Wanda's Picks

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!

Our first guest is Linda Livingston, persussionist and drummer who is featured at AfroSolo in the Gardens Concert tomorrow at Yerba Gardens, 3rd and Mission in San Francisco, 1-3 p.m. It is a free concert (afrosolo.org). She is also performing in the Emperor Jones production at the Cyclone Warehouse in San Francisco (415-420-8000).

We close with a rebroadcast of an interview with Ben Vereen.

Music: Ben Vereen's I've Got A Lot of Living to Do; Wolf Hawk Jaguar's Esu Exit; Boukman Eksperyans Gran Bwaile (A Vodou Spirit).

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!

Our first guest is Linda Livingston, persussionist and drummer who is featured at AfroSolo in the Gardens Concert tomorrow at Yerba Gardens, 3rd and Mission in San Francisco, 1-3 p.m. It is a free concert (afrosolo.org). She is also performing in the Emperor Jones production at the Cyclone Warehouse in San Francisco (415-420-8000).

We close with a rebroadcast of an interview with Ben Vereen.

Music: Ben Vereen's I've Got A Lot of Living to Do; Wolf Hawk Jaguar's Esu Exit; Boukman Eksperyans Gran Bwaile (A Vodou Spirit).

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!

1. From the Archives Picks: Mother of George (2013), dir. Andrew Dosunmu. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF7IPYNElKA

Ayodele (Isaach De Bankolé) and Adenike (Danai Gurira) marry and start a new life. As months pass without a pregnancy, Adenike feels torn between her Yoruba culture and her new life in America, struggling to save her marriage.

2. Angelique Kidjo (June 18, 2014)

3. Oyafumike Ogunlano (Apr. 4, 2014)

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!

1. From the Archives Picks: Mother of George (2013), dir. Andrew Dosunmu. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF7IPYNElKA

Ayodele (Isaach De Bankolé) and Adenike (Danai Gurira) marry and start a new life. As months pass without a pregnancy, Adenike feels torn between her Yoruba culture and her new life in America, struggling to save her marriage.

2. Angelique Kidjo (June 18, 2014)

3. Oyafumike Ogunlano (Apr. 4, 2014)

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!

1. Christina Nichol, author of NCBA 2014 for novel, Waiting for Electricity, grew up in Northern California and received her MFA from the University of Florida. She has traveled widely, worked for nonprofit film companies,and taught English in India, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan,Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Russia, and the republic of Georgia, where her debut novel, Waiting for the Electricity, was set. Christina won a 2012 Rona Jaffe Writer’s Award and a gold medal in the 2015 California Book Awards for First Fiction. She has been published in Lucky Peach, Guernica, The Paris Review, Harper’s, Subtropics, Lonely Planet, and The Wall Street Journal.

2. Lucia MacBeth, Jordan Davis's mother, 3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets, opens today.

3. Marvin K. White & Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe join us to talk about So Soul San Francisco: Blackbirds Boogie & other gumbo grooves, A Black Art Salon featuring the work of Wayne Corbitt, July 17-August 9, 2015 at Brava Theatre Center in San Francisco.

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!

1. Christina Nichol, author of NCBA 2014 for novel, Waiting for Electricity, grew up in Northern California and received her MFA from the University of Florida. She has traveled widely, worked for nonprofit film companies,and taught English in India, South Korea, Kyrgyzstan,Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Russia, and the republic of Georgia, where her debut novel, Waiting for the Electricity, was set. Christina won a 2012 Rona Jaffe Writer’s Award and a gold medal in the 2015 California Book Awards for First Fiction. She has been published in Lucky Peach, Guernica, The Paris Review, Harper’s, Subtropics, Lonely Planet, and The Wall Street Journal.

2. Lucia MacBeth, Jordan Davis's mother, 3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets, opens today.

3. Marvin K. White & Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe join us to talk about So Soul San Francisco: Blackbirds Boogie & other gumbo grooves, A Black Art Salon featuring the work of Wayne Corbitt, July 17-August 9, 2015 at Brava Theatre Center in San Francisco.

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!

1. I have a prerecorded interview with Jordan Davis's mother, Lucia Kay McBeth. The film 3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets, directed by Marc Silver, opens this weekend theatrically in the San Francisco Bay Area. National Spokesperson, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Faith and Community Outreach Leader: http://lucymcbath.com

Visit http://sfbayview.com/2015/05/wandas-picks-for-may-2015/

2. We close with an interview with historian, Claybourne Carson, Ph.D., Stanford University. We talk about the artist, Jacob Lawrence and the exhibit, Promised Land: The Art of Jacob Lawrence, at the Cantor Art Center at Stanford University until August 3, 2015. Visit http://museum.stanford.edu/view/exhibition_sched_new.html

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!

1. I have a prerecorded interview with Jordan Davis's mother, Lucia Kay McBeth. The film 3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets, directed by Marc Silver, opens this weekend theatrically in the San Francisco Bay Area. National Spokesperson, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Faith and Community Outreach Leader: http://lucymcbath.com

Visit http://sfbayview.com/2015/05/wandas-picks-for-may-2015/

2. We close with an interview with historian, Claybourne Carson, Ph.D., Stanford University. We talk about the artist, Jacob Lawrence and the exhibit, Promised Land: The Art of Jacob Lawrence, at the Cantor Art Center at Stanford University until August 3, 2015. Visit http://museum.stanford.edu/view/exhibition_sched_new.html

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!

This is a black arts and culture site. We will be exploring the African Diaspora via the writing, performance, both musical and theatrical (film and stage), as well as the visual arts of Africans in the Diaspora and those influenced by these aesthetic forms of expression. I am interested in the political and social ramifications of art on society, specifically movements supported by these artists and their forebearers. It is my claim that the artists are the true revolutionaries, their work honest and filled with raw unedited passion. They are our true heroes. Ashay!