“THE JINGWEI BIRD” with Del Sol Quartetand The Last Hoisan Poets weaves music by Asian-American composers with powerful bilingual poetry by Genny Limand Nellie Wong, using storytelling and mythology to deepen our understanding and awareness of the nature around us.
TheCommunity Innovation Lab, a tech, sports and recreational programming hub for the Bayview-Hunters Point community, opened in October 2023. The Lab is an expansion of the park’s Tech Hub, which has offered free Wi-Fi access, laptop and tablet lending and technical support, and a variety of community services to neighborhood residents since 2021. https://ibwaterfrontparks.com/programs
The India Basin Waterfront Park project is guided by an Equitable Development Plan (EDP), a first for San Francisco. It ensures that the waterfront park will benefit current Bayview-Hunters Point (BVHP) residents while preserving the culture and identity of the historic neighborhood. It provides a blueprint for delivering a park designed by and for the community while improving economic opportunity and environmental health for its residents.
CATS has curated 6 highly-anticipated feature films, documentaries and shorts for the in-person screenings at the Sunnyvale AMC Dine-In Theatre on October 20-22, along with 70+ films to view online (on-demand from October 20-29) — a wide variety of films that will make you laugh, cry, and even learn more about AAPI cultures.
Announcing the premiere screening of “Drawn from Life: The Creative Legacy of Flo Oy Wong” at SVAPFF 2023!
“Drawn from Life: The Creative Legacy of Flo Oy Wong” is our first professionally produced film, and what an amazing journey it has been! We are grateful for the invaluable support provided by CATS and SVAPFF to create this special gift in celebration of Flo Oy Wong’s 85th birthday. We are so excited to see our short film on the big screen!
As the sixth daughter of Chinese immigrants living in Oakland’s Chinatown in the 1940s-1960s, FLO OY WONG was determined to break free of a life of pre-destined invisibility. She began her art career at the age of forty. Her poetry career started at seventy-five. Now eighty-five, her life comes full circle when The Community Rejuvenation Project proposes to paint a mural at 723 Webster, the former site of her family’s restaurant, The Great China. Flo’s beginnings in Oakland’s Chinatown come to life once more— this time through the eyes of another artist.
We’d like to thank the many people whose contributions helped to bring this short film to light.
Thanks to generous support from Contemporary Asian Theatre Scene, AARP, and Friends of CATS, we have been able to document Flo’s involvement in the 723 Webster Mural Project. We are so excited to share Drawn from Life: The Creative Legacy of Flo Oy Wong with audiences at SVAPFF 2023 and beyond. Whether you made a donation to CATS, bought a ticket to the October 22 screening, or told a friend about the film, we are grateful for your support.
Thank you to William Wong and Nellie Wong, for sharing their insights on their sister’s “fighting spirit” and to Diana Argabrite, Director of the Euphrat Museum of Art for shining a light on Flo’s artistic legacy. We are most grateful to Ed Wong for his dedicated efforts to record and preserve Flo’s artwork over the years. What a truly wonderful moment it was when Ed found the set of archival slides documenting Flo’s Oakland Chinatown drawings, created between 1938 – 1991.
A mural-sized thank you to the 723 Webster Mural Project team: Muralist Desi Mundo of the Community Rejuvenation Project, Roy Chan, Director of the Oakland Chinatown Oral History Project, Denise Chinn of 723 Webster Street and Jack Chen, owner of Imperial Soup in Oakland’s Chinatown. Their collaborative initiative on behalf of Oakland Chinatown is so inspiring! Please support Oakland Chinatown’s Legacy Businesses!
A deep bow of respect for the many artists who supported this project by generously sharing their creative contributions and light – Thanks to multimedia journalist Juan Carlos Guerrero; filmmaker/director Allie Light; musicians Kenneth Nash, Del Sol Quartet, and Marcus Shelby, who celebrated Flo’s 75th birthday with Gwah Gai: Crossing the Street in 2013 and crosses the street once again with his musical contribution in 2023!
A giant tip of the cap to our Director of Photography and Editor Chris Wong for his keen eye and steady camera! A big hug of forever gratitude to Leianne Wong Lamb for her encouragement and guidance throughout the entire film-making process.
