belly dance Fiona

World Rhythms on a Wooden Box

Discover an explosive array of rhythms from around the world that can be played with a simple wooden box (cajón). Immerse yourself in the music as Ka-Hon shares rhythms, songs and dance from Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Spain, Jamaica and Venezuela in this highly interactive and engaging performance.

Bululú (noun. Venezuelan “alboroto”, a gathering of people with excitement, fuzz).

A dynamic Latin music band showcasing a live and flavorful repertoire deeply immersed in the rich influences of Venezuela and the Caribbean. Their performances encompass an exciting array of styles, including calipsos, salsa, sones, porros, cumbias, merengues, gaitas and more. Fun and vibrant, Bululú delivers an array of original compositions and uplifting shows with its top tier San Francisco Bay Area ensemble.

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Motto: La Bomba Es Vida

Batey Tambó is an Oakland and San Francisco-based, women of color-led cultural group grounded in the centuries-old musical tradition of Afro-Indigenous Puerto Rican Bomba. Batey Tambó director/founder Denise Solís (La Bombera de la Bahia) founded one of the first ever all female Bomba ensembles, Las Bomberas de la Bahia and is one of the first women to play the Subidor (lead drum) in the tradition of Bomba. Batey Tambo co-director, Julia Caridad Cepeda (Julia Danse), is from the esteemed Cepeda Family who have carried this tradition for more than 8 generations and counting. Julia has been dancing Bomba for more than 40 years. Together, Julia and Denise also co-lead Taller Bombalele – Bomba Percussion & Dance classes offered at Rhythmix Cultural Works. They teach Bomba Cangrejera in the tradition, and with the blessing of, their elders in La Familia Cepeda.

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Mission: To preserve Colombian heritage, culture, and folklore in San Francisco and the Bay Area, sharing these values with the community at large and through new generations.

La Cumbiamba Colombiana is a folkloric comparsa formed by a group of dancers and various volunteer collaborators whose mission is to preserve and share Colombian heritage, culture, and folklore in San Francisco and the Bay area. The group has participated in Carnaval San Francisco since 2014 winning multiple times in the Folkloric Category. Volunteer dancers with or without prior experience, of all backgrounds, ages, and nationalities are always welcomed to join the familia Cumbiambera.

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Dance | Fitness | Joy

Originally from Colombia, Lynda Gutierrez, creator of DFJ, combines her love of dance with elements of fitness in a joyful welcoming way for all levels of movers! Through Dance | Fitness | Joy, Lynda offers Latin dance cardio classes, strength training classes, and private dance sessions that stem from her experience in Classical Ballet, Latin Dance, Modern Dance, Pilates, and Yoga.

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Traditional Folklore & Dance of El Salvador

Ballet Folklorico Flor de Café is a multigenerational group of dancers dedicated to preserving and sharing the traditional folklore & dance of El Salvador, strengthening their cultural identity sharing positive and beautiful aspect of Salvadoran culture.

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Mexican tin art, also known as “repujado,” is a traditional craft that involves creating designs on thin sheets of tin using a variety of tools. Kids will be creating their own repujado art, allowing them to explore their creativity and learn about traditional crafts from other cultures.

Taino petroglyph symbol rock painting is a fun and educational activity that allows kids to learn about the indigenous Taino people of the Caribbean and their art. Kids will be creating their own Taino painted rock allowing them to learn about a different culture while also expressing their creativity through art.

Taste authentic Puerto Rican Cuisine from Chef de Cuisine/Owner Darren Anthony Lamboy.

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Enjoy both delicious tacos and boba teas from Teaqueria!

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Join us at the Rhythmix Art Activities Table for fun crafts to help you celebrate – including gorgeous Mexican tissue paper flowers and a working paper plate tambourine to use for the day!

Enjoy Sri Lanka’s authentic and finest cuisines & exotic healthy meals cooked with Love!

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Moba Tea Means Mobile Tea!

A fun and tasty drink option for your next big event! Add a fully customizable boba bar to weddings, festivals, corporate events, holiday parties, fundraisers, school events, dances, and of course themed birthday parties!

Moba Tea Station will take care of every detail of your memorable event with boba tea!

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Visit the Words on Wheels Book Bike for free book giveaways and more!

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Lion Dance

Toishan Benevolent Association is a community service organization (established in 2001) based in Oakland that has been serving the Greater Bay Area for the last 22 years.

One of the main purposes of Toishan Association is to promote Chinese traditional culture including: Martial Arts (Kung Fu), Tai Chi, traditional folk dance and lion dance.

In Chinese culture, the lion is an auspicious animal and symbolizes power, wisdom, and superiority. The Lion Dance is one of the most popular performances for big celebrations and festivals. For Lunar New Year, Lion Dance is performed to bring happiness, prosperity and good luck for the upcoming year. The lion dance creates a festive atmosphere and brings happiness at all celebrations.

Balinese Dance and Music

Established in 2007, Gadung Kasturi’s mission is to preserve, promote and develop the traditional dance and music of Bali, Indonesia, through live performance, workshops, classes, lectures and publications.

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Experience a taste of aloha with traditional authentic Hawaiian Poke!

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Explore, play, learn and grow with Swings & Wings! Delight your senses in the multicultural sensory bin, create colorful salt rangoli, and print beautiful patterns with Indian block stamping.

Swings and Wings is an indoor sensory-based play place in Alameda for kids between 6 months to 8 years, designed and owned by Occupational Therapist, Sadiya Kazi-Koya. Swing and Wings encourages each child to find their wings and soar, and each parent to take flight with them!

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Did you know that many cultures in Asia incorporate traditional Chinese characters, known as Hanzi, into their written languages? And these characters often look like the words they represent. Brushstrokes become branches in the word “tree”. Flames appear in the character for “fire” and peaks form in the word “mountain”. Use crayons, markers, colored pencils, and your creativity to create beautiful illustrations, weaving these traditional characters into drawings of the words they represent.

Click here for more information about the Alameda Education Foundation.

Chinese Folk Dance

Patty Chu’s dance troupe has drawn frequent smiles from a variety of viewers of Miss Chinatown USA pageants and
local community events for Oakland, SF and different cities for more than 25 years. Their graceful stage presences
and technical skills make a good impression on the audience. Also the dance classes are for all ages from 5 to 70
years old. You can find a class that fits you with classical, folk, and contemporary dances.

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Indian Classical Dance

The vision of Odissi Vilas is to establish a center for the performing arts in the Odissi style of Indian classical dance. Its mission is to preserve cultural heritage, promote, educate and delight audiences with the mystical beauty, grace and spirituality of Odissi dance.

Sharing this sacred dance form with our community and the world; to build cultural bridges between diverse groups of people, to keep the art form alive for future generations, and to nourish the human spirit. Striving to enrich artists and spectators alike with a taste of Rasa, the inherent essence of all the arts of India.

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Hawaiian, Tahitian and Maori Music & Dance

Hālau Makana’s mission is to preserve the Hawaiian, Tahitian, and Māori cultures through dance, art and music, sharing these cultural art forms with the community and anyone who has a desire to learn.

Hālau Makana is the only professional Polynesian Dance Company located in Alameda, California.

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Music & Dance from the Southern Philippines

This dynamic ensemble presents the pre-colonial music, dance, and attire traditions of Mindanao, Southern Philippines. All trained in the traditional manner by indigenous Philippine culture bearers, the Manilatown Kulintang Ensemble musicians and dancers take pride in introducing people of all ages to the joyful and unifying power of tribal Philippine polyrhythmic percussion music, song and dance.

Vietnamese Traditional Instruments and New Music

A fearless musical explorer, Vân-Ánh Võ is an award-winning performer of the 16-string đàn tranh (zither) and an Emmy Award-winning composer who has collaborated with Kronos Quartet, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and Yo-Yo Ma. In addition to her mastery of the đàn tranh, she also plays the monochord (đàn bầu), bamboo xylophone (đàn t’rung), traditional drums (trống) and many other instruments to create music that blends the wonderfully unique sounds of Vietnamese instruments with other genres, and fuses deeply rooted Vietnamese musical traditions with fresh new structures and compositions.

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Teff Ayral is a multi-talented individual who has spent her entire life dancing and playing music. Her love for dance started at the age of 4 when she began taking ballet and tap classes. Since then, she has explored various dance forms including hula, tahitian, salsa, flamenco and belly dance. Her dedication and hard work as a student of dance earned her the opportunity to study under Angelica Nemeth while living in Los Angeles for nine years.

In addition to her passion for dance, Teff was a competitive gymnast for many years. Her athletic prowess, combined with her love for dance, has given her a unique perspective on movement and performance.

Teff’s commitment to supporting local non-profit organizations is a reflection of her dedication to making a positive impact in her community. She serves as a project management institute mentor and a toastmaster, using her skills to uplift and coach others.

Teff works as a consultant, where her expertise in project management and her passion for community-building are put to good use. She is also on the board of directors for Rhythmix Cultural Works, where she volunteers at their events and can often be found behind the snack bar, serving up delicious treats and chatting with patrons.

Teff Ayral is a true force of nature, driven by her passion for dance, music, community, and giving back. Her commitment to excellence in all aspects of her life is an inspiration to all who know her.

Dina grew up listening and dancing to Greek music since both her parents were 1st generation Greek Americans, but her passion for multicultural music and dance exploded when she moved to San Francisco in her twenties, where she found home. She honed her skills in samba, salsa, middle/near eastern and west african music and dance while working as an organizer, administrator, researcher and fundraiser for various organizations.

Yoga became her primary focus after it helped her rehab from an accident at a food bank warehouse she ran, and she became a yoga instructor in 1997. She moved to Alameda in 2008 to raise her family and has been volunteering and teaching yoga in the community ever since. She has promoted RCW’s Island City Waterways events over the years, and is enthusiastic about building community and connection. She looks forward to developing support for Rhythmix Cultural Works and its programs as the Community Outreach and Development Associate.

Maurice Ramirez studied photojournalism at San Francisco State University and worked as a music editorial photographer in the late 90’s, corporate editorial, and then a decade on private events. More recently he’s focused on municipality and non-profit communities.

Jennifer Radakovich earned her MA in Dance (Ethnology) from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, focusing on Pacific Island & Asian Dance Studies and movement analysis. Prior to joining Rhythmix in 2018, Jennifer worked as Company Manager for Tandy Beal & Company, where she co-managed concert and residency programs for more than 10,000 low-income youth annually and assisted in organization-wide marketing, fundraising and administration. From 2014-2016, she served as the assistant director for the Santa Cruz Ethnic Dance Festival and as a Board Member for the Tannery World Dance & Cultural Center. Jennifer currently serves as Executive Director at Rhythmix and Artist Liaison for Rhythmix Performance, Art and Learning (PAL) program.

I am a Bay Area native with a love for food, wine, and the arts! I am also the founder of Planted Foods. Planted Foods is a food manufacturing company with a focus on clean ingredients and healthy products that easily incorporates into anyones lifestyle. Growing up in Oakland, I was exposed to many different rich cultures and ideas. I love that Rhythmix gives the youth an opportunity to appreciate different cultures through dance and music. I look forward to supporting the Rhythmix mission for many years to come!

