Dr. Loco performs for La Peña Mural Benefit

“Dr. Loco” José (Bennie) Cuellar, Ph.D.is a United States Mexican multicultural anthropologist, musician, educator and activist from San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Cuellar currently serves as Professor and Chair of La Raza Studies, and is Director of the Cesar E. Chavez Institute of Public Policy at San Francisco State University.

A talented saxophonist and singer from an early age, he is founder and director of the critically-acclaimed Dr. Loco’s Rockin’ Jalapeño Band. Since 1988, the band continues to perform a wide range of music influenced by the Chicano / Latino cultural experience at prominent festivals, clubs and events throughout the U.S. and have released three hit CD’s. Recently, he began the electroacoustic ensemble Amorindio dedicated to performing songs of amor and liberation.

Professor Cuellar has held teaching and research positions at some of the most prestigious colleges and universities like Stanford University and UC Berkeley and has received numerous fellowships and awards. He was awarded the 1997-98 Gateways Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship to study the development and distribution of the Tex Mex-style saxophone. This research was presented in 1998 at the Guadalupe Cultural Center in San Antonio, Texas. Blending his experience as a Chicano musician and scholar, Dr. Cuellar travels thoughout the U.S. presenting powerful lecture performances that both inform and entertain audiences of all ages and orientations.

To donate to the Mural campaign please visit http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/song-of-unity-mural-renewal-2013/x/2147460.

KPFA Radio & La Peña present: NANCY MOREJON, Direct from Cuba

NANCY MOREJON
Fresh from Cuba, the celebrated poet and public intellectual.

Presented by Al Young-California Poet Laureate emeritus, novelist, essayist & Kathleen Weaver – poet, biographer, translator.

Benefit for KPFA + La Peña
Information: www.kpfa.org/events

Nancy Morejón is the best known and most widely translated woman poet of postrevolutionary Cuba. Born in 1944 in Havana to a militant dock worker and a tradeunionist seamstress, Morejón graduated from Havana University. She was Cuba’s first black woman poet to be internationally acclaimed as a poet. Her distinctive poetry is shaped by an Afro-Cuban sensibility and an eloquent concern for Cuban nationhood, cultural fusion, and the rights of women. She has published more than twenty volumes of poetry, as well as critical works and translations from French and English. Her works in English translation include Looking Within/Mirar Adentro, Selected Poems 1954-2000, Where the Island Sleeps Like a Wing, translated by U.S. poet Kathleen Weaver, and With Eyes and Soul/Images of Cuba with photographs by Milton Rogovin. For many years, Morejón served on the editorial staff of UNEAC (Union of Cuban Writers and Artists). Currently she is president of the Cuban Writers’ Union, UNEAC, and an advisor at Casa de las Américas in Havana.

Morejón has won Cuba’s prestigious National Literary Award, the National Prize for Poetry, and the National Award in Criticism – as well as many international awards, including the Latin American Studies Association Cuba Prize. Thoroughly bilingual, she has read and lectured at universities in the U.S. She served as writer in residence at Wellesley College and conducted a two-day symposium on her work at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Howard University Press has published a collection of critical texts on her work: Singular Like a Bird: The Art of Nancy Morejón.

Al Young is a distinguished writer, poet, fiction writer, anthologist, and educator. His many honors include Poet Laureate of California, the PEN-Library of Congress Award for Short Fiction, the PEN-USA Award for Non-Fiction, two American Book Awards, and the Richard Wright Award for Excellence in Literature. His writings have been translated into many languages, including Russian, and Urdu. His works in fiction include Seduction by Light and Sitting Pretty; in poetry, Something About the Blues, and Coastal Nights and Inland Afternoons: Poems 2001-2006.

In the 1970’s Young wrote film scripts for producer Joseph Strick, Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, and Richard Pryor. In the 1980’s and 90’s, as a cultural ambassador for the United States Information Agency, he traveled throughout South Asia, Egypt, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian West Bank. In 2001 he traveled to the Persian Gulf to lecture on American and African American literature and culture in Kuwait and in Bahrain for the U.S. Department of State. Subsequent lecture tours have taken him to Southern Italy in 2004, and back to India in 2005. Blending story, recitation and song, Young often performs live with musicians. In 2005, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him Poet Laureate of California.

