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"content": "\u003cp>Playwright W. Fran Astorga’s \u003cem>Exhaustion Arroyo: Dancin’ Trees in the Ravine\u003c/em> is a trip — in both senses of the word. Running through May 21 at San Francisco’s Cutting Ball Theater, the play was inspired by an early pandemic experience in the Santa Cruz mountains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was with some really creative friends… and we went into the woods and did shrooms. And that experience really stuck with me,” says Astorga, who also co-directs. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13929121\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press1_-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13929121\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press1_-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press1_-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press1_-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press1_-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press1_.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shroom (Natalia Delgado, middle left), replenishes los tres amigos Apé (Patricio Becerril, left), Chío (Pano Roditis, middle right) and Taki (Edna Raia, right) in Cutting Ball Theater and IN THE MARGIN’s ‘Exhaustion Arroyo: Dancin’ Trees in the Ravine’ by W. Fran Astorga. \u003ccite>(Ben Krantz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the intimate 48-seat, circular theater made to look like a forest, it is fictional characters Taki, Chío and Apé, co-workers at a pizza place, who go on the psychedelic adventure. Underpinning the sometimes goofy physical comedy, though, is a meditation on inequality, the exploitation of essential workers and the importance of community care — drawn from Astorga’s own experience as an essential worker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Performed in Spanglish, Astorga is intentional and unapologetic in rejecting the white, heteronormative gaze, which they’d had to cater to in past experiences working in theater. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I come from a community in Stanislaus County [and] we transition between Spanish and English very fluently,” Astorga says. “And that’s what’s in the show: this dialect of the Central Valley that, in English, is slang from the Bay and slang from Southern California. And in Spanish, it’s like Spanglish slang, but also slang from specific parts of Mexico. So it’s like a really cool cultural blend.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13929122\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press6_-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13929122\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press6_-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press6_-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press6_-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press6_-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press6_.jpg 1503w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L–R) The burglar (Patricio Becerril) and Taki (Edna Raia) team up in fear of an even bigger threat — La Karen — in Cutting Ball Theater and IN THE MARGIN’s ‘Exhaustion Arroyo: Dancin’ Trees in the Ravine’ by W. Fran Astorga. \u003ccite>(Ben Krantz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Exhaustion Arroyo\u003c/em> also features the professional theater debut of actor and Santa Rosa native Patricio Becerril, who plays Apé. Becerril, who studied theater at Santa Rosa Junior College before finishing his degree at UC San Diego, says the play is unlike anything he’s done. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very clown-like, it’s very commedia dell’arte,” Becerril says. “So it’s not your traditional acting set on realism. It’s more animated. It’s just… wacky!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Astorga says that wackiness and humor was necessary in taking on the heavier themes of the play: “It was important for me to like, speak to the experiences of my community in a joyful way, as opposed to a traumatic way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Exhaustion Arroyo: Dancin’ Trees in the Ravine’ runs through May 21, 2023, at Cutting Ball Theater in San Francisco. \u003ca href=\"https://cuttingball.com/productions/exhaustion-arroyo\">Details here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Playwright W. Fran Astorga’s \u003cem>Exhaustion Arroyo: Dancin’ Trees in the Ravine\u003c/em> is a trip — in both senses of the word. Running through May 21 at San Francisco’s Cutting Ball Theater, the play was inspired by an early pandemic experience in the Santa Cruz mountains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was with some really creative friends… and we went into the woods and did shrooms. And that experience really stuck with me,” says Astorga, who also co-directs. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13929121\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press1_-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13929121\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press1_-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press1_-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press1_-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press1_-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press1_.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shroom (Natalia Delgado, middle left), replenishes los tres amigos Apé (Patricio Becerril, left), Chío (Pano Roditis, middle right) and Taki (Edna Raia, right) in Cutting Ball Theater and IN THE MARGIN’s ‘Exhaustion Arroyo: Dancin’ Trees in the Ravine’ by W. Fran Astorga. \u003ccite>(Ben Krantz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the intimate 48-seat, circular theater made to look like a forest, it is fictional characters Taki, Chío and Apé, co-workers at a pizza place, who go on the psychedelic adventure. Underpinning the sometimes goofy physical comedy, though, is a meditation on inequality, the exploitation of essential workers and the importance of community care — drawn from Astorga’s own experience as an essential worker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Performed in Spanglish, Astorga is intentional and unapologetic in rejecting the white, heteronormative gaze, which they’d had to cater to in past experiences working in theater. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I come from a community in Stanislaus County [and] we transition between Spanish and English very fluently,” Astorga says. “And that’s what’s in the show: this dialect of the Central Valley that, in English, is slang from the Bay and slang from Southern California. And in Spanish, it’s like Spanglish slang, but also slang from specific parts of Mexico. So it’s like a really cool cultural blend.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13929122\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press6_-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13929122\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press6_-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press6_-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press6_-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press6_-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/Exhaustion.Arroyo.Press6_.jpg 1503w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L–R) The burglar (Patricio Becerril) and Taki (Edna Raia) team up in fear of an even bigger threat — La Karen — in Cutting Ball Theater and IN THE MARGIN’s ‘Exhaustion Arroyo: Dancin’ Trees in the Ravine’ by W. Fran Astorga. \u003ccite>(Ben Krantz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Exhaustion Arroyo\u003c/em> also features the professional theater debut of actor and Santa Rosa native Patricio Becerril, who plays Apé. Becerril, who studied theater at Santa Rosa Junior College before finishing his degree at UC San Diego, says the play is unlike anything he’s done. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very clown-like, it’s very commedia dell’arte,” Becerril says. “So it’s not your traditional acting set on realism. It’s more animated. It’s just… wacky!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Astorga says that wackiness and humor was necessary in taking on the heavier themes of the play: “It was important for me to like, speak to the experiences of my community in a joyful way, as opposed to a traumatic way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Exhaustion Arroyo: Dancin’ Trees in the Ravine’ runs through May 21, 2023, at Cutting Ball Theater in San Francisco. \u003ca href=\"https://cuttingball.com/productions/exhaustion-arroyo\">Details here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>San Francisco’s independent theatre community was dealt two successive blows in the last six months: In December,\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13919459/exit-theatre-closed-tenderloin-san-francisco\"> EXIT Theatre’s complex on Eddy Street closed\u003c/a>, and just three months later \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13924185/pianofights-theatre-was-independent-creative-accessible-and-necessary\">Pianofight shuttered its multi-space venue\u003c/a> around the corner on Taylor. [aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"arts_13924185,arts_13919459\"] This loss of seven distinctive Tenderloin stages will have profound repercussions on independent and emerging performers’ ability to produce and perform original, non-mainstream works for years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even in the face of this devastation, all is not lost for the future of independent performance in San Francisco. Multi-space, multi-purpose venues still exist all over the City, perhaps most prominently in the Mission District. Three of these — with a total of nine stages between them — offer both artistic freedom and unparalleled variety: Brava Theater Center, Project Artaud and Stage Werx. Here’s a primer on their history, values and offerings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928288\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/A9_06843-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928288\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/A9_06843-800x480.jpg\" alt=\"a young Black man wearing shorts and a long-sleeve shirt moves with his arms in the air on a pink-lit stage during a performance\" width=\"800\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/A9_06843-800x480.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/A9_06843-1020x612.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/A9_06843-160x96.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/A9_06843-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/A9_06843-1536x921.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/A9_06843-2048x1229.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/A9_06843-1920x1152.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rotimi Agbabiaka performing in ‘MANIFESTO’ at Brava Theater Center in the Mission. \u003ccite>(Robbie Sweeny)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.brava.org/\">Brava Theater Center\u003c/a>: A mission for the Mission\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Founded in 1986 with a goal of supporting women and other marginalized voices in the arts, Mission-born organization Brava! for Women in the Arts moved into the former York Theatre at 2781 24th Street in 1996. The organization has successfully safeguarded the space against the forces of gentrification ever since. Brava currently manages three distinct spaces under this historic roof, and also supports a roster of resident artists and companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The venerable 360-seat Main Theater is where you can still see homegrown movies on occasion (such as 2009’s \u003cem>La Mission\u003c/em>, starring Benjamin Bratt, and 2015’s \u003cem>The Other Barrio\u003c/em>, scripted from a short story by former S.F. Poet Laureate Alejandro Murguia). Here, too, audiences can take in large-scale multidisciplinary works such as the acclaimed\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13880670/if-cities-could-dance-san-francisco-la-mezcla\"> \u003cem>Pachuquísmo\u003c/em> by Vanessa Sanchez and La Mezcla\u003c/a>. The 60-seat studio frequently hosts solo and small ensemble performances that range tonally from the hilarious to the sublime. And the catch-all 60-seat cabaret stage is where Mission District legends such as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13883619/in-the-mission-performers-marga-gomez-and-campo-santo-stay-resilient\">Marga Gomez\u003c/a> and Monica Palacios, among others, currently hold court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For resident artist \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13874641/man-vs-manifesto-rotimi-agbabiaka-explains-it-all-at-brava-theater-center\">Rotimi Agbabiaka\u003c/a>, Brava provides a level of artistic support unmatched by other spaces. Living in the nearby Castro District means that he can always pop in, and take in a show by a fellow resident, rehearse at odd hours in a space that allows him to “play and be loud,” and even use the office as a resource. Even during the height of the pandemic, Brava looked out for its resident artists, providing them a way to get out of the house and maintain their practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rotimi speaks appreciatively of the relaxed nature of his relationship with the organization — of how inspired he is by his fellow resident artists, and especially of the flexibility it provides to create work at his own pace rather than on an organizationally-imposed deadline, or under a directive to produce commercially viable work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a (kind of) freedom,” he remarks, “to not feel pressure to conform to a certain standard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928337\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/124-Movie-screen-5_18-1-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928337\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/124-Movie-screen-5_18-1-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"a large room or performance space with folding chairs, high ceilings, and a wall full of windows with light streaming in\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/124-Movie-screen-5_18-1-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/124-Movie-screen-5_18-1-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/124-Movie-screen-5_18-1-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/124-Movie-screen-5_18-1-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/124-Movie-screen-5_18-1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/124-Movie-screen-5_18-1-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/124-Movie-screen-5_18-1-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">SPACE 124 at Project Artaud. \u003ccite>(Courtesy SPACE 124)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://projectartaud.org/\">Project Artaud\u003c/a>: Collective power writ large\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Founded in 1971, Project Artaud (499 Alabama St.) is one of the oldest artist-run live-work spaces in the country. It serves as home to almost 100 members who run the project collectively while also maintaining their individual artistic and creative practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As might be expected from an organization named for the influential French theatre-maker Antonin Artaud, building performance spaces was an important part of the project founders’ vision. Today the impressive industrial edifice (once home to the American Can Company) houses several public performance venues which are renter-managed, and one — SPACE 124 — managed by the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As each space and theatre company operate independently of each other, Project Artaud is a place of infinite possibility. On any given week audiences might discover the highly specialized work of Theatre of Yugen, a touring powerhouse or a new musical at the 244-seat Z Space, gripping new work by local playwrights at Z Below, a feast of dance works at the Joe Goode annex, or the exhilarating heights of an aerial-driven performance at SPACE 124.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While each space has its own vibe and its own audience base, cross-pollination is a part of the general ecosystem. \u003ca href=\"https://www.foolsfury.org/fury-factory-festival\">Fury Factory\u003c/a> — a biennial festival of ensemble performance curated by foolsFURY before they disbanded in 2021 — cleverly made use of their proximity, presenting multiple touring and local artists, workshops and conversations simultaneously and within extremely close walking distance of each other. But even without a festival on the premises, the venues are tied together by a shared history and Project Artaud’s focus on collectively creating and preserving artistic space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m so glad I was a part of that time,” reflects Lizzy Spicuzza, a member of Project Artaud since the early 80s, and the current program manager of SPACE 124. “It’s part of my history too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928338\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SW-Audiene-accessible-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928338\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SW-Audiene-accessible-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"an empty theater with about 70 seats is seen from the stage\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SW-Audiene-accessible-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SW-Audiene-accessible-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SW-Audiene-accessible-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SW-Audiene-accessible-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SW-Audiene-accessible-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SW-Audiene-accessible-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SW-Audiene-accessible-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stage Werx Theatre offers a 70-seat room in the heart of the Mission. \u003ccite>(Ty Mckenzie)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.stagewerx.org/\">Stage Werx Theatre\u003c/a>: The house of ‘yes, and’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Stage Werx Theatre, located at 446 Valencia Street, is not a multi-stage venue. But from a glance at its offerings, you’d be forgiven for thinking it must be — it plays host to such a vast array of performers and performance styles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Want to put on a musical centering an allergy to cats? Explore the surrealistic medium of the Exquisite Corpse as an ensemble production? Read the works of H.P. Lovecraft while naked onstage? Stage Werx proprietor \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/10827367/backstage-heroes-ty-mckenzie\">Ty Mckenzie\u003c/a>, a staple of San Francisco’s underground, will not tell you “no.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the seemingly tireless engine working behind the scenes to create this supportive microcosm, Mckenzie has had to learn to do it all in order to (literally) keep the lights (literally) on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The only thing I don’t do is plumbing,” she says of her workload. “I can plumb but I have drawn a line. I do everything else — from accounting to producing, electrical to roof repair.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One longtime staple of the Stage Werx calendar is improv, including (until this year) \u003ca href=\"https://endgamesimprov.com/\">Endgames Improv\u003c/a>, and currently the delightfully madcap \u003ca href=\"http://picklewater.com/cirque-oui-et/\">Cirque Oui-Et\u003c/a>! (or Circus Yes-And), who blend their longform improv shows with burlesque, puppetry, drag and clown. And much like an improv show all its own, the guiding principle of Stage Werx could be similarly described as a “yes, and.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The human embodiment of this principle, Mckenzie still does not pay herself for her work at Werx, choosing instead to focus on the ephemeral rewards of a job well done — and the satisfaction of supporting local artists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I love the work they do here, and it infuses me with boundless energy to provide a clean, well-run, state-of-the-art performance space so they can focus on their craft. It’s a love-love situation,” she says. “And who doesn’t want to spend their days surrounded by love?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> This loss of seven distinctive Tenderloin stages will have profound repercussions on independent and emerging performers’ ability to produce and perform original, non-mainstream works for years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even in the face of this devastation, all is not lost for the future of independent performance in San Francisco. Multi-space, multi-purpose venues still exist all over the City, perhaps most prominently in the Mission District. Three of these — with a total of nine stages between them — offer both artistic freedom and unparalleled variety: Brava Theater Center, Project Artaud and Stage Werx. Here’s a primer on their history, values and offerings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928288\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/A9_06843-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928288\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/A9_06843-800x480.jpg\" alt=\"a young Black man wearing shorts and a long-sleeve shirt moves with his arms in the air on a pink-lit stage during a performance\" width=\"800\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/A9_06843-800x480.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/A9_06843-1020x612.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/A9_06843-160x96.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/A9_06843-768x461.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/A9_06843-1536x921.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/A9_06843-2048x1229.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/A9_06843-1920x1152.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rotimi Agbabiaka performing in ‘MANIFESTO’ at Brava Theater Center in the Mission. \u003ccite>(Robbie Sweeny)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.brava.org/\">Brava Theater Center\u003c/a>: A mission for the Mission\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Founded in 1986 with a goal of supporting women and other marginalized voices in the arts, Mission-born organization Brava! for Women in the Arts moved into the former York Theatre at 2781 24th Street in 1996. The organization has successfully safeguarded the space against the forces of gentrification ever since. Brava currently manages three distinct spaces under this historic roof, and also supports a roster of resident artists and companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The venerable 360-seat Main Theater is where you can still see homegrown movies on occasion (such as 2009’s \u003cem>La Mission\u003c/em>, starring Benjamin Bratt, and 2015’s \u003cem>The Other Barrio\u003c/em>, scripted from a short story by former S.F. Poet Laureate Alejandro Murguia). Here, too, audiences can take in large-scale multidisciplinary works such as the acclaimed\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13880670/if-cities-could-dance-san-francisco-la-mezcla\"> \u003cem>Pachuquísmo\u003c/em> by Vanessa Sanchez and La Mezcla\u003c/a>. The 60-seat studio frequently hosts solo and small ensemble performances that range tonally from the hilarious to the sublime. And the catch-all 60-seat cabaret stage is where Mission District legends such as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13883619/in-the-mission-performers-marga-gomez-and-campo-santo-stay-resilient\">Marga Gomez\u003c/a> and Monica Palacios, among others, currently hold court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For resident artist \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13874641/man-vs-manifesto-rotimi-agbabiaka-explains-it-all-at-brava-theater-center\">Rotimi Agbabiaka\u003c/a>, Brava provides a level of artistic support unmatched by other spaces. Living in the nearby Castro District means that he can always pop in, and take in a show by a fellow resident, rehearse at odd hours in a space that allows him to “play and be loud,” and even use the office as a resource. Even during the height of the pandemic, Brava looked out for its resident artists, providing them a way to get out of the house and maintain their practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rotimi speaks appreciatively of the relaxed nature of his relationship with the organization — of how inspired he is by his fellow resident artists, and especially of the flexibility it provides to create work at his own pace rather than on an organizationally-imposed deadline, or under a directive to produce commercially viable work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a (kind of) freedom,” he remarks, “to not feel pressure to conform to a certain standard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928337\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/124-Movie-screen-5_18-1-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928337\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/124-Movie-screen-5_18-1-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"a large room or performance space with folding chairs, high ceilings, and a wall full of windows with light streaming in\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/124-Movie-screen-5_18-1-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/124-Movie-screen-5_18-1-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/124-Movie-screen-5_18-1-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/124-Movie-screen-5_18-1-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/124-Movie-screen-5_18-1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/124-Movie-screen-5_18-1-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/124-Movie-screen-5_18-1-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">SPACE 124 at Project Artaud. \u003ccite>(Courtesy SPACE 124)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://projectartaud.org/\">Project Artaud\u003c/a>: Collective power writ large\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Founded in 1971, Project Artaud (499 Alabama St.) is one of the oldest artist-run live-work spaces in the country. It serves as home to almost 100 members who run the project collectively while also maintaining their individual artistic and creative practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As might be expected from an organization named for the influential French theatre-maker Antonin Artaud, building performance spaces was an important part of the project founders’ vision. Today the impressive industrial edifice (once home to the American Can Company) houses several public performance venues which are renter-managed, and one — SPACE 124 — managed by the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As each space and theatre company operate independently of each other, Project Artaud is a place of infinite possibility. On any given week audiences might discover the highly specialized work of Theatre of Yugen, a touring powerhouse or a new musical at the 244-seat Z Space, gripping new work by local playwrights at Z Below, a feast of dance works at the Joe Goode annex, or the exhilarating heights of an aerial-driven performance at SPACE 124.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While each space has its own vibe and its own audience base, cross-pollination is a part of the general ecosystem. \u003ca href=\"https://www.foolsfury.org/fury-factory-festival\">Fury Factory\u003c/a> — a biennial festival of ensemble performance curated by foolsFURY before they disbanded in 2021 — cleverly made use of their proximity, presenting multiple touring and local artists, workshops and conversations simultaneously and within extremely close walking distance of each other. But even without a festival on the premises, the venues are tied together by a shared history and Project Artaud’s focus on collectively creating and preserving artistic space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m so glad I was a part of that time,” reflects Lizzy Spicuzza, a member of Project Artaud since the early 80s, and the current program manager of SPACE 124. “It’s part of my history too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928338\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SW-Audiene-accessible-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928338\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SW-Audiene-accessible-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"an empty theater with about 70 seats is seen from the stage\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SW-Audiene-accessible-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SW-Audiene-accessible-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SW-Audiene-accessible-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SW-Audiene-accessible-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SW-Audiene-accessible-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SW-Audiene-accessible-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/SW-Audiene-accessible-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stage Werx Theatre offers a 70-seat room in the heart of the Mission. \u003ccite>(Ty Mckenzie)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca href=\"https://www.stagewerx.org/\">Stage Werx Theatre\u003c/a>: The house of ‘yes, and’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Stage Werx Theatre, located at 446 Valencia Street, is not a multi-stage venue. But from a glance at its offerings, you’d be forgiven for thinking it must be — it plays host to such a vast array of performers and performance styles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Want to put on a musical centering an allergy to cats? Explore the surrealistic medium of the Exquisite Corpse as an ensemble production? Read the works of H.P. Lovecraft while naked onstage? Stage Werx proprietor \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/10827367/backstage-heroes-ty-mckenzie\">Ty Mckenzie\u003c/a>, a staple of San Francisco’s underground, will not tell you “no.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the seemingly tireless engine working behind the scenes to create this supportive microcosm, Mckenzie has had to learn to do it all in order to (literally) keep the lights (literally) on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The only thing I don’t do is plumbing,” she says of her workload. “I can plumb but I have drawn a line. I do everything else — from accounting to producing, electrical to roof repair.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One longtime staple of the Stage Werx calendar is improv, including (until this year) \u003ca href=\"https://endgamesimprov.com/\">Endgames Improv\u003c/a>, and currently the delightfully madcap \u003ca href=\"http://picklewater.com/cirque-oui-et/\">Cirque Oui-Et\u003c/a>! (or Circus Yes-And), who blend their longform improv shows with burlesque, puppetry, drag and clown. And much like an improv show all its own, the guiding principle of Stage Werx could be similarly described as a “yes, and.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The human embodiment of this principle, Mckenzie still does not pay herself for her work at Werx, choosing instead to focus on the ephemeral rewards of a job well done — and the satisfaction of supporting local artists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I love the work they do here, and it infuses me with boundless energy to provide a clean, well-run, state-of-the-art performance space so they can focus on their craft. It’s a love-love situation,” she says. “And who doesn’t want to spend their days surrounded by love?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Octavia Butler’s Prescient ‘Parable of the Sower’ Comes Alive as an Opera",
