Sights & Sounds is your weekly guide to the Bay Area arts scene. Poet and performance artist Daniel B. Summerhilltold KALW’s Jeneé Darden about three fantastic arts events happening around the Bay this weekend.
- Question Bridge: Black Males exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California (ongoing)
- Love Jones at the New Parkway Theater (OAK) 6/7
- Queeriosity showcase at the Brava Theatre (SF) 6/8
Question Bridge: Black Males is returning to the Oakland Museum of California. This installation ties together intimate videos from over 160 Black men from around the country and arranges the videos to simulate face-to-face conversations between the participants. The men answer each other’s questions and share stories, beliefs and values in a personal portrayal of their lives. The exhibit is currently on display at the museum's Gallery of California Art.
It does deal with identity, and not taking on identities that may not be yours, but developing your own kind of partake on who you are as a Black male.
The 1997 classic film Love Jonesstars Nia Long and Larenz Tate as two Chicago artists that fall for each other. They bond over music, photography and poetry, until things falls apart. See Love Jones this Friday evening at the New Parkway Theater in Oakland.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CttBHlnnMxE
It was really an eye-opening film for me as a young person trying to discover what it means to be an artist, and also how to have the feels and be all googly and in love.
Queeriosity is one of the longest-running programs that Youth Speaks offers, with writing and performance workshops, as well as open mics. This Saturday night, Queeriosity presents talented, LGBTQ+ artists at the Brava Theatre in San Francisco. Queeriosity says it intends to be "a space where your authentic self is not only welcomed, it's celebrated."
It’s super important that this event happens at the tail end of that workshop, because it gives them this tangible space to share the work they’ve been working on.
Daniel B. Summerhill contributed to the recently published Black Joy: An Anthology of Black Boy Poems
