Week 1 | Euro Roots

Criolla y Sabrosa: La Música Puertorriqueña (Puerto Rican Music: Creole and Tasty) is an eight-week lecture series by five-time Grammy-nominated musician John Santos that delves into the origins, evolution and relevance of Puerto Rican music, encapsulating the folk and popular trends of this tiny yet highly expressive Caribbean nation. European, African, and Indigenous roots - and an often-violent political history - form the foundation of Puerto Rican traditional and popular music, setting the stage for the birth of Salsa in New York's Puerto Rican community. Mr. Santos will illuminate Puerto Rico's musical evolution from a socio-political perspective through audio examples from his legendary collection, video clips and historical background based on his lifetime of immersion in Puerto Rican music. The eight, two-hour sessions will cover a variety of themes and may be enjoyed as a series or individually.

Euro Roots The conspicuous scarcity of indigenous forms and dances in Puerto Rican popular and folk music is common among Caribbean islands due to the near annihilation of those cultures. The indelible colonial legacy established a process of Europeanization that continues to this day.

Tickets can be purchased at SFJazz 

General | $20 per class or $160 full course

Members | $15 per class or $120 full course

Co-presented by Museum of the African Diaspora, SFJazz and Yerba Buena Gardens Festival

The 1, 4, 5 will discuss how advantages and limitations go hand-in-hand with Mike Henderson's creative process as an artist and the relationships he sees and feels with the world around him. In Blues music, there are three chords: 1, 4 & 5. The limitations in the Blues is what makes this music so earthy. As an artist, the 1 chord is his calling, the 4 chord is his commitment and dedication and the 5 chord is the materials. Henderson will also show slides of his work and talk about his growth and development as an artist, covering how he began back in Marshall, Missouri, and his time as a professor of art at U.C. Davis.

Mike Henderson completed his BFA and MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and is currently a professor of painting at the University of California, Davis. Henderson’s early figurative style was incited by the civil rights movement of the 1960s, but his pictorial representations of racial and sexual politics became more abstract after the destruction of his paintings in a studio fire. He currently concentrates on the use of color and texture in abstraction. Also an accomplished blues musician, Henderson plays professionally at local and international venues; the abstraction of sound infuses his oil paintings through the large color fields he creates by building and subtracting layers of paint off the canvas. Henderson’s accolades include National Endowment for the Arts awards and, most recently, the 2004 Flintridge Foundation Award.

Free with MoAD Admission.

The Grove! written by exceptional new playwright Mfoniso Udofia follows American-born Adiagha as she struggles to honor her Nigerian family and its deeply steeped traditions, while fighting to come into her own voice and individuality. Alongside a compelling story, The Grove combines traditional Nigerian song, spoken word poetry, and strong vocal rhythms to make a truly unique and exciting piece of theatre.

Mfoniso Udofia is a New York based storyteller, actor, slam-poet and teaching artist. She attended Wellesley College for Political Science and obtained her MFA in Acting from San Francisco's award winning, American Conservatory Theater. During this stay in the Bay Area, Udofia pioneered a youth initiative, The Nia Project, which provided artistic outlets for youth residing in Bayview/Huntspoint and she became a regular player in the underground slam scene. Ms. Udofia is currently completing a trilogy chronicling the lives of a traditional Nigerian family transplanted in America. The first play in this installation, The Grove, is a 2012 Eugene O'Neill National Playwright's Conference semi-finalist. Also, Udofia's feature film Fred, in which she plays Victoria and starring Elliot Gould, will headline the 2012 Edinburgh Festival! Follow her @mfudofia and keep up on the scoop at www.mfonisoudofia.com

Seating is limited. Please RSVP at iudofia@moadsf.org

$5 suggested Donation. All proceeds go to support the MoAD Youth Media Program (MYMP).

WEEK 2 | Música Jíbara: Country Music

Criolla y Sabrosa: La Música Puertorriqueña (Puerto Rican Music: Creole and Tasty) is an eight-week lecture series by five-time Grammy-nominated musician John Santos that delves into the origins, evolution and relevance of Puerto Rican music, encapsulating the folk and popular trends of this tiny yet highly expressive Caribbean nation. European, African, and Indigenous roots - and an often-violent political history - form the foundation of Puerto Rican traditional and popular music, setting the stage for the birth of Salsa in New York's Puerto Rican community. Mr. Santos will illuminate Puerto Rico's musical evolution from a socio-political perspective through audio examples from his legendary collection, video clips and historical background based on his lifetime of immersion in Puerto Rican music. The eight, two-hour sessions will cover a variety of themes and may be enjoyed as a series or individually.