"headTitle": "Octavia Butler’s Prescient ‘Parable of the Sower’ Comes Alive as an Opera | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>All that you touch\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>You Change.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>All that you Change\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Changes you.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The only lasting truth\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Is Change.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>God\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Is Change.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cem>Earthseed: The Books of the Living\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cem>Saturday, July 20, 2024\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing that’s changed since Octavia E. Butler first published her 1993 dystopian masterpiece \u003cem>Parable of the Sower\u003c/em> is that her prescience has come more clearly and disturbingly into focus. Hailed as a landmark of Afrofuturism, the novel and its sequel, 1998’s \u003cem>Parable of the Talents\u003c/em>, read increasingly like tomorrow’s headlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unfolding in the journal of teenaged Lauren Olamina, a character with all the revelatory power of Huck Finn, the Joads and other American castoffs forced to hit the road for survival, \u003cem>Parable of the Sower \u003c/em>describes California as a chaotic landscape where water is privatized and the weather is more unstable and extreme due to global warming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Law and order has broken down as new illegal drugs drive people to commit wanton acts of destruction. Anyone without protections afforded by wealth is subject to looting and violence at the hands of the dispossessed. Did I mention that the novel opens on July 20, 2024?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For vocalist, guitarist and composer Toshi Reagon and her legendary mother, civil rights activist, scholar and Sweet Honey in the Rock founder Bernice Johnson Reagon, that impending date served as a beacon. They’ve been developing the music for decades, and ended up bringing \u003cem>Parable of the Sower\u003c/em> to the stage as a “congregational opera.” Co-directed by Eric Ting and Signe V. Harriday, the latest production makes its Bay Area premiere \u003ca href=\"https://calperformances.org/events/2022-23/illuminations-human-and-machine/octavia-e-butlers-parable-of-the-sower/\">May 5 and 6 at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall\u003c/a>, presented by Cal Performances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/Ds1rNB2jJB8\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Toshi Reagon, a life-long science fiction fan who read \u003cem>Parable\u003c/em> when it was first published, saw Butler’s story as a creative challenge. “I thought \u003cem>Parable\u003c/em> would be innovative for us to witness,” she says, noting that the unspecified apocalypse that sets the scene for the novel seemed a long way off in 1993. “I thought, ‘That’s terrible, but that can’t happen.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent years, however, events have made her feel “a desperation to get it out. I didn’t want to go into 2024 without something in my hand,” she says, particularly as the news increasingly came to echo Butler’s tale. “There is no way we can all be okay with the way governments are leading the planet. Octavia makes the options so clear. You take these steps or you’re on the highway.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of what sets \u003cem>Parable\u003c/em> apart from other classic dystopian tales like George Orwell’s \u003cem>1984\u003c/em>, Aldous Huxley’s \u003cem>Brave New World\u003c/em> and Cormac McCarthy’s \u003cem>The Road\u003c/em> is that Butler offers far more than a vision of Hobbesian humanity at its worst. She also details a path forward, via Lauren’s epigraphic philosophy about change as the universe’s governing force. Teased out and applied to envisioning a new society, her creed resonates deeply with African American music’s deepest roots, spirituals and blues, which defined, healed and sustained embattled communities through extreme depredations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928145\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928145\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/cal-performances-toshi-reagon-by-reed-hutchinson-800x533.jpeg\" alt=\"Toshi Reagon plays her acoustic guitar on a dimly lit theater stage.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/cal-performances-toshi-reagon-by-reed-hutchinson-800x533.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/cal-performances-toshi-reagon-by-reed-hutchinson-1020x680.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/cal-performances-toshi-reagon-by-reed-hutchinson-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/cal-performances-toshi-reagon-by-reed-hutchinson-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/cal-performances-toshi-reagon-by-reed-hutchinson-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/cal-performances-toshi-reagon-by-reed-hutchinson.jpeg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Toshi Reagon in Octavia E. Butler’s ‘Parable of the Sower,’ which premieres in the Bay Area May 5 and 6 at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. \u003ccite>(Reed Hutchinson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If there’s anything Toshi wants people to understand about \u003cem>Parable\u003c/em> it’s that “it really is an opera,” she says. “It is not a musical. No one is going to stop and talk to you. We sing for a few hours, and we definitely follow the arc of the book. The first half of the story is in a community where the trouble is coming. The second half is in the unknown, trying to get somewhere else and survive. There’s a lot of narrative, so even if you didn’t read the books the story is recognizable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Parable’s\u003c/em> birth was midwifed by Toni Morrison. In the late 1990s, she invited Bernice Johnson Reagon to teach an Atelier course at Princeton University. Given all her responsibilities \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">— \u003c/span>Sweet Honey in the Rock was touring internationally \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">— \u003c/span>Toshi took over from her mom to teach half the semester. After noticing Princeton’s numerous student a cappella ensembles, she realized the time was ripe to start writing music for \u003cem>Parable\u003c/em>. [aside postid='arts_13928016']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Reagons ended up composing dozens of songs, though it wasn’t until about five years later that they started to shape the material into a narrative. A workshop in 2008 set it on course for a premiere at the New York City Opera, but the company ended up folding in 2013 (it returned from bankruptcy three years later). The public first got a glimpse at some of the material in 2014 when Toshi Reagon closed her annual birthday concert at Joe’s Pub with a set of \u003cem>Parable\u003c/em> songs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She presented three acts of music, and one was of this show no one had heard,” says Eric Ting, who recently stepped down after a brilliant seven-year run as artistic director at Cal Shakes. His wife Meiyin Wang was director of New York’s Under the Radar Festival at the time, and quickly booked the Reagons to present a concert version of \u003cem>Parable\u003c/em> at the Public Theatre in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ting came on as director, “someone who could shepherd a narrative out of this huge collection of songs,” he says. “We started with four hours of content and that was only a fraction of what they’d written! There’s still music that I’ve never heard, and Toshi has brought plenty of new music to the project.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of the challenge was threading the needle in adapting beloved literary works with ardent followings while creating an opera accessible to people who’ve never read Butler. During Ting’s tenure at Cal Shakes, he brought Toshi in to do a developmental workshop, but the production she envisioned was too ambitious for the company to tackle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a big show, 15 performers, a five-piece rock band, and they all travel from out of town, so there are flights and rooms,” Ting says. “That was one of the challenges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/Wie63mAbm8s\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Parable\u003c/em>’s extended development speaks both to Reagon’s dogged commitment and the opera’s organic evolution. In the past few years, Cal Performances has presented several disappointing \u003ca href=\"https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/theater/review-marquee-name-grand-venue-host-amateur-hour-in-angelique-kidjos-yemandja\">high-profile shows\u003c/a> that were rushed into Zellerbach without the necessary time and resources. Reagon formed her own production company and steadily pushed the boulder up the mountain with her team, honing the work year after year. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reagon often creates ancillary programming around the production, community building that she calls \u003ca href=\"https://www.bowdoin.edu/parable-path-maine/\">the Parable Path\u003c/a>. Whenever possible she sets up a residency at a theater, and often holds song sessions, teaching people \u003cem>Parable\u003c/em> pieces so they can join in the production. There wasn’t time to develop many Parable Path activities for the Cal Performances engagement, but she’s got her eye on coming back to the Bay Area. Ultimately, \u003cem>Parable of the Sower\u003c/em> reflects the novels upon which its based, drawing strength from sacred and vernacular Black culture to offer a path away from societal collapse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the innovation in terms of contemporary performance is that we don’t see the work itself as a whole,” Toshi says. “So much is about urging or challenging our communities to confront the fragility of the world we live in. How we survive is so tied up in how we relate to each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parable of the Sower \u003cem>makes its Bay Area debut at Zellerbach Hall at UC Berkeley on May 5 and 6. \u003ca href=\"https://calperformances.org/events/2022-23/illuminations-human-and-machine/octavia-e-butlers-parable-of-the-sower/\">Details here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Toshi and Bernice Johnson Reagon's adaptation of the sci-fi classic makes its Bay Area debut May 5-6.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>All that you touch\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>You Change.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>All that you Change\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Changes you.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The only lasting truth\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Is Change.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>God\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Is Change.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cem>Earthseed: The Books of the Living\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003cem>Saturday, July 20, 2024\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing that’s changed since Octavia E. Butler first published her 1993 dystopian masterpiece \u003cem>Parable of the Sower\u003c/em> is that her prescience has come more clearly and disturbingly into focus. Hailed as a landmark of Afrofuturism, the novel and its sequel, 1998’s \u003cem>Parable of the Talents\u003c/em>, read increasingly like tomorrow’s headlines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unfolding in the journal of teenaged Lauren Olamina, a character with all the revelatory power of Huck Finn, the Joads and other American castoffs forced to hit the road for survival, \u003cem>Parable of the Sower \u003c/em>describes California as a chaotic landscape where water is privatized and the weather is more unstable and extreme due to global warming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Law and order has broken down as new illegal drugs drive people to commit wanton acts of destruction. Anyone without protections afforded by wealth is subject to looting and violence at the hands of the dispossessed. Did I mention that the novel opens on July 20, 2024?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For vocalist, guitarist and composer Toshi Reagon and her legendary mother, civil rights activist, scholar and Sweet Honey in the Rock founder Bernice Johnson Reagon, that impending date served as a beacon. They’ve been developing the music for decades, and ended up bringing \u003cem>Parable of the Sower\u003c/em> to the stage as a “congregational opera.” Co-directed by Eric Ting and Signe V. Harriday, the latest production makes its Bay Area premiere \u003ca href=\"https://calperformances.org/events/2022-23/illuminations-human-and-machine/octavia-e-butlers-parable-of-the-sower/\">May 5 and 6 at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall\u003c/a>, presented by Cal Performances.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Ds1rNB2jJB8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Ds1rNB2jJB8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Toshi Reagon, a life-long science fiction fan who read \u003cem>Parable\u003c/em> when it was first published, saw Butler’s story as a creative challenge. “I thought \u003cem>Parable\u003c/em> would be innovative for us to witness,” she says, noting that the unspecified apocalypse that sets the scene for the novel seemed a long way off in 1993. “I thought, ‘That’s terrible, but that can’t happen.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent years, however, events have made her feel “a desperation to get it out. I didn’t want to go into 2024 without something in my hand,” she says, particularly as the news increasingly came to echo Butler’s tale. “There is no way we can all be okay with the way governments are leading the planet. Octavia makes the options so clear. You take these steps or you’re on the highway.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of what sets \u003cem>Parable\u003c/em> apart from other classic dystopian tales like George Orwell’s \u003cem>1984\u003c/em>, Aldous Huxley’s \u003cem>Brave New World\u003c/em> and Cormac McCarthy’s \u003cem>The Road\u003c/em> is that Butler offers far more than a vision of Hobbesian humanity at its worst. She also details a path forward, via Lauren’s epigraphic philosophy about change as the universe’s governing force. Teased out and applied to envisioning a new society, her creed resonates deeply with African American music’s deepest roots, spirituals and blues, which defined, healed and sustained embattled communities through extreme depredations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928145\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928145\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/cal-performances-toshi-reagon-by-reed-hutchinson-800x533.jpeg\" alt=\"Toshi Reagon plays her acoustic guitar on a dimly lit theater stage.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/cal-performances-toshi-reagon-by-reed-hutchinson-800x533.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/cal-performances-toshi-reagon-by-reed-hutchinson-1020x680.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/cal-performances-toshi-reagon-by-reed-hutchinson-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/cal-performances-toshi-reagon-by-reed-hutchinson-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/cal-performances-toshi-reagon-by-reed-hutchinson-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/cal-performances-toshi-reagon-by-reed-hutchinson.jpeg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Toshi Reagon in Octavia E. Butler’s ‘Parable of the Sower,’ which premieres in the Bay Area May 5 and 6 at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. \u003ccite>(Reed Hutchinson)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If there’s anything Toshi wants people to understand about \u003cem>Parable\u003c/em> it’s that “it really is an opera,” she says. “It is not a musical. No one is going to stop and talk to you. We sing for a few hours, and we definitely follow the arc of the book. The first half of the story is in a community where the trouble is coming. The second half is in the unknown, trying to get somewhere else and survive. There’s a lot of narrative, so even if you didn’t read the books the story is recognizable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Parable’s\u003c/em> birth was midwifed by Toni Morrison. In the late 1990s, she invited Bernice Johnson Reagon to teach an Atelier course at Princeton University. Given all her responsibilities \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">— \u003c/span>Sweet Honey in the Rock was touring internationally \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">— \u003c/span>Toshi took over from her mom to teach half the semester. After noticing Princeton’s numerous student a cappella ensembles, she realized the time was ripe to start writing music for \u003cem>Parable\u003c/em>. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Reagons ended up composing dozens of songs, though it wasn’t until about five years later that they started to shape the material into a narrative. A workshop in 2008 set it on course for a premiere at the New York City Opera, but the company ended up folding in 2013 (it returned from bankruptcy three years later). The public first got a glimpse at some of the material in 2014 when Toshi Reagon closed her annual birthday concert at Joe’s Pub with a set of \u003cem>Parable\u003c/em> songs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She presented three acts of music, and one was of this show no one had heard,” says Eric Ting, who recently stepped down after a brilliant seven-year run as artistic director at Cal Shakes. His wife Meiyin Wang was director of New York’s Under the Radar Festival at the time, and quickly booked the Reagons to present a concert version of \u003cem>Parable\u003c/em> at the Public Theatre in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ting came on as director, “someone who could shepherd a narrative out of this huge collection of songs,” he says. “We started with four hours of content and that was only a fraction of what they’d written! There’s still music that I’ve never heard, and Toshi has brought plenty of new music to the project.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of the challenge was threading the needle in adapting beloved literary works with ardent followings while creating an opera accessible to people who’ve never read Butler. During Ting’s tenure at Cal Shakes, he brought Toshi in to do a developmental workshop, but the production she envisioned was too ambitious for the company to tackle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a big show, 15 performers, a five-piece rock band, and they all travel from out of town, so there are flights and rooms,” Ting says. “That was one of the challenges.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Wie63mAbm8s'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Wie63mAbm8s'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Parable\u003c/em>’s extended development speaks both to Reagon’s dogged commitment and the opera’s organic evolution. In the past few years, Cal Performances has presented several disappointing \u003ca href=\"https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/theater/review-marquee-name-grand-venue-host-amateur-hour-in-angelique-kidjos-yemandja\">high-profile shows\u003c/a> that were rushed into Zellerbach without the necessary time and resources. Reagon formed her own production company and steadily pushed the boulder up the mountain with her team, honing the work year after year. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reagon often creates ancillary programming around the production, community building that she calls \u003ca href=\"https://www.bowdoin.edu/parable-path-maine/\">the Parable Path\u003c/a>. Whenever possible she sets up a residency at a theater, and often holds song sessions, teaching people \u003cem>Parable\u003c/em> pieces so they can join in the production. There wasn’t time to develop many Parable Path activities for the Cal Performances engagement, but she’s got her eye on coming back to the Bay Area. Ultimately, \u003cem>Parable of the Sower\u003c/em> reflects the novels upon which its based, drawing strength from sacred and vernacular Black culture to offer a path away from societal collapse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the innovation in terms of contemporary performance is that we don’t see the work itself as a whole,” Toshi says. “So much is about urging or challenging our communities to confront the fragility of the world we live in. How we survive is so tied up in how we relate to each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parable of the Sower \u003cem>makes its Bay Area debut at Zellerbach Hall at UC Berkeley on May 5 and 6. \u003ca href=\"https://calperformances.org/events/2022-23/illuminations-human-and-machine/octavia-e-butlers-parable-of-the-sower/\">Details here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Harry Belafonte, Civil Rights Giant and Humanitarian Entertainer, Dies at 96",
"headTitle": "Harry Belafonte, Civil Rights Giant and Humanitarian Entertainer, Dies at 96 | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Harry Belafonte, the civil rights and entertainment giant who began as a groundbreaking actor and singer and became an activist, humanitarian and conscience of the world, has died. He was 96.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his New York home, his wife Pamela by his side, said Ken Sunshine, of public relations firm Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With his glowing, handsome face and silky-husky voice, Belafonte was one of the first Black performers to gain a wide following on film and to sell a million records as a singer; many still know him for his signature hit “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5dpBWlRANE\">Banana Boat Song (Day-O)\u003c/a>,” and its call of “Day-O! Daaaaay-O.” But he forged a greater legacy once he scaled back his performing career in the 1960s and lived out his hero Paul Robeson’s decree that artists are “gatekeepers of truth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5dpBWlRANE\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He stands as the model and the epitome of the celebrity activist. Few kept up with Belafonte’s time and commitment and none his stature as a meeting point among Hollywood, Washington and the civil rights movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte not only participated in protest marches and benefit concerts, but helped organize and raise support for them. He worked closely with his friend and generational peer the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., often intervening on his behalf with both politicians and fellow entertainers and helping him financially. He risked his life and livelihood and set high standards for younger Black celebrities, scolding Jay Z and Beyoncé for failing to meet their “social responsibilities,” and mentoring Usher, Common, Danny Glover and many others. In Spike Lee’s 2018 film \u003cem>BlacKkKlansman\u003c/em>, he was fittingly cast as an elder statesman schooling young activists about the country’s past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte’s friend, civil rights leader Andrew Young, would note that Belafonte was the rare person to grow more radical with age. He was ever engaged and unyielding, willing to take on Southern segregationists, Northern liberals, the billionaire Koch brothers and the country’s first Black president, Barack Obama, whom Belafonte would remember asking to cut him “some slack.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte responded, “What makes you think that’s not what I’ve been doing?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928238\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928238\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harry Belafonte attends the 2016 Library Lions gala at New York Public Library on November 7, 2016 in New York City. \u003ccite>(Gary Gershoff/WireImage)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Belafonte had been a major artist since the 1950s. He won a Tony Award in 1954 for his starring role in John Murray Anderson’s \u003cem>Almanac\u003c/em> and five years later became the first Black performer to win an Emmy for the TV special “Tonight with Harry Belafonte.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1954, he co-starred with Dorothy Dandridge in the Otto Preminger-directed musical \u003cem>Carmen Jones\u003c/em>, a popular breakthrough for an all-Black cast. The 1957 movie \u003cem>Island in the Sun\u003c/em> was banned in several Southern cities, where theater owners were threatened by the Ku Klux Klan because of the film’s interracial romance between Belafonte and Joan Fontaine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His \u003cem>Calypso\u003c/em>, released in 1955, became the first officially certified million-selling album by a solo performer, and started a national infatuation with Caribbean rhythms (Belafonte was nicknamed, reluctantly, the “King of Calypso″). Admirers of Belafonte included a young Bob Dylan, who debuted on record in the early ’60s by playing harmonica on Belafonte’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRVlYpDAOEI\">Midnight Special\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Harry was the best balladeer in the land and everybody knew it,” Dylan later wrote. “He was a fantastic artist, sang about lovers and slaves — chain gang workers, saints and sinners and children. … Harry was that rare type of character that radiates greatness, and you hope that some of it rubs off on you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMXBJW1PuU8\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte befriended King in the spring of 1956 after the young civil rights leader called and asked for a meeting. They spoke for hours, and Belafonte would remember feeling King raised him to the “higher plane of social protest.” Then at the peak of his singing career, Belafonte was soon producing a benefit concert for the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama that helped make King a national figure. By the early 1960s, he had decided to make civil rights his priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was having almost daily talks with Martin,” Belafonte wrote in his memoir \u003cem>My Song\u003c/em>, published in 2011. “I realized that the movement was more important than anything else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Kennedys were among the first politicians to seek his opinions, which he willingly shared. John F. Kennedy, at a time when Blacks were as likely to vote for Republicans as for Democrats, was so anxious for his support that during the 1960 election he visited Belafonte at his Manhattan home. Belafonte schooled Kennedy on the importance of King, and arranged for them to speak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was quite taken by the fact that he (Kennedy) knew so little about the Black community,” Belafonte told NBC in 2013. “He knew the headlines of the day, but he wasn’t really anywhere nuanced or detailed on the depth of Black anguish or what our struggle’s really about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte would often criticize the Kennedys for their reluctance to challenge the Southern segregationists who were then a substantial part of the Democratic Party. He argued with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the president’s brother, over the government’s failure to protect the “Freedom Riders” trying to integrate bus stations. He was among the Black activists at a widely publicized meeting with the attorney general, when playwright Lorraine Hansberry and others stunned Kennedy by questioning whether the country even deserved Black allegiance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Bobby turned red at that. I had never seen him so shaken,” Belafonte later wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928235\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639-800x652.jpg\" alt=\"Two Black men in the 1960s dressed in formal evening wear.\" width=\"800\" height=\"652\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928235\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639-800x652.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639-1020x831.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639-160x130.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639-768x626.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">American actor and singer Harry Belafonte with American actor Sidney Poitier at the New York premiere of director George Stevens’ film, ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told,’ in which Poitier starred, New York City, circa 1965. \u003ccite>(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1963, Belafonte was deeply involved with the March on Washington. He recruited his close friend Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman and other celebrities and persuaded the left-wing Marlon Brando to co-chair the Hollywood delegation with the more conservative Charlton Heston, a pairing designed to appeal to the broadest possible audience. In 1964, he and Poitier personally delivered tens of thousands of dollar to activists in Mississippi after three “Freedom Summer” volunteers were murdered — the two celebrities were chased by car at one point by members of the KKK. The following year, he brought in Tony Bennett, Joan Baez and other singers to perform for the marchers in Selma, Alabama.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When King was assassinated, in 1968, Belafonte helped pick out the suit he was buried in, sat next to his widow, Coretta, at the funeral, and continued to support his family, in part through an insurance policy he had taken out on King in his lifetime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Much of my political outlook was already in place when I encountered Dr. King,” Belafonte later wrote. “I was well on my way and utterly committed to the civil rights struggle. I came to him with expectations and he affirmed them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>King’s death left Belafonte isolated from the civil rights community. He was turned off by the separatist beliefs of Stokely Carmichael and other “Black Power” activists and had little chemistry with King’s designated successor, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy. But the entertainer’s causes extended well beyond the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He mentored South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba and helped introduce her to American audiences, the two winning a Grammy in 1964 for the concert record \u003cem>An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba\u003c/em>. He coordinated Nelson Mandela’s first visit to the U.S. since being released from prison in 1990. A few years earlier, he initiated the all-star, million-selling “We Are the World” recording, the Grammy-winning charity song for famine relief in Africa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte’s early life and career paralleled those of Poitier, who died in 2022. Both spent part of their childhoods in the Caribbean and ended up in New York. Both served in the military during World War II, acted in the American Negro Theatre and then broke into film. Poitier shared his belief in civil rights, but still dedicated much of his time to acting, a source of some tension between them. While Poitier had a sustained and historic run in the 1960s as a leading man and box office success, Belafonte grew tired of acting and turned down parts he regarded as “neutered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sidney radiated a truly saintly dignity and calm. Not me,” Belafonte wrote in his memoir. “I didn’t want to tone down my sexuality, either. Sidney did that in every role he took.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928231\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460-800x514.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a dark jacket holds up a peace sign against overhead wires\" width=\"800\" height=\"514\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928231\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460-800x514.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460-1020x655.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460-768x494.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harry Belafonte joins more than 300,000 people in the hitherto biggest peace demonstration in Germany, October 1981. \u003ccite>(Klaus Roseullstein bild via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Belafonte was very much a human being. He acknowledged extra-marital affairs, negligence as a parent and a frightening temper, driven by lifelong insecurity. “Woe to the musician who missed his cue, or the agent who fouled up a booking,” he confided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his memoir, he chastised Poitier for a “radical breach″ by backing out on a commitment to star as Mandela in a TV miniseries Belafonte had conceived, then agreeing to play Mandela for a rival production. He became so estranged from King’s widow and children that he was not asked to speak at her funeral. In 2013, he sued three of King’s children over control of some of the civil rights leader’s personal papers. In his memoir, he would allege that the King children were more interested in “selling trinkets and memorabilia” than in serious thought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He made news years earlier when he compared Colin Powell, the first Black secretary of state, to a slave “permitted to come into the house of the master” for his service in the George W. Bush administration. He was in Washington in January 2009 as Obama was inaugurated, officiating along with Baez and others at a gala called the Inaugural Peace Ball. But Belafonte would later criticize Obama for failing to live up to his promise and lacking “fundamental empathy with the dispossessed, be they white or Black.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte did occasionally serve in government, as cultural adviser for the Peace Corps during the Kennedy administration and decades later as goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. For his film and music career, he received the motion picture academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, a National Medal of Arts, a Grammy for lifetime achievement and numerous other honorary prizes. He found special pleasure in winning a New York Film Critics Award in 1996 for his work as a gangster in Robert Altman’s \u003cem>Kansas City\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m as proud of that film critics’ award as I am of all my gold records,” he wrote in his memoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was married three times, most recently to photographer Pamela Frank, and had four children. Three of them — Shari, David and Gina — became actors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh1ow6zKapQ\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harry Belafonte was born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. in 1927, in a community of West Indians in Harlem. His father was a seaman and cook with Dutch and Jamaican ancestry and his mother, part Scottish, worked as a domestic. Both parents were undocumented immigrants and Belafonte recalled living “an underground life, as criminals of a sort, on the run.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The household was violent: Belafonte sustained brutal beatings from his father, and he was sent to live for several years with relatives in Jamaica. Belafonte was a poor reader — he was probably dyslexic, he later realized — and dropped out of high school, soon joining the Navy. While in the service, he read \u003cem>Color and Democracy\u003c/em> by the Black scholar W.E.B. Du Bois and was deeply affected, calling it the start of his political education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the war, he found a job in New York as an assistant janitor for some apartment buildings. One tenant liked him enough to give him free tickets to a play at the American Negro Theatre, a community repertory for black performers. Belafonte was so impressed that he joined as a volunteer, then as an actor. Poitier was a peer, both of them “skinny, brooding and vulnerable within our hard shells of self-protection,” Belafonte later wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte met Brando, Walter Matthau and other future stars while taking acting classes at the New School for Social Research. Brando was an inspiration as an actor, and he and Belafonte became close, sometimes riding on Brando’s motorcycle or double dating or playing congas together at parties. Over the years, Belafonte’s political and artistic lives would lead to friendships with everyone from Frank Sinatra and Lester Young to Eleanor Roosevelt and Fidel Castro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928230\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742-800x779.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a suit stands against a brick building in the 1960s\" width=\"800\" height=\"779\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928230\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742-800x779.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742-1020x993.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742-160x156.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742-768x748.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Singer Harry Belafonte in his film debut as Mr. Williams, School Principal, in ‘Bright Road.’ \u003ccite>(John Swope/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>His early stage credits included \u003cem>Days of Our Youth\u003c/em> and Sean O’Casey’s \u003cem>Juno and the Peacock\u003c/em>, a play Belafonte remembered less because of his own performance than because of a backstage visitor, Robeson, the actor, singer and activist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I remember more than anything Robeson said, was the love he radiated, and the profound responsibility he felt, as an actor, to use his platform as a bully pulpit,″ Belafonte wrote in his memoir. His friendship with Robeson and support for left-wing causes eventually brought trouble from the government. FBI agents visited him at home and allegations of Communism nearly cost him an appearance on \u003cem>The Ed Sullivan Show\u003c/em>. Leftists suspected, and Belafonte emphatically denied, that he had named names of suspected Communists so he could perform on Sullivan’s show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the 1950s, Belafonte was also singing, finding gigs at the Blue Note, the Vanguard and other clubs — he was backed for one performance by Charlie Parker and Max Roach — and becoming immersed in folk, blues, jazz and the calypso he had heard while living in Jamaica. Starting in 1954, he released such top 10 albums as \u003cem>Mark Twain and Other Folk Favorites\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Belafonte\u003c/em>, and his popular singles included “Mathilda,” “Jamaica Farewell″ and “The Banana Boat Song,” a reworked Caribbean ballad that was a late addition to his “Calypso″ record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We found ourselves one or two songs short, so we threw in `Day-O’ as filler,″ Belafonte wrote in his memoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYYkJ0kwNss\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was a superstar, but one criticized, and occasionally sued, for taking traditional material and not sharing the profits. Belafonte expressed regret and also worried about being typecast as a calypso singer, declining for years to sing “Day-O″ live after he gave television performances against banana boat backdrops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte was the rare young artist to think about the business side of show business. He started one of the first all-Black music publishing companies. He produced plays, movies and TV shows, including Off-Broadway’s \u003cem>To Be Young, Gifted, and Black\u003c/em>, in 1969. He was the first Black person to produce for TV.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte made history in 1968 by filling in for Johnny Carson on the “Tonight” show for a full week. Later that year, a simple, spontaneous gesture led to another milestone. Appearing on a taped TV special starring Petula Clark, Belafonte joined the British singer on the anti-war song “On the Path of Glory.” At one point, Clark placed a hand on Belafonte’s arm. The show’s sponsor, Chrysler, demanded the segment be reshot. Clark and Belafonte resisted, successfully, and for the first time a man and woman of different colors touched on national television.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1970s, he returned to movie acting, co-starring with Poitier in \u003cem>Buck and the Preacher\u003c/em>, a commercial flop, and the raucous and popular comedy \u003cem>Uptown Saturday Night\u003c/em>. His other film credits include \u003cem>Bobby\u003c/em>, \u003cem>White Man’s Burden\u003c/em>, and cameos in Altman’s \u003cem>The Player\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Ready to Wear\u003c/em>. He also appeared in the Altman-directed TV series \u003cem>Tanner on Tanner\u003c/em> and was among those interviewed for \u003cem>When the Levees Broke\u003c/em>, Spike Lee’s HBO documentary about Hurricane Katrina. In 2011, HBO aired a documentary about Belafonte, \u003cem>Sing Your Song\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mindful to the end that he grew up in poverty, Belafonte did not think of himself as an artist who became an activist, but an activist who happened to be an artist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you grow up, son,” Belafonte remembered his mother telling him, “never go to bed at night knowing that there was something you could have done during the day to strike a blow against injustice and you didn’t do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to his wife, Belafonte is survived by his children Adrienne Belafonte Biesemeyer, Shari Belafonte, Gina Belafonte and David Belafonte; two stepchildren, Sarah Frank and Lindsey Frank; and eight grandchildren.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Harry Belafonte, the civil rights and entertainment giant who began as a groundbreaking actor and singer and became an activist, humanitarian and conscience of the world, has died. He was 96.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his New York home, his wife Pamela by his side, said Ken Sunshine, of public relations firm Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With his glowing, handsome face and silky-husky voice, Belafonte was one of the first Black performers to gain a wide following on film and to sell a million records as a singer; many still know him for his signature hit “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5dpBWlRANE\">Banana Boat Song (Day-O)\u003c/a>,” and its call of “Day-O! Daaaaay-O.” But he forged a greater legacy once he scaled back his performing career in the 1960s and lived out his hero Paul Robeson’s decree that artists are “gatekeepers of truth.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/H5dpBWlRANE'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/H5dpBWlRANE'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>He stands as the model and the epitome of the celebrity activist. Few kept up with Belafonte’s time and commitment and none his stature as a meeting point among Hollywood, Washington and the civil rights movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte not only participated in protest marches and benefit concerts, but helped organize and raise support for them. He worked closely with his friend and generational peer the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., often intervening on his behalf with both politicians and fellow entertainers and helping him financially. He risked his life and livelihood and set high standards for younger Black celebrities, scolding Jay Z and Beyoncé for failing to meet their “social responsibilities,” and mentoring Usher, Common, Danny Glover and many others. In Spike Lee’s 2018 film \u003cem>BlacKkKlansman\u003c/em>, he was fittingly cast as an elder statesman schooling young activists about the country’s past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte’s friend, civil rights leader Andrew Young, would note that Belafonte was the rare person to grow more radical with age. He was ever engaged and unyielding, willing to take on Southern segregationists, Northern liberals, the billionaire Koch brothers and the country’s first Black president, Barack Obama, whom Belafonte would remember asking to cut him “some slack.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte responded, “What makes you think that’s not what I’ve been doing?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928238\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928238\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-621734964.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harry Belafonte attends the 2016 Library Lions gala at New York Public Library on November 7, 2016 in New York City. \u003ccite>(Gary Gershoff/WireImage)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Belafonte had been a major artist since the 1950s. He won a Tony Award in 1954 for his starring role in John Murray Anderson’s \u003cem>Almanac\u003c/em> and five years later became the first Black performer to win an Emmy for the TV special “Tonight with Harry Belafonte.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1954, he co-starred with Dorothy Dandridge in the Otto Preminger-directed musical \u003cem>Carmen Jones\u003c/em>, a popular breakthrough for an all-Black cast. The 1957 movie \u003cem>Island in the Sun\u003c/em> was banned in several Southern cities, where theater owners were threatened by the Ku Klux Klan because of the film’s interracial romance between Belafonte and Joan Fontaine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His \u003cem>Calypso\u003c/em>, released in 1955, became the first officially certified million-selling album by a solo performer, and started a national infatuation with Caribbean rhythms (Belafonte was nicknamed, reluctantly, the “King of Calypso″). Admirers of Belafonte included a young Bob Dylan, who debuted on record in the early ’60s by playing harmonica on Belafonte’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRVlYpDAOEI\">Midnight Special\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Harry was the best balladeer in the land and everybody knew it,” Dylan later wrote. “He was a fantastic artist, sang about lovers and slaves — chain gang workers, saints and sinners and children. … Harry was that rare type of character that radiates greatness, and you hope that some of it rubs off on you.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/kMXBJW1PuU8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/kMXBJW1PuU8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Belafonte befriended King in the spring of 1956 after the young civil rights leader called and asked for a meeting. They spoke for hours, and Belafonte would remember feeling King raised him to the “higher plane of social protest.” Then at the peak of his singing career, Belafonte was soon producing a benefit concert for the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama that helped make King a national figure. By the early 1960s, he had decided to make civil rights his priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was having almost daily talks with Martin,” Belafonte wrote in his memoir \u003cem>My Song\u003c/em>, published in 2011. “I realized that the movement was more important than anything else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Kennedys were among the first politicians to seek his opinions, which he willingly shared. John F. Kennedy, at a time when Blacks were as likely to vote for Republicans as for Democrats, was so anxious for his support that during the 1960 election he visited Belafonte at his Manhattan home. Belafonte schooled Kennedy on the importance of King, and arranged for them to speak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was quite taken by the fact that he (Kennedy) knew so little about the Black community,” Belafonte told NBC in 2013. “He knew the headlines of the day, but he wasn’t really anywhere nuanced or detailed on the depth of Black anguish or what our struggle’s really about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte would often criticize the Kennedys for their reluctance to challenge the Southern segregationists who were then a substantial part of the Democratic Party. He argued with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the president’s brother, over the government’s failure to protect the “Freedom Riders” trying to integrate bus stations. He was among the Black activists at a widely publicized meeting with the attorney general, when playwright Lorraine Hansberry and others stunned Kennedy by questioning whether the country even deserved Black allegiance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Bobby turned red at that. I had never seen him so shaken,” Belafonte later wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928235\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639-800x652.jpg\" alt=\"Two Black men in the 1960s dressed in formal evening wear.\" width=\"800\" height=\"652\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928235\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639-800x652.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639-1020x831.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639-160x130.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639-768x626.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-3226639.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">American actor and singer Harry Belafonte with American actor Sidney Poitier at the New York premiere of director George Stevens’ film, ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told,’ in which Poitier starred, New York City, circa 1965. \u003ccite>(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1963, Belafonte was deeply involved with the March on Washington. He recruited his close friend Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman and other celebrities and persuaded the left-wing Marlon Brando to co-chair the Hollywood delegation with the more conservative Charlton Heston, a pairing designed to appeal to the broadest possible audience. In 1964, he and Poitier personally delivered tens of thousands of dollar to activists in Mississippi after three “Freedom Summer” volunteers were murdered — the two celebrities were chased by car at one point by members of the KKK. The following year, he brought in Tony Bennett, Joan Baez and other singers to perform for the marchers in Selma, Alabama.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When King was assassinated, in 1968, Belafonte helped pick out the suit he was buried in, sat next to his widow, Coretta, at the funeral, and continued to support his family, in part through an insurance policy he had taken out on King in his lifetime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Much of my political outlook was already in place when I encountered Dr. King,” Belafonte later wrote. “I was well on my way and utterly committed to the civil rights struggle. I came to him with expectations and he affirmed them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>King’s death left Belafonte isolated from the civil rights community. He was turned off by the separatist beliefs of Stokely Carmichael and other “Black Power” activists and had little chemistry with King’s designated successor, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy. But the entertainer’s causes extended well beyond the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He mentored South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba and helped introduce her to American audiences, the two winning a Grammy in 1964 for the concert record \u003cem>An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba\u003c/em>. He coordinated Nelson Mandela’s first visit to the U.S. since being released from prison in 1990. A few years earlier, he initiated the all-star, million-selling “We Are the World” recording, the Grammy-winning charity song for famine relief in Africa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte’s early life and career paralleled those of Poitier, who died in 2022. Both spent part of their childhoods in the Caribbean and ended up in New York. Both served in the military during World War II, acted in the American Negro Theatre and then broke into film. Poitier shared his belief in civil rights, but still dedicated much of his time to acting, a source of some tension between them. While Poitier had a sustained and historic run in the 1960s as a leading man and box office success, Belafonte grew tired of acting and turned down parts he regarded as “neutered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sidney radiated a truly saintly dignity and calm. Not me,” Belafonte wrote in his memoir. “I didn’t want to tone down my sexuality, either. Sidney did that in every role he took.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928231\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460-800x514.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a dark jacket holds up a peace sign against overhead wires\" width=\"800\" height=\"514\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928231\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460-800x514.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460-1020x655.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460-768x494.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-883555460.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harry Belafonte joins more than 300,000 people in the hitherto biggest peace demonstration in Germany, October 1981. \u003ccite>(Klaus Roseullstein bild via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Belafonte was very much a human being. He acknowledged extra-marital affairs, negligence as a parent and a frightening temper, driven by lifelong insecurity. “Woe to the musician who missed his cue, or the agent who fouled up a booking,” he confided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his memoir, he chastised Poitier for a “radical breach″ by backing out on a commitment to star as Mandela in a TV miniseries Belafonte had conceived, then agreeing to play Mandela for a rival production. He became so estranged from King’s widow and children that he was not asked to speak at her funeral. In 2013, he sued three of King’s children over control of some of the civil rights leader’s personal papers. In his memoir, he would allege that the King children were more interested in “selling trinkets and memorabilia” than in serious thought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He made news years earlier when he compared Colin Powell, the first Black secretary of state, to a slave “permitted to come into the house of the master” for his service in the George W. Bush administration. He was in Washington in January 2009 as Obama was inaugurated, officiating along with Baez and others at a gala called the Inaugural Peace Ball. But Belafonte would later criticize Obama for failing to live up to his promise and lacking “fundamental empathy with the dispossessed, be they white or Black.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte did occasionally serve in government, as cultural adviser for the Peace Corps during the Kennedy administration and decades later as goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. For his film and music career, he received the motion picture academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, a National Medal of Arts, a Grammy for lifetime achievement and numerous other honorary prizes. He found special pleasure in winning a New York Film Critics Award in 1996 for his work as a gangster in Robert Altman’s \u003cem>Kansas City\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m as proud of that film critics’ award as I am of all my gold records,” he wrote in his memoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was married three times, most recently to photographer Pamela Frank, and had four children. Three of them — Shari, David and Gina — became actors.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Zh1ow6zKapQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Zh1ow6zKapQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Harry Belafonte was born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr. in 1927, in a community of West Indians in Harlem. His father was a seaman and cook with Dutch and Jamaican ancestry and his mother, part Scottish, worked as a domestic. Both parents were undocumented immigrants and Belafonte recalled living “an underground life, as criminals of a sort, on the run.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The household was violent: Belafonte sustained brutal beatings from his father, and he was sent to live for several years with relatives in Jamaica. Belafonte was a poor reader — he was probably dyslexic, he later realized — and dropped out of high school, soon joining the Navy. While in the service, he read \u003cem>Color and Democracy\u003c/em> by the Black scholar W.E.B. Du Bois and was deeply affected, calling it the start of his political education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the war, he found a job in New York as an assistant janitor for some apartment buildings. One tenant liked him enough to give him free tickets to a play at the American Negro Theatre, a community repertory for black performers. Belafonte was so impressed that he joined as a volunteer, then as an actor. Poitier was a peer, both of them “skinny, brooding and vulnerable within our hard shells of self-protection,” Belafonte later wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte met Brando, Walter Matthau and other future stars while taking acting classes at the New School for Social Research. Brando was an inspiration as an actor, and he and Belafonte became close, sometimes riding on Brando’s motorcycle or double dating or playing congas together at parties. Over the years, Belafonte’s political and artistic lives would lead to friendships with everyone from Frank Sinatra and Lester Young to Eleanor Roosevelt and Fidel Castro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13928230\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742-800x779.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a suit stands against a brick building in the 1960s\" width=\"800\" height=\"779\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13928230\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742-800x779.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742-1020x993.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742-160x156.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742-768x748.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/GettyImages-50409742.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Singer Harry Belafonte in his film debut as Mr. Williams, School Principal, in ‘Bright Road.’ \u003ccite>(John Swope/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>His early stage credits included \u003cem>Days of Our Youth\u003c/em> and Sean O’Casey’s \u003cem>Juno and the Peacock\u003c/em>, a play Belafonte remembered less because of his own performance than because of a backstage visitor, Robeson, the actor, singer and activist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I remember more than anything Robeson said, was the love he radiated, and the profound responsibility he felt, as an actor, to use his platform as a bully pulpit,″ Belafonte wrote in his memoir. His friendship with Robeson and support for left-wing causes eventually brought trouble from the government. FBI agents visited him at home and allegations of Communism nearly cost him an appearance on \u003cem>The Ed Sullivan Show\u003c/em>. Leftists suspected, and Belafonte emphatically denied, that he had named names of suspected Communists so he could perform on Sullivan’s show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the 1950s, Belafonte was also singing, finding gigs at the Blue Note, the Vanguard and other clubs — he was backed for one performance by Charlie Parker and Max Roach — and becoming immersed in folk, blues, jazz and the calypso he had heard while living in Jamaica. Starting in 1954, he released such top 10 albums as \u003cem>Mark Twain and Other Folk Favorites\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Belafonte\u003c/em>, and his popular singles included “Mathilda,” “Jamaica Farewell″ and “The Banana Boat Song,” a reworked Caribbean ballad that was a late addition to his “Calypso″ record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We found ourselves one or two songs short, so we threw in `Day-O’ as filler,″ Belafonte wrote in his memoir.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/DYYkJ0kwNss'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/DYYkJ0kwNss'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>He was a superstar, but one criticized, and occasionally sued, for taking traditional material and not sharing the profits. Belafonte expressed regret and also worried about being typecast as a calypso singer, declining for years to sing “Day-O″ live after he gave television performances against banana boat backdrops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte was the rare young artist to think about the business side of show business. He started one of the first all-Black music publishing companies. He produced plays, movies and TV shows, including Off-Broadway’s \u003cem>To Be Young, Gifted, and Black\u003c/em>, in 1969. He was the first Black person to produce for TV.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Belafonte made history in 1968 by filling in for Johnny Carson on the “Tonight” show for a full week. Later that year, a simple, spontaneous gesture led to another milestone. Appearing on a taped TV special starring Petula Clark, Belafonte joined the British singer on the anti-war song “On the Path of Glory.” At one point, Clark placed a hand on Belafonte’s arm. The show’s sponsor, Chrysler, demanded the segment be reshot. Clark and Belafonte resisted, successfully, and for the first time a man and woman of different colors touched on national television.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1970s, he returned to movie acting, co-starring with Poitier in \u003cem>Buck and the Preacher\u003c/em>, a commercial flop, and the raucous and popular comedy \u003cem>Uptown Saturday Night\u003c/em>. His other film credits include \u003cem>Bobby\u003c/em>, \u003cem>White Man’s Burden\u003c/em>, and cameos in Altman’s \u003cem>The Player\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Ready to Wear\u003c/em>. He also appeared in the Altman-directed TV series \u003cem>Tanner on Tanner\u003c/em> and was among those interviewed for \u003cem>When the Levees Broke\u003c/em>, Spike Lee’s HBO documentary about Hurricane Katrina. In 2011, HBO aired a documentary about Belafonte, \u003cem>Sing Your Song\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mindful to the end that he grew up in poverty, Belafonte did not think of himself as an artist who became an activist, but an activist who happened to be an artist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you grow up, son,” Belafonte remembered his mother telling him, “never go to bed at night knowing that there was something you could have done during the day to strike a blow against injustice and you didn’t do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to his wife, Belafonte is survived by his children Adrienne Belafonte Biesemeyer, Shari Belafonte, Gina Belafonte and David Belafonte; two stepchildren, Sarah Frank and Lindsey Frank; and eight grandchildren.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "heklina-dies-drag-legend-san-francsico",
"title": "Heklina, San Francisco Drag Legend, Has Died in London",
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"headTitle": "Heklina, San Francisco Drag Legend, Has Died in London | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Heklina, the San Francisco drag legend and longtime performer at clubs around the city, has died in London, according to multiple reports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/joshuagrannell/posts/pfbid02KjDojuS1c3sNoGwranKLk9FKkfunAZYLBj3GD3qJhiKW5t7kmqVRsCDfdqoUWHWel\">a Facebook post\u003c/a> on Monday, friend and colleague Peaches Christ wrote, “I am shocked and horrified to bring this news to you. … This morning, in London, England, I went to collect my dear friend Heklina, who is co-starring with me in a ‘Mommie Queerest’ show here, and found her dead. I do not know the cause of death yet. I know this is shocking news and I am beyond stunned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>London’s Soho Theatre, where Peaches Christ and Heklina had been performing together in “Mommie Queerest,” also \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/sohotheatre/status/1642989190072680451\">posted a message\u003c/a> of being “in shock and incredibly saddened with news of Heklina’s passing. Our thoughts are with Peaches, Mommie Queerest company, Heklina’s family, friends + their wider community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Watch a short documentary on Heklina here\u003c/strong>:\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61qbUimYg9g\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heklina co-founded popular drag club Oasis, regularly performed at El Rio and The Stud, and was the creator and hostess of the long-running show Trannyshack (later called Mother). Heklina appeared regularly in drag parodies of popular television shows like \u003cem>Sex in the City\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Golden Girls\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Roseanne\u003c/em>, and produced and hosted a party called Daytime Realness — with the tagline “Dancing, Drag & Disorder” — most recently at El Rio just weeks ago, on March 19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We at El Rio are absolutely devastated to hear of the passing of Heklina,” wrote El Rio co-owner Lynne Angel in an email to KQED. “She was a huge part of our extended family and we will miss her terribly. The mark she made on the San Francisco drag and performance scene is incomparable. We were blessed to work with her often and she was a joy to witness both on stage and off. May she be surrounded by cats, ’80s New Wave and football butts eternally. Rest in Power to one of the best.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heklina was born in Minneapolis, and was raised in New York, New England and Iceland. After a stint in the Navy, Heklina moved to San Francisco; in an interview segment from a KQED documentary in 2015, Heklina recalled that “immediately I fell in love with it, and I felt right at home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12242568\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12242568\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Heklina\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-960x640.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heklina, pictured here in a promotional photo for one of many events at Oasis. \u003ccite>(Nick Ice)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I met Heklina around 1995 — which now feels like many generations past, just a year before she started her weekly party T-Shack at The Stud,” veteran drag performer Juanita MORE! wrote in an email to KQED. “I performed on the second week of the club, not caring or taking any consideration about what the theme was — and that’s how our friendship rolled. … We respected and knew what each other was great at doing. We cracked each other up all the time. The sound of her laugh will be missed greatly by everyone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_10134691']Artist and filmmaker Leo Herrera started working for Heklina as a photographer shortly after he first moved to San Francisco in 2003; Herrera was 21 at the time. By then, Trannyshack had become a San Francisco drag institution, and Heklina took Herrera under her wing. “Trannyshack brought drag back to its transgressive roots, and its roots of political resistance,” Herrera said. “There was a lot of healing that happened in the spaces that Heklina created, especially for folks that had come out of the AIDS crisis, and had moved from really homophobic places, like it was for me and my brother.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrera says Heklina influenced a generation of artists — both drag performers and others like him who’ve gone on to make an impact in other fields. “I think a lot of us always strived to get her approval because it was really hard to. But once you got one of her deep cackles, you knew you had done something right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/sfoasis/status/1643009770927042560\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>News of Heklina’s passing devastated the drag community in San Francisco and beyond. “I kept thinking it was an April Fool’s joke, it doesn’t make sense. I spoke to her the day before yesterday when she was heading to England from Iceland,” Oasis owner D’Arcy Drollinger told the \u003ca href=\"https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/drag-performer-heklina-reported-dead-in-london\">\u003ci>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/i>\u003c/a>. “But it is confirmed, it is real.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By Monday afternoon, a tearful crowd gathered for an informal memorial at Oasis, which Heklina co-owned until 2019. “She was a powerhouse. And she also had a soft side, and a vulnerable side, that I was lucky enough to get to know,” booking manager Carissa Hatchel, who performs as Snaxx, told KQED. “She was a very complicated person, and was very, very important to so many people in the community for so many decades now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I started drag about eight years ago, and Heklina was one of the first queens I ever saw,” said Oasis performer Nicki Jizz. “She was unfiltered, she was unapologetically Heklina. She said whatever came to her mind. She didn’t care what anyone thought — which is a great trait for a drag performer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, State Senator Scott Wiener said he first saw Heklina perform in the 1990s, and was “devastated” by the news.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Heklina was an icon in the truest sense — funny, caring, outrageous, and brave,” Wiener wrote. “I’ve rarely worked with someone as fierce, creative, and dedicated. … She was the soul of San Francisco, and it’s hard to imagine the city without her.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrera echoed the sentiments of many on Monday that Heklina was synonymous with the best of drag tradition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A successful artist embodies their medium, so when we think of a brush or an instrument, we think of their name,” he said. “And I think for many of us, when we hear drag, we’re going to think of Heklina. She embodied the oldest and most powerful kind of drag that was about survival and political freedom, and I think we’re all going to miss that very much.