BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT CONFERENCE SATURDAY PROGRAM
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Arrivals & Registration 8:30AM – 11:30AM
Opening Ceremony 9:00AM – 10:00AM
Panel Session 10:10AM – 11:30AM
Lunch 11:45AM – 12:45PM
Keynote Address 1:00PM – 1:45PM
Panel Sessions 1:00PM – 5:45PM
Dinner 6:00PM – 7:00PM
Theatre Night 7:30PM – 9:30PM
Panel Session 10:10AM – 11:30AM
Black Power and Black Arts Roundtable Recreation Center
Moderator: Dr. Nigel Hatton, University of California, Merced
Panelists:
Askia Touré Poet & Activist, Co-Founder of the Black Arts Movement
Marvin X Playwright & Activist, Co-Founder of west coast branch of Black Arts Movement
Eugene Redmond Founding Editor of Drumvoices Revue, Emeritus Professor of English & former Chairman of the Creative Writing Committee at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville
Umar Bin Hassan Member of the civil rights era Last Poets
Avotcja Black Arts Movement Poet & Percussionist
Judy Juanita Novelist and playwright, former editor-in-chief of Black Panther Party Newspaper
Dr. James Smethurst Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, author of The Black Arts Movement: Literary Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s (The University of North Carolina Press (March 2005)
Dr. Mike Sell Professor of English, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, author of The Avant-Garde: Race Religion War and editor of Ed Bullins: Twelve Plays and Selected Writings.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS 1:00PM – 1:45PM
Marvin X
Black Arts, Black Power, Black Studies COB 105
Arts in the Valley, 1480 KYOS AM, Merced, CA
Tune into Arts in the Valley when host Kim McMillon interviews Alí Allié, Ruben Reyes, the producers and director of GARIFUNA IN PERIL, and Beulah Stanley, the film’s promoter. Garifuna in Peril premiers in San Francisco on August 22, 2013.
To Listen to the interview, click onto this link:
Thursday, August 22, 7:30pm
SAN FRANCISCO
AMC Van Ness 14
1000 Van Ness Ave
San Francisco, CA 94109
http://www.tugg.com/events/4864
ADVANCE TICKETS ONLY $12
Tickets will not be sold at the door.
Arrive early; film will start promptly at 7:30pm.
Written, Produced and Directed by
Alí Allié and Ruben Reyes
Year of Production: 2012
Countries of Production: USA/Honduras
Running Time: 99 minutes
Languages: 55% Garífuna, 30% English, 15% Spanish
Subtitled in: English (Spanish subtitled version available)
Additional Writing: William Flores
Associate Producers: Dudley Augustine, Ben Flores, Jorge Garifuna
Actors: Ruben Reyes, Julian Castillo, Gloria Garnett, Jessica Alvarez, E.J. Mejia, Jr., Luis Martinez, Aubrey Wakeling, Arleny Escobar
Cinematographer: Alí Allié
Editors: Alí Allié, Ruben Reyes, Milton Guity, Katherine Cumpa, Marya Murphy
Music: Emilio Nuñez & Labaña Maraza, Aziatic, Punta Cartel, Ala Suazo, Rene Crisanto y La Runi Hati, Bodoma, Isabel Flores, Garifuna Records, Bootsy Rankin, Julito Timbalito, Bill Cayetano, Georgette Lambey, Glen Garcia, Nuru, Luisito Martinez, Yanyman, Ruben Reyes
Arts in the Valley, Saturday, March 23 (8 pm), and Sunday, March 24 (2 pm), 2013, 1480 KYOS AM, Merced, CA
BODY BEAUTY FULL
be you. be full. be beautifull.
To listen to Maya Gonzalez’s interview, click onto the link: __ 82
8 week online course, March 22nd-May 16th, 2013
with Maya Gonzalez
(Part 1 of Living the Creative Life series for Women)
| Course Description | Who is this class for? |
| What you will walk away with | Registration Information |
| What you will need for this course | Course Sign-up |
| About the Instructor |
*Registration open through Monday, March 25th*
Course Description
Body Beauty Full is the first course in a 3 part series
designed to
uncover what it means to live the creative life.
