To update information or submit an event, email ACTA.
Rustic Splendors: Kiln Treasures From Shiwan
Through March 2006
Pacific Heritage Museum
608 Commercial Street
San Francisco, CA
The Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco and the Pacific Heritage Museum will cosponsor Rustic Splendors: Kiln Treasures from Shiwan. This exhibit of Chinese ceramics will feature one hundred forty one pieces, on loan from nineteen Bay Area collectors, ranging from the Ming Dynasty (AD 1368-1644) to the present.
For more information call the Chinese Culture Center at (415) 986-1822 or visit the center’s website.
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On the Red Road
Through March 2006
Marin Museum of the American Indian
Miwok Park
2200 Novato Blvd.
Novato, CA
This exhibit is a photographic essay depicting the cultural expression of America's first people. Over sixty color photographs grace the wall with dancers and family portraits. Beaded moccasins, purses, and eagle headdress from the late 1880's compliment the photographic display.
Museum Hours: Tuesday through Friday 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
For more information visit the museum’s website.
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Serving the Lwas: Vodou Gods of Haiti
Through March 19, 2006
Craft and Folk Art Museum
5814 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA
Vodou (Voodoo), is a widely practiced religion in Haiti that combines
elements of Yoruba-based African traditions with New World Catholicism.
It is also the source of much of the island's rich artistic productivity.
Widely misunderstood and sensationalized in the media, Vodou inspires
and empowers its practioners who most commonly refer to it as serving
the lwas - or Vodou deities.
Contemporary Vodou flags, metal sculptures, photography and work on
canvas are exhibited. Featured artists include: J.B. Jean Joseph, Sylva
Joseph, Georges Vilris, Jose Delpe, Joseph Libernier, Georges Liatuad,
Pascal Giacomini, Jude Thegenus and Edouard Duval-Carrie.
Admission: $5
Museum Hours: Wednesday through Sunday 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
For more information visit
the Craft and Folk Art Museum’s website.
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Dragons, Drums, Firecrackers, and Floats: A Chinese American
Tradition
Through March 19, 2006
The Chinese Historical Society of America
965 Clay Street
San Francisco, CA
One of the largest parades in the world, San Francisco’s Chinese New Year
Parade is also one of the oldest in the nation – a uniquely Chinese
American celebration with roots in old Chinese traditions.
Designed to attract tourism and business to Chinatown, the parade and
the larger Chinese New Year festival draw participants from around
the country. Using photographs, memorabilia, and props, the exhibit
traces the historic and cultural roots of the parade and provides a “behind the scenes” look
at this event. The items and artifacts document the history of a community
celebration that represents the strong bond between San Francisco and
its Chinese American identity and population.
Admission: $3
Museum Hours: Tuesday through Friday 12:00pm – 5:00pm;
Saturday and Sunday 12:00pm – 4:00pm
For more information visit
the Chinese Historical Society of America’s
website.
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A Chocó house, Darién, Panama, in the 1950s.
Photograph from the William and Evelyn Phillips Collection.
Passage to Panama: Past to Present
Through April 2, 2006
San Diego Museum of Man
Balboa Park
1350 El Prado
San Diego, CA
Curated by Grace Johnson, Passage to Panama: Past to Present is based on the research, collections, and photographs of William and Evelyn Phillips taken in the 1950s. This exhibit describes the lives and culture of the Guaymí peoples of the mountains of Chiriquí and Veraguas and the Chocó peoples of the Darién in the 1950s.
The Chocó, currently known as the Wounaan/Embera people, live along the rivers in the Darién region of Panama. This exhibit centers on their environment and their daily life, including rituals and healing. The Museum's collection of baskets highlights Chocó culture, which is further detailed through displays of wooden bowls, hunting and fishing implements, traditional dress and jewelry, and carved wooden staffs.
The lives of the Guaymí, presently known as the Ngöbe, are recounted through their daily lives by looking closely at objects they use in their households, such as gourds and woven hats, as well as musical instruments associated with the balsaría ceremony. The exhibit also looks at how these indigenous groups are affected by other cultures by considering their art and economy, and examining the wide range of contemporary baskets, jewelry, and woodcarvings made for sale.
Photographs taken by Dr. Julie Velasquez-Runk and Dr. Philip Young between 1997 and 2004 give a sense of the current life of indigenous peoples of the Darién. Contemporary photographs of Panama and historic and contemporary images of the Panama Canal illustrate life in Panama as it is today.
Admission: $6
Museum Hours: 10:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. daily
For more information visit the museum’s website.
