Arts and Culture

Dr. Nontsizi Cayou, 82

Published

5 years ago

October 17, 2019

Post Staff

Nontsizi Cayou, a force in the development of African diaspora culture in the Bay Area, has died at the age of 82.

Born Delores Kirton on May 19, 1937, in New Orleans La., she moved with her family to Oakland, Ca.

She had an almost insatiable appetite for education, obtaining Bachelor’s and Masters’ degrees in Spanish and Dance in the early 1960s. By 1963, she was teaching jazz dance at her alma mater, San Francisco State University and began to pursue an interest in African-derived dance and culture.

A dance student of the late Ruth Beckford, she performed professionally in many dance theaters, musical revues and dance ensembles throughout the United States, eventually founding her own ensemble of dancers, poets and musicians in 1969, which she called Wajumbe.

A Kiswahili word that means ‘people with a message,’ the group Wajumbe was anchored in Cayou’s Project ACE, an Academic and Cultural Enrichment program for under-served children in San Francisco.

As Cayou mastered more dance forms—Haitian, Afro-Cuban and Afro-Jazz, she taught master classes throughout California, and Wajumbe came to represent the vanguard of the Black Arts Movement on the West Coast.

Unabashed in openly seeking, embracing and claiming her African heritage, Cayou led Wajumbe in appearing in the 2nd annual World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1977.

Four years later, she took a 21-person group on a five-state tour of Nigeria, culminating in a performance before the foremost king of the Yoruba people, the Ooni of Ile Ife.

Cayou was renowned for instituting an annual celebration of the Kwanzaa principle, Nia (purpose), at the San Francisco Center for African and African American Art and Culture that emphasized presentations by youth and children.

In the same manner, she hosted or presented Black History Month celebrations and programs at SFAAAC or at Cowell Theater at Fort Mason, bringing in international acts like the ONE steel drum band from Trinidad/Tobago; ‘Flash in the Sun’ from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and jazz sessions by saxophonists John Handy and David Hardiman.

In 1986, Cayou hosted a 45-member ensemble from Nigeria as part of a cultural exchange program with the production of ORI at the Herbst Theater, opening doors between African and the U.S. in unique ways.

In the early 1990s, she brought the World Dance Festival to San Francisco and it was held at SFSU and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Her unflagging interest and dedication to African spirituality was evident in organizing the 5th World Congress of Orisha Tradition and Culture in San Francisco in 1997. Practitioners from the motherland, Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico and all over the United States attended the 10-day conference.

Cayou was also known for her sense of social justice and was instrumental in helping SFSU maintain its standing as a center for ethnic and cultural studies.

After retiring from her position as chair of the Dance Department at SFSU, she continued her quest to raise consciousness over all things African through the African American Institute and the African Trade Center.

She was an avid devotee of African spirituality and was initiated into the mysteries of Obatala in Osogbo, Nigeria, in 1977. Cayou was known for organizing initiations and ceremonies in the Bay Area and even as her health declined, she went to events resplendent in white clothing, covering every visible area of her black wheelchair with white cloth or paint. She passed away on Oct. 3, 2019.

She was so beloved by Baba Ifayemi Elebulban, that he traveled from Nigeria to attend her final services.

A solemn celebration of life will be on Friday, Oct. 18, 2019, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Seventh Avenue Missionary Baptist Church at 1740 Seventh Ave., in Oakland. Interment will follow at Rolling Hills Cemetery in Richmond and mourners will return to the church for a repast.

An Orisha Cultural Tribute will take place at the Greenlining Institute, 360 14th St., from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Post Staff

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Arts and Culture

Faces Around the Bay Dr. Carl Blake, Pianist

Born in Liberty, Missouri, Carl Blake, a virtuoso and respected pianist, made his most recent migration to the East Bay in 1999. One might have seen him performing recently at Noontime Concerts in San Francisco, or at the Piedmont Center for the Arts in Oakland. He is Director of Music at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. He was also co-organizer and collaborative pianist at Herbst Theater for The Majesty of the Spirituals concert in 2022 and has held several church positions in the Bay Area.

Published

3 days ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Dr. Carl Blake

By Barbara Fluhrer

Born in Liberty, Missouri, Carl Blake, a virtuoso and respected pianist, made his most recent migration to the East Bay in 1999.

One might have seen him performing recently at Noontime Concerts in San Francisco, or at the Piedmont Center for the Arts in Oakland. He is Director of Music at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. He was also co-organizer and collaborative pianist at Herbst Theater for The Majesty of the Spirituals concert in 2022 and has held several church positions in the Bay Area.