Bringing together learning in the privacy of your own home with the importance of being in community with women on a similar path, Body Beauty Full is about loving the body you are blessed with while learning practical tools on how to unleash your body’s wisdom and strength – physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
For more information, and to sign-up, click onto this link: http://www.reflectionpress.com/freemindschool.html#body
Encore presentation of Don Starnes’ February interview
Click onto the link to listen to filmmaker Don Starnes, https://artsinthevalley.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/don.mp3
Don Starnes grew up in the San Joaquin Valley of California, where he learned lighting from cirrus clouds on summer days and winter tule fog. He received a degree in film production from San Francisco State University, made many short films and worked in most areas of film production before becoming a Director of Photography in 1985.
Don has photographed commercials, several features and music videos and lots of corporate, documentary and television shows for many big name companies.
One documentary that he photographed won an International Documentary Association award. Another was nominated for an Emmy. Short films have won prestigious festival awards. Several of the corporate pieces have won CINE Golden Eagle, Telly and ITVA Golden Vision awards. Commercials have won regional ad awards. Features have screened in festivals and been distributed theatrically and on cable.
For more information on Don Starnes and his work, please visit http://www.donstarnes.com.
Arts in the Valley, Saturday, February 16 (8 PM), and Sunday, February 17 (2 PM), 2013, 1480 KYOS AM, Merced, CA
Tune into Arts in the Valley as host Kim McMillon interviews David Hilliard, a founder member and Chief of Staff of the Black Panther Party, and UC Merced’s Producing Manager Gail Benedict about this Saturday’s production of Black n Blue Boys/Broken Men.
To listen to David Hilliard, Click onto the link:black panther
David Hilliard, a founding member and Chief of Staff of the Black Panther Party, is an incomparable authority on the life, legacy, and intellectual history of Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton. Indeed, no other scholar of or direct participant in the Black Liberation Movement of the 1960s and 1970s offers a more intimate understanding of Newton’s activism and ideas. First as childhood classmates and later as young adult comrades in the African-American freedom struggle, Hilliard enjoyed a close association with Newton that endured throughout the Black Panther leader’s lifetime.
Hilliard is author of the book, This Side of Glory, a compelling personal narrative and electrifying eyewitness account of the Black Panther Party, which highlights Newton’s fearless crusade against police brutality and other examples of social injustice. Hilliard’s life story dramatically illuminates this revolutionary movement and explains much of the U.S.’s present racial and political troubles. Hilliard’s thoughtful, well-balanced insights into Newton’s complex personality dramatizes the contradictions between the revolutionary icon and the private citizen.
By the early 1970s, the Black Panthers were a nationwide/global organization providing free food, medicine, and legal services to the inner city poor. Hilliard’s book provides a first-hand account of Huey Newton’s shoot-out, the killing of Fred Hampton, how money was raised and spent, the sexual mores of the Panthers, and how illegal activities erupted and were controlled. The Panthers, once labeled, “the greatest threat to the internal security of the United States,” by FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, began to dissolve as police raids, gun battles, IRS investigations, trials, and prison terms decimated their ranks. Covert tactics turned Panthers against each other. What the government had not destroyed, the Panthers finished themselves.
Hilliard is currently at work on the first ever biography of the Black Panther leader, Huey, the Spirit of the Panther, to be published in 2005 by Thunder’s Mouth Press.
Since 1993, David Hilliard has directed the activities of the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation, a grass-roots community-based non-profit organization committed to preserving and fostering Newton’s intellectual legacy. The Foundation has collected Newton’s writings covering the Huey P. Newton Reader, (Seven Stories, 2002), and his early work, To Die for the People, in addition to reissuing Newton’s autobiography, Revolutionary Suicide. A photographic history of the Party, The Legacy of the Panthers, has also been published. Hilliard’s work with the Foundation has been featured in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, and The Los Angeles Times, as well as on National Public Radio and the Pacifica Radio Network.
Now an internationally recognized authority on Newton and the Black Panther Party, David Hilliard teaches at Merritt College, Laney College, and New College, and lectures frequently throughout the United States. He was an advisor on the feature film, “Panther,” and on the Spike Lee-produced, “A Huey P. Newton Story.”