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Inside Lunar New Year: Auspicious Food and Decoration
Through April 2006
Oakland Asian Cultural Center
Pacific Renaissance Plaza
388 9th Street Suite 290
Oakland, CA
The exhibition provides an educational exploration of Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese cultures for the Lunar New Year celebration. The exhibit will display the meaning of symbols and colors, explain various activities people engage in during the Lunar New Year, and share the history behind auspicious foods and decorative family traditions.
Admission: Free
Museum Hours: Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
For more information visit the Oakland Asian Cultural Center’s website.
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¡Carnaval!
Through April 23, 2006
Fowler Museum of Cultural History
UCLA Campus
Hilgard and Strathmore Avenues
Los Angeles, CA
This exhibit explores the revelry of Carnival festivals as they are enacted today in eight different geographic and cultural regions. This lavish exhibition presents approximately fifty elaborate costumes and numerous masks reflecting a range of masquerade and performance themes that represent traditions in these sites: Laza, Spain; Venice, Italy; Basel, Switzerland; Oruro, Bolivia; Tlaxcala, Mexico; Recife/Olinda, Brazil; Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago; and New Orleans. These unique celebrations and rituals are brought to life through photographic murals and short video programs of recent Carnival festivities in these locales, allowing visitors to explore the history and evolution and experience the sights and sounds of this vital celebration.
Admission: Free
For more information visit the museum’s website.
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Carnival in Europe and the Americas
February 5, 2006 through April 23, 2006
Fowler Museum of Cultural History
UCLA Campus
Hilgard and Strathmore Avenues
Los Angeles, CA
Photographs by Robert Jerome feature contrasting Carnaval celebrations around the world from the Black Forest to the Canary Islands to Mobile, Alabama and many spots in between.
Admission: Free
For more information visit the Fowler Museum of Cultural History’s website.
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The Art of Being Kuna: Layers of Meaning Among the Kuna of Panama
Through May 14, 2006
San Diego Museum of Man
Balboa Park
1350 El Prado
San Diego, CA
The Art of Being Kuna: Layers of Meaning Among the Kuna of Panama is a major traveling exhibition that presents a view of the Kuna culture as seen through its expressive arts: the Kuna's central concern for form and beauty in everyday life, narratives, rituals, healing, and visual arts such as Kuna women's molas (textiles). The Kuna people live on the San Blas islands and Atlantic coastline of Panama. The exhibit showcases Kuna culture through a wide range of objects including baskets, wooden objects, molas, and gold jewelry. Large-scale photo panels with supportive descriptive panels and visual documentation, depicted in an environment suggestive of a Kuna village and video stations add depth to the presentation.
Admission: $6
Museum Hours: 10:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. daily
For more information visit the museum’s website.
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Norway –Art of the Land and the People
Mingei International
Balboa Park
El Prado and the Plaza de Panama
San Diego, CA
This exhibit celebrates 100 years of Norwegian independence. On display are arts of daily life including metalwork, jewelry, festival costumes (bunads), textiles, rosemaling-decorated pottery and furniture, and a group of Norwegian-American immigrant chests from the 18th century. A substantial group of objects are on loan from the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa. Many others are from private San Diego collections.
Bunads, or festival dress, uniquely designed to represent their districts, are worn by both men and women on ceremonial occasions. Distinct from folk dress, but often inspired by traditional designs, bunads were first made in the 19th century. They are characterized by hand-woven textiles, elaborate embroidery and silver buttons and jewelry.
Rosemaling, or rose painting, flourished in rural Norway between the beginning of the 18th century and the last quarter of the 19th century. Based on foliage and flower motifs from the Renaissance and Baroque Periods found in the towns, rosemaling decorated rural pottery, furniture and interiors. As with bunads, styles of rosemaling varied from district to district.
Wood carving in Norway includes the chip technique (karveskurd), identified by its geometric patterns, and a low relief technique (flateskurd), emphasizing vine tendrils and leaves. After the building of the Cathedral of Oslo in 1699, in which the acanthus leaf with its vine tendril was a new decorative motif, a typically Norwegian motif emerged combining the acanthus and tendril with flowers, angels and Biblical scenes.
Admission: $6
Museum Hours: Tuesday through Sunday 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
For more information visit the museum’s website.
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February
Jamie Laval with Ashley Broder
February 4, 2006 – 8:00 p.m.
California Traditional Music Society’s Center for Folk Music
16953 Ventura Blvd.
Encino, CA
Jamie Laval, winner of the 2002 U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Championship, will perform with Ashley Broder, winner of the Western Open Master Picker Championship.
Admission: $20
For more information visit the California Traditional Music Society’s website.
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Nevenka in Concert with the Yeseta Brothers
February 4, 2006 – 8:00 p.m.
Throop Unitarian Universalist Church
300 S. Los Robles Ave.
Pasadena, CA
This event features Croatian songs and tamburica (a long-necked
fretted string instruments) music, followed by a dance party.
