Wanda's Picks

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 t

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 Billboa

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,

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.

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

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 Evan

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 (Spe

We open with the Dreams, as in Dream Girls opening at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco, AUG 24, 2010 through SEPT 26: SYESHA MERCADO (Deena Jones), ADRIENNE WARREN (Lorrell Robinson), MARGARET HOFFMAN (Michelle Morris; u/s Deena). Visit www.shnsf.com; Guests honored this year at the free event: "Celebrating the Seventh Annual Negro Spirituals Heritage Day, Sunday, AUG 22, 2 PM at the SF Main Library, Koret Auditorium in San Francisco include radio guests: Deeann D. Mathews, a gifted composer, author & entrepreneur, Bryant B. Bolling, an exceptionally talented vocalist and lecturer; Wanda J. Ravernell, an extraordinary writer and the founder and Creative Director of The Omnira Projects; and Rev. Ann Jefferson, a Pastor of Worship and Liturgy and a Negro Spirituals expert. Co-founder of Friends of Negro Spirituals, Lyvonne Chrisman also joins us. Guests: Cephus "Uncle Bobby" Johnson; Jack Bryson, father of two young men on the BART platform with Oscar Grant; two of his best friends, Citizen Marty Payne,

Host out of the country for the next two weeks. Prerecorded broadcasts will be at 7 AM beginning August 4-17, both Wednesdays and Fridays.

Host out of the country for the next two weeks. Prerecorded broadcasts will be at 7 AM beginning August 4-17, both Wednesdays and Fridays.

Host out of the country for the next two weeks. Prerecorded broadcasts will be at 7 AM beginning August 4-17, both Wednesdays and Fridays.

Host out of the country for the next two weeks. Prerecorded broadcasts will be at 7 AM beginning August 4-17, both Wednesdays and Fridays.

Mr. Theodore Synder, father of Teddy Synder, a youth who is up for 80 years for a first offense in California; his sentencing hearing is Aug. 25, 2010, 8:30 AM downtown LA at 200 West Street; juvenile justice advocate Flozelle Woodmore, joins us as well. Flozelle is also a Soros Fellow 2010 and a member of "All of Us or None." She is a caseworker with "A New Way of Life Reentry Project"; Kim McGill, Youth Justice & Youth Together has been working as an advocate with Mr. Synder on his son's case: www.Youth4Justice.org email: freelanow@yahoo.com. Currently there is a SB 399 that passed the CA State Senate that now needs to pass the Assembly looking at lesser sentences for children accused of a capital crime. Contact your assembly person to support it. For information aboout Teddy and SB 399 call (323) 563-3575. LISA GOSSELA, dir. "My So-Called Enemy," joins us next to talk about her film which is a part of the SF Jewish Film Festival and screens Sun., Aug.1 in Palo Alto at CineArts and in Berkeley at the Ro

Carol Metellus, Artist, Activist; & project Co-Director & Campaign Coordinator Patrice Mallard: "The Partnership for a Sustainable Haiti" formed immediately after the devastating earthquake that hit Port-au-Prince on January 12, 2010. PFSH efforts resemble the fable of stone soup- even when no one has enough to eat, if everyone contributes what little they can, it feeds a village. Organizers felt compelled to act- to volunteer whatever skills they have and the resources they can mobilize and hope others will help too.Visit http://www.partnershipforasustainablehaiti.org/Taneshia Campbell’s Sankofa Mizizi (A Love healing herstory) is a theater movement piece exploring the experience of mental health and spirituality in my family; grounded in a love story. This piece is a work in progress and doubles as a grad school fundraiser towards the artist's Masters in Divinity education beginning in the fall. Directed by Tia Jennings the play is going up Sat., Aug. 14, 2010, 6:45 doors/7:15 PM show, at City of Re

Aurora Theatre Company opens its 19th season with 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

Host out of town. Rebroadcast at 7 AM of Wednesday, July 19, 2010, show featuring Jo Kreiter and her collaborators have nationally recognized expertise in creating site-specific and apparatus-based performance work. Their current production, the result of Flyaway Productions’ 2010 Arts and Activism Apprenticeship premieres: July 21-22, 7 at CounterPulse in San Francisco. I went to the tech rehearsal and the young choreographers were stellar. You can catch the adult company, Flyaway Productions next month at the 100 Anniversary of the Women's Building in San Francisco. We close with a special interview with Angela Bofill, whose musical theatre piece opened Thursday, July 22, and continues through Sunday, July 25, at the RRazz Room at Hotel Nikko in San Francisco. Bofill narrates and Maysa sings her role. There is a stellar lineup with friends and other special guests on the bill. Note the earlier broadcast.

Jo Kreiter and her collaborators have nationally recognized expertise in creating site-specific and apparatus-based performance work. Their current production, the result of Flyaway Productions’ 2010 Arts and Activism Apprenticeship premieres: July 21-22, 7at CounterPulse in San Francisco. This summer program for girls is inspired by the company’s mission to make dances that live at the intersection of acrobatic spectacle and social justice. 15 young artists received a paid summer apprenticeship, facilitating both dance-making and community–based activism. The young artists come to Flyaway from the Mission, Bayview Hunter’s Point, the Avenues, South of Market and Oakland. Shows are: Wednesday-Thursday, July 21-22, 2010, 7 PM, at CounterPulse,1310 Mission Street @ 9th, San Francisco. Visit www.flyawayproductions.com Tickets:$6-12 sliding-scale, Youth (14 & under) free. Visit counterpulse.org or call 1-800-838-3006 We close with a special interview with Angela Bofill who is bringing "The Angela Bofill Exper

Rebroadcast of the Wanda's Picks Special interview (first aired 7/15) with creative musical team for "Great Integration: A Hip Hop Chamber Opera" about Golden Fetus Records: JooWan Kim, Christopher Nicholas, and Kirby Dominant in the first segment; we close with choreographer Raissa Simpson, PUSH Dance Company. She choreographed the movement for the "hip-hopera" which debuted at ODC Theatre. PUSH Dance Company is taking Great Integration renamed per the composer's request: "The Saga of the Black Swordsman," to New York next week, July 23-24.

We are joined by the creative team for the Hip Hop Chamber Opera: Great Integration: JooWan Kim, composer and President of Golden Fetus Records), Kirby Dominant: ft. MC on Great Integration, and singer, composer, Christopher Nicholas. JooWan speaks about the arrival of Bolon Yokte, the Mayan god of Nine-Dog Tree, and how it is marking the end/and or transformation of the world we know, and how Great Integration is related to this. At its core "Great Integration" speaks to a spiritual center that life is connected to and what happens when this is denied, ignored, severed or attacked. Visit http://goldenfetus.com/ During the second half we will be joined by choreographer Raissa Simpson, PUSH Dance Company, who will speak about her "Great Integration" evening length dance production next staging, this time at New York's Joyce SoHo, located at 155 Mercer Street, July 23-24, 2010. Great Integration Raissa's PUSH Dance Company and composer JooWan Kim's Mik Nawooj, had with sold out performances for both nights last