Celebrating Malcolm X

In honor of the 84th birthday of Malcolm X, May 19, Sylvie Bayeaux and The Malcolm X Theater Project present Michael Lange in a one-man performance re-enacting Malcolm’s “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech.
Michael Lange has made hundreds of appearances nationwide performing speeches of Malcolm X over the last two decades. Lange, an Oakland native, teaches at San Jose State.  He is an accomplished actor, playwright, director, and musician. He is also the son of author and former television personality, Jerri Lange, and brother of actor Ted Lange.
An Oakland performance will take place on Sunday, May 24, 2 p.m., at the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, 1616 Franklin St.  The cost is $15 or $10 for students and seniors at the door.  Advance tickets are available for $10 at brownpapertickets.com.
A San Francisco performance will take place on Saturday, May 30, 2 p.m., at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) at 685 Mission St.  The cost is included in the $10 general or $5 student and senior admission to the museum.
For information contact (510) 485-6338.

Richmond Cuts Back on Funding For Festivals

By Katherine Tam
West County Times

The economic slump has Richmond city leaders pulling back on how much they donate to local festivals.
The city will provide $45,000 each to the organizers of the Cinco de Mayo and Juneteenth festivals this fiscal year. Officials promised to give the same — not more, not less — to the Homefront Festival next fiscal year.
That is less than what officials gave the festivals last year, when Cinco de Mayo and Juneteenth received $65,000 each. The Homefront Festival received nearly twice as much — $125,000 — as part of a plan to create a “signature event.” Organizers of the three festivals hoped the city would duplicate those amounts this year.
However, the recession has officials thinking twice. The city organizes several events, including the July 3 fireworks and Senior Ball, and cannot afford to fund other events at the same level it used to, Councilwoman Maria Viramontes said.
“I think that’s too much in light of the circumstances we’re in,” she said. “We also have issues we have to be disciplined about here.”
Richmond is holding off on filling as many as 77 vacant positions this year because of declining property tax revenue. It fared better than other cities that have resorted to midyear layoffs or cuts to public services. However, officials are bracing for additional revenue losses next year.
A City Council majority voted Tuesday to give $45,000 to each festival. Councilmen Nat Bates, Tom Butt and Jeff Ritterman abstained.
The National Brotherhood Alliance, which organizes Juneteenth, spent $80,000 last year. The 23rd Street Merchants Association, which hosts Cinco de Mayo along with other civic groups, typically spends about $78,000. The Chamber of Commerce spent $250,000 putting on the Homefront Festival, which celebrates the workers, including women and African Americans, who took on wartime jobs in the shipyards during World War II.
“It costs a lot of money to put on a festival, especially when you’re directed to not charge and have free events for the public to come,” said Judy Morgan, chamber president.
Rafael Madrigal, head of the 23rd Street Merchants Association, agreed. “It’s an investment. Cinco de Mayo brings people to Richmond, so we get better consumerism. If the businesses don’t do well, the (city’s) tax base is affected.”

Performing Arts Center Moves Ahead with $15 Million Renovation

By Katherine Tam
West County Times

To walk into the Winters Building in Richmond’s Iron Triangle neighborhood is to be immersed in a confluence of sound.
On a Thursday evening, a group of teens rehearses a modern dance piece in the main theater. Upstairs, a student practices piano, and a teacher counts off steps as she leads a class in Mexican dance. Members of Iron Triangle Theater cluster around a television, watching a video of their last performance and looking for where they can improve.
San Pablo resident Monserrat Armendaris-Ibarria lists off more than a dozen classes she has taken here, a diverse roster that stretches from urban ballet to Brazilian dance.
“Maybe because I’ve been here so long, I don’t know life without it,” she said.
The East Bay Center for the Performing Arts at Macdonald Avenue and 11th Street is on a mission to reach twice as many students and is embarking on a $15 million retrofit of the historic Winters Building it calls home.
The renovation would create two new 200-seat theaters — one on the ground floor that can double as community banquet space, the other on the second floor — by knocking down walls and reconfiguring the interior. The theaters will be equipped with removable railings and seating, and be used for rehearsals when performances aren’t scheduled. The reconstruction will add 5,000 more square feet of instructional space.
In addition, the building will be brought up to fire safety codes and structurally reinforced with a steel-and-concrete frame behind its walls. The historic facade, with its notable decorative arches that date to 1925, would be preserved and restored. Practice rooms and restrooms would get face-lifts.
Center organizers have been working on collecting about 80 percent of the funds through grants and tax credits since 2004. The city of Richmond has pledged $4.5 million from city coffers. Center organizers are pushing ahead, even amid the recession, and will seek public donations around late August.
They hope to break ground in July and finish in late summer or early fall of 2010, said artistic director Jordan Simmons.
The East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, founded in 1969, taught performing arts and held events at Grace Lutheran Church at 24th Street and Barrett Avenue before relocating to the Winters Building in the late 1970s.
Today, about 2,000 students walk through the doors every year. Most live in Richmond and San Pablo, with a sprinkling from El Cerrito, Berkeley and elsewhere in the East Bay.
What they lack in experience when they first enroll, they make up for in curiosity.
Richmond resident Marshall Hooper, 15, took music classes for three months at school but found he wanted more guidance. He found more structure at the center that helped fine-tune his skills — and in a more social environment than practicing at home alone, he said.
Hooper plays the trumpet, steel drums and is a member of the Iron Triangle Theater, and spends about 12 hours a week at the center. His course schedule reflects the center’s eclectic offerings, which range from acting techniques and guitar to West African drumming and hip-hop dance.
Expanding theater and instructional space at the Winters Building will allow the center to reach more students and hold a larger audience during performances, Simmons said. The existing sole theater seats about 100 and lacks a raised stage, meaning students perform on a floor that’s level with the audience.

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