Admission: $15
For more information call (818) 907-7340 or visit
Nevenka East European Folk Ensemble’s website.
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An Evening of Mystical Persian Dance and Poetry
February 4, 2006 – 7:00 p.m.
Bullard Talent Middle School
4950 N. Harrison
Fresno, CA
The Iranian Culture & Art Club of Fresno presents Banafsheh Sayyad
and NAMAH Ensemble with dancers Kelly Archbold and Angela Chiodo and
a poetry reading by Maryam Sayyad.
Admission: Free
For more information call (559) 709 – 3851 or visit
the NAMAH Ensemble’s website.
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African Influences on South American Dance
February 4, 2006 – 1:00 p.m.
California Academy of Sciences
Academy Classroom
875 Howard Street
San Francisco, CA
In honor of African-American Heritage Month, Afro-Peruvian drummer Lalo Izquierdo, a former master in ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program, has organized a performance of Peruvian and Bolivian dances influenced by African music. The Spanish conquistadores brought African slaves to the Americas in the 1600s to work in the coastal plantations of Peru and in the silver and gold mines of the Andean altiplano. Over time, African and indigenous rhythms merged to form new hybrid styles of music and dance.
Lalo has choreographed a selection of dances that pay tribute to his African heritage. The cueca was originally part of an Angolan marriage ritual, and today is the national dance of Bolivia. The festive alcatraz was once danced around a bonfire in the Peruvian cornfields and is characterized by sensuous movements as the dancers compete for partners. The festejo was popular with the mestizo population working in the plantations of Peru. The Bolivian caporal (meaning farm manager) is a quick, agile dance that represents the gait of the mulatto overseer as he patrolled the citrus plantations in the subtropical Yungas region of Bolivia; the sound of the chains worn by the slaves is incorporated into the dance.
This program was funded by a generous grant from the Creative Work Fund.
For more information visit the California Academy of Sciences’ website.
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Ana Moura
February 4, 2006 – 8:00 p.m.
February 5, 2006 – 3:00 p.m.
Getty Center
Harold M. Williams Auditorium
1200 Getty Center Drive
Los Angeles, CA
Portuguese vocalist Ana Moura will perform fado music, a Portuguese folk music style that is characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics about lost love, separation, and longing.
Admission: Free
For more information visit the Getty Center’s website.
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107th Annual Golden Dragon Parade and Chinese New Year Festival in Los Angeles
February 4-5, 2006
Broadway and Hill Streets
Los Angeles, CA
The 107th Annual Golden Dragon Parade, one of the oldest parades in the country, will take place on Saturday, February 4 from 2pm- 4pm along Broadway and Hill Streets. Over 50 floats, bands, and parade elements will participate, including the newly crowned Miss L.A. Chinatown Queen and Court.
The Chinese New Year Festival will take place along New High and Spring streets in Chinatown on Saturday and Sunday, February 4 and 5. Festival hours are 10am to 9pm on Saturday, and 10am to 6pm on Sunday. Highlights include lion dancers, a “Masters of Mahjong” tournament, an import tuner car show, children’s activities, live music, cooking demonstrations, and 500-person Tai Chi exhibition at the 10am opening ceremony on February 4. In keeping with “The Year of the Dog,” several canine events are planned for Sunday February 5.
Admission: Free
For more information visit the event’s website.
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Khac Chi – Sounds of Vietnam
February 6, 2006
10:00 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.
700 Auditorium Drive
Redding, CA
This concert features Chi Khac Ho on dan bau (one string
zither) and Boc Ngoc Hoang on t’rung (bamboo xylophone), k’longput (percussion
tubes), and ko ni. Their repertoire includes
traditional melodies, including festive songs, lullabies, and love
songs.
Admission: $25
For more information visit
the Shasta County Arts Council’s
website.
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Lunar New Year Celebration in San Francisco
February 7, 2006
11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Asian Art Museum
200 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA
This Lunar New Year celebration features hands-on art projects, artist demonstrations, tours, storytelling, and special performances by the Chinese American International School, Vietnamese musicians Unity Nguyen, Tibetan dance and opera ensemble Chaksampa, and the theatrical storytellers Eth-Noh-Tec.
The celebration incorporates the New Year’s traditions of various Asian countries, from Japanese Oshogatsu, Chinese Xing Nian, Thai Songkran, and Vietnamese Têt, to Korean Solnal, Tibetan Losar, Indian Divali, and Cambodian Chaul Chhnaim
Admission: Free
For more information visit the Asian Art Museum’s website.