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/scottshafer\">Scott Shafer\u003c/a> contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Heklina, the San Francisco drag legend and longtime performer at clubs around the city, has died in London, according to multiple reports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/joshuagrannell/posts/pfbid02KjDojuS1c3sNoGwranKLk9FKkfunAZYLBj3GD3qJhiKW5t7kmqVRsCDfdqoUWHWel\">a Facebook post\u003c/a> on Monday, friend and colleague Peaches Christ wrote, “I am shocked and horrified to bring this news to you. … This morning, in London, England, I went to collect my dear friend Heklina, who is co-starring with me in a ‘Mommie Queerest’ show here, and found her dead. I do not know the cause of death yet. I know this is shocking news and I am beyond stunned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>London’s Soho Theatre, where Peaches Christ and Heklina had been performing together in “Mommie Queerest,” also \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/sohotheatre/status/1642989190072680451\">posted a message\u003c/a> of being “in shock and incredibly saddened with news of Heklina’s passing. Our thoughts are with Peaches, Mommie Queerest company, Heklina’s family, friends + their wider community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Watch a short documentary on Heklina here\u003c/strong>:\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/61qbUimYg9g'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/61qbUimYg9g'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Heklina co-founded popular drag club Oasis, regularly performed at El Rio and The Stud, and was the creator and hostess of the long-running show Trannyshack (later called Mother). Heklina appeared regularly in drag parodies of popular television shows like \u003cem>Sex in the City\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Golden Girls\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Roseanne\u003c/em>, and produced and hosted a party called Daytime Realness — with the tagline “Dancing, Drag & Disorder” — most recently at El Rio just weeks ago, on March 19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We at El Rio are absolutely devastated to hear of the passing of Heklina,” wrote El Rio co-owner Lynne Angel in an email to KQED. “She was a huge part of our extended family and we will miss her terribly. The mark she made on the San Francisco drag and performance scene is incomparable. We were blessed to work with her often and she was a joy to witness both on stage and off. May she be surrounded by cats, ’80s New Wave and football butts eternally. Rest in Power to one of the best.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heklina was born in Minneapolis, and was raised in New York, New England and Iceland. After a stint in the Navy, Heklina moved to San Francisco; in an interview segment from a KQED documentary in 2015, Heklina recalled that “immediately I fell in love with it, and I felt right at home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12242568\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12242568\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Heklina\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-960x640.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/heklina-2015-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heklina, pictured here in a promotional photo for one of many events at Oasis. \u003ccite>(Nick Ice)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I met Heklina around 1995 — which now feels like many generations past, just a year before she started her weekly party T-Shack at The Stud,” veteran drag performer Juanita MORE! wrote in an email to KQED. “I performed on the second week of the club, not caring or taking any consideration about what the theme was — and that’s how our friendship rolled. … We respected and knew what each other was great at doing. We cracked each other up all the time. The sound of her laugh will be missed greatly by everyone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Artist and filmmaker Leo Herrera started working for Heklina as a photographer shortly after he first moved to San Francisco in 2003; Herrera was 21 at the time. By then, Trannyshack had become a San Francisco drag institution, and Heklina took Herrera under her wing. “Trannyshack brought drag back to its transgressive roots, and its roots of political resistance,” Herrera said. “There was a lot of healing that happened in the spaces that Heklina created, especially for folks that had come out of the AIDS crisis, and had moved from really homophobic places, like it was for me and my brother.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrera says Heklina influenced a generation of artists — both drag performers and others like him who’ve gone on to make an impact in other fields. “I think a lot of us always strived to get her approval because it was really hard to. But once you got one of her deep cackles, you knew you had done something right.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>News of Heklina’s passing devastated the drag community in San Francisco and beyond. “I kept thinking it was an April Fool’s joke, it doesn’t make sense. I spoke to her the day before yesterday when she was heading to England from Iceland,” Oasis owner D’Arcy Drollinger told the \u003ca href=\"https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/drag-performer-heklina-reported-dead-in-london\">\u003ci>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/i>\u003c/a>. “But it is confirmed, it is real.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By Monday afternoon, a tearful crowd gathered for an informal memorial at Oasis, which Heklina co-owned until 2019. “She was a powerhouse. And she also had a soft side, and a vulnerable side, that I was lucky enough to get to know,” booking manager Carissa Hatchel, who performs as Snaxx, told KQED. “She was a very complicated person, and was very, very important to so many people in the community for so many decades now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I started drag about eight years ago, and Heklina was one of the first queens I ever saw,” said Oasis performer Nicki Jizz. “She was unfiltered, she was unapologetically Heklina. She said whatever came to her mind. She didn’t care what anyone thought — which is a great trait for a drag performer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, State Senator Scott Wiener said he first saw Heklina perform in the 1990s, and was “devastated” by the news.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Heklina was an icon in the truest sense — funny, caring, outrageous, and brave,” Wiener wrote. “I’ve rarely worked with someone as fierce, creative, and dedicated. … She was the soul of San Francisco, and it’s hard to imagine the city without her.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrera echoed the sentiments of many on Monday that Heklina was synonymous with the best of drag tradition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A successful artist embodies their medium, so when we think of a brush or an instrument, we think of their name,” he said. “And I think for many of us, when we hear drag, we’re going to think of Heklina. She embodied the oldest and most powerful kind of drag that was about survival and political freedom, and I think we’re all going to miss that very much.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/scottshafer\">Scott Shafer\u003c/a> contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In 2023, audiences still love a whodunit, and San Francisco Playhouse is staging one of the best: \u003cem>Clue\u003c/em>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Was it Professor Plum in the library with the candlestick? Miss Scarlet in the study with the knife? Or maybe it was the butler or the maid? Those familiar with \u003cem>Clue\u003c/em> from either the Hasbro board game or 1985 film will recognize the familiar setting and characters, but San Francisco Playhouse’s staging and hilarious cast make this production a nostalgic journey worth taking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mystery begins upon arrival at San Francisco Playhouse, where clues are scattered around the theater for pre-show sleuthing. Those who solve this mystery receive access to a special cocktail at the bar — a setting designed to get one thinking and drinking before the real mystery unfolds on stage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once inside the theater, playgoers are greeted by the foreboding Boddy Manor, with its wings and hidden rooms. San Francisco Playhouse makes great use of their limited space with a set that truly comes to life when the show begins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The familiar characters of \u003cem>Clue\u003c/em> are given new life by actors like Renee Rogoff (as Mrs. White), who steals the show several times with hilarious facial expressions. Dorian Lockett brings a cleverness and an air of mystery to the butler Wadsworth; veteran actor Michael Ray Wisely’s charming and aloof Colonel Mustard is unforgettable; and Stacy Ross’ Mrs. Peacock is just plain uncomfortable to watch… in a good way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>On the surface of \u003cem>Cambodian Rock Band\u003c/em>, recently opened at Berkeley Rep, The Cyclos are set ablaze; the band’s celestial sound and Khmer-language lyrics flutter to the heavens as each musician drills every urgent note into a personal psalm. Just below that surface, though, is impending extinction, forcing every member to shred with desolate desperation. Mere moments away, the soul of a band awaits sickening silence built from the darkness of genocide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This melding of concepts, drawn from the Khmer Rouge and the ultimate fate of Cambodia’s thriving rock music scene in the ’60s and ’70s, is given an intricate dramatization by the scintillating pen of San Francisco native Lauren Yee. \u003cem>Cambodian Rock Band\u003c/em>, running through April 2 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, is both harrowing and healing in equal measure. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The piece’s arcs explore familial secrets, generational trauma and the searing honesty between an immigrant father and his American daughter, all informed by exquisite Cambodian rock music crafted by the real-life band Dengue Fever. Yee’s plotting is masterful, a showcase of craft, and her storyline dips and darts within the constellations of artful magic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13925825\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand3-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A group of five friends raise bottles of beer in celebration, dressed in 1960s fashions\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13925825\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand3.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joe Ngo, Geena Quintos, Abraham Kim, Jane Lui, and Moses Villarama in Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. \u003ccite>(Lynn Lane/Berkeley Repertory Theatre)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The narrative’s power lives within its secrets, revealed succinctly in an emotionally abundant second act. Neary (Geena Quintos), a lawyer, has spent two years in the heart of Cambodia, hot on the trail to prosecute a brutal Khmer Rouge official. Her father Chum (Joe Ngo) maxes out a credit card to visit his shocked daughter, and the visit — rooted in massive loss many years prior — becomes an increasingly personal mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cambodian Rock Band\u003c/em> sets many tones. Certainly, there’s nothing funny about the brutality of genocide, and Yee’s details of the evacuation by influential cultural figures, including the musicians of capital city Phnom Penh, are deeply distressing. And yet Yee’s wit is in fine form, with plenty of humor through dark subtlety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Director Chay Yew frames his sublimely magnificent cast with exquisite precision, assisted mightily by Takeshi Kata’s scenic design, loaded with infinite surprises. Rock music lurches the story into the ether; as lead vocalist Sothea, the cherubic Quintos reaches divinity with each regal note. Meanwhile, hard choices of survival are made, unlocking demons that Chum must carry in his suitcase while escaping the Khmer Rouge to the United States. Survival, then redemption, awaits. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13925826\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A young Cambodian woman and her father sit side-by-side, lower legs in a brightly lit hole in a stage\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13925826\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand2-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand2.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Geena Quintos as Neary and Joe Ngo as Chum in Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. \u003ccite>(Lynn Lane/Berkeley Repertory Theatre)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As Chum, Ngo offers an astounding coup de maître, bringing major skill to his wide-ranging performance as both a 51-year-old father and his younger, ideal counterpart. He is gregariously committed to both his physical humor as a bumbling dad, and to his torment as internal and external conflicts rip him to pieces. He finds terrific rhythms when he and Quintos disclose their own longstanding pain, and he beautifully espouses wisdom to his daughter. Yee, who writes about father-daughter relationships as well as any playwright working today, provides the sentiments, while Ngo explodes them with organic truth. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The band as a whole is quintessential cool. Moses Villarama cuts a massive figure — only outsized by his hair — as stoic bassist Leng, and later engages in the same self-preservation of his fellow natives. Jane Lui kills throughout as the scintillating bandleader, joined by the gleeful drummer Abraham Kim. And Bay Area favorite Francis Jue, as Duch, delivers his typical terrific turn, an interpretation built from sparkling irony: the wider the smile, the crueler the intention.[ad alignright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all the intricate storytelling in \u003cem>Cambodian Rock Band\u003c/em>, its rousing finale gives the people what they want. There’s little in this world more joyful than a live tune cranked to 11 after experiencing brutal depredation while newly converted Cambodian rock fans get on their feet to worship their heroes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tears that sting can lead to souls that sing. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Cambodian Rock Band’ runs through Sunday, April 2, at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley. \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyrep.org/shows/cambodian-rock-band/\">Details here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "REVIEW: In ‘Cambodian Rock Band,’ Joy Rises From Brutality | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On the surface of \u003cem>Cambodian Rock Band\u003c/em>, recently opened at Berkeley Rep, The Cyclos are set ablaze; the band’s celestial sound and Khmer-language lyrics flutter to the heavens as each musician drills every urgent note into a personal psalm. Just below that surface, though, is impending extinction, forcing every member to shred with desolate desperation. Mere moments away, the soul of a band awaits sickening silence built from the darkness of genocide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This melding of concepts, drawn from the Khmer Rouge and the ultimate fate of Cambodia’s thriving rock music scene in the ’60s and ’70s, is given an intricate dramatization by the scintillating pen of San Francisco native Lauren Yee. \u003cem>Cambodian Rock Band\u003c/em>, running through April 2 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, is both harrowing and healing in equal measure. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The piece’s arcs explore familial secrets, generational trauma and the searing honesty between an immigrant father and his American daughter, all informed by exquisite Cambodian rock music crafted by the real-life band Dengue Fever. Yee’s plotting is masterful, a showcase of craft, and her storyline dips and darts within the constellations of artful magic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13925825\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand3-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A group of five friends raise bottles of beer in celebration, dressed in 1960s fashions\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13925825\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand3.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joe Ngo, Geena Quintos, Abraham Kim, Jane Lui, and Moses Villarama in Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. \u003ccite>(Lynn Lane/Berkeley Repertory Theatre)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The narrative’s power lives within its secrets, revealed succinctly in an emotionally abundant second act. Neary (Geena Quintos), a lawyer, has spent two years in the heart of Cambodia, hot on the trail to prosecute a brutal Khmer Rouge official. Her father Chum (Joe Ngo) maxes out a credit card to visit his shocked daughter, and the visit — rooted in massive loss many years prior — becomes an increasingly personal mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cambodian Rock Band\u003c/em> sets many tones. Certainly, there’s nothing funny about the brutality of genocide, and Yee’s details of the evacuation by influential cultural figures, including the musicians of capital city Phnom Penh, are deeply distressing. And yet Yee’s wit is in fine form, with plenty of humor through dark subtlety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Director Chay Yew frames his sublimely magnificent cast with exquisite precision, assisted mightily by Takeshi Kata’s scenic design, loaded with infinite surprises. Rock music lurches the story into the ether; as lead vocalist Sothea, the cherubic Quintos reaches divinity with each regal note. Meanwhile, hard choices of survival are made, unlocking demons that Chum must carry in his suitcase while escaping the Khmer Rouge to the United States. Survival, then redemption, awaits. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13925826\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand2-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A young Cambodian woman and her father sit side-by-side, lower legs in a brightly lit hole in a stage\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13925826\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand2-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/CambodianRockBand2.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Geena Quintos as Neary and Joe Ngo as Chum in Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. \u003ccite>(Lynn Lane/Berkeley Repertory Theatre)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As Chum, Ngo offers an astounding coup de maître, bringing major skill to his wide-ranging performance as both a 51-year-old father and his younger, ideal counterpart. He is gregariously committed to both his physical humor as a bumbling dad, and to his torment as internal and external conflicts rip him to pieces. He finds terrific rhythms when he and Quintos disclose their own longstanding pain, and he beautifully espouses wisdom to his daughter. Yee, who writes about father-daughter relationships as well as any playwright working today, provides the sentiments, while Ngo explodes them with organic truth. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The band as a whole is quintessential cool. Moses Villarama cuts a massive figure — only outsized by his hair — as stoic bassist Leng, and later engages in the same self-preservation of his fellow natives. Jane Lui kills throughout as the scintillating bandleader, joined by the gleeful drummer Abraham Kim. And Bay Area favorite Francis Jue, as Duch, delivers his typical terrific turn, an interpretation built from sparkling irony: the wider the smile, the crueler the intention.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all the intricate storytelling in \u003cem>Cambodian Rock Band\u003c/em>, its rousing finale gives the people what they want. There’s little in this world more joyful than a live tune cranked to 11 after experiencing brutal depredation while newly converted Cambodian rock fans get on their feet to worship their heroes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tears that sting can lead to souls that sing. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Cambodian Rock Band’ runs through Sunday, April 2, at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley. \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyrep.org/shows/cambodian-rock-band/\">Details here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "act-the-headlands-christopher-chen-review",
"title": "ACT’s ‘The Headlands’ Maps SF Through Fog, Flashbacks and a Cold Case",
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"headTitle": "ACT’s ‘The Headlands’ Maps SF Through Fog, Flashbacks and a Cold Case | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>When Dashiell Hammett wrote his great San Francisco noir \u003cem>The Maltese Falcon\u003c/em>, he drew upon his deep knowledge of the City to imbue it with ruthless realism and site-specific detail. Even today you can walk in Hammett’s footsteps from the Tenderloin to downtown, and glimpse traces of the City as it was, a character as integral to the plot of the novel as Sam Spade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Christopher Chen’s new play \u003ca href=\"https://www.act-sf.org/whats-on/202223-season/the-headlands/\">\u003cem>The Headlands\u003c/em>\u003c/a> — a family drama with a murder mystery at its heart — San Francisco similarly plays a starring role. It is no mere backdrop to the narrative, but an active participant in it. [aside postid='arts_13923665']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A born-and-raised San Franciscan, Chen meticulously uncovers parts of the City little referenced in the guidebooks and travelogues. His protagonist Henry (Phil Wong), a self-described “amateur sleuth,” traverses a landscape hauntingly familiar to longtime residents: a childhood spent in a stucco-clad, single-family home in the Outer Sunset, followed by a tech job and condo on the Embarcadero (“I’m part of the problem,” Henry admits sheepishly). In flashbacks, his parents meet-cute on an overgrown overlook in Land’s End and canoodle at the base of Coit Tower. His father George (Johnny M. Wu) attempts to bond with a young Henry by taking him on hikes in the Marin Headlands, where they can look across the water and see the City basking in its own self-referential glow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But just as San Francisco provides a picturesque container for Henry’s fonder memories, it also delivers the fog which obfuscates their uncomfortable truths. As an adult, Henry is only beginning to discover these truths, secrets contained within the low-voiced half conversations around the kitchen table: the quiet melancholy of his father looking out of the window at night. The abiding mystery of his death by gunshot, a violence that shocked their insular community. A mystery now decades-old — and no closer to being solved than it was on the first day his body was discovered. [aside postid='arts_13925249']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tautly directed by A.C.T.’s artistic director Pam MacKinnon, \u003cem>The Headlands\u003c/em> reveals itself sedately, bit by tantalizing bit. Alexander V. Nichols’ set is deceptively simple, an almost aggressively blank wall that cleverly morphs into the interiors and exteriors of a series of iconic San Francisco homes, streetscapes and hilltops, thanks to a few choice furnishings and a series of well-executed projections. This is a quintessential Christopher Chen play: an homage to Noir — but with fewer fedoras and more earnest heartache. It’s a labyrinth of unexpected twists and contradictory perspectives that keep you guessing until the very end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a satisfying demonstration of restraint, Chen’s characters say as much with their silences as most might with a loquacious monologue. In one scene, Henry and his girlfriend Jess (Sam Jackson) conduct a lengthy disagreement primarily through their nervous tics: a jiggling foot, an avoidance of eye contact, an anxious swallow of beer. In another, George stands silently at the aforementioned window, reduced to a shadow, trapped in what his wife, Leena, later describes as “despair.” He’s an unknowable cipher to his son, then and now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13925297\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/HED_052.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13925297\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/HED_052-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"three people on a stage, an Asian man, a Black woman and an older Asian woman, smiling at each other as they sit\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/HED_052-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/HED_052-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/HED_052-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/HED_052-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/HED_052-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/HED_052-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/HED_052-1920x1278.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Phil Wong (Henry), Sam Jackson (Jess) and Keiko Shimosato Carreiro (Older Leena) in the West\u003cbr>Coast premiere of Christopher Chen’s ‘The Headlands.’ \u003ccite>(Kevin Berne)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s Leena — played younger by Erin Mei-Ling Stuart and older by Keiko Shimosato Carreiro — who provides the first essential clues for Henry’s quest to learn more about his father’s unexplained death. It may be his watchful, silent father at the window around which Henry builds his first vague hypotheses, but it’s the ellipses between his mother’s often quotidian conversations that conceal the most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watching Stuart and Carreiro trade this role back and forth throughout the play is especially enjoyable. They both so skillfully bring complementary facets of Leena to life that she becomes by far the most fully-realized character in the play. It’s a characterization that deepens with every revelation, surfaced behind the mischievous grin of a young woman falling in love, the wounded eyes of a grieving mother, the offhand remark of a widow at dinner. [aside postid='arts_13925067']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Leena frequently wears her heart on her sleeve, Henry struggles to identify his own complicated emotions surrounding his family history and his place within it. As Henry, Wong vacillates between emulating the stillness of Wu’s father figure and Stuart’s ebullience — a delicate balance. As the mysterious Tom, A.C.T. regular Jomar Tagatac imbues his unpredictable role with the most menace. But no character is more menacing than the troubling void at the heart of this whodunit — a void that each character attempts to fill with their own particular spin, never quite landing on a unified version of the narrative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Theater-goers looking for the full genre experience of a ham-fisted, hard-boiled pulp fiction replete with fast cars, faster romance and impenetrable lingo may find the chilly environs of \u003cem>The Headlands\u003c/em> not quite to their taste. But for those of us who revel in our own secret San Franciscos — internal terrains of beloved sandwich shops, local breweries and breathtaking vistas — spending time investigating Christopher Chen’s through his precise playwriting is a pleasure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.act-sf.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">‘The Headlands’ plays at A.C.T.\u003c/a> through March 5. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "In Christopher Chen's murder-mystery play, the City comes to life as a character in its own right.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When Dashiell Hammett wrote his great San Francisco noir \u003cem>The Maltese Falcon\u003c/em>, he drew upon his deep knowledge of the City to imbue it with ruthless realism and site-specific detail. Even today you can walk in Hammett’s footsteps from the Tenderloin to downtown, and glimpse traces of the City as it was, a character as integral to the plot of the novel as Sam Spade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Christopher Chen’s new play \u003ca href=\"https://www.act-sf.org/whats-on/202223-season/the-headlands/\">\u003cem>The Headlands\u003c/em>\u003c/a> — a family drama with a murder mystery at its heart — San Francisco similarly plays a starring role. It is no mere backdrop to the narrative, but an active participant in it. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A born-and-raised San Franciscan, Chen meticulously uncovers parts of the City little referenced in the guidebooks and travelogues. His protagonist Henry (Phil Wong), a self-described “amateur sleuth,” traverses a landscape hauntingly familiar to longtime residents: a childhood spent in a stucco-clad, single-family home in the Outer Sunset, followed by a tech job and condo on the Embarcadero (“I’m part of the problem,” Henry admits sheepishly). In flashbacks, his parents meet-cute on an overgrown overlook in Land’s End and canoodle at the base of Coit Tower. His father George (Johnny M. Wu) attempts to bond with a young Henry by taking him on hikes in the Marin Headlands, where they can look across the water and see the City basking in its own self-referential glow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But just as San Francisco provides a picturesque container for Henry’s fonder memories, it also delivers the fog which obfuscates their uncomfortable truths. As an adult, Henry is only beginning to discover these truths, secrets contained within the low-voiced half conversations around the kitchen table: the quiet melancholy of his father looking out of the window at night. The abiding mystery of his death by gunshot, a violence that shocked their insular community. A mystery now decades-old — and no closer to being solved than it was on the first day his body was discovered. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tautly directed by A.C.T.’s artistic director Pam MacKinnon, \u003cem>The Headlands\u003c/em> reveals itself sedately, bit by tantalizing bit. Alexander V. Nichols’ set is deceptively simple, an almost aggressively blank wall that cleverly morphs into the interiors and exteriors of a series of iconic San Francisco homes, streetscapes and hilltops, thanks to a few choice furnishings and a series of well-executed projections. This is a quintessential Christopher Chen play: an homage to Noir — but with fewer fedoras and more earnest heartache. It’s a labyrinth of unexpected twists and contradictory perspectives that keep you guessing until the very end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a satisfying demonstration of restraint, Chen’s characters say as much with their silences as most might with a loquacious monologue. In one scene, Henry and his girlfriend Jess (Sam Jackson) conduct a lengthy disagreement primarily through their nervous tics: a jiggling foot, an avoidance of eye contact, an anxious swallow of beer. In another, George stands silently at the aforementioned window, reduced to a shadow, trapped in what his wife, Leena, later describes as “despair.” He’s an unknowable cipher to his son, then and now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13925297\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/HED_052.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13925297\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/HED_052-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"three people on a stage, an Asian man, a Black woman and an older Asian woman, smiling at each other as they sit\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/HED_052-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/HED_052-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/HED_052-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/HED_052-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/HED_052-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/HED_052-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/HED_052-1920x1278.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Phil Wong (Henry), Sam Jackson (Jess) and Keiko Shimosato Carreiro (Older Leena) in the West\u003cbr>Coast premiere of Christopher Chen’s ‘The Headlands.’ \u003ccite>(Kevin Berne)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s Leena — played younger by Erin Mei-Ling Stuart and older by Keiko Shimosato Carreiro — who provides the first essential clues for Henry’s quest to learn more about his father’s unexplained death. It may be his watchful, silent father at the window around which Henry builds his first vague hypotheses, but it’s the ellipses between his mother’s often quotidian conversations that conceal the most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watching Stuart and Carreiro trade this role back and forth throughout the play is especially enjoyable. They both so skillfully bring complementary facets of Leena to life that she becomes by far the most fully-realized character in the play. It’s a characterization that deepens with every revelation, surfaced behind the mischievous grin of a young woman falling in love, the wounded eyes of a grieving mother, the offhand remark of a widow at dinner. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Leena frequently wears her heart on her sleeve, Henry struggles to identify his own complicated emotions surrounding his family history and his place within it. As Henry, Wong vacillates between emulating the stillness of Wu’s father figure and Stuart’s ebullience — a delicate balance. As the mysterious Tom, A.C.T. regular Jomar Tagatac imbues his unpredictable role with the most menace. But no character is more menacing than the troubling void at the heart of this whodunit — a void that each character attempts to fill with their own particular spin, never quite landing on a unified version of the narrative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Theater-goers looking for the full genre experience of a ham-fisted, hard-boiled pulp fiction replete with fast cars, faster romance and impenetrable lingo may find the chilly environs of \u003cem>The Headlands\u003c/em> not quite to their taste. But for those of us who revel in our own secret San Franciscos — internal terrains of beloved sandwich shops, local breweries and breathtaking vistas — spending time investigating Christopher Chen’s through his precise playwriting is a pleasure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.act-sf.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">‘The Headlands’ plays at A.C.T.\u003c/a> through March 5. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "the-bay-area-was-hip-hop-before-there-was-hip-hop",
"title": "The Bay Area Was Hip-Hop Before There Was Hip-Hop",
"publishDate": 1675282142,