Blake obtained a Bachelor of Music from Boston University and continued post-baccalaureate studies in Jamaica before earning a Master of Arts in Music at San Jose State University. He was the recipient of two Fulbright residencies in Honduras and completed a third residency at the University of St. Petersburg in Russia. He has a Doctor of Musical Arts from Cornell University.

At age 19, Blake, then an undergraduate piano major at Boston University, was “discovered” by Impresario Dr. W. Hazaiah Williams, who is the Founder and Director of Today’s Artists/Four Seasons Arts.

Williams honored Blake by awarding him the first Marian Anderson Young Artist Award. Anderson personally presented the award at the Masonic Auditorium in S.F. Subsequently, Blake was presented by Dr. Williams in his San Francisco debut at The Herbst Theatre. Williams subsidized a year of study abroad for Blake at the Paris Conservatory of Music. Additionally, Williams sponsored Blake’s New York Weill Hall debut, where he has performed twice since. Blake performed several times at the Yachats Music Festival in Oregon.

Blake continues to perform nationally and abroad. His hobbies are reading, baking and travel. He says, “I’m still pumping ivories, as Belgian pianist Jeanne Stark described the disciplined practice of concert piano.”

Oakland Post

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Arts and Culture

Oakland Jazz Great Offers Master Class as City Declares “John Handy Day”

World-renowned jazz master saxophonist John Handy, a McClymond’s High School graduate, was presented with a Mayor of Oakland Proclamation declaring Feb. 12, as John Handy Day in the city. Handy is most notably known as the featured saxophonist for Charles Mingus on “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” from the album “Mingus Ah Um” (1959) and on “Hard Work” from his own album “Hard Work” (1976).

Published

2 months ago

February 24, 2024

Oakland Post

(L-R) Del Handy, John Handy, Roger Glenn, and Joe Warner celebrate John Handy Day at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, Oakland. Photo by Lady Bianca.

By Conway Jones

World-renowned jazz master saxophonist John Handy, a McClymond’s High School graduate, was presented with a Mayor of Oakland Proclamation declaring Feb. 12, as John Handy Day in the city.

Handy is most notably known as the featured saxophonist for Charles Mingus on “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” from the album “Mingus Ah Um” (1959) and on “Hard Work” from his own album “Hard Work” (1976).

“John Handy is a jazz icon and an inspiration to musicians everywhere,” said Ayo Brame, a 16-year-old Oakland tenor saxophone player who is enrolled at the Oakland School for the Arts.

In celebration of this day, the reception in downtown Oakland at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle was a gathering of artists, young and old, coming together in his honor and celebrating his 91st birthday.

Handy presented a Saxophone Colossus free masterclass for musicians. This class afforded a rare opportunity to learn about the saxophone from an aficionado. The class was free and open to all – saxophonists, vocalists, aficionados, students, and casual listeners.

“As a longtime friend for over 60 years, and fellow musician who has had numerous opportunities to share the stage with John, it has always been a pleasure performing with him and hearing his creative interpretations of the music and his gift of ease inspiring the next generation of jazz musicians,” said Roger Glenn, a multi-instrumentalist.

Oakland Post

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Arts and Culture

Musical Chronicling Life of Betty Reid Soskin Set for Bay Area Debut

Betty Reid Soskin’s storied 102 years includes time spent as a WWII defense worker, activist, business owner, songwriter, National Park Service park ranger and so much more. Now the Richmond icon is the subject of a musical based on her incredible life.

Published

2 months ago

February 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Betty Reid Soskin. Photo courtesy of Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond.

The Richmond Standard

“Sign My Name to Freedom,” a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company (SFBATCO) production which will focus on the life, music and writing of Ms. Soskin, will premiere at San Francisco’s Z Space Friday, March 29 and continue through Saturday, April 13. Tickets range from $15–$65 and can be purchased online at https://www.sfbatco.org/smntf

The musical is directed by Elizabeth Carter, while playwright Michael Gene Sullivan integrates Ms. Soskin’s own music throughout dialogue between what SFBATCO calls “The Four Bettys” as they progress through a century of experiences of this awe-inspiring American woman.

The cast of “Sign My Name to Freedom” features Tierra Allen as Little Betty, Aidaa Peerzada as Married Betty, Lucca Troutman as Revolutionary Betty and Cathleen Riddley as Present Betty Reid Soskin, according to Artistic Director Rodney Earl Jackson Jr. and Managing Director Adam Maggio. Other casting will be announced in the future.

Jackson said that having Soskin’s blessing to steward her life’s story is an honor and career highlight for him and that her journey stands as “a beacon for Black Americans, women and people of color all across the world [and] is a testament to the strength of the human spirit.”

San Francisco’s Z Space is located at 450 Florida St. in San Francisco. Check out the trailer here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-ap9N2XBB0