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Spirit Keepers: Keeping Chinuk Wawa Language Alive
February 8, 2006
7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Agua Caliente Cultural Museum
Spa Hotel
Cahuilla Room
Palm Springs, CA
Tony Johnson (Chinook) is the Cultural Education Coordinator and acting Cultural Resources Division Manager for the Confederated Tribes of Grande Ronde in northwest Oregon. Tony's presentation will address the history of the Chinuk Wawa language and its revitalization in Grande Ronde. He will focus on current successes as well as the difficulties involved with this task. Tony will share history, language, philosophy, and perhaps a song or traditional story from his homeland in the Pacific Northwest.
Admission: Free
For more information visit the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum’s website.
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Chinese Music and Dance by Peony Performing Arts
February 9, 2006 – 7:00 p.m.
Asian Art Museum
Samsung Hall
200 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA
Courtesy of World Arts West
The Hou sisters—Shuang Sabrina and Xiaomu—perform in the tradition of Kunqu Opera. Fourth generation descendants of a performing arts family from Beijing, the sisters carry forth the artistry of their deep-rooted family legacy.
Admission: $10
For more information visit the Asian Art Museum’s website.
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Russian Festival 2006
February 10 – 12, 2006
Russian Center of San Francisco
2460 Sutter Street
San Francisco, CA
The 18th Annual Russian-American Celebration of Food, Dance, Music and Art featuring Russian dancers and singers, traditional Russian food and pastries, tea from antique samovars, lacquer boxes from Paleqh, Baltic amber jewelry, and a vodka tasting bar.
Admission: $10
For more information visit the Russian Center’s website.
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Preserving the Spirit: Arrow Making
February 11, 2006
10:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
February 12, 2006
11:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Agua Caliente Cultural Museum
Village Green Heritage Center
219 South Palm Canyon Drive
Palm Springs, CA
Learn the essentials of traditional arrow making with Amil Pedro (Cahuilla/Quechan). Amil's instruction will include a basic lesson on flint knapping, arrow shaft straightening, and fletching techniques. Advanced participants will also have the chance to produce atlatl spears. This will be a 2-day workshop with open enrollment for either day. Materials for arrow construction will be provided.
Admission: $20 for one day; $35 for two days
For more information visit the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum’s website.
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2006 Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco
February 11, 2006
5:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Market & Second to Kearny & Jackson
The Southwest Airlines Chinese New Year Parade is the largest event of its kind outside of Asia. Since 1958, the parade has been under the direction of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. A San Francisco tradition since just after the Gold Rush, the parade is viewed by hundreds of thousands of people that come to watch it on the street or tune in to watch it on television. Some of the parade highlights are the elaborate decorated floats, school marching bands, stilt walkers, lion
dancers, Chinese acrobatics, the newly crowned Miss Chinatown U.S.A. and the 201 feet Golden Dragon (“Gum Lung”). This year’s parade ushers in the year of the Dog, lunar year 4704. The Dog is associated with benevolence and good fortune.
Admission: Free
For more information visit the event’s website.
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The 2006 Monterey Park Lantern Festival
February 11 – 12, 2006
Downtown Monterey Park
Entrances at Garfield Ave. or Alhambra Ave.
Monterey Park, CA
Yuan
Xiao Jie is a traditional Chinese festival celebrated on the 15th day
of the first full moon of the New Year. The Lantern Festival marks
the end of the Chinese New Year celebration. This year’s
celebration includes live music, martial arts demonstrations, and chinese
cultural arts demonstrations of traditional arts such as embroidery
and calligraphy. Traditional Lantern
Festival food will be served such as Tangyuan dumpling balls. A
variety of lanterns will also be displayed. Lanterns come in
many different shapes such as animal, bird, flower and fish. Some lanterns
are shaped like fruit, such as oranges and pineapples although some
are very modern like rocket and satellite lanterns.
There are many cultural traditions associated with the lantern festival. On
the second day of the first lunar month, newly married couples bring New Year's
gifts to the woman's parents. The parents give them two lotus lanterns, one white
and the other red, to hang when they return home. On the night of the Lantern
Festival the young couple hangs them beside their bed, and they light candles
in the two lanterns. After that they wait and see which candle burns out first.
If the candle in the white one burns out first, it means they will have a baby
boy; if the candle in the red one burns out first, it means they will have a
girl. In earlier times, young women and men did not have free social contact.
Therefore, the Lantern Festival became an opportunity to look for marriage partners.
Popularly referred to as Chinese Valentine's Day, during the festival singles
gather to play matchmaking games with the lanterns to determine who will be their
lover.
Admission: Free
For more information visit
the event’s website.
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Dr. Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys with Laurie
Lewis and Tom Rozum
February 17, 2006 – 8:00 p.m.
