Linda Thomas Jones is considered one of the founding mothers of female African drumming in the United States. She began her career in drumming at the age of 18 as a dance major at Case Western Reserve University. She studied African drumming both in Ghana and with world-renowned Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji and Dr. Charles[…]
Shortly after her arrival to live in the US in 1999, Julia founded the Chinyakare Ensemble which performs traditional Zimbabwean music and dance. Currently, Julia performs with Chinyakare, teaches dance, music, and culture in Oakland schools and in the greater Bay Area community. Julia has also started her own clothing line inspired by African designs,[…]
Wanda is an urban farmer, educator and comrade to many in the movement to educate and inspire others to grow their own food and communities. Believing that the skills to grow food and medicine, maintain a healthy being, and live cooperatively are essential to our collective survival, she reframes our shared history and trauma, especially[…]
Susana Arenas Pedroso is an internationally recognized Cuban Folkloric and popular dancer. Born and raised in Havana, Cuba, Ms Pedroso began her career in dance at age twelve, studying at La Casa de Cultura de Matanzas and at Cojunto Folklorico Nacional in Havana. She danced professionally for seventeen years in Cuba with popular, folkloric and theatrical[…]
A social justice activist for more than 20 years, Q consistently strives to bring together the various communities to which he belongs. Q is a self-identified queer, gender independent, sex worker, actively non-monogamous/polyamorous, sex-positive, leather boi, and pleasure professional.
Odilia Galván Rodríguez, poet, writer, editor, educator, and activist, is the author of six volumes of poetry, her latest, The Nature of Things, is a collaboration with Texas photographer, Richard Loya, by Merced College Press 2016. Also, along with the late Francisco X. Alarcón, she edited the award-winning anthology, Poetry of Resistance: Voices for Social[…]
Michaelle Goerlitz has been playing drums and percussion since she was eight years old. After attending college in the Midwest, she moved to San Francisco in 1980 to continue her studies, which have led to exploration of Brazilian, Afro Cuban, Venezuelan, and Middle Eastern rhythms (plus American idioms jazz, R & B & funk). She[…]
Gladys “Bobi” Céspedes has been at the forefront of representing and promoting Cuban music in the U.S. for more than 40 years. A vocalist, band leader, and educator, she first won acclaim as co-director and lead singer for the award-winning family band Conjunto Céspedes, which played pre-salsa Cuban son dance music and recorded and toured[…]
Edwina Lee Tyler is master of the West African Djembe drum. She is acclaimed as one of the earliest pioneers of the women’s drumming movement. During the 1970’s Edwina heard the call of the drum and went to Africa to study. Edwina was the founder and director of “A Piece of the World” an African[…]
Christelle Durandy’s artistry is a mosaic; a cross-cultural jazz combination that draws upon a vast spectrum of Soul, Caribbean and Latin inspirations. The melodic threads of her musicianship transcend borders and weave an international music fabric rooted in her loyal love for percussion, polyrhythm and for words and languages rhythmic concepts. Preserving her stylings, Christelle[…]
Hello my name is Ayisha Knight-Shaw, and I grew up in Oakland, California to a white Jewish mother and a Black and Cherokee father. I’m very fortunate because I grew up being exposed to a multitude of different cultures, and all of these experiences I took to heart with a mutual respect and understanding. While[…]
Annette A. Aguilar – multi-percussionist, recording artist,educator, producer and bandleader – was born in San Francisco into a family from Nicaragua. She began playing music at the age of eleven. At sixteen, she was recognized for her percussion playing and began sitting in and performing with internationally renowned Latin artists such as members of the[…]
Angela Porter (photo at left), IMF, CATC, CMT, is an addiction treatment specialist, and Marriage and Family Therapist. Trained in Counseling Psychotherapy, Gestalt Awareness Practice, and Integrative Body Psychotherapy, body-mind integration is the basis of her work. She is a certified Breema instructor, and has been teaching Breema since 1998, to healing professionals internationally. Until[…]
Corrina is a Chochenyo and Kerkin Ohlone woman born and and raised in Oakland, CA, Corrina is the mother of three children Corrina is the Co-Founder and a Lead Organizer for Indian People Organizing for Change(IPOC), a small Native run organization that works on Indigenous people issues as well as sponsoring an annual Shellmound Peace Walk[…]