Apr 25 2017

10 Reasons to Groove at Yerba Buena Gardens Festival – 2017 Edition

We’re counting down the Top 10 Reasons to Groove at Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, starting with a look back at the magic from past seasons.

#10: We’ll let this video do the talking!

#9: Arturo O’Farrill.

We open our season on Sunday, May 7, 2017 with the Grammy Award-winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, direct from New York City and led by composer and pianist Arturo O’Farrill, son of jazz legend Chico O’Farrill. Now is the best time to invite your friends!
Kick-off Concert Details

#8: The Children’s Garden Series.

Parents, guardians and their little ones discover all the magic Yerba Buena Gardens Festival has to offer, in fun-sized doses, at our Children’s Garden Series. From zany clowns to world music, dance and incredible acrobatic feats, the family programs are the perfect way to introduce children to the performing arts.
Children’s Garden Series Calendar

#7: Salsa!

There’s no better place to meet friends and make new ones than the ever-popular Let’s Go Salsa@Jessie Series. Every Third Thursday Jessie Square is filled with live salsa music. We’ll see you there!
Let’s Go Salsa@Jessie! Calendar

#6: Yerba Buena Gardens ChoreoFest.

For three days (June 9-11) Yerba Buena Gardens Festival becomes a hotbed of contemporary dance, showcasing a Who’s Who of Bay Area dance companies in site-specific performances, curated by Wendy Rein and Ryan T. Smith of RAWdance. Check out the line-ups!
Day 1 Details Day 2 Details Day 3 Details Facebook Event

#5: New Music!

Several programs this season feature fresh new music, including AXIS Dance Company’s “Occupy – A site-specific journey through an urban garden.” featuring Pamela Z (July 1 & 2), Ensemble Mik Nawooj’s “Death Become Life” (July 15), and Adam Theis’ horn section spectacular, “Brass Convergence II: Protest Brass” (May 20).
AXIS Dance Company Brass Convergence II Ensemble Mik Nawooj

#4: Theater in the park.

Tragedy and comedy grace Yerba Buena Gardens Festival in 2017. SF’s Theatre Rhinoceros presents John Fisher’s “Lear!” (July 7-9), a musical retelling of Shakespeare’s “King Lear” updated to the City by the Bay. Later this summer, the San Francisco Mime Troupe presents its latest production, sure to be filled with biting satire and political commentary (July 23).
Theatre Rhinoceros SF Mime Troupe

#3: Free concerts with your lunch!

Our Thursday Lunchtime programs (12:30-1:30pm) add a kick to any meal. Would you like some reggae to go with that sandwich (RUBaDUB Posse, July 27) or maybe you prefer that pizza with a side of loose and limber jazz (Howard Wiley & Extra Nappy, June 1). A slice of the vibrant Bay Area arts scene every week. Enjoy!
Thursday Lunchtime Series Calendar

#2: Get Lit with Litquake!

Touching requiems, laugh-out-loud farce, or cutting-edge lyricism, anything can happen at Poetic Tuesdays. Every second Tuesday, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival partners with Litquake for a one-hour curated poetry reading featuring four Bay Area poets and a musical guest. Poetic Tuesday kicks off on May 9th.
Poetic Tuesdays Series Calendar

#1: Composer/bassist Marcus Shelby.

As the Resident Composer at Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, internationally acclaimed jazz musician Marcus Shelby has written new music highlighting the connections between the blues and the history of social movements in the United States. This year Marcus presents highlights from his repertoire, and a sneak peek at a work-in-progress.
Marcus Shelby Program Details

Sep 17 2015

eNews Sept 16-30

Summer is HERE!

Programs coming up for September 1–15

Kally Price Old Blues & Jazz Band
Thu Sept 24, 12:30–1:30pm
With her sassy, old-time sound and vast knowledge of pre-World War II songs, Oakland vocalist Kally Price inhabits a musical realm where jazz, blues and pop songs fraternize freely. After Hurricane Katrina cut short her move to New Orleans, Price landed in the Bay Area where she and her all-star band have thrived performing popular and obscure blues and jazz songs from the pre-war era. Inspired by the “purity of expression, individuality and spirituality” in vintage recordings she’s made it her mission “to give voice to these old songs and stories, and to make my own songs inspired by the soulfulness of the old blues, gospel and jazz masters.”
SEE WEBPAGE RSVP ON FACEBOOK

Bay Area Bold Festival
Sat Sept 26, 11am–4pm
Tue Sept 8, 12:30–1:30pm | FreeInteractive art projects, educational activations and varied entertainment from throughout the Bay Area, as well as community activities in collaboration with San Francisco Foundation’s partners:Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, Children’s Creativity Museum, SPUR, Cartoon Art Museum, Contemporary Jewish Museum,Yerba Buena Alliance, and others. Featuring performances by Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble, Alliance for California Traditional Arts, Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center, East Bay Center for the Performing Arts and more.

