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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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SoMa’s newest venue for free programs
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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.
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Fort Mason Center Presents in association with Asian Improv aRts, API Cultural Center, and the Chinese Historical Society of America present the World Premiere ofFire 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.
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