Arts and Culture

San Francisco Veterans Film Festival Features “Love Separated In Life, Love Reunited In Honor”

Published

6 years ago

December 5, 2017

Filmmaker Jackie Wright with her daughter and grand daughter, present film on veteran father. (Left to Right) –
San Francisco Veterans Film Festival Founder, Eddie Ramirez, Tiffanie Chiles-Mitchell, TBD grand daughter, Filmmakers Jackie Wright and Jack LiVolsi at the San Francisco Public Library’s Koret Theater.

The 6th Annual San Francisco Veterans Film Festival was held last weekend at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery at the War Memorial Veterans Building and Koret Theater in the San Francisco Public Library. The festival featured 13 films including Battlefield: Home–Breaking The Silence by Anita Sugimura Holsapple, Honor Flight: Vietnam by Ross Raventos, and Love Separated In Life…Love Reunited In Honor by Jackie Wright and Jack LiVolsi.

Filmmaker Jackie Wright, shared her film’s journey of losing her dad while a toddler and the decades of silence thereafter. At a family reunion in 2012, she discovered that her father’s remains were buried in an un-kept segregated cemetery.

In disbelief, Wright took the steps to exhume her father’s remains and her deceased mother’s remains and unite them at Arlington National Cemetery.

The irony is that both parents died on Monday, March 9th, six years apart; Sp5 Wyley Wright Jr. (December 10, 1931-March 9, 1964) and Ouida McLendon Wright (January 10, 1935-March 9, 1970). At a ceremony in 2014, both were re-buried and reunited in death.

Wright explained that re-locating her father’s remains was a multi-year process and that research and a chance trip to Vietnam revealed that her father, SP5 Wyley Wright, Jr. of the 114th Aviation Airmobile Company, where he served as crew chief, had nicknamed their unit, The Cobras. Shannon-Wright Compound, a base in Vinh Long, Vietnam was also named in honor of him and a captain.

Wright said that her dad served the entire country for 15 years in the U.S. Army, just 5 years away from retirement and that being in a segregated unkept cemetery did not honor the sacrifices he and his family made for the United States. “My dad served his country and gave his life,” she said. She is grateful to have moved them both to an area near “The Wall,” at the Arlington National Cemetery.

“This process, the travels and the filming has been very healing for my family and I,” said Wright. Wright’s daughter Tiffanie Chiles-Mitchell and granddaughter, flew in from Dallas, Texas to attend the screening with other supporters and friends including Kelly Armstrong. “This experience is very surreal,” said Chiles-Mitchell.

During the panel discussion with the filmmakers, attendees had the opportunity to ask questions of the panelists and express their feelings. Founder of the film festival, Eduardo “Eddie” Ramirez served as moderator and says he created the festival as a public forum for veterans and civilian filmmakers to share their experiences, stories and spotlight issues about veterans and military-related topics.

“I want the festival to help further healing in the veteran community and bring greater awareness to the public on the challenges our nation’s veterans face,” said Ramirez who served in the U.S. Air Force and retired as a Master Sargent. Through his other organization, OneVet OneVoice he advocates for veterans facing service gaps and improved service delivery within the V.A.

For more information, visit www.sfveteransfilmfestival.org

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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

2 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.”

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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.

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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.”