Project i941

Listen to previous broadcasts & specials of Radio Cuba Canta with Cuban music historian Emiliano Echeverria from his collection of rare and vintage Cuban music recordings:

90th Birthday Tribute to Benny Moré:
Mp3 / iTunes Podcast:   Radio Cuba Canta – August 29, 2009

“Mujeres de la musica cubana” / Women of Cuban Music
Mp3 / iTunes Podcast: Radio Cuba Canta – March 28, 2009

Tribute to Ricardo Abreu
aka Papin of Los Munequitos de Matanzas
Mp3 Podcast: Radio Cuba Canta – May 30, 2009

Tributo a Joe Cuba and ‘Cachaito’ Lopez
Mp3 Podcast: Radio Cuba Canta – February 28, 2009

Produced and hosted by Emiliano Echeverria
Associate producer & broadcast operator: Clay “C’Ton” Leander
Community Calendar produced by Ron Flores

Live Broadcast:
Last Saturday each month – 9pm Pacific
    (12 Midnight Eastern)
KPFA 94.1 FM – San Francisco Bay & Northern California –
KPFB 89.3 FM – Berkeley
KFCF 88.1 FM – Fresno
Live on the web at: www.kpfa.org

More program info:
http://kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=14315

Cuba Canta broadcasts monthly on KPFA-FM during Con Sabor, a weekly program featuring the best in Salsa, Latin Jazz and Afro-Caribbean music hosted by executive producer Luis Medina.

Tonight we hear News Headlines from the Americas, look at US/Cuba relations including a poem by political prisoner Antonio Guerrero of the Cuban 5, as well as great musica from Radio Cuba Canta. We prepare for Dia de los Muertos with the initiator of the Bay Area community celebrations, artist Rene Yanez. We cruise through the Streets of Aztlan and a calendar of upcoming events.

Produced by Carmen Andrea Rivera, Vanessa Bohm, Emiliano Echeverria, Julieta Kusnir, Ventura Longoria, Nina Serrano and Clay “Ctone” Leander.

Live on the air – Tuesdays 7 pm PST:
KPFA 94.1 FM – San Francisco Bay/Northern California
KPFB 89.3 FM – Berkeley
KFCF 88.1 FM – Fresno

Live on the web at: www.kpfa.org

Hear the webcast:
(available immediately after broadcast)
Mp3 / iTunes podcast:
La Raza Chronicles – Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Hear previous broadcasts of La Raza Chronicles :
http://www.LaRazaChronicles.org

More info:
http://www.kpfa.org/archive/show/37

As evening approaches darker and cooler, La Raza Chronicles offers you a warm Bienvenidos with News Headlines from the Americas with Vanessa Bohm, and a commentary on Honduras by Andres Thomas Conteris. We feature Carmen Andrea Rivera on the musical world of reggaetón and Nina Serrano talks with honored poet Rafael Jesus Gonzalez, and we stroll through the Streets of Aztlan

Produced by Vanessa Bohm, Carmen Andrea Rivera, Ventura “Mr. Chuch” Longoria, Emiliano Echeverria, Clay “C`Tone” Leander, Julieta Kusnir and Nina Serrano.

Live on the air – Tuesdays 7 pm PST:
KPFA 94.1 FM – San Francisco Bay/Northern California
KPFB 89.3 FM – Berkeley
KFCF 88.1 FM – Fresno

Live on the web at: www.kpfa.org

Hear the webcast:
(available immediately after broadcast)
Mp3 / iTunes podcast:
La Raza Chronicles – Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Hear previous broadcasts of La Raza Chronicles :
http://www.LaRazaChronicles.org

More info:
http://www.kpfa.org/archive/show/37

Sorry I misspelled – “REGGAETON”

Promo La Raza Chronicle Oct 26, 2009 

As evening approaches darker and cooler, La Raza chronicles offers you a warm Bienvenidos with news headlines from the Americas with Vanessa Bohm, and a commentary on Honduras by Andres Thomas Conteris. We feature Carmen Andrea Rivera on the musical world of regaeton and Nina Serrano talks with honored poet Rafael Jesus Gonzalez, and we stroll through the streets of Aztlan.

Produced by Vanessa Bohm, Carmen Andrea Rivera, Ventura “Mr. Chuch” Longoria, Emiliano Echeverria, Clayton “C`tone” Leander, Julieta Kusnir  and Nina Serrano.