Música Jíbara is Puerto Rico's soulful, rural musical expression with Spanish/Islamic roots. It is described as trigueña (tri-racial) on the island and has evolved gradually over a five hundred year period, with particular development in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Tickets can be purchased at SFJazz

General | $20 per class or $160 full course

Members | $15 per class or $120 full course

Co-presented by Museum of the African Diaspora, SFJazz and Yerba Buena Gardens Festival

PROGRAM CANCELLED -- Please join us for the Choose Paint! Artists' Panel on Thursday, August 16 from 6-8pm

Dr. Lizzetta LeFalle-Collins will be discussing her role as curator in the creation of Choose Paint! Choose Abstraction!, celebrating Bay Area Abstract Artists in this afternoon event. As the first curator of MoAD's Curator's Choice exhibition series, Dr.LeFalle-Collins will give insight into her personal and professional investment in these artists and their work. This program is an opportunity to further the discussion of the development of abstract art on the West coast and explore the exchange between black and white artists that defined Bay Area abstraction.

Dr. Lizzetta LeFalle-Collins is an independent writer, art historian, and curator. LeFalle-Collins has curated exhibitions nationally and internationally and writes about contemporary printmaking and artists active along the Pacific Rim and the Black Atlantic diaspora. 

Free with MoAD Admission.

PROGRAM CANCELLED -- Please join us for the Choose Paint! Artists' Panel on Thursday, August 16 from 6-8pm

 

Mary Lovelace O'Neal will present her work in a conversation with Dr. Lizzette LeFalle-Collins in this exciting afternoon program. Dr. Lefalle-Collins' interest in O'Neal's work overarches years of friendship, and has culminated in an upcoming book project. This intimate conversation will allow insight into the aesthetic interests, artist past, and current practice of Mary Lovelace O'Neal.

Mary Lovelace O'Neal is Professor Emerita from the University of California at Berkeley and former Chair of the Department of Art Practice. She is a graduate of Columbia, MFA (1969), and Howard Universities, BFA (1964). In 1963 she was a student at Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture where she started to understand the fundamental function of paint. She has represented the United States at a number of Biennales & International Art Festivals including Biennale Internazionale dell’Arte Contemporanea, Florence, Italy, Amadora 2000 VII Biennale 1st International de Gravura, Amadora, Portugal, Biennale International Du Dakar, Dakar, Senegal, Africa, Mondiale d’Estampes, Musee d’Art Contemporaine de Chemalieres, France. Mary Lovelace O’Neal lives and works in Oakland, California, while also maintaining studios in Concon and Santiago, Chile. Dr. Lizzetta LeFalle-Collins curated the current exhibition at MoAD, Choose Paint! Choose Abstraction! Celebrating Bay Area Abstract Artists.

Free with MoAD Admission.

WEEK 3 | Música Jíbara: Identidád Boricua

Criolla y Sabrosa: La Música Puertorriqueña (Puerto Rican Music: Creole and Tasty) is an eight-week lecture series by five-time Grammy-nominated musician John Santos that delves into the origins, evolution and relevance of Puerto Rican music, encapsulating the folk and popular trends of this tiny yet highly expressive Caribbean nation. European, African, and Indigenous roots - and an often-violent political history - form the foundation of Puerto Rican traditional and popular music, setting the stage for the birth of Salsa in New York's Puerto Rican community. Mr. Santos will illuminate Puerto Rico's musical evolution from a socio-political perspective through audio examples from his legendary collection, video clips and historical background based on his lifetime of immersion in Puerto Rican music. The eight, two-hour sessions will cover a variety of themes and may be enjoyed as a series or individually.

Música Jíbara: Identidád Boricua Música Jíbara was threatened on the island in the 50s, but has staged an amazing comeback and is continuing to grow. Although it maintains the traditional string/percussion instrumentation, the level of virtuosity on those instruments is astonishing and a source of much national pride.