We hope that this film conveys our collective love and respect for our dear friend Flo Oy Wong, who continues to have the courage to follow her creative impulses and the tenacity to realize her dreams. Through her art and poetry, Flo attends to the beauty in the every day; she finds dignity in the details. How lovely to behold Oakland Chinatown – past, present and future – through her eyes.
Co-presented by First Voice and the Presidio Theatre, Soul of The City by Brenda Wong Aoki, premieres with two performances at the Presidio Theatre on Saturday, September 30 at 4:00 pm and Sunday, October 1 at 4:00 pm.
In December of 2018, Upon receiving the Hewlett 50 award, Brenda noted, “The seismic shifts taking place in Japantown and Chinatown compel us to not only capture people and places before they are gone and forgotten, but to support our communities while they are under attack from gentrification, even as we make a work of art.”
Who would have predicted that the City’s performing artists would soon need to deal with a global pandemic?
Brenda Wong Aoki as The Storyteller, and devorah major as MOTHER. Photo by Mark Shigenaga.
A Journey to the Heart of San Francisco
“Soul of The City” is a new work by the nation’s first Asian American storyteller, Brenda Wong Aoki. Told through storytelling, multimedia, live music and dance, “Soul of The City” is a performance ritual for us all. Brenda tells true stories from the nation’s first Chinatown and Japantown based on her family’s 132-year history against the backdrop of today.
Soul of the City – In Creation (June 22, 2023 Lab Time at the Presidio Theatre). Photo by Terry Lorant.
“Soul of the City” is an allegorical story about the city of San Francisco and in particular, Brenda’s life spent living here. It is rooted in API history and looks at the soul of our beloved San Francisco, the birthplace of Asian America, through the sharing of personal stories and lineage. It also serves as a rallying call for the true citizens of the city to overcome all the doom and gloom and come together as a unified community to push back hatred of any group of people and to revive the soul of the city.
Based on many autobiographical stories of her mixed ethnic family tree, she follows how they all come to San Francisco and become a major part of the history of the City and follows her own path here as a performer, teacher, social activist and a proud long time San Franciscan. With the premise of a storyteller who feels she has no more stories to tell and being attacked for her Asian heritage, she hovers between life and death. With the appearance of the Mother (played by esteemed SF poet laureate devorah major) the storyteller is taken on a journey of self-discovery and decision.
The piece will be a moving and inspiring mix of spoken word, poetry, musical styles (featuring seven musicians representing jazz, taiko, koto, African percussion) and movement (drawing upon Asian theatre forms one will see influences such as Kabuki and Noh) and ultimately will hopefully have the audience reenergized and bring the soul of the City back to a newly vibrant state.
Prior to entering the theatre there will be events happening in the plaza outside where audience members will have the opportunity to write their own wishes and prayers to hang on the Tree of Life (a special ikebana installation) as well as be blessed and offer prayers for peace and in honor of the Ancestors.
Soul of The City Creative Team
Written by Brenda Wong Aoki. Directed by David Furumoto with musical direction by Masaru Koga. Original music by Mark Izu, Masaru Koga, and Derek Nakamoto. Multimedia by Andi Wong and Olivia Ting. Costumes by Lydia Tanji. Performers include Brenda Wong Aoki, Caroline Cabading, Masaru Koga, devorah major, Shoko Hikage, Jimi Nakagawa, and Kenneth Nash.
Music Director Mas Koga shares a special moment – Healing Ritual music by Mark Izu (sho) and Kenneth Nash (percussion). Music rehearsal, September 15, 2023.
Before the performance in the courtyard, the audience is invited to add their prayers, thoughts and wishes on the Soul of The City sacred tree. At the conclusion of the performance, we will return to the garden for refreshments, renewed, recharged and inspired to carry on.
Sacred Tree, photo by Mark Shigenaga
Be sure to pick up a copy of Mark Izu’s brand new CD, “Songs for J-Town,” at the show!
THE JINGWEI BIRD explores the complexity of climate change and our relationship to the planet through multi-disciplinary performances with Del Sol Quartetand The Last Hoisan Poets.
“THE JINGWEI BIRD” weaves brand-new music by Asian-American composers with powerful bilingual poetry, using storytelling and mythology to deepen our understanding and awareness of the nature around us.