Royce Hall
UCLA Campus
Los Angeles, CA
Singer
Ralph Stanley helped bring the mountain style of bluegrass music to
mainstream audiences with his raw emotion and three-fingered banjo
technique. A member of the Bluegrass Hall of Fame, and a National Heritage
Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts, Stanley recently achieved
wider acclaim after winning a
Grammy award for his performance on the blockbuster O Brother,
Where Art
Thou? soundtrack. This performance also features the acoustic duo
of singer and fiddler Laurie Lewis with frequent collaborator Tom Rozum on
mandolin and strings.
Admission: $25 – 45
For more information visit
UCLA Live’s website.
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Perú Negro
February 17, 2006 – 8:00 p.m.
February 19, 2006 – 7:00 p.m.
Zellerbach Hall
UC Berkeley Campus
Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave.
Berkeley, CA
Perú Negro, an ensemble founded in 1969 to preserve and celebrate
Peru's black heritage, will perform Afro-Peruvian music. Playing on
a wide variety of traditional instruments, these artists perform many
different types of songs including the landó (a
mix of Spanish and African rhythms), festejo (festive
music), and alcatráz (a flirtatious
couple’s
dance).
Admission: $22 – $40
For more information visit the Cal Performances’ website.
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7th Annual San Francisco Tamburitza Festival
February 18 - 19, 2006
The Slavonic Cultural Center
60 Onondaga Ave.
San Francisco, CA
In the past decade the Slavonic Cultural Center has annually showcased tamburitza music in California. On President's Day weekend each February; the Center is filled with singing, dancing, and the music of the tamburitza. The ensembles perform for listening, play dance tunes, polkas and waltzes and circle dances, and sing Becar tunes until the bar closes late at night. This year’s featured performers include Sinovi of Chicago, Sidro, and the Slavonian Traveling Band.
Tamburitza is a word with a variety of meanings. Most literally, it is the affectionate diminutive of tambura, any one of a number of long-necked fretted string instruments derived from those brought to the Balkan Peninsula by the Turks and Roma (Gypsies) in the 16th century.
Admission: $15
For more information visit the Slavonic Cultural Center’s website.
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The Sons of the San Joaquin
February 19, 2006 – 7:00 p.m.
Bret Hart Theatre
Angels Camp, CA
This event features singing cowboys Jack, Joe, and Lon Hannah who
pay tribute to the Sons of the Pioneers.
Admission: $25
For more information visit
the Calaveras County Art Council’s
website.
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Sweet Honey in the Rock
February 24, 2006 – 8:00 p.m.
Zellerbach Hall
UC Berkeley Campus
Bancroft Way at Telegraph Ave.
Berkeley, CA
Founded in 1973, Sweet Honey in the Rock is an a cappella ensemble that performs a range of African-American musical traditions, capturing the diverse sounds of blues, spirituals, traditional gospel hymns, rap, reggae, African chants, hip hop, ancient lullabies, and jazz improvisation.
Admission: $24 – 46
For more information visit the Cal Performances’ website.
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Chookasian Armenian Concert Ensemble
February 24, 2006 – Fresno
February 25, 2006 – Berkeley
February 26, 2006 – Felton
The Chookasian Armenian Concert Ensemble will perform a concert program of traditional Armenian songs and dances.
February 24, 2006 – 7:00 p.m.
California State University Fresno
Whitfield Hall
2485 East San Ramon
Fresno, CA
February 25, 2006 – 7:30 p.m.
Freight & Salvage Concert Hall
1111 Addison Ave.
Berkeley, CA
February 26, 2006 – 7:00 p.m.
Don Quixote’s Music Hall
6275 Highway #9
Felton, CA
For more information visit the Chookasian Armenian Concert Ensemble’s website.
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Taste of the Wild
February 25, 2006
6:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
The Maidu Interpretive Center
1960 Johnson Ranch Drive
Roseville, CA
This fundraiser features participatory art, wild game food, silent
and live auctions and a new exhibit entitled “When Rocks Collide.” Proceeds
will assist with future exhibits at the Maidu Interpretive Center.
Admission: $39
For more information please call (916) 774-5934 or visit
the Maidu Interpretive Center’s website.
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Hinamatsuri Origami Dolls Craft Class
February 25 – 26, 2006
1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Japanese American National Museum
369 East First Street
Los Angeles, CA
Ryosen Shibata will teach participants how to make dolls from folded paper in preparation for the celebration of Hinamatsuri, or Girl’s Day, a festival held on March 3, when families display traditional dolls and pray for the health and happiness of their young daughters.
Admission: $19
For more information visit the Japanese American National Museum’s website.
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Colors of Israel
February 25, 2006 – 8:30 p.m.
February 26, 2006 – 2:30 p.m.