For more information, visit http://www.blackpanther.org.
To listen to Gail Benedict discuss the production of Black n Blue Boys/Broken Men, click onto the link:uc merced
“Black n Blue Boys / Broken Men”
BY | Dael Orlandersmith
Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, 7:30 pm
UC Merced’s Dr. Lakireddy Auditorium
GAIL BENEDICT, Producing Manager
DUNYA RAMICOVA, Artistic Manager
“Black n Blue Boys / Broken Men”
runs 90 minutes with no intermission.
Audience members are invited to stay after
the performance for a discussion with the
artist and a panel of experts.
Not suitable for children under the age of 16
DAEL ORLANDERSMITH
Dael Orlandersmith previously collaborated with the Goodman on “Stoop Stories”
during the 2009/2010 season. Orlandersmith first performed “Stoop Stories” in 2008
at The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival and Apollo Theater’s Salon Series;
Washington, DC’s, Studio Theatre produced its world premiere in 2009.
“Black n Blue Boys/Broken Men” was developed as a co-commission between the
Goodman and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where it was staged in May 2012. Her play
“Horsedreams” was developed at New Dramatists and workshopped at New York Stage
and Film Company in 2008. It was performed at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in
2011. “Bones” was commissioned by the Mark Taper Forum where it premiered in 2010.
Orlandersmith premiered “The Blue Album,” in collaboration with David Cale, at Long
Wharf Theatre in 2007.
“Yellowman” was commissioned by and premiered at McCarter Theatre in a co-production
with The Wilma Theater and Long Wharf Theatre. Orlandersmith was a Pulitzer
Prize finalist and Drama Desk Award nominee for Outstanding Play and Outstanding
Actress in a Play for “Yellowman” in 2002. “The Gimmick,” commissioned by McCarter
Theatre, premiered in its Second Stage OnStage series in 1998 and went on to great
acclaim at Long Wharf Theatre and New York Theatre Workshop; Orlandersmith won
the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for “The Gimmick” in 1999.
Her play “Monster” premiered at New York Theatre Workshop in November 1996. Orlandersmith
has toured extensively with the Nuyorican Poets Café (Real Live Poetry)
throughout the United States, Europe and Australia. “Yellowman” and a collection of
her earlier works have been published by Vintage Books and Dramatists Play Service.
Orlandersmith attended Sundance Institute Theatre Lab for four summers and is the
recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant, The Helen Merrill Award for
Emerging Playwrights, a Guggenheim and the 2005 PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award
for a playwright in mid-career. She is the recipient of a Lucille Lortel Foundation Playwrights
Fellowship and an Obie Award for “Beauty’s Daughter.”
PANEL PARTICIPANTS WITH DAEL ORLANDERSMITH AFTER PLAY
KIM MCMILLON, moderator
KATIE BROKAW, professor of literature
LINDA CAMERON, professor of psychology
DAVID LOCKRIDGE, founder and executive director, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE)
Overcomers Program
Arts in the Valley, 1480 KYOS AM, Merced, CA
-
- Author Diana Chambers
Tune into Arts in the Valley for host Kim McMillon’s fascinating interview with Diana Chambers, the author of the spy thriller, Stinger.
A romantic spy thriller with a twist, Stinger will keep you up at night – and keep you wondering.
About Diana
Diana Chambers has always been a bookworm, her eye on the distant shore. She has traveled widely, including many far corners of Asia. An importing business in India led to a Hollywood design career, which later evolved into writing for television, film, interactive and travel media. Research for various projects put her on the road again. She loves spicy foods and her bag is always packed.
Diana wonders if she had another life on the Silk Road for she is drawn there in her work. She often doesn’t know which comes first: the story or the setting. What intrigue draws her, what hot spot? Her Nick Daley series takes her to many of them. Stinger is set in the Casablanca of Central Asia where “rogue” CIA officer Nick Daley becomes entangled in a triangle with a daring San Francisco journalist and her former lover, an elusive Afghan chief with a price on his head. In the sequel, The Company She Keeps, Nick enlists a patriotic young woman, “E,” into the world of espionage, high-tech treachery and sexual intrigue, following a twisting trail that ends in Iran. The next in the series, Into the Fire, will take these characters to China and Thailand and Diana plans to follow them back to Asia later this year. They are promising a big adventure on the Mekong River!
