Wanda's Picks

Rebroadcast of interview with Joanna Haigood & Charles Trapolin Friday, April 15-17, 2011 at Yerba

Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Visit http://www.zaccho.org/projects.html. We close with interviews with directors and producers of films: Africa Rise (32 min.), director, Michael Lange, producer, Dapo Agoro, which screened at the 9th Annual Oakland International Film Festival (4/12/2011) at Art Deco Auditorium. We close with a conversation with Valerie Goodloe and producer, L. Goodloe, who will speak about the film, Girl Gang: A Mother's Journey to Save Her Daughter (86 min.). Goodloe's film screens Wednesday, April 13, 2011, 6-8:15 PM block.  Visit www.oiff.org

Directed by LA-based photographer Valerie Goodloe ‘Gang Girl‘ takes a look at a mother’s attempt to save her daughter from street life every way she knows how. Valerie’s camera penetrates the parties, the meetings, the drug induced states and reaches the heart of the hood lifestyle. This was crucial for her to do in order to understand her daughter Nafeesa’s mindset, which is complicated, compounded with an LGBT identity, also at issue. ?In the film we see Valerie trying various modalities to let her daughter experience life outside of her gang clique. She loves Nafeesa but so do the gang members.  How can a mother’s tough love win over unconditional love that excuses all behavior and makes no apologies? Delena Turman daughter of famed actor Glynn Turman serves as one of the Co-Producers for the filmwhich has been chosen as an Official Selection by the New Filmmakers Los Angeles: Gang Girl on Facebook and Twitter

Sunday, April 10, is the 30th Annual Northern CA Book Awards, 1-4 PM @ the SF Main Library, where Camille T. Dungy's collection of poetry, Suck on the Marrow (Red Hen Press, 2010), is a nominee. Joyce Jenkins, editor of Poetry Flash & chair of the NCBA's also joins us.  Next Reverend Harry Williams, II, Allen Temple Baptist Church Streets Disciples & Melissa Farley, Ph.D., Executive Director, Prostitution Research & Education speak about,The First East Oakland Summit on Human Trafficking, April 9, 2011, 9am to 12 noon, at Allen Temple Baptist Church, 8501 International Blvd, Oakland. Confirmed speakers include Nola Brantley, executive director of MISSSEY (Motivating, Inspiring, Serving and Supporting, Sexually Exploited Youth,  www.misssey.org), a person the two called, the Harriet Tubman of sexual exploitation of youth. Visit prostitutionresearch.com & revharrywilliams.com  Tess Thacker joins us to talk about: Mine:The Story of A Sacred Mountain, one of the indigenious tribes Suvival International supports. The film screened opening night at the 9th Annual Oakland Intern'l Film Festival. Visit http://www.survivalinternational.org/ and http://www.oiff.org/april8.html  We close with  Acclaimed jazz trumpeter and composer Khalil Shaheed and noted Moroccan instrumentalist Yassir Chadly of the Mo'Rockin' Project team with world-renowned choreographer, co-founder of Dimensions Dance Theatre, Deborah Vaughan to talk about CATALYST: ONE BY ONE, premiering April 16, 7 PM, @ Cal State Monterey Bay and in Oakland, April 17, 3 PM at the Malonga Casquelourde Center, 1428 Alice Street @ 14th Street, Oakland. Call (510) 465-3363 or visit dimensionsdance.org

Zaccho Dance Theatre presents internationally acclaimed choreographer Joanna Haigood’s (Sailing Away) latest performance installation The Monkey and the Devil (April 15-17 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts), created in collaboration with visual artist Charles Trapolin. Haigood’s visceral hybrid of dance, theater, and visual art combines contemporary movement, hip-hop elements, and spoken text in an energetic production that is both searing and immediate. The hour-long work traces a contemporary racism with roots in America’s slave trade. Performers twist, flip, and pound through interactions fraught with tension and misunderstanding, their movements a vehicle for otherwise inexpressible thoughts. Speaking text drawn from a variety of contemporary and historical sources, the performers articulate race-based emotions hundreds of years in the making. 4/15 a panel on race relations 9-10 PM. Mucic: Toshi Reagan & Ruthie Foster