Colin Epstein is a Bay Area born and raised dancer, acrobat, clown, and jack of many trades. His performing career spans the last 15 years and ranges from contemporary circus to modern dance to physical theater, and has led him across the world from the Bay to Bali and back. Colin has spent most of the past decade based in Oakland and teaching circus at Kinetic Arts Center and Athletic Playground, choreographing and directing for the youth circus troupes.

As a Berkeley native Colin experienced little of Alameda until he was brought onto the island by Rhythmix for the first Island City Waterways in 2017. Since then, he has performed in every ICW event and his love for both Alameda and Rhythmix has grown exponentially; and Colin is overjoyed to join the RCW family as the new Program Associate!

photo by Weidong Yang

Rebecca began her working life as a modern dancer in the Detroit area and travelled with her dance troupe around the world. Later in life, she returned to school to become a science teacher. While teaching chemistry Rebecca continued her study of dance and choreographed high school musicals each year. It always amused her to see her students’ faces when they realized their chemistry teacher was the one who was going to teach them dance steps. Rebecca enjoyed attending Rhythmix performances for years and now serves as Rhythmix’s Office Manager and Volunteer Coordinator.

Tom is a civil engineer who recently retired after a 40-year career in the energy industry. He has a great love of the performing and visual arts, and currently enjoys volunteering at Cal Performances at UC Berkeley, the San Francisco Symphony, and Oakland International Airport. His devotion to Rhythmix Cultural Works was largely driven by his late wife Vicki, who supported Rhythmix’s arts outreach to public elementary schools in Alameda and Oakland. He recalls the wide-eyed wonderment of schoolchildren in El Salvador who marveled at an Indian classical dancing and music performance that Vicki helped stage in a remote rural village in the El Salvador: “The incredible richness of world performing arts — which often includes the spectacle of stunning music, costumes, and dancing — is what Rhythmix brings to everyone, young and old, right here in the Bay Area!”

Michelle Labrador, Youth and Family Director, worked in event marketing and branded environments as a Sr. Art Director/interior designer for over 10 years after earning her degree in Communications and Art History from Northwestern University and Harrington College of Design in Chicago. After moving to the Bay area, she spent 8 years as a stay at home parent serving on her daughter’s Co-op school Board as VP and volunteering as an art docent, room parent and scheduling STEAM performances for school assemblies and field trips. Michelle also volunteered with the Oakland Museum of California’s educational department, assisting teachers with school field trips for tours, workshops and museum performances. In 2017, Michelle joined Rhythmix to coordinate the Performance, Art and Learning (PAL) program. Her expertise has helped create systems to streamline the sign-up process, address special needs and organize resources to ensure teachers/students have a smooth and enriching arts field trip experience.

Phong joined Rhythmix at the beginning of 2014 summer as a media marketing intern. With a strong interest in the performing arts, he is drawn to the rich artistic culture that exists within Rhythmix. Currently, he manages various aspects of marketing collateral, web content, and digital media with a splash of creativity. When Phong is offline, you can find him at a hip food joint or the outdoors; exploring the world around us.

Lynda Gutierrez moved from Colombia to Alameda at the age of 5. The culture shock was intense at times, but connecting to the creativity and discipline of dance at a local dance studio really helped her have an outlet from bullying and have a way to express herself in ways that didn’t depend on spoken word.

Lynda earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and Choreography at UC Santa Barbara. She has performed for various choreographers and companies in the Bay Area, from modern to folkloric dance. Lynda has also worked offstage in administrative, management, and marketing positions for local dance companies. With the birth of her son, Lynda shifted her work from dance to fitness.

Today, Lynda runs her independent business as a fitness instructor, accountability wellness coach, and business mentor to others who work in the fitness industry. Rhythmix holds a very special place in Lynda’s heart as it is the place where she first started teaching a decade ago! It’s been a wonderful journey contributing in all ways possible to all the great work happening at RCW. If you ever ask Lynda about Rhythmix, you’ll probably hear about the incredible events offered…and how she hopes to be like Janet and Bean when she grows up.

Yo Arms Too Short to Box With Gawd, 2008
Oil on linen, panel, 36×60
www.nyamebrown.com

“This work explores scenes and characters form my allegory New Black Myths. I articulate my personal history and African Diaspora-multi-threaded history, not precluding the Western cannon of art, locating myself in art history strategically, deploying it anachronistically, and creating new connections and associations. My storytelling functions culturally, the tradition calls for expanding the idiom through improvisation, riffing and rupturing. Within hip-hop and the blues there is use of allegory, metaphor and the modernist persona, like Kool Keith aka Dr. Octagon, Howlin Wolf and Sir Nose of Parliament Funkadelic. Classic literature and hip hop share the trait of veering between folk and the epic instantaneously, from line to line – even within a single line. This is how I build my narratives – like scaffolding around the art history of painting, the cultural history of hip-hop and my personal history. The goal of my work is to make new Black myths and lore that are born of tradition, yet transcend pre-existing archetypes that diminish the Black-imagination.”

Nyame O. Brown was born in San Francisco and lives in Oakland. Brown received his BFA from The Art Institute of Chicago (1993), and MFA from Yale school of Art and Architecture (1997). He has been in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts, the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans, Black Artist Retreat, and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. While in Omaha Nyame milled the dirt from the iconic African American social activist Malcolm X. He was in the Frequency exhibition at the Studio Museum of Harlem (2006) and is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors grant (2003). His solo show, Classroom in Neveryon, exhibited in 2016 at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco.

Self Portrait #1, 2019
Photography, 30×20

Natasha Kohli is an Indian and Colombian-American multidisciplinary artist based in Oakland, California. Her projects are inspired by her mixed identity, preserving the stories of her ancestors, and methods of moving through the nonlinear process of healing ancestral trauma. Natasha explores methods of emotion-based storytelling through photography, dance and filmmaking – weaving these disciplines together in her multidimensional projects. Natasha is the co-founder of artist collective, JAGAH, a platform created to unify South Asian artists through collaborative artistic practices, group exhibitions and public performances in the Bay Area.

Her work has been published in San Francisco Chronicle, El Tecolote, The California Sunday, and she has directed short films for stage projection in collaboration with Destiny Arts Center (Oakland). Natasha has exhibited work in Bay Area galleries such as: Mission Cultural Center for the Arts, Southern Exposure, Incline Gallery, Book and Job, Rayko and Accion Latina.

She currently works as the Photo Editor for El Tecolote, the longest running nonprofit bilingual newspaper in the West Coast, based in the Mission District of San Francisco. Natasha’s work addresses themes pertinent to her existence, such as how migratory patterns in her family’s histories affect her present and shape her future, while simultaneously reclaiming the pieces of her identity that colonization and patriarchal systems have attempted to erase.

Ray Pendro first connected with Rhythmix Cultural Works by attending live performances and music history classes. In his younger days, Ray played drums in bands in his hometown of Pittsburgh, PA. Later, he was a preschool and elementary school teacher in Los Angeles, where music from around the world was integral to his lesson plans. Ray celebrates music and its profound, far-reaching, positive effects on childhood experience and development – especially in the areas of learning, awareness, and respect. He is currently director of environmental planning at a firm based in Berkeley.

De Wilmore is a licensed real estate broker and educator. A dynamic and dedicated management professional, he has more than twenty years of experience overseeing business development, staff management, and real estate sales. De has demonstrated success in developing and maintaining client relationships, community partners, identifying/optimizing growth opportunities and developing referrals. De formerly worked as a licensed, mental health clinician specializing in emergency psychiatry and crisis intervention. He has grown children and composes music in his off time.

An elementary school teacher for 21 years, Charlie encourages and inspires creative expression and a love of learning in his students. In addition to being an educator, Charlie is also an artist. He re-purposes found and discarded items, combining them with lenses and mirrors to create emotionally inspired freestanding sculptures and hangings. Everyday items are rearranged in a playful balance and are built to be viewed in the round to encourage shifting perspectives.

Owen graduated from UC Berkeley, Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences, and was hired as one of the first game programmers at Atari to design arcade video games, and eventually Bally. He spent 6 years at Apple working on Mac design and system software and was also a key player in the design and implementation of the first commercial broadband system in the U.S. while working for Pacific Bell/SBC. He then joined Paul Allen’s Interval Research, leading research on Digital TV and Broadband Systems. Since then, he has been an executive at several start-ups in fields like digital set top boxes, security, specialized microprocessors, mobile video games, and augmented reality. Owen is currently at Apple once again, working on augmented reality and games. Owen’s board service includes nine years for the Alameda Country Community Food Bank and St. Mary’s Center of Oakland.

Cynthia McNulty thought she would be a ballet dancer when she was growing up. She danced on point for so many years that she wore away the cartilage in her big toes, a big ouch now but well worth the pain. Then she thought she would edit film, and did so in NYC for 5 years until her son was born. Looking for something more stable to financially support the family she started her undergraduate work at the age of 27 and went straight through a PhD program in particle physics. She wanted to work at one of those big particle accelerators, but her son (now 14) refused to move with her to Germany or Switzerland. He threatened to move in with his dad – yikes. Cynthia took a job instead at a big bank where they were hiring physicists and mathematicians to analyze complex market dynamics. She’s still there today. Who would have thought. At least her big bank salary can help support Rhythmix.

With more than three decades of academic and business experience, McCline is an expert in developing leadership programs and facilitating leadership development workshops and training with a focus on promoting innovative and values-based leadership. McCline has founded several companies including a multi-million business and also co-founded the award-winning Ohrenschall Center for Entrepreneurship at San Francisco State University. McCline’s international reputation and lectures have taken him around the globe to Mexico, South America, England, Spain, Italy and other countries in Europe, Eastern Europe and Africa. Additionally, McCline is an accomplished writer with articles in peer reviewed journals and respected publications in the fields of Strategic Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Management.

Simply put, Camilo Landau is a musician with a lifetime of experience under his belt. He began learning the guitar and Cuban tres at the age of twelve from his uncle, Grammy-nominated record producer Greg Landau. By the age of sixteen, Camilo had performed alongside Carlos Santana, and went on to continue his musical studies in Cuba and Nicaragua. Returning to the University of Santa Cruz for his undergraduate studies, he founded post-Latin group Carne Cruda, which remained active for over a decade. Over the years, Camilo has performed alongside such household names as Ozomatli, Los Lobos, Stevie Wonder, and countless others. In 2008, he and Greg Landau founded Round Whirled Records, and the two have dozens of records on their resumes. He is a 2016 Grammy nominee.

Dei has delighted in Rhythmix arts and music for over 7 years. She helped Rhythmix update their database to help them to connect and engage with more of the Bay Area community. Dei believes arts enrich the soul and loves the world music offerings at Rhythmix, especially Taller Bombalele, Salsa, Flamenco and Polynesian and Asian dance and music. She especially loves that she doesn’t have to go to San Francisco to experience the rich sounds of world music. Dei works in technology helping businesses maximize their software investments, increase productivity and manage all their content. When she is not working, she loves hitting things like tennis balls and the occasional African drum.

