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Go directly to: California Traditional Artists Instruct Music Educators at Statewide Conference Sophiline Cheam Shapiro Awarded Nikkei Asia Prize for Culture Artist Creates New Blog as Forum for Visioning the Future of San Francisco’s Japantown In Remembrance: Remembering Former Assemblyman Marco Antonio Firebaugh Proceeds from the license plate sales will benefit the California Arts Council (CAC)
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WHAT'S NEWSubscribe to The New Moon, ACTA's Monthly E-Newsletter. See the latest edition of The New Moon 19 Teams of Master and Apprentice Artists to Begin Intensive Learning CycleMari Pongkhamsing, ACTA Apprenticeship Program Coordinator ACTA welcomes 39 participants to its Apprenticeship Program! ACTA's Apprenticeship Program encourages the continuation of the state’s living cultural heritage by contracting Master Artists to train qualified Apprentices working in intensive one-on-one learning relationships. This year’s participants come from a wide range of geographic locations and artistic genres including South Indian Classical Bharata Natyam dancers, Native Californian Yurok, Karuk, Wintun and Pomo weavers, African American quilters, and many other practitioners of diverse art forms. A panel of experts on California’s folk and traditional arts selected this sixth round of participants in the Apprenticeship Program. Contracts of $2,500 with the Master Artist support the Master Artist’s fees, supplies and travel. The intensive learning cycle may last between six months and one year, depending on the needs of the particular project. Participants work closely with ACTA staff as they strive to accomplish a specific set of pre-defined goals. ACTA staff visits pairs to document their work together and their progress will be featured in future The New Moon articles and on ACTA’s website. Each pair will culminate their work in a modest public presentation, such as a performance, exhibit or demonstration, where the results of the apprenticeship project can be shared with the public. ACTA announces these public presentations in The New Moon calendar listings. The Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) Apprenticeship Program is supported by the James Irvine Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Apprenticeship Program ParticipantsKrysta Wright (San Jacinto) will study African American quilting and doll making with her aunt, master artist Allyson Allen (San Jacinto). Allen uses traditional patterns, colors and hand sewing techniques to create pieces that she uses as a storyteller to illustrate African and West Indian tales. She learned quilt and doll making and storytelling from her older sister, mother and grandmother, who were born and raised in Jamaica. Wright and Allen have been working together for many years and participated in ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program in 2001. Allen will now introduce Wright to more elaborate hand appliqué techniques and Wright will create a quilt and puppet based on the African legend of the spider weaver. Agbi Ladzekpo (Castaic) will study traditional drumming of the Ewe people of Ghana with master artist Kwashi Amevuvor (Los Angeles). Amevuvor comes from a traditional Ewe drumming lineage and learned drumming from his father when he was a child growing up in the Volta region of Ghana. Ladzekpo also comes from a Ewe drumming lineage and he had the opportunity to learn drumming from his father. During this apprenticeship Ladzekpo will learn advanced drumming techniques so that he can teach other students and prepare for performances. Che Lin Navidad (Los Angeles) will study Filipino eskrima with master artist Crispulo Atillo (Beaumont). Eskrima is a non-aggressive weapons-based martial art rooted in Filipino history and culture. Great Grandmaster Atillo began studying eskrima as a teenager with his father and with Great Grandmaster Teodoro Saavedra. Navidad is currently a Master of eskrima and he will work with Great Grandmaster Atillo on advanced hand and footwork and stick fighting techniques. Ali Luna (Richmond) will study Puerto Rican bomba with master artist Roman Carrillo (Oakland). Bomba is a uniquely Puerto Rican form of music and dance with African, Spanish, French and indigenous influences. Raised in Puerto Rico, Carrillo began to learn bomba as a teenager, studying with Rafael Cepeda Afiles, founder of Familia Cepeda. Already an experienced drummer, Luna will be refining his skills on percussion, as well as learning to sing and dance.
Ho Chan (rear) and Sokheartha Chhim
(front) practicing Cambodian pin peat music. Sokheartha Chhim (Canoga Park) will study Cambodian pin peat ensemble music with master artist Ho Chan (Long Beach). Pin peat is a wind and percussive orchestra that performs at religious ceremonies or accompanies Cambodian classical or folk dance. Chan’s grandfather began to teach him to play the traditional Cambodian instruments when he was a young boy in Battambang, Cambodia. Chhim and Chan have been working together for many years and participated in ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program in 2001. Chhim will now expand his repertoire of dance music, and refine his skills on the roneat (wooden xylophone).