SEE WEBPAGE

Beyond the Blues: A Prison Oratorio
Sun Sept 27, 1–2:30pm
American history turns into propulsive grooves and thrilling improvisation in the hands of Bay Area bassist/composer Marcus Shelby, a jazz master who knows that the past isn’t past. Commissioned by the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, Beyond the Blues: A Prison Oratorio is his latest work for the powerhouse Marcus Shelby Orchestra (augmented by narrator and vocal ensemble: Tiffany Austin, Joe Bagale, Mujahid Abdul-Rashid, and Kennedy Shelby). Exploring the troubling persistence of the prison industrial complex and its baleful impact on communities of color,Prison Oratorio is Shelby’s latest musical meditation on contemporary American culture.

SEE WEBPAGE RSVP ON FACEBOOK

Great recent moments at YBG Festival

More videos at the YBG Festival YouTube channel.

YBG Festival also recommends…

Live. Local. Downtown. Free.
Wednesdays @6pm and Sundays @2pm
Final season event: 9/23, 6pm – Moonalice
CLICK FOR DETAILS

SoMa’s newest venue for free programs
Thu Sept 17, 12:30-1:30pm: The Songwriter’s Lunchbox
Fri Sept 18, 12:30-1:30pm: Fat Chance Bellydance
Fri, Sept 25, 12:30-1:30pm: Yerba Buena Gardens Festival presents Musical Art Quintet
CLICK FOR DETAILS

Fire-of-Freedom-2015_postcard1-front.jpg-nggid03500-ngg0dyn-475x0x100-00f0w010c010r110f110r010t010

Fort Mason Center Presents in association with Asian Improv aRts, API Cultural Center, and the Chinese Historical Society of America present the World Premiere of

Fire of Freedom
by Lenora Lee Dance
Thu-Sun, Sept 17-20, 2015, 8pm
A new multimedia immersive dance piece that explores cycles of violence and healing.
CLICK FOR DETAILS BUY TICKETS

Regina Carter
Southern Comfort
An Evening of Community & Celebration
Saturday, February 27, 2016, 8pm
Nourse Auditorium
Benefiting Homeless Prenatal Program

CLICK FOR DETAILS

Sep 16 2015

Yerba Buena Gardens Festival Selected as a Grantee of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Arts Innovation and Management Program

Yerba Buena Gardens Festival Will Receive Part of $30 Million Investment to Strengthen Programming and Organizational Capacity

San Francisco, CA — SEPTEMBER 16, 2015 — Yerba Buena Gardens Festival today announced that it is a grantee recipient of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Arts Innovation and Management (AIM) program. Through the two-year initiative, Bloomberg Philanthropies is providing $30 million across 262 small and mid-sized nonprofit cultural organizations around the country to help strengthen their operational and programming efforts, including training in fundraising, audience development and board member engagement.

“Bloomberg AIM is an amazing and unique program that will strengthen San Francisco’s arts organizations at a time when the cultural landscape is shifting dramatically,” says Linda Lucero, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival Artistic and Executive Director. “The Festival is elated to be included in this two-year journey with so many of our colleagues, a journey that will provide access to some of the top nonprofit arts consultants in this country.”

The invitation-only program supports nonprofit cultural organizations based in six cities: Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles and San Francisco. All organizations are locally or internationally recognized nonprofits that have been in existence for at least two years. The grantees are required to participate in a management training program; secure matching funds; ensure 100% board participation in fundraising; and maintain up-to-date information in the Cultural Data Project, an online financial & data collection platform that assists arts organizations across the country to collect, learn from, and use data effectively. The grants are unrestricted so that recipients can use them to address their greatest needs.

Yerba Buena Gardens Festival will use this grant to further focus its marketing and branding efforts and to expand and complement the ongoing educational outreach programs. Bloomberg Philanthropies is partnering with the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland to develop curricula and conduct trainings for the AIM program in each city. The comprehensive workshops engage organizations around activities that strengthen their long-term health and goals and include consultations and implementation support for arts managers and their boards.