“THE JINGWEI BIRD” is a mythical creature that appears in the Shan-hai jing, The Classic of Mountains and Seas, a Chinese classic text (third century BC to second century AD) and compilation of mythic geography and beasts. The story of the Jingwei Bird involves Nüwa, a girl who is drowned and transformed into a bird, determined to fill up the sea one pebble at a time to protect others from perishing as she did. The story captures the importance of perseverance, even against seemingly impossible odds, and reminds us of our vital connection to the planet.
THE JINGWEI BIRD features poetry written and performed by Genny Lim & Nellie Wong of The Last Hoisan Poets.
Poets Nellie Wong, Genny Lim & Rumi. May 2022. Photo by Mark Shigenaga
Continuing the collaboration begun with The Angel Island Project, Chinese-American poets Genny Lim and Nellie Wongjoin the quartet to create this new program of music and poetry exploring themes of eco-futurism, climate change, and our relationship to the planet. By immersing audiences in the sound of the music, delicately woven together in conversation with the poetry, the artists acknowledge the importance of community storytelling and the sharing of cultural knowledge across generations.
THE JINGWEI BIRD music, by Asian-American composers who draw on their cultural heritage, will be curated and performed by the Del Sol Quartet.
Benjamin Kreith & Hyeyung Sol Yoon, violins; Charlton Lee, viola; Kathryn Bates, cello. Photo: AFW Productions.
Fascinated by the feedback loop between social change, technology, and artistic innovation, the San Francisco-based Del Sol Quartetis a leading force in 21st-century chamber music. They believe that live music can, and should, happen anywhere – whether introducing Ben Johnston’s microtonal Americana at the Library of Congress or in a canyon cave, taking Aeryn Santillan’s gun-violence memorial to the streets of the Mission District, or collaborating with Huang Ruo and the anonymous Chinese poets who carved their words into the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station. Since 1992, Del Sol has commissioned and premiered thousands of new works.
FREE public performance – SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 2023, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm; Seaplane Lagoon Promenade, 1801 Ferry Point, Alameda, CA
Presented in partnership with DOER Marine, a free outdoor performance by the Del Sol Quartet & The Last Hoisan Poets will be held at Seaplane Lagoon Promenade in Alameda on Saturday, August 19, 2023, from 1pm – 2pm.
Those attending the 8/19 Alameda performance were also invited to stop by the Deep Ocean Explorer Store, located at 650 W Tower Ave, Alameda, CA 94501, a short walk away from Seaplane Lagoon Promenade for a special pre-performance talk with artist Leon Sun and Liz Taylor of DOER Marine presented at 11:30am, with light refreshments to follow at Seaplane Lagoon Promenade picnic area #1, 12:30pm-1:00pm.
Based in Alameda, California, DOER Marine(Deep Ocean Exploration and Research) was founded in 1992 by Dr. Sylvia Earle as Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, a marine consulting firm. The company is now headed by her daughter, Liz Taylor along with subsea specialist Ian Griffith, who expanded the firm’s scope and capabilities to include ROV and submersible support services. DOER Marine committed to changing the way we think about oceans, and the creatures who call them home. Partnership with DOER Marine will support our project efforts to engage audiences in Alameda and San Francisco more deeply in thinking about their relationship with water, including our Bay and ocean.
The Jingwei Bird @ NEMS SF Chinatown PACE Center
FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 2023, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm; NEMS Chinatown PACE Center, San Francisco, CA
North East Medical Services(NEMS) will host a performance on Friday, August 18, 2023 at their Chinatown PACE Center (Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) as part of promoting well-being and community for the elderly. NEMS is one of the largest community health centers in the United States targeting the medically underserved population. Based in San Francisco, the non-profit community health center offers comprehensive health care services to a variety of patients, a majority of whom are uninsured or low income. NEMS offers linguistically competent and culturally sensitive health care services in many languages and dialects, including English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Toishan, Vietnamese, Burmese, Korean, Spanish, and Hindi.
Leon Sun is a San Francisco based printmaker, photographer, painter, and writer. His art came out of the anti-war and social movements of the 1960s and 70s. He had always wanted his art to be socially relevant. Up until the 1990s he worked as photographer and graphic designer for Left publications while holding down various “day jobs.”