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"headTitle": "The Bay Area Was Hip-Hop Before There Was Hip-Hop | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13924127\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13924127\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HipHopPreschool.16.9-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HipHopPreschool.16.9-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HipHopPreschool.16.9-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HipHopPreschool.16.9-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HipHopPreschool.16.9-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HipHopPreschool.16.9-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HipHopPreschool.16.9.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clockwise from upper left: Women of the Black Panther Party (BAMPFA/Pirkle Jones Foundation); the Black Resurgents (artist photo); Ntozake Shange (John Kisch Archive/Getty Images); Sun Ra in ‘Space is the Place’ (Harte Recordings); Sly Stone (CBS Records).\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ci>Editor’s note:\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This story is part of\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/bayareahiphop\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s My Word\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, KQED’s year-long exploration of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop\">Bay Area hip-hop\u003c/a> history, with new content dropping all throughout 2023.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“People in the house, this is just for you/ A little rap to make you boogaloo”\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n—The Sugarhill Gang, 1979\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grandmaster Caz, the Bronx pioneer who ghostwrote the Sugarhill Gang’s groundbreaking 1979 single “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKTUAESacQM\">Rapper’s Delight\u003c/a>,” once said, “Hip-hop didn’t invent anything. Hop-hop reinvented everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That statement rings truer than ever as we approach the 50th anniversary of Kool Herc’s first party in the Bronx, where the globally influential music and culture were born. And it especially rings true here in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hip-hop wasn’t fully formed in 1973. In fact, it didn’t have an official name until 1982, the year the \u003ci>Village Voice\u003c/i> published a \u003ca href=\"https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:16057641\">profile of Zulu Nation founder Afrika Bambaataa\u003c/a>. Before Bambaataa joined the Black Spades street gang as a teenager, he hung out at the local Black Panther Information Center, and “his political leanings were encouraged by the appearance of songs like ‘Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud’ by James Brown and ‘Stand!’ by Sly and the Family Stone,” Steven Hager wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, two of the three cultural influences cited in one of the earliest known print references to hip-hop are from the Bay Area. Oh word? Say that then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No one would dispute that hip-hop emerged from the Bronx, or that James Brown was one of its godfathers. But the impact the Bay Area had on hip-hop’s early sound, aesthetic and ideology is less widely recognized. A thorough exploration of the Bay’s cultural and political movements of the 1960s and ’70s strongly suggests the Bay was hip-hop before there was hip-hop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13924550\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13924550\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HueyNewton.SlyStone.ShomariSmith-800x426.jpg\" alt=\"illustrations of huey newton and sly stone\" width=\"800\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HueyNewton.SlyStone.ShomariSmith-800x426.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HueyNewton.SlyStone.ShomariSmith-1020x543.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HueyNewton.SlyStone.ShomariSmith-160x85.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HueyNewton.SlyStone.ShomariSmith-768x409.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HueyNewton.SlyStone.ShomariSmith-1536x818.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HueyNewton.SlyStone.ShomariSmith.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the Bay Area, both Huey Newton and Sly Stone (L–R) helped sow the seeds of what would later be referred to as hip-hop. \u003ccite>(Illustrations by Shomari Smith)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Consider this: Before he became a funk superstar, Sly Stone was a fast-talking radio personality whose \u003ca href=\"https://soundcloud.com/djstef415/sly-stone-on-ksol-1967\">on-air patter\u003c/a>, laden with hep phrases, took the form of rapping before rap music. When it came to dance, the Bay Area had boogaloo, robotting and strutting, whose innovative moves preceded b-boying by almost 10 years. (There’s even evidence of breakdancing crews at local talent shows prior to nationwide releases of \u003cem>Breakin’\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Beat Street\u003c/em>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_of_Respect\">community mural movement\u003c/a>, which parallels the \u003ca href=\"https://blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/ijt2106/moment-of-departure/the-emergence-of-modern-graffiti/\">modern graffiti movement\u003c/a>, took root in the Bay before wildstyle frescoes appeared on New York subway trains. The Bay Area’s \u003ca href=\"https://legionsofboom.com/\">Filipino American mobile DJ scene\u003c/a> dates back to garage parties in the 1970s in South San Francisco and Daly City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consider also that the iconography of hip-hop was shaped by Bay Area activists, as well as street-level archetypes of badmen and tricksters whose legend became \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsXK4_D6ByA\">urban folklore\u003c/a>. A key reason the Bay Area became an early adopter of hip-hop was because its culture not only anticipated its arrival, but contributed to its essence during its developmental stages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13924289\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 615px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13924289\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/BPP2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"615\" height=\"829\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/BPP2.png 615w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/BPP2-160x216.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 615px) 100vw, 615px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A 1971 flyer for a Black Panther Party rally calling for Bobby Seale, Ericka Huggins, Angela Davis and Ruchell Magee to be freed from prison. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Black Panther Party Alumni Legacy Network)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>The Black Panthers lay hip-hop’s ideological foundation\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Hip-hop began as an underground artform created by inner city youth with few resources, who were dynamic in how they expressed their style and identity. Much of its ideology and political viewpoints were shaped by the Black Panthers, who were founded in Oakland in 1966 and grew to 38 national chapters within two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Black Panthers had a distinct influence on people like dancer Will “Mr. Penguin” Randolph, an early practitioner of boogaloo and co-founder of the dance crew the \u003ca href=\"https://www.blackresurgents.com/\">Black Resurgents.\u003c/a> Randolph, who grew up in East Oakland, remembers how the Panthers used culture to engage young people and push their revolutionary message.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They had all these rallies with Elaine Brown and different people, and the Black Resurgents were the unofficial official dance group,” Randolph says. “And they would use us to draw the adults in to talk about the city’s plight politically. It was just phenomenal.” [aside postid='arts_13923938']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13851531/a-brief-history-of-the-lumpen-the-black-panthers-revolutionary-funk-band\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Lumpen\u003c/a>, a Black Panther-affiliated touring funk band, spread the party’s message around the country. It’s no coincidence that groups like the Chi-Lites, the O’Jays and the Isley Brothers began to reference Panther talking points on songs like “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/qEwMaeN2x-c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Give More Power to the People\u003c/a>,” “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/uebYua_vdPc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Give the People What They Want\u003c/a>” and “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/8QZvoOqUkqw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fight the Power\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to consider that the Black Panther ideology was steeped in, as are most cultural ideas, in the music of the day,” Randolph says. “The grittiness of the blue collar town of Oakland, and the rise of the ideology of the Black Panther Party, and the rise of the funk music of the town all came together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the hip-hop era, children of Black Panthers like Tupac Shakur and Digital Underground’s Money B — known as “Panther cubs” — would be the ones to carry the Panthers’ vision for Black liberation forward. There’s no “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/zfuF2jOeUx8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rebel of the Underground\u003c/a>,” an early agitprop Tupac song, without the Black Panthers. No “Break the Grip of Shame,” the classic 1990 single by San Francisco rapper Paris, either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/HJ96GPtnH70\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hip-hop activism’s cornerstone issues, police reform and the prison-industrial complex, contain obvious through-lines back to the Black Panthers. In 1966, the Panthers’ manifesto, the Ten-Point Program, stated, “We Want An Immediate End to Police Brutality and the Murder of Black People,” followed by a call for “all Black People (to) be released from the many jails and prisons.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>N.W.A’s “Fuck Tha Police” seemed outrageous in 1989, but became prescient three years later, when LAPD officers were caught on video beating Rodney King. Political rappers like Public Enemy and KRS-One often harbored strong anti-police views, which were shared by such less-likely sources as New York’s L.L. Cool J and Houston’s UGK, on down to Vallejo’s The Mac.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the NYPD killing of Amadou Diallo inspired the Hip Hop for Respect project in 2000, the 1995 death of Aaron Williams in SFPD custody led to hip-hop activist organization Third Eye Movement protesting the SF Police Commission, and later resisting California’s Juvenile Crime initiative, Prop. 21. In 2009, Mistah F.A.B., Boots Riley and other local hip-hop artists took part in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13847704/after-oscar-grant-oakland-artists-inspired-a-new-generation-of-activists\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">protests against Oscar Grant’s killing\u003c/a> by BART police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, the 2016 \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/11537324/equiptos-hunger-strike-the-importance-of-art-in-social-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Frisco Five\u003c/a> hunger strike, spearheaded by rapper Equipto, resulted in SFPD reform. In 2020, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13881529/photos-black-lives-matter-murals-call-for-justice-on-oaklands-walls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">graffiti artists and muralists took to the Oakland streets\u003c/a> in response to George Floyd’s murder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past decade, activists have rallied around the Black Lives Matter movement, and it’s no coincidence that the phrase was first coined by Black Lives Matter cofounder Alicia Garza, in Oakland, the home of the Panthers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12159957\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 398px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12159957\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/H95.18.802-398x600.jpg\" alt=\"Lonnie Wilson, untitled (Black Panthers at Alameda County Courthouse), July 14, 1968. Gelatin silver photograph, 14 x 9.5 in. The Oakland Tribune Collection, the Oakland Museum of California, Gift of ANG Newspapers\" width=\"398\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/H95.18.802-398x600.jpg 398w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/H95.18.802-400x602.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/H95.18.802-768x1156.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/H95.18.802-784x1180.jpg 784w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/H95.18.802-1180x1777.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/H95.18.802-960x1446.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/H95.18.802.jpg 1793w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 398px) 100vw, 398px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lonnie Wilson, untitled (Black Panthers at Alameda County Courthouse), July 14, 1968. Gelatin silver photograph, 14 x 9.5 in. The Oakland Tribune Collection, the Oakland Museum of California, Gift of ANG Newspapers. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Before conscious rap, funk brought the message\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area, funk music was inextricably linked to the revolutionary movements of the 1960s. Beyond the Black Panthers were the Brown Berets, the Third World Liberation Front and the anti-Vietnam War movement, all animating young people to fight against an oppressive social order. One artist that emerged from this climate and eventually became one of hip-hop’s major influences was Sly Stone. A Vallejo-raised champion of multiculturalism and progressive social values, Sly transformed Black music during the ’60s and ’70s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/6QO0SJgNdiPaDRpwHMPySi?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sly’s records often contained social commentary that mixed the personal with the political. “Stand!” is an anthem of self-determination positing that freedom is attainable “at least in your mind if you want to be”; Sly released similarly-themed songs like “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/l8sz_7TPWE0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">You Can Make It If You Try\u003c/a>,” “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/HMQQcniF2Bg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Underdog\u003c/a>” and “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/Ruq2HJGs31g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Skin I’m In\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to his contributions to hip-hop’s lexicon — Sly and the Family Stone’s album \u003ci>Fresh\u003c/i> predates hip-hop’s popularizing of the term by at least a decade — there’s the music itself, which has become part of hip-hop’s genetic code. According to online sample databases, Sly and The Family Stone’s music has been sampled an astounding 967 times — up there with James Brown and the Meters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Greg Errico’s drums on “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/42YGprrAOj0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sing A Simple Song\u003c/a>” alone have resurfaced in gangsta, alternative and even international rap songs, including Digital Underground’s “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/PBsjggc5jHM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Humpty Dance\u003c/a>,” Tupac’s “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/skg0w8DpEe4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Temptations\u003c/a>,” Public Enemy’s “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/mmo3HFa2vjg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fight the Power\u003c/a>,” KRS-One’s “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/9ZrAYxWPN6c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sound of Da Police\u003c/a>,” A Tribe Called Quest’s “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/cxN4nKk2cfk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jazz\u003c/a>” and countless others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Family Stone bassist and Oakland native Larry Graham’s slap-bass technique, prominently displayed on 1968’s “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/N5BP2KlPD4U\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again)\u003c/a>,” became a defining characteristic of funk, later used by musicians like Bootsy Collins as well as Chic’s Bernard Edwards, whose “Good Times” bassline would later drive “Rapper’s Delight.” [pullquote size='large']No one would dispute that hip-hop emerged from the Bronx, or that James Brown was one of its godfathers. But the impact the Bay Area had on hip-hop’s early sound, aesthetic and ideology is less widely recognized.[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sly also created a template for the artist-producer and independent label entrepreneur. He produced other artists for his short-lived Stone Flower label, often playing every musical instrument. His production of Little Sister’s “Somebody’s Watching You” became the first Top 40 hit to use electronic drums — a staple of nearly all hip-hop production.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel like particularly with Sly, [he’s] part of the whole kind of mashup of the streets and the church,” says Lateef Daumont, a Panther cub best known as hip-hop artist Lateef the Truthspeaker of the Quannum collective. “They just had all of the things that would be blueprints for hip-hop later on — even business-wise, in a lot of ways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sly was the integrationist,” says author and educator Cecil Brown, a Berkeley resident during the ’70s who taught at Merritt College’s former campus on Grove Street (now Martin Luther King Jr. Way) in Oakland. “Also, Sly had an element of militancy in him, too, that was \u003cem>not\u003c/em> flower power, you know? It was like, ‘We got something that is going to make us feel better, and that belongs to us.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13898274\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13898274\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/0SUMMER_OF_SOUL_-_Sly_Stone._Courtesy_of_Mass_Distraction_Media_1-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/0SUMMER_OF_SOUL_-_Sly_Stone._Courtesy_of_Mass_Distraction_Media_1-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/0SUMMER_OF_SOUL_-_Sly_Stone._Courtesy_of_Mass_Distraction_Media_1-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/0SUMMER_OF_SOUL_-_Sly_Stone._Courtesy_of_Mass_Distraction_Media_1-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/0SUMMER_OF_SOUL_-_Sly_Stone._Courtesy_of_Mass_Distraction_Media_1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/0SUMMER_OF_SOUL_-_Sly_Stone._Courtesy_of_Mass_Distraction_Media_1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/0SUMMER_OF_SOUL_-_Sly_Stone._Courtesy_of_Mass_Distraction_Media_1-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/0SUMMER_OF_SOUL_-_Sly_Stone._Courtesy_of_Mass_Distraction_Media_1-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sly Stone in a still from Questlove’s new film ‘Summer of Soul.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Mass Distraction Media)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Remarkably, Stone was able to cross over to the pop charts while maintaining an unapologetically Black identity. In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDOyaGvOyPk\">1974 clip from \u003ci>The Mike Douglas Show\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, Sly is asked if his young, white middle-class fans know what he’s singing about. “Yeah, they know,” he says. Hip-hop exemplifies the same paradigm: It appeals to white youth precisely because it offers entry into a different cultural space, with its own reference points and vernacular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just as The Coup’s Boots Riley performed his song “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/_2bkG0wwdXc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Underdogs\u003c/a>” during the Occupy Oakland demonstrations of 2011, Sly occasionally performed at Black Panther rallies while living in Oakland. His ear-to-the-street perspective, containing equal parts optimism and cynicism, is evidenced by the No. 1 album \u003ci>There’s A Riot Goin’ On\u003c/i>, released in 1971. As cultural critic Okla Jones wrote on the occasion of the album’s 50th anniversary, “America was a nation in transition, feeling the effects of the previous decade. The shadow of Dr. King’s assassination loomed over the Black community, and the Vietnam War divided an entire country. What Sly and the Family Stone’s fifth album did was give a voice to a new generation yearning to be heard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This dynamic — young people speaking their minds and determining their own identities through cultural expression — not only defined the early ’70s but connected the funk era to the rap era. Once you depart from the New York-centric breakbeat aesthetic, funk becomes \u003cem>the\u003c/em> defining element of hip-hop’s sound, particularly in the Southern United States and parts of the Midwest, and especially in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13851562\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13851562\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2019/02/lumpen_stage-800x523.jpg\" alt=\"The Lumpen performed between 1970 and 1972; afterwards, Black Panther Party leadership assigned its members to other roles within the organization.\" width=\"800\" height=\"523\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/02/lumpen_stage.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/02/lumpen_stage-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/02/lumpen_stage-768x502.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Black Panther funk band The Lumpen performed between 1970 and 1972; afterwards, party leadership assigned its members to other roles within the organization. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of itsabouttime.com)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Before breaking, the Bay had boogaloo\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The dance style known as Oakland boogaloo began in the 1960s with R&B and soul as its soundtrack, but the emergence of funk raised the bar for creative expression. “The thumping of the bass and the snapping of the snare drum and the thumping of the bass drum, you started to see people doing this free-form movement, with a hit and with body contortions,” says Will Randolph, whose group the Black Resurgents once performed during a 1977 Parliament concert at the Oakland Coliseum Arena, where they emerged from the iconic mothership in front of more than 10,000 fans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you talk about hip-hop dance, primarily people think of breaking and popping,” Randolph says. “When you talk about street dance on a nationwide level prior to hip-hop dance coming out of primarily New York, you have this whole West Coast sea of dance and street dance. The Bay Area in particular is really the debut for hip-hop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/IUdS6kxw2aI\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the mid-1960s to the early ’70s, years before hip-hop had a name, Oakland groups like the Black Resurgents, One Plus One, the Black Messengers and Pirate and the Easy Walkers perfected moves that would become part of the hip-hop dance vernacular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I’m saying is that boogaloo, robotting, and strutting dance styles predate hip-hop as a culture, as a name, and even hip-hop dance as an artform,” says Randolph. (In 1990’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDApdzFa3OI\">U Make Me Want Some\u003c/a>,” Mac Dre’s mentor and namesake The Mac even raps: “You can do the boogaloo / Like they used to do in 1972.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As boogaloo branched off into Richmond robotting and San Francisco strutting in the mid-1970s to become the predominant form of urban youth culture in the Bay Area, dancers adopted the sartorial flamboyance associated with pimps, incorporating top hats, canes and pointy-toed shoes into their aesthetic. White gloves created a mesmerizing effect under blacklight during performances in dark halls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fueled by talent show competitions, which brought local fame and popularity, the artform continued to develop into the early ’80s. Synchronized group routines, costumes, and stage props all became part of the mix. Most routines developed for competitions were performed just once. Some groups practiced in secret so no one could steal their moves. (The Black Resurgents were an exception; they were known to practice in front of an open window, often drawing crowds from their neighborhood.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coded signals between dancers would indicate they were participants in the same culture and ready to battle at a moment’s notice, such as popping one’s collar — which later became a signature hallmark of Bay Area hip-hop expression. Being known as a boogaloo, strutter or robotter also conferred social status, and could give practitioners a ghetto pass through hostile territory or nullify threats of violence altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As boogaloo spread in the latter half of the ’70s to San Jose, Sacramento, Fresno and Los Angeles, a move originally known as “The Oakland Hit” became the “pop,” and blended with the locking style indigenous to Southern California. Pop-locking was born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13924302\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13924302\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/n5cCK1s8-800x609.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"609\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/n5cCK1s8-800x609.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/n5cCK1s8-160x122.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/n5cCK1s8-768x584.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/n5cCK1s8.jpg 924w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Black Resurgents on ‘The Jay Payton Show,’ July 18, 1976. \u003ccite>(Courtesy AAMLO)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the Bay Area’s contributions didn’t make the history books. In 1979, the Electric Boogaloos \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkejPbx9zSI\">appeared on \u003ci>Soul Train\u003c/i>\u003c/a> and were erroneously announced as the originators of boogaloo by host Don Cornelius. Boogaloo also spread to New York through Bay Area dancers like Jerry Rentie, who served active military duty there, but wasn’t recognized as a distinct style by New York rappers like Run-DMC, who said “let the poppers pop and the breakers break” on 1984’s “Rock Box.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Northern California origins of popping became further obscured when breakdancing arrived on the West Coast in the early ’80s, and boogaloo, strutting, robotting, popping and breaking were all subsumed into the amalgamation of hip-hop dance. In “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/HshF2AOx4VM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">West Coast Pop Lock\u003c/a>,” a 1982 hit for Ronnie Hudson that most know as the hook of Tupac’s “California Love,” Hudson shouts out Los Angeles, Watts and Compton — with no mention of Oakland at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Pimp culture becomes pop culture\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Another key influence on hip-hop was Richard Pryor, who moved to Berkeley in 1969 and soaked up the city’s counterculture vibe. Pryor performed locally at venues like Laney College, and, similar to Tupac, key parts of his development came from the Bay Area before he moved to L.A. and became a superstar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pryor has been sampled in rap more than 400 times, which speaks to his street-level Black cultural perspective that placed more emphasis on barbershops, juke joints and strip clubs than churches and schools. And it was Pryor’s involvement in a 1973 movie, filmed in Oakland, that would cement his relationship to Bay Area hip-hop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13924297\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13924297\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1137109661-800x1217.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1217\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1137109661-800x1217.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1137109661-1020x1551.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1137109661-160x243.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1137109661-768x1168.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1137109661-1010x1536.jpg 1010w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1137109661-1347x2048.jpg 1347w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1137109661-1920x2920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1137109661-scaled.jpg 1683w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Mack, US poster, top from left: Max Julien, Richard Pryor, from a 1977 re-release of the film. \u003ccite>(Photo by LMPC via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The Mack\u003c/i> is ostensibly a cautionary tale about the rise and fall of a pimp named Goldie (Max Julien), yet it glorified the illegal sex trade and the flamboyant pimp lifestyle. The movie’s lead was based directly on the notorious Oakland pimp and drug dealer Frank Ward, and infamously featured several real-life pimps and sex workers, in exchange for cameo roles for Ward and his brothers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003cem>The Mack\u003c/em>, Pryor played Slim, Goldie’s partner. Another character, Fat Man, coincidentally had the same initials as infamous Oakland drug kingpin Felix Mitchell. With Goldie’s brother Olinga as a Panther-esque Black nationalist, the film’s subtext hints at the real-life tension between the Black Panthers and Oakland’s gangster underworld. It’s a dynamic that foreshadowed the divisions between conscious and gangsta rap, and predated the way Tupac and many Bay Area rappers mixed elements of both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Melvin Van Peebles’ directorial debut \u003ci>Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song\u003c/i> was released in 1971, Panther leaders used their widely circulated newspaper to encourage Party members to see the film, which also featured the all-Black East Bay Dragons motorcycle club. “No distributors were supporting it,” says the Lumpen’s Dr. Saturu Ned, who worked in the Party’s newspaper office before he became a musician. “Because of the Black Panther Party, millions of people went to see the movie.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Sweet Sweetback\u003c/i> birthed the so-called blaxploitation films of this era, championing a gritty view of street life with an undercurrent of anti-authoritarianism. The genre became a key reference point for hip-hop, along with the Panthers’ messages of Black power and resistance. [aside postid='arts_13923766']\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Hip-hop’s inspiration from the criminal underworld\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Without a doubt, one of hip-hop’s overarching themes has been the criminal underworld and the archetype of the pimp/player/hustler as hero and ghetto superstar. This, too, has significant ties to the Bay Area, and especially Oakland, which counts among its rap classics MC Pooh’s \u003ci>Life of a Criminal\u003c/i> and Too Short’s \u003ci>Born to Mack\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area, a systemic devastation of Black neighborhoods created a formula for poverty. Blue-collar industrial jobs left after World War II, and the “urban renewal” of the ’60s and ’70s demolished homes and businesses in San Francisco as well as Oakland. For some, the underground economy became an appealing means of upward mobility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Felix Mitchell operated out of the San Antonio Villa, a.k.a. 6-9 Ville, in East Oakland, which became the headquarters for the “69 Mob,” a criminal organization that established a nationwide heroin distribution network and employed young children as lookouts. The housing project’s notoriety extended well beyond Mitchell’s death in 1986: in 1992, the rapper Seagram released the single “The Ville,” which references “the M.O.B.” — an acronym for My Other Brother, the “official” name of Mitchell’s gang.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the ’70s, the Black Panthers operated a school and community center just a few blocks from 6-9 Ville. This led to conflict over control of the neighborhood. Ned recalls that intakes at the community center for heroin overdoses were common, while the Black Resurgents’ Randolph, who lived nearby on Sunnyside and 82nd Avenue, remembers gun battles sometimes erupting between the two factions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the post-Felix Mitchell crack cocaine era, rapping about pimping, drug dealing, drive-by shootings and sideshows all became part of Oakland’s hip-hop lexicon — see Dru Down and the Luniz’ “Ice Cream Man,” Richie Rich’s “Sideshow” and “Half Thang,” or Dru Down’s “Pimp of the Year,” which stayed on the Billboard charts for 24 weeks and would often evoke boisterous sing-alongs when played in local clubs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/qnVtwzaw6lM\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mitchell himself had reportedly popularized drive-by shootings, becoming one of the inspirations for the Nino Brown character in the 1991 movie \u003ci>New Jack City\u003c/i>, which featured a hip-hop soundtrack.. And Mitchell’s rival, Milton “Mickey Mo” Moore, financed the first rap record to come out of the Bay Area: Motorcycle Mike’s “Super Rat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So while Philadelphia’s Schooly-D and L.A.’s Ice-T are often credited as the first gangsta rap artists, the genre has been heavily influenced by Bay Area criminal icons like Moore, Ward, Mitchell and San Francisco’s Fillmore Slim. Just like the Panthers predated conscious rap and progressive politics, the Bay basically been gangsta for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Afrofuturism is at the heart of hip-hop’s imagination\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Not all hip-hop artists follow a street playbook. Nearly as influential as \u003ci>The Mack\u003c/i> was Sun Ra’s 1974 cult classic \u003ci>Space is the Place\u003c/i>, filmed at locations in Oakland, including the current Merritt College campus. Its origins date back to a 1971 \u003ca href=\"https://www.openculture.com/2014/07/full-lecture-and-reading-list-from-sun-ras-1971-uc-berkeley-course.html\">lecture course\u003c/a> given by Sun Ra at UC Berkeley, titled “The Black Man in the Cosmos.” The film’s convoluted plot depicts Ra as a time-traveling jazz musician who engages in a game of tarot with an “overseer” to decide the fate of the Black race. Ra eventually wins the contest thanks to his use of sound vibrations during a free jazz concert, boards a spaceship joined by young African Americans he’s recruited from Oakland, and travels to a better world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Afrofuturistic themes in \u003ci>Space is the Place\u003c/i> not only preceded Parliament’s \u003ci>Clones of Dr. Funkenstein\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Mothership Connection\u003c/i> albums, but established a cultural precedent for those themes to be revisited by hip-hop, first in the electro-funk era, and subsequently through abstract, esoteric, spiritually and conceptually minded rappers and producers. In the Bay Area, Hieroglyphics’ Del the Funky Homosapien would imagine dystopian futures worthy of anime treatments; Blackalicious’ work would contain themes of technology as a means of liberation; and Zion I’s lyrics would reach towards spiritual enlightenment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13924298\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13924298\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-486166770-800x516.