Kathleen Weaver is a poet, author of Peruvian Rebel, The Life and Work of Magda Portal, co-editor of The Penguin Book of Womens’ Poetry and The Other Voice, translator of Nancy Morejón, Julio Cortázar, Omar Cabezas and many others.

Assata Shakur Birthday Concert: Roots Musik Showcase

Come celebrate the birthday of Assata Shakur at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley! Featuring an explosive showcase of Roots Reggae and Hip-Hop conscious musik, including Arkaingelle and Jah Wave (Guyana) and special guests: Audiomatic, Askari Mwari, Fly Benzo and Ms. Incredible, backed by DJ Ital Ra.

Birthday celebration for Assata Shakur!

We will also be celebrating the birthday of comrade Shango Abiola (Audiomatic) of Black Riders Liberation Party, Oakland Chapter.

East Baydar with RADAR Productions Hosted by Michelle Tea

Tom Cho is an artist from Melbourne, Australia. His first book was a collection of fictions called Look Who’s Morphing. Look Who’s Morphing was shortlisted for various awards including the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for Best First Book. Tom’s now travelling around the US while working on his new fiction book, which is called The Meaning of Life and Other Fictions. His website is tomcho.com.

Ingrid Rojas Contreras is a Colombian writer living and working in San Francisco. Her work has most recently been published in American Odysseys: Writings by New Americans (Dalkey Archive Press) and Wise Latinas (University of Nebraska Press). Her forthcoming novel, Niebla, was a semi-finalist in the Amazon/Penguin Breakthrough Novel Award. She writes book reviews for KQED, Bookslut, and Library Journal. Currently, she is working on a non-fiction novel about her grandfather, a medicine man who could move clouds. She is the recipient of awards and residencies from the NALAC (National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures), Djerassi Residents Artists Program, Sandra Cisnero’s Macondo, and Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference.

Brian Bauman is a playwright and artistic director of Perfect Disgrace Theater. He is the author of more than a dozen plays, and has produced experimental, queer plays via Perfect Disgrace in Boulder, Colorado (at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art and The Dairy Center for the Arts), Los Angeles (at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, the Los Angeles Theater Center, and Company of Angels Theater), and New York City (at HERE Arts Center, The Wild Project, Collective Unconscious, LaMama Galleria and Fordham University). His play BUCKSHOT: A RASHOMON was most recently performed in the Bay Area as part of the Poets Theatre Jamboree at CounterPULSE in January 2012. He is a MacDowell Colony Fellow and was a resident in the 2011 Radar Lab in Akumal, Mexico. He holds an MFA in playwriting from CalArts. http://www.perfectdisgrace.com

Marci Blackman‘s first book, Po Man’s Child, won both the ALA Stonewall Award for Best LGBT Fiction and the Firecracker Alternative Book Award for Best Fiction. In her second novel, Tradition, Blackman uses fast-­‐paced lyrical narrative to elegantly move between present-­‐day small town Ohio and the thriving African American community that existed there before and during World War II.

Tara Jepsen is a writer, comedian, performance artist and filmmaker. She writes about skateboarding for xoJane.com, The Believer, and on her very own blog. She has toured numerous times with Sister Spit, and is featured in their recent anthology, Sister Spit. Jepsen perpetually collaborates with Beth Lisick, creating full-length shows, short films, and regular performance spectacles. She lives in Los Angeles, where she studies comedy. She will be doling out advice in the HOT PROBS segment of the show.

Janani is a South Asian electron spinning around the Bay Area making art and scholarship. They like thinking about apocalypse, decolonizing the food system, and making space for quantum queers everywhere. They’re assistant editor at Black Girl Dangerous, and one-half of the spoken word duo DarkMatter (bit.ly/queerdarkmatter). You can read more of Janani’s work at queerdarkenergy.sqsp.com.

