Wanda's Picks

John Perkins Center for Community Transformation at Patten University presents: "Great is Thy Faithfulness," DIRECTOR/WRITER: Alicia Garcia, ACTOR: Angel Harshaw-Wolf, and Timothy Russell. The play opens: Saturday, SEPT. 25, 2010, 3 PM and 7:30 PM at the Malonga Casquelourde Theatre, 1428 Alice Street, (510) 325-2693 & (510) 261-8500 ext. 7703. It is a fundraiser for establishing A Safe Place for youth in Oakland. Mahealani Uchiyama, featured guest in Sankofa Cultural Institute's Naked Jazz Series, 6:30 PM at The Black Dot Cafe, 1195 Pine St., Oakland, CA $15 at the door includes a copy of the new CD, "Ndor: Dze Madzinza." Visit www.thesacredforest.org Oakland Underground Film Festival artists and programmers: Mark Landsman, dir. "Thunder Soul," Betty M. Park, dir. Mamachas del Ring, and Festival programmer Misha. We close with Kyla Thomas-Duncan.

Rebroadcast from June 11, 2010: 8:00 AM: MOUNTAINS THAT TAKE WING. C.A. (Crystal) Griffith & H.L.T.Quan QUAD Productions. Their film opened at the San Francisco Black Film Festival, Thursday, June 17, 2010. The film screens Friday, SEPTEMBER 24, 7 PM, at East Side Cultural Center, 2277 International Blvd., in Oakland. It is a free event and Angela Davis and Yuri Kochiyama will be present as well. Visit www.quadproductions.org 8:30 AM: Sia Amma and Mia Pascal: The Marsh presents New Solo Theatre Pieces by Up-and-Coming Artists: A Festival of New Voices through June 13, 2010 9:00 AM: Coloring Outside the Lines artists and curator, Kheven Lee LaGrone, Makeda Rashidi, Nate Creekmore, Barbara Brandon-Croft and Jerry Craft.There is an artist panel Sunday afternoon, June 13, 2010 at the San Francisco Main Library. The exhibit then moved to the Laney College Library. Music this morning: "New Orleans Underwater" from Jane Bunnett's Radio Guantanamo.

Denise Pierre performs Sept. 18, 2010 with Swing Fever at the Rrazz Room, at Hotel Nikko, 7 PM. Stanley Bennett Clay's "Armstrong's Kid" Benefit performance is SEPT. 17-19. Three times NAACP Theatre Award winning playwright, novelist, filmmaker, and actor Stanley Bennett Clay lends his talent to the fight against HIV. “Oakland’s Dinner Club” in collaboration with “SMACC (Sexual Minority Alliance of Alameda”, presents Oakland’s premier of “Armstrong’s Kid”, starring Clay and Thandiwe Thomas DeShazor, September 17-19 at SMAAC Youth Center 1608 Webster St., Oakland California. Fri & Sat at 8 PM and Sun, SEPT 19 at 3 PM. Stanley is joined by writer activist, Jesse Brooks and Nursha Project™ artist Thandiwe Thomas DeShazor is an actor, writer and comedian originally from Detroit. Brava Theater and African-American Shakespeare Company present the US Premiere of IPH… from playwright Colin Teevan. Director Dylan Russell helms this lyrical, edgy adaptation of Euripides’ Greek tragedy Iphigenia at Aulis. Set at the beginning of the Trojan War, General Agamemnon has a difficult choice to make – should he sacrifice his daughter Iphigeneia or condemn his entire army, and nation, to defeat? The gifted cast assembled for this co-production features acclaimed actor and incoming African-American Shakespeare Artistic Director L. Peter Callender, Bay Area favorite C. Kelly Wright, and up-and-coming talent Traci Tolmaire. We close with playwright Genny Lim, whose Paper Angels is up through SEPT. 17 at Portsmouth Square Park in San Francisco's Chinatown as a part of SF FRINGE, produced by NY Company DIRECT ARTS.

Rebroadcast of Afro-Solo 2009 interviews with among others: Morrie Turner, honored that year with a retrospective exhibit, curated by Kheven LaGrone, Thomas Simpson, Afro-Solo founder, and Jewel Gomez. The live interview is with Fred Blanco and Karen Bankhead, both writers/performance artists featured in the SF Fring Festival 2010 through this weekend, Sept. 19. Visit www.sffringe.org