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"516\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-486166770-800x516.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-486166770-1020x657.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-486166770-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-486166770-768x495.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-486166770.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sun Ra and his Sun Ra Archestra perform with a steel sculpture on September 23, 1978, at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. \u003ccite>(Leni Sinclair/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sun Ra was part of the Black Arts Movement (BAM) of the 1960s, which began in Harlem but was grounded in the Bay Area. Influential author, writer and BAM co-founder Amiri Bakara moved from New York in 1962 to teach at San Francisco State University; in 1964, he worked with a young graphic designer named Emory Douglas on set design for a play in San Francisco. Three years later, Douglas met Bobby Seale and Huey Newton at the Black Door, a Black-operated theater known for presenting avant-garde productions, and became the Black Panther’s minister of culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Douglas’ revolutionary illustrations were featured in the Panther newspaper, and went on to influence politically-minded graffiti artists and muralists worldwide, including in San Francisco’s famed Clarion Alley. The Coup’s logo, depicting a mother carrying a child in a sling while holding a rifle, is a \u003ca href=\"http://american-studies-uea.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-art-of-emory-douglas-and-asali.html\">direct descendant of Douglas’ work\u003c/a>. And during the late ’80s, a flourishing of political graffiti around the anti-apartheid movement crested into bold statements against police brutality and Christopher Columbus by Bay Area aerosol legends Mike Dream, Spie and the TDK collective in the early ’90s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baraka later became a founding board member of Oakland’s Eastside Arts Alliance, whose annual Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival in San Antonio Park has featured hip-hop freestyle rhyme and dance cyphers, live painting in honor of Mike Dream, tributes to boogaloo, and performances by The Coup and the Last Poets’ Umar Bin Hassan. Meanwhile, Baraka’s daughter Dominique DiPrima would become the KRON-TV host of the popular Bay Area hip-hop show \u003cem>Home Turf\u003c/em>. [aside postid='arts_13906176']\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Spoken word, feminism\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>From the Black Arts Movement lineage comes a local emphasis on spoken word poetry and alternative theater. This legacy of artistic expression ultimately connects pioneering poet/playwright Ntozake Shange to the hip-hop inspired Oakland poet Chinaka Hodge, and to the field of hip-hop theater explored by Marc Bamuthi Joseph in the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her 1976 choreopoem \u003cem>for colored girls who’ve considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf\u003c/em>, first performed at a lesbian bar on Solano Avenue in Albany, Shange foreshadowed women in hip-hop’s existential struggle with sexuality, self-affirmation and self-love while dealing with misogyny, toxic relationships and Black female identity. In “No More Love Poems pt 1,” Shange’s Lady in Orange describes “being left screaming in a street full of lunatics whispering slut, \u003cem>beeitch\u003c/em>…” — pronouncing the word with the same drawn-out intonation as Too Short would a decade later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13924299\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 801px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13924299\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/801px-Ntozake_Shange_Reid_Lecture_Women_Issues_Luncheon_Womens_Center_November_1978_Crisco_edit.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"801\" height=\"1023\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/801px-Ntozake_Shange_Reid_Lecture_Women_Issues_Luncheon_Womens_Center_November_1978_Crisco_edit.jpg 801w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/801px-Ntozake_Shange_Reid_Lecture_Women_Issues_Luncheon_Womens_Center_November_1978_Crisco_edit-160x204.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/801px-Ntozake_Shange_Reid_Lecture_Women_Issues_Luncheon_Womens_Center_November_1978_Crisco_edit-768x981.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 801px) 100vw, 801px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ntozake Shange in 1978. \u003ccite>(Barnard College/Wikimedia Commons)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These same themes are present to some degree in the music of Bay Area women in funk — a list that includes Little Sister, Sugar Pie DeSanto, the Brides of Funkenstein, and Betty Davis (who recorded her first two albums in San Francisco with Bay Area musicians). The Pointer Sisters, the Oakland group whose career began with the self-affirming hit “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/F2U1OUxXSMM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Yes We Can Can\u003c/a>,” would later be referenced by Ice Cube, the Treacherous Three and Salt-n-Pepa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As SF State professor and cultural anthropologist Dawn-Elissa Fischer points out, the tradition extends even further back. “Some of the ideas that Angela Davis and Patricia Collins write about in terms of the impact of blues women — when we talk about the Panthers, we want to remember, while there are obvious ties, there’s this longer tradition of posting, boasting and rapping in the work of blues women in the Bay Area and elsewhere.” The same ideas and themes of the blues era, she says, were magnified and amplified during the funk era, and again in the hip-hop era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fischer, a contributor to \u003cem>The Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap\u003c/em> and an advisor on KQED’s \u003ci>That’s My Word\u003c/i>, regularly studies funk music as well as contemporary rap in her work, connecting dots between generational movements. She maintains the funky divas of the 1970s provided not only an artistic blueprint for rappers like the Conscious Daughters to talk about gender, sexuality and reproductive rights, but an aesthetic influence as well. Local emcee Coco Peila, she says, is an example of both, along with Mystic, Suga-T and Ryan Nicole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In looking critically at the intersection of funk, boogaloo, and the Black Panthers, Fischer says, “There was a lot of labor, gender and sexuality components of all of these movements, and specifically various forms of Black power. And \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11858928/west-oakland-mural-honors-women-of-black-panther-party\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Black women are a critical part of this paradigm\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legacy of these movements is not only part of hip-hop history and American history, but Bay Area history specifically. What made these movements so significant and generational in their influence was their intersectional longevity. Funk, boogaloo, and social movements all spoke to each other throughout their existence. That dialogue has become a longer discussion with the advent of hip-hop, which, as it’s evolved, has carried along with it the aesthetics of past movements \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span> be they Afros and boots, Black Power salutes, or tick-tocking robot moves over bass grooves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11687704\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-800x60.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"60\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-400x30.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-768x58.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "In the ’60s and ’70s, the Black Panthers, boogaloo dancers and Sly Stone anticipated the arrival of hip-hop.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13924127\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13924127\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HipHopPreschool.16.9-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HipHopPreschool.16.9-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HipHopPreschool.16.9-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HipHopPreschool.16.9-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HipHopPreschool.16.9-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HipHopPreschool.16.9-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HipHopPreschool.16.9.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clockwise from upper left: Women of the Black Panther Party (BAMPFA/Pirkle Jones Foundation); the Black Resurgents (artist photo); Ntozake Shange (John Kisch Archive/Getty Images); Sun Ra in ‘Space is the Place’ (Harte Recordings); Sly Stone (CBS Records).\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ci>Editor’s note:\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This story is part of\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/bayareahiphop\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s My Word\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, KQED’s year-long exploration of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop\">Bay Area hip-hop\u003c/a> history, with new content dropping all throughout 2023.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“People in the house, this is just for you/ A little rap to make you boogaloo”\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n—The Sugarhill Gang, 1979\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Grandmaster Caz, the Bronx pioneer who ghostwrote the Sugarhill Gang’s groundbreaking 1979 single “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKTUAESacQM\">Rapper’s Delight\u003c/a>,” once said, “Hip-hop didn’t invent anything. Hop-hop reinvented everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That statement rings truer than ever as we approach the 50th anniversary of Kool Herc’s first party in the Bronx, where the globally influential music and culture were born. And it especially rings true here in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hip-hop wasn’t fully formed in 1973. In fact, it didn’t have an official name until 1982, the year the \u003ci>Village Voice\u003c/i> published a \u003ca href=\"https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:16057641\">profile of Zulu Nation founder Afrika Bambaataa\u003c/a>. Before Bambaataa joined the Black Spades street gang as a teenager, he hung out at the local Black Panther Information Center, and “his political leanings were encouraged by the appearance of songs like ‘Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud’ by James Brown and ‘Stand!’ by Sly and the Family Stone,” Steven Hager wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, two of the three cultural influences cited in one of the earliest known print references to hip-hop are from the Bay Area. Oh word? Say that then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No one would dispute that hip-hop emerged from the Bronx, or that James Brown was one of its godfathers. But the impact the Bay Area had on hip-hop’s early sound, aesthetic and ideology is less widely recognized. A thorough exploration of the Bay’s cultural and political movements of the 1960s and ’70s strongly suggests the Bay was hip-hop before there was hip-hop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13924550\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13924550\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HueyNewton.SlyStone.ShomariSmith-800x426.jpg\" alt=\"illustrations of huey newton and sly stone\" width=\"800\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HueyNewton.SlyStone.ShomariSmith-800x426.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HueyNewton.SlyStone.ShomariSmith-1020x543.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HueyNewton.SlyStone.ShomariSmith-160x85.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HueyNewton.SlyStone.ShomariSmith-768x409.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HueyNewton.SlyStone.ShomariSmith-1536x818.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/HueyNewton.SlyStone.ShomariSmith.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the Bay Area, both Huey Newton and Sly Stone (L–R) helped sow the seeds of what would later be referred to as hip-hop. \u003ccite>(Illustrations by Shomari Smith)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Consider this: Before he became a funk superstar, Sly Stone was a fast-talking radio personality whose \u003ca href=\"https://soundcloud.com/djstef415/sly-stone-on-ksol-1967\">on-air patter\u003c/a>, laden with hep phrases, took the form of rapping before rap music. When it came to dance, the Bay Area had boogaloo, robotting and strutting, whose innovative moves preceded b-boying by almost 10 years. (There’s even evidence of breakdancing crews at local talent shows prior to nationwide releases of \u003cem>Breakin’\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Beat Street\u003c/em>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_of_Respect\">community mural movement\u003c/a>, which parallels the \u003ca href=\"https://blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/ijt2106/moment-of-departure/the-emergence-of-modern-graffiti/\">modern graffiti movement\u003c/a>, took root in the Bay before wildstyle frescoes appeared on New York subway trains. The Bay Area’s \u003ca href=\"https://legionsofboom.com/\">Filipino American mobile DJ scene\u003c/a> dates back to garage parties in the 1970s in South San Francisco and Daly City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consider also that the iconography of hip-hop was shaped by Bay Area activists, as well as street-level archetypes of badmen and tricksters whose legend became \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsXK4_D6ByA\">urban folklore\u003c/a>. A key reason the Bay Area became an early adopter of hip-hop was because its culture not only anticipated its arrival, but contributed to its essence during its developmental stages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13924289\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 615px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13924289\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/BPP2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"615\" height=\"829\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/BPP2.png 615w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/BPP2-160x216.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 615px) 100vw, 615px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A 1971 flyer for a Black Panther Party rally calling for Bobby Seale, Ericka Huggins, Angela Davis and Ruchell Magee to be freed from prison. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Black Panther Party Alumni Legacy Network)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>The Black Panthers lay hip-hop’s ideological foundation\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Hip-hop began as an underground artform created by inner city youth with few resources, who were dynamic in how they expressed their style and identity. Much of its ideology and political viewpoints were shaped by the Black Panthers, who were founded in Oakland in 1966 and grew to 38 national chapters within two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Black Panthers had a distinct influence on people like dancer Will “Mr. Penguin” Randolph, an early practitioner of boogaloo and co-founder of the dance crew the \u003ca href=\"https://www.blackresurgents.com/\">Black Resurgents.\u003c/a> Randolph, who grew up in East Oakland, remembers how the Panthers used culture to engage young people and push their revolutionary message.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They had all these rallies with Elaine Brown and different people, and the Black Resurgents were the unofficial official dance group,” Randolph says. “And they would use us to draw the adults in to talk about the city’s plight politically. It was just phenomenal.” \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13851531/a-brief-history-of-the-lumpen-the-black-panthers-revolutionary-funk-band\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Lumpen\u003c/a>, a Black Panther-affiliated touring funk band, spread the party’s message around the country. It’s no coincidence that groups like the Chi-Lites, the O’Jays and the Isley Brothers began to reference Panther talking points on songs like “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/qEwMaeN2x-c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Give More Power to the People\u003c/a>,” “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/uebYua_vdPc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Give the People What They Want\u003c/a>” and “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/8QZvoOqUkqw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fight the Power\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to consider that the Black Panther ideology was steeped in, as are most cultural ideas, in the music of the day,” Randolph says. “The grittiness of the blue collar town of Oakland, and the rise of the ideology of the Black Panther Party, and the rise of the funk music of the town all came together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the hip-hop era, children of Black Panthers like Tupac Shakur and Digital Underground’s Money B — known as “Panther cubs” — would be the ones to carry the Panthers’ vision for Black liberation forward. There’s no “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/zfuF2jOeUx8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rebel of the Underground\u003c/a>,” an early agitprop Tupac song, without the Black Panthers. No “Break the Grip of Shame,” the classic 1990 single by San Francisco rapper Paris, either.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/HJ96GPtnH70'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/HJ96GPtnH70'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Hip-hop activism’s cornerstone issues, police reform and the prison-industrial complex, contain obvious through-lines back to the Black Panthers. In 1966, the Panthers’ manifesto, the Ten-Point Program, stated, “We Want An Immediate End to Police Brutality and the Murder of Black People,” followed by a call for “all Black People (to) be released from the many jails and prisons.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>N.W.A’s “Fuck Tha Police” seemed outrageous in 1989, but became prescient three years later, when LAPD officers were caught on video beating Rodney King. Political rappers like Public Enemy and KRS-One often harbored strong anti-police views, which were shared by such less-likely sources as New York’s L.L. Cool J and Houston’s UGK, on down to Vallejo’s The Mac.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the NYPD killing of Amadou Diallo inspired the Hip Hop for Respect project in 2000, the 1995 death of Aaron Williams in SFPD custody led to hip-hop activist organization Third Eye Movement protesting the SF Police Commission, and later resisting California’s Juvenile Crime initiative, Prop. 21. In 2009, Mistah F.A.B., Boots Riley and other local hip-hop artists took part in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13847704/after-oscar-grant-oakland-artists-inspired-a-new-generation-of-activists\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">protests against Oscar Grant’s killing\u003c/a> by BART police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, the 2016 \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/11537324/equiptos-hunger-strike-the-importance-of-art-in-social-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Frisco Five\u003c/a> hunger strike, spearheaded by rapper Equipto, resulted in SFPD reform. In 2020, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13881529/photos-black-lives-matter-murals-call-for-justice-on-oaklands-walls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">graffiti artists and muralists took to the Oakland streets\u003c/a> in response to George Floyd’s murder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past decade, activists have rallied around the Black Lives Matter movement, and it’s no coincidence that the phrase was first coined by Black Lives Matter cofounder Alicia Garza, in Oakland, the home of the Panthers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12159957\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 398px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12159957\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/H95.18.802-398x600.jpg\" alt=\"Lonnie Wilson, untitled (Black Panthers at Alameda County Courthouse), July 14, 1968. Gelatin silver photograph, 14 x 9.5 in. The Oakland Tribune Collection, the Oakland Museum of California, Gift of ANG Newspapers\" width=\"398\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/H95.18.802-398x600.jpg 398w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/H95.18.802-400x602.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/H95.18.802-768x1156.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/H95.18.802-784x1180.jpg 784w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/H95.18.802-1180x1777.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/H95.18.802-960x1446.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/10/H95.18.802.jpg 1793w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 398px) 100vw, 398px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lonnie Wilson, untitled (Black Panthers at Alameda County Courthouse), July 14, 1968. Gelatin silver photograph, 14 x 9.5 in. The Oakland Tribune Collection, the Oakland Museum of California, Gift of ANG Newspapers. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Oakland Museum of California)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Before conscious rap, funk brought the message\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area, funk music was inextricably linked to the revolutionary movements of the 1960s. Beyond the Black Panthers were the Brown Berets, the Third World Liberation Front and the anti-Vietnam War movement, all animating young people to fight against an oppressive social order. One artist that emerged from this climate and eventually became one of hip-hop’s major influences was Sly Stone. A Vallejo-raised champion of multiculturalism and progressive social values, Sly transformed Black music during the ’60s and ’70s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/6QO0SJgNdiPaDRpwHMPySi?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sly’s records often contained social commentary that mixed the personal with the political. “Stand!” is an anthem of self-determination positing that freedom is attainable “at least in your mind if you want to be”; Sly released similarly-themed songs like “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/l8sz_7TPWE0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">You Can Make It If You Try\u003c/a>,” “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/HMQQcniF2Bg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Underdog\u003c/a>” and “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/Ruq2HJGs31g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Skin I’m In\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to his contributions to hip-hop’s lexicon — Sly and the Family Stone’s album \u003ci>Fresh\u003c/i> predates hip-hop’s popularizing of the term by at least a decade — there’s the music itself, which has become part of hip-hop’s genetic code. According to online sample databases, Sly and The Family Stone’s music has been sampled an astounding 967 times — up there with James Brown and the Meters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Greg Errico’s drums on “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/42YGprrAOj0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sing A Simple Song\u003c/a>” alone have resurfaced in gangsta, alternative and even international rap songs, including Digital Underground’s “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/PBsjggc5jHM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Humpty Dance\u003c/a>,” Tupac’s “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/skg0w8DpEe4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Temptations\u003c/a>,” Public Enemy’s “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/mmo3HFa2vjg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fight the Power\u003c/a>,” KRS-One’s “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/9ZrAYxWPN6c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sound of Da Police\u003c/a>,” A Tribe Called Quest’s “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/cxN4nKk2cfk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jazz\u003c/a>” and countless others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Family Stone bassist and Oakland native Larry Graham’s slap-bass technique, prominently displayed on 1968’s “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/N5BP2KlPD4U\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again)\u003c/a>,” became a defining characteristic of funk, later used by musicians like Bootsy Collins as well as Chic’s Bernard Edwards, whose “Good Times” bassline would later drive “Rapper’s Delight.” \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "No one would dispute that hip-hop emerged from the Bronx, or that James Brown was one of its godfathers. But the impact the Bay Area had on hip-hop’s early sound, aesthetic and ideology is less widely recognized.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sly also created a template for the artist-producer and independent label entrepreneur. He produced other artists for his short-lived Stone Flower label, often playing every musical instrument. His production of Little Sister’s “Somebody’s Watching You” became the first Top 40 hit to use electronic drums — a staple of nearly all hip-hop production.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel like particularly with Sly, [he’s] part of the whole kind of mashup of the streets and the church,” says Lateef Daumont, a Panther cub best known as hip-hop artist Lateef the Truthspeaker of the Quannum collective. “They just had all of the things that would be blueprints for hip-hop later on — even business-wise, in a lot of ways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sly was the integrationist,” says author and educator Cecil Brown, a Berkeley resident during the ’70s who taught at Merritt College’s former campus on Grove Street (now Martin Luther King Jr. Way) in Oakland. “Also, Sly had an element of militancy in him, too, that was \u003cem>not\u003c/em> flower power, you know? It was like, ‘We got something that is going to make us feel better, and that belongs to us.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13898274\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13898274\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/0SUMMER_OF_SOUL_-_Sly_Stone._Courtesy_of_Mass_Distraction_Media_1-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/0SUMMER_OF_SOUL_-_Sly_Stone._Courtesy_of_Mass_Distraction_Media_1-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/0SUMMER_OF_SOUL_-_Sly_Stone._Courtesy_of_Mass_Distraction_Media_1-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/0SUMMER_OF_SOUL_-_Sly_Stone._Courtesy_of_Mass_Distraction_Media_1-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/0SUMMER_OF_SOUL_-_Sly_Stone._Courtesy_of_Mass_Distraction_Media_1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/0SUMMER_OF_SOUL_-_Sly_Stone._Courtesy_of_Mass_Distraction_Media_1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/0SUMMER_OF_SOUL_-_Sly_Stone._Courtesy_of_Mass_Distraction_Media_1-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/06/0SUMMER_OF_SOUL_-_Sly_Stone._Courtesy_of_Mass_Distraction_Media_1-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sly Stone in a still from Questlove’s new film ‘Summer of Soul.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Mass Distraction Media)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Remarkably, Stone was able to cross over to the pop charts while maintaining an unapologetically Black identity. In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDOyaGvOyPk\">1974 clip from \u003ci>The Mike Douglas Show\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, Sly is asked if his young, white middle-class fans know what he’s singing about. “Yeah, they know,” he says. Hip-hop exemplifies the same paradigm: It appeals to white youth precisely because it offers entry into a different cultural space, with its own reference points and vernacular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just as The Coup’s Boots Riley performed his song “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/_2bkG0wwdXc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Underdogs\u003c/a>” during the Occupy Oakland demonstrations of 2011, Sly occasionally performed at Black Panther rallies while living in Oakland. His ear-to-the-street perspective, containing equal parts optimism and cynicism, is evidenced by the No. 1 album \u003ci>There’s A Riot Goin’ On\u003c/i>, released in 1971. As cultural critic Okla Jones wrote on the occasion of the album’s 50th anniversary, “America was a nation in transition, feeling the effects of the previous decade. The shadow of Dr. King’s assassination loomed over the Black community, and the Vietnam War divided an entire country. What Sly and the Family Stone’s fifth album did was give a voice to a new generation yearning to be heard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This dynamic — young people speaking their minds and determining their own identities through cultural expression — not only defined the early ’70s but connected the funk era to the rap era. Once you depart from the New York-centric breakbeat aesthetic, funk becomes \u003cem>the\u003c/em> defining element of hip-hop’s sound, particularly in the Southern United States and parts of the Midwest, and especially in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13851562\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13851562\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2019/02/lumpen_stage-800x523.jpg\" alt=\"The Lumpen performed between 1970 and 1972; afterwards, Black Panther Party leadership assigned its members to other roles within the organization.\" width=\"800\" height=\"523\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/02/lumpen_stage.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/02/lumpen_stage-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/02/lumpen_stage-768x502.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Black Panther funk band The Lumpen performed between 1970 and 1972; afterwards, party leadership assigned its members to other roles within the organization. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of itsabouttime.com)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Before breaking, the Bay had boogaloo\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The dance style known as Oakland boogaloo began in the 1960s with R&B and soul as its soundtrack, but the emergence of funk raised the bar for creative expression. “The thumping of the bass and the snapping of the snare drum and the thumping of the bass drum, you started to see people doing this free-form movement, with a hit and with body contortions,” says Will Randolph, whose group the Black Resurgents once performed during a 1977 Parliament concert at the Oakland Coliseum Arena, where they emerged from the iconic mothership in front of more than 10,000 fans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you talk about hip-hop dance, primarily people think of breaking and popping,” Randolph says. “When you talk about street dance on a nationwide level prior to hip-hop dance coming out of primarily New York, you have this whole West Coast sea of dance and street dance. The Bay Area in particular is really the debut for hip-hop.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/IUdS6kxw2aI'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/IUdS6kxw2aI'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>From the mid-1960s to the early ’70s, years before hip-hop had a name, Oakland groups like the Black Resurgents, One Plus One, the Black Messengers and Pirate and the Easy Walkers perfected moves that would become part of the hip-hop dance vernacular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What I’m saying is that boogaloo, robotting, and strutting dance styles predate hip-hop as a culture, as a name, and even hip-hop dance as an artform,” says Randolph. (In 1990’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDApdzFa3OI\">U Make Me Want Some\u003c/a>,” Mac Dre’s mentor and namesake The Mac even raps: “You can do the boogaloo / Like they used to do in 1972.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As boogaloo branched off into Richmond robotting and San Francisco strutting in the mid-1970s to become the predominant form of urban youth culture in the Bay Area, dancers adopted the sartorial flamboyance associated with pimps, incorporating top hats, canes and pointy-toed shoes into their aesthetic. White gloves created a mesmerizing effect under blacklight during performances in dark halls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fueled by talent show competitions, which brought local fame and popularity, the artform continued to develop into the early ’80s. Synchronized group routines, costumes, and stage props all became part of the mix. Most routines developed for competitions were performed just once. Some groups practiced in secret so no one could steal their moves. (The Black Resurgents were an exception; they were known to practice in front of an open window, often drawing crowds from their neighborhood.