Living Cultures Grant Program
Round 1 (2005-2006) Grantees
ABADÁ Capoeira San Francisco,
San Francisco, ($7,500) to present the cultural exchange festival, “Danças
dos Guerreiros” (Dances of the Warriors), which will gather master
Brazilian artists together with community leaders, students, performers
and audience members to share workshops, conversation and performances
in the traditional art forms of capoeria, maculele and jongo. These
dance and music forms originated in slave plantations and were created
by generations of African slaves in Portuguese-colonized Brazil. The
festival will be held May 17-26, 2006.
Advocates for
Indigenous California Language Survival,
Vallejo, ($7,500) to present the seventh biannual “Breath
of Life/Silent No More” language workshop which will take
place at UC Berkeley in June 2006. This workshop specifically
supports Native American tribes who have no living speakers from
whom to learn. The workshop
allows participants to have access to the resources the UC has available
on their languages and gives them the fundamental linguistic concepts
that allow them to apply the materials. Over 50 participants
are expected this year, representing and impacting language and cultural
work in over 20 tribes.
The Aqua
Caliente Cultural Museum,
Palm Springs, ($7,500) to present “Singing the Birds: Wikitmallem
Tahmuwhae,” the first annual Bird Singing and Dance Festival. This
important cultural form will highlight the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla
Indians, who live in the immediate area. The Aqua Caliente Cultural
Museum is a regional museum with ties to communities in Palm Springs,
San Bernadino and Riverside Counties.
Association
for the Advancement of Filipino American Arts & Culture
(FilAm ARTS),
Los Angeles, ($7,500) to produce the 15th Annual Festival of Philippine
Arts and Culture, September 9-10, 2006. A diverse gathering of
traditional artists will demonstrate dance, music, martial arts and
folk crafts from Northern and Southern Philippines.
Chhandam Chitresh Das Dance
Company,
San Francisco, ($7,500) to produce “Kathak at the Crossroads,
International Festival & Symposium” in September 2006. A
three-day event will gather artists, scholars, teachers, presenters,
critics, funders, students and the general public in a comprehensive
look at one of India’s classical dance forms.
Chinese
Performing Arts Foundation,
San Francisco, ($5,000) to purchase folk percussion instruments from
Suzhow City, China, for use in performance and teaching. These
instruments will enhance the instruction and performance of Chinese
folk music in the Bay Area.
The City
of San Fernando,
($7,500) to support its Mariachi Master Apprentice Program where youth
ages 11-19 learn traditional folk music by mariachi music masters. The
program encompasses advanced music instruction, arrangement and performance
skills in Mexican genres such as sones, jarabes, huapangos and polkas.
The master instructors are members of Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati
Cano.
Croatian
American Cultural Center,
San Francisco, ($5,000) to support its 7th Annual Tamburitza Festival
in February 2006. This two-day event includes two concerts, master
classes, a jam session, a community sing-a-long of traditional Croation
and Bosnian songs and a panel discussion.
Diamano
Coura West African Dance Company, Oakland,
($7,500) to bring five master African cultural specialists together
to conduct classes and workshops in dance, history, music and craft
during “Collage des Cultures Africaines” which
is the annual education and performing arts series of the company. The
artists will also engage in a public discussion on the current state
of affairs of African arts and culture. A culminating concert, “Moving
with the Masters,” will be presented on March 12, 2006.
Festival Danzantos
Unidos,
Union City, ($5,000 ) to strengthen its cultural networking of Mexican
folk dancers in California. Central to its activities is a three-day
event, held in different state locations each year, which provides
an opportunity for dancers to meet and share their work through workshops
and concerts.
Friends
of Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, Oakland,
($7,500) to develop a “Common Ground” project
to bring together Laotian Iu-Mien elders who use a community garden,
together with their youth, in a gardening and cooking project. Looking
at the staples of a Iu-Mien diet, the gardening activities of growing,
harvesting, cooking and eating will become one bridge towards learning
about other traditional Mien crafts that are slowly being forgotten. A
public exhibit of video and first-person texts will be created by the
participants.
Gen Taiko,
San Francisco, ($7,500) to develop and perform a work for seven traditional
or Odori dancers, accompanied by a five-member kumi daiko (drumming)
ensemble, and musicians on the shinobue and shakuhachi (two kinds of
Japanese flutes). The score
will be developed by Melody Takata and the dance will be choreographed
by master artist Madame Fujima Kansuma, a National Endowment for the
Arts National Heritage Fellow. The
work will be presented in conjunction with San Francisco Japantown’s
75th anniversary of the Obon Festival in North America, and in Los
Angeles in conjunction with Nisei Week in November 2006.
Ink People,
Inc.,
Eureka, ($5,000) to contract Andrea Graham, folklorist, to continue
a comprehensive survey of traditional artists and resources in Humboldt
County. The resulting databases and needs assessment will serve
in placing artists in school settings and public venues, as well as
ascertaining the needs of traditional artists in sustaining and presenting
work.
Institute of Native Knowledge, Arcata, ($4,992) to support the Klamath
River Songs Project which will enable master traditional singers of
northwest Native California to conduct a series of workshops in four
local communities. Young Native adult men and women will learn
the fundamentals and intricacies of indigenous ceremonial song forms. Instruction
includes rhythms and melodic structures for story songs, social songs
and more complex ceremonial songs.