Amiguitos de La Peña presents Rumi x 7 = Tales from the Masnavi

A lyrical fusion of circus arts and classical Persian poetry performed by an ensemble of actors, acrobats, dancers and musicians.
Directed by Hafiz Karmali.
Produced by Golden Thread Productions in partnership with the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California. Funded in part by grants from the San Francisco Arts Commission, California Arts Council and the East Bay Foundation.

Golden Thread Productions proudly presents Hafiz Karmali’s Rumi X 7 = Tales from the Masnavi, a poetic circus extravaganza that is both entertaining and inspiring. Seven tales by the globally admired Sufi poet Rumi selected from his masterwork, the Masnavi, are presented as fun-filled vignettes that fuse classical Persian poetry with circus arts and commedia dell arte. Performed by a seven-member ensemble of actors, acrobats, musicians and dancers, the fables include familiar tales such as The Elephant in Darkness and The Grammarian and Boatman, as well as lesser-known gems; together they celebrate the cycle of life and humanity’s universal bond. Originally performed in the mountains of Northern Pakistan and subsequently in a mosque courtyard in Tashkent Uzbekistan, Rumi X 7 = Tales from the Masnavi premiered in the US in November 2011 and is slated to tour in spring and fall 2012.

Rumi comes to life as never before through this lively adaptation of one of the world’s greatest poets in Rumi x 7= Tales from the Masnavi. Rumi’s timeless tales explore the ties that bind human kind to the natural world, to their dreams and to their infinite potential. Seven breathtaking vignettes fuse classical Persian poetry with a dazzling panorama of circus arts and commedia dell arte. Let your imagination soar through this awe-inspiring journey that celebrates the cycle of life and humanity’s universal bond.

With Rumi X 7 = Tales from the Masnavi Golden Thread embarks on a ground-breaking program to create innovative professional performances based on Islamic arts and ideas presented in an eclectic style fusing eastern and western traditions. Offering youth and families an opportunity to experience Islam in an inspiring and entertaining way, Golden Thread aims to provide the general public alternative images of Islam while providing the Muslim community self-affirming narratives that help connect the younger generation with their heritage’s playful side. Rumi X 7 is the first play in a new series, Islam 101, designed to educate the public about Islam through theatre. Director Hafiz Karmali has undertaken the development of this series which will first and foremost explain the emergence of Islam as an Abrahamic faith that is the third dimension of what until now has been exclusively known as the Judeo-Christian tradition. Karmali has a special interest in cross-cultural performances with a view to showcasing indigenous performing arts of the Islamic world. He began his tenure at Golden Thread in 2006 directing the US premiere of Island of Animals based on encyclopedic writings by Ikhwan al-Safa (Brethren of Purity, a group of Muslim scholars). In addition to Rumi x 7, Karmali directed Tawfiq al-Hakim’s War & Peace at ReOrient 2012, and the world premiere of Night Over Erzinga, by Adriana Sevahn Nichols in 2011 at Golden Thread Productions.

RUMI’S MASNAVI is widely recognized as one of the greatest collections of Sufi poetry ever written and is revered throughout the Middle East and around the world as the Quran in Persian. The thirteenth-century Sufi poet Jalal al-din Rumi composed this edifying work for the benefit of his students in the order named after him, popularly known as the whirling dervishes. In order to convey his message of divine love and unity he threaded together entertaining stories and allegorical homilies. Drawing from folk tales as well as sacred history, Rumi’s poetry is often comic as well as spiritually profound. The Masnavi was composed during the final years of Rumi’s life. He began dictating the first book around the age of 54 circa 1258 and continued composing verses until his death in 1273. The sixth and final book would remain incomplete.

Background information about Golden Thread Productions

Golden Thread Productions is a nationally recognized non-profit organization acknowledged as the leading theater company devoted to Middle Eastern voices and experiences. Founded in 1996 by Torange Yeghiazarian, Golden Thread’s mission to give voice to Middle Eastern writers is a national treasure, made more urgent and vital given current events in the Middle East.

For 15 years, Golden Thread has pioneered the field of Middle Eastern-American theatre. The organization’s mission is to make the Middle East a potent presence on the American stage and a treasured cultural experience. Through its work, Golden Thread aims to create a world where the common human experience supersedes cultural and political differences. To that end, Golden Thread has supported countless Middle Eastern artists in all phases of their careers. From live performances to educational outreach, Golden Thread plays a vital role in the production of original stories about topics rarely explored on the American stage.