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coded signals between dancers would indicate they were participants in the same culture and ready to battle at a moment’s notice, such as popping one’s collar — which later became a signature hallmark of Bay Area hip-hop expression. Being known as a boogaloo, strutter or robotter also conferred social status, and could give practitioners a ghetto pass through hostile territory or nullify threats of violence altogether.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As boogaloo spread in the latter half of the ’70s to San Jose, Sacramento, Fresno and Los Angeles, a move originally known as “The Oakland Hit” became the “pop,” and blended with the locking style indigenous to Southern California. Pop-locking was born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13924302\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13924302\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/n5cCK1s8-800x609.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"609\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/n5cCK1s8-800x609.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/n5cCK1s8-160x122.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/n5cCK1s8-768x584.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/n5cCK1s8.jpg 924w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Black Resurgents on ‘The Jay Payton Show,’ July 18, 1976. \u003ccite>(Courtesy AAMLO)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the Bay Area’s contributions didn’t make the history books. In 1979, the Electric Boogaloos \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkejPbx9zSI\">appeared on \u003ci>Soul Train\u003c/i>\u003c/a> and were erroneously announced as the originators of boogaloo by host Don Cornelius. Boogaloo also spread to New York through Bay Area dancers like Jerry Rentie, who served active military duty there, but wasn’t recognized as a distinct style by New York rappers like Run-DMC, who said “let the poppers pop and the breakers break” on 1984’s “Rock Box.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Northern California origins of popping became further obscured when breakdancing arrived on the West Coast in the early ’80s, and boogaloo, strutting, robotting, popping and breaking were all subsumed into the amalgamation of hip-hop dance. In “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/HshF2AOx4VM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">West Coast Pop Lock\u003c/a>,” a 1982 hit for Ronnie Hudson that most know as the hook of Tupac’s “California Love,” Hudson shouts out Los Angeles, Watts and Compton — with no mention of Oakland at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Pimp culture becomes pop culture\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Another key influence on hip-hop was Richard Pryor, who moved to Berkeley in 1969 and soaked up the city’s counterculture vibe. Pryor performed locally at venues like Laney College, and, similar to Tupac, key parts of his development came from the Bay Area before he moved to L.A. and became a superstar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pryor has been sampled in rap more than 400 times, which speaks to his street-level Black cultural perspective that placed more emphasis on barbershops, juke joints and strip clubs than churches and schools. And it was Pryor’s involvement in a 1973 movie, filmed in Oakland, that would cement his relationship to Bay Area hip-hop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13924297\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13924297\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1137109661-800x1217.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1217\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1137109661-800x1217.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1137109661-1020x1551.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1137109661-160x243.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1137109661-768x1168.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1137109661-1010x1536.jpg 1010w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1137109661-1347x2048.jpg 1347w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1137109661-1920x2920.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1137109661-scaled.jpg 1683w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Mack, US poster, top from left: Max Julien, Richard Pryor, from a 1977 re-release of the film. \u003ccite>(Photo by LMPC via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The Mack\u003c/i> is ostensibly a cautionary tale about the rise and fall of a pimp named Goldie (Max Julien), yet it glorified the illegal sex trade and the flamboyant pimp lifestyle. The movie’s lead was based directly on the notorious Oakland pimp and drug dealer Frank Ward, and infamously featured several real-life pimps and sex workers, in exchange for cameo roles for Ward and his brothers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003cem>The Mack\u003c/em>, Pryor played Slim, Goldie’s partner. Another character, Fat Man, coincidentally had the same initials as infamous Oakland drug kingpin Felix Mitchell. With Goldie’s brother Olinga as a Panther-esque Black nationalist, the film’s subtext hints at the real-life tension between the Black Panthers and Oakland’s gangster underworld. It’s a dynamic that foreshadowed the divisions between conscious and gangsta rap, and predated the way Tupac and many Bay Area rappers mixed elements of both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Melvin Van Peebles’ directorial debut \u003ci>Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song\u003c/i> was released in 1971, Panther leaders used their widely circulated newspaper to encourage Party members to see the film, which also featured the all-Black East Bay Dragons motorcycle club. “No distributors were supporting it,” says the Lumpen’s Dr. Saturu Ned, who worked in the Party’s newspaper office before he became a musician. “Because of the Black Panther Party, millions of people went to see the movie.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Sweet Sweetback\u003c/i> birthed the so-called blaxploitation films of this era, championing a gritty view of street life with an undercurrent of anti-authoritarianism. The genre became a key reference point for hip-hop, along with the Panthers’ messages of Black power and resistance. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Hip-hop’s inspiration from the criminal underworld\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Without a doubt, one of hip-hop’s overarching themes has been the criminal underworld and the archetype of the pimp/player/hustler as hero and ghetto superstar. This, too, has significant ties to the Bay Area, and especially Oakland, which counts among its rap classics MC Pooh’s \u003ci>Life of a Criminal\u003c/i> and Too Short’s \u003ci>Born to Mack\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area, a systemic devastation of Black neighborhoods created a formula for poverty. Blue-collar industrial jobs left after World War II, and the “urban renewal” of the ’60s and ’70s demolished homes and businesses in San Francisco as well as Oakland. For some, the underground economy became an appealing means of upward mobility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Felix Mitchell operated out of the San Antonio Villa, a.k.a. 6-9 Ville, in East Oakland, which became the headquarters for the “69 Mob,” a criminal organization that established a nationwide heroin distribution network and employed young children as lookouts. The housing project’s notoriety extended well beyond Mitchell’s death in 1986: in 1992, the rapper Seagram released the single “The Ville,” which references “the M.O.B.” — an acronym for My Other Brother, the “official” name of Mitchell’s gang.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the ’70s, the Black Panthers operated a school and community center just a few blocks from 6-9 Ville. This led to conflict over control of the neighborhood. Ned recalls that intakes at the community center for heroin overdoses were common, while the Black Resurgents’ Randolph, who lived nearby on Sunnyside and 82nd Avenue, remembers gun battles sometimes erupting between the two factions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the post-Felix Mitchell crack cocaine era, rapping about pimping, drug dealing, drive-by shootings and sideshows all became part of Oakland’s hip-hop lexicon — see Dru Down and the Luniz’ “Ice Cream Man,” Richie Rich’s “Sideshow” and “Half Thang,” or Dru Down’s “Pimp of the Year,” which stayed on the Billboard charts for 24 weeks and would often evoke boisterous sing-alongs when played in local clubs.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/qnVtwzaw6lM'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/qnVtwzaw6lM'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Mitchell himself had reportedly popularized drive-by shootings, becoming one of the inspirations for the Nino Brown character in the 1991 movie \u003ci>New Jack City\u003c/i>, which featured a hip-hop soundtrack.. And Mitchell’s rival, Milton “Mickey Mo” Moore, financed the first rap record to come out of the Bay Area: Motorcycle Mike’s “Super Rat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So while Philadelphia’s Schooly-D and L.A.’s Ice-T are often credited as the first gangsta rap artists, the genre has been heavily influenced by Bay Area criminal icons like Moore, Ward, Mitchell and San Francisco’s Fillmore Slim. Just like the Panthers predated conscious rap and progressive politics, the Bay basically been gangsta for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Afrofuturism is at the heart of hip-hop’s imagination\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Not all hip-hop artists follow a street playbook. Nearly as influential as \u003ci>The Mack\u003c/i> was Sun Ra’s 1974 cult classic \u003ci>Space is the Place\u003c/i>, filmed at locations in Oakland, including the current Merritt College campus. Its origins date back to a 1971 \u003ca href=\"https://www.openculture.com/2014/07/full-lecture-and-reading-list-from-sun-ras-1971-uc-berkeley-course.html\">lecture course\u003c/a> given by Sun Ra at UC Berkeley, titled “The Black Man in the Cosmos.” The film’s convoluted plot depicts Ra as a time-traveling jazz musician who engages in a game of tarot with an “overseer” to decide the fate of the Black race. Ra eventually wins the contest thanks to his use of sound vibrations during a free jazz concert, boards a spaceship joined by young African Americans he’s recruited from Oakland, and travels to a better world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Afrofuturistic themes in \u003ci>Space is the Place\u003c/i> not only preceded Parliament’s \u003ci>Clones of Dr. Funkenstein\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Mothership Connection\u003c/i> albums, but established a cultural precedent for those themes to be revisited by hip-hop, first in the electro-funk era, and subsequently through abstract, esoteric, spiritually and conceptually minded rappers and producers. In the Bay Area, Hieroglyphics’ Del the Funky Homosapien would imagine dystopian futures worthy of anime treatments; Blackalicious’ work would contain themes of technology as a means of liberation; and Zion I’s lyrics would reach towards spiritual enlightenment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13924298\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13924298\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-486166770-800x516.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"516\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-486166770-800x516.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-486166770-1020x657.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-486166770-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-486166770-768x495.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-486166770.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sun Ra and his Sun Ra Archestra perform with a steel sculpture on September 23, 1978, at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. \u003ccite>(Leni Sinclair/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sun Ra was part of the Black Arts Movement (BAM) of the 1960s, which began in Harlem but was grounded in the Bay Area. Influential author, writer and BAM co-founder Amiri Bakara moved from New York in 1962 to teach at San Francisco State University; in 1964, he worked with a young graphic designer named Emory Douglas on set design for a play in San Francisco. Three years later, Douglas met Bobby Seale and Huey Newton at the Black Door, a Black-operated theater known for presenting avant-garde productions, and became the Black Panther’s minister of culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Douglas’ revolutionary illustrations were featured in the Panther newspaper, and went on to influence politically-minded graffiti artists and muralists worldwide, including in San Francisco’s famed Clarion Alley. The Coup’s logo, depicting a mother carrying a child in a sling while holding a rifle, is a \u003ca href=\"http://american-studies-uea.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-art-of-emory-douglas-and-asali.html\">direct descendant of Douglas’ work\u003c/a>. And during the late ’80s, a flourishing of political graffiti around the anti-apartheid movement crested into bold statements against police brutality and Christopher Columbus by Bay Area aerosol legends Mike Dream, Spie and the TDK collective in the early ’90s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baraka later became a founding board member of Oakland’s Eastside Arts Alliance, whose annual Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival in San Antonio Park has featured hip-hop freestyle rhyme and dance cyphers, live painting in honor of Mike Dream, tributes to boogaloo, and performances by The Coup and the Last Poets’ Umar Bin Hassan. Meanwhile, Baraka’s daughter Dominique DiPrima would become the KRON-TV host of the popular Bay Area hip-hop show \u003cem>Home Turf\u003c/em>. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Spoken word, feminism\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>From the Black Arts Movement lineage comes a local emphasis on spoken word poetry and alternative theater. This legacy of artistic expression ultimately connects pioneering poet/playwright Ntozake Shange to the hip-hop inspired Oakland poet Chinaka Hodge, and to the field of hip-hop theater explored by Marc Bamuthi Joseph in the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her 1976 choreopoem \u003cem>for colored girls who’ve considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf\u003c/em>, first performed at a lesbian bar on Solano Avenue in Albany, Shange foreshadowed women in hip-hop’s existential struggle with sexuality, self-affirmation and self-love while dealing with misogyny, toxic relationships and Black female identity. In “No More Love Poems pt 1,” Shange’s Lady in Orange describes “being left screaming in a street full of lunatics whispering slut, \u003cem>beeitch\u003c/em>…” — pronouncing the word with the same drawn-out intonation as Too Short would a decade later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13924299\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 801px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13924299\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/801px-Ntozake_Shange_Reid_Lecture_Women_Issues_Luncheon_Womens_Center_November_1978_Crisco_edit.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"801\" height=\"1023\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/801px-Ntozake_Shange_Reid_Lecture_Women_Issues_Luncheon_Womens_Center_November_1978_Crisco_edit.jpg 801w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/801px-Ntozake_Shange_Reid_Lecture_Women_Issues_Luncheon_Womens_Center_November_1978_Crisco_edit-160x204.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/801px-Ntozake_Shange_Reid_Lecture_Women_Issues_Luncheon_Womens_Center_November_1978_Crisco_edit-768x981.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 801px) 100vw, 801px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ntozake Shange in 1978. \u003ccite>(Barnard College/Wikimedia Commons)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These same themes are present to some degree in the music of Bay Area women in funk — a list that includes Little Sister, Sugar Pie DeSanto, the Brides of Funkenstein, and Betty Davis (who recorded her first two albums in San Francisco with Bay Area musicians). The Pointer Sisters, the Oakland group whose career began with the self-affirming hit “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/F2U1OUxXSMM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Yes We Can Can\u003c/a>,” would later be referenced by Ice Cube, the Treacherous Three and Salt-n-Pepa.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As SF State professor and cultural anthropologist Dawn-Elissa Fischer points out, the tradition extends even further back. “Some of the ideas that Angela Davis and Patricia Collins write about in terms of the impact of blues women — when we talk about the Panthers, we want to remember, while there are obvious ties, there’s this longer tradition of posting, boasting and rapping in the work of blues women in the Bay Area and elsewhere.” The same ideas and themes of the blues era, she says, were magnified and amplified during the funk era, and again in the hip-hop era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fischer, a contributor to \u003cem>The Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap\u003c/em> and an advisor on KQED’s \u003ci>That’s My Word\u003c/i>, regularly studies funk music as well as contemporary rap in her work, connecting dots between generational movements. She maintains the funky divas of the 1970s provided not only an artistic blueprint for rappers like the Conscious Daughters to talk about gender, sexuality and reproductive rights, but an aesthetic influence as well. Local emcee Coco Peila, she says, is an example of both, along with Mystic, Suga-T and Ryan Nicole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In looking critically at the intersection of funk, boogaloo, and the Black Panthers, Fischer says, “There was a lot of labor, gender and sexuality components of all of these movements, and specifically various forms of Black power. And \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11858928/west-oakland-mural-honors-women-of-black-panther-party\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Black women are a critical part of this paradigm\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legacy of these movements is not only part of hip-hop history and American history, but Bay Area history specifically. What made these movements so significant and generational in their influence was their intersectional longevity. Funk, boogaloo, and social movements all spoke to each other throughout their existence. That dialogue has become a longer discussion with the advent of hip-hop, which, as it’s evolved, has carried along with it the aesthetics of past movements \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span> be they Afros and boots, Black Power salutes, or tick-tocking robot moves over bass grooves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "pianofights-theatre-was-independent-creative-accessible-and-necessary",
"title": "PianoFight’s Theatre Was Independent, Creative, Accessible — and Necessary",
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"content": "\u003cp>Reading \u003ca href=\"https://www.pianofight.com/closing-up-shop/\">the announcement\u003c/a> that PianoFight is closing its SF and Oakland venues was akin to watching a family heirloom fall in slow motion: You think if you move fast enough you can catch it, but by the time you reach out your hands, it’s already shattered on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"arts_13919459\"]Perhaps I should have seen it coming. After all, I’ve been writing about the troupe-turned-multi-venue company for \u003ca href=\"https://thethinkingmansidiot.wordpress.com/2015/01/26/theater-around-the-bay-talk-is-sheep/\">nearly a decade\u003c/a>. I wrote about PianoFight’s battle to open a new theatre space in SF, about that venue’s evolution into a community hub — and, always, about how much fun it was to attend and perform in shows in that building. Now, I have to write about it shutting down, the story I never wanted to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before PianoFight even had one venue, I knew founders Rob Ready and Dan Williams, along with Financial Director Kevin Fink, from when we all regularly performed in the Off-Market Theatre in the mid-2000s. They were the raucous guys across the hall who had the sketch comedy troupe ShitShow (later MissionCTRL), the choose-your-own-adventure play \u003ci>Forking\u003c/i>, and did the short play competition ShortLived, where the winner had their entry made into a full production the following year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I finally worked with them in 2010 as part of their group-collab comedy \u003ci>Ménage-À-Plot: A Surf-N-Turf Adventure\u003c/i> (in which three writers linked with three directors to make three different short plays that all mashed together in the same location). The show was crass, goofy, and featured an inexplicable dance number set to “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” It was one of the most fun times I’ve ever had.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13924210\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1409024520.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13924210\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1409024520-800x535.jpg\" alt=\"a bar is packed with people laughing and drinking drinks\" width=\"800\" height=\"535\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1409024520-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1409024520-1020x682.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1409024520-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1409024520-768x514.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1409024520.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Guests enjoy food and drinks at PianoFight’s bar in the Tenderloin in 2015. \u003ccite>(Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t long before the guys began pitching the idea of having their own venue, complete with a full restaurant. See, one of the things people often overlook about going to the theatre is what to do after the show. Sure, several venues allow drinks, but you’re still crowding the lobby, and indie companies are likely just renting. Mingling is even tougher in SoMa and the Tenderloin, where your companions may complain about a great bar being a dive (The Tempest), being too far away (The White Horse) or too expensive (Parc 55).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was PianoFight’s advantage: for one, the company allowed — nay, encouraged — patrons (and performers) to get soused up before, during and after a show. And two, the space was always open to the public. Strangers passing by would pop in to buy drinks and sandwiches as they sat for free music they saw on the cabaret stage through the window (leave your tips in the funny hat). Actors and audience members could chat after a show over a shared bowl of curly fries. Anyone and everyone could feel comfortable sharing the gender-neutral restrooms. It was an annual venue for SF Sketchfest, a photo-op for mayors Lee and Breed and an invaluable resource for the unhoused community via a partnership with \u003ca href=\"https://www.codetenderloin.org/\">Code Tenderloin\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The often-insular nature of the theatre industry frequently leaves creators — especially avant-garde and indie creators — at a loss for how to get “regular” people to discover their work. PianoFight did that by merely existing. If you think that sounds easy, then you’ve never worked in theatre before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13832495\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/PianoFightSHORTLIVED2017Winners_photoDanielBurke.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13832495\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/PianoFightSHORTLIVED2017Winners_photoDanielBurke-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"two actors perform in 'viking' costumes on stage\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/PianoFightSHORTLIVED2017Winners_photoDanielBurke-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/PianoFightSHORTLIVED2017Winners_photoDanielBurke-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/PianoFightSHORTLIVED2017Winners_photoDanielBurke-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/PianoFightSHORTLIVED2017Winners_photoDanielBurke-960x640.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/PianoFightSHORTLIVED2017Winners_photoDanielBurke-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/PianoFightSHORTLIVED2017Winners_photoDanielBurke-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/PianoFightSHORTLIVED2017Winners_photoDanielBurke-520x347.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/PianoFightSHORTLIVED2017Winners_photoDanielBurke.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andrew Chung and Marissa Skudlarek, 2017’s Shortlived winners, perform ‘All the Worlds Are Stages,’ written by Ruben Gijalva & directed by Alejandro Torres, at PianoFight. \u003ccite>(Daniel Burke)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>My PianoFight memories are so varied because I was often there in a variety of roles: actor, director, writer, tech and even box office rep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was in the now-defunct troupe that created “Pint Sized Plays.” I’ve watched drag queens and \u003ci>Game of Thrones\u003c/i> premieres; I watched \u003ci>ShortLived\u003c/i> with my then-girlfriend on the main stage and sweated it out as Captain Hook on the poorly-ventilated smaller stage. I had countless drinks beneath the bar’s gorgeous “Californicorn” mural (PF’s logo is the California bear with wings and a unicorn horn), created by the amazing Molly Benson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, the pandemic changed everything for theatre, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfexaminer.com/culture/the-fight-isn-t-over-for-this-san-francisco-venue/article_9bc5e4eb-92e8-5668-94f2-78579c2695de.html\">PianoFight included\u003c/a>. The vaccine rollout of 2021 seemed to suggest a return to normalcy — until the Delta variant canceled those plans. When the company expanded by purchasing The Flight Deck in Oakland, it was a reason to be optimistic. But as it turns out, that just means losing two vital venues instead of one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13900296\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/PianoFightSF_spaceprom_PhotoCredit_PianoFight.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13900296\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/PianoFightSF_spaceprom_PhotoCredit_PianoFight-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"a party with neon lights and foam fingers\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/PianoFightSF_spaceprom_PhotoCredit_PianoFight-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/PianoFightSF_spaceprom_PhotoCredit_PianoFight-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/PianoFightSF_spaceprom_PhotoCredit_PianoFight-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/PianoFightSF_spaceprom_PhotoCredit_PianoFight-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/PianoFightSF_spaceprom_PhotoCredit_PianoFight-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/PianoFightSF_spaceprom_PhotoCredit_PianoFight-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/PianoFightSF_spaceprom_PhotoCredit_PianoFight.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Space Prom’ at PianoFight SF. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of PianoFight)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In fact, it isn’t lost on me that PianoFight’s closure announcement came the same day as that of Harvey’s in The Castro (and the day state Democrats proposed a wealth tax). In a city with more billionaire residents than any other on Earth, independent, non-franchise businesses are being left to fend for themselves. And they’re losing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s been almost a decade since I crashed on Rob Ready’s sofa and saw the 144 Taylor Street blueprints on his wall. That blueprint would bring me in touch with strangers who remain great friends and an untold number of performers and techs who entertained the hell out of me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even at my most optimistic, I’m hard-pressed to find a silver lining in the closure of PianoFight. It’s not just that it was a performance venue — sadly, we’ve gotten used to those vanishing — but the fact that it was, for lack of a better term, “everything else”: an after-work bar; a pre-show place for a drink; a welcome stage for burgeoning stand-ups, musicians, whomever. It was a community. And the back-to-back loss of both EXIT Theatre and PianoFight leaves a void.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These places were warm. Voids are very, very cold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>PianoFight’s venues will officially shutter March 18, according to the founders’ announcement. \u003ca href=\"https://www.pianofight.com/show-calendar/\">Find the current show calendar here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Reading \u003ca href=\"https://www.pianofight.com/closing-up-shop/\">the announcement\u003c/a> that PianoFight is closing its SF and Oakland venues was akin to watching a family heirloom fall in slow motion: You think if you move fast enough you can catch it, but by the time you reach out your hands, it’s already shattered on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Perhaps I should have seen it coming. After all, I’ve been writing about the troupe-turned-multi-venue company for \u003ca href=\"https://thethinkingmansidiot.wordpress.com/2015/01/26/theater-around-the-bay-talk-is-sheep/\">nearly a decade\u003c/a>. I wrote about PianoFight’s battle to open a new theatre space in SF, about that venue’s evolution into a community hub — and, always, about how much fun it was to attend and perform in shows in that building. Now, I have to write about it shutting down, the story I never wanted to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before PianoFight even had one venue, I knew founders Rob Ready and Dan Williams, along with Financial Director Kevin Fink, from when we all regularly performed in the Off-Market Theatre in the mid-2000s. They were the raucous guys across the hall who had the sketch comedy troupe ShitShow (later MissionCTRL), the choose-your-own-adventure play \u003ci>Forking\u003c/i>, and did the short play competition ShortLived, where the winner had their entry made into a full production the following year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I finally worked with them in 2010 as part of their group-collab comedy \u003ci>Ménage-À-Plot: A Surf-N-Turf Adventure\u003c/i> (in which three writers linked with three directors to make three different short plays that all mashed together in the same location). The show was crass, goofy, and featured an inexplicable dance number set to “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” It was one of the most fun times I’ve ever had.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13924210\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1409024520.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13924210\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1409024520-800x535.jpg\" alt=\"a bar is packed with people laughing and drinking drinks\" width=\"800\" height=\"535\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1409024520-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1409024520-1020x682.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1409024520-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1409024520-768x514.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/GettyImages-1409024520.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Guests enjoy food and drinks at PianoFight’s bar in the Tenderloin in 2015. \u003ccite>(Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t long before the guys began pitching the idea of having their own venue, complete with a full restaurant. See, one of the things people often overlook about going to the theatre is what to do after the show. Sure, several venues allow drinks, but you’re still crowding the lobby, and indie companies are likely just renting. Mingling is even tougher in SoMa and the Tenderloin, where your companions may complain about a great bar being a dive (The Tempest), being too far away (The White Horse) or too expensive (Parc 55).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was PianoFight’s advantage: for one, the company allowed — nay, encouraged — patrons (and performers) to get soused up before, during and after a show. And two, the space was always open to the public. Strangers passing by would pop in to buy drinks and sandwiches as they sat for free music they saw on the cabaret stage through the window (leave your tips in the funny hat). Actors and audience members could chat after a show over a shared bowl of curly fries. Anyone and everyone could feel comfortable sharing the gender-neutral restrooms. It was an annual venue for SF Sketchfest, a photo-op for mayors Lee and Breed and an invaluable resource for the unhoused community via a partnership with \u003ca href=\"https://www.codetenderloin.org/\">Code Tenderloin\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The often-insular nature of the theatre industry frequently leaves creators — especially avant-garde and indie creators — at a loss for how to get “regular” people to discover their work. PianoFight did that by merely existing. If you think that sounds easy, then you’ve never worked in theatre before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13832495\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/PianoFightSHORTLIVED2017Winners_photoDanielBurke.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13832495\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/PianoFightSHORTLIVED2017Winners_photoDanielBurke-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"two actors perform in 'viking' costumes on stage\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/PianoFightSHORTLIVED2017Winners_photoDanielBurke-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/PianoFightSHORTLIVED2017Winners_photoDanielBurke-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/PianoFightSHORTLIVED2017Winners_photoDanielBurke-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/PianoFightSHORTLIVED2017Winners_photoDanielBurke-960x640.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/PianoFightSHORTLIVED2017Winners_photoDanielBurke-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/PianoFightSHORTLIVED2017Winners_photoDanielBurke-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/PianoFightSHORTLIVED2017Winners_photoDanielBurke-520x347.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/05/PianoFightSHORTLIVED2017Winners_photoDanielBurke.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andrew Chung and Marissa Skudlarek, 2017’s Shortlived winners, perform ‘All the Worlds Are Stages,’ written by Ruben Gijalva & directed by Alejandro Torres, at PianoFight. \u003ccite>(Daniel Burke)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>My PianoFight memories are so varied because I was often there in a variety of roles: actor, director, writer, tech and even box office rep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was in the now-defunct troupe that created “Pint Sized Plays.” I’ve watched drag queens and \u003ci>Game of Thrones\u003c/i> premieres; I watched \u003ci>ShortLived\u003c/i> with my then-girlfriend on the main stage and sweated it out as Captain Hook on the poorly-ventilated smaller stage. I had countless drinks beneath the bar’s gorgeous “Californicorn” mural (PF’s logo is the California bear with wings and a unicorn horn), created by the amazing Molly Benson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, the pandemic changed everything for theatre, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfexaminer.com/culture/the-fight-isn-t-over-for-this-san-francisco-venue/article_9bc5e4eb-92e8-5668-94f2-78579c2695de.html\">PianoFight included\u003c/a>. The vaccine rollout of 2021 seemed to suggest a return to normalcy — until the Delta variant canceled those plans. When the company expanded by purchasing The Flight Deck in Oakland, it was a reason to be optimistic. But as it turns out, that just means losing two vital venues instead of one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13900296\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/PianoFightSF_spaceprom_PhotoCredit_PianoFight.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13900296\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/PianoFightSF_spaceprom_PhotoCredit_PianoFight-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"a party with neon lights and foam fingers\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/PianoFightSF_spaceprom_PhotoCredit_PianoFight-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/PianoFightSF_spaceprom_PhotoCredit_PianoFight-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/PianoFightSF_spaceprom_PhotoCredit_PianoFight-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/PianoFightSF_spaceprom_PhotoCredit_PianoFight-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/PianoFightSF_spaceprom_PhotoCredit_PianoFight-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/PianoFightSF_spaceprom_PhotoCredit_PianoFight-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/PianoFightSF_spaceprom_PhotoCredit_PianoFight.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Space Prom’ at PianoFight SF. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of PianoFight)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In fact, it isn’t lost on me that PianoFight’s closure announcement came the same day as that of Harvey’s in The Castro (and the day state Democrats proposed a wealth tax). In a city with more billionaire residents than any other on Earth, independent, non-franchise businesses are being left to fend for themselves. And they’re losing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s been almost a decade since I crashed on Rob Ready’s sofa and saw the 144 Taylor Street blueprints on his wall. That blueprint would bring me in touch with strangers who remain great friends and an untold number of performers and techs who entertained the hell out of me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even at my most optimistic, I’m hard-pressed to find a silver lining in the closure of PianoFight. It’s not just that it was a performance venue — sadly, we’ve gotten used to those vanishing — but the fact that it was, for lack of a better term, “everything else”: an after-work bar; a pre-show place for a drink; a welcome stage for burgeoning stand-ups, musicians, whomever. It was a community. And the back-to-back loss of both EXIT Theatre and PianoFight leaves a void.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These places were warm. Voids are very, very cold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>PianoFight’s venues will officially shutter March 18, according to the founders’ announcement. \u003ca href=\"https://www.pianofight.com/show-calendar/\">Find the current show calendar here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A Tale of Two 'Traviatas'",