He first learned screenprinting in 1979 at the Japantown Art and Media (JAM) Workshop in San Francisco. He has printed continuously up to the current period. His work was based mostly in the Asian American Movement, but he has also contributed to international solidarity actions.
Around 2000 he began to relocate his art from political activism to spiritual practice. He took a break from the visual arts and began to teach himself landscape art. He spent three years building a garden informed by Buddhism, Asian and indigenous cultures. This experience did much to formulate a new orientation for his art. In 2013 Sun set up his own print studio and began to produce art that expresses his love for nature and concern for the environment.
Leon Sun was born 1948 in Shanghai, China, migrated to Hong Kong in 1957 and moved to the United States in 1966. He lives with his wife Karen and their dog Rocky in San Francisco and works out of his home. His work has been shown nationally and around the San Francisco Bay Area.
Explore Terrastories: “JINGWEI’S JOURNEY”
Explore a world of sounds & stories gathered with The Jingwei Bird.
Explore Terrastories allows you to access the maps of communities who have chosen to make a selection of their stories public. We are grateful for Terrastories support of our collective exploration to discover and preserve the sounds & stories gathered on Jingwei’s Journey!
Terrastories are audiovisual recordings of place-based storytelling. This application enables local communities to locate and map their oral storytelling traditions about places of significant meaning or value to them.
Terrastories is entirely free and open-source, built with principles of offline-first and data sovereignty, and aligned with the following two UN Sustainable Development Goals:
These and other communities are nurturing Explore Terrastories as a new growing window to a diversity of place-based stories that they consider important to share and position in this shared map. As Rudo Kemper, founder of Terrastories explains,
“This is a way to visualize a different kind of traditional knowledge, which can be stories, poetry, and song. It is also about visibility and representation, with the ability to control what gets represented”.
We The Arts: Civic Engagement Through Artis an ArtsEd4All project taking place from June 17 – July 4, 2023, in celebration of Civic Season 2023.
From Juneteenth to the 4th of July, we invite you to participate in the third annual #CivicSeason through self-guided public art visits in San Francisco, as well as in-person and online events that invite civic engagement through the arts. We’re teaming up with hundreds of history museums and sites across the country through @HistoryMadeByUs, in partnership with the next generation shaping our democracy to launch a new tradition that makes room for all of our stories – and write the next chapter together.
FREE – Saturday, JUNE 17, 2 pm – 8 pm Healdsburg Plaza, Corner of Healdsburg Avenue and Matheson Street, Healdsburg CA.
Healdsburg Jazz Festival kicks off its 25th Anniversary Season with Juneteenth. Enjoy free music and arts & crafts workshops!
Healdsburg Jazz is proud to present a diverse range of music, art, culture and education in honor of this holiday, free to the public in the Healdsburg Plaza. Our Juneteenth performances celebrate the wide range of Black music and art including gospel, early blues, New Orleans jazz, funk, R&B, spoken word, and straight ahead modern swing.
FREE JUNETEENTH Celebration in the Healdsburg Plaza with the Charles McPherson Quintet featuring Terell Stafford, Randy Porter, Akira Tana, and Marcus Shelby, vocalist Martin Luther The Real McCoy, The Robin Hodge Williams Gospel Choir, MJ’s Brass Boppers, Healdsburg Jazz Poet Laureate Enid Pickett and KCSM’s Greg Bridges.
Educational Activities – Families and young people are invited to join ArtsEd4All in the plaza to learn more about Juneteenth and check out the exhibit celebrating 25 years of Healdsburg Jazz Festival. Fold a zine, make a flag, pinwheel, fan or decorate your own musical shaker at the art table. This year, the public is also invited to join teaching artist Amelie Anna Hinman for music workshops at 2:30 pm-3:00 pm and 4:30 pm-5:00 pm to play and learn about the origins of a variety of percussion instruments.
Imagining “TOMORROW” with DWeb Camp
The Internet Archiveis an American digital library with a mission to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge. DWeb is a global network of builders and dreamers working to create a better, decentralized web. The goal of DWeb Camp is to create a collaborative space for people to connect, learn, share, and have fun as we work towards building a better, decentralized web.