In 2008, Golden Thread launched a multifaceted Education program. The main elements are: Theatre Curriculum inspired by Middle Eastern Arts & Literature; Teaching Residencies; Student Matinee Performances of Main Stage Productions; and the Fairytale Players: Inspired by popular performance traditions in the Middle East the Fairytale Players employ epic story-telling, physical theatre and circus arts techniques in creating performances based on stories from the Middle East.

Artist Biographies

Hafiz Karmali (Director) most recently directed the highly acclaimed world premiere of NIGHT OVER ERZINGA by Adriana Sevahn Nichols in San Francisco. Other Golden Thread credits include: three new plays at the ReOrient Festival in 2009: ABAGA by Torange Yeghiazarian; A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL (Egyptian Chekhov) and THE REVIEW (via “skype”) both by Yussef El-Guindi; as well as in 2006, the Ikhwan al-Safa’s fable ISLAND OF ANIMALS. Hafiz has a special interest in cross-cultural performances with a view to showcasing indigenous performing arts of the Islamic world. With theatre productions of esoteric/mystical fables such as Attar’s CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS (Ismaili Centre, London) Hafiz seeks to promote a better understanding of the arts and ideas of the Muslim world. To this end, he has directed AZAAN – A COURT ENTERTAINMENT in collaboration with performers from Ismaili communities in London and Tajikistan (Guest of Honor: His Highness the Aga Khan); Rumi x 7 – Tales from the Mathnavi sponsored by the EEC with an acting company in Uzbekistan; Water for Life, AKF London, in collaboration with a dance company from Gujarat ; and with folk artists of Karimabad, Hunza, Legend of the Baltit Fort. More recently, Hafiz co-wrote and directed ALI TO KARIM – A Tribute to the Ismaili Imams, an international touring theatre production. After pursuing his MFA in Directing at Carnegie-Mellon University, Hafiz served an apprenticeship at the American Repertory Theatre where he assisted internationally renowned directors Robert Wilson and Andrei Serban. While at the A.R.T, Mr. Karmali was a teaching fellow in the English Department at Harvard University for courses taught by Professor Robert Brustein. A recipient of an AKF Scholarship, Hafiz spent one year conducting research in Iran and is currently based in Paris where at École Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Sorbonne) he is finalizing his doctorate thesis on classical Ismaili philosophy.

Torange Yeghiazarian (Dramaturg, Producer) is the Founding Artistic Director of Golden Thread Productions, where she has devoted her professional life to exploring Middle Eastern cultures and identities through theatre arts. In this capacity, Torange launched, ReOrient, an annual festival of short plays showcasing alternative perspectives of the Middle East. Torange’s latest play, 444 Days received a staged reading at Golden Thread in 2011. Her play Call Me Mehdi is included in “Salaam.Peace: An Anthology of Middle Eastern-American Drama” published by TCG in 2009. Other plays include Waves, Dawn at Midnight, Behind Glass Windows, Abaga, and Publicly Resting. Torange’s articles on contemporary theatre in Iran have been published in American Theatre Magazine and Theatre Bay Area Magazine. In 2008, Torange adapted the poetry of Simin Behbehani to the stage in I Sell Souls. In 2007, she collaborated with Iranian, Israeli and American artists on creating Benedictus. Other directing credits include A Girl’s War by Joyce Van Dyke, Nine Armenians by Leslie Ayvasian, Tamam by Betty Shamieh, Three Stops and Scenic Routes by Yussef el Guindi. As a teaching artist, Torange has taught playwriting to at-risk youth and led acting and play development workshops for youth and adults at Golden Thread. Born in Iran and of Armenian heritage, Torange holds a Master’s degree in Theatre Arts from San Francisco State University.

Jesse Brownstein (Stage Manager) served as assistant stage manager for Golden Thread’s West Coast premiere of Yussef El Guindi’s Language Rooms last fall, and is pleased to be working with them once again for Rumi x 7. In addition to Golden Thread, Jesse has worked with other renowned Bay Area theatre companies such as Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Porchlight, College of Marin and the San Francisco Mime Troupe, where he is currently an Emerging Artist in Residence. As a graduate student at SF State, he studies playwriting and English with the hope to go on and earn a PhD in dramatic literature.