Gladys Ka Wai Liu practicing "Dang
Ma," a Kunqu dance piece. Gladys Ka Wai Liu (San Ramon) and Zenon Anderson (Cupertino) will study Chinese Kunqu dance with master artist David Chen (Fremont). Kunqu dance comes from the Kun Opera, which originated in the Kunshan region of Jiangsu Province more than five hundred years ago. Chen began to study Kunqu as a teenager with the Shanghai Opera and Dance Theatre. Liu and Anderson are both advanced students who will learn to perform a Kunqu piece called “Dang Ma,” which is based on the story of two Yang Generals of the Song Dynasty. Laura Sanders (Orleans) will study Karuk basketweaving with master artist LaVerne Glaze (Orleans). In addition to weaving techniques, basketweavers must also know when and where to gather plant materials as well as how to process them. Glaze began learning to weave over thirty years ago from mentors Ella Johnson and Lee Peters. Sanders has woven miniature baskets and will weave her first full sized acorn soup basket under Glaze’s instruction. Lucina Rodriguez (El Cerrito) will study son abajeño rural mariachi dance with master artist Julian Gonzalez (Richmond). Son abajeño is a pre-commercial mariachi music and dance style from rural Jalisco, Mexico. Julian Gonzalez grew up in rural Jalisco, and learned son abajeño from his father and uncle. Originally from Jalisco, Rodriguez danced banda (dances performed to Mexican big band music) and zapateados (foot stamping done in a counter rhythm) since she was a child and has been learning son abajeño from Gonzalez for the past six years. She will continue to learn the traditional repertoire and will also focus on improvisation and garment usage. Phillip Hagopian (Fresno) will study Armenian folk music on the oud (short handled lute) with his grandfather, master artist Richard Hagopian (Selma). Richard Hagopian started learning the oud as a child and had the opportunity to study with Kanuni Garbis Bakirgian. He was named a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow in 1989. Phillip Hagopian took an interest in the oud at the age of four and started to teach himself how to play. Now an intermediate player, he will work with his grandfather to refine his fingering and picking techniques and learn the modes and notes of Armenian music. Master artist Holly Hensher (Orleans) will teach apprentice Paula Allen (Eureka) to make a Karuk women’s maple bark skirt. Used in tribal ceremonies, Karuk women’s maple bark skirts are made from the innermost layer of bark of the big leaf maple trees found within the Karuk ancestral territories. Hensher began weaving when she was sixteen years old and learned the art of making maple bark skirts from Lyn Risling. Raised in a traditional Karuk and Yurok family, Paula Allen has participated in ceremonies primarily as a dancer and singer. Last year she assisted Hensher in the construction of a maple bark skirt, and during this apprenticeship she will learn each step of the process, from the initial gathering of materials to the skirts’ care and preparation for ceremonies. Nadine Mitchell (Willow) will study Wintun basketweaving with her aunt, master artist Bertha Mitchell (Arbuckle). Bertha Mitchell learned the art of basketweaving as a child from her mother, Lydia Wright. She began to teach her niece Nadine basketweaving about two years ago and during the apprenticeship she will continue to teach gathering, processing and weaving techniques to create a coiled basket made of willow, sedge and redbud. Master artist Glenn Moore Sr. (Hoopa) will teach his grandson Glenn Moore II (Hoopa) to make a Yurok hand-carved redwood dugout canoe. Used in Yurok and Hoopa ceremonies, master and apprentice will carve the canoe from an Old-growth redwood tree. Glenn Moore Sr. learned to carve canoes as a teenager from his older brother, Haines Moore. Glenn Moore II helped his grandfather when he carved his last boat several years ago and this time he will have the opportunity to learn all of the techniques and skills used to carve a canoe. Shahrzad Moghadam (San Jose) will study classical Persian music and theory on the santour (hammered dulcimer) and zarb (goblet drum) with master artist Mohammad Nejad (San Jose). Nejad’s father taught him to play the ney (Persian flute) and zarb when he was a little boy in Tehran, Iran. He later earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musicianship and Performance from Tehran University. Moghadam has been studying with Nejad for three years. She will now refine her fingering and performance techniques so that she can perform at an advanced level. Bita Sharif (Los Angeles) will study Persian tonbak (goblet drum) with master artist Houman Pourmehdi (Los Angeles). The tonbak is considered the chief Persian percussion instrument and uses elaborate finger techniques to create a variety of sounds. Pourmehdi learned to play tonbak thirty years ago when he was a child in Tehran, Iran. His mentors were Master Effetah and Master Morteza Ayan. Sharif began studying with Pourmehdi three years ago and during this intense period of training she hopes to move from an intermediate to an advanced level of playing. Isis Raele (Oakland) will study Brazilian capoeira with her step-father, master artist Marcelo Pereira (Oakland). Capoeira