At camp, Del Sol Quartet and composer Erika Oba conducted an open workshop demonstrating the give-and-take process that goes into creating and performing a new musical composition. Erika’s composition, “Behold the Sea,” is inspired by a story of friendship between two artists, Bill Zacha & Japanese artist Toshi Yoshida which resulted in a sister city relationship between Mendocino, California (USA) and Miasa, Nagano (Japan). Continuing the tradition, Erika and the Del Sol Quartet are using music to highlight the importance of building friendships and networks of community in order to protect the water and environment to help build a better world.
Composer Erika Oba invited DWeb campers to make music using stones in the dry bed of the Navarro River.
This plaque, dedicated in a community ceremony held on July 4th, 1982 reads, “The citizens of the sister cities of Mendocino, California and Miasa, Japan dedicate this plaque to the peaceful pursuits of the peoples of the Pacific Basin and to the protection of its environment that all living things there-in may exist in perpetual harmony.”
FREE on ZOOM – Thursday, JUNE 22, 12-1 pm PT | 3-4 pm ET.
This year at DWeb Camp, we’re tuning into the Plastic Pollution Coalition’s global webinar, Plastic-Free Seas: Diving Into How Plastic Impacts Health, Climate, and Our Oceans, on Thursday, June 22, 12-1 pm PT | 3-4 pm ET. On June 22, we will dive deep into the challenges that plastic pollution poses to our oceans and our bodies, how polluted waters disrupt the “Blue Mind” mental health benefits we gain from access to healthy oceans and waterways, and how we may restore our planet as well as our own physical and mental well-being.
DWeb Camp is using imaginative live action role play to dream of a better internet.
Build new networks and find your flow in Nature.
FREE – Saturday, JUNE 24 (or anytime, anywhere, as you please)
Technologists at DWeb Camp are hosting a LARP Worldbuilding session, using play to imagine how the Internet of Tomorrow might be transformed for the better. A LARP is a a live-action role-playing game in which a group of people enacts a fictional scenario (such as a fantasy adventure) in real time typically under the guidance of a facilitator or organizer.
Here are some ways to play along and join in the DWeb Camp experiment.
UNPLUG
– Take time out from the Internet and spend time recharging with a walk in nature. – Reflect upon your relationship with technology. Make a list of the ways that technology has changed your your life – for better and for worse. – What might be different? Are there aspects about your relationship with the Internet that you would like to change? “Think Different” was a slogan created for a 1997 ad campaignfor Apple.
– Design yourDWeb Alter Ego (with or without technology!)
“A Place for Poetry” with The Last Hoisan Poets
Anytime, in-person or virtual, FREE exploration of San Francisco public art
Take a poetry tour of the public spaces at the de Young Museum in San Francisco with The Last Hoisan Poets.
Write a poem with The Last Hoisan Poets.
Poets Genny Lim, Nellie Wong, and Flo Oy Wong — trace their roots to China’s Hoisan villages. They conduct special poetry readings in English and Hoisan-wa (a.k.a. the Toisanese/Taishanese Chinese dialect), to pay homage to their mother language which is at risk of fading from collective memory.
A Place for Poetry is a collection of poems by The Last Hoisan Poets inspired by the de Young Museum’s art and architecture. “One Eye” is a community poem begun by The Last Hoisan Poets, inspired by the sculpture of Ruth Asawa. The Last Hoisan Poets welcome poet of all ages and abilities to write a cinquain of their own. Listen toAsawa’s Gift to San Francisco, an audio tour sharing stories from the Asawa family. Take an ASL Tour of the Asawa sculpture installation the de Young Museum docent Jim Brune.
“When you put a seed in the ground, it doesn’t stop growing after eight hours. It keeps going every minute that it’s in the earth. We, too, need to keep growing every moment of every day that we are on this earth.” — Ruth Asawa
The book Your Brain on Art by Ivy Ross and Susan Magsamen shares that “neuroarts” is the transdisciplinary study of how the arts and aesthetic experiences measurably change the body, brain, and behavior and how this knowledge is translated into specific practices that advance health and wellbeing. The Aesthetic Mindset Index is based on a research instrument called the Aesthetic Responsiveness Assessment or AReA,developed by Ed Vessel, cognitive neuroscientist and his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt, Germany. The authors invite you to take the short survey, and then take it again in a month or two after you’ve had time to go out in the world and build your aesthetic mindset.
