A Celebration of the Artistry of Pablo Neruda (Mural benefit)

The mural committee and La Peña are proud to present A Celebration of the Artistry of Pablo Neruda – Peña por el Natalicio del Poeta, A Benefit for the Song of Unity Mural.

Neruda’s poetry has been an inspiration to countless generations of artists to create music, plays and art in celebration of the plethora of themes in his vast body of work.

Join us for a celebration of music, dance and poetry in tribute to the extraordinary Chilean poet laureate Pablo Neruda, awarded the Nobel Prize of Literature in 1971, born on this day July 12, 1904.

The program includes:
Music and songs with members of the La Peña Community Chorus and Rafael Manriquez
Neruda’s poetry with Avotcja and Ximena Soza
Actors Carlos Baron, LeAnna Sharp and Eliana Lopez
Note – Although Café Valparaiso will no longer be in operation, we will have traditional Chilean Peña snacks such as empanadas y vino caliente for sale at the event.

Folks we are still $12,000 from our original goal of $26,000 to fund the Song of Unity mural re-do at La Peña. Donations of funds, time and materials have been coming in since the beginning of the year. The old mural removal and salvage will start the first week of July, the artists are ready to begin the final stages of the mural re-do. We are very grateful for your good wishes and contributions but funding is still underway.

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.

Introduction to Acting – A workshop presented by Golden Thread and La Peña.

  and   

FREE THE ACTOR INSIDE

Have you always wanted to act in a play but were afraid to try? Have you performed in a few plays but want to build your skills and confidence? Do you dream of spending the rest of your life on the stage? Well, here is your chance!

Introduction to Acting - Drawing from plays by Middle Eastern and Middle Eastern American playwrights as well as Middle Eastern performance traditions, this workshop will introduce participants to improvisation, scene study and solo performance. Each class will begin with vocal and physical warm ups, theatre games and collaborative exercises. Participants will learn how to analyze dramatic text and various approaches to building a character. By the end of the term, participants will have developed a basic knowledge of acting styles, better understanding of dramatic text and more confidence in self-expression.
No prior acting experience required. Must be 18 or older to participate.
Sundays 3-5pm
June 9 to July 28, 2013
No class on July 7th

Tuition $150 ($180 after May 31)
Includes $25 Nonrefundable Administrative Fee

About the Instructor:
Torange Yeghiazarian is the Founding Artistic Director of Golden Thread Productions, the San Francisco theatre company devoted to exploring Middle Eastern cultures and identities. Torange is a writer, director, and teacher. Her articles on contemporary theatre in Iran have been published in The Drama Review (2012), American Theatre Magazine (2010), and Theatre Bay Area Magazine (2010). Her latest play 444 Days is slated to receive its world premiere at Golden Thread in 2013. Her short play Call Me Mehdi is included in the anthology “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, as well as a repertory of new plays for children based on fables and characters from the Middle East developed with Golden Thread’s Fairytale Players. She also collaborated with playwright Hal Gelb and puppeteer Janaki Ranpura to create the musical comedy Love Missile (2003), and was one of the artists of Iranian, Israeli, and American origin behind Benedictus (2007). Directing credits include I Sell Souls (which she adapted from the poetry of Simin Behbehani), A Girl’s War by Joyce Van Dyke, Nine Armenians by Leslie Ayvazian, Tamam by Betty Shamieh, and Three Stops and Scenic Routes by Yussef El Guindi. As a teaching artist, Torange has taught playwriting to at-risk youth, incorporated theatre into social sciences classes, and led acting and play development workshops for youth and adults at Golden Thread and the Islamic Center of Northern California.

Introduction to Acting – A workshop presented by Golden Thread and La Peña.

  and   

FREE THE ACTOR INSIDE

Have you always wanted to act in a play but were afraid to try? Have you performed in a few plays but want to build your skills and confidence? Do you dream of spending the rest of your life on the stage? Well, here is your chance!

