar.  Catch the play which features Carl Lumbly through March 18, at LHT new home 450 Post Street in San Francisco. Visit www.lhtsf.org or (415) 474-8800.

We interview Robin Fryday, co-director of the Academy Award®nominated film: The BarberofBirmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, and has screened across the country throughout the year including the Library of Congress and on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Robin Fryday is a photographer residing in Marin County, California. The Barber of Birmingham is Fryday’s first film. Visit http://barberofbirmingham.com/

Today is the groundbreaking of the National Museum of African and American History & Culture (NMAAHC), the first national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, art, history and culture. Scheduled to open in 2015, the museum will be the first green building on the National Mall. Building designed by Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup. Construction by Clark/Smoot/Russell. We speak to Paul Gardullo, Museum Curator, about this historic event and San Francisco Bay Area connections to this wonderful institution launch this morning at 10 a.m. ET. To watch visit: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/02/22/president-obama-ground-breaking-ceremony-smithsonian-national-museum-african-america

Dr. Albert L. Brooks, MD, speaks about Physicians Medical Forum, Sat., Feb. 18, 2012, and Doctors on Board. Marshall Curry, speaks about his Academy Award Nominated film, If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front.Michael Dailey, tenor, speaks about his role as "Albert Germont" in the current production of at Opera San Jose. He appears: 2/12, 2/18, 2/21, 2/26. During his fourth year as a resident artist, Michael Dailey performs the roles Beppe (Pagliacci), Alfredo (La traviata) and the title role in Faust. Last season, Mr. Dailey appeared as Konstantin Levin (Anna Karenina) and Count Almaviva (The Barber of Seville), and has also performed the roles of Des Grieux (Manon), Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola), Prunier (La rondine), Lensky (Eugene Onegin), Nemorino (The Elixir of Love), Ferrando (Così fan tutte) and Don José (Carmen). Don't miss Jouvanca Jean-Baptiste, soprano, who portrays the lead character "Violetta." She has been a frequent guest on the show, on these dates: Cast for 2/11, 2/16, 2/19, 2/24.Visit www.operasj.org (408) 437-4450.