Ke Po’okela
Cultural Foundation,
Redondo Beach, ($5,890) to produce two workshop events in San Diego
and Los Angeles in March 2006. Experts and educators from Hawaii
and California will provide instruction on language, protocol and ethics,
dance, chant and traditional arts and crafts. Participating will
be halaus (Hawaiian cultural schools) from throughout Southern California.
Khmer Arts
Academy,
Long Beach, ($7,500) to support year-round classical dance training
and performance programs. The Khmer Arts Academy is dedicated
to the perpetuation of Cambodian classical arts which, as a result
of the civil war which killed many artists and teachers among the millions
who died, were near extinction. Funds will support the continuation
of the master/apprentice classical training to strengthen the way the
dance is presented in both the Long Beach area Cambodian community
and beyond.
Kim Eung
Hwa Korean Dance Academy,
Los Angeles, ($5,000) to support weekly summer programs for youth and
young adults in traditional dance and music. Focused on cultural awareness
and celebrating Korean history, the participants are primarily second
and third generation Korean-Americans.
Kinnara, Inc., Los Angeles,($5,000) to support the purchase of costumes
for Kinnara Gagaku, a musical ensemble which performs gagaku, the ancient
music of the Japanese Imperial Court. Today this music is performed
in religious institutions and for community activities in Japan and
in the United States. This ensemble performs regularly for the
Japanese American community in Southern California.
Kodo Arts
Sphere (KASA),
Los Angeles,($5,000) to present members of the world-renowned taiko
(Japanese drum) group, Kodo, in workshops for the taiko communities
of southern California. Four workshops will be held at Senshin
Buddhist Temple in Los Angeles, for 200 participants of all ages and
playing abilities.
Los
Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center,
San Pablo, ($7,500) to support the completion of the film “Re-Encuentro,” the
third documentary in a series that comprises its “Cultures of
Mexico in California Project.” Focusing on traditional
music and dance, the series highlights both Mexicans and Mexican-Americans
in an examination of the changing role of traditions as they evolve
on both sides of the border. The film will investigate music
and dance from Michoacán and the indigenous Tarascan communities.
Los Lupeños de San Jose, San Jose, ($7,500) to inventory and
develop proper wardrobe-storage facilities to house its extensive Mexican folklorico costume and prop collection which is in danger of being
damaged. This collection is made up of largely handmade traditional
costumes that have been part of the performing group’s history
since its founding in 1969.
Maafa, Oakland, ($5,000) to support the 11th annual Maafa: Black Holocaust
Ritual in October 2006. This ceremony is a mourning and rememberance
ritual that memorializes those Africans who jumped off the transatlantic
slave ships into the ocean. The ritual honors the African ancestors
from which African-Americans are descendents. The commemoration
also includes an art exhibit and spiritual meeting.
Na Lei
Hulu I Ka Wekiu,
San Francisco, ($7,500) to support an uniki ceremony for senior dancers. Imbued
with ancient traditions and protocols, the ceremony culminates a rigorous
process of studies in hula and traditional Hawaiian culture. Cultural
elders will supervise the two-day ceremony which includes ritual foods,
costumes and ceremonial implements made from such things as gourds
and flora.
Ne’ayuh, Topanga, ( $5,000) to support a series of basketry
workshops at the Haramokngna American Indian Cultural Center for members
of the urban and rural southern California American Indian communities. The
workshops will allow members of the community to share skills and stories. They
will be meeting with representatives from the Angeles National Forest
in order to identify, establish and develop protocols for the gathering
and traditional management of essential native plants.
Obakoso
Drum & Dance Ensemble,
Oakland, ($5,000) to purchase professional camera equipment to document
the work of the Afro-Cuban performing company. This project will
also re-create traditional costuming and regalia that are associated
with the Afro-Cuban Orisha tradition.
Odissi
Vilas: Sacred Dance of India,
Mill Valley, ($5,000) to present
‘Nritya Sangam,’ an Odissi
classical dance concert on April 15, 2006, with guest artist ensemble,
Rudraksha. The production is under the direction of Vishnu Tattva
Das, master artist of Odissi, one of six classical dance genres of
India.
San Jose Multicultural
Artists Guild,
($5,000) to conduct a Congolese African Dance and Music Workshop series
in Spring 2006. Taught by master drummer, Constant Massengo,
and master dance instructor, Regine Ndounda, this ten-week series will
focus on dance, rhythms, song and folklore from the Congo in Central
Africa.
Teatro de la Tierra, Fresno, ($6,500) to develop a collective teatro/theater
performance using Mexican working-class folklore: corridos (ballads),
rancheras (country music) and theatrical styles rooted in carpa (big
tent) theater, which refers to the work of traveling ensembles who
performed under a tent, to tell stories based on the lives of Chicano
and Mexican immigrant families who now reside in Fresno County. The
project, entitled “Cuentos y Canciones de Mi Gente,” begins
with an eight- week improvisation workshop.
Unity
Council,
Oakland, ($5,000) to support the mentoring of emerging artists to create
altars for the Día de los Muertos Festival in October 2006 under
the direction of Mexican cartonería (paper sculpture) artist,
Rubén Guzmán. The event, in which over 200 artists
participate, serves to document, celebrate, preserve and promote the
traditional celebration of this Mexican ritual in the Fruitvale community.
Voice
of Roma,
Sebastapol, ($7,500) to present its 10th annual California Herdeljezi
Festival, a traditional Romani (Gypsy) folk arts festival, May 4-6,
2006, which showcases Romani music, dance, story, food, craft and other
traditions. A long-term goal of the organization has been to
counter stereotypes of the Roma and bring attention to their historical
and political marginality.
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