Mini Interview with Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi
24 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Interviews Tags: Activist, Area, artists, based, Bay, Community, DJ, Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi, Filmmaker, Photographer, support
“Beautiful Browns” by TuffGyal 808
Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi: Filmmaker Interview 2011 (shown here w/Pierre Knox & Robert Trujillo)
Q#1: Are you a Bay Area Native? and if not, how long have you lived in the Bay? Eli: Home is where the heart is, I have lived in the bay longer then I have lived anywhere else.
Q#2: When did you start on the creative path you are currently on? Eli: I remember at age 9 I went to a visual arts summer camp and I took a video production and photography class. In high school my mom bought a Hi8 camcorder and I took it as my own. At UC Berkeley in Loni Ding’s class I found out I could make this my profession, and the rest is history.
Q#3: Where do you find your inspiration? Eli: I find inspiration from the people around me and from the movements around the world working on creating peace through justice. I’m inspired by people who do so much with so little.
Q#4: What was the first piece of vinyl you ever purchased? Eli: The first vinyl I bought was Criminal Minded by Boogie Down Productions.
Q#5: Anything else you’d like to share? a joke/quote? Eli: My mom would always tell me:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Used by Nelson Mandela in his 1994 inaugural speech
Pecha Kucha Night at Oaksterdam University
22 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Events
Fri October 7, 2011… “Women Creating Public Art“
“Agana” by TuffGyal 808
Join the Estria Graffiti Arts Festival for Pecha Kucha Night at Oaksterdam University “Women’s Art in Public”. Ten women will present images on graffiti, street art, and murals created by women, Pecha Kucha style! *This event is 21+
Presentations by:
Juana Alicia, master muralist
Susan Cervantes, founder Precita Eyes Mural Arts Center
Erin Yoshi, Trust Your Struggle
Nancy Hernandez, #WaterWrites director
Favianna Rodriguez, political print maker
Cece Carpio, Trust Your Struggle
Meme, founder Few & Far
Siloette, San Francisco muralist
Lucha, San Francisco writer
Pilar Castillo, SPARC archivist
MC: Malia Connor
DJ: Agana
What is Pecha Kucha?
PechaKucha 20×20 is a simple presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images forward automatically and you talk along to the images.
Mini Interview with Chaz Cabonce
22 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Interviews Tags: Area, artists, Bay, BBoy, Choreographer, Community, dancer, HipHop, support, Support Bay Area Hip Hop
“Shoreline” by TuffGyal 808
Chaz Cabonce: Pop/Lock Dancer and Choreographer Interview 2011 (shown here with Doc Lock)
Q#1: Are you a Bay Area Native? and if not, how long have you lived in the Bay? Chaz: I AM A BAY AREA/SF NATIVE.
Q#2: When did you start on the creative path you are currently on? Chaz: Technically, when I was 7 yrs old.. winning my dad’s company xmas party disco dance comps for kids. hahaha 1977.
Q#3: Where do you find your inspiration? Chaz: I find inspiration from almost anything.
Q#4: What was the first piece of vinyl you ever purchased? Chaz: RAPPER’S DELIGHT the 12″
Q#5: Anything else you’d like to share? a joke/quote? Chaz: strive to be timeless…
Mini Interview with Afele Ulualofaiga Coleman
22 Sep 2011 2 Comments
in Interviews Tags: Activist, Area, artists, Bay, Brother, DJ, HipHop, Polynesian, support
“Bruddah Lay” by TuffGyal 808
Afele Ulualofaiga Coleman: DJ Activist Interview 2011
Q#1: Are you a Bay Area Native? and if not, how long have you lived in the Bay? Afele: I consider myself a Bay Area Native because I lived most of my Life here.. pretty much since I was a baby, mostly in SF,Bayshore and Geneva all day.. but I was born in Torrance,CA (SoCal).
Q#2: When did you start on the creative path you are currently on? Afele: I feel like I was set on this path since birth. As far as really finding my voice and using my words/music/other kinds of art to express myself (and to express my gratitude for the Growth I have found within my Life) I am really just beginning.. with new eyes and a new found fearlessness that only comes from overcoming certain trials and tribulations. Love is the foundation.
Q#3: Where do you find your inspiration? Afele: It could be in my baby nieces smile or a quiet conversation with one of my closest aunties; in my Polynesian Roots, nature, struggles or within my Sisters and Brothers; it could be a night out with my cousins, at family gatherings or a spontaneous conversation with a stranger… The Bay Area! Meeting and connecting with people such as yourself is always a Blessing and very inspirational.