Bill Jeng is a civil engineer with a background in art and architecture. He is a self-taught artist and has exhibited in local businesses and galleries. Bill is primarily a painter, working with acrylics on canvas, but also works with color pencils, wood, and other construction materials. In civil engineering, Bill has worked on many Bay Area projects including the San Francisco International Airport Expansion, BART system extensions, and Golden Gate Bridge seismic retrofit. Currently, Bill is an Associate Engineer for the Oakland International Airport. Visit Bill’s website .

Anne Cook has spent her career working to build better communities. After the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake damaged the San Francisco waterfront, she spent 10 years at the Port of San Francisco, first overseeing reconstruction of historic fishing industry facilities at Fisherman’s Wharf and then managing the development and implementation of the Port’s long-term plan for rebirth of the San Francisco Waterfront, including the renovated Ferry Building, the SF Giants Ballpark, and the now-lively network of sidewalks and parks along The Embarcadero. After having kids, she worked and volunteered closer to home, including stints as Executive Director of the Bay-Friendly Landscaping and Gardening Coalition, as a member of the City of Alameda Planning Board and the Board of Girls Inc. of the Island City, and a volunteer with Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Alameda Point Collaborative, and St Joe’s. She then managed the development of East Palo Alto’s General Plan, before coming full circle and returning to the Port of San Francisco in 2015 to shepherd a major update of the San Francisco Waterfront Plan. Anne is excited to help support Rhythmix, and to be surrounded by and help share and inspire creativity, both within Alameda and far beyond.

Maryln Mori paints vegetables and fruits from fresh and new to old and withered. Comparing this to aging people who become more interesting with passing time, so too do vegetables and fruits. Symbolic of this transitory nature of life, only parts of an object may be seen on her canvas. Mori does not consider her paintings as still-lifes, but as life, stilled. She has produced watercolor monoprints as well as abstractions with collage.

Rupy C. Tut is an Oakland based calligrapher and painter dissecting historical and contemporary displacement narratives around identity, belonging, and gender. Her work engages in strict practice of traditional materials and methodology associated with Indian miniature painting as she continues to add contemporary images and characters to a centuries old visual language.

Sharon Virtue is a painter, dancer and ceramic artist currently living in Oakland, California. She has a strong social practice and has worked internationally on creative development projects in Mozambique, Uganda, Brazil, Haiti, America and England. She believes artists are agents of transformation. Her mission is to inspire, encourage and provide access to the greater community in the creation of art.

Malik Seneferu is a self-taught African-American artist, from San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood, whose work has been shown at museums and galleries all over the world. Known for his intricate drawings of famous African Americans as well as vibrant paintings of the Black community, Seneferu turned to abstract work after participating in The Hill and Beyond series, which feature magic realism and intense colors to express what it feels like to be a young person.

Marc helps with maintenance here at Rhythmix.

I am a Bay Area native and U.C. Berkeley graduate in Civil Engineering. I am married with two daughters. I worked in construction management and contracting for 20 years, and I am currently a middle school math teacher. While my education and experience were not “art” related, I always had an interest in drawing and painting. When I saw Bill’s class, I felt it was a good time to learn how to draw/paint and enjoy a beverage at the same time! Bill gave me creative techniques and inspiration to draw and paint more during this Covid time.

I am a member of Art Jam, which, prior to the coronavirus, met weekly at Rhythmix Cultural Works to make art and socialize. I dabble in a variety of media – drawing, acrylic paint, watercolors, artist books. During Sip ‘n Sketch, I have been painting along with Bill Jeng as he translates a photograph into a painting, offering lessons in the use of perspective and painting techniques, along with an engineer’s appreciation of construction.

I’ve been a Bay Area resident for about 35 years, originally from Los Angeles. I have an MBA from UC Berkeley, and undergraduate degree from UC Davis in Nutrition and Food Sciences where I was fortunate enough to take a beginning art class from Wayne Thiebaud. Most of my career I have spent working as an accountant for a large non-profit Bay Area organization that serves developmentally disabled individuals. My powers of observation for numbers is quite good. However, my observational abilities for lines, colors, values and shapes needs some work. Therefore, I find being part of Bill Jeng’s Sip-N-Sketch sessions helps expand my world and my vision. He’s got a generous spirit that makes one feel that any attempts at creativity are welcome. I like the idea that beauty can be found almost anywhere, and that the artist’s role is to help us see that.

A life-long Alamedan, Claudia enjoys the “island life” with her husband Bruce and “shelter-spaniel,” Gracie. Recently retired from a career in Human Resources, Claudia hoped to find a new, creative diversion or two. Her grandmother and mother each took up painting at “a certain age,” so she was drawn to challenge herself. Rhythmix’s offering of “SIP-N-Sketch” led by Bill Jeng creates a bright spot twice each week, to connect with others while learning art skills and techniques.

Sometimes a tree grows in Brooklyn and sometimes a rose grows through the concrete sidewalk and sometimes an artist flourishes in the darkest terrain and a friendship begins between very different people who accidentally meet in an art class in Birmingham, Alabama and lasts almost a lifetime. I was a student at the University of Alabama in Birmingham when I signed up for a painting class under art teacher Martha Johnson. Another student named Jessica also signed up for the class. I had just moved back to Birmingham with my then husband, Tancan Ayral, and our new born baby, Teff. The world seemed new and I vowed to take some classes while working a full time job. I have been an artist ever since.

Last year my daughter invited me to Rhythmix to participate in Art Jam while she took drumming classes. I met a great group of people and when the pandemic struck, I continued with the group to go to Sip N Sketch. I enjoy the class and Bill Jeng is a great artist and teacher. He demonstrates many different techniques and we have painted a variety of subjects. Everyone has a good time, we share our art, our lives and we have a creative community. ayralartandpoetry.weebly.com

Bill Jeng is a civil engineer with a background in art and architecture. His father taught him how to paint at a very young age and he has continued to sketch and paint throughout his career as an engineer. Other than classes in high school and college, he is mostly a self-taught artist and has exhibited in local businesses and galleries.

Bill is primarily a painter, working with acrylics on canvas, but also works with color pencils, wood, and other construction materials. Lately, he has been working on smaller scale canvases using recycled materials in his artworks. His latest works also focus on Bay Area scenery with an emphasis on engineering/construction subjects in the natural environment.

Contact Bill at (510) 499-2535 or bjengcomix@gmail.com to discuss commissions.

Bill’s artworks can be seen on his website: https://sites.google.com/view/billjengstudio/home

or at Bill’s blog: http://cowabungacraftsman.blogspot.com/

Ashlei Reign is a proud Oakland native and well traveled artist. With nineteen countries and counting and a former job as an Oakland police officer, Ashlei has seen a wide range of cultures and communities. Her highly saturated images have the ability to draw your attention and her level of detail in the eyes of her portraits teach you to look beyond differences and simply connect. Ashlei has had no formal art training but she continues to surround herself with other artists and mentors that contribute to her artistic journey.

Abi Mustapha is a Sierra Leonean-American artist. Her work is primarily focused on large scale portraiture and illustration inspired by examining the beauty of cross cultural diversity. Her art examines the complexity of expression and identity through the creative process; drawing many small details on a large scale. Graphite, charcoal, and oil paint on paper, are her preferred mediums.

Andrea McCoy Harvey is a 48 year-old native of Little Rock, Arkansas by way of Tracy, California. She received her formal art training at the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff, a HBCU, with a BA in Art Education. She is currently obtaining her MFA at the Academy of Art San Francisco. Andrea is a public school Art Teacher for Emery Unified School District. She is an emerging new artist that brings a powerful message with her art: Her portrait series delivers a commanding statement for women of color and women’s empowerment.

Tiffany Conway’s visual paintings are the break of generational curses and the door to beautiful beginnings. Overcoming stereotypes and an absentee mother, art has provided Tiffany with the tools to communicate in a way that she was not able to do before. Growing her creativity from life experiences, art has allowed Tiffany to retreat, restore, and express all that she has learned from moving through the world as a Black woman.

Award-winning artist Stephen Bruce’s acid paintings on copper have helped to set the scene on some of the most popular TV shows and movies including: House, Law & Order, Criminal Minds, Californication, Big Bang Theory, The American Housewife, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Endgame, Horrible Bosses and The Social Network. Bruce also takes an active role in inspiring young students to think creatively using the basic principles of art and science.

Zoë Boston is a multifaceted artist who has been drawing since youth, but did not begin painting until she returned to the West Coast. Born in LA and raised in Upstate NY, she now resides in Oakland, CA. 
Zoë’s inspirations come from God, life, love, music, food, and more. She is dedicated to being true to herself, which in-turn, transforms her work into passion on walls and canvas.

Irene Juárez O’Connell is a mentor, educator, and advocate for youth and young people in Santa Cruz County. Originally from Los Angeles, Irene came to Santa Cruz to study Public Art and Latin American & Latino Studies at UCSC. She has served the community in mentorship roles in local high schools and in the Santa Cruz Juvenile Detention Center. She is passionate about the intersections where youth expression and creativity can meet empowerment for lasting, impactful change for their lives and their communities. Irene has received the NEXTie for Artist of the Year 2017 Award and the Eduardo Carrillo Healing the Community with Art Award that same year. https://beachflatsmural.com/

Salma Arastu explains her life this way: “As a woman, Hindu, Muslim, artist, and mother, I work to create harmony by expressing the universality of humanity through paintings, sculpture, and calligraphy. Inspired by the imagery, sculpture, and writings of my Indian heritage and Islamic spirituality, I use my artistic voice to break down the barriers that divide in order to foster peace and understanding. At birth, I was given the life-defining challenge of a left hand without fingers. Seeing the unity of an all-encompassing God, I was able to transcend the barriers often set-forth in the traditions of religion, culture and the cultural perceptions of handicaps. My personal triumphs have been defined and shaped by the simple principle of faith in The Divine, as the compelling force which has guided my life and work.” https://salmaarastu.com/

Virginia Jourdan is an international exhibiting artist who received her BFA in Illustration from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, CA and studied fine art, printmaking and graphic arts at City College of San Francisco. She continued developing her talents studying abroad, attending painting workshops in Italy and China. Virginia captures the soul of humanity and illustrates the dignity of African American people. In her words: “I find release from my own personal dramas when I’m able to express them as universal. As an artist, I help others make sense of the human experience. I guide people in awakening and living from the highest potential inherent within them. I want to arouse a sense of pride among African Americans. I want to evoke a feeling of power, strength, authority, elegance, and prestige.” http://www.virginiajourdan.com/

Talavera-Ballón is a Peruvian-born painter based in San Francisco, CA. A disciple of acclaimed artist Luis Palao Berastain, he skillfully captures the essence of ordinary people’s lives and their surroundings across diverse regions and cultures of the Americas. He explores themes that highlight important social and cultural aspects of the people and places he has encountered. His work is also a tribute to immigrants like himself who left their home countries in search of new horizons. http://www.talavera-ballon.com/

Kathleen C. Woulfe is the Endowment Coordinator & Community Relations for the Boy Scouts Council of Alameda, a non-profit. She currently sits on the Boards of Alameda Meals on Wheels-VP, FAAS-Friends of the Alameda Animal Shelter, Alameda Education Foundation – Adopt A Classroom Chair, Alameda Chamber of Commerce Director, Alameda Chamber GREDC, Chamber Ambassador & Campaign Director for Mayor Marie Gilmore 2010 & 2014. Kathie served as Director of Development & Community Relations for both the Boys & Girls Club of Alameda and St. Joseph Elementary School of Alameda. She served 9 years on the Alameda Rotary BOD. Cannot sing or dance, but plays a decent Viola. Born in the Alameda Hospital original elevator on Clinton Avenue, and is committed to giving back to our community.