We open with a short excerpt of a conversation with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre member, Kirven James Boyd; Catherine Murphy, director, Maestra (teacher), with Dr. Ruth Guillard follow. Murphy's film, which commemorates the 50th Anniversary of the Cuban Literacy Project, is screening at La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Avenue, in Berkeley, CA. Alice Walker opens the program, which is hosted by Amy Alison. Visit lapena.org and www.maestrathefilm.org We close with a conversation with choreographer, Amara Tabor Smith about her latest show: Our Daily Bread, premiering at CounterPulse, April 14-24, 2011, 1310 Mission Street @ 9th Street, in San Francisco. April 14, 2011 is pay-what-you-can. Visit www.counterpulse.org

Joyce Jenkins, author and poet, and editor of Poetry Flash, presenter of the Northern California Book Awards, this year, Sunday, April 10, 2011, 1-2:30 PM at the San Francisco Main Library, Koret Auditorium, Awardees include "Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asians Americans Poetry." Editors Neelanjana Banerjee & Pireeni Sundaralingam join us. Renee Wilson is back a second consecutive week to talk about her film: "Crepe Covered Sidewalks: your roots will lead you home," which is screening, Thursday, April 7, 2011 as a part of the San Francisco International Women's Film Festival. Andrew Wood, Executive Director of the San Francisco International Arts Festival & Alisa Froman, Executive Director of PlazaCUBA. They speak about a special concert Monday-Tuesday, April 4-5, with Los Munqequitos de Matanzas, at Mission High School, 3750 18th Street, in San Francisco and the Mission Language & Vocational Schol, 2929 19th Street, also in San Francisoc. Both shows begin at 7 PM Visit www.sfiaf.org odr call 800-838-3006 for tickets. Leroy Moore, Patty Berne and Maria Palacios join us to talk about the "Fifth Annual Sins Invalid: An Unashamed Claim to Beauty in the Face of Invisibility," a celebration of powerful bodies, sexuality and the disabled body, April 8-10, 2011 at Z-Space Studios in San Francisco. The theme this year is: "Knotting Stories Over Time and Geography." Visit www.sinsinvalid.org This is not a show for children. We feature music from Rupa & The April Fishes, Los Munequitos de Matanzas, and Renee Wilson.

Rebroadcast of interview with Jihan Sabir (Lorraine) & Jesaira Glover (Motormouth Maybelle)at Sierra Rep in Sonora, CA. Visit www.sierrarep.org or call (209) 532-3120. This interview is followed by another rebroadcast of an interview with Troy Anthony Davis's sister, Martina. Visit http://blog.amnestyusa.org/deathpenalty/troy-davis-appeal-denied-execution-date-could-loom/ Between the two previously recorded interviews, we speak to David Roach, founder and director of the Oakland International Film Festival which kicks off April 7-15 at the Grand Lake Theater, with screenings at Laney College Theatre, in Oakland, the ART DECO AUDITORIUM in Alameda, the Claremont Hotel Club & Spa in Oakland, and at the Washington Inn. Visit http://www.oiff.org/

Today we speak to cast, JESAIRA GLOVER & JIHAN SABIR from Sierra Rep's production of Hairspray! in Sonora county. It’s 1960s Baltimore and change is in the air! Loveable plus-size heroine, Tracy Turnblad, has a passion for dancing. When she wins a spot on "The Corny Collins Show," she’s transformed overnight from outsider to teen celebrity. Can she vanquish her nemesis, integrate the television show, and find true love without denting her ‘do? Don't miss Broadway’s musical-comedy phenomenon that inspired a major motion picture and won eight Tony Awards. “If life were everything it should be, it would be more like HAIRSPRAY. It’s irresistible!” – New York Times

Book by Mark O’Donnell & Thomas Meehan, Music by Marc Shaiman; Lyrics by Scott Wittman & Marc Shaiman, Based on the New Line Cinema film written and directed by John Waters

Visit http://www.sierrarep.org/shows.html?20110205-ES

Music: Singing Saundra's "Die with Dignity" & Ruth Foster's "Truth."

