Sunday, February 08, 2009

Adrian collaboration with NEFASHA AYER ( FOREST SONG-POEM)

NEFASHA AYER is "the wind that travels" y viaja de ayer hasta mañana, de nunca hasta siempre... this is a magical group of musicians...ellos guardan magia para compartir...here pictures by Anais & Adrian at the concert in February 6th...













...Aqui Adrian performea THE FOREST, una cancion-poema, musica de Todd Brown y Nefasha Ayer, poema de Adrian (fotos de Anais!)









THE FOREST SONG (poem)
…Mmmhhh it seems like at last I have arrived…this is the famous NOTHINGNESS…
It is a little empty…but this we can fix by drawing something…
…a box…a box of nothingness…
mmmhhh inside this box it seems there's something more
yes…it is something round, smooth and luminous…
it is the moon…the moon of nothing…we take it out and zas!
Now we have a little light in the nothingness
Mmmmhhhh…I think that inside the box there's more…
Yessss, here are clouds and birds…we take them out …
But….What are they doing there so still?...ahhh it's that they need something else….
mmhhh… hidden in that corner there is the….
…the wind…oohhh…oohhh….
Mmhhh…now the birds fly and write poems in the air
Now the clouds strech and make drawings in the sky
….mmmhhh… but there is more in the box of nothingness….
..there are earth and seeds…zas! There are mountains, rivers and trees…
…There are fish, frogs, butterflies and fireflies….zas!
Now we have a forest… a marvelous forest
made of things found in the box of nothingness…mmhhhh
how good nothingness is when we can make so many things with it
now I am a little tired…
I am going to take a nap next to these rabbits and these elephants…mmmhhh…it seems there is
something else in the box. Let's see
…oh oh … it is a small two-legged being and a big head that wants to get out
…mmmhh I think that one we'll leave for later…now we're going to dream
(chorus)
…I dream We are trees, tree that are birds and the birds are rivers
and the rivers unicorns and the unicorns songs and the songs
a forest where we all live though in reality we are drops of water dreaming that we are trees…

(aa)













Thursday, February 05, 2009

Adrian poema-perfo in NEFASHA concert, Friday 6 & Saturday 7 at BRAVA Theatre


NEFASHA AYER ~ THE SPACE OF IN BETWEEN
A Transcontinental Odyssey of Music

Friday February 6th & Saturday February 7th. 8pm.
At the Brava Theater Center - 2781 24th Street (at York)

This February, get ready for an extraordinary concert collaboration bringing together some of the Bay Area's most dynamic musicians and poets! It's Black History month, and Nefasha Ayer is performing at the Brava, telling the tale of the way in which the African diaspora is still weaving its course throughout the world today.

A Red Poppy Art House resident artist ensemble, Nefasha Ayer is an eight-member music ensemble that tells of a transcontinental odyssey of multiple characters who find themselves caught between national identities, cultures, and politics. Headed by Ethiopian-born vocalist/lyricist, Meklit Hadero, and composer/multi-instrumentalist Todd Brown, Nefasha Ayer joins melodies, rhythms, and poetic texts from the continents of Africa, South Asia, and the Americas. Through this interweaving, the ensemble explores the intangible quality of living in a world where borders have given way, where identity is fluid and moving, no longer framed by nation or tradition, but born in the space between the many.

NEFASHA AYER:
Keenan Webster: balafon, kora, m’bira (bandleader of Pan-African ensemble Talking Wood)
Michael Warr: poetic text (author of the book, "We Are All the Black Boy.")
Mohini Rustagi: drums (from the all-women jazz-indian trio "Ambika")
Prasant Radhakrishnan, tenor saxophone (composer/saxphonist/band leader of South Indian carnatic jazz trio VidyA)
Abdi Jibril: percussion (percussionist from Talking Wood)
Meklit Hadero: voice, lyrics/composition (Nefasha bandleader)
Todd Brown: guitar, composition (Nefasha bandleader)

GUEST ARTIST:
Howard Wiley: tenor saxophone (composer/band leader, 2007 release, "the Angola Project")
Gabriel Teodros: emcee (first generation Ethiopian-born Emcee, flying in from the North West's hip-hop community)
Marcus Shelby: upright bass (acclaimed composer/bassist/band leader of the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra)
Lalo Izquierdo: cajón (Founding member, musician and choreographer, of the world-acclaimed Afro-Peruvian performance troupe Peru Negro)
Adrian Arias: poetic text & performance (Peru-San Francisco interdisciplinary surrealist and creator of "Ilusion")

Show at 8:00pm
Tickets: $18 in advance, $25 at the door
Tickets are $7 less in advance, so buy now! HERE

Brava Theater Center
2781 24th Street (at York)
San Francisco, CA 94110
PHONE: 415-647-2822
Box Office HOURS: 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM Monday - Friday

top image by Dan Won.