First off, I would like to thank Ginny Parsons and Rhythmix Cultural Works for this opportunity to exhibit recent paintings in such a supportive milieu. They have generously opened their vibrant artistic community’s doors to a new resident and he is wholeheartedly revitalized by it. Although I lived in San Francisco from 1986 to 2006 I did not have chance to explore Alameda as I might have, so my return to the “familiar” has been amazingly brand new.

There’s nothing like a global pandemic to reinforce any artist’s sense of retrospection, and in my case it comes hard upon the heels of Hurricane Irma’s furious destruction of my studio space in the Florida Keys in 2017. Returning to the Bay Area was bittersweet as my newly rekindled loving relationship took root here in Alameda, as the fires filled the air with acrid smoke and we watched so many people seek refuge from a different catastrophe.

The Keys and Key West are brimming with the kind of inspiration that keeps me afloat.
(okay, no more nautical descriptors.) I have always been drawn to the power of water and its transforming and healing characteristics. So it was that I was drawn to that part of the world to paint, where one can often mistake the horizon lines, where light dances above and below and around you and the colors keep shifting throughout the day. Where stepping into the shallows and snorkeling to the reef will reveal countless mysteries. And where one more significantly notices that the waters do not recede as they used to, where the ground is losing ground, and the king tides will soon reign unchecked.

Ginny Parsons sees that same thing happening here as she circumnavigates in her kayak, and she inspires me in her kinship of vision. I haven’t been on the water lately but I walk everywhere and am inspired by the lagoons and vistas from South Shore and the wetland areas and the city skylines. My aesthetic sensibility is rooted in capturing my emotional responses to what I see. Here, let me cut and paste from an earlier statement which still rings true:

“The plasticity of resin as a painting medium has afforded me the opportunity to paint through the surface of nature, which as my primary source of inspiration in these recent works becomes the captured moment of energy-infused visual phenomena. Rather than paint the object, I paint the emotional response created within me by that-which-appears-before-my-eyes.”

Working in this medium since the ‘90s, I constantly discover new ways of portraying things that other mediums have never satisfied me with: the color saturation, resin’s ability to overlay imagery, the ways it can be carved, sculpted, polished, and manipulated. I have found a material that allows me to paint what I need to see, which is often through the assumed object or surface to the way it has been created for me to observe it. To sum it up: “why is this so beautiful, and how can I paint it?”

So our exhibition’s theme of Immersion is one of Water, but is also one of Culture and one of Society and of Friendship and mutual Admiration and Support and hopefully one of Healing the planet upon which we continue to survive.

This year sucks. My dad died and the pandemic hit. But my mom taught me to “look for the good,” so I’ve been kayaking every day and making art using everything from seaweed to leftover Crisco.

The large water paintings with peanut butter and Borax were started before the virus hit. I added cardboard cutouts that represent infection, since the shapes rub against the surface and some become greasy while others stay healthy and pristine. (Shout out to my neighbors Heidi Prutton for the cutouts and Chris Fetzer for the Crisco.)

I’ve also been making landscapes of San Leandro Bay painted on chunks of old drop cloths. I enjoy using leftovers and I’m worried about global warming.

I’ve been picking up trash from the Bay and when I find a ball, I wrap it with seaweed. As sea levels rise, Alameda will need to adapt and Josie Iselin’s book “The Curious World of Seaweed” has been teaching me about the mysteries of seaweed and their ability to survive.

Finally, I’ve been painting watercolors of the natural world of Alameda because that is where I find solace. If I had to be sheltered in place, there’s nowhere I’d rather be.

I dedicate this exhibit to Colin Brooks Morris (7) who I’ve seen nearly every day since Covid-19. As I pull my kayak past his house, he pops out to say hello. As I sign off with “have a good day,” his reply is, “it already is a great day, Ginny, all my days are awesome.” If we adopt Colin’s attitude, we’ll get through this pandemic with a greater appreciation for nature and the value of staying close to home and family.

The Tinker Bus will be at Rhythmix ‘Round the World Festival inspiring creativity and innovation with fun STEAM activities for kids! Arrive early to reserve your space. $5 per child.
More info at: tinkerbus.com

Add your personal color, style and ingredients? to the community art wall! Ginny Parsons, an Alameda artists who is inspired by nature and paints with everything from laundry detergent and bacon grease to beeswax and acrylics, facilitates this free art experience for kids of all ages (that means adults, too!). Learn more about Ginny Parsons.

The Alameda Education Foundation presents FREE Suminagashi / Japanese Paper Marbling workshops for youth. Experience the art of suminagashi and take home your very own hand made marbled paper! More info about Alameda Education Foundation.

Image: Marbled endpaper from a book bound in France around 1880 (detail)

Presented by artpaul cartier
Sea of Stories, 20-minute audio loop

The podcasts you hear in this collection were written and recorded by San Francisco youth, ages 12-18, during field trips to 826 Valencia’s Tenderloin Center. 826 Valencia is a nonprofit dedicated to supporting under-resourced students with their writing skills, developing their confidence as writers and amplifying their powerful voices. Many of our students are recent immigrants or first-generation Americans. With the support of volunteer tutors, students wrote podcasts exploring the elements that influence their identities and beliefs. Vibrant and varied, their podcasts are grounded in reflection on culture, community, challenge and celebration. In many, students describe the diverse places they are “from.” They are from “my home back in Kuwait, where the people were chargers with energizing attitudes”; from “rice that’s left over in your bowl”; from “Canada, Korea, and thoughts passed down for generations”; from “Narnia and Hogwarts”; from “music spiraling through my bones.” These brief sonic journeys showcase the writers’ backgrounds and origins, while pointing to the inspiring places they’re headed.

artpaul cartier is a photographer and artist who compiled and presented this installation. He recounts: “As I have been volunteering as a recorder with 826 Valencia Tenderloin podcast project I have been struck by the beauty of students’ writing and performances in this medium. As many of the students come from the San Francisco Unified School District, there is a wide variety of perspectives on topics ranging from food and sports to learning English and relating stories of immigration – and their after-effects. Culled from hundreds of podcasts taken over the last three years, this presentation assembles a loop of a selection of the students’ stories and poems.”

Crossing the Aegean, 2019
Oil on canvas, 48×36

“My current series, 68.5 Million, follows the river of tears from the millions of forcibly displaced people around the world. My family left Russia long ago and were given an opportunity to make a new home, strive and succeed in safety. This is not the world we live in now. I refuse to look away from the suffering that rips our world apart. It motivates every mark I make. The paintings are windows into the unthinkable and unseen stories of innocent people. This series bears witness to the humans, all of whom could be us, who are being told to disappear. Where can they go? For a moment they can rest across my canvas, lost and found, defined and undefined. It’s time to notice.”

Jennifer Berkowitz worked for many years as a creative director and designer of motion graphics for television and film. She created award-winning productions and taught at the University of California, Los Angeles before she decided to dive into a submersive exploration of painting. The psychological and emotional challenges of life fuel her work, which follows a thoughtful and introspective thread. Her paintings are primarily figurative, exploring dislocation, rites of passage and coming of age. Jennifer lives and works in San Francisco, where she is actively involved with the homeless community — another displaced population.

Indigenousness, 2019
Rice paper, bees wax on panel, 20×16

“I am interested in creating visual language that is engaged in individual and collective identities and the history, culture, economies and geographies that they are tethered to. This piece is from a larger body of work that I call the Belonging series. Indigenousness is an identity portrait comprised of the countries and continents of my own heritage. The maps range from historical to satellite imagery and include “outdated” versions with countries that no longer exist or illustrate first nation territories in what would become the United States of America. It is a visual exploration of my interest in the instability of place in regard to notions of nativism and identity. The first nation peoples offer an understanding of identity as connected to seven generations before and seven generations forward. When I consider this in terms of the geography and nationalism of my own ancestry, it is more accurate to understand my indigenousness as a journey. A path that meanders through time and place with changing borders, political systems, names and dates that are determined by exploration, conquest, colonialism, opportunity, greed, benevolence, lust and love.”

Cynthia Brannvall is a California native of African American and Swedish descent. A multimedia artist and art historian, her artwork has been selected for juried group exhibitions in Berkeley, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, San Rafael, Palo Alto, San Luis Obispo and Los Angeles. She teaches Art History at various community colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Website

Nunca Lavamos Os Shorts, 2019
Acrylic, oil on canvas, 36×36

Growing up in Brazil, Alex da Silva often accompanied his late father – a respected artist and famous art critic – to the outskirts of São Paulo where he painted and visited his peers. Alex’s earliest memories include visiting studios filled with strong smells and things he was told not to touch; travels to the coast revealed endless urban industrial areas pushing up against deep lush green mountains, and the ocean so vast, bright and inviting.

Alex’s work strives to represent this emotional space filtered by his current perspective, without nostalgia. Perhaps they are places that never existed beyond his imagination. His use of color in diverse mediums communicates the impact of these memories through symbolism and unlikely landscapes. His influences include the organic earth tones of his father’s paintings and the visual experimentation of the 20th Century American artists of his adopted home.

Horizons (Detail), 1979
Horizons, 1979
Photography, B/W film, 12×36

Horizons does not celebrate the wonderful successes of migrants who have “made it.” Rather the focus is more on the unsettling process or journeys these people must survive before they can begin to establish new homes in a new land. Horizons is a solarized triptych of consecutive frames on a roll of film. It shows a Palestinian mother and her two young children disappearing over the horizon. Where are they headed? Why? Will they be accepted? What has become of them?

Najib Joe Hakim works as a documentary and editorial photographer in San Francisco. He is a Political Art Fellow at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and was also a nominee for the United States Artist Fellowship. Hakim’s current project, Palestine Diary, exhumes his 1978-1979 black and white photographs in Palestine and combines the images with excerpts from his contemporary journal, enlightening the deep roots of the crisis in Palestine today.

Free Will Is An Illusion, 2018
Archival inkjet print, 37×25

Kacy Jung is a Taiwanese visual artist working with digital photography and ceramic sculpture. Throughout her art career, she investigates the construction and reassembles of identity during socialization, as well as the relationship between an individual and the current capitalist society. The subject intertwines with her immigrant experience and the anxiety of being part of the disappearing middle class. Her current works are a series of self-portraits and quirky sculptures of everyday objects such as mobile phones that are inspired by her struggles of living in a capitalist society. With this work she intends to intrigue the viewers’ own experience and internal dialogue: what is this system becoming now? What are the American dreams we believe?