First piloted in New York City, Bloomberg Philanthropies supported 245 grantees through AIM from 2011-2013. Participating organizations reported improvements in audience development, board engagement and fundraising over the two-year program.

The Yerba Buena Gardens Festival celebrated its 15th Anniversary in 2015 by presenting over 100 free music, theater, circus, dance, poetry, and children’s programs with artists from around the Bay Area and the world. Named one of the Best Urban Green Spaces in North America by USA Today, Yerba Buena Gardens is a world-renowned cultural destination for Bay Area residents, families, workers, and tourists alike. Yerba Buena Gardens is located between Mission Street and Howard Street and 3rd and 4th Streets in downtown San Francisco.

About Bloomberg Philanthropies

Bloomberg Philanthropies works to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people. We focus on five key areas for creating lasting change: arts, education, the environment, government innovation, and public health. The arts are a valuable way to engage citizens and enhance communities. Through innovative partnerships and bold approaches, the Bloomberg Philanthropies arts program works to increase access to culture using new technologies, empower artists and strengthen cultural organizations to reach broader audiences. For more information, please visit bloomberg.org or follow us Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @BloombergDotOrg.

About the DeVos Institute of Arts Management

The DeVos Institute has served more than 1,000 organizations from over 80 countries since Michael M. Kaiser founded it during his tenure as President of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The Institute has designed its services to assist a wide range of institutions, from traditional performing and presenting organizations, museums and galleries, arts schools and libraries, to botanical gardens, glass-making studios, public art trusts, and non-profit cinemas, to name a few. The DeVos Institute transferred its activities and offices from the Kennedy Center to the University of Maryland in September 2014. The move enables the Institute to expand its global training and consulting programs, enhance its fellowships for North American and international arts managers within the context of a major educational institution, and create a Master’s program that leverages both University and Institute resources.

Contact: Marshall Lamm, marshalllamm@earthlink.net, 510-928-1410.

Aug 31 2015

eNews Sept 1-15

Summer is HERE!

Programs coming up for September 1–15

Asian American Orchestra
1945: A Year of Infamy
Sun Sept 6, 1–2:30pm
Commemorating the 70th anniversary of the atomic devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1945: A Year of Infamy is an epic new work by percussionist/composer Dr. Anthony Brown and his Grammy-nominated Asian American Orchestra. Combining traditional Asian instruments and forms with the improvisational ethic and sonorities of a jazz combo, the AAO joins forces with the Voices Of A Dream vocal ensemble and award-winning poet/performance artist Genny Lim. Scored for jazz orchestra with Japanese flutes, koto, and taiko drums, 1945: A Year of Infamy is also influenced by Gospel, Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, and by Gagaku, the imperial court music of Japan dating back to the 8th century.
SEE WEBPAGE RSVP ON FACEBOOK

Litquake
Tue Sept 8, 12:30–1:30pm | Free
Enjoy line breaks during your lunch break, as some of the Bay Area’s best poets and musicians share their work in the great outdoors.

Alex Green is the author of The Stone Roses (Bloomsbury Academic) and Emergency Anthems (Brooklyn Arts Press). He teaches in the English Department of St. Mary’s College of California. His novel The Heart Goes Boom will be out in November.

Clive Matson embodies a Beat essence writing from the itch in his body. He won Berkeley’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Poetry and PEN Oakland’s National Literary Award.

Deema K. Shehabi is author of Thirteen Departures from the World, co-author with Marilyn Hacker of Diaspo/Renga, and co-editor with Beau Beausoleil of Al-Mutanabbi Streets Here.

Arisa White is a Cave Canem fellow, an MFA graduate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is the author of the chapbooks Disposition for Shininess and Post Pardon, as well as the full-length collections Hurrah’s Nest and A Penny Saved.

Musical guest La Pêche features Paul Bertin (saxophone), Morgan Nilsen (clarinet), and Ofir Uziel (accordion). To have “la Pêche” is French for being particularly upbeat, and that’s what the San Francisco-based band immediately conveys with their furiously fun blend of Balkan-inspired melodies.
SEE WEBPAGE RSVP ON FACEBOOK

Beyond the Blues: Ending the Prison Industrial Complex
Thu Sept 10, 6:30–7:30pm | Free
@Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD)
The Marcus Shelby Quartet presents: Beyond the Blues: Ending the Prison Industrial Complex

Marcus Shelby, noted composer, bassist, and bandleader presents a mini-concert and an interactive discussion on the perils of the prison industrial complex, mass incarceration, ending the death penalty, alternative criminal justices practices, and how music can be a creative vehicle to highlight these issues.