Jim Cave (Lighting) recently designed Night Over Erzinga for Golden Thread. Other designs include The Soldier’s Tale and The Eccentricities of a Nightingale for the Aurora Theatre and The Islanders and Olive Kitteridge for Word for Word. He directed and designed The Residents’ musical extravaganza Sam’s Enchanted Evening and will be directing Erling Wold’s opera Certitude and Joy, the prayer of a mother on drowning her three children in the bay, at Bindlestiff Theatre in March. He is the Stage and Production Supervisor for the Laney College Theatre.
Jamie Coventry (Ensemble) Raised in central California by a family of eccentrics, Jamie studied theatre arts in Santa Fe, music in San Luis Obispo and education in San Francisco. Clowning seemed like the next logical step, so Jamie completed two years of study at the Clown Conservatory at San Francisco Circus Center. Jamie has traveled the globe performing and teaching music, theater, and clown, and believes that education through art can change the world. He has worked with Flynn Creek Circus, Circus of Sound, New Pickle Circus, The Pickle’s School Tour, and is one half of the award winning clown duet, Coventry and Kaluza.

Laine Forman (Education Coordinator, Ensemble) is a San Francisco-based artist and educator. For the last ten years, she has been developing and teaching theater-based educational curriculum utilizing the tools of performance to the task of consciousness-raising and the methods of education to the challenges of cross-cultural understandings. Her extensive teaching background has led her to work with a variety of populations from preschoolers to at-risk youth, prison inmates to educators. She is currently completing her masters in Expressive Arts in Conflict Transformation and Peace building from the European Graduate School.

Aylin Guvenc (Ensemble) born and raised in Turkey is the progeny of a Turk and a Texan (who auspiciously fainted during a whirling dervish ceremony in Konya before Aylin’s birth). Once an angst-filled performer in New York City, Aylin weathered four bumpy years at Sarah Lawrence College during which she transformed college flora in the name of performance and installation art. In her spare time, between instigating and collaborating on art-making schemes, she obtained an MA in Special Ed. She has never kept good records, and still believes the process can be more interesting than the product.

Taylor Gonzalez (Sound Design), a 22 yea- old student studying theater at Laney College. This is Taylor’s first show with Golden thread productions. This past summer he traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland with the Fusion Theater Company to perform “Polaroid Stories” by Naomi Iizuka in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as a sound designer.

Mahsa Matin (Ensemble) is a living cartoon character. Her comedy is reminiscent of the golden age of silent films, with a touch of breakdancing thrown in. Mahsa is thoroughly musical, playing trombone, trumpet, and various percussion contraptions in performance. Her physicality is playful and vibrant. She can often be seen high in the sky performing on stilts, or playing trumpet atop her eight-foot unicycle.
Aliah Najmabadi (Ensemble) is a performer and scholar of Central Asian dance. Aliah holds a Master’s degree in Performance from the University of London and B.A.’s in World Arts and Cultures & Iranian Studies from UCLA. Locally, Aliah performs with Ballet Afsaneh for which she served as assistant director from 2005-2006. Aliah first worked with Hafiz Karmali in Golden Thread’s production of Island of Animals and is now excited to be a part of this multi-talented cast which includes her husband, Maruf Noyoft. Aliah thanks cast & crew for lovingly including their young son, Shams in the creation of Rumi x 7.

Maruf Noyoft (Ensemble) is a native of Tajikistan. He holds BA degree in music from Tajikistan’s University of Art and Culture. Since childhood Maruf has had a love of music, theater and film. Maruf first began acting for Tajik TV and has since transitioned to his working behind the camera as a freelance filmmaker. Maruf is happy to be once again on the stage with such a creative cast and crew and is honored to be a part of Rumi x 7 because he admires Golden Thread’s pursuit to bring to the stage his shared culture to American audiences.