Kacy’s works have been shown in galleries and museums internationally, including the United States and Taiwan. She is the recipient of the 2016 SFAI Harlan Jackson Diversity Scholarship, the 2018 SFAI nominees of Graduate Fellowship at Headlands Center for the Arts and the annual International Sculpture Center Student Award in contemporary sculpture. She received her MFA in photography at San Francisco Art Institute after an MS in biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area and practices her art at the Root Division Studios Program.

The Healing Garden of Asparagus, 2019
Digital illustration, archival print on aluminum, 20×20

“The Healing Garden of Asparagus” is inspired by The Herbal, a twelfth century manuscript from Andalusia, Spain. This piece evokes the memories of my childhood in the Southern city of Shiraz, Iran, known for its herbal medicine tradition. As a child I spent ample time shopping at the traditional drugstores in Shiraz with my grandmother who firmly believed in the healing power of herbal medicine for all kinds of minor ailments. The plants are designed after the original images from the manuscript and printed on metal medallions to evoke the Persian decorative tiles. The Healing Garden of Asparagus showcases an introspective representation of my early memories of connection to nature and personal place between the worlds of reality, science and imagination.”

Pantea Karimi is a multidisciplinary artist with an interest in the taxonomy of image-text relationships. She researches visual representations in medieval Persian and Arab and early modern European scientific manuscripts in five categories: mathematics, medicinal botany, anatomy, optics/astronomy and cartography. Karimi’s works collectively highlight the significance of visual elements in early science and invite the viewer to observe science and its history through the process of image making. Her fine arts have been exhibited in Iran, Algeria, Germany, Croatia, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States. She is the recipient of the 2019 Arts and Cultural Exchange Grant in San Jose; the 2019 Silicon Valley Artist Laureates Award; the 2016-2017 Kala Fellowship Award; and the 2011 Multicultural Arts Leadership Initiative Fellowship. Pantea Karimi is an Adjunct Faculty at the College of San Mateo and maintains a studio in Cubberley Artist Studios in Palo Alto, California.

Lost In Google Translation, 2017
72x24x24

With his roots in Northern Thailand, where he spent part of his life as a Buddhist monk, combined with his background in Human-Computer Interaction and designing innovative products and experiences in the San Francisco Bay Area, Purin’s work explores themes of language and cross-cultural translations, human-machine coexistence and collaboration, as well as the tension between dogmatic rules and spontaneous expression. His media often incorporates buttons, knobs and screens, combined with a touch of code, resulting in simple, playful and interactive experiences for the audience.

Purin’s work has been exhibited in galleries, museums and institutions across the United States, Japan, Thailand and Iceland. He holds a BFA in Industrial Design and Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University and an MFA in Product Design from Stanford University. Prior to becoming an artist, he worked as a principal product designer at IDEO San Francisco. He has taught design courses at Stanford University, General Assembly and is currently teaching at the University of California, Berkeley.

Letter of Request to Grupo México, 2017
University of Michigan Letterhead, 10×8
Arrival to Michigan, 2017
Saran wrap, copper particles, hair, debris from Mexico and Michigan, 12×12

“In 2017, I acquired an eleven-pound sheet of copper from the Buenavista del Cobre mine in Cananea, México. My father’s family is from Cananea and I grew up hearing stories of my uncle who, allegedly, pitched rocks into this mine and later played for the Detroit Tigers. As an MFA student at the University of Michigan, I used my position, and university letterhead, to request copper from Rene, a manager at the mine. This many-months correspondence was a way to explore my Mexican-American identity, my connection with family, and institutional power.”

Mayela Rodriguez is a practicing artist in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Mayela received her undergraduate degree in Art Practice from the University of California, Berkeley in 2015. Through research, sculpture, photography and social engagement Mayela’s practice explores collection-making, value and labor within a Latinx context. Mayela has exhibited her work in Ann Arbor and Detroit, Michigan, Santa Barbara, California, and several cities throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Mayela received her MFA in Art from the University of Michigan in 2019.

White Boxes: Harriet, 2018
Heirloom lace, chiffon, cotton thread, hair, ribbons, dress hooks, 28x19x4

Joanna’s work considers the intersections of cultural identities performed on and by our bodies. She is specifically interested in storytelling through adornment, female cultural lineages and hair as a medium mobilized to both create and deconstruct meaning. Her work proposes the braid as a cross-cultural ritual passed down through generations entangling past, present and future. In her White Boxes series she examines privileged spaces in relation to inheritance. Braids are interlaced with sartorial heirlooms, as altars to her historical and imagined heritage.

Joanna is an interdisciplinary artist based in Alameda, California. She received her BA in Cultural Anthropology and Visual Arts from Brown University and her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, where she is currently pursuing an MA in the History and Theory of Contemporary Art. She has exhibited in both the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the de Young Museum. Her works are part of several collections and she has exhibited internationally in Osaka, Japan. She prints actively with San Francisco Poster Syndicate.

In Honor of Syrian Refugees (Detail), 2018
In Honor of Jamala al-Baidhani (Installation), 2018
Inkjet print on linen paper, plexiglass, 5x7x1

Foreign Exchange incorporates the emblems taken from banknotes and utilizes images from news media to highlight voices of resistance from countries that have been impacted by U.S. national interests. The banknotes feature influential figures and monumental events that draw attention to socio-political tensions existing both within a country’s borders and beyond. Foreign Exchange offers an alternative platform to archive and share cultural currencies.

Azin Seraj is an Iranian-Canadian artist currently based in northern California. Her research based, multi media practice addresses socio-political concerns through a transnational lens. Seraj’s mission to amplify oppressed or silenced voices bridges her work as an educator and community organizer working with emerging artists and activists through exhibitions, screenings and actions. A recipient of the 2010 Roselyn Schneider Eisner Prize in Film, Seraj’s work has been featured internationally in exhibitions and festivals including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Tate Liverpool, Open Space Arts Society, (S8) Monstra De Cinema Periférico in Spain, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), Minnesota Street Project, Chicago Underground Film Festival and Croatian Association of Artists.

Saddlebag (From When We All Got Along) Morocco, 2019 Archival acrylic ink, paint on canvas, 16×16

This image is from the town of Ait Ben Haddou, Morocco. Before the state of Israel was established, the town had an equal mix of Jews, Muslims and Christians all living peacefully together. After 1948 most of the Jews migrated to Israel. The saddlebag pictured is a relic from that time.

Long time Bay Area Professor Emeritus (from CCA) Elizabeth Sher works in both 2 and 4D. Her films and artworks have garnered awards and been shown nationally, internationally and on TV (her films.) Her work focuses on women, art, healthy aging and the environment mixing digital and analog (handwork) modalities. Over the past decade her artwork has been inspired by residencies she has attended out of the country – most recently in Morocco.

Diaspora is a part of her background and her life. Sher’s family migrated from two shtetls in Lithuania to escape the pogroms. They settled in Minnesota and Wisconsin: equally cold and anti-Semitic areas – just like home. Says Sher, “Fiddler on the Roof is me!” Many of her mother’s family moved to Israel and stayed. While in Wisconsin, her dad was offered a job in FDR’s New Deal so her family migrated to Washington, DC where she was raised. Sher came to study at the University of California, Berkeley, and then stayed and raised her family. She now works and resides in Oakland, California. She is a member of Mercury 20 Gallery on 25th Street and will have a show Morocco Seen and Unseen from September 12th to October 19th, inspired by the sights, sounds tastes and smells from her residency in Tetuoan in 2018.

Feet of Clay, 2018
Mixed media on paper, 21×18

Throughout her tenure, Inez Storer has used the narrative as the lynchpin for her work. Usually including collage, mixed media and text, although frequently peculiar in its vernacular. The images reflect that of a storyteller which include her personal observations and interpretative reflections of current events, past memories and magical thinking.

Inez Storer was born in Santa Monica, California. She studied at the University of California, Berkeley, Art Center, Los Angeles, San Francisco Art Institute, and received her MA from the University of San Francisco. Storer has taught at various universities, which include San Francisco State, University of California, Davis, University of California, Santa Cruz, Sonoma State University and San Francisco Art Institute. Storer’s work has been widely exhibited in the United States, Asia and Europe.

Her work has been exhibited in various museums including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Oakland Art Museum, Montana Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Jewish History and the Contemporary Jewish Museum of San Francisco. She has received numerous grants and awards, which include the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and twice has been an Artist-in-Residence at the American Academy in Rome. Her work has been critically reviewed in many publications including Art in America and many on-line reviews, most recently by Dewitt Cheng in Visual Art Source. Storer resides in Inverness with a studio in Point Reyes Station.

Peace Out, Patriarchy!, 2017
Gouache on handmade hemp paper, 17×21

Rupy C. Tut is an Oakland based visual artist working with two traditional art forms: Indian miniature painting (an 18th century Indian art form) and calligraphy. Rupy’s work is particularly remarkable for her strict practice with traditional materials and methods associated with these art forms. She creates work with intricate brushwork on handmade hemp paper using stone and organic pigments made in her studio. Being connected to traditional art making while innovating within its constraints, Rupy reaches back to a visual language that is centuries old but has relevance today. Her work dissects historical and contemporary narratives to portray the modern mix of influences from both the West and the East.

In Peace Out, Patriarchy!, Rupy challenges norms of identity and belonging as a first generation Punjabi Sikh immigrant. In this painting, she comments on post-migration trauma associated with gender roles imposed on women. This piece is centered on Heer, a famous character from Punjabi folklore who defies norms and stands up against social authorities. As the central character, Heer is a heroine who echoes the sentiments of many first generation girls around gender roles that become more strictly enforced in diasporic communities versus communities “back home.” For Rupy, this painting reiterates her role and responsibility as a traditional maker to capture the resilience of women who shaped history but have not been mentioned in history books.

Baila Conmigo Bolivar, 2019
Laser cut wood, 38×24

Camilo is a Colombian artist who utilizes his creative practice as a visibility platform. He is committed to unveil oppressive systems to recreate alternative communities. His love for craft and performance intersect in order to communicate symbolic narratives that encourage conversation about the role of art within social justice. He is currently working on the Baila Conmigo project, which invites queer Latinx people to occupy iconic public spaces of cities to the rhythm of Latin beats. Besides livening the daily routine of citizens, this project aims to create community through dance, a non-verbal bodily language that brings people together. The dance is documented though video and photographs that are then translated into vibrant posters, stencils, collages and laser cut wooden pieces of the dancers.

“This work represents a sub community within a community; the queer community within the Latinx culture. Many of us flee our countries in search of a safer place where we can be who we are meant to become without fear of being persecuted. While we are still living in our home countries, gay clubs become our haven, where dance becomes an act of liberation. The Baila Conmigo series captures the moments where the dancers allow themselves to shine in joy and no longer in struggle, fear or rejection. These works are meant to uplift our community with the use of vibrant colors and dynamic shapes. It is important to flip the narrative of victimization that often falls upon our community, and instead start empowering the representation of queer Latinx people so that the younger generations feel positively represented in art and the media.”