Introduction to Acting - Drawing from plays by Middle Eastern and Middle Eastern American playwrights as well as Middle Eastern performance traditions, this workshop will introduce participants to improvisation, scene study and solo performance. Each class will begin with vocal and physical warm ups, theatre games and collaborative exercises. Participants will learn how to analyze dramatic text and various approaches to building a character. By the end of the term, participants will have developed a basic knowledge of acting styles, better understanding of dramatic text and more confidence in self-expression.
No prior acting experience required. Must be 18 or older to participate.
Sundays 3-5pm
June 9 to July 28, 2013
No class on July 7th

Tuition $150 ($180 after May 31)
Includes $25 Nonrefundable Administrative Fee

About the Instructor:
Torange Yeghiazarian is the Founding Artistic Director of Golden Thread Productions, the San Francisco theatre company devoted to exploring Middle Eastern cultures and identities. Torange is a writer, director, and teacher. Her articles on contemporary theatre in Iran have been published in The Drama Review (2012), American Theatre Magazine (2010), and Theatre Bay Area Magazine (2010). Her latest play 444 Days is slated to receive its world premiere at Golden Thread in 2013. Her short play Call Me Mehdi is included in the anthology “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, as well as a repertory of new plays for children based on fables and characters from the Middle East developed with Golden Thread’s Fairytale Players. She also collaborated with playwright Hal Gelb and puppeteer Janaki Ranpura to create the musical comedy Love Missile (2003), and was one of the artists of Iranian, Israeli, and American origin behind Benedictus (2007). Directing credits include I Sell Souls (which she adapted from the poetry of Simin Behbehani), A Girl’s War by Joyce Van Dyke, Nine Armenians by Leslie Ayvazian, Tamam by Betty Shamieh, and Three Stops and Scenic Routes by Yussef El Guindi. As a teaching artist, Torange has taught playwriting to at-risk youth, incorporated theatre into social sciences classes, and led acting and play development workshops for youth and adults at Golden Thread and the Islamic Center of Northern California.

Introduction to Acting – A workshop presented by Golden Thread and La Peña.

  and   

FREE THE ACTOR INSIDE

Have you always wanted to act in a play but were afraid to try? Have you performed in a few plays but want to build your skills and confidence? Do you dream of spending the rest of your life on the stage? Well, here is your chance!

Introduction to Acting - Drawing from plays by Middle Eastern and Middle Eastern American playwrights as well as Middle Eastern performance traditions, this workshop will introduce participants to improvisation, scene study and solo performance. Each class will begin with vocal and physical warm ups, theatre games and collaborative exercises. Participants will learn how to analyze dramatic text and various approaches to building a character. By the end of the term, participants will have developed a basic knowledge of acting styles, better understanding of dramatic text and more confidence in self-expression.
No prior acting experience required. Must be 18 or older to participate.
Sundays 3-5pm
June 9 to July 28, 2013
No class on July 7th

Tuition $150 ($180 after May 31)
Includes $25 Nonrefundable Administrative Fee

About the Instructor:
Torange Yeghiazarian is the Founding Artistic Director of Golden Thread Productions, the San Francisco theatre company devoted to exploring Middle Eastern cultures and identities. Torange is a writer, director, and teacher. Her articles on contemporary theatre in Iran have been published in The Drama Review (2012), American Theatre Magazine (2010), and Theatre Bay Area Magazine (2010). Her latest play 444 Days is slated to receive its world premiere at Golden Thread in 2013. Her short play Call Me Mehdi is included in the anthology “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, as well as a repertory of new plays for children based on fables and characters from the Middle East developed with Golden Thread’s Fairytale Players. She also collaborated with playwright Hal Gelb and puppeteer Janaki Ranpura to create the musical comedy Love Missile (2003), and was one of the artists of Iranian, Israeli, and American origin behind Benedictus (2007). Directing credits include I Sell Souls (which she adapted from the poetry of Simin Behbehani), A Girl’s War by Joyce Van Dyke, Nine Armenians by Leslie Ayvazian, Tamam by Betty Shamieh, and Three Stops and Scenic Routes by Yussef El Guindi. As a teaching artist, Torange has taught playwriting to at-risk youth, incorporated theatre into social sciences classes, and led acting and play development workshops for youth and adults at Golden Thread and the Islamic Center of Northern California.

Introduction to Acting – A workshop presented by Golden Thread and La Peña.

  and   

FREE THE ACTOR INSIDE

Have you always wanted to act in a play but were afraid to try? Have you performed in a few plays but want to build your skills and confidence? Do you dream of spending the rest of your life on the stage? Well, here is your chance!