Ninva Warda (Costumes) comes from an Interior Design background. she has been involved with art and design all her life. Rumi X 7 is her fourth attempt at Costume Design but, first time working with Golden Thread Productions. Ninva has a passion for all forms of art and literature: dance, theatre, music and poetry. She is always inspired and energized working with talented people and fascinated by the magic of theatre!
Daniel Yelen (Props) has been props master for Donld Pippin’s Pocket Opera, Lamplighters Music Theater, and the San Francisco Mime Troupe. His costumes have appeared on the boards of Masquers Playhouse, Curtain Theater, and the San Francisco Free Civic Theater. He fancies himself an actor as well, and is currently enjoying the role of Dr. Chasuble in The Importance of Being Earnest, produced by the 16th Street Players. His next appearance will be in The Gondoliers, arguably the finest operetta in the Gilbert and Sullivan canon.

www.goldenthread.org

Rumi X 7 = A lyrical fusion of circus arts and classical Persian poetry

 Rumi x 7 = Tales from the Masnavi

A Poetic Circus Extravaganza

Directed by Hafiz Karmali

Presenting at La Peña Cultural Center May 4, 2013 10:30 am

Golden Thread Productions proudly presents Hafiz Karmali’s Rumi X 7 = Tales from the Masnavi, a poetic circus extravaganza that is both entertaining and inspiring. Seven tales by the globally admired Sufi poet Rumi selected from his masterwork, the Masnavi are presented as fun-filled vignettes that fuse classical Persian poetry with circus arts and commedia dell arte. Performed by a seven-member ensemble of actors, acrobats, musicians and dancers, the fables include familiar tales such as The Elephant in Darkness and The Grammarian and Boatman, as well as lesser-known gems; together they celebrate the cycle of life and humanity’s universal bond. Originally performed in the mountains of Northern Pakistan and subsequently in a mosque courtyard in Tashkent Uzbekistan, Rumi X 7 = Tales from the Masnavi premiered in the US in November 2011 and is slated to tour in spring and fall 2012.

Rumi comes to life as never before through this lively adaptation of one of the world’s greatest poets in Rumi x 7= Tales from the Masnavi. Rumi’s timeless tales explore the ties that bind human kind to the natural world, to their dreams and to their infinite potential. Seven breathtaking vignettes fuse classical Persian poetry with a dazzling panorama of circus arts and commedia dell arte. Let your imagination soar through this awe-inspiring journey that celebrates the cycle of life and humanity’s universal bond.

With Rumi X 7 = Tales from the Masnavi Golden Thread embarks on a ground-breaking program to create innovative professional performances based on Islamic arts and ideas presented in an eclectic style fusing eastern and western traditions. Offering youth and families an opportunity to experience Islam in an inspiring and entertaining way, Golden Thread aims to provide the general public alternative images of Islam while providing the Muslim community self-affirming narratives that help connect the younger generation with their heritage’s playful side. Rumi X 7 is the first play in a new series, Islam 101, designed to educate the public about Islam through theatre. Director Hafiz Karmali has undertaken the development of this series which will first and foremost explain the emergence of Islam as an Abrahamic faith that is the third dimension of what until now has been exclusively known as the Judeo-Christian tradition. Karmali has a special interest in cross-cultural performances with a view to showcasing indigenous performing arts of the Islamic world. He began his tenure at Golden Thread in 2006 directing the US premiere of Island of Animals based on encyclopedic writings by Ikhwan al-Safa (Brethren of Purity, a group of Muslim scholars). In addition to Rumi x 7, Karmali directed Tawfiq al-Hakim’s War & Peace at ReOrient 2012, and the world premiere of Night Over Erzinga, by Adriana Sevahn Nichols in 2011 at Golden Thread Productions. 

RUMI’S MASNAVI is widely recognized as one of the greatest collections of Sufi poetry ever written and is revered throughout the Middle East and around the world as the Quran in Persian. The thirteenth-century Sufi poet Jalal al-din Rumi composed this edifying work for the benefit of his students in the order named after him, popularly known as the whirling dervishes. In order to convey his message of divine love and unity he threaded together entertaining stories and allegorical homilies. Drawing from folk tales as well as sacred history, Rumi’s poetry is often comic as well as spiritually profound. The Masnavi was composed during the final years of Rumi’s life. He began dictating the first book around the age of 54 circa 1258 and continued composing verses until his death in 1273. The sixth and final book would remain incomplete.

