Wanda's Picks

Sean Reynolds, author of the first Chan Parker, Henrietta Wild Cherry mystery: "Dying for a Change." William Crossman's "John Brown's Truth," an opera, is the topic next, with cast members: Raymond Nat Turner and Zigi Lowenberg. The opera is performed this Sunday, April 25, 4 PM at the San Francisco Community Music Center, 544 Capp Street. Tickets are: $15 at the door or at brownpapertickets.com Cast from Jesus Moonwalks ...the Mississippi at Cuttingball Theatre in San Francisco through April 25. Visit www.cuttingball.com We close with a prerecorded interview with Eddie Gale and Calvin Keys re: the Bay Musicians Healthcare Fundraiser April 23 & 24, 2010 at Zelma's, 2246 Jerrold Avenue, San Francisco, (415) 824-7646. Drum night opens at 7:30 PM and the following day, 4/24, there are music workshops for youth and health screenings from 11 AM to 5 PM. The show starts at 8 PM.

The 2nd Annual Jazz Fest: Bay Area Musicians Self-Help Healthcare Fundaraiser Friday-Saturday, April 23-24, 2010 at Velma's, 2246 Jerrold Avenue, San Francisco, (415) 824-7646. Friday's show kicks off at 7:30 PM and Saturday there are free workshops, 11 AM to 5 PM with Bobby Vega. The concert begins at 8 PM. Tickets are also available on brownpapertickets.com (search for Jazz Fest 2010)

"This is FREDA PAYNE" opens at The Rrazz Room at Hotel Nikko, Tue. - Sat. 4/20-24, 8:00 pm; Sun. 4/25, 7:00 pm $40-45. The Rrazz Room at Hotel Nikko is located at 222 Mason Street (between Ellis and O'Farrell), San Francisco, California 94102. Tickets: www.therrazzroom.com / The Rrazz Room, (415)394-1189 / TicketWeb (866)468-3399. Also visit www.fredapayne.com This is a prerecorded interview. We open with a commentary on Haiti by Mumia Abu Jamal whose birthday is April 24. Happy Birthday Mumia! Visit www.prisonradio.org Ms. Payne's interview is followed by an excerpt of an interview with Jean Ristil Jean Baptiste, Kole Zepol Pou Sove Ti Moun. Jean Ristil speaks in Kreyol and Jean Yvon Kernizan translates. We close the show with an interview with Tata OmeAkaEhekatl Erick Gonzalez - Erick is a Aj Q'ij- a Day Keeper, Mayan Spiritual Guide, Teacher, and Healer, initiated into Native sacred rites over a thirty period with direct participation, teachings, and guidance from various Native spiritual elders from Mexico, North America, Colombia, Peru, and Guatemala. He will speak about several events this coming weekend, Saturday-Monday, April 24-26, 2010, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Visit www.earthpeoplesunited.org

Former students call into show to pay tribute to scholar, Dr. Albirda Rose, whose retirement concert is Saturday, April 17, 2010, 8 PM at San Francisco State University's McKenna Theatre; Camille T. Dungy, editor of BLACK NATURE: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, joined in the studio with Joyce Jenkins, editor of Poetry Flash and one of the principle organizers of the Northern CA Bay Area Book Awards, this weekend, April 18, 1 PM at the SF Main Library's Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin Street in San Francisco. Professor Dungy is receiving the Special Recognition Award. The event is free and all are welcome. Valerie Trout as been called one of the few modern young singers creating stylistic change in the Vocal Jazz Tradition. She concludes a two session workshop Saturday, April 17, 11 AM to 2 PM at the MoAD-SF. She also hosts an all women showcase on Third Fridays in Oakland called Shepeople's: A Rare Breed, at Divinity and Voice, 3609 Maple Avenue, Oakland, [email protected]. We close the show with another conversation with filmmaker Chike C. Nwoffiah, and cast: Kenesha Mayfield, who plays: "Fatimah," and Curtis Campbell who plays: "Martin." Nwoffiah's award winning film, Sabar: Life is a Dance, is a part of a FREE two day screening also at MoAD April 23, 5 & 7:30 PM, and April 24, 4 PM (VIP screening, invitation only with a general admission overflow) & 7 PM. MoAD is located at 685 Mission Street, at Third in San Francisco. Visit http://www.sabarthemovie.com/ and become a fan on Facebook.com