Mawu – Creator Goddess, 2019
Acrylic on canvas, 36×24

Sharon Virtue is a British artist of mixed Jamaican and Irish heritage, currently living in Oakland, California. She has a strong social practice and has worked internationally in Mozambique, Uganda, Brazil, Haiti, America and England. She believes artists are agents of transformation. Her mission is to inspire, encourage and provide access to the greater community in the creation of art.

Sharon’s works narrate stories of shape shifting, initiation, metamorphosis and power. They contain mythological beings, which exist amidst the veils of humankind, the natural world and the supernatural. The viewer is invited to encounter the magical places and beings that inhabit her imagination: to explore, decipher and be immersed in an atmosphere of contemplation, remembering their own personal mythologies and the things that are being lost and devalued in our modern world.

Turbo’s Dream (D.E.K.Y.), 2015
Photography, 37×53

“As a visual artist and woman of color, I am drawn to the beauty, brilliance and resilience of Black people across the diaspora. Turbo’s Dream (D.E.K.Y.) is the cover image from my self-published coffee table book entitled Black Joy and Resistance. The book highlights Black and Brown people at cultural celebrations, festivals and “safe spaces” where we can proudly express ourselves without fear of reprisal. While making this work, I traveled throughout the diaspora to capture “The Souls of Black Folks” and the majesty that happens when we tap into our authentic selves. By focusing on the seemingly simple premise of Black joy, I create an entry point for conversation around our inalienable right to that pursuit.”

Adreinne Waheed is a photographer, photo editor and archivist based in Berkeley, California. An Oakland native, her love of photography begin at age thirteen and she has been committed to image making ever since. Ms. Waheed is an accomplished photo editor who has researched, produced and directed numerous shoots for publications including Vibe and Essence magazines. Her work has been published by The New York Times, National Geographic and Photo District News. In 2010, she created the Waheed Photo Archive, a collection of found photographs of African-Americans from Civil War to the present. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) acquired the archive in 2015. Adreinne’s first solo show, Black Joy and Resistance: The Exhibition, enjoyed a successful four month run at Betti Ono Gallery (Oakland, California) and closed June 20, 2019.

It Wasn’t a Dream, 2016
Mixed media, 12×12

Ellen Bepp is a mixed media artist and taiko musician who has aspired to give voice to her Japanese cultural roots through visual and musical expression. Growing up as a third generation Japanese American in the Japantown community of San Jose, California soon after World War II, she was surrounded by Japanese art and textiles. As a child she was greatly influenced by her immigrant grandmother, who taught traditional flower arranging and kimono making, and her grandfather who was a photographer, calligrapher and painter. She was raised with the philosophy that spiritual forces are “alive” in all objects. For her, that force emanates from each scrap of fabric or paper like a metaphor for identity at the core of her art. She reveals her cultural/political legacy as she strives to evoke personal and collective memory, addressing broader experiences of injustice and historical displacement of people.

Since 1980 she has exhibited nationally, including at the Oakland Museum of California, Berkeley Art Center and Euphrat Gallery. Her work has spanned various media including wearable art, theatrical design, mixed media and hand cut paper. She also developed a kinship with pre-Columbian art and weaving traditions of Latin America, which inspired projects in Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Nicaragua and Cuba. In 1974 she began taiko training under Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka of San Francisco Taiko Dojo and went on to perform with San Jose Taiko. In 1999 she co-founded Somei Yoshino Taiko Ensemble, allowing her to realize her multi-disciplinary aesthetic vision. Today she continues to explore the political connection between art, culture and humanity as it informs her identity as an Asian American woman artist.

Aurora Cascade, 2018
Woodcut, 22×15

“My current project examines the visual legacy of “Carl Breuer and Sons” (CB&S) my Jewish family’s former textile printing business in Bohemia. In 1897 my great-great-grandfather Carl began the business, which included a factory in Bohemia. In 1939, the company, along with all other Jewish-owned property in German-occupied areas, was seized and sold to Nazi-approved owners, my family members were killed and the product of their work was lost. When my father was born in 1944 in Los Angeles his parents were not yet citizens of the United States. They were part of a relatively small amount of asylum-seeking refugees to have gained entry to the United States during the thirties and part of a larger Jewish diaspora displaced by the War.

Through my visit to both the CB&S factory, its archive of fabric samples and designs at the nearby Czech Textile Museum, I have acquired a rich digital collection of primary source material in the form of scans and photographs. My research has opened a window to the material world of my lost European family and allowed me to create a physical connection to the past which only art can provide.”

Noah Breuer is an American artist and printmaker born and raised in Berkeley, California. He holds a BFA in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design, and an MFA from Columbia University. He also earned a graduate research certificate in traditional woodblock printmaking and papermaking from Kyoto Seika University in Japan.

A Family History 5, 2016
Photography, 20×30

In this work you see my father’s Polish passport and The Amsterdam, which is the ship on which he immigrated to America (probably in steerage), in 1920. He told me that, as a Jew, he had to stand well back from the desk of the official from which he would obtain the document so as to not accidentally touch him. Then he could step forward and place the fee on the desk, then step back while the official took it, and then go through the procedure again to pick up the actual passport. The family didn’t know that the holocaust was just over the horizon but they knew that things couldn’t possibly be worse in America.

I have been a working photographer since the 1980’s. I usually work in projects. This project, A Family History, attempts to give a narration of immigration and Jewish culture in America. I have been involved in various San Francisco photographic institutions over the years, including Eye Gallery Collective, Media Alliance and Camerawork. I’ve studied at City College of San Francisco and Columbia University. I was an instructor of photography at the University of California, Berkeley, Extension for twenty two years. My current project, called Truth, is a meditation on the fungibility of photographic and philosophical truth using photography, painting and a written essay. It was started before the dawn of the post-truth society but seems even more apropos now.

For more information visit: DavidGoldbergImages.com

Asset Abscission, 2018
UV cured acrylic print on Acrylite, gold metal leaf, panel, 32×32

“My works are inspired by brush painting from the Asian diaspora. Traditionally used by monks and scholars as a means to meditate on nature, I echo that sentiment by considering the role of nature in contemporary society. Compositions of flora and fauna are juxtaposed against a gilded backdrop of stock indexes. What do we value? What do we prioritize? And what are we willing to sacrifice for one or the other?”

Born in San Jose, California in 1979, Phillip Hua was raised in the city that would eventually become the heart of Silicon Valley. As a child, he spent his days wandering the many fields and creeks now replaced with redevelopment, fueled by the tech industry. He eventually received his BFA from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

Hua’s work has been exhibited in galleries, museums and art fairs nationally and internationally. In 2016, he was awarded a public art commission from the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) for the redesign of the 19th Street Oakland BART station and a public art commission from the San Francisco Arts Commission in 2018. His work has been featured by Art Practical, The San Francisco Chronicle, SFWeekly, California Home + Design magazine, White Hot Magazine of Contemporary Art, Huffington Post, Interior Design magazine and 7×7 magazine, among others. Hua lives and works in San Francisco and is adjunct faculty at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco where he teaches Digital Media.

Equanimity Series, Draw Thoughts, 2018
Acrylic, resin on panel, 12×12

Born in Poland, Andrzej grew up during the years of political oppression and era of communist Poland. There, he attended the School for the Arts and Literature. Andrzej moved to New York in 1984 and received BFA in painting. He then received Master Degree from University of Pennsylvania in the field of Urban Architecture. His artistic direction began to take shape after integrating Eastern spirituality into his artworks. His recent paintings have become Cosmocentric. Andrzej’s artistic philosophy lead him to California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco where he received, in 2011, Masters in Integral Psychology and Certification in Expressive Art Therapy. His paintings are exhibited in LA, SF Bay Area, Chicago, New York, Paris, London and Hong Kong.

“My work strives to find balance between western and eastern concepts through the duality of the identity of man with the way I perceive the role of man within the cosmos. My paintings extend beyond the individual to intentionally embrace nature as inclusive of man and art. With each work, there is a push and pull that develops in my paintings, one color, image, text or textile at a time. Each step is an inspiration for the next. My composition develops freely allowing my paintings to form from the depths of the creative process. The essence of each work carries its own unique direction.”

Home – Reflection, 2019
Ink, tempera on cotton paper, 16×12

“My work is based on my personal history; it explores the idea of home and the theme of displacement that was present in my family for several generations. Since leaving my country, the postwar Croatia, I moved to sixteen different places before establishing what I now call my home in Alameda, California. It is not always the case that we feel at home where we came from, or where we are living. I am exploring the definition of home as not being a single place. Is our definition of home evolving? Our physical home is just one of the spaces that define us. Is home space, a place or a feeling?”

Anita Sulimanovic is a visual artist known for her site-specific sculptures and installations made with recycled materials and found objects. Born in Croatia, she graduated in sculpture at the Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts. In 2002 Anita moved to Scotland, United Kingdom to pursue an MFA in Sculpture at the Edinburgh College of Art, graduating in 2004. She also won the competition to design the Planet Award sculpture for BBC World Music Awards. She has created public sculptures and shown her work in Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Poland, South Korea and the United Kingdom. Anita immigrated to the United States in 2008, and in 2014 she permanently moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and founded Studio 1.6 Art School in Alameda, where she teaches fine art disciplines and continues her studio practice. Anita recently had a solo show at Pro Arts, Oakland, and has been selected for NYFA Mentoring Program Oakland.

Guests Missed, 2019
Mixed media, 48×36

The main theme in my art is alienation and assimilation of the immigrant in a foreign culture. As a Korean woman in the United States, I have confronted the challenges associated with race, language and geography that most immigrants encounter. But what has shaped my perspectives even more is my struggle with the cultural conflict that exists for women born in Asian cultures who must learn to cope with a new startling social model in the West.

This struggle is a consistent undercurrent throughout my work. Many of my pieces use calligraphic – and at times unintelligible – characters to convey both the frustration of incomprehension and the beauty and universality of understanding. The words should resonate on a very subtle and deeply personal level. My intention is to use the power of the art to soothe the mind. Recently I was one of seven artists of, In-Between Places: Korean American Artists in the Bay Area. The artists featured during In-Between Places reveal the reality and complexities of being a Korean American artist in the Bay Area – a location that has served as a gateway for Korean culture and a bridge between Korea and the West.

In-Between Places acknowledges the infinitely evolving and nuanced ways Korean Americans interpret and express history, culture and art. Reflecting on the relationship of Korean American artists to art making in the Bay Area, the exhibition offers fresh considerations on the intricacies of cultural identity.

Unique and beautiful pottery, clothing, spiritual candles, teas, oils, kitchen items & home décor direct from Mexico.

5115 International Blvd, Oakland, CA 94601

Visit Artesania y Botanica Del Sol Page

Led by Professor Sumido (Sam Batchelder) since 2004, the Capoeira Mandinga Alameda community maintains the deep traditions of this Afro-Brazilian self-defense/art form. Balancing playfulness, respect and discipline with strong aerobic and dance elements, capoeira displays a harmony of forces providing power, flexibility, endurance and self-discovery.

Sam teaches Capoeira at Rhythmix on Fridays, 3:30–4:30pm and Saturdays, 11:15–12:15pm

Vintage Bollywood meets Windy City Blues and Soul in a powerful, ever-evolving musical vindaloo created out of the heart and soul of acclaimed singer/harpist Aki Kumar.