Introduction to Acting - Drawing from plays by Middle Eastern and Middle Eastern American playwrights as well as Middle Eastern performance traditions, this workshop will introduce participants to improvisation, scene study and solo performance. Each class will begin with vocal and physical warm ups, theatre games and collaborative exercises. Participants will learn how to analyze dramatic text and various approaches to building a character. By the end of the term, participants will have developed a basic knowledge of acting styles, better understanding of dramatic text and more confidence in self-expression.
No prior acting experience required. Must be 18 or older to participate.
Sundays 3-5pm
June 9 to July 28, 2013
No class on July 7th

Tuition $150 ($180 after May 31)
Includes $25 Nonrefundable Administrative Fee

About the Instructor:
Torange Yeghiazarian is the Founding Artistic Director of Golden Thread Productions, the San Francisco theatre company devoted to exploring Middle Eastern cultures and identities. Torange is a writer, director, and teacher. Her articles on contemporary theatre in Iran have been published in The Drama Review (2012), American Theatre Magazine (2010), and Theatre Bay Area Magazine (2010). Her latest play 444 Days is slated to receive its world premiere at Golden Thread in 2013. Her short play Call Me Mehdi is included in the anthology “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, as well as a repertory of new plays for children based on fables and characters from the Middle East developed with Golden Thread’s Fairytale Players. She also collaborated with playwright Hal Gelb and puppeteer Janaki Ranpura to create the musical comedy Love Missile (2003), and was one of the artists of Iranian, Israeli, and American origin behind Benedictus (2007). Directing credits include I Sell Souls (which she adapted from the poetry of Simin Behbehani), A Girl’s War by Joyce Van Dyke, Nine Armenians by Leslie Ayvazian, Tamam by Betty Shamieh, and Three Stops and Scenic Routes by Yussef El Guindi. As a teaching artist, Torange has taught playwriting to at-risk youth, incorporated theatre into social sciences classes, and led acting and play development workshops for youth and adults at Golden Thread and the Islamic Center of Northern California.

Introduction to Acting – A workshop presented by Golden Thread and La Peña.

  and   

FREE THE ACTOR INSIDE

Have you always wanted to act in a play but were afraid to try? Have you performed in a few plays but want to build your skills and confidence? Do you dream of spending the rest of your life on the stage? Well, here is your chance!

Introduction to Acting - Drawing from plays by Middle Eastern and Middle Eastern American playwrights as well as Middle Eastern performance traditions, this workshop will introduce participants to improvisation, scene study and solo performance. Each class will begin with vocal and physical warm ups, theatre games and collaborative exercises. Participants will learn how to analyze dramatic text and various approaches to building a character. By the end of the term, participants will have developed a basic knowledge of acting styles, better understanding of dramatic text and more confidence in self-expression.
No prior acting experience required. Must be 18 or older to participate.
Sundays 3-5pm
June 9 to July 28, 2013
No class on July 7th

Tuition $150 ($180 after May 31)
Includes $25 Nonrefundable Administrative Fee

About the Instructor:
Torange Yeghiazarian is the Founding Artistic Director of Golden Thread Productions, the San Francisco theatre company devoted to exploring Middle Eastern cultures and identities. Torange is a writer, director, and teacher. Her articles on contemporary theatre in Iran have been published in The Drama Review (2012), American Theatre Magazine (2010), and Theatre Bay Area Magazine (2010). Her latest play 444 Days is slated to receive its world premiere at Golden Thread in 2013. Her short play Call Me Mehdi is included in the anthology “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, as well as a repertory of new plays for children based on fables and characters from the Middle East developed with Golden Thread’s Fairytale Players. She also collaborated with playwright Hal Gelb and puppeteer Janaki Ranpura to create the musical comedy Love Missile (2003), and was one of the artists of Iranian, Israeli, and American origin behind Benedictus (2007). Directing credits include I Sell Souls (which she adapted from the poetry of Simin Behbehani), A Girl’s War by Joyce Van Dyke, Nine Armenians by Leslie Ayvazian, Tamam by Betty Shamieh, and Three Stops and Scenic Routes by Yussef El Guindi. As a teaching artist, Torange has taught playwriting to at-risk youth, incorporated theatre into social sciences classes, and led acting and play development workshops for youth and adults at Golden Thread and the Islamic Center of Northern California.

Introduction to Acting – A workshop presented by Golden Thread and La Peña.

  and   

FREE THE ACTOR INSIDE

Have you always wanted to act in a play but were afraid to try? Have you performed in a few plays but want to build your skills and confidence? Do you dream of spending the rest of your life on the stage? Well, here is your chance!