Tickets can be purchased at SFJazz

General | $20 per class or $160 full course

Members | $15 per class or $120 full course

To purchase tickets online using your MoAD Members discount, please contact Joey Bravo at (415) 318-7152 or email at jbravo@moadsf.org

Co-presented by Museum of the African Diaspora, SFJazz and Yerba Buena Gardens Festival

Join us for a panel discussion with five of the artists featured in MoAD's current exhibition Choose Paint! Choose Abstraction! Celebrating Bay Area Abstract Artists. It features nine influential Bay Area artists who over several decades, starting in the 1970's, consistently chose abstraction over figuration as their preferred approach to art-making. Moderated by Mark Dean Johnson, the panel includes Squeak Carnwath, Dewey Crumpler, Mike Henderson, Mary Lovelace O'Neal, and Leslie K. Price, and will invite each artist to speak about their individual work, but also consider the development of a shared culture of painting in Northern California.

Mark Dean Johnson is currently Professor of Art and Gallery Director at San Francisco State University, and previously taught at Humboldt State University and the San Francisco Art Institute. He has organized exhibitions for institutions including the de Young Museum, Shanghai Museum, and Nordic Watercolor Museum in Sweden, and published books with Stanford and UCPress, among others.

Free with MoAD Admission.

This series is designed to bring different scholars to MoAD who will present on a variety of topics related to the African Diaspora. These events create a bridge of conversation between scholars and the community. All talks occur on Saturday mornings 10am-12pm in the Salon. Seating is limited.

Aldo Billingslea presents The Great Migration as Great Food for Thought: The Influences of August Wilson. Billingslea, Associate Professor of Theatre Arts at Santa Clara University, will discuss how the Great migration influenced playwright August Wilson (Fences, The Piano Lesson) through the artistry of Romare Bearden and others. Among the questions to be answered: What do Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Isabel Wilkerson, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Texas and Mississippi have to do with the plays of August Wilson? Join in on the conversation to find out more about the work of this celebrated, Pulitzer prize-winning African American playwright.

Free with MoAD Admission.

Saturday Morning Cartoons at MoAD brings young children and their families together for a morning of creativity, fun, and critical thinking. Together we will watch an episode of the HBO series Happily Ever After – Fairytales for Every Child followed by a facilitated conversation with an Education Department staff person. We will conclude with a literacy-building art and journal activity. Saturday Morning Cartoons at MoAD occurs the third Saturday of every month.

Free with MoAD Admission.

Take a journey with Ayodele Kinchen and explore the rich beauty of Caribbean culture, and its West African roots. Discover how the children of the Caribbean grow up learning customs and lessons through carnival and Anancy folktales. Find out what inspries many cultures to come together for a few days out of each year to parade the streets with elaborate costumes and floats. The fun tradition of Caribbean carnivals are a multi-generational celebratory experience, so expect to get up and move to the beat as stories are brought to life with dance and music.

Ayodele Ankoanda Kinchen has excelled in creative arts, music, drama, poetry, and dance since she was in elementary school. She began her professional artistic career at age 9 singing and dancing with the Congolese youth dance ensemble Bale Ba Congo. Ayodele is a principal dancer of Fua Dia Congo (Oakland) where she studied under the late world-renowned Congolese Master Artist and company founder, Malonga Casquelourd. As a resident artist for Arts & Literacy in Children’s Education (ALICE), and Visual Arts/Language Arts (VALA), she has taught African dance, music, and history to over 600 youth throughout k-12 schools in Richmond, Oakland, Palo Alto, and San Francisco.

Free with MoAD admission.

WEEK 4 | Bomba y Plena: La Música Negra

Criolla y Sabrosa: La Música Puertorriqueña (Puerto Rican Music: Creole and Tasty) is an eight-week lecture series by five-time Grammy-nominated musician John Santos that delves into the origins, evolution and relevance of Puerto Rican music, encapsulating the folk and popular trends of this tiny yet highly expressive Caribbean nation. European, African, and Indigenous roots - and an often-violent political history - form the foundation of Puerto Rican traditional and popular music, setting the stage for the birth of Salsa in New York's Puerto Rican community. Mr. Santos will illuminate Puerto Rico's musical evolution from a socio-political perspective through audio examples from his legendary collection, video clips and historical background based on his lifetime of immersion in Puerto Rican music. The eight, two-hour sessions will cover a variety of themes and may be enjoyed as a series or individually.

Bomba y Plena: La Música Negra The marginalized black music of Puerto Rico miraculously survived and has come to hold a special place of dignity and community expression for Puerto Ricans on and off the island. The elegant Bomba is the most African of Puerto Rican artistic genres, and the Plena - with its labor roots - has risen to truly represent the Puerto Rican working class in unrivaled fashion.