is the only indigenous martial art of the Americas and was developed by African slaves in Brazil. Mestre Pereira started playing capoeira on the streets of São Paulo, Brazil, as a child and later studied with Mestre Suassuna of the Cordão de Ouro Capoeira Academy. Raele has been studying capoeira with Mestre Pereira for several years. She will add advanced elements and sequences to her repertoire of capoeira movements in order to move to the next belt level. She will also learn to play and sing new songs, as well as make the musical instruments that accompany capoeira. Madhvi Venkatesh (Irvine) will study South Indian Bharata Natyam dance with master artist Viji Prakash (Los Angeles). One of the classical dance forms of India, Bharata Natyam was originally practiced as a form of worship in temples. Prakash began studying Bharata Natyam as a young child with Guru Mahalingam Pillai and Guru Kalyanasundaram of the Sri Rajarajeshwari Bharata Natya Kala Mandir in Bombay, India. Venkatesh has studied with Prakash for eleven years, since she was five years old. Because she already has a good grasp of the technical elements of pure dance (nritta), Venkatesh will now focus on the interpretive and dramatic aspects of the dance form (nritya) in this intense period of study. Master artist Luwana Quitiquit (Nice) will teach her niece Elaine Quitiquit-Palmer (McKinleyville) to weave a Pomo baby cradle. Originally made to carry and protect children, Pomo cradles are made with willow and dogwood or hazel. Luwana Quitiquit became interested in basketweaving thirty years ago when she had the opportunity to take classes with renowned Pomo basketweaver Mabel McKay. Because she lives far away from other Pomo weavers, Elaine Quitiquit-Palmer has learned some Yurok, Karuk, Wiyot and Miwok basketry techniques. She will now have the opportunity to work with her aunt to learn Pomo gathering and weaving techniques. Nitya Venkateshwaran (Berkeley) will study South Indian Bharata Natyam dance with master artist Vishal Ramani (Morgan Hill). Bharata Natyam dancers use movement and expression to depict Hindu mythological stories and themes. Ramani began studying Bharata Natyam at the age of three with Guru Kuppiah Pillai, Sri Govindraj Pillai and Sri Mahalingam Pillai at the Sri Rajarajeshwari Bharata Natya Kala Mandir in Bombay, India. Venkateshwaran has studied with Ramani for twenty four years. Already an accomplished solo dancer, she will use this apprenticeship to learn the theories and techniques behind choreography so that she can choreograph her own dance pieces.
Ferenc and Mária Tobak performing
on the Hungarian furulya. Mária Tobak (Fort Bragg) will study the Hungarian furulya (fipple flute) with her father, master artist Ferenc Tobak (Fort Bragg). Ferenc Tobak began playing the furulya at an early age and also began to play the duda (Hungarian bagpipe) as a young man. He sought out teachers where he lived in the Transdanubia region of Hungary and also traveled to Transylvania and Moldavia in Romania to find musicians who could teach him traditional Hungarian folk music. He learned to make bagpipes and received official recognition from the Hungarian government for his work as a traditional instrument maker. Mária Tobak has been studying furulya with her father for six years and will now refine her playing techniques and increase her repertoire of dance tunes, laments, and holiday music. California Traditional Artists Instruct Music Educators at Statewide Conference
Oriki Theater master drummer, Tumani Onabiyi (foreground), instructs
CMEA Photo credit: Richard Rodriguez Richard J. Rodriguez, CMEA Multicultural Music Representative Editor’s Note: Last year ACTA recommended participation of three artists from its programs to present at the California Association for Music Educators annual conference. Richard Rodriguez developed the workshops with the artists and sought funding to support their participation. ACTA is pleased to share his report with The New Moon readers. The California Association for Music Education (CMEA) presented three California traditional artists that participated in the annual state teachers’ in-service held March 9-11, 2006 in Sacramento. Traditional Arts Growth funding from the National Endowment for the Arts supported the participation of Chinese percussionist Wang Wei, Nigerian percussionist Chike Nwoffiah, and Mexican traditional artist Eugene Rodriguez, accompanied by his touring group Los Cenzontles. The three traditional artists represented the most prominent minority student populations in California schools: Latino, Asian-American, and African-American. Approximately 100 music educators attended sessions given by these artists over the 3-day event. Expert classroom teachers, music administrators, university professors, early childhood experts and non-profit organization members found the presentations to be one of the highlights of the state conference. Latino traditional artist Eugene Rodriguez presented his touring group Los Cenzontles in a two-hour workshop. As the only group in existence that focuses on the folk roots of mariachi music, they were able to provide educators with unique information unavailable elsewhere. Their engaging presentation involved multiple means of delivery