AAAPAC and K*Star*Productions present

Black Choreographers Festival: Here & Now ~ 2012

www.bcfhereandnow.com
Community Connections through Special Events
BCF proudly partners the Living Word Project/Youth Speaks, Inc. and La Peña Cultural Center to present Word Becomes Flesh by Marc Bamuthi Joseph

Oakland’s Laney College Theater
February 10 – Black Choreographers Festival Performances – 8pm
February 11 – Word Becomes Flesh – 8pm
February 12 – Family Matinee featuring: Pre-Professional Youth Companies – 4pm

San Francisco’s Dance Mission Theater
February 17 –Word Becomes Flesh – 8pm
February 18 – Black Choreographers Festival Performances – 8pm
February 19 – Word Becomes Flesh – 4pm; BCF Performances – 7pm

Next Wave Choreographers Showcase at Dance Mission Theater, SF
Featuring Mid-career and Emerging Choreographers
February 24, 25 – 8pm
February 26 – 7pm

Black Choreographers Festival Performances Featuring Artists:
Oakland Concerts: Kendra Kimbrough Barnes, Latanya Tigner & Kiazi Malonga, Reginald Savage, Corey Action & Teela Shine Ross, Michael Velez
San Francisco Concerts: Chloe Arnold, Camille A. Brown, Raissa Simpson, Amara Tabor Smith, Naomi Washington
Special Event – Word Becomes Flesh features performers: Dahlak Brathwaite, Daveed Diggs, Dion Decibels, Khalil Anthony, Michael Turner and B.Yung. Writer and Director Marc Bamuthi Joseph

When and Where

February 10, 11, 12 at Oakland’s Laney College Theater (900 Fallon Street)
February 17, 18, 19 at San Francisco’s Dance Mission Theater (3316 – 24th Street at Mission)
February 24, 25, and 26 “Next Wave Choreographers Showcase” at SF’s Dance Mission Theater (3316 – 24th Street at Mission)
Friday and Saturday performances are at 8pm
Sundays, February 19 and 26 at 7pm
Sundays, February 12 & 19, Family Matinee and Special Event at 4pm
Post-performance curtain talks: Feb. 10, 17, 19
REflect Film Series, Master Classes, and performance updates posted on the BCF website

Tickets

$25 at the door/$20 in advance Limited number of tickets at a special $15 early – bird price ends Jan 23 $20 students/seniors $15 Next Wave Choreographers Showcase $10 children 14 and under and Family Matinee Special discount for groups of 10 or more.

Black Choreographers Festival: Here & Now is an annual event celebrating African and African American Dance and Culture with performances featuring award – winning choreographers and companies, community master classes, film series, and special events. The Black Choreographers Festival: Here & Now serves the community by providing a forum to increase the visibility of African American dance. BCF celebrates the ingenuity and uniqueness of African and African American choreographers by highlighting the importance of the African and African American experience in dance. BCF is integral to the Bay Area arts community as it presents local and national artists in a series of contemporary and traditional concerts, showcases, mentoring, educational programs, community partnerships, symposia and archival documentation. BCF endeavors to foster a new generation of audiences and supporters to ensure the longevity of both established and emerging artists. For more information visit www.bcfhereandnow.com The Black Choreographers Festival is an event presented by non-profit organizations K*Star*Productions (Oakland) and The African ≈ African American Performing Arts Coalition (San Francisco). BCF Oakland is supported by Oakland’s Arts and Culture Grant. BCF San Francisco is supported by the SF Arts Commission’s Cultural Equity Grant and The San Francisco Foundation. Special Event Word Becomes Flesh – SF Performances supported in part by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Next Wave Choreographers Showcase is supported in part by the Zellerbach Family Foundation.

Featured Special Event Word Becomes Flesh, considered the seminal work of Marc Bamuthi Joseph and The Living Word Project, was chosen by the National Performance Network for its 25th Anniversary Re-Creation Initiative supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. This contemporary theater work, grounded in hip hop culture, personal truths, and passionate reflections features an all-male ensemble presenting a series of performed letters to an unborn son, the collective documents nine months of pregnancy from a young single father’s perspective. Marc Bamuthi Joseph (Artistic Director) is one of America’s vital voices in performance, arts education, and artistic curation. He is the artistic director of the 7-part HBO documentary “Russell Simmons presents Brave New Voices” and an inaugural recipient of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship, which annually recognizes 50 of the country’s “greatest living artists”. He is the 2011 Alpert Award winner in Theater.>

SF’s Wax Museum at Fisherman’s Wharf Decorates for the Holidays

www.waxmuseum.com

5 December 2011 – San Francisco, CA: The holiday spirit fills the Wax Museum at Fisherman’s Wharf (www.waxmuseum.com) with special displays decorating the exhibits of celebrities, presidents, royals, and historical and legendary figures. Holiday glitter starts at the front door, as President Barack Obama presides over a lobby filled with snowflakes, poinsettias, garlands, and a red, white, and blue-decorated tree. Throughout the museum, selected displays sparkle with thematic holiday decor, both traditional and edgy. Open daily from 10am to 9pm. the Wax Museum is located at 145 Jefferson Street, San Francisco, in the heart of Fisherman’s Wharf. For full information, visit www.waxmuseum.com

As you wander the galleries, see the Titanic exhibit draped with wreath and garland; world leaders gathered around a traditionally decorated Christmas tree; and British royalty gazing on a tree studded with old-fashioned candle lights. Other holiday displays are far from traditional and instead reflect the nature of the wax exhibits. Hollywood glamour girls surround a white tree decorated with disco balls. Even the ghouls and monsters in the Chamber of Horrors mark the holidays, their black tree lovingly adorned with skulls and barbed wire.

The Wax Museum also offers a great place to browse for fun holiday gifts. From Friday afternoon through each weekend, you can do your Christmas shopping downstairs in the Wax Museum shop with their unique selection of gifts and memorabilia related to the museum’s celebrity displays.

The Wax Museum features one of the foremost collections of wax figures in the world, where the magic of 50 years of wax artistry transports you through time. The Wax Museum is “home” to a legion of notorious characters, with over 250 internationally-known personalities past and present in fabulous scenes, representing a millennium of history and fantasy, from King Tut’s Magnificent Tomb to the Yellow Brick Road, from royalty and presidents to today’s pop celebrities.

The Wax Museum shows all aspects of life from the ignoble Chamber of Horrors to the inspiring Hall of Religion, including the historic Library of U.S. Presidents, the spectacular recreation of King Tut’s Tomb and the unique Palace of Living Art, where the world’s most famous masters and their masterpieces come to life through the magic of wax artistry. The most popular part of the wax museum tour is The Gallery of Stars, where a galaxy of brand new stars, such as Leonardo Di Caprio, Johnny Depp and Will Smith, join such classics as Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe and John Wayne.

Opened by Thomas Fong in 1963 as the largest wax museum in North America, the Wax Museum is one of the most popular landmarks in Fisherman’s Wharf. Many scenes were designed and sculpted by Fong’s son Ronald, who co-directed the family business in partnership with his father from its inception. Rodney Fong, representing the third generation of the Fong family, now runs most of the day-to-day operations of the family business. Like his father and grandfather, Rodney has the energy and vision to keep the museum a favorite of San Franciscans and visitors. In September 1998, the historic 100-year-old San Francisco landmark that for 35 years was The Wax Museum Entertainment Complex was torn down to make way for the current showplace, beginning a new era for the now 48-year-old attraction.

Media Contact: David Perry, DP&A, Inc. / (415) 693-0583 / news@davidperry.com