"headTitle": "A Tale of Two ‘Traviatas’ | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13921894\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/Traviata.MAIN_.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman in a red dress stands against a parlor wall of deep red, adorned with paintings\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13921894\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/Traviata.MAIN_.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/Traviata.MAIN_-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/Traviata.MAIN_-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/Traviata.MAIN_-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/Traviata.MAIN_-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/Traviata.MAIN_-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pretty Yende as Violetta in Verdi’s ‘La Traviata’ at San Francisco Opera. \u003ccite>(Cory Weaver)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I’m used to New York looking down on the Bay Area, but I never realized until recently that its condescension extended to, of all things, opera. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scene: I’m at Lincoln Center in New York a couple weeks ago to see Verdi’s \u003cem>La Traviata\u003c/em>, and a man nearby strikes up a conversation. When he learns I’m from the Bay Area, he furrows his brow: “Oh, I have heard about San Francisco opera. Not so good.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13919101']Coupled with \u003ci>The New York Times\u003c/i> \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/11/arts/music/john-adams-antony-cleopatra-opera.html\">weirdly slamming\u003c/a> Berkeley-based composer John Adams’ San Francisco premiere of \u003cem>Antony and Cleopatra\u003c/em>, a original and engrossing work, I had to wonder: what gives?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seeing \u003cem>La Traviata\u003c/em> as a first-time visitor to the Met in New York, I couldn’t help but be a little awed by its elegant red-and-white lobby, ascending chandeliers and famous facade. As for the top-notch performance of Nadine Sierra as Violetta? It brought me to tears. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if the package comes with haughtiness, like so many things in New York do (see: the Yankees’ fanbase, Notorious B.I.G. zealots, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/29/arts/design/san-francisco-art-market.html\">whatever this Grade-A horse manure is\u003c/a>), then gimme San Francisco’s brand of opera any day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13921896\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/LaTraviataGroup.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman in a blue dress stands above a crowd engaged in revelry \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13921896\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/LaTraviataGroup.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/LaTraviataGroup-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/LaTraviataGroup-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/LaTraviataGroup-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/LaTraviataGroup-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/LaTraviataGroup-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pretty Yende as Violetta among members of the ensemble in Verdi’s ‘La Traviata’ at San Francisco Opera. \u003ccite>(Cory Weaver)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I decided to see \u003cem>La Traviata\u003c/em> again, at SF Opera, just a week after seeing it at the Met, to compare. The primary difference is that the casting is simply more interesting. At the Met, Sierra may have the more gossamer timbre. But in San Francisco, soprano Pretty Yende brings a wholly different dimension to the role, extracting more of the wonder and pathos of Violetta’s predicament. (Jonathan Tetelman as Alfredo and Simone Piazzola as Giorgio, both making their SF Opera debuts, deliver convincing performances as well.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The set in New York? Virtually unchanging, save for some furniture swaps, as well as towers of wooden lattice to convey “the country.” In San Francisco, meanwhile, the audience audibly gasped when the curtain rose on the beautiful, decor-laden deep red set for Act II’s party scene. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s \u003cem>Traviata\u003c/em> is also directed by a woman, Shawna Lucey — which, considering its tensions over a woman’s place in society and the men who have the power to reduce it, should be the rule for every staging of \u003cem>La Traviata\u003c/em>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In short, the Met is nice, but we’ve got something special here in the Bay Area. I can guarantee one other difference, too: unlike at the Met, a cup of coffee and a cookie at intermission won’t set you back $19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘La Traviata’ runs through Saturday, Dec. 3, at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfopera.com/operas/la-traviata/\">Details here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A report on seeing both the Met’s ‘La Traviata’ and SF Opera’s ‘La Traviata’ in the same week.",
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"headline": "A Tale of Two 'Traviatas'",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13921894\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/Traviata.MAIN_.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman in a red dress stands against a parlor wall of deep red, adorned with paintings\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13921894\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/Traviata.MAIN_.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/Traviata.MAIN_-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/Traviata.MAIN_-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/Traviata.MAIN_-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/Traviata.MAIN_-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/Traviata.MAIN_-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pretty Yende as Violetta in Verdi’s ‘La Traviata’ at San Francisco Opera. \u003ccite>(Cory Weaver)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I’m used to New York looking down on the Bay Area, but I never realized until recently that its condescension extended to, of all things, opera. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scene: I’m at Lincoln Center in New York a couple weeks ago to see Verdi’s \u003cem>La Traviata\u003c/em>, and a man nearby strikes up a conversation. When he learns I’m from the Bay Area, he furrows his brow: “Oh, I have heard about San Francisco opera. Not so good.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Coupled with \u003ci>The New York Times\u003c/i> \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/11/arts/music/john-adams-antony-cleopatra-opera.html\">weirdly slamming\u003c/a> Berkeley-based composer John Adams’ San Francisco premiere of \u003cem>Antony and Cleopatra\u003c/em>, a original and engrossing work, I had to wonder: what gives?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seeing \u003cem>La Traviata\u003c/em> as a first-time visitor to the Met in New York, I couldn’t help but be a little awed by its elegant red-and-white lobby, ascending chandeliers and famous facade. As for the top-notch performance of Nadine Sierra as Violetta? It brought me to tears. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if the package comes with haughtiness, like so many things in New York do (see: the Yankees’ fanbase, Notorious B.I.G. zealots, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/29/arts/design/san-francisco-art-market.html\">whatever this Grade-A horse manure is\u003c/a>), then gimme San Francisco’s brand of opera any day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13921896\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/LaTraviataGroup.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman in a blue dress stands above a crowd engaged in revelry \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13921896\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/LaTraviataGroup.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/LaTraviataGroup-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/LaTraviataGroup-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/LaTraviataGroup-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/LaTraviataGroup-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/LaTraviataGroup-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pretty Yende as Violetta among members of the ensemble in Verdi’s ‘La Traviata’ at San Francisco Opera. \u003ccite>(Cory Weaver)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I decided to see \u003cem>La Traviata\u003c/em> again, at SF Opera, just a week after seeing it at the Met, to compare. The primary difference is that the casting is simply more interesting. At the Met, Sierra may have the more gossamer timbre. But in San Francisco, soprano Pretty Yende brings a wholly different dimension to the role, extracting more of the wonder and pathos of Violetta’s predicament. (Jonathan Tetelman as Alfredo and Simone Piazzola as Giorgio, both making their SF Opera debuts, deliver convincing performances as well.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The set in New York? Virtually unchanging, save for some furniture swaps, as well as towers of wooden lattice to convey “the country.” In San Francisco, meanwhile, the audience audibly gasped when the curtain rose on the beautiful, decor-laden deep red set for Act II’s party scene. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s \u003cem>Traviata\u003c/em> is also directed by a woman, Shawna Lucey — which, considering its tensions over a woman’s place in society and the men who have the power to reduce it, should be the rule for every staging of \u003cem>La Traviata\u003c/em>. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In short, the Met is nice, but we’ve got something special here in the Bay Area. I can guarantee one other difference, too: unlike at the Met, a cup of coffee and a cookie at intermission won’t set you back $19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘La Traviata’ runs through Saturday, Dec. 3, at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfopera.com/operas/la-traviata/\">Details here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "'Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812' a Grand Reunion for Dave Malloy and Shotgun Players",
"headTitle": "‘Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812’ a Grand Reunion for Dave Malloy and Shotgun Players | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>It’s been a good year for composer and playsmith Dave Malloy reconnecting to the Bay Area. His chamber musical \u003cem>Octet\u003c/em> had a Berkeley Rep run in the spring, and, last week, his highly-anticipated West Coast premiere of \u003cem>Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 \u003c/em>opened for previews at the Ashby Stage. Once a Shotgun Players regular — having co-developed \u003cem>Beowulf, a Thousand Years of Baggage\u003c/em> in 2008, and \u003cem>Beardo\u003c/em> in 2011 — Malloy’s triumphal return feels almost pre-ordained. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watch enough theatre in the Bay Area and you start to identify how one moment in an artist’s trajectory connects to another, years, sometimes decades down the line. In \u003cem>Great Comet\u003c/em> are reverberations of Malloy’s earlier works: A riff on a literary manuscript of great importance (in this case, \u003cem>War and Peace\u003c/em>), a reuniting with Imperial Russia, a rock-inflected score revealing the emotional layers of each character before they’re expressed in verse, and a playful quality infusing the action with an undercurrent of genial bonhomie, no matter its weight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13921570\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13921570\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_JacquelineDennis_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Jacqueline Dennis, a Black woman in a pink satin ballgown, stands centerstage in blue lighti, singing with her arms outstretched beneath a large chandelier\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_JacquelineDennis_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_JacquelineDennis_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_JacquelineDennis_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_JacquelineDennis_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_JacquelineDennis_Credit_BenjaminKrantz.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jacqueline Dennis as Natasha in ‘Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,’ by Dave Malloy. \u003ccite>(Benjamin Krantz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This gaiety makes itself known even before the play begins. A Nina Ball-designed banquet table-cum-catwalk stretches from the stage into the center of the room, with the audience seated on either side. An enormous chandelier commands the space from above, a lone chair upholstered in red satin sits at one end of the runway, and the world’s smallest orchestra pit — containing just two musicians — peeks up from its center. (From here, music director Daniel Alley conducts and plays an upright piano while actors spin and prance all around.) Some audience members have come in costume (those who do get free drinks), jello shots are on the menu, and Russian electronica pumps through the sound system. It all adds up to a modern-day approximation of aristocratic decadence circa 1812.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right from the top, Malloy makes this small foray into Tolstoy’s masterpiece as breezy and accessible as possible. There’s no need to have done the reading beforehand. The characters are each introduced by their defining characteristic. Natasha (Jacqueline Dennis) is “young.” Marya (Michelle Ianiro) is “old-school.” Anatole (Nick Rodrigues) is “hot.” His sister Hélène (Angel Adedokun) is a “slut.” And Andrey (James Mayagoitia) — Natasha’s fiancé — “isn’t here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13921569\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13921569\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AngelAdedokun_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"Angel Adedokun walks down a long catwalk, her hand raised in the air. She is a slender Black woman with long textured hair and a purple silk dress and black boots. The ensemble dances behind her.\" width=\"600\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AngelAdedokun_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AngelAdedokun_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AngelAdedokun_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AngelAdedokun_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AngelAdedokun_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AngelAdedokun_Credit_BenjaminKrantz.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Angel Adedokun as Hélène owning the runway in ‘Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,’ \u003ccite>(Benjamin Krantz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>From this point the story follows a predictable, almost melodramatic path. Natasha falls for the rakish Anaotle. Marya (and most of Moscovian society) is appalled. Hélène is an active participant in orchestrating their impending elopement. And Pierre (Albert Hodge) — Hélène’s beleaguered husband, whose satined seat at the center of the room affords him the best, most voyeuristic view into the lives of his play-mates — quietly turns the pages of his leather-bound copy of \u003cem>War and Peace\u003c/em> as its rambunctious contents unfold on the stage in front of him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Natasha, Jacqueline Dennis is a delightful anchor for the staged tempests of Tolstoy. Wearing her ill-advised desire for Anatole as freshly as the virginal rose she wears in her hair, Dennis shines with a celestial radiance that brightens and enhances each performer pulled into her orbit. These include a blissfully lovely duet with her winsome cousin Sonya (Veronica Renner); a blushing acceptance of the effects of her evident charms on Moscow’s elite, gathered around her at the opera; and the rakish whims of Anatole transformed almost to gentleness by her illuminating presence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13921571\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13921571\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_NickRodrigues_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Nick Rodrigues wearing a loose purple silk shirt and tight black trousers holds out his hand and smiles.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_NickRodrigues_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_NickRodrigues_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_NickRodrigues_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_NickRodrigues_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_NickRodrigues_Credit_BenjaminKrantz.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anatole is hot. Nick Rodrigues as Anatole in ‘Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,’ by Dave Malloy. \u003ccite>(Benjamin Krantz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In turn, Nick Rodrigues as Anatole cuts a very convincing cad. His vocals, while sometimes shaky, combine with superlative cheekbones to lend him the blazing sex appeal of a Wham!-era George Michael. Equally matched for heat and charm, Angel Adedokun as Hélène steals almost every scene she’s present in, even when it’s merely as a witness to the forward motion of unstoppable events. She struts down the catwalk like she owns it, flirts outrageously with every person within a 100-foot radius, and pounds out the beat of Anatole’s own overheated heart on a drum as he capriciously plots Natasha’s inevitable downfall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13921568\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13921568\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AlbertHodge_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"Albert Hodge, a Black Man in a furcoat and a brown suit and red satin tie looks into the distance, a red curtain behind him.\" width=\"600\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AlbertHodge_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AlbertHodge_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AlbertHodge_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AlbertHodge_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AlbertHodge_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AlbertHodge_Credit_BenjaminKrantz.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Albert Hodge as Pierre in ‘Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,’ by Dave Malloy. \u003ccite>(Benjamin Krantz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Through all of the tumult and drama and excess, Pierre watches, often silently, from his corner of the room. When he joins the others, he drinks too much and speaks too loudly — a barroom philosophizer with a maudlin streak. And yet, Albert Hodge imbues his Pierre with a gravitas befitting his centrality to the plot. Despite (or perhaps because of) his less dignified moments, one can’t help but to root for things to finally work out in his favor. And so they do, when the long tail of the play comes back around to meet itself on the other side of intermission, like that of the titular Great Comet that dazzles both the nineteenth-century countryside and the twenty-first century theatre set. A brilliant beacon heralding a new age. Or, at least, a new path forward for Pierre and for his well-wishers, past and present.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812’ runs through Jan. 15, 2023, at Ashby Stage in Berkeley. \u003ca href=\"http://shotgunplayers.org/online/article/great-comet\">Details here.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s been a good year for composer and playsmith Dave Malloy reconnecting to the Bay Area. His chamber musical \u003cem>Octet\u003c/em> had a Berkeley Rep run in the spring, and, last week, his highly-anticipated West Coast premiere of \u003cem>Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 \u003c/em>opened for previews at the Ashby Stage. Once a Shotgun Players regular — having co-developed \u003cem>Beowulf, a Thousand Years of Baggage\u003c/em> in 2008, and \u003cem>Beardo\u003c/em> in 2011 — Malloy’s triumphal return feels almost pre-ordained. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watch enough theatre in the Bay Area and you start to identify how one moment in an artist’s trajectory connects to another, years, sometimes decades down the line. In \u003cem>Great Comet\u003c/em> are reverberations of Malloy’s earlier works: A riff on a literary manuscript of great importance (in this case, \u003cem>War and Peace\u003c/em>), a reuniting with Imperial Russia, a rock-inflected score revealing the emotional layers of each character before they’re expressed in verse, and a playful quality infusing the action with an undercurrent of genial bonhomie, no matter its weight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13921570\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13921570\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_JacquelineDennis_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Jacqueline Dennis, a Black woman in a pink satin ballgown, stands centerstage in blue lighti, singing with her arms outstretched beneath a large chandelier\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_JacquelineDennis_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_JacquelineDennis_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_JacquelineDennis_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_JacquelineDennis_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_JacquelineDennis_Credit_BenjaminKrantz.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jacqueline Dennis as Natasha in ‘Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,’ by Dave Malloy. \u003ccite>(Benjamin Krantz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This gaiety makes itself known even before the play begins. A Nina Ball-designed banquet table-cum-catwalk stretches from the stage into the center of the room, with the audience seated on either side. An enormous chandelier commands the space from above, a lone chair upholstered in red satin sits at one end of the runway, and the world’s smallest orchestra pit — containing just two musicians — peeks up from its center. (From here, music director Daniel Alley conducts and plays an upright piano while actors spin and prance all around.) Some audience members have come in costume (those who do get free drinks), jello shots are on the menu, and Russian electronica pumps through the sound system. It all adds up to a modern-day approximation of aristocratic decadence circa 1812.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right from the top, Malloy makes this small foray into Tolstoy’s masterpiece as breezy and accessible as possible. There’s no need to have done the reading beforehand. The characters are each introduced by their defining characteristic. Natasha (Jacqueline Dennis) is “young.” Marya (Michelle Ianiro) is “old-school.” Anatole (Nick Rodrigues) is “hot.” His sister Hélène (Angel Adedokun) is a “slut.” And Andrey (James Mayagoitia) — Natasha’s fiancé — “isn’t here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13921569\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13921569\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AngelAdedokun_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"Angel Adedokun walks down a long catwalk, her hand raised in the air. She is a slender Black woman with long textured hair and a purple silk dress and black boots. The ensemble dances behind her.\" width=\"600\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AngelAdedokun_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AngelAdedokun_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AngelAdedokun_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AngelAdedokun_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AngelAdedokun_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AngelAdedokun_Credit_BenjaminKrantz.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Angel Adedokun as Hélène owning the runway in ‘Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,’ \u003ccite>(Benjamin Krantz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>From this point the story follows a predictable, almost melodramatic path. Natasha falls for the rakish Anaotle. Marya (and most of Moscovian society) is appalled. Hélène is an active participant in orchestrating their impending elopement. And Pierre (Albert Hodge) — Hélène’s beleaguered husband, whose satined seat at the center of the room affords him the best, most voyeuristic view into the lives of his play-mates — quietly turns the pages of his leather-bound copy of \u003cem>War and Peace\u003c/em> as its rambunctious contents unfold on the stage in front of him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Natasha, Jacqueline Dennis is a delightful anchor for the staged tempests of Tolstoy. Wearing her ill-advised desire for Anatole as freshly as the virginal rose she wears in her hair, Dennis shines with a celestial radiance that brightens and enhances each performer pulled into her orbit. These include a blissfully lovely duet with her winsome cousin Sonya (Veronica Renner); a blushing acceptance of the effects of her evident charms on Moscow’s elite, gathered around her at the opera; and the rakish whims of Anatole transformed almost to gentleness by her illuminating presence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13921571\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13921571\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_NickRodrigues_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Nick Rodrigues wearing a loose purple silk shirt and tight black trousers holds out his hand and smiles.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_NickRodrigues_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_NickRodrigues_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_NickRodrigues_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_NickRodrigues_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_NickRodrigues_Credit_BenjaminKrantz.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anatole is hot. Nick Rodrigues as Anatole in ‘Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,’ by Dave Malloy. \u003ccite>(Benjamin Krantz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In turn, Nick Rodrigues as Anatole cuts a very convincing cad. His vocals, while sometimes shaky, combine with superlative cheekbones to lend him the blazing sex appeal of a Wham!-era George Michael. Equally matched for heat and charm, Angel Adedokun as Hélène steals almost every scene she’s present in, even when it’s merely as a witness to the forward motion of unstoppable events. She struts down the catwalk like she owns it, flirts outrageously with every person within a 100-foot radius, and pounds out the beat of Anatole’s own overheated heart on a drum as he capriciously plots Natasha’s inevitable downfall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13921568\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13921568\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AlbertHodge_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"Albert Hodge, a Black Man in a furcoat and a brown suit and red satin tie looks into the distance, a red curtain behind him.\" width=\"600\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AlbertHodge_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AlbertHodge_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AlbertHodge_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AlbertHodge_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AlbertHodge_Credit_BenjaminKrantz-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/GreatComet_AlbertHodge_Credit_BenjaminKrantz.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Albert Hodge as Pierre in ‘Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,’ by Dave Malloy. \u003ccite>(Benjamin Krantz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Through all of the tumult and drama and excess, Pierre watches, often silently, from his corner of the room. When he joins the others, he drinks too much and speaks too loudly — a barroom philosophizer with a maudlin streak. And yet, Albert Hodge imbues his Pierre with a gravitas befitting his centrality to the plot. Despite (or perhaps because of) his less dignified moments, one can’t help but to root for things to finally work out in his favor. And so they do, when the long tail of the play comes back around to meet itself on the other side of intermission, like that of the titular Great Comet that dazzles both the nineteenth-century countryside and the twenty-first century theatre set. A brilliant beacon heralding a new age. Or, at least, a new path forward for Pierre and for his well-wishers, past and present.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"39\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12904247\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-160x16.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-240x23.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39-375x37.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812’ runs through Jan. 15, 2023, at Ashby Stage in Berkeley. \u003ca href=\"http://shotgunplayers.org/online/article/great-comet\">Details here.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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},
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"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
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"order": 10
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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},
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"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
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"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
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"order": 1
},
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
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"meta": {
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"source": "WNYC"
},
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
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