33rd Anniversary Show
La Peña - Ayer, Hoy y P'alante
Saturday June 14, 2008
$12 adv. $14 dr. - 8pm
La Peña's 33rd Anniversary Celebration! A work in progress music suite La Peña - Ayer, Hoy y P'alante -- A work in progress of a musical suite about La Peña, created by renowned composer Wayne Wallace, with Aya de Leon (librettist) and the talented La Peña International Orchestra. Opening by Samora & Elena Pinderhughes & special guests. For the past 33 years, LA PEÑA CULTURAL CENTER, a nationally recognized cultural institution, has helped to raise the social and cultural consciousness of our community with cultural projects that bring people together to work towards a just future. La Peña's mission is the belief that artists and cultural workers contribute to positive social change by creating understanding among us, by stimulating discussion, by empowering us to work for change, and by presenting a powerful vision of the future. 
For advance tickets click here.
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CALENDAR LISTINGS: La Peña - Ayer, Hoy y P'alante (La Peña - Yesterday, Today and Forward). Saturday, June 14, 2008. 8pm $12 adv. $14 dr. A work-in-progress, the musical suite about La Peña is being created by renowned composer, Wayne Wallace, with Aya de Leon (librettist) and the talented La Peña International Orchestra with Rafael Manriquez, Ron Stallings, Saed Muhssin, Javier Navarrette, Raul Perales, Maria Loreto and special guest Linda Tillery. Opening performance by La Peña class alumni, Samora & Elena Pinderhughes.
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La Peña - Yesterday, Today and Forward; a musical suite-in-progress
Sweet 33! La Peña Celebrates Anniversary with a Suite
La Peña - a local cultural center with a national reputation and a world vision - is in high gear to celebrate its 33 years of bringing a distinctive taste of the world's art and culture to Bay Area communities. The celebrations' prime event promises to be just that. La Peña - Ayer, Hoy y P'alante, (La Peña - Yesterday, Today & Forward), (Saturday, June 14, 2008) is a multicultural musical suite-in-progress commissioned by La Peña, and directed by notable composer Wayne Wallace in creative collaboration with Aya de Leon (librettist) and the La Peña International Orchestra.
The La Peña International Orchestra consists of musicians and a spoken word artist who will bring together their years of experience with La Peña, as well as their Chilean, Latin American, Latin Jazz, Afro-Caribbean, R&B, Arab, Hip Hop, and Mapuche indigenous traditions. The orchestra includes Wayne Wallace, Aya de Leon, Rafael Manriquez, Ron Stallings, Saed Muhssin, Javier Navarrette, Raul Perales, Maria Loreto, and Linda Tillery.
With music as a focal point, the new work forms part of La Peña’s efforts to document its rich history. The suite combines multi-disciplinary art forms to recount the history “The music and script will touch on key historic moments in the world and their reflection in La Peña community culture. By 2010 the vision is to create a multi-media script including archival footage, interviews with artists and community members to integrate with the original music composed by Wayne and the La Peña International Orchestra”, says senior staff collective member Sylvia Sherman.
The suite combines the extraordinary talents of composer and arranger Wayne Wallace, an artist renown for the diversity and extent of his composer's palate, with Aya de Leon, writer, spoken word and theater artist who has spent 33 out of her 40 years being involved with La Peña.. Over the coming two-years, these lead artists will collaborate with a diverse group of professional musicians, spoken word artists, videographer, and a DJ, who will make up the La Peña International Orchestra, to perform the premiere of the completed work at La Peña's 35th anniversary festivities in 2010.
"Over the years, we have built a legacy of presenting cultural work oriented toward community participation," says La Peña's Nadine Ghammache. "On June 14, and in the coming months we invite community members to bring their La Peña artifacts (photos, flyers, posters, t-shirt) and memories to participate in this oral history project. We want to capture and share with others as many of the countless important and impactful moments in our history as possible,” says Nadine.
Wayne Wallace. As a composer, arranger and Artistic Director of the piece, Wayne’s artistic concept is to weave a multi-media narrative. Wayne is a musician (trombone, keyboard, vocals), composer, arranger, educator, and record producer. His works can be found on specialty CDs of Latin Jazz and Chilean music as well as on T.V. and major recording labels. He is known in the SF Bay Area and nationally for his prolific work for a broad range of artists from R&B to Latin Jazz, to Jazz, Funk, and diverse traditional and fusion music. Affectionately called, "the Doctor" by musicians, he is the "go to" composer and arranger for a vast number of artist groups that call La Peña home as well as major label recorded artists. His recording, production and arrangement credits for artists include: Angela Bofill, and John Lee Hooker, Machete Ensemble, Dr. Loco's Rockin Jalapeño Band, Lichi Fuentes, and Santana. He has recorded and performed with Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, The Asian American Jazz Orchestra, Irakere, Lena Horne, The Count Basie Orchestra and countless others.
Aya de Leon. As the main librettist, Aya is creating a series of spoken word pieces, song lyrics and select archival audio and video samples to create a multi-disciplinary script. Writer, performer, hip hop theater artist and poetic activist, Aya de Leon is currently the Director of June Jordan's Poetry for the People and teaches in the African American Studies Department at UC Berkeley. Her work has received acclaim in local and national reviews. A graduate of History from Harvard, Aya studied theater with Whoopi Goldberg, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and the Jean Shelton School. In 2004, Aya appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, and has shared the stage with a wide range of performers. She is the co-author of the 2004 book "How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office".
La Peña Cultural Center. Named after Latin America's informal gathering places, La Peña is a favorite stop for pundits, activists, imaginative musicians, gay and lesbian artists, late-night poets, avid tourists, and South American gastronomy connoisseurs. Since 1975, La Peña has promoted social justice and cultural understanding through the arts, education and community action. and helped shape California's cultural landscape with projects that bring people together to work for positive change.. La Peña is known for unifying diverse communities through culture and events that support a wide range of issues affecting neighborhoods, communities and countries. From teenage homelessness to deadly wars abroad, those issues are expressed in film, song, dance, or speech at this South Berkeley/North Oakland cultural space. With engaging cultural initiatives, unique performances, and invigorating multicultural festivals, La Peña has built a national and international reputation as one of the most exceptional and original medium-sized venues in the country.
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