Introduction to Acting - Drawing from plays by Middle Eastern and Middle Eastern American playwrights as well as Middle Eastern performance traditions, this workshop will introduce participants to improvisation, scene study and solo performance. Each class will begin with vocal and physical warm ups, theatre games and collaborative exercises. Participants will learn how to analyze dramatic text and various approaches to building a character. By the end of the term, participants will have developed a basic knowledge of acting styles, better understanding of dramatic text and more confidence in self-expression.
No prior acting experience required. Must be 18 or older to participate.
Sundays 3-5pm
June 9 to July 28, 2013
No class on July 7th

Tuition $150 ($180 after May 31)
Includes $25 Nonrefundable Administrative Fee

About the Instructor:
Torange Yeghiazarian is the Founding Artistic Director of Golden Thread Productions, the San Francisco theatre company devoted to exploring Middle Eastern cultures and identities. Torange is a writer, director, and teacher. Her articles on contemporary theatre in Iran have been published in The Drama Review (2012), American Theatre Magazine (2010), and Theatre Bay Area Magazine (2010). Her latest play 444 Days is slated to receive its world premiere at Golden Thread in 2013. Her short play Call Me Mehdi is included in the anthology “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, as well as a repertory of new plays for children based on fables and characters from the Middle East developed with Golden Thread’s Fairytale Players. She also collaborated with playwright Hal Gelb and puppeteer Janaki Ranpura to create the musical comedy Love Missile (2003), and was one of the artists of Iranian, Israeli, and American origin behind Benedictus (2007). Directing credits include I Sell Souls (which she adapted from the poetry of Simin Behbehani), A Girl’s War by Joyce Van Dyke, Nine Armenians by Leslie Ayvazian, Tamam by Betty Shamieh, and Three Stops and Scenic Routes by Yussef El Guindi. As a teaching artist, Torange has taught playwriting to at-risk youth, incorporated theatre into social sciences classes, and led acting and play development workshops for youth and adults at Golden Thread and the Islamic Center of Northern California.

Introduction to Acting – A workshop presented by Golden Thread and La Peña.

    and   

FREE THE ACTOR INSIDE

Have you always wanted to act in a play but were afraid to try? Have you performed in a few plays but want to build your skills and confidence? Do you dream of spending the rest of your life on the stage? Well, here is your chance!

Introduction to Acting – Drawing from plays by Middle Eastern and Middle Eastern American playwrights as well as Middle Eastern performance traditions, this workshop will introduce participants to improvisation, scene study and solo performance. Each class will begin with vocal and physical warm ups, theatre games and collaborative exercises. Participants will learn how to analyze dramatic text and various approaches to building a character. By the end of the term, participants will have developed a basic knowledge of acting styles, better understanding of dramatic text and more confidence in self-expression.
No prior acting experience required. Must be 18 or older to participate.
Sundays 3-5pm
June 9 to July 28, 2013
No class on July 7th

Tuition $150 ($180 after May 31)
Includes $25 Nonrefundable Administrative Fee

About the Instructor:
Torange Yeghiazarian is the Founding Artistic Director of Golden Thread Productions, the San Francisco theatre company devoted to exploring Middle Eastern cultures and identities. Torange is a writer, director, and teacher. Her articles on contemporary theatre in Iran have been published in The Drama Review (2012), American Theatre Magazine (2010), and Theatre Bay Area Magazine (2010). Her latest play 444 Days is slated to receive its world premiere at Golden Thread in 2013. Her short play Call Me Mehdi is included in the anthology “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, as well as a repertory of new plays for children based on fables and characters from the Middle East developed with Golden Thread’s Fairytale Players. She also collaborated with playwright Hal Gelb and puppeteer Janaki Ranpura to create the musical comedy Love Missile (2003), and was one of the artists of Iranian, Israeli, and American origin behind Benedictus (2007). Directing credits include I Sell Souls (which she adapted from the poetry of Simin Behbehani), A Girl’s War by Joyce Van Dyke, Nine Armenians by Leslie Ayvazian, Tamam by Betty Shamieh, and Three Stops and Scenic Routes by Yussef El Guindi. As a teaching artist, Torange has taught playwriting to at-risk youth, incorporated theatre into social sciences classes, and led acting and play development workshops for youth and adults at Golden Thread and the Islamic Center of Northern California.

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.