including performance, discussion and a multimedia presentation of excerpts from their PBS documentary, “Pasajero: A Journey of Time and Memory,” by Ricardo Braojos & Eugene Rodriguez. The question/answer period that concluded the presentation by Mr. Rodriguez revealed the audience to be highly engaged, evidenced by thoughtful and numerous questions on wide-ranging areas of interest. Questions by educators delved into areas regarding basic performance practices, aesthetic considerations of current versus past practice, teaching methods and implications for the future of this disappearing art form. Audience members approached Mr. Rodriguez after the presentation to make plans for future school collaborations involving Los Cenzontles and to purchase CD/DVD materials they provided. Mr. Rodriguez was effective in presenting English/Spanish translations as necessary, including interpretation of song lyrics and comments by Maestro Julian Gonzales, Los Cenzontles’ master mariachi mentor. The large number of educators attending this session expressed an interest in connecting with their Latino school populations. Nigerian traditional artist Chike Nwoffiah presented a colorful, high energy and interactive presentation that challenged participants and stretched them to new levels of understanding. Mr. Nwoffiah taught audience members the nuance and symbolism behind the African drum as a spiritual instrument, and presented his art in a context frequently missing in the interpretation of current educational practice. Participants in this 2-hour workshop participated directly by playing traditional African percussion instruments, supplied by Mr. Nwoffiah from his non-profit community based theater, Oriki Theater. Oriki Theater’s master drummer, Tumani Onabiyi, assisted Mr. Nwoffiah in leading the workshop that stressed the drum as a tool of communication. The presenters shared teaching techniques and methods they have developed in African music and dance assemblies, residencies and teacher training programs. Educators attending the workshop developed a sense of the integration of various art forms required to understand music in this context. Participants were engaged throughout the presentation and many stayed afterwards to inquire about further possibilities of bringing Mr. Nwoffiah’s presentation to their schools. The final presenter, Chinese percussionist Wang Wei, was accompanied by San Francisco World Music Festival Executive Director Michael Santoro. Educators were engaged in his presentation that involved artist demonstration, discussion, hands-on instruction of audience members, and a showing of an excerpt from the Academy Award winning movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” in which Mr. Wang was featured prominently throughout as a soloist on the soundtrack.
Wang Wei visits with a CMEA member after his workshop on Chinese percussion Photo credit: Richard Rodriguez As Mr. Wang traced Chinese percussion use through the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, audience members were thoroughly absorbed as he demonstrated various percussion instruments, including bells, cymbals, gongs, drum sets and hand drums. Mr. Wang is one of a number of traditional folk artists that Mr. Santoro has worked with in promoting the benefits of cultural diversity to students in California schools. Sophiline Cheam Shapiro Awarded Nikkei Asia Prize for Culture
Sophiline Cheam
Shapiro Choreographer, dancer and teacher Sophiline Cheam Shapiro has been awarded the 2006 Nikkei Asia Prize for Culture, an award created and sponsored by Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc. (Nikkei), the publisher of Japan’s leading newspaper in the field of business and economics. The Nikkei Asia Prizes, which are awarded each year, shine a spotlight on outstanding individuals who have contributed to stability, development and enrichment of people’s lives in Asia. Ryoki Sugita, President and CEO of Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc., cited Cheam Shapiro’s “magnificent contributions to Cambodian performing arts” in announcing her award. Determined to help rebuild Cambodia’s cultural environment, which was left in ruins under the Khmer Rouge, Cheam Shapiro was among the first generation of students to study at Phnom Penh’s newly reopened School of Fine Arts after the fall of Pol Pot. With the school’s performing ensemble, she toured countries throughout Asia, Europe and North America, and she taught classical dance as a member of the faculty. Cheam Shapiro immigrated to the USA in 1991 but began returning to her native country in 1999 in order to conduct groundbreaking creative projects that help infuse a venerable form with new energy and ideas. Her original works, which she sets on Cambodia’s leading dancers and musicians, break from tradition by exploring contemporary and personal themes, yet they do so within the intricate and stylized vocabulary of the form. Her creative projects also break from tradition by helping to democratize a form that has been an instrument of the powerful for more than a thousand years. Her full-length and shorter works have been presented in Cambodia and have toured throughout Asia, Europe and North America. Her most recent project, titled “Pamina