The Living Word Project Presents the 7th Annual Living Word Festival
“RACE IS FICTION”
The Living Word Festival kicks off on October 17, with workshops and performances cohosted by SF Green Festival, Global Exchange, and Grind 4 Green at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MOAD) in downtown San Francisco.
The workshops are followed by a lunchtime outdoor concert with Goapele and the Kev Choice Ensemble at Yerba Buena Gardens at 12:30pm. That evening at 7pm, local literary icons, Adam Mansbach and Jeff Chang participate in a literary panel and conversation around the theme “Race is Fiction” at the Oakland Museum.
- Produced by the Resident Theater company of Youth Speaks and Curated by Artistic Director Marc Bamuthi Joseph
- Featuring New Performance Works, Live Music, and a Host of Outreach
- Activities Including Workshops, Panels, and a Live Graffiti Battle
- Partners for this year’s Living Word Festival include Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, MOAD, Ella Baker Center, Global Exchange and the SF Green Festival.
The Festival’s outreach activities continue on October 18, when the Living Word Festival presents red black and GREEN, an Environmental Caucus and Concert at deFremey Park in Oakland. The thematic focus of the day will be eco-equity, committed to the position that poor communities and communities of color be logistically and psychologically included into the new, clean and green economy.
The day will feature the 2nd Annual Estria Invitational Living Word Graffiti Battle, a partnership with Samurai Graffix and Tumis. Twenty contest participants will be given a 6×8 foot canvas, biodegradable materials, and non-aerosol, non-toxic paint and will be charged with creating environmentally themed, graffiti style tags around the park. The work will be sold at a silent auction to benefit Youth Speaks. An outdoor performance in the park featuring Los Rakas and a special guest will be held concurrently.
Calendar…
Featured Artists and Participants included
Mos Def, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Goapele, Chinaka Hodge, Rafael Casal, Regie Cabico, Daveed Diggs, Janicnta Vlach, Delina Brooks, Nico Cary, Jason Samuels-Smith, The Kev Choice Ensemble, SF Jazz Youth All-Stars and Guillermo Gómez Pena and La Pocha Nostra
2008 press release…