Performed by an ensemble of actors, acrobats, dancers and musicians.

Golden Thread Productions

Golden Thread Productions is a nationally recognized non-profit organization acknowledged as the leading theater company devoted to Middle Eastern voices and experiences.  Founded in 1996 by Torange Yeghiazarian, Golden Thread’s mission to give voice to Middle Eastern writers is a national treasure, made more urgent and vital given current events in the Middle East. 

For 15 years, Golden Thread has pioneered the field of Middle Eastern-American theatre. The organization’s mission is to make the Middle East a potent presence on the American stage and a treasured cultural experience.  Through its work, Golden Thread aims to create a world where the common human experience supersedes cultural and political differences. To that end, Golden Thread has supported countless Middle Eastern artists in all phases of their careers. From live performances to educational outreach, Golden Thread plays a vital role in the production of original stories about topics rarely explored on the American stage.

 In 2008, Golden Thread launched a multifaceted Education program. The main elements are: Theatre Curriculum inspired by Middle Eastern Arts & Literature; Teaching Residencies; Student Matinee Performances of Main Stage Productions; and the Fairytale Players: Inspired by popular performance traditions in the Middle East the Fairytale Players employ epic story-telling, physical theatre and circus arts techniques in creating performances based on stories from the Middle East.

Directed by Hafiz Karmali

Credits

The Ensemble: Jamie Coventry, Jon Deline, Laine Forman, Aylin Guvenc, Mahsa Matin, Aliah Najmabadi, Maruf Noyoft, Carla Pauli

Director: Hafiz Karmali

Dramaturgy: Torange Yeghiazarian

Lighting: Jim Cave

Sound Design: Taylor Gonzalez

Costumes: Ninva Warda

Props: Daniel Yelen

Stage Manager: Jesse Brownstein

Photography: DavidAllenStudio.com

Videography: Huy Vu

Graphic Design: Navid G Maghami

Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir Jazz & Beyond Concert

For Advance Tickets Click Here.

Enjoy an evening of “jazz & beyond” with Ecco and Ancora, the two high school groups of the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir. The internationally acclaimed Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir has been offering children from throughout San Francisco’s East Bay an outstanding program of choral training and performance. Founded in 1982 by Suzie Rahl, the Choir has established itself as a leading force in international choral activities and contemporary music under the leadership of Artistic Director Robert Geary. International tours every summer and a keen desire to meet, collaborate, and compete with choruses and singers of other cultures have led to high marks at prestigious festivals across the world, and to the creation of the Golden Gate International Choral Festival. The Choir regularly collaborates with major Bay Area arts organizations such as the Oakland East Bay Symphony, Cal Performances, the Mark Morris Dance Company, and the Berkeley West Edge Opera. Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir is featured in the upcoming film “Songs of Defiance” a documentary about the Laulupidu song festival in Estonia and is one of the very few choirs outside of Estonia invited to participate.

Ecco, conducted by Clifton Massey, is the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir’s mixed voices high school group. Young men and women from all over the East Bay perform a varied repertoire. The group has high standards of artistic excellence and sensitivity, performs 6-8 concerts a year, has a weekend retreat and a summer camp. In June they will tour to Seattle WA to collaborate with the Columbia Vocal Ensemble.

For additional information about the concert, or the programs of the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, please visit www.piedmontchoirs.org, or call 510.547.4441.

Before There Is Nowhere To Stand: Palestine/Israel: Poets Respond To The Struggle (LOUNGE)

Mid-East Poetry and Musical Offering (In La Peña’s Lounge)

Join us for a poetry reading from the anthology ‘Before There Is Nowhere To Stand: Palestine / Israel: Poets Respond To The Struggle’, bringing together works by Palestinian, Israeli, Arab, Jewish and International poets.

Share in this very unique anthology which offers many perspectives, striving toward dialogue and understanding.

Live musical performances of Mid-East music.