Devi,” is a commission for New Crowned Hope, a 2006 Viennese festival curated by Peter Sellars that celebrates the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. Inspired by the opera “The Magic Flute,” “Pamina Devi” is scheduled to tour the USA in fall 2007. Cheam Shapiro is the co-founder and artistic director of the Khmer Arts Academy, a transnational organization dedicated to fostering the vitality of Cambodian arts and culture. Cheam Shapiro will accept her prize, along with an honorarium of 3 million Japanese yen (about US $26,000), at a ceremony to be held on May 24, 2006, in Tokyo and will be introduced at a reception the following evening to be attended by notable figures, including Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Other recent recipients of the Nikkei Asia Prize for Culture include ethnologist Guo Dalie of China, novelist and poet Albert Wendt of New Zealand, author Urvashi Butalia of India and filmmaker Christine Hakim of Indonesia. For information about the 2006 Nikkei Asia Prizes see the Nikkei website. You can also read about the Nikkei Asia Prizes, including the selection and nomination process. Visit Khmer Arts Academy’s website for more information about Sophiline Cheam Shapiro. San Francisco Tam Fest
This bugarija was made by Milan Opancich, a 2004 NEA National Heritage Fellow. The owner had discovered a whole family of his instruments for sale by an elderly musician, and purchased them so her children could learn to play tambura. Photo courtesy of Croatian American Cultural Center, San Francisco, California Lily Kharrazi, Living Cultures Grants Program Coordinator, ACTA Over 600 people of all ages attended the 7th Annual San Francisco Tamburitza Festival (Tam Fest) which was held over President’s Day weekend in February. A project of the Croatian American Cultural Center, a grantee in ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program, this 2 ½ day event of workshops, participatory events and parties has become a gathering place to hear the traditional and popular music of Croatia played by tamburitza ensembles. Tamburitza music is comprised of lute-type instruments which are recognized as a symbol of Croatian national culture. Generations of Croatian-Americans have lived all over the United States. Particularly notable communities include Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Chicago, Illinois, and Cleveland, Ohio. Ensembles from these communities often join the Bay Area festivities which were started in 1999 by Croatian American Cultural Center Artistic Director, John Daley. The rich history of Croatian émigré life in the Bay Area was featured in an exhibit of old photos including all the tamburitza ensembles in the San Francisco Bay Area going back to 1900. “Through out the festival, people kept walking up to the pictures and pointing out people they knew, telling stories about their old teaching masters, and giving us more pictures of groups we didn’t know about. When one of our guest artists, Sinovi, stood in front of the exhibit to present their workshop on tamburitza playing styles, and talked and laughed about who they learned from growing up, it was truly a priceless moment uniting over a hundred years of music,” explained John Daley.
. Tamburitza music accompanies lively circle dances known as kolos that are common in the northern regions of Croatia such as Slavonija, Baranja and Podravina. The festival, since its founding in 1999, has self-produced several CD’s of live recordings of the music and song from its Tam Fest. A new CD from the 2005 season has been mastered and is now available for purchase. It presents the best performances of the festival and captures the versatility of an instrument that lends itself so well to the interpretations of various regional and ethnic music traditions from Croatia, the Balkans and beyond. The liner notes are written by ethnomusicologist, Rajna Ledoux, Ph.D., and presents a portrait of American tamburitza music in its traditional forms and popular adaptations. For information about Tam Fest and to order a copy of the CD, please visit the Croatian American Cultural Center’s website. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings’ New ‘Music of Central Asia’ Series Features California Traditional Artist
Homayun Sakhi (right) performing on
the rubâb This month Smithsonian Folkways Recordings released the first three volumes of its new 'Music of Central Asia' series. This ground-breaking, newly recorded series presents authentic musical traditions of Central Asia as they are performed today, featuring some of the region's most outstanding artists. From the nomadic and bardic cultures of the steppes to the classical court traditions of the cities, this series celebrates musicians who display a mastery of older traditions and also embody a contemporary spirit of innovation. One of the first volumes in the series features California traditional artist Homayun Sakhi, a resident of Fremont. The CD, entitled, 'Homayun Sakhi: The Art of the Afghan Rubâb,' features Sakhi on rubâb accompanied by tabla player Taryalai Hashimi. The rubâb is a short-necked lute that is plucked with a plectrum called a shahbaz. Sakhi plays music that is uniquely Afghan yet is redolent of Indian