Known as the “Bombay Blues Man,” Aki Kumar brings together some of the Bay Area’s finest blues musicians to present his extraordinary fusion of Chicago Blues and Bollywood tunes.

Living the first half his life in India, Aki grew up on Bollywood films and classical Hindustani music. The other half of his life was spent on the West Coast discovering his love for the blues. Aki Kumar has blended these genres to create his own musical realm, Mumbai Meets Muddy, and is hailed as one of the top rising stars of the West Coast Blues scene today.

“…old school blues at its finest by way of India. And the lad has soul to spare.” –Dan Aykroyd aka Elwood Blues

Sekhou Senegal is a prominent, traditional West African ensemble under the direction of twin brothers Assane and Ousseynou Kouyaté. “The twins” as they are affectionally called were born and raised in Senegal, West Africa of a family line originating in Mali. They come from a long line of griots – the poets, history tellers, keepers and oral transmitters of West African cultural traditions.

Sekhou Senegal combines West African griot musical traditions with elements of mbalax, sabar, jazz, funk, reggae, contemporary and more. Infectious vocals, high-energy choreography combined with the collective creativity of traditional African instruments – the djembe, dun dun, sabar, talking drums, kora, ngoni, balafon and the added modern flare of percussion, keyboard and bass, make Sekhou Senegal one of the hottest world music bands in the U.S. and abroad.

Barbie’s Island Keiki is a small band of kids from the island of Alameda that comes together through a love of ‘ukulele and friendship. They enjoy writing their own songs, singing, and laughing. They have performed at the Wine Country ‘Ukulele Festival, The Northern California ‘Ukulele Festival, and the Alameda Pacific Islander Festival.

Ballet Folklorico Flor de Café is a multigenerational group of dancers dedicated to preserving and sharing the traditional folklore & dance of El Salvador, strengthening their cultural identity sharing positive and beautiful aspect of Salvadoran culture.

The Shotokan Karate-do International Federation (SKIF) is represented in roughly 130 countries around the world. The Satsuma Dojo – Alameda will be performing a microcosm of a standard class, which consists of three components: Kihon (basics), Kata (forms), and Kumite (Sparring). At the beginner level, each component is very basic, increasing in demand and complexity as students progress to the intermediate and advanced levels. The Satsuma Dojo’s beginning and intermediate students will demonstrate these skills at Rhythmix ‘Round the World Festival.

Shotokan Karate is taught by Sensei Enkhbold Amarjargal and Sensei Kevin Slauson at Rhythmix on Mondays, 5:00 – 6:15pm. And Wednesdays, 5:30 -6:45pm.

Michelle Nye  is Interim Director at the SFMOMA Artists Gallery, where she has worked as a passionate supporter of the arts for 18 years. As a curator she has organized public exhibitions and as an artist she has practiced photography, painting and poetry, exhibiting and selling throughout the Bay Area. She serves on the advisory council of Kala Art Institute, Sensoree and Rhythmix Cultural Works. She received her bachelors of art at UC Santa Cruz, at the University of Bologna, Italy and l’Academia degli Belli Arte in Bologna, Italy and graduated from Alameda High in 1995. She lives in Oakland as a seventh generation Bay Area / Alameda resident.

Christelle Durandy combines colors of a rich tapestry of musical experiences drawing upon her heritage from Reunion Island and the French West Indies. Her fiercely passionate live performances have garnered critical praise and mesmerized audiences throughout Europe, Cuba, and the U.S. At Pour Your HeART Out, Christelle is joined in a musical conversation with pianist Odalys Caro exploring cross-cultural jazz combinations that draw upon a vast spectrum of soul, Caribbean and Latin inspirations.

Laurel discovered her enthusiasm for craft beer while working at a gastropub during her undergraduate years. Her career in craft beer production began with a small pub system, brewing around 310 gallons at a time. Craving the opportunity to learn more, Laurel was given the chance to work at Drakes on their 60bbl system (~1860gallons) where her passion about quality and consistency continues to grow alongside a team with similar values.

Stevie (owner, Bay Grape) spent seven years working in the front of the house at restaurants in Minneapolis, Los Angeles and New York City in order to pay her way through the University of Southern California. After graduating magna cum laude with her Bachelor’s degree in Communication and a minor in Psychology and Law, Stevie traded her apron for a laptop and a career in food, wine and travel writing.

In addition to her editorial background, she worked in wine retail and copywriting, managing communication, media, marketing and brand management for New York City retail stores Alphabet City Wine Co., Crush Wine & Spirits, NYC’s premier wine bar/classroom/event space Corkbuzz Wine Studio and the professional non-profit organization the Guild of Sommeliers. Stevie is a Certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers and directed A Drink with Friends TV. In 2018, Stevie conceived and produced the inaugural Bâtonnage Forum addressing issues faced by women in the wine industry; it was attended by over 300 women and men.

Likes: White Burgundy, ginormous bowls of pasta, running around Lake Merritt, sleeping in, colorful tennis shoes

Dislikes: being cold, octopus and squid, scary movies, itchy tags on t-shirts

Julie Johnson is the winemaker and owner of Tres Sabores, a winery nestled into the western Rutherford bench land of the Napa Valley. Passionate about food, wine, and the land, for the last 30 years Julie has lived on a certified organic farm, growing wine grapes, pomegranates, lemons and olives, raising her children, not to mention Golden Retrievers, Guinea Hens, and sheep.

A native of California, Julie graduated from Columbia as a P.H.N. after receiving a B.A. from Bowdoin College. Relocating to the Napa Valley in 1980, she practiced nursing even as she founded Frog’s Leap Winery (with her first husband, John Williams and partner, Larry Turley) in 1981. In 1990 she joined with Michaela Rodeno, past CEO at St. Supery Winery, and founded “Women for Wine Sense, a vital national organization whose “vision is to support the appreciation for and responsible consumption of wine”. Julie started Tres Sabores in 1999 as a single vineyard estate and soon began making her own wine. She speaks and participates in seminars on the subjects of Women in Wine and Regenerative Farming for a variety of clients and at educational venues around the country. She is currently active in C.C.O.F (California Certified Organic Farms), Wild Farm Alliance and the Rutherford Dust Society. At the end of the day, she sleeps best if she feels that she has been a thoughtful and energetic steward of the land and has capped off the day with a good glass of wine!

Tres Sabores: Celebrating the “three flavors” in each glass of wine: those of the vine, the terroir, and the spirit of the good company around the table.

Cary Quintana, winemaker/owner of Cary Q Wines, was born and raised in Miami, Florida, (of Cuban descent) and set off on her winemaking journey to beautiful Northern California in 2013. UC Davis alumni and equally self-taught, Cary Q was fueled by an innate love for the fermented grape and aims to highlight Grenache in its truest essence. The East Bay, specifically in the historic building of Camelia Street, near the corridor on 4th street in Berkeley, California is home to Cary Q Wines.

A minimalist at heart, Cary Q believes in keeping it simple, with a focus on the fruit source, intentionally sticking to small lots and getting out of the wine’s way. This marks a distinction of place, climate and varietal. She likes the idea and philosophy of working with unique vineyards that are conscientious and practice meticulous and organic farming. The soils are what she believes to be the start of the real story to a varietally expressive wine. She also believes in being fully hands-on by hand harvesting and hand sorting her fruit, being fully transparent throughout her winemaking process. Throughout the year, Cary’s time is spent patiently watching, being sensorially vigilant, and witnessing the beautiful development of must to wine, and vineyard to bottle without intervening or adjusting its natural evolvement. For Cary, the most important part of this journey is finding that balance and always remembering the land and vines that brought us this wine.

Wachira Wines is a family owned Urban Winery and a culmination of the extraordinary vision and effort of Dr. Chris Wachira (CEO/Owner/Winemaker, Wachira Wines), an unabashed wine lover and the only Kenyan-American, female, wine maker in the United States. While working her way through college, earning her Doctorate, and dedicating her life to Clinical Outcomes research, Chris fell in-love with the science of winemaking. She also developed a deep appreciation for the sense of community and bridges built from sharing a bottle of wine with complete strangers. Wachira, her family name, has been passed down for generations; in translation it means “one who deals with cases” such as an attorney or a judge. Hundreds of years later, she now deals with “cases” of wine. Chris chooses to believe wine-making was written in her stars.

Carolyn was a founding board member of Rhythmix Cultural Works. She studied classical music throughout her youth, but it was the visceral experience of taiko drumming that really changed her life! Just days after seeing her first taiko concert in 1998, Carolyn West joined Emeryville Taiko, and studied and performed extensively with the group for seven years. In 2001, she participated in the first KasaMix trip to Japan, a cultural exchange cosponsored by Kodo Arts Sphere America and Rhythmix Cultural Works. In 2006, she joined Maze Daiko, the ensemble based at RCW, known for combining traditional taiko forms and rhythms with non-traditional instrumentation and cross-cultural grooves. Carolyn has also held a progression of positions in small businesses involved in entertainment, manufacturing, construction and law. Since 1996, she has been practicing trusts and estates law, and is currently with a firm in downtown Oakland. An Alameda resident for over 20 years, she is grateful for the opportunity to help Rhythmix’s founder, board and staff create new cultural arts opportunities in a beautiful community venue — and beyond!

American Tribal-Style belly dance (ATS) is known for its improvisational choreography with movements that are inspired by folkloric dances of the Middle East, North Africa, Spain and India. Sandi Ball, EBB & Flow’s Artistic Director, has studied ATS with Carolena Nericcio and FatChanceBellyDance® for over 20 years and is an FCBD® Instructor, Emerita. Sandi’s style has a rich subtlety, with a strong air of confidence. Maintaining the earthy origins of tribal improvisation, Sandi focuses on creating inside the immediate experience through collective thinking within the group.

Sandi teaches ATS® classes at Rhythmix on Wednesday evenings.

Susan Brady chooses to see discarded materials as a resource. Brady sees horses everywhere. Legs in the form of broken furniture discarded along the street; a head resting in a brush pile in the form of a twisted branch; even tails appear in a tangle of string on the ground.

Displaying different sizes of horses, including a heap of source materials—wood, metal and fiber—Brady provides delight, joy, and whimsy, using refuse, discards and detritus. Perhaps this will help us reframe the way we look at other problems and allow for an expanded outlook, opening ourselves to unforeseen outcomes.

Susan Brady has been working in mixed media for over two decades. She is always on the lookout for materials on the street, in dumpsters, at estate sales and on walks in the woods.

Hopi Breton’s current work focuses on the land as physical and spiritual sustenance. She uses redwood, specifically to describe a local resource that has both economic and spiritual relevance. In Redwood Gold, the hollowed out forms with gold interiors allude to the loss of redwoods as a natural resource as well as a loss of connection to the land. At the same time, the color gold references the potential of redwoods to inspire reverence, and alludes to a kind of revaluation of the naturalness of natural resources. Hopi Breton is currently Chairperson of the Art Department at Diablo Valley College, where she also heads the Sculpture program.

For more info, visit Jessica Eastburn’s website.