Q#4: What was the first piece of vinyl you ever purchased? Afele: hmmm… wow! Its been a long time since then, dang I can’t even remember and I don’t have too much of a vinyl collection but the first record I ended up scratching the hell out of as a kid, on my regular ass turntables,was my Uncles copy of the “Do The Right Thing” soundtrack. lol!! I used to try my best to cut that thang up and emulate what I heard on the radio.
Q#5: Anything else you’d like to share? a joke/quote? Afele: I Love all of my Family! I Love that God never gave up on me and has set me on a path that I am still getting used to. I am truly grateful for all the wonderful people that I have been meeting and connecting with, and for the opportunities for Growth that come with that. I wasn’t always so unafraid to express myself but I hope that whoever reads this will find their voice and the courage to express themselves from their Heart. My ultimate goal in Life is to buy my Mom a house… yup, not rent. Its time to connect and be a positive influence on each other… encourage each other to grow and progress and let Love and compassion be the foundation. Together, We can! One last thing: I want to share an old Samoan proverb that has become one of my favorites, “We are moved by Love but never driven by intimidation.” OneLove!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Samoan-Solutions/131322913600154?sk=info
Mini Interview with Hilary Jacobs
21 Sep 2011 2 Comments
in Interviews Tags: Area, artists, Bay, chef, Community, Hil's Cooking, support, women
“Hil’s Cooking” by TuffGyal 808
Hilary Jacobs: Owner/Chef of Hil’s Cooking Interview 2011
Q#1: Are you a Bay Area Native? and if not, how long have you lived in the Bay? Hilary: yes. I am a Bay Area native.. born and mutha f***ing raised!!
Q#2: When did you start on the creative path you are currently on? Hilary: My creative path started for me about almost 8yrs ago working at a pre-school and cooking for the kids…They would have rice crackers for snack all the time. Couldn’t have that, I started making them fried rice and garlic pasta, Scambled eggs with basil, they don’t even know what hit them.
Q#3: Where do you find your inspiration? Hilary: I love going to the grocery store it’s my meditation. I go through every aisle..
Q#4: What was the first piece of vinyl you ever purchased? Hilary: I bought my first vinyl for a boyfriend and I believe it was a whole box from a yard sale.
Q#5: Anything else you’d like to share? a joke/quote? Hilary: My present thought ” I could use a massage everyday!”
Mini Interview with Keith Hennessy
21 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Interviews Tags: Activist, Area, artists, Bay, Choreographer, Community, dancer, Social Justice, support
Keith Hennessy: Dancer/Choreographer/Activist Interview 2011
Q#1: Are you a Bay Area Native? and if not, how long have you lived in the Bay? Keith: Born in northern Ontario, lived in the Bay since 1982… 29 years.
Q#2: When did you start on the creative path you are currently on? Keith: It would be wrong to say anything other than since birth, but my first dance performances were in highschool to the song Car Wash when it was released in 1976.
Q#3: Where do you find your inspiration? Keith: My muse is the struggle for social justice. My inspiration comes from improvisation and experimentation with the amazing and mysterious human body, connecting to the world.
Q#4: What was the first piece of vinyl you ever purchased? Keith: Bootsie Collins, Ahh the name is Bootsy Baby, 1977.
Q#5: Anything else you’d like to share? a joke/quote? Keith: I’m not going to hate myself just because I don’t love myself. (Ronja Ver, 2010).
Mini Interview with Socorro Flores Dalton
08 Sep 2011 1 Comment
in Interviews Tags: Area, Bay, Community, ESAA, support, Teacher, women, YOGA
Socorro Flores Dalton: Yoga Instructor Interview 2011
Q#1: Are you a Bay Area Native? and if not, how long have you lived in the Bay? Socorro: I am a Bay Area Native from Frisco and living in Oakland now.
Q#2: When did you start on the creative path you are currently on? Socorro: my first job when I moved to New York was at a Yoga studio (Jivamukti yoga) and I was the receptionist at 18. I never heard of Yoga before and they required staff to take 2 classes a week, which is how I was accidentally introduced to the practice. this is also when I was first introduced to the huge disparities in yoga (rich, white, slender etc.). both through my own personal yoga experience and through the critical analysis of who was attending these classes, I was moved to bring yoga to the communities I feel need it most, and make it affordable accessible and acceptable.