San Francisco is home to one of the largest and most diverse public art collections in the country. All city residents, workers and visitors have access to world-class art in everyday settings. Here are additional resources that will introduce you to some of the most engaging public art that San Francisco has to offer.
Join 400 cultural and civic institutions across the country for the third annual Civic Season, a new summer tradition for learning and action co-designed with Gen Z, the future inheritors of our democracy. Civic Seasonunites our oldest federal holiday with our newest, going beyond hot dogs and fireworks to invite meaningful reflection on our country’s past and our role in shaping its future.
Every year on 10 December, the world celebrates Human Rights Day, the very day when, in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UDHR consists of a preamble and 30 articles that set out a broad range of fundamental human rights and freedoms to which all of us, everywhere around the world, are entitled. It guarantees our rights without distinction of nationality, place of residence, gender, national or ethnic origin, religion, language, or any other status.
Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Deeply moving and laugh-out-loud funny, Mission: JOY is a documentary with unprecedented access to the unlikely friendship of two international icons who transcend religion: His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu. In their final joint mission, these self-described mischievous brothers give a master class in how to create joy in a world that was never easy for them. They offer neuroscience-backed wisdom to help each of us live with more joy, despite circumstances.
To access the screening room, use the link in the box below:
Click “Register” and enter your email address and the event invitation code MJA-AE4A. You can return as many times as you like during the screening window by clicking “Event Login” and entering the same email address and invitation code. If you have trouble registering, please see the FAQ section within the screening room.
Inspired by New York Times bestseller The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, the film showcases the exchange between these two Nobel Peace Prize winners that led to that book.
Consisting largely of never-before-seen footage shot over 5 days at the Dalai Lama’s residence in Dharamsala, the film invites viewers to join these luminaries behind the scenes as they recount stories from their lives, each having lived through periods of incredible difficulty and strife.
With genuine affection, mutual respect and a healthy dose of teasing, these unlikely friends impart lessons gleaned from lived experience, ancient traditions, and the latest cutting-edge science regarding how to live with joy in the face of all of life’s challenges from the extraordinary to the mundane. Mission: Joy is an antidote for the times.
Just 7 minutes a day for 7 days to create more JOY for yourself: The Mission: JOY Team worked with top researchers from UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, Harvard and 14 other universities to identify micro-actions–called Acts of JOY–that we can each do to create more JOY for ourselves in the moment. They’re quick, easy, and can be done by anyone of any age anywhere.
Sign up here and try out one Act of JOY a day, and at the end of 7 days, you’ll receive a free, individualized JOY Report that will show you which Acts were most beneficial for you. You will also be part of the world’s largest-ever citizen science project on JOY, helping scientists unlock the next level of discovery about how we can all feel more JOY!
“Joy manifests in human rights victories, the fighting for a just cause, and in the songs and artwork of social protest. Joy is transgressive of current conditions, and a force to bring people together to realize our potentials.”
The Del Sol Quartet brought The Joy Project to DWeb Campat Camp Navarro, Mendocino, where a globally diverse community of builders and dreamers gathered in nature to tackle the real world challenges facing the web and to co-create the decentralized technologies of the future. The quartet plays Sam Weiser’s composition, Let Joy Wash Over Youas You Fall Asleep, and campers are invited by composer Erika Oba to gather rocks from the dry riverbed to create a soundscape together.
Scenes from DWeb Camp 2022, Del Sol Quartet #3 by Paul d’Aoust, Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Creative Commons License
Del Sol has commissioned a body of short musical works written to give joy. As a gift to the community during these times, they are performing these pieces in numerous free concerts at public settings around the Bay Area — parks, schoolyards, open-spaces — where people can soak up some musical “joy” while safely practicing social distancing in the open air.
Sign up onDel Sol’s “Joy List” for the latest information regarding future performances.
