7/16-19 On Your Mark, Get Set, Compete!!!

If you’re just bursting at the seams to see some top notch athleticism and can’t wait ’til this Summer’s Olympics, or if you’ve just got a gaggle of kids running around with nothing to do over the next 4 days, then the 42nd Annual US Youth Games have the cure for what ails ya.

From now through Saturday, hundreds of the country’s best young athletes will be descending on the city for a full palate of muscle stretching, brain bending competition. Teens ranging from 13-15 will be participating, Olympic style, in tons of competitions including Basketball, Volleyball, Soccer, Swimming, Track and Field, Bowling, Golf, Double Dutch Jump Rope, Chess and Academics. The games also feature alternative Boating and Table Tennis exhibitions for the kiddies.

Things kick off tonight with the Opening Ceremonies over at Woodminster Amphitheater and continue at various locals around the city starting tomorrow.  Get the full schedule over at the event website, then get out and support the next generation of US Olympians.-kwan

6/18 Silence the Violence Day

Silence the Violence 2007.  Photo courtesy of Ella Baker Center.

The Silence The Violence Campaign, working together with members of Leadership Excellence and United Playaz as well the administrators from Oakland, Richmond and San Francisco have declared June 18 as the official Bay Area Silence the Violence Day. Throughout the area candlelight vigils are being held to memorialize those lost to violence in the first 6 months of 2008 while issuing an areawide call for peace.

In a press statement from the Ella Baker Center, Silence the Violence campaign director Nicole Lee said that “curbing violence is a community effort and our community is putting out a united call for peace.” The flagship event tonight at Defremery Park in West Oakland will include the vigil as well as speakers from the community and families who have been effected by violence.

There’s been a lot of talk of public safety, halting violence and Oakland’s transformation into a model city. In addition to memorializing those we’ve lost already, tonight offers a great opportunity to get out, meet people who are doing grassroots work around the issues and create a plan for action, so we don’t have to memorialize any more.-kwan

6/5 Temescal Street Cinema

Break out your beach chair, grab some noshables and make your way over to the Bank of the West Building on Telegraph for some free outdoor cinema courtesy of the Temescal Street Collective, a new organization promoting community and merchant involvement around the 50th and T-graph area.

Tonight’s inaugural show includes the Oscar nominated “La Corona,” a character-driven documentary that follows four inmates competing for the crown in the annual beauty pageant of the Bogota Women’s Prison. I’m willing to bet they’ll be no worldwide press tour and national acclaim for these beauties behind bars, but it should be interesting viewing. Also on the bill is One’s Duty, a dark comedy set in Chile, and a performance by Afro Reggae cover band Faux Mojo. And if you’re rolling up on two wheels, you might want to get there early for a little pre-cinema bike ride courtesy of Tip Top Bike Shop.-kwan (Hat tip to Momma for the heads up)

Photos: San Francisco Carnival

The Mission was alive and in full color this weekend for the city’s annual Carnival celebration. Sunday’s parade brought out tons of people who lined Mission St. waving flags, dancing along with the festival music and soaking up the festivities. Check out the pictures from the event.-Kwan

5-16-08 O-Scene Weekend

Featured Event:

Extra Action Marching Band

Those among us lucky enough, or unfortunate enough (depending on your circumstances), to have logged time in the marching band while in school have a particular view of all those after school games, concerts and weekend parades that the rest of you lucky people will never know: spending hours in a hot ass band room, practicing the same tired score over and over (Flight of the Bumble Bee? I mean come on…); trying unsuccessfully to sneak into the Color Guard and Cheerleader cabin during Band Camp; playing horn in a sweltering military gettup while sweat drips down your face and into your reed; waking up at the butt crack of dawn on those frigid fall mornings, lacing up the spats for that long parade march (if you were lucky enough to march Core Style you got some reprieve, Big 10-my heart goes out to you).
But of course, those are just the blisters talking. Because when you get right down to it, there’s really nothing like the sound of a couple hundred strong, human music machine making it’s way down Main St. And when the band is really cranking-when the corps is lucky enough to get a director that shrugs off conventional standards and dips into the real funky stuff-well, let’s just say that the reason football games like the Bayou Classic sell out every year has very little to do with touchdowns.
And that’s where the Extra Action Marching Band hits the sweet spot. For the last 10 years the 35 plus member band has been foregoing the sports arenas and bringing the psychadelic marching band funk straight to the people-with as much raunch and sweat as you can cram into their customarily crowded shows.
By combining Vaudeville like performances, Lousiana Brass Band chops and Burning Man freakishness with a commitment to create as much chaos and manic dancing as possible, Extra Action is pure Bay Area music. Led be a polysexual color guard of nearly naked flag wavers and cheerleaders, the band of horn players, drummers and barkers is known for slinking off the stage and through the crowd and will just as soon break into a rendition of Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love” as they will a Black Sabbath tune, lacing everything with a sheen of glitter, beer and sweat. Extra emphasis on the sweat.
They’re joined Saturday night at the Uptown by the “Sophisticated Country Funk” of Apple Pie Hopes and Michael Musika for what should be a packed and over the top show; with just enough sex appeal to make up for those lonely nights at band camp.-Kwan

Extra Action Marching Band
$12
5/17
9pm
The Uptown
1928 Telegraph Ave, Oakland
http://www.uptownnightclub.com/

5/12 U.S Youth Chess Tryouts

Every year the U.S. Youth Games brings the best young athletes from around the country to duke it out on the playing field, on the court and on the game board. The games host thousands of youth from across the nation, participating in Olympic-style competitions including Basketball, Volleyball, Soccer, Swimming, Track and Field, Bowling, Flag Football, Chess, Double Dutch Jump Rope and just about every other sport you can shake a baton at.