Q#3: Where do you find your inspiration? Socorro: I find it through living in my communities and wanting the best for them, my family, myself. I think of yoga as a tool to survive in a society where low-income people of color were not meant to thrive.. many of the chronic diseases afflicting our communities are stress related. Yoga is an amazing tool to help you find out who you truly are, feel abundance and joy, and give you a fighting chance to stay sane, calm, be able to take care of both our mental and physical health in ways that are not harmful. Whether you want it to or not, Yoga is going to dually change your body and alleviate any ailments of the mind or vice versa..
Q#4: What was the first piece of vinyl you ever purchased? Socorro: umm I am not sure I’ve ever purchased vinyl but the first piece of music I ever purchased I think was Amel Larrieux (joking).. I think it was the WuTang’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) album. lol
Q#5: Anything else you’d like to share? a joke/quote? Socorro: Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them. -Dalai Lama
Mini Interview with Ellen Sebastian Chang
05 Sep 2011 1 Comment
in Interviews Tags: Activist, Area, artists, Bay, Community, Director, Mothers, movement, Renowned, support, Teacher, women, writer
Ellen Seabastian Chang: Director, Writer and a Creative Consultant Interview 2011 (shown here with her husband)
Q#1: Are you a Bay Area Native? and if not, how long have you lived in the Bay? Ellen: I was born in Seattle, Washington. And my “wonder bread” years were spent in a small farming community in Eastern Washington called Pasco. I moved to the Bay in 1970… so I guess by now I am almost “native”. I have always lived here in the East Bay. I have seen the Bay go through some amazing changes over the past 41 years.. some of them break my heart but I am not a nostalgic person for the good old days.
Q#2: When did you start on the creative path you are currently on? Ellen: I think it is interesting that you pose the path as currently on — I started my creative path as a teenager and the course of that path has been long for me. That path included a love of poetry; an obsession with film especially non-American film; in college I fell in love with and studied lighting design and had hoped to join the union but became a director instead. I have developed theater projects for homes, for a fountain with a skateboard crew, in small art galleries and radio plays, created numerous solo works and toured a large scale production called “Sanctified Church” about the work of Zora Neale Hurston. I have directed a Ukrainian folk opera and a Balinese Dance drama.
All of this is to say I am fascinated by culture. There has been various times when I have said I am not good enough for this path or I will not be successful on this path and I have considered other avenues but I now accept that this path of creativity is meant for me. It may look different to people who know me recently, or people who are just becoming acquainted with me and the work I choose to do but it is has been a path always in search of what makes us human. What is the essence of our humanity — the good, the bad and the ugly and most of all the beauty.
Q#3: Where do you find your inspiration? Ellen: My Mama, grandmother, from Mississippi was my first inspiration — the way she told stories and animated them with her body and cigarette smoke. When my daughter was born 14 years ago, the early morning breast feeding in the shadow world of her nightlight also became inspirational. The streets and watching public interactions are a big inspiration. These words of poetry from Mary Oliver’s Wild Geese “Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting ” And recently the sci-fi work of Nnedi Okorafor. To me it is impossible not to be inspired when I look outside of my own fears, worries and ego. The world is full of wonder.
Q#4: What was the first piece of vinyl you ever purchased? Ellen: The first piece of vinyl was the 45 of “Going to a Go-Go” by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. It was also the first really big lie I told my Mama. I was asked to walk to the local store to buy hamburger.. a pound of it for a dollar. The black owned store also sold records and I wanted that record soooo bad. When I came home with out the hamburger, I lied, saying I lost the money thinking I could get away it. I played that record for the rest of the afternoon. That night at dinner when I came to the table the 45 was on my plate. My Mama said, “You think I don’t know what comes in and outta my house? Now you eat Smokey Robinson!” I cried. I could not listen to that record again but it still held a big place in my heart. And today it is still one of my favorites because it taught me later in life about the depth of choice and consequences.
Q#5: Anything else you’d like to share? a joke/quote? Ellen: An old Moms Mabley joke: Two Old Women walking down the street. One turns to the other one and says, “I smell hair burning.” Other one says, “Maybe we walking too fast.”
I love it because it is no longer relevant in the age of the Brazilian Bikini Wax. I love it because it keeps me mindful of change, relevance/irrelevance but it still makes me laugh.