The Asian-Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC) proudly presents GENERATIONS OF POWER, a multi-disciplinary showcase featuring The Last Hoisan Poets & Del Sol Quartet (spoken word with live instrumentation), Autonomous Region (jazz fusion), First Voice (story theater), Asian American Dance Performances (contemporary dance), Leela Youth Dance Company (classical North Indian dance), and tashi tamate weiss (movement/ritual).
This FREE, ALL-AGES, OUTDOOR event is part of the 25th annual United States of Asian America Festival (USAAF): Generations of Power. We are proud to host this event at the historic Japantown Peace Plaza as a visual symbol of community resilience and resistance during this period of increased Anti-Asian sentiment.
Healdsburg Jazz is proud to present a diverse range of music, art, culture and education in honor of the Juneteenth holiday, free to the public, in the Healdsburg Plaza.
The Healdsburg Jazz Juneteenth 2023 performances celebrate the wide range of Black music and art including gospel, early blues, New Orleans jazz, funk, R&B, spoken word, and straight-ahead modern swing.
2 sessions on Saturday, June 17th at 2:30 pm-3:00 pm and 4:30 pm-5:00 pm.
This drumming workshop led by teaching artist Amelie Anna Hinman, welcomes people to learn more about the origins of different types of drums. All ages and abilities are welcome to play them!
Join the drum circle or make your own shaker at the art table!
Pinwheels, Flags, Fans & Zines!
Stop by the education area to check out the special Healdsburg Jazz 25th Anniversary exhibit or celebrate Juneteenth by making your own pinwheel, flag or fan at the art table with teaching artist Andi Wong. Be sure to grab a copy of the special zine “Celebrating Past Present & Future with Black Music” highlighting 5 musical styles that Black artists have called upon throughout time in movements for social change.
Free Virtual Screening for Juneteenth: “The Right to Read”
In celebration of Juneteenth, access The Right to Read for one day online for a free virtual screening. The Right to Read will be available to watch online from 12:00AM ET to 11:59PM PT to anyone who registers. Viewers can access the film on the day by visiting www.therighttoreadfilm.org.
The Juneteenth Flag, a symbolic representation of the end of slavery in the United States — was created in 1997 by Ben Haith, the founder of the National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation (NJCF). In 2000, artist Lisa Jeanne Graf modified the flag to its present, modern-day design.
Flag Day is celebrated on June 14th.
While flags are everywhere and a part of daily life; most people don’t pause to unlock the rich history and ideas they represent. With North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) and the community of knowledge it builds, members say “open, sesame” to reveal the wealth of symbols and stories behind flags.
Flags first developed in China, with the advent of silk, and spread across Asia to the Middle East, where crusaders brought them to Europe. Beginning as markers on the battlefield, their use expanded to identification at sea, denoting who owned, taxed, and protected vessels. Eventually they became the ultimate icon representing nations, peoples, sub-national and civic entities, organizations, military units, companies, and individuals. Flag design began with heraldry, then spread its independent wings. Even before flags, “vexilloids” served as earlier symbols of group affiliation—tribes, armies, clans—and the Romans’ battle standard, the vexillum, gave its name to “vexillology”, the study of flags.
Good Flag, Bad Flag – This 16-page booklet, compiled from the expert input of over 20 different vexillologists world-wide, has become a classic resource for flag design.
Juneteenth 2022 Celebration in the Healdsburg Plaza featured Willie Jones III Quintet, MJ’s Brass Boppers, the Curtis Family C-notes, poets Enid Pickett and Kamau Daáood, KCSM’s Greg Bridges, educational areas, vendors and more. Presented in partnership with Healdsburg Community Services Department
“American Gothic, Washington, D.C.” Credit: Photograph by Gordon Parks.
A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks explores the power of images in advancing racial, economic, and social equality as seen through the lens of Gordon Parks, one of America’s most trailblazing artists, and the generation of young photographers, filmmakers, and activists he inspired. This Juneteenth 2022 film screening was presented by ArtsEd4All, in conjunction with this year’s #CivicSeason (from Juneteenth to July 4th).
A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks is a co-production of Kunhardt Films and HBO. Film for this screening provided by Kunhardt Film Foundation.
Juneteenth is a time to gather as a family, reflect on the past and look to the future. Discover ways to celebrate this African American cultural tradition of music, food and freedom.