From July 16 to the 19th they’re bringing the rumble to Oakland and tryouts for the games are taking place thoughout the city during the month of May. Tonight it’s time for all the young grand masters and future Bobby Fischers to test their castle control over at the F.M. Smith Recreation Center. Youth age 15 and under are invited to come out and try for a place on official the Oakland team. Check the Oakland Parks and Rec website to get more info and the full tryout schedule.

5/2 Novoscene Weekend

Image courtesy of Hip Hop for President

Wake yo Game up!

I don’t think there’s much debate around the significance of the upcoming presidential election. Not only do we have two candidates, a woman and a black man, that have a damned good chance of winning the top spot but we also have the chance to unseat the party responsible for the last 8 years of failed international policy, economic downturns and general Anti US sentiment worldwide. To just say we have a lot at stake here would be a big ol’ fat understatement.
But the thing is, just how much does your vote count if things really don’t change much when the next set of suits step into the White House? And is saying that you voted in a historic election really that significant if it’s the only community minded thing you do all year? What about the historically low voter turnouts in low income communities nationwide? If anything, the people who need to have the loudest voices are often the most disenfranchised. What do we do about it?
These are the kinds of questions that’ll be flying around the room at the Oakland Museum tonight during the Wake Yo Game Up panel discussion and performance presented by the Town Business Network. A panel of deep thinkers, community organizers and activists are hoping to get down to the nuts and bolts of the electoral process, focusing the discussion on how to turn the political rhetoric into practical action, the factors affecting voter participation in urban communities and where do we go after the election, no matter who wins. The panelist will be addressing the issues with a particular focus on hip hop culture and ways that artists and cultural influencers can be a part of the change. Speakers will include Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, writer and historian Davey D, radio personality Chuy Gomez, journalist Eric K. Arnold and Town Business Network founder Charles Johnson. -kwan
Wake Yo Game Up!
Free
7-9:30
Oakland Museum
1000 Oak Street, Oakland
510-776-4644

4/19 Community Day at MOAD

Since it opened in downtown San Francisco 3 years ago, the Museum of the African Diaspora has proved to be a great addition to the city’s downtown museum district. It’s historical exhibits-ranging from traditional quilts to Ethiopian art retrospectives-provide access to works and subjects not often seen in traditional museums and galleries, while more modern works like Carrie Mae Weems’ The Louisiana Project and a recent survey of contemporary African Art stand up to works found at the nearby SF MOMA and Yuerba Buena Center.
Today the museum is opening it’s doors for free and offering a day of family fun and events including tapas tastings and jewelry and textile making classes. There’ll also be West African drumming by Oakland’s Bantaba Ensemble, performances by Mamadou and Vanessa - Mali Blues trio, and the Prescott Circus Theater’s youth drumming stilt walkers. Bring the kids and get some culture.

Museum of the African Diaspora Community Day
Free
11am-4pm
Museum of the African Diaspora
685 Mission St, San Francisco
415.358.7200
www.moadsf.org

4/11/08 Novoscene Weekend

Friday, April 11

Femi, Photo by Andreas Branch

R & B Fridays w/MoeSoul and Femi

Maybe it’s something in the Bay Area water that’s made the region such fertile soil for sultry soul, R&B and funk singers over the years, but whatever it is-from the Pointer Sisters to Sugar Pie DeSanto to the current crop of soul, hip hop and rock influenced musicians-there’s no denying that the Bay’s soul.

MoeSoul and Femi are two of the shining stars in a galaxy of talented but largely underground singers hitting up spoken word spots and jazz joints around the area. The Oakland divas to be have been putting in work for years, gigging from Jack London to Lagos and playing gigs with everyone from Les Nubian to Nelson Mandela.

MoeSoul is more of the straight ahead R&B singer. With sweet songs of lost loves, found loves and all the holdovers in between, she adds a moving soundtrack to the art getting busy. Femi’s music is a bit harder and belies her African and Puerto Rican heritage as she blends soul and hip hop with hints of salsa and rock-a little bit Mary J Blige rolled in with a little Tribe Called Quest and Celia Cruz.

Catch both singers performing with a live band tonight as part of Maxwell’s R&B Friday’s series. Proof that the funky legacy continues.

R & B Fridays w/MoeSoul and Femi
$10 presale, $15 at the door
9pm
Maxwell’s Restaurant & Lounge
341 13th Street, Oakland
(510)839-6169
www.maxwellslounge.com

4/7 Anti Violence Town Hall

When the 100 Families Project was created the participants planned on using art and the resources available within individual neighborhoods to work towards a more violence peaceful Oakland. They knew they’d have to face several obstacles, but no one thought the issues in the community would come to their door with quite so much force.

On Wednesday, February 27, gunshots were fired outside the Market St. YMCA where participants in the program where gathered for their weekly dinner and planning session. Families were waiting outside when a car pulled up and opened fire. While no on was hurt in the shooting and a motive still hasn’t been determined, the very next morning another shooting occurred a few blocks away ar 32nd and San Pablo, this one fatal.

So in the spirit of the program’s focus on community involvement and dialog, the 100 Families Project, along with St. Mary’s Center and Hoover Elementary school are sponsoring a town hall and planning session tonight. The focus will be on how local residents can work together and find concrete solutions to the city’s problems with violence and community tension.