Public Programs Calendar

Francis Bok is a Dinka tribesman, former Sudanese slave turned abolitionist. He was captured and enslaved during an Arab militia raid on the village of Nymlal in Southern Sudan on May 15, 1986 and enslaved at age seven. Bok lived in bondage for 10 years before his escape and journey to America. Join us as he reads from his book, Escape From Slavery.

MoAD Members $7, Non-members $10.

Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things

Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement will host an interactive and multi-media discussion that illustrates the power of ordinary people working together to effect social justice. The veterans will address some of the issues they confronted in the South during the 1960s as young volunteers and organizers working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). They will also explore the relevance and manifestations of those issues in today’s world: nonviolence, activism, leadership, economic justice, and arts and culture as tools in the struggle.

MoAD Members $7, Non-members $10.

Target Community Day at the Museum of the African Diaspora is a day full of hands-on activities and performances for children of all ages that highlights the Diaspora tradition of Carnival and Mardi Gras. Local artists and musicians will lead activities in which children and adults can make Mardi Gras Masks, listen to storytellers and musical performances, as well as get their face painted and eat Carnival treats.

All activities and performances are free and admission to the Museum is free.

Join Quincy Troupe as he reads from his recent book of poetry, The Architecture of Language.

MoAD Members $7, Non-members $10.

Directed by Peter Coyote. Written by Imani Harrington. Special Guest Luisha Teish

Bitter Fruit is a dramatic and contemporary play that addresses the relationship a family has to the spirit world as governed by the memory of slavery. Bitter Fruit depicts a family in crises that has long depended on following the wishes of their ancestors. When an extended family member returns from a mental institution discovers she can't shake the memories of the past, the play leaves us witnessing how she must fight in order to stay sane and spiritually alive. A heroic feat that details a generational map of the past and future, guiding us into understanding what a family must go through in order to survive the denial of death, love and disease. Followed by a open dialogue with the director and writer.

Winner of the 2005 Cultural Equity Grant for individual artists. Bay Area Playwrights Festival finalist.

Free with museum admission.

Book Reading and Signing by Ishmael Beah

In partnership with Starbucks Coffee Company, MoAD introduces first time author Ishmael Beah and his book, A Long Way Gone. This powerful story of hope and redemption is a former child soldier’s rare first-hand account of fighting as a boy in the war-torn country of Sierra Leone. Ishmael Beah’s story of childhood lost and adulthood found is an inspiring journey from heartbreaking tragedy to salvation. Event will take place at the Mariposa and Bryant Starbucks and features a reading from the author, Q&A session, and book signing from Free.

Words: From Spoken to Seen

Paintings and the Painting Process

Wosene Worke Kosrof, a leading Ethiopian-born painter and internationally recognized contemporary artist, is best known for his rendering of the symbols of Amharic calligraphy, a major modern language of Ethiopia. In his presentation, Wosene will show and discuss slides from his current series Words: From Spoken to Seen. He will explain his painting process, influenced by jazz rhythms, counterpoints, and improvisations, and through which Wosene reworks his culturally specific vocabulary to become “international in its outlook, reflecting the complex realities of contemporary artistic practice in a global society.” (Christa Clarke, Curator, Newark Museum, NJ).

MoAD Members $7, Non-members $10.