Tickets can be purchased at SFJazz

General | $20 per class or $160 full course

Members | $15 per class or $120 full course

 

Co-presented by Museum of the African Diaspora, SFJazz and Yerba Buena Gardens Festival

Join artist Winfred Rembert and director Vivian Ducat for a film screening and discussion of ALL ME: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert. With his intensely autobiographical paintings depicting the day-to-day existence of African Americans in the segregated South, Winfred Rembert has preserved an important, if often disturbing, chapter of American history. His indelible images of toiling in the cotton fields, singing in church, dancing in juke joints, or working on a chain gang are especially powerful, not just because he lived every moment, but because he experienced so much of the injustice and bigotry they show as recently as the 1960s and 70s. Now in his sixties, Rembert has developed a growing following among collectors and connoisseurs, and enjoyed a number of tributes and exhibitions of his work. In ALL ME: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert, the artist relives his turbulent life, abundantly visualized by his extensive paintings and, in a series of intimate reminiscences, shows us how even the most painful memories can be transformed into something meaningful and beautiful. A glowing portrait of how an artist—and his art—is made, ALL ME is also a triumphant saga of race in contemporary America. www.allmethemovie.com.

ALL ME: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert is director Vivian Ducat’s first feature-length documentary. A native New Yorker, Ducat has directed, produced and written more than 20 long-format documentaries for broadcast. She spent the first part of her career in London, working for the BBC, directing films for series including The Story of English, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power among others.Ducat also produced programs for WGBH series including The American Experience (“Hawaii’s Last Queen,” narrated by Anna Deveare Smith). Ducat also directs and produces interactive media and short films for touchscreen kiosks and digital exhibitions, for institutions and museums, through her company Ducat Media, including The Library of Congress, the National Park Service, the New-York Historical Society, the Museum of the City of New York, Columbia University, and the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center.

Free with MoAD Admission.

Join AZA for a performance and lecture about the music of the Gnawa. Gnawa Music is a genre of devotional music in North Africa, mostly in Morocco. It is performed by the descendants of sub-Saharan people who were brought as slaves to Northern Africa in different waves since the 11th century. They have their own belief system in explaining the origins of the world and all the entities and spirits that are present with us in our daily lives. As they converted to Islam, they adapted their beliefs to the teachings of the new religion. They were drawn mostly to Sufism, which is the mystics of Islam. They perform healing ceremonies through music. They have a lead singer called a 'maalem"" who also plays Sintir or Gumbri : a three sting bass who is accompanied by a chorus of singers who play ""qaraqeb"" iron castanets. The music usually leads to trance. 

AZA unites traditional Tamazight (Berber) music, indigenous to the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, with the global influences of its diverse members. Evocative of Saharan-African blues, yet with an original style that truly defies categorization, AZA’s stirring performances feature deep, danceable rhythms, intricate string melodies, and soaring, soulful vocals. Visually dynamic and engaging performers, AZA has been inspiring international audiences for nearly seven years.

Free with MoAD Admission.

WEEK 5 | New York: Little Puerto Rico

Criolla y Sabrosa: La Música Puertorriqueña (Puerto Rican Music: Creole and Tasty) is an eight-week lecture series by five-time Grammy-nominated musician John Santos that delves into the origins, evolution and relevance of Puerto Rican music, encapsulating the folk and popular trends of this tiny yet highly expressive Caribbean nation. European, African, and Indigenous roots - and an often-violent political history - form the foundation of Puerto Rican traditional and popular music, setting the stage for the birth of Salsa in New York's Puerto Rican community. Mr. Santos will illuminate Puerto Rico's musical evolution from a socio-political perspective through audio examples from his legendary collection, video clips and historical background based on his lifetime of immersion in Puerto Rican music. The eight, two-hour sessions will cover a variety of themes and may be enjoyed as a series or individually.

New York: Little Puerto Rico  Puerto Rican emigration to New York from the outset of the 20th century had an indelible effect on Puerto Rican music. New York-based companies such as Columbia, Victor, and Brunswick made most of the early recordings of Puerto Rican music in New York.

Tickets can be purchased at SFJazz

General | $20 per class or $160 full course

Members | $15 per class or $120 full course

Co-presented by Museum of the African Diaspora, SFJazz and Yerba Buena Gardens Festival