Marcus Shelby’s Beyond the Blues: A Prison Oratorio performed by the Marcus Shelby Orchestra will be presented admission-free on Sunday, September 27 at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

SEE WEBPAGE RSVP ON FACEBOOK

Special Projects

Jazz Latino: Multi-dimensional Artistic Expression in the Americas
Wednesdays Sept 2 & Sept 9, 7-9pm
@Museum of the African Diaspora
John Santos, Instructor
Members: $15 per class
Public: $20 per class

Special for YBG Festival newsletter subscribers:
Use code MOAD to get Member pricing

100 years have passed since the word jazz arose to crown what would become our country’s national art form. Jazz has come a long way in that time, and Latin American elements have played a major role in its formation, development, and current state, and will certainly affect its future.
TIX & MORE INFO

Great recent moments at YBG Festival

More videos at the YBG Festival YouTube channel.

YBG Festival also recommends…

Live. Local. Downtown. Free.
Discover the unexpected at Union Square Live’s free outdoor music, dance, theater, film, comedy and more. Every Wednesday at 6pm and Sundays at 2pm.
CLICK FOR DETAILS

SoMa’s newest venue for free programs
CLICK FOR DETAILS

At the Children’s Creativity Museum…
ROBOT CODING
September 4, 2015 | 10:00am to 4:00pm
Drop-in workshops aim to introduce coding to children ages 5+ in a fun and hands-on way.
CLICK FOR DETAILS

Fort Mason Center Presents in association with Asian Improv aRts, API Cultural Center, and the Chinese Historical Society of America present the World Premiere of

Fire of Freedom
by Lenora Lee Dance
Thu-Sun, Sept 10-13 and 17-20, 2015, 8pm
A new multimedia immersive dance piece that explores cycles of violence and healing.
CLICK FOR DETAILS BUY TICKETS

Aug 26 2015

Beyond the Blues: A Prison Oratorio

The following article is contributed by YBG Festival’s Resident Artist, musician/ composer/ educator Marcus Shelby. We have commissioned Marcus to create Beyond the Blues: A Prison Oratorio. Here is Marcus’s update on this important project’s evolution. Marcus discusses the prison industrial complex and performs excerpts from Beyond the Blues: A Prison Oratorio at the Museum of the African Diaspora on Thursday September 10, 2015 at 6:30pm.

“Beyond the Blues: A Prison Oratorio” is a musical suite for big band orchestra and vocal ensemble. The music is inspired by my past 2 years of researching the “Prison Industrial Complex,” which has included working with my research partner, Jackie Ramos, in visiting jails, prisons, juvenile justice centers, attending conferences, meetings with stakeholders and community representatives, holding community discussions, receiving Restorative Justice training, collaborating with other creative artists, and thinking daily about how music and indeed art in general can be powerful ways to raise the consciousness around mass incarceration and to promote a more humane criminal justice system.

Photo of Jackie Ramos holding a hand-written sign at the Unseen Project at Alcatraz

Photo and quote from Kmani Baxter from Unseen Project at Alcatraz

Photo from the Arts Corrections Conference

As with our previous long form compositions about history or social justice (“Port Chicago”, “Harriet Tubman”, and “Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”), our newest piece called “Beyond the Blues: A Prison Oratorio” uses the blues as the foundation of musical inspiration and exploration. Sometimes this is realized in form and sometimes in concept. Nevertheless, I am in constant pursuit of how to use the blues as a way of understanding our history and the world around me.

“Beyond the Blues: A Prison Oratorio” is composed for my orchestra which includes the following instrumentation and vocals:

alto 1/flute 1
alto 2/clarinet 2
tenor 1/clarinet 1
tenor 2/clarinet 2
baritone sax/clarinet 3
3 trombones
3 trumpets
piano
guitar
bass
drums
5 vocalists: Tiffany Austin, Kennedy Shelby, Joe Bagale, and Mujahid Rashid

I am excited for the performance on September 27, 2015 at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival! I’m honored to be working with the YBG Festival as always and thankful to other organizations such as the MAP FUND, The Red Poppy, and MoAD for their support and development of our work.

Onward and Upward! (Billy Stayhorn)

~ Marcus Shelby

Visit the Beyond the Blues project website
Join the Sept. 10 Presentation
Attend the Premier of Beyond the Blues

You can support Beyond the Blues