With Performing Diaspora fast-approaching, some of the artists took a break from the stage and headed over to KPFA's radio studios in Berkeley for a musical sneak-preview of their work on Stephen Kent's show, "Music of the World." In between tracks, our Executive Director Jessica Robinson Love joined them in the conversation about their performances November 5-8. If you missed the program live, give it a listen here!
Kathak made a man out of me....And a Bird! by Charlotte Moraga Gender-bending, gender-blending--This is ardhinariswara. It’s nothing new for a Kathak dancer. We have to explore the depths of extreme masculinity and extreme femininity as we portray different characters and characterization in stories. This kind of role playing requires an artist to get in touch with conflicting feelings and emotions within. What does it mean to be a man? a woman? As a woman, a mother, a grandmother, I
now and then adia wrote: not heads, just faces april 13, 2009 In sidewalk cracks and florescent puddles, busted spindles stack grief and silence. Violent at the core a snake rises unraveling in a double helix born of war. A blank stare slips and falls into the wrong hands. Crimson bends black across corners in Brooklyn. The blood has been washed away. A new ancestor waits to pass. One on Dean street, the other on Bergen. I went home. The new skyscrapers in Frisco are the
Rembetiko is not just a stylle of music, it is also a way of life an attitude that constanly questions authority in crative ways. The solo dance of the rembetes although based on traditional moves and technique is always breaking rulles and evolving as a living art. The Rembetika lyrics touch subject matter that is dangerous and threatening to normal law obeying citizens. The shadow theater of refugees of the lost lands of Asia Minor tell stories of living in
The process of creating parts of the piece and showing them has been stimulating. At the showing in San Francisco, there were comments on things that surprised me. At one point I finish drinking a glass of wine and someone remarked on the how my exhalation into the glass fogged it up and thought that was quite beautiful. Another thing I do in the piece is change costume on stage while I talk. Many seemed to like this, but one
After Kemal Attaturk beat Eleftherios Venizelos Greek troups in Turkey there was an exchange of population of the two countries. All the Christians had to move to Greece all Muslims had to move in Turkey. The refugees that went back to Greece had to start all over because although they were prosperous they had to escape massacre with nothing except wat they would carry. Most of them carried liras (gold coins) a hand full of soil from their garden to
One of the most dreamy artistic experiences was when Yanni's choreography and Katerina's singing allowed with the help of athletic dancers a simple light source like a flashlight to tell a story while feeling the same breeze that one feels when the shadow of a dozen leaves try to keep still on our faces.
Rembetiko is a type of music and lifestyle that was developed by the Greek refugees that lived for countless generations in Turkey and then were forced to move back to the motherland of Greece because of the threat of genocide. Yannis Adoniou Catherine Clambaneva and Leonidas Kassapides are exploring the style and importance of Rembetika by dissecting their own disciplines of dance, song and shadow theater and creating a new language so that the audience can feel in their heart
I wonder if my ancestors imaged that their children would ever come back home to Africa. After experiencing being captured beat, chained together and walked miles and miles from their homes, ancestral lands, family, language, culture, religion, food, flora and fauna to sit and wait in a dungeon. To be taken to a place on boats named “Jesus” and such. The slave dungeon in Elmina, Ghana is called a castle ironically enough and a church sits on top of it.
Myal, like many African based religion is tied intricately to place, location -- the setting and its surrounding fauna/flora play an important role. Myal was initially believed to simple mean "spirit." The first known recorded observation of a Myal ceremony was in 1774 by Edward Long, who documented the performance of a Myal dance intended to persuade slaves that they would be invulnerable to the bullets of the white man. It was said they were told by the Myal leader
A benefit for CounterPULSE’s Performing Diaspora Thurs. Sept. 10, 5-9pm, $10-15 sliding scale at El Rio, 3158 Mission St., SF, CA, www.elriosf.com Come party with CounterPULSE at El Rio for an evening of happy hour specials with an awesome line up of entertainment for your viewing pleasure. Vivvyanne Forevermore hosts an evening with a DJ set from Senior Oz from Afrolicious and performances from: Vidya Sundaram, Opal Palmer Adisa, Jaclyn Burleigh & Sheena Johnson, Lily Taylor, W. Kamau Bell, and
Danica and Dulce -thank you both so much for your sharing! Having been in Cuba for the first works in progress showing - and looking towards the 20th as the first time I will be meeting many of the other artists in this amazing convergence of cultures, approaches, artistic voices - I am feeling nervous, overjoyed, fearful, delighted and absolutely frantic all at once... As the date grows nearer and as the rehearsal process is underway - the 'everyday' seems
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