An evening with Eduardo Galeano

KPFA Radio 94.1 FM presents
An Evening with EDUARDO GALEANO

“Children of the Days: A Calendar of Human History”

Hosted by Miguel Guerrero

Tuesday, May 21, 7:30 pm

First Congregational Church of Oakland

2501 Harrison Street at 27th St., Oakland

$15 advance tickets (BUY HERE) :: 800-838-3006 or Pegasus Books (3 locations), Marcus Books, Mrs. Dalloway’s, Moe’s Books, Walden Pond, DIESEL, A Bookstore, and Modern Times ($18 door)

Information: www.kpfa.org/events Benefits KPFA wheelchair access

Co-Sponsored by: Global Exchange, KPOO – Pájaro Latinoamericano, La Peña Cultural Center, Mission Cultural Center, Radio Bilingüe

Eduardo Galeano is the world-renowned Uruguayan author of the Memory of Fire Trilogy, The Book of Embraces, and many other masterworks. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave his Open Veins of Latin America to President Obama when they first met, sending the book overnight to #2 on Amazon’s bestseller list.
One of Latin America’s most distinguished writers, journalists and historians, Eduardo Galeano is the author of the Memory of Fire Trilogy, Open Veins of Latin America, Days and Nights of Love and War, Walking Words, Soccer in Sun and Shadow, The Book of Embraces, Mirrors, and many other works. Born in Montevideo in 1940, Galeano lived in exile in Argentina and Spain for many years before returning to Uruguay. His work has inspired popular and classical music composers from all over the world. He was the recipient of the first Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom, the Casa de las Americas Prize, and the First Distinguished Citizen of the region by the countries of Mercosur. His admirers include Isabel Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Subcomandante Marcos, Howard Zinn, Naomi Klein, and of course Hugo Chavez. Eduardo is a man of truly progressive principles and pure literary duende.

Galeano’s new work unfurls like a medieval book of days. Each page has an illuminating story that takes inspiration from that day of the calendar year. Each entry resurrects the heroes and heroines who have fallen off the historical map. Beautifully translated by Galeano’s longtime collaborator, Mark Fried, Children of the Days is a great humanist treasure that shows us how to live and how to remember.

Georges Lammam & Ensemble with Riffat Sultana

Georges Lammam, of Palestinian descent, born in Beirut, Lebanon is well-known in the Middle East and the United States as a solo violinist exemplifying the Arab style of instrumental improvisation and lyricism. The Georges Lammam Ensemble has performed at the San Francisco World Music Festival, The Legion of Honor Museum, the De Young Museum in San Francisco, The Fine Arts Cinema in Berkeley, and many more local and national venues and toured with the Arabic orchestra under the direction of Simon Shaheen representing the Golden Age of Arab Music, presented in association with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing arts. Mr. Lammam is instructor of violin and Arabic singing at the annual Middle Eastern Music and Dance Camp in Mendocino, California and has taught Arabic music ensemble and vocal classes at the University of California at Berkeley, San Francisco State University, Humboldt State University, Santa Fe College and Middlebury College in Vermont, and The Arabic Music Retreat at Mt Holyoke College in Massachusetts. His compositions and performance excerpts are included in scores for two award-winning documentaries, “Occupation 101” and “Tea on the Axis of Evil”, showcased at the Arab Film Festival in San Francisco and other venues nationally. Music from his latest CD, Oriental/Occidental, is featured in the opening trailer for the 2012 Arab Film Festival

Joining Georges Lammam & Ensemble is Riffat Sultana-who channels the musical wisdom of 500 years and eleven generations of master vocalists from India and Pakistan. Daughter of legendary classical singer, the late Maestro Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, Riffat is the first woman from her family’s musical lineage to publicly perform in the west. Riffat performs a wide variety of traditional and modern material from the Indian sub-continent, including Sufi, Geet, Ghazal, Filmi, Qawwali, and Light Classical. In this performance her ensemble will include Arabic violin, 12 string guitar, and multi percussion, and she will be singing her original songs featured on Georges Lammam’s albums. Highlights will be devotional, and ecstatic Sufi songs to great saints like Shahabaz Qalander and Baba Bule Shah. Sure to move your heart, soul, and feet!