Janet and Ray Scherr Forum Theater
Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza
Thousand Oaks, CA
Keshet Chaim Dance Ensemble pays homage to the distinctive cultures
that make up Israel and the Jewish Diaspora with a program of music
and dance featuring Israeli singer Noa Dori.
Admission: $36 – 72
For more information visit
the Keshet Chaim Dance Ensemble’s
website.
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Grupo Capoeira Brasil-Mestre Boneco
February 26, 2006
2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Skirball Cultural Center
Skirball Center Drive
Los Angeles, CA
Grupo Capoeira Brasil-Mestre Boneco presents a performance of capoeira,
a centuries-old Afro-Brazilian art form that combines martial arts,
acrobatics, the playing of traditional instruments, and song. It was
developed by the slaves of Brazil as a form of resistance against their
oppressors and a tool for uplifting their spirits and maintaining their
culture. The performance is followed by a workshop.
Admission: $9
For more information visit
the Skirball Cultural Center’s website.
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Spices in Your Gumbo: The Uniqueness of New Orleans Music
February 28, 2006 – 5:00 p.m.
Lenart Auditorium
Fowler Museum of Cultural History
UCLA Campus
Hilgard and Strathmore Avenues
Los Angeles, CA
Jazz pianist and visiting Regent Scholar Henry Butler celebrates Fat
Tuesday at the Fowler Museum through his examination of New Orleans'
multi-musical personalities. Through lecture and demonstration, Butler
explores the ebb 'n' flow of New Orleans music, its impact upon other
musical styles, and the future of the city's musical culture in the
wake of the storm.
A five-time W.C. Handy "Best Blues Instrumentalist - Piano" award
nominee, his piano style is an amalgam of jazz, Caribbean, classical,
pop, R&B and blues influences, exemplary of the eclecticism of
his New Orleans birthplace. Additionally, Butler has taught music workshops
throughout the country and initiated a number of different educational
projects, including a residential jazz camp at Missouri State School
for the Blind and a program for blind and visually impaired students
at the University of New Orleans. Co-sponsored by the UCLA Department
of Ethnomusicology.
Admission: Free
For more information visit
the Fowler Museum’s website.
March
South Indian Classical Music Concert
March 4, 2006 – 8:00 p.m.
Herrick Chapel
Occidental College
Alumni Ave.
Los Angeles, CA
The Music Circle presents a concert of South
Indian Carnatic music with Shashank on flute, Purbayan Chatterjee,
a student of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, on sitar, and Satish Kumar on mrdangam.
Admission: $25
For more information visit
the Music Circle’s website.
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21st Annual Jewish Music Festival
March 4 – 26, 2006
Various San Francisco Bay Area locations
This 21st Jewish music festival celebrates Jewish music with concerts
throughout the Bay Area. Featured performers include New Orleans
Klezmer All-Stars, cantors Alberto Mizrahi and Jack Mendelsohn, Beyle
Schaechter-Gottesman, Yiddish songwriter, singer, poet and recipient
of the 2005 NEA National Heritage Fellowship Award, and Yair Dalal,
a former artistic mentor in ACTA’s
Folk and Traditional Arts Mentorship Initiative.
For more information visit
the Berkeley Jewish Community Center’s
website.
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Nrityagram Dance Ensemble
March 9, 2006
CSU Monterey Bay World Theater
100 Campus Center
Seaside, CA
Dressed in ornate costumes of flowing, colorful fabrics and silver
jewelry, the Nrityagram Dance Ensemble uses the vocabulary of movement
to tell stories based on ancient myths, folk tales, and love ballads.
Direct from the outskirts of Bangalore in southern India, this ensemble
transports viewers to worlds of magic and spirituality through Odissi,
the oldest of India’s seven classical
dance forms.
For more information 831- 582-4580 or visit
Monterey’s
online cultural calendar.
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Masters of Persian Music – Shajarian, Alizadeh, and
Kalhor
March 9, 2006 – 8:00 p.m.
Mandeville Auditorium
UC San Diego Campus
9500 Gilman Dr.
La Jolla, CA
Mohammed Reza Shajarian, a master of Persian traditional singing earned
a Grammy nomination for Best World Music in 2004. His son, Homayoun
Shajarian, makes his debut on this tour. He has studied Avaz,
a particular Persian vocal style, with his father, and is an accomplished tombak and daf (Persian
drums) player. Kayhan Kalhor began playing for the National Orchestra
of Radio and Television at age 13. He plays the kamancheh,
a stringed instrument with a sound similar to the violin, but he is
also known for his compositions, many of which have been performed
by Shajarian. Previous works have earned him two Grammy nominations.
Hossein Alizadeh, a former conductor for the Iranian National Orchestra
of Radio and Television, is also a professor at the University of Tehran
and the Tehran Music Conservatory. He is best known for his ability
with the tar, a plucked stringed instrument fitted into the
body of a gourd.