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Media Coverage Request: OriXa returns (after 3 yr hiatus) Sat.
October 24 with Kapakahi, Elbo Room, SF, 9pm]
From: juliana@mojicaarts.com
Date: Tue, October 13, 2009 3:17 pm
To: juliana@mojicaarts.com

Dear Editors/Hosts:

Lead singer of OriXa, Rowan Jimenez, was diagnosed in 2006 with an auto-immune condition known as Scleroderma that had manifested in his lungs, thrusting him into a battle for his life.  In 2008 Jimenez received a bi-lateral lung transplant at UCSF. One year later, he’s fully recovered, and the band is back in full force with an upcoming concert playing some of their old time favorites, and new songs — and a new set of lungs!

For Immediate Release
October 2009

Media Contact: Juliana Mojica, Mojica Arts
415-374-0070 | juliana@mojicaarts.com

After a 3 year hiatus Bay Area’s Latin Alternative Power House
OriXa returns Oct 24th
(with a new set of lungs, literally!)

Saturday, October 24, 2009, 9pm
Tickets $10
Elbo Room, 647 Valencia St, San Francisco

San Francisco Bay Area, – October, 2009 – OriXa, one the most sought after Latin Alternative outfits from the Bay Area and the US returns from a 3 year hiatus, performing live on October 24th at the Elbo Room, 647 Valencia St, San Francisco at 9pm. The Latin Ruckus Crew: Juan M. Caipo/drums, Michael Cavaseno/guitar, Charles Gasper/bass and Rowan Jimenez/vocals and percussion will be unleashing its explosive energy running through songs from the self-titled debut “Orixa”, “2012 e.d” and “Siembra” as well as playing for the first time new songs…with singer Jimenez showcasing a new set of lungs.

The end of 2006 took an unexpected turn for the band when co-founder singer/percussionist Jimenez learned that his auto-immune condition known as Scleroderma had manifested in his lungs, thrusting him into a battle for his life. Forced to take an indefinite break, OriXa and Jimenez redirected their attention on finding the clarity, perspective and necessary tools to battle the situation. With the condition progressing at an alarming pace, in July of 2008, Jimenez was placed on the UCSF transplant wait list and just 2 months later, on September 15th Jimenez received a bi-lateral lung transplant at UCSF.

The illness and recovery have been a remarkable journey for Jimenez and the band and just one year after the transplant, Jimenez and the Latin Ruckus Crew are back in full force inspired by a fierce survivalist attitude. If you’re in too deep the only way to go is deeper. OriXa’s return to the stage is a spectacle not to be missed.
                                                                                         
About OriXa

Since the early 90’s OriXa’s relentless presence in the Bay Area music scene had established them as a hard act to follow. Their unique blend of Rock, Hip-Hop infused Afro Latin grooves and Spanglish flavored lyrics combined with high energy live performances earned them top reviews and numerous awards.

The group was at the forefront of the Rock en Español movement in the United States along with groups like Pastilla, Maria Fatal, Volumen Cero ,and one of the first to help breakdown the language barrier in the Bay Area by performing at venues that did not have a Rock en Español or “Latin” night. The group caught the attention of DJ No Name from the popular Rock Station Live 105 and was featured on their weekly playlist as well as on Latin Alternative stations across the country and charting on CMJ for over 15 weeks.

Shortly after the release of 2012e.d in 2001, the songs “2012” and “No Importa” were included on Ark 21/Universal’s CD compilation Escena Alterlatina along with Los Rabanes, Kinky, Julieta Venegas, among others. In 2005, OriXa’s video/single “Siembra” received daily rotation on MTVes and a Buzz Worthy nod by the network and was licensed for the ShowTime TV series “Sleeper Cell”. NPR included Siembra on their 2006 Top 10 list Latin Alternative albums to have next to BajoFondo, Cafe Tacuba, Caifanes, Manu Chao to name a few. Orixa appeared on LATV, Telemundo, LAMC and supported top Latin Alternative acts on stage such as Café Tacuba, La Maldita Vecindad, Cypress Hill, Julieta Venegas, Molotov and Jaguares.

Other highlights of OriXa’s decade long career include a California Music Award in 2001 for “Outstanding Latin Album of the Year” with their previous release “2012 e.d.” as well as an ASCAP Latino award for “Best Independent Band”, SF Weekly “Best International Group”, East Bay Express “Best Rock en Español group”.  

To schedule an interview with OriXa or to request a CD for review/airplay, please contact Juliana Mojica at 415-374-0070 or juliana@mojicaarts.com.

Digital images available.

