African American Traditions in Southern California
African American Traditions in Southern California:
History, Culture, Social Vision, and Challenges
This program provides unparalleled insights into one of the world’s most vibrant cultural communities. Simultaneously, the participants will examine the current challenges facing Blacks in Southern California. Our goal is to build an on-going campus dialogue on the shared futures of California’s communities. Organized around four inter-generational dialogues, the program is designed to appeal to those interested in several discourses: African American expressive culture; social and economic conditions; racial and ethnic disparities; social and cultural movements; public policy; and the history and future of California.
Tradition I. The Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers and Contemporary African American Film
Exhibition: A retrospective of the films of Billy Woodberry, the Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers, and of Gregory Everett
Dialogue with Billy Woodberry and Gregory Everett: Billy Woodberry is a legendary independent filmmaker. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles Film/Television Department with an MFA in production. A founding member of the Los Angeles School, his landmark 1984 feature Bless Their Little Hearts focused on a family in South Los Angeles that is driven to the breaking point by poverty. His 2004 film, Woodberry has taught in the Art School and the Film/Video School at CalArts since 1989 and has been a member of the Board of the Film Forum, Los Angeles since 1998. Gregory Everett is an artist, craftsman, filmmaker, and hip-hop guru. He received his first formal instruction and training in cinema at the Barnsdall Junior Arts Academy for Filmmaking and then received professional training in drama, film, and video at the Ebony Showcase Theatre, Brock Peter’s Communications’ Bridge, and at Los Angeles City College.. Everett is currently producing and directing various documentaries: Black Infant Mortality: Your Generation at Risk; History of the Hood (on the evolution of L.A. street gangs); 41st & Central (the story of the Southern California chapter of the Black Panther Party as told by a father to his a son); and the History of West Coast Hip-Hop.
Wednesday, July 11, 7 - 10pm - Lotte Lehman Concert Hall
Tradition II. The Music of the Watts and South Central Renaissances
Kamau Daaood is the author of The Language of Saxophones: Selected Poems of Kamau Daaood and is the co-founder, with drummer Billy Higgins, of The World Stage Performance Gallery. A former member of the Watts Writers Workshop and the Pan African People’s Arkestra, in 1997 he recorded the critically acclaimed album Leimert Park. Medusa has been compared to Gil-Scott, Chuck D, and Lauren Hill. She is key member of the West Coast underground hip-hop, and artistic community, and was one of the first to consistently perform with a live band She received a Grammy for her work with the band Ozomatli. LA Weekly has voted Medsua LA’s “Best Hip-Hop Artist” two years in a row.
Wednesday, July 25, 7 - 10 pm - Lotte Lehman Concert Hall
Tradition III. Social Vision/ Current Challenges: Children, Educational Reform, and Women’s Health
“School Reform in Los Angeles” Joyce Germaine Watts is on the faculty of the School of Educational Leadership and Change at the Fielding Graduate University. “ The State of African American Children” Cathy Tate is Program Director of Sage, a school-age child care center that serves children and families living in the Nickerson Gardens Housing Development in Watts. “The School to Prison Pipeline" Damien Schnyder is an anthropologist and doctoral candidate in the African Diaspora Program at the University of Texas. Black Women’s Health Disparities in Southern California. Julie Grigsby is an anthropologist and doctoral candidate in the African Diaspora Program at the University of Texas.
Wednesday, August 1, 3-5:30 pm - McCune Conference Room (IHC)
Tradition IV. Social Vision/Current Challenges: Black and Latino Relations
Irene Vásquez is Chair and Associate Professor of the Chicana and Chicano Studies Department at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Ron Wilkins is an expert on Black and Mexican relations, a former SNCC activist, and a professor in the Department of Africana Studies at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Tuesday August 7, 2007 3-5:30 pm - McCune Conference Room (6020 HSSB)