For more info, please visit Deborah Sullivan’s website.

For more info, please visit Danielle Giudici Wallis’ website.

As a photographer, visual artist, designer and storyteller, Josie Iselin has been investigating the secret world of seaweed for many years. The marine algae of the California coast are a treasure that few realize is there, not far from our busy lives in the city.

With floor-to-ceiling larger-than-life-size images of iconic California seaweed and kelp, Iselin’s seaweed curtains serve as a reminder to drop one’s phone. Iselin invites the viewer to go out and look, explore an unfamiliar zone, and give it one’s considered attention, along with some empathy perhaps.

Using a flatbed scanner, Iselin creates these images by pushing light through the algal specimen as the scan is captured to create seaweed portraits that glow and vibrate. The dye-sublimation printing process allows light to come through the fabric/image much as sunlight filters through the ocean waters and is captured by photosynthesizing seaweed and kelp.

These spectacular and odd organisms speak to us; they compel us to think about our oceans and the richness of a world just off our shores. They allude to evolution in extreme environments, to ingenuity and resilience. The world of kelp and seaweed is so visually striking and so at odds with our assumptions, that one cannot help to perk up and take notice.

Through Beauty in Transformation, Sophia Lee shares the beauty of things found in everyday life with the viewer. What we throw out as trash can be re-purposed and given another life, even for a short while. Lee’s version of beauty is bared to all using disposable “to-go cup lids” and different colored LED bulbs to form ornament-like discs that glow like fireflies.

Sophia Lee grew up straddling the two cultures of Taiwan and America. Her work utilizes reclaimed material (including some from Harbor Bay Landing Shopping Center) and reveals the inner beauty of rhythm and movement observed from her surroundings. Lee is currently an artist at the journal building residency program in San Francisco.

Taiko Fusion Ensemble

Maze Daiko brings a fresh twist to taiko drumming with the addition of East African Shona marimba, Persian santur and violin. This unusual combination creates culturally diverse music with the physical elegance and discipline of taiko, but with an entirely new approach.

All Women Jazz Ensemble

Mary Lou’s Apartment, a 12-piece, all-women ensemble celebrating the legacies of trombonist-arranger Melba Liston and pianist-composer Mary Lou Williams, two essential and often overlooked figures in jazz’s evolution from the swing era to bebop and beyond.

Alvaro Batista and his Salsa-Lab Dancers present Cuban Salsa and Rueda de Casino. Alvaro has been promoting this music and dance genre since 2002 with parties, clubs, concerts and dance classes.

At Arts Africains, we celebrate the African culture and we want others to as well. During our travels to Africa in the past we brought home small items to sell. Now, with over 20 years of experience, our woman-owned business is thriving and we are bringing back more and more items for you to cherish. Our company specializes in African crafts, beauty products, clothing, and more. https://www.artsafricanstore.com/

Celebrating 10 years, Dragon Rouge is a waterfront Vietnamese eatery offering inventive cuisine & a lively bar scene in a contemporary space. https://dragonrougerestaurant.com/

Afsaneh Art & Culture Society (AACS) (nonprofit 501(c)3 status since 1991) promotes understanding of diverse and enduring cultures, with a primary focus on the Silk Road regions of Eurasia, we support artists in their roles as teachers and community visionaries, inspiring people through the presentation of both traditional and new art works. Ballet Afsaneh is the professional performance ensemble of AACS, producing up to 20 public performances for festivals, theaters, diaspora community events, schools, museums and other cultural institutions in the SF Bay Area and beyond. Today, dance artists, Samia Karimi and Natalie Nayun will showcase dances of Iran and Tajikistan.

Mambo Diablo Café, Inc. sells premium coffee primarily from Latin countries and fair trade farmers. The coffee beans are carefully selected and then roasted by Q grader and master roasters who bring out the best flavors making for a delicious cup of coffee. Mambo Diablo Cafe, Inc. owner and GRAMMY®️ Award-Winning Musician, Javier Cabanillas, understands the importance of having good coffee and listening to music; a combination he feels is essential to human experiences, hence our slogan, “Taste Your Rhythm.” Try our various flavors to find your rhythm.

Duniya Dance and Drum Company (DDDC) presents traditional dance and music from Guinea, West Africa, showcasing how these elements relate to life events, including initiations, celebrations, farming, and spiritual rituals. Co-directors, Joti Singh and Bongo Sidibe, create a unique blend of energetic dance and music from Punjab, India, and Guinea, West Africa, to cultivate respect for the artforms, foster cultural exchange, effect social justice and engage in community building.

Alameda Education Foundation (AEF) raises funds and coordinates programs to support and enhance the quality of K-12 public education in Alameda. Through Art Across the Island, AEF engages the community, presenting hands-on art activities for the whole family.

Join chocolate expert Sharol Nelson-Embry as she guides you on a journey through the world of chocolate! Discover the flavors of a fine selection of single-origin dark chocolate grown and harvested from around the world. https://www.cocoacase.com/

Chhandam School of Kathak was founded by legendary kathak master Pandit Chitresh Das and succeeded by his senior disciples, Seibi Lee, Rachna Nivas, and Rina Mehta. The Chhandam School of Kathak has been a pioneer of excellence for the education, promotion, and advancement of kathak dance and Indian classical music.

Ka-Hon Latin Percussion Ensemble performs an explosive array of global rhythms that can be played on a simple wooden box known as a cajón. In a highly interactive and engaging performance, Ka-Hon shares songs and music from Peru, Mexico, Spain, Cuba and Venezuela. The ensemble features Bay Area musicians José Roberto Hernandez and Pedro Rosales, with Grammy Winning Artists Omar Ledezma, Jr. (founder/artistic director), Javier Cabanillas and Braulio Barrera.

Tiare Tahiti intrigues and delights audiences with their presentation of traditional and contemporary ‘ori Tahiti, siva Samoa and Hawaiian hula. Adding context and interaction to their performances, Tiare Tahiti engages audiences in the Polynesian arts in new and innovative ways. Formed by Jennifer Radakovich (MA, Dance Ethnology), Tiare Tahiti includes professional dancers and dance educators from the islands and beyond.

Simon Tran’s (aka ghost ghost teeth) work is about reconfiguration, resistance, and a hearty bowl of soup. There are sensibilities in his work stemming from post-punk, Vietnamese-American culture, retro video games, his daughter’s beautiful imagination, and his dad’s flea market finds. The organic shapes he makes reference to the human body through painting and wood cut-outs of organic shapes. Either a swaddled child or an contorted figure that inhabit the compositional landscape of patterns that stop, start, and overlap. Color is a strong influence on Tran’s work. He combines nostalgic colors that reshape memories. There is no resolve in the narration of his work, instead there are slow meditative builds that lead to chunky riffs that wormhole into hard-edged noise, all loopy-loopy and stuff.

Deborah Parker Wong, DWSET (Speaker Panel Moderator) is Global Wine Editor for SOMM Journal, The Tasting and Clever Root magazines where she reports on the wine and spirits industries with an emphasis on trends. As a San Francisco-based Wine & Spirit Education Trust school she offers Level 2 and Level 3 WSET certifications to students in the United States and she teaches as an adjunct professor in the Wine Studies department at Santa Rosa Junior College. In addition to writing and speaking about wine, Deborah provides strategic consulting services, judges wine competitions and scores wine for Planet Grape Wine Review. Her motto is: To learn, read. To know, write. To master, teach.

Jessica Clare (Cleophus Quealy Brewmaster/Manager) is a Certified Cicerone® and General Manager of Cleophus Quealy Beer Company, where she oversees business operations, beer quality, marketing, and industry leadership. She has more than five years of brewery experience, with previous roles at Anchor Brewing and Almanac Beer Company. Jessica is a vocal advocate for education, approachability, and inclusion within the beer industry and among its customers.

Alison Crowe (Picket Fence Wine and Plata Wine Partners) is a native Californian, UC Davis enology graduate, professional winemaker, published author and calls the Napa Valley home. She is the Winemaker for Plata Wine Partners, LLC, and provides custom winemaking services and consulting to nationally distributed as well as small start-up brands. Her wines, crafted entirely from her company’s own appellation-driven vineyards, can be found all over the United States, from family-owned boutique wine shops to internationally-acclaimed restaurants. Above all, she believes in letting the grapes speak their own particular truths through the medium of the winemaker.

Absinthia Vermut had her first taste of absinthe in 1996. She served her first bootleg bottles to friends a few months later on April Fool’s Day 1997, where she received the nickname, Absinthia. She continued making absinthe until suddenly one day, March 5, 2007 to be exact, the ban on absinthe was lifted. She immediately set to work to produce an organic absinthe and founded Absinthia’s Bottled Spirits, LLC. In September 2017, Absinthia™ Organic Absinthe Superieure began to appear in bars, restaurants, and bottle shops and won its first gold medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2018.

Jazz, Blues & Soul Vocalist

San Francisco Bay Area vocalist, Rhonda Benin has earned a reputation for not just a good voice but showmanship, magnetic stage personality, humor, and of course her great dancing. Rhonda’s impressive resume includes performances at SF Jazz, Yoshi’s, MOAD, The Healdsburg, Sonoma, Burlingame, Sausalito, Filmore, and Calistoga Jazz Festivals.

In addition to singing, Rhonda is producer and founder of the Women’s History Month’s show “Just Like A Woman” a tribute to Bay Area Women In Music.  Benin is a 22 year member of The GRAMMY nominated vocal ensemble Linda Tillery and The Cultural Heritage.

Rhonda is on the teaching staff of Healdsburg Jazz ‘s Operation Jazz Band, San Francisco Arts Project, LEAP, Cal Performances, Youth In Arts and conducts her own school assemblies and workshops, “The Voice, The Hands The Feet”  “Twist and Shout” and “Love Letters Make Me Misty Blue”.

Taiko Fusion Ensemble

In Japanese, the word mazeru means “to mix,” daiko the word for drum. Maze Daiko is a world music ensemble that continues to evolve by mixing Japanese taiko with West African drums and marimba, and European violin, creating an innovative sound. Seiichi Tanka, the father of North American taiko, has described Maze as pioneers of the art form. Artistic director, Janet Koike trained with San Francisco Taiko Dojo, and was part of San Jose Taiko’s artistic team. The members of Maze Daiko include Kathryn Cabunoc, Tina Blaine (aka bean), Carolyn West, and Elaine Fong have many collective years of experience in taiko or musical groups including Emeryville Taiko, D’CuCKOO and Rhythmix ensemble. This mix of musicians combined with Maze Daiko’s newest member, violinist Jeannie Mckenzie, create original music with a unique cultural style.

Taller Bombalele strives to promote our Afro Puerto Rican roots music and dance tradition of Bomba, by teaching its history, dance, music, and songs through classes, lectures, workshops, and Bombazos to continue to preserve and expand this form of expression in community. Taller Bombalele is also proud to be part of a diverse community in the SF Bay Area and is therefore committed to teaching, learning, and collaboration and in reflection of this community, we welcome our community of different cultural experiences and intergenerational participation. We strive to continually learn, grow and support each other in our learning. “De Santurce a la Bahia, La Bomba es Vida”.