11/19/15 KSW’s Interdisciplinary Writers Lab

Photo by Nye Lyn Tho

Download the audio by clicking here.

Tonight we bring you powerful words from Kearny Street Workshop’s talented teachers and students of this year’s Interdisciplinary Writers Lab. IWL is a three month, multi-genre class for local writers, challenged to expand their practice by working in a variety of genres and formats. Tune in to hear the fruits of their labor.

A stellar lineup of instructors included: Chinaka Hodge (writing for performance), Nayomi Munaweera (fiction), Brynn Saito (poetry). The IWL 2015 cohort was made up of Celeste Chan, Vida Kuang, Daniel Riddle Rodriguez, Joshua Merchant, Janine Mogannam, Shelley Wong, Phuong Vuong, Helida Silva, Audrey Esquivel, Stephen Tsai, Tanea Lunsford, Irene Tu, Diego Basdeo, Hope Casareno, Paula Junn

Tonight’s show was edited by Justine Lee and produced by Nonogirl.

Community Calendar

A Place of Her Own, an exhibition that asks Asian American women, “if you had a place of your own, what would it be,” opens Thursday at SOMArts Cultural Center. Curated by Cynthia Tom, see the dreams of women brought to life through soul-inspiring sound sculpture, a forest of giant intuitive paintings, and an enormous landscape of hand-built chairs and ladders. The exhibition will be up until December 11.

Saturday at East Side Cultural Center, check out the next in the Spirit of Bandung Series: Black Liberation and Third World Solidarity, presented by Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Haiti Action Committee, Black Alliance for Just Immigration. With U.S. imperialism as a backdrop, the organizations will explore anti- Black violence and movements for resistance, liberation, and self-determination.

On Saturday at UC Berkeley’s Herbst Field Annex Room, check out the Conference on Third World`Multiracial Solidarity and Community Engagement from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. This conference, free and open to the public, will engage activists and scholars involved with the late 1960s Third World Liberation Front Strikes of San Francisco State University and UC Berkeley in issues and concerns facing younger generations.

Also on Saturday there’s the 8th Annual Bike Expo! Whether you are just starting to ride or have been cycling your whole life, the SF Bike Expo is the perfect venue to support those who share the same interest and passion for cycling with booths featuring vendors from fashion and apparel to backyard bicycle fabrications. It’s at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, with a free Bike Valet; $10 parking for cars.

3/18/15 Celebrating Fred Ho

Saxophonist/Cultural Worker Fred Ho from Fred Ho’s Last Year

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This week, we feature the life and impact of Fred Ho. Fred Ho was a composer, an activist, and a radical cancer survivor. The documentary, Fred Ho’s Last Year by Steven De Castro screens at CAAMfest on Saturday, March 21 at the New Parkway Theater at 2:45 p.m.. We bring you a short interview with Jason Bayani from Kearny Street Workshop, a co-presenter of the film, as well as words and music from the Fred Ho Memorial Tribute held in Oakland last year and recorded by producers Freedom Archives.

Community Calendar
Tonight, get your boogie on at the Left Bass Dance Party, a fundraiser for the BlackOut Collective. These are the folks responsible for the West Oakland BART Shutdown and Black Brunch which brings conversation about race into spaces where they need to be had. Hear APEX’s DJLN along with DJ Baagi, T. Rockwell, and Nurelix and local MC Rashidi Omari while raising funds for ongoing #BlackLivesMatter work. The action starts at 9 at Oakland’s Legionnaire Saloon.

A couple weeks ago, APEX featured the struggle of Jo Nan Hui, mother, survivor of domestic violence, and undocumented immigrant. For the past 7 months, she has been held without bail on “child abduction” charges and was recently convicted. On Friday at 6:30, folks will gather at the Korean Community Center of the East Bay for a letter writing campaign so that this brave woman knows there are supporters who stand with her. Build community and solidarity at this potluck letter writing event.

Every 107 seconds, another American is sexually assaulted. Some of our friends who went through the KPFA Apprenticeship Program wanted to create a public way to address the state of violence, specifically in Oakland. So on Saturday from 11 to 3 p.m., head to the Park Community Garden at the corner of Park and Cleveland for  Her Resilience: A Mural Unveiling and Ceremony for Women Affected by Violence in Oakland.

There are also actions on Saturday in Bernal Park and the Mission to commemorate the anniversary of Alex Nieto’s murder by SFPD.

And on Sunday at 5 p.m. at Modern Times Bookstore in San Francisco, local poet Genny Lim and scholar Judy Yung talk about their book Island, which features the poetry and history of Chinese immigrants on Angel Island.