Mini Interview with Theo Aytchan Williams
02 Feb 2011 2 Comments
in MMCompany Interviews Tags: Area, artists, Bay, Community, company, dancer, malia, movement, Musician, Oakland, support, writer
“Samba Funk” by TuffGyal 808
Theo Aytchan Williams: Writer/Musician/Dancer and Lighting Designer for Malia Movement Company Interview 2011
Q#1: Are you a Bay Area Native? and if not, how long have you lived in the Bay? Theo: I am a Oakland native. I grew up on Oakland Ave and hung out around the lake. K- 12 in the town.. Edison Elementary School, which is now a condo complex that Mayor Lionel Wilson “condemned” and relocated the students to Piedmont Avenue and Lakeview Elementaries. The building was bought by developers and is a Condo complex to this day..
Played around the Lake a lot…it’s funny, but the Lake Area is practically unchanged. One change is – like greater Oakland – it’s more racially diverse.
Q#2: When did you start on the creative path you are currently on? Theo: I would have to say in elementary school. I wrote my first Script/screen play in the 6th grade… Very primitive though. We would have creative writing sessions each friday. It was optional for students to receive extra credit by sharing creative writings from the week. Each week I would read something I had written… Sometimes good, sometimes rushed – but I would always read.
Also, my family is very musical. I grew up around lots of singing and music, mostly Gospel. It was the 70′s and the Bay was full of cultural expression. My grandmother was an English and Music Teacher, so we had a piano in the living room… later I had my Aunt Betty’s Fender Rodes electric piano in my bedroom. I never mastered the keys, but I played around a little.
Q#3: Where do you find your inspiration? Theo: I find inspiration all around…. It’s in the children – watching them play and interact and of course listening to and studying the masters. Masters in Education, Music, Dance and even Politics…. Sometimes, something they say or do really sinks in and I have a Ah Ha! moment..
Right now, I’m working with a project called SambaFunk!”Carnaval Explosion” (a new Dance Fitness movement with influences from Funk and Brasilian music). George Clinton, Parliment and Funkadelic have been Major inspirations on our look and OLODUM from Bahia Brasil has greatly inspired the sound.. We have youth in the program and they keep the energy young and vibrant. I try to stay open to new inspirations….
Q#4: What was the first piece of vinyl you ever purchased? Theo: The first piece of vinyl I purchased was a 45rpm by Johnnie Guitar Watson, a favorite of my Aunt Marion.
Q#5: Anything else you’d like to share? a joke/quote? Theo: Thanx for the opportunity to share some of my thoughts and glimpses into my past.. you made me think, for real 
Oakland is a cultural hub and blogs like yours are living proof that our Community is alive and well. We take bumps and set backs but we never quit.
Forward Always Back Never….
Find a Way or Make One…
Thanx again for the opportunity to share…
BlessUp>
Theo.
Mini Interview with Karen Seneferu
01 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
in Interviews Tags: Activist, Area, artists, Bay, Community, Mothers, Oakland, support, women
photo by Hannah Pearl Walcott
Karen Seneferu: Daughter, Mother, Grandmother, Wife, Artist, Educator, Consultant, Community Activist Interview 2011 (here with Malia)
Q#1: Are you a Bay Area Native? and if not, how long have you lived in the Bay? Karen: Yes, I was born and raised in Oakland. I was raised in Oakland during a time where it wasn’t cool to say you were from Oakland. Now, there is such a wide range of people with cultural diverse interest that Oakland has changed to the extent that they say they are Bay Area Native, or more specifically, from Oakland.
Q#2: When did you start on the creative path you are currently on? Karen: I have been in at out of the art world for about 7 years, but consistently, I would say my artwork has been shown in gallery and museum spaces for about 5 years. I have been very fortunate. I also understand that there are those before that did the work necessary for me not to struggle getting my work out there in the world.
I have not always known that I was an artist. It was my husband, Malik Seneferu, a well-established artist and one who has put in the work, who first told me I was an artist by the way I decorated my space. Prior to meeting Malik, people would ask if I was an artist because of the way I dressed. In reflection, I realized then I was using myself as a canvas to express my desire to create, but I did not know it at the time. That was because I had a faulty notion about what was an artist… one who paints figurative on canvas or sculpts figurative out of clay, marble, etc.
Q#3: Where do you find your inspiration? Karen: Initially, my inspiration comes from ancient and ancestral forms. I then incorporate found and recycled objects that I get at local reused stores to advance the imagery in some way. I am also interested in ways the African presence in the world becomes dualistic, paradoxical, and truncated. I focus on how the male and female presence appears static and yet fluid, how the global society shapes African identity, and then how that identity informs the world.
Q#4: What was the first piece of vinyl you ever purchased? Karen: Ah, I remember this like today, lol. It was Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, you know the one with the big, red lips on it. I bought it at Eastmont Mall when the Mall had a record store; I go way back in Oakland. I was 12 years old, and brought her album home, and stared at the album cover, it felt like, for hours. Yes, the artistry during that period in music was creative, but for me, a 12-year girl who was constantly teased because boys viciously said my lips were too big, that cover was transformational. It was the first time I understood I was beautiful because of my lips, and not freakish, or ugly. Of course, like most young girls who were listening to Chaka Khan, I would dance in the living, trying desperately, to imitate Chaka Khan’s dance moves while mimicking her lyrics. It is funny stuff when I look back on it.
Q#5: Anything else you’d like to share? a joke/quote? Karen: Well, ever-single space has a hidden meaning. Whoever enters into that space can be dictated to by that meaning, or the individual can change the meaning of that space. Also, I appreciate you giving me an opportunity to reveal myself to the community.
http://blog.sfmoma.org/2010/02/techno-kisi-interview-with-artist-karen-seneferu/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC5pOlEqfi4
http://www.zvents.com/oakland-ca/events/show/162393045-passage-karen-seneferu-ron-saunders
