by Mark Aspillera
Come to Patio Español to join this bilingual fundraiser event for the 30th Street Senior Center. Senior citizenship is strictly optional and not required in order to attend.
Salsa lessons and dinner at 6:30 pm. Latin dance music will be provided until 10: 30 pm by DJs Entertainment and Sound Connection.
Demonstrations of Tango, Salsa and Mambo dance will be performed at the event by Oye Productions.
All proceeds go to 30th Street Senior Center programs such as “Always Active,” a senior-oriented fitness program and the new computerized “Brain Fitness” program.
The event begins on Friday, Oct. 24, 2008 at 5:30 pm. For more information on 30th Street Senior Center or the dance party, call (415) 292-8732 or E-mail Cynthia Tam at ctam@onlok.org.
Consciousness, community, liberation: fulfilling the promise of ‘68
Come to San Francisco State University to join special guests and invited scholars as well as alumni, students and faculty for this free commemoration of the 1968 San Francisco State student-led strike.
The event recognizes the 40th anniversary of the longest student-led strike in history. It will commemorate “the event’s legacy in social justice, student leadership and access to higher education.”
Issues to be discussed range from student activism, civil rights, and social justice to equity in the political, educational and economic spheres.
Event begins Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008 at San Francisco State University on 1600 Holloway Ave. on 19th Ave. Register and obtain a full schedule of events and speakers at http://www.sfsu.edu/~ethnicst/home5.html. For information call (415)338-1694 or e-mail fortieth@sfsu.edu.
Imperial Silence: Una Ópera Muerta/A Mariachi Opera in Four Acts
Director John Lota Leaños celebrates the Day of the Dead in this collaborative multimedia production in San Francsco.
The four-act opera integrates animation and a soundtrack of Mexican folklore dance, Mariachi music, hip-hop, bossa nova and blues written and performed by Leaños, composer Cristóbal Martinez, Mariachi ensemble Los Cuatro Vientos and actor Sean Levon Nash. Performers include a live DJ, stage actors, folklore dancers and Mariachi singers who interact with projected animations.
“Imperial Silence” will be performed twice concurrently on Nov. 1 and 2, 2008 at the Brava Theatre Center and Mission Cultural Center for the Latino Arts, respectively. Tickets for the Brava Theatre performance can be obtained for $10-$15 at (415) 647-2822. Mission Cultural Center (415-821-1155) tickets are $5 with free admission for children.
Día de Los Muertos family concert
The Mexican Day of the Dead is set to be welcomed by the San Francisco Symphony’s first-ever performance of a Día de los Muertosfamily concert in the Davies Symphony Hall.
The performance features compositions by Mexican composers José Pablo Moncayo, Silvestre Revueltas and Astor Piazzolla among many others. Performers with the symphony include composer Enrique Arturo Diemecke, violinist Danielle Belen Nesmith and Peter Soave on bandoneón.
SFS has joined with the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts to offer a series of pre-concert activities in the Davies Symphony Hall lobby. These include face painting for children, refreshments such as pan de muerto and Mexican hot chocolate and a centerpiece Día de los Muertos altar, commissioned by SFS and created by Mexican artist Herminia Albarrán Romero.
Doors to the symphony will open on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2008 at 1 pm. The concert begins at 2 pm. Tickets range from $15-$57. Children under the age of 17 may enter for half price. Order tickets via the SFS Box Office at (415) 864-6000, or http://www.sfsymphony.org.
Origins
Dance Monks and guest musicians Samavesha are putting on the San Francisco premier of “Origins,” a collaborative performance piece at Theater of Yugen’s Noh Space Origins is an experimental project drawing inspiration from the legends of multiple ancient cultures. The project addresses these legends as “a legendary place, a cultural landscape, an ancestral identity, an inescapable longing, a source of life, a spring, a seed of creation, an essential beginning.”
Tickets run from $15-$20 on a sliding scale. Reservations can be booked by calling (415) 621-7978. Noh Space is located on 2840 Mariposa Street, San Francisco. Show premiers on Nov. 18 and Nov. 19, 2008. Additional information can be found on http://www.dancemonks.blogspot.com and http://www.theatreofyugen.org.