We speak to Carolina Moraes-Liu, Director, Editor, Cinematographer and Producer of Ebony Goddess: Queen of Ilê Ayiê, screening Sept. 19, 2 PM, at the Mission Cultural Center, in San Francisco, as a part of the San Francisco Latino Film Festival. Ebony Goddess: Queen of Ilê Aiyê tells the story of three young women in search for identity and self-esteem as they compete for the title of Ebony Goddess in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, the largest black city outside of Africa. Visit http://www.sflatinofilmfestival.com/2010-festival/shorts-program The film screens again in October at the International Black Woman's Film Festival http://www.ibwff2010.com/films/filmmakers/ Somi, originally from Uganda and Rwanda, critically acclaimed New York city based vocalist and her band will appear for their debut San Francisco performance on Thursday, September 16th, 2010 at Cafe Du Nord. Somi's latest album If The Rains Come First (ObliqSound) is a stunning collection of self-penned story-based songs that debuted at #2 on Billboard's World Chart. The Bay Area's own Sparlha Swa will appear as a special guest in an opening performance for the evening. Doors at 7PM. Show begins at 8PM. $15 in advance/$17 at the door. "Black Pearl Sings" @ San Jose Rep through Sept. 26. We feature Jannie Jones, actress who portrays "Alberta "Pearl" Johnson", Frank Higgins, playwright, and Rick Lombardo, director, sound design and SJ Rep artistic director. We feature the music of Thaddeus Edwards: "Prelude to Peace" and work from Somi's latest: "If the Rain Comes First."

Nabeehah Shakir, Culture Intervention Specialist for Middle and High School with over three decades of experience in Oakland,

California as an educator: teacher, professional development designer, coordinator,presenter, and principal. She now serves as an

Educational Consultant providing classroom instructional and presenting professional

development, Culture Intervention in collaboration with the Oakland Alliance of

Black Educators (OABE). There is a State of Oakland Schools forum scheduled for Tuesday, SEPT. 14, 2010, 4-6 PM, at Castlemont High School hosted by OABE, now a part of the Superintendent's Strategic plan. Ms. Sabree Shakir serves as an OABE Executive. Jouvanca Jean-Baptiste is a Haitian American soprano who is one of the newest residents at Opera San Jose. She opens the season in the title role: ANNA KARENINA, in the West Coast premiere of a new American Opera, Sept. 12, the opera is up Sept. 11-26, (408) 437-4450 or online at www.operasj.org. We close with an interview with artist Sellassie, who is featured at the Power to the Peaceful event at Golden Gate Park Sat., SEPT. 11, 2010. Our final guest wasn't able to make it into the studio, perhaps some other time. We feature Thaddeus Edwards: Peace Not War and Stella Chinweshe's "We Survived," from "Talking Mbira: Songs of Liberation."

Tim Wise, author, anti-racism advocate. His latest book, "Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics from Racial Equity," is the topic of our discussion this morning; Akiba Timoya aka Akiba Onada-Sikwoia is African, Blackfoot, Choctaw, Cherokee and Irish. She is Two-Spirited and has been participating in Native American Ceremony for the past 24 years. She is also a member of the Lucumi community and a child of the Orisha. She and DON 'LITTLE CLOUD' DAVENPORT

"I am one of the founders of the Black Native American Association in Oakland, California. I am a Seminole with Creek/Chickasaw, Muskogee and African (Nubian/Sudan) Ancestry and of the Bird Clan. I was born in Jackson, Michigan which was on one of the routes of the Underground Railroad where slaves fled to Canada." They will speak about the first annual Black Native American Pow Wow at CSUH this month, Sept. 17-19. Visit www.bnaa.org for the details. The pre-Pow Wow panel is 6:30-8:30 9/17. The procession starts at 1 PM both Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 18-19. Dan Hoyle, "The Real Americans" is our next guest. "The Real Americans," Hoyle's solo performance has been extended through Nov. 6 at The Marsh Theatre Wednesdays-Saturdays, in San Francisco. Visit www.themmarsh.org We close with artist, Somi, who will be at Cafe de Nord in San Francisco, Sept. 16, and at the Monterey Jazz Festival, Sept. 18, then on to Holland. Somi didn't make it, because she is scheduled for next week, 9/10 at 8:30 AM, so tune in then--Mars is in Retrograde. Yes, blame it on the planet that already speeding, I skipped an entire seven days--wow! Meklit Hadero, Somi's friend came to the rescue with a cut from her latest release I like a lot: "Soleil Soleil." We close with a prerecorded interview with Ernie Silva appearing with "Heavy Like the Weight of a Flame," at La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Avenue, in Berkeley, Sept. 9-10, 8 PM