Alan Laird, artist, activist; Dr. Jeanne M. Taylor, who went to Haiti as part of a medical team; The 6th Annual Cuba Caribe Festival April 16-May 2, 2010: Ramon Ramos Alayo, artistic director, "Alayo Dance Company," Adia Whitaker, artistic director, Ase Dance Company; Ausetta Amor Amenkum, artistic director and founder of Kumbuka African Drum & Dance Collective

Reggie Wilson, Fist and Heel Performance Company's The Good Dance, a collaboration between Wilson's company and that of Andréya Ouamba / Compagnie 1er Temps. The Good Dance-dakar/brooklyn premieres locally at the Novellus Theater at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theatre, in San Francisco, April 1-3, 8 PM in a prerecorded interview. Visit http://www.ybca.org/ Kendra Kimbrough-Barnes is presenting a new work, "Home Is That Way," at CounterPULSE, April 1-4, 8 PM. “Home is That Way?” Kendra Kimbrough Barnes creates an impassioned dance piece about a family dealing with incarceration. When a son/ a brother loses an idea of where home is (literally and figuratively) after being in the prison system, this leads to retracing steps. Told in four chapters, "Home is That Way?" is a dance drama that that recalls the innocence, genius, tragedy, and rebirth of an imaginative boy. Visit http://counterpulse.org/ Ron Jones, best known for an incident in his classroom in Palo Alto, CA, "The Wave, The Musical," captures in current productions hosted by The Marsh Theatre early this year. The play is up again, April 16-17, April 23-24, 7:30 PM, this time at Mercy High School in San Francisco, 3250 19th Ave. Visit http://www.ronjoneswriter.com/ Cathleen Riddley, "Culpurnia," in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, with previews beginning April 7-9. The show continues through May 9.Cathleen is returning to TheatreWorks stages where she appeared previously as Mabel in the sensational hit Crowns, going on to play the role at the Marines Memorial Theatre in San Francisco.A Julliard trained performer, Cathleen also has a Masters degree in Sociology and has trained with National Theater of the Deaf. Visit theatreworks.org

Tisha Kenny, Executive Director Health & Human Resource Education Center, Project Director, Health through Art Signs of Recover, whose current billboard campaign,just launched, "STOP RAPING AND BREAKING HEART," is in 23 bus stops for 1 month (March 24-April 24, 2010). Visit www.healththroughart.org Ms. Kenny is joined by Ramona Jones, who will speak about Victory Outreach Church of Oakland's "2010 I Love My City Crusade" and its kick-off event: Hear My Cry: Exposing Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Candlelight Vigil in downtown Oakland, 5-7 PM, Friday, April 2, at City Hall, 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza. Call (510) 385-4794, (510) 677-6364, (510) 434-1951. We close with a conversation with Ms. Dowoti Desir and Bryan Wiley, two artists featured in "African Continuum: Sacred Ceremonies and Rituals" at the Museum of the African Disapora through August 28, 2010. Visit moadsf.org or call (415) 358-7200. MoAD is located at 685 Mission Street (at Third Street), in San Francisco. Saturday, March 27, 2010, Mr. Wiley will give a talk in the gallery from 2-3 PM. Next week Friday-Saturday, April 2-3, their will be a film screening and lecture by Dr. Marta Morena Vega. The film screening, "When the Spirits Danced Mambo" followed by a talk with the director, Dr. Vega, is 4/2, 6-9 PM, the lecture or talk is 4/3 from 2-4 PM.

Angela Caroll, director, "Radical Pedagogy"; continuing our conversation with Sarah Crowell, Destiny Arts whose home season continues, March 26-28 with "Asylum" at the Laney College theatre, 900 Fallon Street in Oakland, CA. Friday, March 26 @ 7:30pm

Saturday, March 27 @ 2pm and 7:30pm

Laney College Theater 900 Fallon Street Oakland, CA

Tickets

Adults: $13-$25 sliding scale

Youth 18 and under: $6

Group rates available-email [email protected] for information

wheel chair accessible-call 510-597-1619 x119 for special instructions

To purchase tickets call 800-838-3006 or go to:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/9999

The Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company (DAYPC) is a multicultural group of teens that create original performance art pieces, in collaboration with professional artists, that combine hip-hop, modern, and aerial dance, theater, martial arts, song and rap. The productions are a dynamic, creative forum for the young people to express their fears, hopes and strategies for confronting challenging personal and social issues. The company has performed locally and nationally since 1993 for over 20,000 audience members annually.