Her work has been praised for its riveting plots, unusual characters and deep sense of place. A member of Writers Guild of America, PEN, Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, Diana lives near San Francisco with her fellow-traveler husband, arty daughter and brilliant mutt, the best writing partner ever.
She is represented by Elizabeth Evans of The Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency, 216 E. 75th Street, Suite 1E, New York, NY 10021. 212-794-1082. www.jvnla.com
About Stinger:
Set in the ancient Silk Road town of Peshawar, Pakistan, the Nick Daley series begins with the disappearance of a secret shipment of Stinger missiles followed by a shadowy graveyard murder.
When a determined San Francisco journalist arrives on the scene, “rogue” CIA officer Nick Daley becomes entangled in an unusual triangle with the woman and her former lover, an elusive Afghan leader with a price on his head. These characters lead us into a realm of intrigue and betrayal, where hidden agendas provide their own kind of veil until the truth is revealed in a shocking climax.
“A captivating and thrilling excursion…”– Randall Masteller, http://www.spyguysandgals.com
“Forget armchair adventure – this is an edge-of-your-seat action thriller.”– Charles Benoit, author of Relative Danger, Out of Order, You.
Arts in the Valley, Saturday, December 22, 2012, 1480 KYOS AM, 9 pm
Kim McMillon interviews author, poet, and activist Marvin X on the Black Arts Movement on Saturday, December 22nd at 9 pm on Arts in the Valley, 1480 KYOS AM in Merced, Ca.
His latest book is the Wisdom of Plato Negro, parables/fables, Black Bird Press, Berkeley. He currently teaches at his Academy of da Corner, 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland. Ishmael Reed says, “Marvin X is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland.”
For speaking, readings and performance, contact Marvin X @ jmarvinx@yahoo.com,
http://www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com
Arts in the Valley, September 2012, 1480 KYOS: Guest: author Catherine Robbins
Arts in the Valley host Kim McMillon interviews author Catherine Robbins, author of All Indians Do Not Live in Teepees (or Casinos). Although All Indians Do Not Live in Teepees (or Casinos) was published by a university press, it is a work of journalism. The many stories that Robbins wrote served as a platform for the book, and the author also spent several years doing additional research and speaking with numerous sources in tribal areas as well as in cities and towns.
To listen to the interview with Catherine Robbins, click onto the link:cathy
All Indians Do Not Live in Teepees (or Casinos) is about contemporary American Indians and how modernity and a restorative vision of the past have generated a new energy among them.
As quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle: “I hope readers go beyond just jettisoning stereotypes. Over several millennia, Indians have developed valuable databases, and they demand to be seen as contemporary people. We can respect that.”
Reviews
“As an illustration of modern Native American life, it effortlessly depicts politics, culture, and pride; as a first book it is a marvel.” Publishers Weekly
“Robbins’s ability to take the all-encompassing term Indian, once used to stereotype a myriad of peoples, and show it not as a limiting factor but as describing a larger brotherhood, is inspiring. The capacity of artists and journalists from various tribes to form alliances and bring the Indian voice to the non-Indian public is a monumental step forward in understanding today’s Indian country.” Indian Country Today
“A solid, insightful overview of the way American Indians live now.” Kirkus Reviews
“Her writing bears all the hallmarks of a seasoned journalist—deep background research conveyed in a compelling manner, a well-constructed narrative, and, above all, a devotion to portraying accurately the stories and voices of the people she interviewed.” New Mexico Magazine
Arts in the Valley, September 2012, 1480 KYOS AM, Merced, CA
Arts in the Valley host Kim McMillon interviews filmmaker Lenore Norrgard on her film American Ubuntu.
To listen to the interview with Lenore Norrgard, click onto the link:lenore-2
Below is a description of her film
AMERICAN UBUNTU
“Because we are, I am”
How would you like to walk into a movie theater and see, on the screen, a drama that features people like you — people who are working to create a new world from the ashes of the old — and are succeeding?