CALENDAR EDITORS PLEASE NOTE:
Calendar Listing / Music / Latin Rock/Alternative

OriXa, one the most sought after Latin Alternative outfits from the Bay Area and the US returns from a 3 year hiatus, performing live on October 24th at the Elbo Room in San Francisco. The Latin Ruckus Crew: Juan M. Caipo/drums, Michael Cavaseno/guitar, Charles Gasper/bass and Rowan Jimenez/vocals and percussion will be unleashing its explosive energy running through songs from the self-titled debut “Orixa”, “2012 e.d” and “Siembra” as well as playing for the first time new songs…with singer Jimenez showcasing a new set of lungs.

WHAT:      OriXa returns Oct 24th
                After a 3 year hiatus Bay Area’s Latin Alternative Power House
                (with a new set of lungs, literally!)

WHO:        OriXa with Kapakahi, Latin Rock/Alternative
       
WHEN:       Sat. October 24, 2009
       
TIME:        9:00 pm

WHERE:    Elbo Room, 647 Valencia St, SF

PRICE:      $10

TICKETS:   415.552.7788 or http://www.elboroom.com/

WEBSITE(S)    www.rowanjimenez.com     www.myspace.com/orixa

PHOTOS:     digital images available by request

MEDIA
CONTACT:    Mojica Arts, 415-374-0070 or juliana@mojicaarts.com

ADDITIONAL
CONTACT:    510.418.6985 or  latinruckus@gmail.com    

Tonight’s program celebrates Rafael Jesus Gonzalez Day in Berkeley, mourns the passing of the beloved Argentine singer, Mercedes Sosa and alerts us to events in Colombia and Honduras. We’ll hear about VideoFest `09 at the Mission Cultural Center and the word on the Streets of Aztlan.We include lots of musica and and a calendar of upcoming events and a ticket giveaway. Listen and enjoy.

Produced by Vanessa Bohm, Carmen Andrea Rivera, Ventura Mr Chuch Longoria, Clay “C’Tone” Leander, Julieta Kusnir, Emiliano Echeverria and Nina Serrano.

Live on the air – Tuesdays 7 pm PST:
KPFA 94.1 FM – San Francisco Bay/Northern California
KPFB 89.3 FM – Berkeley
KFCF 88.1 FM – Fresno

Live on the web at: www.kpfa.org

Hear the webcast:
(available immediately after broadcast)
Mp3 / iTunes podcast:
La Raza Chronicles – Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Hear previous broadcasts of La Raza Chronicles :
http://www.LaRazaChronicles.org

More info:
http://www.kpfa.org/archive/show/37

How about this foto for the website. This Tuesday is Rafael Jesus Gonzalez Day in Berkeley. 

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Rafael Jesús González <rjgonzalez@mindspring.com>
Date: 2009/10/7
Subject: Fwd: ‘Rafael Jesus Gonzalez’ by Jannie Dresser
To: a mis amigos/to my friends <rafaeljgonzalezg@gmail.com>

http://www.examiner.com/x-4545-SF-Poetry-Examiner~y2009m10d7-Rafael-Jesus-Gonzalez-to-be-honored-Tuesday-October-13

Rafael Jesús González to be honored Tuesday October 13

October 7, 4:22 PMSF Poetry Examiner Jannie Dresser

 

City of Berkeley Honors Poet & Artist Rafael Jesús González
Tuesday, October 13, 2009, 7 p.m.
Berkeley City Hall Council Chambers
at Martin Luther King Jr. Way between Allston Way and Center Street in downtown Berkeley

An old hand-bound, brown leather book contains the poems that his mother, Carmen, typed and read from when he was a boy. Its pages are yellowed and thin but contain poems that he has loved all his life by classical Spanish and Latin American poets: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Juan De Dios Peza, Gabriela Mistral, Amada Nervo, and Rubén Darío among others. This early contact with literature meant that Berkeley poet Rafael Jesús González has “been writing all my life.”

On October 13, at 7 p.m. in Council Chambers, the City of Berkeley will honor González for his contributions to the local community. For someone who describes himself as “something of a hermit,” González has long been active in progressive politics and the creative arts throughout the Bay Area. His political passions are focused on environmental and social justice issues, while a career in writing and literature has inspired many others to use their pens for both personal expression and political action. But, González is also a visual and performance artist. For many years, he has been the elder in a Latino men’s ritual group, Xochipilli, which sets the ceremonial tone for Oakland Museum of California’s annual Dia de Los Muertos festivities. González has contributed several art installations to the museum’s “ofrenda” displays marking the indigenous celebration, also creating installations for the Mexican Museum and the Mission Cultural Center both in San Francisco.

