by the El Reportero’s staff
The man behind the 2005 Oscar winning film “Syriana” and former CIA operative Robert Baer will explain why America needs to negotiate directly with Iran. He contends that American foreign policy has kicked Iran down the road for 30 years, and the time has come to open dialogue with the burgeoning regional power.
Baer, considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Middle East will also explain why he maintains that America’s hopes in the Gulf lie in a peaceful collaboration or even an alliance with the fastest growing power in the Middle East.
Bear recently visited Iran to interview suicide bombers, a grand ayatollah, the hard-line chief of staff of Iran’s military forces and the terrorist chief of Hezbollah.
Baer’s two novels See No Evil and Sleeping with the Devil became the basis for the 2005 Academy Award winning film “Syriana.”
At 6 p.m. check-in | 6:30 p.m. program, at The Veterans Memorial Hall, 3780 Mt Diablo Blvd., Lafayette. $12 for Members | $18 for Non-Members | $7 students.
Barbara Lee: The renegade for peace and justice
Congresswoman Barbara Lee will explain how her political career has become defined by her personal experiences and why she strives to speak for those in need of a voice in Washington. From the HIV/AIDS pandemic to the genocide in Darfur, Lee has fought to end the grossest injustices of our time.Congresswoman Barbara Lee will explain how her political career has become defined by her personal experiences and why she strives to speak for those in need of a voice She will chronicle her rise from being a young, single mother of two working for the Black Panther Party’s Community Learning Center to one of Congress’s most progressive and respected voices.
At 11:30 a.m. Check-in | Noon Program Club office, Friday, March 27, 2009, at 595 Market St., 2nd floor, San Francisco. To buy tickets call 415/597-6705 or register at www.commonwealthclub.org.
Book Release “Yolanda M. López” by Karen Mary Dávalos
Artists talk: A conversation between Dr. Amalia Mesa Bains and Yolanda López Ms Lopez’s book is part of the series “A VER: Revisioning Art History” by UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press. In this groundbreaking overview of Yolanda M. López’s life and career, Karen Mary Davalos traces the artist’s participation in Bay Area activism in the late 1960s and her subsequent training in conceptual practices.
Davalos explores how López’s experiences informed her art, which ranges from posters to portraiture and the highly influential Guadalupe series to later installations.
López has consistently challenged predominant modes of Latino and Latina representation, proposing new models of gender, racial, and cultural identity.
Yolanda M. López reveals the complexity of the artist’s work over time 2and illuminates the importance of her contributions to Chicana/o art, Chicana feminism, conceptual art, and the politics of representation. Friday, March 27, 7-9 pm $5 Main gallery, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, 2868 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94110, (415) 821 1155. www.missionculturalcenter.org.
Eduardo Peralta on Tour from Chile in Concert with Rafael Manriquez
Rafael Manríquez has been one of the leading exponents of Latin American music in the San Francisco Bay Area for over twenty years.
Peralta, ingenous payador, returns from his native Chile for a concert of his most popular songs. He will be joined by Rafael Manriquez who will perform songs from a new compilation CD of Chilean music produced by the Smithsonian Folkways. On Friday March 27, 2009. $13 adv. $15 dr. – 8pm.
La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley 510-849-2568 http://www.lapena.org/event/1044.
La hora del Planeta Tierra
A cast of artists selected for their developed, ingenious and original world arts.
With ranchero and balad singer Araceli Zamora, Colombian dancer Adriana Sánchez and her group Colombian Soul. Also an exposition of a variety of brush artist arts and poets work. At Colombian restaurante El Majahaul, at 1142 Valencia St., San Francisco. Starting at 8:00 p.m.