Rupa Marya speaks about "Rupa & the April Fishes," two concerts one in Oceanside, March 25, 2011, the other at The Independent in San Francisco, April 1, 2011. International Roma Celebration (the official International Roma Day is April 8th, 2011) and a portion of ticket sales will benefit the Voice of Roma, a nonprofit organization based in the Bay Area and Kosovo that works to improve the plight of the Roma in Europe and bring awareness of their condition around the world. L. Peter Callender, African-American Shakespeare Company Artistic Director, Reneé Wilson, Actress, Singer, Songwriter, filmmaker and proud New Orleans native, and Marcus Shelby, Artistic Director and leader of The Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, The Marcus Shelby Septet, and The Marcus Shelby Trio, speak about the African American Shakespeare Company's upcoming Twelfth Night: April 1 to May 1, 2011 at the African American Art and Culture Complex, 762 Fulton Street, in San Francisco. Shelby's band perform live opening night. Visit www.African-AmericanShakes.org We close with Oliver Mtukudzi, speaking about the Acoustic Africa Tour with Habib Koite and Afel Boucoum and other reown African artists. The tour stops in Oakland, CA, at the Paramount Theatre, then on to LA. Tuku began recording in the mid-1970s as a member of Wagon Wheels. After WW rolled to fame in Southern Africa, Tuku formed the Black Spirits, the band which backs him to this day. Tuku's music is heavily influenced by chimurenga music, which in Shona means music of "struggle," the genre pioneered by Thomas Mapfumo and inspired by the mbira (thumb piano). A fantastic writer and creative artist, Tuku reflects in his music the lives and histories of his people, a people who love freedom and justice and are tireless in their quest to achieve such.

Visit http://www.cumbancha.com/habib/tour Music: Singing Sandra's "Die with Dignity," something from Howard Wiley's Angola Suite, Rupa & the April Fishes, a Renee Wilson,Ruth Foster's "Truth."

Opens with trailer for Lisa Gay Hamilton's film, "Beah: A Black Woman Speaks," which airs on Documentary Channel (DOC)March 29, 2011, 8 PM ET/PT. We rebroadcast the interview with director Daniel Birman, "Me Facing Life." Just back from Haiti, Pierre Laboissiere joins us to talk about the return of President Aristide and his family, wife, Mildred Aristide and two children, to Haiti last week after a seven year absence. What does his return mean for the Haitian people? What are his immediate and long term plans? What about Baby Doc? Pending elections? At the top of the hour we speak to Laura Livoti, Justice in Nigeria Now founder, Emem Okon, woman's rights activist and advocate from the Niger Delta's oil impacted region of Nigeria, and Sandy Cioffi, director of awardwinning film Sweet Crude.

Directed by acclaimed actress Lisa Gay Hamilton, “Beah: A Black Women Speaks” celebrates the life of African-American activist, poet, and Oscar nominated actress, Beah Richards with its premiere on Documentary Channel on March 29 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. The relationship between Hamilton and Richards began when they performed together in Jonathan Demme’s Beloved. Following the completion of the film, Richards fell ill and Hamilton, with the help of Demme, seized the opportunity to capture her remarkable life on film. The documentary is a compilation of a series of interviews and clips of Richards’ captivating performances as an actress, activist, and poet, spanning over 50 years. This film elegantly showcases her life, beginning with her struggle as an African-American trying to break into the industry and ending with her receiving her third Emmy for her final role on the television show The Practice. Visit http://www.lisagayhamilton.com/othercredits.html http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/pages/c626.shtml#links