Admission: $32 - $36
For more information visit
the San Diego Union-Tribune entertainment guide.
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Diamano Coura’s 11th Annual Collage des Cultures
Africaines
March 9 – 12, 2006
Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts
1428 Alice Street
Oakland, CA
Diamano Coura West African Dance Company will present four days of
intense workshops in African dance, music, history, craft, and a panel
discussion on Certification for African arts. It will also present
two concerts on Friday and Saturday March 10th and 11th at 8:00 p.m.
which will include performances by Dimensions Dance Theater, Diamano
Coura West African Dance Company, Fua Dia Congo, African Queens, Imhotep,
Fogo Na Roupa, Julia Chigamba, Savage Jazz, and many more.
To view a detailed workshop schedule and list of instructors and guest
artists visit
Diamono Coura’s website.
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The Bulgarian Women’s Choir
March 11, 2006 – 8:00 p.m.
Center Arts
1 Harpst Street,
Arcata, CA
In its first U.S. tour in seven years, The Bulgarian
Women’s
Choir presents traditional harmonies and costumes.
For more information visit
Humboldt State University’s Center
Arts website.
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Calaveras Celtic Faire
March 11 – 12, 2006
Frogtown Fairgrounds
Gun Club Road
Angels Camp, CA
This event features Irish step dancers, Highland dancers, a gathering
of family Clans, and musical performances by the Wicked Tinkers, the
Fresno Stag and Thistle Pipe Band, the Black Brothers and many others.
Admission: $20
For more information visit
the event’s website.
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Taking It to the Streets: Spectacle and Satire in the Arts
and Antics of Carnival
March 18, 2006
9:30 am – 4:30 pm
Fowler Museum of Cultural History
UCLA Campus
Hilgard and Strathmore Avenues
Los Angeles, CA
Scholars and artists explore how individuals and communities have “taken
it to the streets” to satirize their world in an expressive fusion of revelry
and rebellion. Morning presentations examine the roots of European Carnival and
its migration to sites around the world with a keynote by Carnival scholar Samuel
Kinser and lecture by Peter Tokofsky. As the day unfolds, Carnival arrives in
the Americas with a bang and afternoon speakers discuss performances that address
gender, national identities, and race in locations in Brazil, the U.S., Bolivia,
and the Caribbean. Scholars Gage Averill, Thomas Abercrombie, and Joyce Jackson
address the aural side of chaos and rebellion while photographers Jeffrey Chock
and Nash Porter and scholar Pamela Franco look at issues of gender and spectacle
in Brazil, Trinidad and New Orleans. Professor Donald Cosentino wraps up with
closing thoughts.
Co-sponsored by UCLA’s Departments of Ethnomusicology and World
Arts and Cultures and Latin American Center.
For more information visit
the Fowler Museum’s website.
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Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu
March 18, 2006
2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Zellerbach Hall
UC Berkeley Campus
Berkeley, CA
San Francisco-based Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu, a recipient
of ACTA’s
Living Cultures grant,
features hula as a fully theatrical and visually captivating experience,
blending traditional and contemporary forms of Hawaiian dance. The
group's trademark hula mua style honors tradition while bringing
hula into a modern realm, and performances are given in a "talk-story" format
that incorporates narration to provide a rich cultural context in which
to understand the hula. Following the matinee performance their
will be a discussion with artistic director Patrick Makuakäne
Admission: $20 – $32
For more information visit
the Cal Performances website.
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7th Biennial Language is Life Conference for California Indian
Languages
March 24 – 26, 2006
Marin Headlands Institute
Golden Gate National Recreation Area
Sausalito, CA
Participants are invited to join with other California Indians trying
to learn or re-learn, teach, document, research, or otherwise invigorate
their Native languages.
Members of Language Programs are urged to come and talk about their
projects, share successes and problems, and gather with other Native
people who believe that language renewal is the cornerstone to cultural
survival.
This years conference will address:
- Language program updates
- Teaching methods workshop
- Intellectual property right
- Technology workshops
- Workshop on new writing systems
- Workshop on language revitalization at home
- Organizations working on language revitalization
- Language and cultural work with California Native prisoners
This conference is produced by the Advocates for Indigenous California
Language Survival, a
recipient of ACTA’s Living Cultures Grant.
For more information visit
the Advocates for Indigenous Language Survival’s
website.