Would you like to see an aging white man who, in his struggle to love, faces a past in which he was traumatized by racism — and who, in turn, hurt others with the same foul tool — and now is determined to make the past right?
Would you like to see a young artist who carries on the original, progressive tradition of hip hop, before it was hijacked by the cynical, exploitive music industry? A hip hop artist who also is an activist, and a shaman — and creates a brave new blend of these three practices to heal the world?
Would you like to see a former Black Panther, a widower who remains devoted to his visionary wife, long dead? A man who is a steadfast, loving father to his stepdaughter — and accepts her lesbianism?
Would you like to enter into a vibrant, sustainable and visionary communal village founded by profoundly diverse 1970s radicals — that still is thriving and growing after 20 years?
Welcome to my film – AMERICAN UBUNTU!
Showing in a theater near you – NOT.
That is to say, not YET.
Born of September 11
In the days following September 11, I curled up in a fetal position on my single futon in the kitchen-bedroom of my tiny apartment in San Francisco, asking myself, How do I respond to this, as a healer, as a radical, and as an artist?
How do we get out of this nightmare?
As I continued to repeat these questions to myself, day after day, I fell into a reverie, in which new characters, and the beginnings of a new story, were seeded in my imagination.
There are no new stories, some insist.
But I dare — like Adesimba, my hip hop shaman character — to blend my diverse practices and experiences, and thereby create something new.
How is it new? It is a healing story for the battered U.S. psyche.
Now, you know we need that!
What is a healing story?
A healing story is one in which we accompany characters on their journey, and through experiencing their struggles, setbacks and victories, our own wounded consciousness vicariously heals.
The tradition of healing through stories is as old as storytelling itself. In fact, healing was the original purpose of story making.
Shamans, our original healers, are our oldest storytellers. By conceiving and sharing a story of healing with a wounded patient, a template is created for the patient’s wound actually to heal — thus setting the process in motion.
So, telling a healing story is not new.
What is new about AMERICAN UBUNTU is that it creates a template for healing not only individual psyches, but for healing the collective consciousness of the American people.
A Healing Story for America
Together with an aging protagonist, we make the journey of facing his youth, where not only did he receive racist wounds, but he inflicted them, as well.
We experience his regret about his past actions, and his determination to make things right — a determination that grows out of a profound love that is stronger than his wounds.
We experience the obstacles, internal and external, his determination helps him to navigate. And we experience the liberation and healing that his love-based determination achieves — for himself, and for others.
Hence, this new, healing template: We can choose to face our past — both as individuals, and as a people — and, with the commitment to making the past right, we have the power to heal and transform, both ourselves and others.
Not only as individuals, but as a nation.
Accompanying the protagonist on his journey, we also experience another possible way we could choose to live in the U.S.: Connected with the Earth and with Spirit; in a sustainable, collective economy that cares for everyone; a self-governed society of equals, where conflict is engaged openly and in a context of love.
And so, another template is laid down: Namely, that it is possible for Americans to live in peace — not only with one another, but with the rest of the Earth, and with other peoples.
It takes a village to make this film
As I’ve begun looking for a producer and backers to bring this story to the screen, a friend commented, “It’s going to take a village to make this film.”
Yes. After all, ubuntu is a Zulu word meaning, Because we are, I am — and therein lies the film’s healing message.
Do you want to be part of the AMERICAN UBUNTU-making village?
Can you help with any of the following:
Donate a design for an AMERICAN UBUNTU web site?
Help me connect with filmmaker Todd Haynes?
Help me connect with Christine Vachon, Kasi Lemmons, Charles Burnett, John Sayles, Oprah Winfrey, Andrea Arnold, or Ang Lee?
Provide development funds?
Connect me with a visionary producer with a strong track record?
Connect me with a movie distribution genius?
Invest in the film, or raise money for the film?
Something else?
I welcome your contribution, and would love to give you a credit in my film!
Lenore Norrgard, MA, CSC, has been creating new stories for decades, and has practiced filmmaking since 1998. She has practiced shamanic healing and teaching for nearly 20 years, and is known for pioneering the application of shamanic practices in healing social wounds.
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