raga. One of the featured tracks on the CD, Kataghani, represents a folk musical genre popular in northern Afghanistan. Born in Kabul in 1976, Sakhi began studying rubâb at the age of ten with his father Ghulam Sakhi. Sakhi comes from a classical lineage of musicians who were brought to Kabul one hundred and fifty years ago to perform for the Afghan royal court in Kabul. During Aghanistan’s long years of armed conflict music was at times heavily controlled, censored, repressed and finally banned, but as a refugee in Pakistan, Sakhi devoted his life to learning and performing this classical music tradition. In 2001 he moved to Fremont, California, a city with the largest concentration of Afghans in the United States. In Fremont Homayun Sakhi has become a leader of the local musical community. He opened a school to teach music to children and is a sought after performer in the local community. Produced in conjunction with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, the CD includes an extensive color booklet and comes with a vivid bonus DVD containing a series introduction, 24-minute film, interactive glossary and map. Visit Smithsonian Folkways Recordings to purchase the CD. Artist Creates New Blog as Forum for Visioning the Future of San Francisco’s JapantownMelody Takata, founder and director of San Francisco Gen Taiko, is a teacher and performer of traditional and traditionally-based Japanese art expressions. In response to recent news that Japantown, San Francisco, is being sold to a major corporation, she established a blog to encourage a dialogue on how cultural arts and community heritage are threatened by redevelopment. Japantown, San Francisco, is one of three remaining Japantowns in the United States. In Ms. Takata’s blog, she presents a vision of how Japantown might be re-imagined as a home for artists doing culturally specific work. She has shared her concerns in a letter to San Francisco’s board of supervisors and arts commissions. Her blog provides a forum for public dialogue about the power of place in urban landscapes, specifically about the present and future of San Francisco’s Japantown. Ms. Takata’s organization, Gen Taiko, is a current grantee in ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program. Dear San Francisco Community, The recent news over the changes of real estate ownership in San Francisco Japantown (redevelopment site) raises some important issues regarding San Francisco city planning and how redevelopment sites impact our ethnic communities. What is happening with the redevelopment land that was bought (dirt cheap) in those ethnic neighborhoods throughout San Francisco so vital to the cultural diversity and tourism of San Francisco? The Western Addition as the African American community lost Fillmore Street due to redevelopment. Fillmore Street was a vital living cultural community with lots of jazz clubs. Now on Fillmore Street you will see about 4 Jazz club/restaurants and businesses for predominately upper class consumers. In the last 2-3 years the projects in the Western Addition were demolished and low-income housing were set into place and a large majority of African Americans were relocated to the East Bay. Without a community the cultural integrity is lost. Basically Western Addition is a shell with little cultural arts content and an ever-shrinking community. In the last few years there has been a steady number of families squeezed out of San Francisco because they cannot afford to live in the city. Twelve public schools predominately in the African American community are closing due to the decreasing number of families in San Francisco, and lack of government funds. National, state, and local support for the arts are dwindling and everyone is feeling the squeeze. With so little to give the majority of money is being funneled to the well-established arts such as the ballet, symphony, etc. This erosion of our ethnic communities will cause the diverse ethnic arts to be pushed out of San Francisco. The cultural integrity of San Francisco is being threatened. When the majority of small businesses and cultural communities of San Francisco are overtaken by large corporations San Francisco will become a Generic city. I’m deeply distressed by what I am seeing and what lies ahead. Can San Francisco Japantown on it’s 100 Anniversary, 75 year celebration of Obon (Japanese Buddhist Celebration honoring ancestors through dance), and 50 years of sister city relationship with Osaka, Japan be the significant starting place for the city, arts supporters, developers, and community to unite, and be the model to create a promising future for a larger city plan to keep San Francisco’s cultural integrity intact? A united vision of Japantown that is a viable economically sustainable living cultural community will take long term planning. I am interested in a place for future generations to cultivate ideas, enrich their lives, and promote cultural awareness. Please visit http://www.jtownvision.blogspot.com, or email me at info@gentaiko.com. I hope to hear comments and suggestions in creating a united vision for San Francisco Japantown. Sincerely, In Remembrance An Advocate for Immigrants and a Friend of the Arts
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