Wanda's Picks

Black Arts and Culture show featuring interviews, music, dialogue and other topical commentaries to savor for the rest of the morning and throughout the week. Both well-known and up and coming artists will be guests. We're not snobs...quality is not date stamped nor is the revolution on prime time yet....Tune in. This morning we featured Dr. Washington Burns, director of Prescott Joseph Center in West Oakland and Ayodele Nzinga, director of the Lower Bottom Playaz, Shakespeare in the Yard. The current show is: Ebony and Johnny, with shows 10/10 and 10/11 at 7 PM and Sunday, 10/12 at 2 PM. This interview was followed by one with African American artists featured in the Days of the Dead Exhibit at SomArts in San Francisco:Malik Seneferu, Kemit Amenophis & Patricia A. Montgomery, and Candi Farlice. The exhibit opens tomorrow evening 6-10 PM, with other special events planned like an artist talk November 1 and a closing party November 4. This engaging interview was followed by one with song stylist, Paula West, who will be appearing this evening at San Francisco Performances' concert at the Herbst Theatre, in San Francisco on Van Ness between MacAllister and Grove Streets. I concluded the show with a conversation with Mrs. Eva Rutland joined by her granddaughter, Eva Fields. Mrs. Rutland, 91 years old now, is the author of the recently reissued, "When We Were Colored, a Mother's Story." She is also the author of a series of romance novels and is working on a book about being a grandmother. She will be at the San Lorenzo Branch Library next week, October 18, at 2 PM and next month at the African American Museum and Library in Oakland. I called her back after the show and we had a great conversation. She couldn't hear me well on the line, so I plan to interveiw face-to-face and perhaps upload the interview later or write an article. We'll see. I am really enjoying her book and plan to go by the West Oakland Branch Library and check out a romance novel by her.