Wanda's Picks Rebroadcast from May 2013

Fela, the musical is coming to town, Oakland, to be exact, June 4-9.  Today we speak to Melanie Marshall, who is wonderful in her depiction of "Funmilayo," Fela Kuti's mother. Ann Chinn joins us once again to update us on The Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project which is hosting an ancestral remembrance ceremony in Yorktown, VA on Memorial Day, May 27, 2013 8:00-9:30am on the waterfront. During this event the first marker associated with its efforts to mark Middle Passage arrival ports in the US will be unveiled. The organization is formally honoring and remembering more than 31,500 Africans who arrived in the York River District between 1698-1771 and the contributions of their descendants in creating this nation. We also are honoring the approximately 4,000 Africans who perished during these ocean voyages to the York River. Steven Anthony Jones, artistic director of Lorraine Hansberry Theatre in San Francisco, joins us to discuss the 1-Voice 1-Play 1-Day 1 Fundraiser for 27 black theatres nationwide & Port Elizabeth, South Africa, June 17. In this year's reading of A Soldier's Play by Charles Fuller, Jones is National Artistic Director, and appears in his original role as Private James Wilkie. Visit lht-sf.org We close with a conversation with artist and visionary Mario Chiodo, whose historic monument Remember Them: Champions for Humanity, depicting 25 civil rights activists like Rosa Parks & Cesar Chavez, peacemakers like Martin Luther King Jr. and revolutionaries like Ruby Bridges. Its official unveling is next Friday, May 31, 2013, 3 p.m. at the Henry J. Kaiser Memorial Park (19th Street and Rashidah Muhammad). Special guests at the event include the local honorees depicted in the sculpture along with Ambassador Shabazz, Ms. Juliana Roosevelt and Ms. Ruby Bridges. Visit http://oaklandwiki.org/Remember_Them%3A_Champions_For_Humanity_Monument