‘What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July?’: Descendants Read Frederick Douglass’ Speech | NPR
In the summer of 2020, the U.S. commemorated Independence Day amid nationwide protests for racial justice and systemic reforms in the wake of George Floyd’s death. That June, we asked five young descendants of Frederick Douglass to read and respond to excerpts of his famous speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”. It’s a powerful, historical text that reminds us of the ongoing work of liberation.
FEATURING (alphabetically) Douglass Washington Morris II, 20 (he/him) Isidore Dharma Douglass Skinner, 15 (they/their) Zoë Douglass Skinner, 12 (she/her) Alexa Anne Watson, 19 (she/her) Haley Rose Watson, 17 (she/her)
A text version of the full speech is available here.
Emmy Award winning composer Mark Izu presents an evening of American jazz infused with traditional Japanese Gagaku music and poetry about San Francisco’s Japantown.
For one performance only, Songs for J-Town will feature music from the history of San Francisco’s Japantown. The evening will begin with the story of the Sun Goddess by Brenda Wong Aoki and a blessing by Konko Priest Mas Kawahatsu, followed by an instrumental jazz performance infused with Gagaku, a 1500-year-old ceremonial Japanese music that Izu studied for 26 years under his mentor Togi Suenobu.
Saturday, April 23, 7:30pm, Presidio Theatre, San Francisco
Compositions by Emmy Award Winning Mark Izu (Contrabass and Sho) with Mas Koga (Shakuhachi, Flute, Saxophones), Jimi Nakagawa (Taiko & Traps), Jim Norton (Woodwinds), Caroline Cabading (Vocals), devorah major (Spoken Word), Sara Sithi-Amnuai (Trumpet & Sheng), and Brenda Wong Aoki (Storyteller). Blessing by Rev. Mas Kawahatsu, Digital Collage by Andi Wong, Film by Tonilyn Sideco.
Pre-show Sacred Tree & Post-Show Reception
A classic yorishiro: a giant tree from Kyoto, Japan Photo by Chris Gladis (MShades) is marked with CC BY 2.0.
Sacred trees, called shinboku, are a deeply ingrained part of a Japanese culture that has historically viewed itself as being united with nature, rather than separate from nature; thus, recognizing the sacredness of trees, stones, mountains, forests, and the elements has been a relatively constant theme in Japanese culture for thousands of years.
“BLESSINGS” are the wondrous gifts all people receive each day that allows us to live: sun, air, rain, food, shelter, our heartbeat.
The evening’s program will begin with a purification blessing by Reverend Masato Kawahatsu, Minister at Konko Church of San Francisco. After the performance, enjoy tea and sweets in the courtyard.
Support Provided By
This work was commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission with support from Grants for the Arts, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Office of Economic Workforce Development, City and County of San Francisco. In partnership with the JapanTown Task Force, Center for Asian American Media, and co-presented by the Presidio Theatre. Produced by First Voice.
ANGEL ISLAND IN SIGHT 2021is a visual storytelling project focused on Angel Island — a collective portrait of Angel Island drawn from a multitude of views — near and far, past and present. Del Sol Performing Arts Organization’s ANGEL ISLAND INSIGHTexplores the history of the Angel Island Immigration Station by offering a suite of virtual and in-person programs that examines the musicality of the disappearing Hoisan-wa dialect by The Last Hoisan Poets and The Del Sol Quartet. public engagement with Del Sol Quartet & Huang Ruo’s Angel Island – Oratorio for Voices and Strings.
MEGAN and CHRIS WONG’s grandfathers were held in the Angel Island Immigration Station barracks. In 1929, Edmund Fong (Gung Gung) arrived in the belly of his mother Wun Shee Fong, who was five months pregnant. Gew Thet Wong (Ye Ye) arrived on Angel Island in 1931.
In 2021, the siblings offer their behind-the-scenes portrait of Beloved Community for Angel Island Insight.
Angel Island Insight. Directed and Edited by Chris Wong. 2021.
This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit http://www.calhum.org
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this website do not necessarily represent those of California Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
ANGEL ISLAND: IN SIGHT 2021 at the Angel Island Immigration Station is made possible with support from North East Medical Services (NEMS). https://www.nems.org/
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