Today on the 7th anniversary of the War in Iraq and the changing guard of seasons, Winter into Spring, we reflect transcendentally on how art heightens and expands conversations about life & death & life after death. Last week we spoke to director, Freida Lee Mock about Lt. Ehren Watada, the subject in her latest film. He was court marshaled for refusing to deploy to Iraq. Today we speak to a woman, Mrs. Mildred Dill'Ard who at 92 has lived through many wars and even more history as this young nation finds its true personality and rises to the greatness it is capable of. Mrs. Dill'Ard opens the show with cast and director of The Delany Sisters: First 100 Days: Monica Justice & Macia Branisel, alternating roles as "Bessie Delany," & director, Sean Vaughn Scott. Visit http://blackrepertorygroup.com/ Susie Butler depicts jazz legend, Ms. Sarah Vaughn, at her 86th Birthday Tribute, March 28, 2010, at the Jazz Heritage Center, located in the Yoshi’s Jazz Complex, 1330 Fillmore, in San Francisco, at 2 PM and 5 PM. For ticket information please call (415) 255-7745. Visit http://www.sassysusiebutler.com/music.html Next is David Evan Harris, Research Affiliate at the Institute for the Future and Executive Director of the Global Lives Project, a non-profit media organization with more than 250 volunteer collaborators in 10 countries. His work with IFTF focuses on social change, political economy, the global south and new media. Global Lives is currently at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts through June 20 in the Big Ideas Gallery. Visit http://globallives.org/ We close with a conversation with filmmakers participating www.asianamericanmedia.org: S.Leo Chiang, "A Village Called Versailles" and Gerry Balasta, "The Mountain Thief." We again feature music from Babatunde Lea's latest "Umbo Weti: A Tribute to Leon Thomas": "Sun Song" with Dwight Trible in vocals, Gary Brown on bass, Ernie Watts on tenor sax, Patrice Rushen on piano and of course, Babatunde Lea on percussion.

We open with a prerecorded interview with Bassekou Koyate, Ngoni Ba, re: "I Speak Fula," and his performance Thursday, March 18, 2010, 8 PM at Slims in San Francisco. DJ Said, Fat Souls opens. The interview is in French. (Yuna N'gal is the translator.) Sister Mona is in the studio live speaking about her business: http://ndotouzima.com/home. She is having an opening celebration Saturday, March 20, 2010, 3116 Adeline #111, Oakland, CA. RSVP (510) 547- 4829 for appointments. Hours are 10 AM to 10 PM. The reception is free. Contact her at: [email protected] We close with an interview with Sarah Crowell, Destiny Arts upcoming season, March 19-27 with the debut of "Asylum," at Laney College Theatre in Oakland. Visit http://www.destinyarts.org/index.html

Sarah Crowell has been at Destiny Arts Center since 1990 as a dance teacher, artistic director, workshop facilitator and program development director, and served as the organization’s executive director from 2002-2007. Sarah has been a dancer and an arts educator for over 20 years.She has taught dance, theater and violence prevention to youth all over the Bay Area, in schools and community centers since 1990.

Music today is from Bassekou Koyate & N'Goni Ba's "I Speak Fula," and Babatunde Lea's tribute to one of his most influential mentors, the legendary jazz vocalist and composer Leon Thomas. The idea for the project, titled UMBO WETI after the yodeling singing style of the Twa People of central Africa which influenced Thomas’ signature sound, came to Lea shortly after the singer passed in 1999 and has taken nearly a decade to bring to reality. Lea’s ten- year labor of love reaches powerful fruition on UMBO WETI, which features a stellar and inspired band of improvisers – Dwight Trible (vocals), Ernie Watts (tenor sax), Gary Brown (bass), Patrice Rushen (piano) – performing the songs of Thomas and others led with passionate fire by Lea on drums and percussion. They perform tonight, 8 PM at Yoshi's San Francisco.