Although he grew up in a house full of books, his path into the arts was somewhat indirect. Born and raised in El Paso, Texas, González had a military career at first, serving in the Navy’s hospital corps and as a staff sergeant in the Marines. He attended the University of Texas, El Paso, on the G.I. bill and took a pre-medicine degree, majoring in both English and Spanish literature with minors in psychology and philosophy. Around that time, he realized he “loved literature best,” and switched gears, receiving a Woodrow Fellowship and a National Education Act Fellowship to pursue a career in education. González taught literature, English composition, and creative writing, first at the University of Oregon, then at Western State College in Gunnison, Colorado, Central Washington State University in Ellensberg, Washington, “where it snows a lot in winter,” and finally coming to the Bay Area where he taught at Oakland’s Laney College for 30 years.

He retired in 1998, in part because the increased illiteracy of his college-age students made his job harder though less challenging. “Grading became more of a chore; class sizes were larger.” Students were entering college without the rudimentary skills in reading and composition. He lays this problem at the doors of those who promoted and passed Proposition 13 (the 1978 tax revolt which massively reduced public school funding). As an instructor “there was less time to comment on logic and the development of an argument,” and an increased need to focus solely on punctuation and sentence structure. After leaving Laney, he occasionally taught courses and seminars at the University of California Berkeley and San Francisco State University, and even returned to his hometown of El Paso to teach aesthetics at the University of Texas as Visiting Professor of Philosophy. As part of the assigned coursework, he encouraged students to visit one another’s homes to get a sense of each individual’s aesthetic choices. “Everyone is an artist,” González says. “You can not be human without making art.”

A citizen of U.S./Mexican border culture, with both parents having deep roots in Mexico (Durango and Torréon), González is completely at ease speaking and writing both English and Spanish. At one time, he wrote poems first in one language, and then translated them into the other, finally selecting the versions that sounded the most ‘authentic’. . . “whatever that is,” he jokes. Knowing that the two versions were really one poem, he decided that it was dishonest to separate them and call them two distinct poems, to deny that they were part of one another. He has never described what he does as translation. “I think of a line in Spanish, then in English or in English, then in Spanish.” The poem comes about through an effortless move back and forth between the two vocabularies.  Now, when he sends work for publication, he insists that both the Spanish and English version be printed as he has no interest in publishing what he considers to be a truncated poem.

González has spent less time on his publishing career than his politics and teaching. For years, he has shared poems on a monthly basis via email to friends and acquaintances fortunate enough to be on his list.  His last book was published first in 1977: El hacedor de juegos (The Maker of Games) contained 54 poems and had a second edition in 1978. Since then, he has published poems in journals and magazines. A new collection of his work is in preparation now and scheduled for a late October release; it is La musa lunática (The Lunatic Muse) and is anxiously awaited by his readers.

The older he gets, says the 74-year-old poet, the more important he finds the matter of accessibility in the writing. “Poetry does not depend so much on the dazzling combination of words or metaphors but on the spirit of a relationship to Earth, to our wonder of it; poetry shouldn’t require a great vocabulary.” Poets who have inspired him include the ones his mother read long ago, such as García Lorca and Pablo Neruda, but also Walt Whitman, Dylan Thomas, Wallace Stevens and William Stafford. “Erudition should not interfere with accessibility,” he believes, and offers the advice to young writers to “give their Thesaurus to their worst friend.” Instead, he believes reading and conversing with other people who love literature is the best way to develop your working vocabulary.

In his work, art and politics segue completely. He speaks of the “old cosmology” as having reached its limit, and the need for basing our future on a reverence for the Earth. “If She is wounded, we are wounded.” In spite of the daily news, González insists he is still only “a pessimist of the intellect” but  “an optimist of the heart.”  In truth, he would “rather be writing love poems” than having to devote so much time to the issues of the day that concern him: global warming, alternative energy, the fight for universal healthcare, peace and justice issues. “My rantings and ravings are manifestations of a love outraged.” The public is invited to the City of Berkeley’s honoring of González.
 

Copyrighted photographs by Jannie M. Dresser.

--  

Rafael Jesús González
P.O. Box 5638
Berkeley, CA 94705

(If you have trouble receiving my emails, please add me to your address book so that my messages do not end up in the “spam” folder. If you would rather not receive to group mailings, please let me know and I will take your name off that list. Thank you.)

(Si se le dificulta recibir mis e-mails, por favor añada mis señas a su lista para que mis mensages no vayan a dar en los archivos de “spam.” Si prefiere no recibir mis envíos de grupo, por favor hágamelo saber y quitaré su nombre de la lista. Gracias.)