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7th Annual Southern California Indian Storytelling Festival
March 25, 2006
Agua Caliente Cultural Museum
219 South Palm Canyon Drive
Palm Springs, CA
The California Indian Storytelling Association (CISA) and the Agua
Caliente Cultural Center present native storytellers from California
and Hawaii who will showcase storytelling presentations and performances
based on indigenous oral traditions and language. This year's event
will also include children's activities, basket weaving circles, children's
story time, and Native American vendors. This festival is made possible
by funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Agua Caliente
Cultural Museum, the California Indian Storytelling Association, and
audience donations.
For more information visit
the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum’s
website.
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Ishi in the San Francisco Bay Area
March 25, 2006
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
California Academy of Sciences
875 Howard Street
San Francisco, CA
Anthropologist Richard Burrill has spent much of his life conducting
research and writing books on the life of Ishi, believed to be the
last survivor of the Yahi tribe of California Indians. The focus of
the seminar will be Ishi's "second world" -- the years he
spent in the Bay Area (1911-16).
In 1911, Ishi wandered out the wilderness area near Mt. Lassen, where
he was living essentially a Stone Age existence. His sudden appearance
in Oroville stunned the country: his tribe was considered extinct,
after the bloody massacres of the 1860s and 70s. Ishi had been in hiding
for over forty years - the last of his tribe.
Dr. Alfred Kroeber, the first Curator of Anthropology at the California
Academy of Sciences, brought Ishi to San Francisco to assist in documenting
Yahi Indian traditions. Ishi adapted to life in the City and made his
second home inside the University of California's Museum of Anthropology
on Parnassus Avenue, where Dr. Kroeber had become Head Curator after
leaving the Academy. Ishi spent the rest of his life in San Francisco;
he died there on March 25th 1916 from tuberculosis. Coincidentally,
Burrill's seminar marks the ninetieth anniversary of Ishi's death.
Seminar Description
Richard Burrill will share his latest findings on Ishi's experiences
in the Bay Area, based on years of research with archival sources and
first-hand accounts. At the seminar, participants will meet honored
guests whose families knew Ishi, hear excerpts from sound recordings
of Ishi's stories and songs, in the Yahi language, plus segments from
several documentary films. Throughout, Burrill will share many of his
anecdotes about Ishi. Richard Burrill’s books will be available
for purchase, with book signings.
This seminar is Part One of a two-day program on Ishi. Part Two, on
Sunday, March 26th, 2006, is an optional all-day Ishi bus tour visiting
local places of significance to Ishi. Click
here for bus tour details.
Admission: $25
For more information visit
the California Academy of Sciences website.
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Radio Bilingüe’s 24th Annual ¡Viva el Mariachi!
Festival & Workshops
Mariachi Festival
Sunday, March 26, 2006
12:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Selland Arena
Ventura & M Streets
Fresno, CA
Radio Bilingüe’s 24th Annual ¡Viva el Mariachi Festival!
features Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, Los Camperos de Nati
Cano, Mariachi Mujer 2000, and Mariachi Divas. Tickets range
from $7 – $46, and tables of 10 can be purchased for $600 – $1,000. A
special Mariachi Mass, free to the public, will be held that morning
at 7:45 am at St. John's Cathedral located at 2814 Mariposa St., Fresno,
California.
To purchase tickets for the festival, visit
the Ticketmaster website or the Fresno Convention Center Box
Office at 700 M Street, Fresno, California, or call (559) 621-4700.
For more information, visit
Radio Bilingüe’s website or call (559) 455-5777.
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Mariachi Workshops
Saturday, March 25, 2006
8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Abraham Lincoln Middle School
1239 Nelson Blvd.
Selma, CA
The annual ¡Viva el Mariachi! Festival Workshops is an opportunity
for students of mariachi music to learn new skills and techniques from
professional mariachi musicians. The workshops, open to ages 10 and
up, offer instruction for beginners, intermediate and advanced musicians
on traditional instruments – violin, vihuela, guitar, guitarrón,
and trumpet. Instruction is also offered to students of voice.
Advanced instruments will be taught by El Gran Maestro
Nati Cano and his Mariachi Los Camperos. Intermediate
instruments will be taught by Maraichi Mujer 2000. Voice
and beginning instruments will be taught by Juan Morales and
Mariachi Tenochtitlán.
The early registration fee of $40 is valid through February 10, 2006. After
that, the registration fee increases to $60 through March 10, 2006. From
March 11 through March 25, 2006, fees increase to $80. Workshop
registration fees include one day of instruction, sheet music, and
admission to the festival the following day. Also, all students
may participate in the Festival program. Class size is limited,
so register early! An optional hot lunch may be purchased for
$6.00.
For more information, visit
Radio Bilingüe’s website or call (559) 455-5777.
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County & Regional Calendars
A calendar of Festivals and Celebrations in San Diego is available from the San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture.
Let us know if you have special information that should be posted here.
To update information or submit an event for the calendar,
please email ACTA.
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