Mandaza Augustine Kandemwe, was born a Svikiro (in Shona, His native tongue) - a carrier of many earth and water spirits. As a vessel of the Spirits, Mandaza receives visions and dreams, makes offerings, performs healing rituals, and serves as messenger for the Ancient Ones. He lives in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe and travels internationally as a Peacemaker. He will be at the Shaman Conference in San Mateo Saturday-Monday, Sept. 4-6; http://shamanismconference.org/ Ernie Silva, performance artist presents his solo show, "Heavy Like the Weight of a Flame," at La Pena Cutural Center, 3105 Shattuck Avenue, in Berkeley, 8 PM, Sept. 9-10, 2010. Echoes of Shakespeare, Hendrix and Kerouac charge solo artist-comedian-guitarist R. Ernie Silva's true-life tale about his odyssey across the great American outback. Heavy Like the Weight of a Flame follows Silva's haunting, touching and often humorous journey across the country. Visit www.lapena.org Featured artists this morning are: Radio Guantanamo(Guantanamo Blues Project Vol. 1) 2006, "Yemayá" - Dewey Redman, Public Domain and "New Orleans Under Waters" (Nueva Orleáns Bajo Agua) - Dewey Redman, Breit. We also play music from Stella Chiweshe's Talking Mbira, Music of Liberation. I put her CD when I was driving Mandaza back to Elenna's home after the lovely pre-Maafa event and he was singing along and telling me about Ms. Stella who met him when he was last in Europe. She lives in Germany with her husband. "She is internationally known for her singing and playing of the mbira dzavadzimu, a traditional instrument of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. She is one of the few female players of the instrument, which she learned to play from 1966 to 1969 when even fewer females played the instrument" (http://www.soundunwound.com).

Hurricane Katrina Special with an all-star panel of Southern Writers: Robert Hillary King, "From the Bottom of the Heap: The Autobiography of Black Panther;" John Thompson, subject of "Killing Time: An 18-Year Odyssey from Death Row to Freedom;" Jordan Flaherty's "Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six;" Orissa Arend, "Showdown in Desire: The Black Panthers Take a Stand in New Orleans;" Parnell Herbert's "Angola 3: The Play." Katrina Survivors in the Diaspora Panel are our next guests: CC Campbell-Rock & husband, Raymond Rock; Ms. Diane Evans; Safahri Ra, bandleader, teacher, filmmaker, Ellen Gavin, director. We close with Multi-Ethnic Theatre director and cast: Lewis Campbell, Charles Johnson, Fabian Herd, Vernon Medearis, Stuart Hall, from August Wilson's "Gem of the Ocean," currently on stage in San Francisco at The Next Stage, 1620 Gough Street (near Bush), 8 PM Thursday-Sat. Sun, at 7 PM. Visit www.wehavemet.org For those interested in helping Katrina survivor, Diane Evans keep her home call: (415) 786-4773 or email: [email protected] She needs help paying Sept. 2010's rent for herself and her grandson $1900.00. At the Black Dot Cafe1195 Pine St., Oakland, Safahri Ra is hosting a Katrina commemoration event, Sunday, AUG 29, 7-10 PM (door open at 6 PM). Call (510) 355-4929 and [email protected] Earlier there is a healing event with Zimbabwean Traditional Healer & Peace Carrier, Mandaza Kandemya, for Elders and Youth at Peralta Hacienda, 2465 34th Street, @ Coolidge, Oakland, AUG 29, 2010, 12:30-6 PM. Call (510) 535-2144 or [email protected] Bring drums, rattles, instruments, chairs and blankets. "A person is a person because of others" (Shona proverb. Music: Liz Wright's "Lead the Way" from SALT.

Rebroadcast of interview with MARGO HALL, from July 26, 2010 re: Aurora Theatre Company's 19th season opening play, Thursday-Friday, AUG 26-27, through SEPT 26, 2010, Alice Childress’s vibrant, humorous, and heartbreaking look at racism through the lens of the theater, TROUBLE IN MIND. Set during the early years of the Civil Rights movement, this disconcerting yet disarmingly funny look at the inequalities of American life in the 1950’s highlights the half-truths we tell ourselves about race relations and societal progress in America. First produced in 1955, TROUBLE IN MIND follows a cast of black and white actors attempting to mount a production of a “progressive” new play. The play-within-the-play, entitled Chaos in Belleville, an anti-lynching drama set in the South, written by a white writer and directed by a white director, marks the first opportunity for Wiletta Mayer, a gifted African American actress, to play a leading lady on Broadway. But what compromises must she make to succeed? Robin Stanton (Speech & Debate, Betrayed, Permanent Collection) directs this play about race, identity, and opportunity, featuring Bay Area favorite Margo Hall in her Aurora Theatre Company debut. We close with another rebroadcast. This from AUG 20, where we open with the Dreams, as in DREAM GIRLS which also opens tonight in San Francisco, at the Curran Theatre. We also speak to Friends of the Negro Spirituals awardees this year, get an update on the Oscar Grant case and hear about a fundraiser last week, AUG 20 and other upcoming events from Oscar's Uncle Bobby. We close with John Santos, who shares a new musical project which debuts part 1 AUG 21-22 weekend.