African Street Festival celebrates African dance, culture in San Francisco

On Sunday, July 21, 2013, the African Advocacy Network (AAN) put on the African Street Festival. This event held in San Francisco's Mission District featured dance performances from local Congolese, Ghanaian, Guinean, South African, Zimbabwean, Haitian & Sudanese groups, as well as local DJs. Bissap Baobab at 19th street (between Cap and Mission) provided delicious Senegalese food, signature cocktails, and soft drinks.
The event was held to celebrate the vibrant cultures of Africans living in the Bay Area and showcase some of the top local dance groups. Joe Sciarrillo, who works at the African Advocacy Network and helped plan the event, hoped the event would be a fun way to raise awareness about the refugees and asylees living in the Bay Area. Joe has written in the past for this blog about African immigrants' experiences resettling and finding housing in San Francisco.
For more details on the event, see https://www.facebook.com/events/195100080649552 and http://aansf.org. View photos from the event on Google+.


Popular posts from this blog

From ‘Hipster Ariel’ to Sparkle Pony, Meet Molly Gallagher from Burning Man: The Musical

Image
Molly Gallagher performing as Sparkle Pony Molly Gallagher plays the character Sparkle Pony in Burning Man: The Musical . We caught up with her to discuss her experience on the first video shoot, her theater training at NYU, and how her character is a Disney princess meets a badass ninja warrior. You can watch her and others perform the opening to Burning Man: The Musical live at the 10-minute musical theater festival Sound Bites on January 18, 2015 in New York City. - Burning Man: The Musical team How did you first get involved with Burning Man: The Musical? Matt Werner (the writer) saw me in other videos on YouTube and thought I would be good for this project so he asked me to play Sparkle Pony! I got extremely lucky. How did you prepare to sing all of the female vocals on the opening track? What was that experience like? I was first sent a recording of the composer singing the song and a lyrics sheet. I listened to it a million times before I went to record. When I g
Read more

Top 5 Nerdy Rap Songs of All Time

1. Secret Wars Part I by the Last Empreror One of the most imaginative rap songs ever composed, this song has comic book characters (like Spiderman and the Hulk) facing off in battles against MCs like KRS-One and Lauren Hill. The Last Emperor's track showcases his creativity in how he matches the personality of the comic book characters (like Dr. Octopus vs. Busta Rhymes). He also creates an enjoyable song, flowing effortlessly for 5 and a half minutes with a complex multi-syllabic rhyme scheme with lines like "Rhymes by the bunches//Bums get dirtier than Middle Eastern dungeons//Ready to settle this like detective Columbo and his hunches." The Last Emperor is an underground legend and lyricist to be reckoned with. He has other tracks worth checking out like Monolith . 2. White & Nerdy by Weird Al Perhaps the most popular nerdy rap of all time with
Read more

Toyota NUMMI Blue Ribbon Commission white paper

Image
While working at UC Berkeley, I assisted Professor Harley Shaiken researching and editing his white paper he recently submitted to the Toyota NUMMI Blue Ribbon Commission. The report addresses and challenges Toyota's reasons for wanting to close the New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. auto plant in Fremont, California. The paper was officially released on March 3, 2010 at a press conference at California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer's office in Sacramento. The report can be found on State Treasurer Bill Lockyer's website here: http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/nummi/report.pdf Treasurer Bill Lockyer also hosted a hearing on the proposed NUMMI auto plant closure at his office in San Francisco on February 24. These photos are from the Feb. 24, 2010 hearing. Professor Harley Shaiken (right), the author of the white paper, speaks next to State Treasurer Bill Lockyer (left). Art Pulaski, Blue Ribbon Commission Member and Executive Secretary-Treasurer, California Federation of Labor s
Read more