Sights & Sounds is your weekly guide to the Bay Area arts scene. Liz Boubion, co-director of the Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choregoraphers, told KALW’s Jen Chien about three fantastic arts events happening around the Bay this week.
- I Got A Truth To Tell at CounterPulse — 10/26-10/27
- Dances For Change at La Peña Cultural Center — 10/27
- In The Meantime at Laney College Theater — 10/28-10/29
"I Got A Truth To Tell" is co-created by the Skywatchers ensemble, directed by Anne Bluethenthal and Shakiri, and musically directed by Melanie DeMore. Participants and audience members will enjoy the music, dance, song, and visual art that makes Skywatchers not only an aesthetic experience, but a celebration of resistance to oppression, and an affirmation of community.
The show features residents from the Senator, Cambridge, Iroquois, Hamlin, Dalt, and San Cristina hotels and participants from Larkin Street Youth Services, alongside jose e. abad, Malia Byrne, Gabriel Christian, Krista DeNio, and Shakiri.
The Skywatchers ensemble was founded in 2011 brings residents of San Francisco’s Tenderloin District into partnership with professional artists to create multidisciplinary, site-specific performance installations that amplify the rich and complex life experiences and talents of community members.
There are shows 10/26 and 10/27 at 7:45pm at CounterPulse in San Francisco.
BOUBION: “To do a piece like this, art as social justice work, [it] really has to be done with someone with enough strength and wisdom and [who is as] nurturing as Anne. So i just want to sing her praises as a director and support the work she does.”
Dances For Change is a benefit concert at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley for Tamalpa ArtCorps — a part of the Tamalpa Institute in San Rafael founded by Anna and Daria Halprin — that offers dance and art programs to disadvantaged communities.
On Friday at 7:30, singer Claudia Cuentas and poet Jahan Khaligi will take the stage.
Cuentas is a Peruvian singer, songwriter, educator and researcher. She weaves song, art, and traditional practices from the Andes to support community strength, wellness, resiliency, and creativity. “ALMA ~ SOUL” is her first album and a collection of original songs inspired by the richness of Andean music and its healing traditions.
Jahan Khalighi is a poet, spoken word artist, educator, musician and activist, weaving social justice and art. A teacher for the innovative June Jordan Poetry For The People program at UC Berkeley and Chabot College, and a teaching poet artist for California Poets In The Schools and at Tamalpa Institute, Khalighi's original poetry is published in the anthology "Stay Amazed" and on Whoa Nelly Press.
BOUBION: “Claudia Cuentas is a beautiful Peruvian musician — she does a lot of work that’s spiritually based and coming back to the roots of ceremony.”
Director Kendra Kimbrough Barnes presents "In The Meantime" as a tribute to Breast Cancer
Awareness Month, to the many families still affected by the disease, and in memory of her mother's battle that ended 26 years ago. The show is an original dance drama combining text and movement that investigates what it's like to face the possibility of death while managing the demands of life. "In the Meantime" will be performed on 10/28 at 7:30 p.m. and 10/29 at 4 p.m.2017 at 4 p.m.
at Laney College Theater.
BOUBION: “I really wanted to support Kendra Barnes, she is part of why the Black Choreographers Showcase exists. She is the producer of it since 1996. I remember seeing that showcase back in the 90s and thinking how amazing it was. I think that those producers and artists that planted the seed for my festival [ Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choregoraphers] ... to create a festival for a particular body politic and identity is something that inspired others to pop up as well. So I feel like they paved the way.”