Music Theatre Art Events

July 10 (Saturday) 11:00 AM (Free) Bernal Heights Community Center - 515 Cortland Avenue, SF
Dogs and Coyotes, Baseballs and Rabbits
Bernal Youth Theater’s historical fiction
What do you do as an eleven year old when all you want is to work enough to feed yourself and your grandma, but a land-jobber’s out to grade your family garden into a bungalow for San Francisco mayor Sunny Jim Rolph? Come find out at this year’s Bernal Youth Theater production, “Dogs and Coyotes, Baseballs and Rabbits.” Should the kids unionize, inspired by the 1901 San Francisco longshoremen’s and teamsters’ strike? Should they burn and pillage, inspired by the 1906 earthquake? What’s a working-class kid to do when the bank’s got an acquisitive hold of your mortgage note?
Bernal Youth Theater’s historical fiction is thick with true stories of San Francisco labor politics of 100 years ago. For more information visit
http://www.TheCommonsSF.org

July 10 (Saturday) 2:00 PM (Free) Expressions Art Gallery - 2035 Ashby Ave.,  Berkeley
Opening Reception: Art and Labor
Join the LaborFest opening of an art exhibition jointly sponsored by the Expressions Art Gallery. Bay area artists will present as well as some historical work from the 1930’s. Historian and writer Gray Brechin will make a presentation on the role of the WPA in Northern California in the 30’s and early 1940’s. WPA historian Harvey Smith will discuss the WPA artist Harry Gottlieb. One of his prints will be in the exhibition.
Music with Carol Denney and other musicians in the gardens.
http://www.expressionsgallery.org

 

 

July 10 (Saturday) 12:00-4:00 PM ($5.00 Pier entry fee - good for one year, ages 15 and under, free. Free with National Park passes.) Hyde Street Pier - at SF Maritime National Historic Park , Hyde & Jefferson St. SF
Living history: The 1901 San Francisco Waterfront Strike
Join San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park's Living History players in reenactment of the 1901 waterfront strike. From July 13 to October 2, 1901, San Francisco's waterfront was shut down by sailors, longshoremen, and teamsters striking for better pay and working conditions. Experience the sights and sounds of SF history through a reenactment. Hear impassioned speeches and voice your own opinion! Take part in a march as strikers implore ships crews to join their ranks. Watch as soldiers arrive to maintain order and see a ship's captain defy the strikers.
The strike reenactment will take place on Hyde Street Pier at 12PM, and repeated at 3PM. The Henry George presentation will be aboard the historic sailing ship Balckutha at 2PM.
For more info: call the park's Visitor Center: 415-447-5000

July 11 (Sunday) 2:00 PM ( (Donation for actors) Phoenix Theatre 6th floor - 414 Mason St., at Geary, SF
Workplace Hell and Good Old Days - A Collection of Plays
Plays by Edward Hernandez
Crazy bosses, workplace disasters, sexual harassment, corporate greed and backstabbing office politics.......all in a day’s work.  Join us for a short-play theatre experience exploring the hell we know as the WORKPLACE !! There is rich content 24 hours a day on the insanity of our workspaces and the effects of this on our lives.
The growing catastrophes from the Massey Energy Mines to BP rigs in the Gulf shows that workers are under the gun and face not only harassment but sometimes death. This event will feature some of Bay Area’s best actors portraying the best and worst of our workplaces and workplace experiences. 
Seating is limited, so please come early to secure your seat.

July 16 (Friday) 7:30 PM ($10 Donation) Art House Gallery and Cultural Center - 2905 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley
Irish Troubadour and Story Teller
LaborFest and the Art House Gallery and Cultural Center presents in honor of the Irish working people here and around the world
Join Cork musician Máirtín de Cógáin and his band when they perform music from Ireland. Máirtín de Cógáin also performed in Ken Loach’s The Wind Shakes The Barley.

July 16 (Friday) Sundance Kabuki Theatre - 1881 Post & Filmore, SF For more info on showtime & ticket
Oliver Stone’s new documentary
SOUTH OF THE BORDER
View Trailer
Synopsis: There’s a revolution underway in South America , but most of the world doesn’t know it. Oliver Stone sets out on a road trip across five countries to explore the social and political movements as well as the mainstream media’s misperception of South America while interviewing seven of its elected presidents.  In casual conversations with Presidents Hugo Chávez (Venezuela), Evo Morales (Bolivia), Lula da Silva (Brazil), Cristina Kirchner  (Argentina), as well as her husband and ex-President Nestor Kirchner,  Fernando Lugo  ( Paraguay ), Rafael Correa ( Ecuador ), and Raúl Castro  ( Cuba ), Stone gains unprecedented access and sheds new light upon the exciting transformations in the region.

July 16 (Friday) 7:30 PM (2:00 PM for 7/18, 7/25)
Tickets-$22, $17 (senior 65 and over), $12 (youth 22 and under)
Julia Morgan Center for Performing Arts - 2640 College Avenue, Berkeley
The Mothers of Ludlow
Opening of Musical Drama Performance by Youth Musical Theater Company
Show through July 16,17, 18, 23, 24, 25
Music by Paul Boesing
Book and Lyrics by Martha Boesing
Directed by Jennifer Boesing
Music Direction by Dave Möschler
This summer for the first time, YMTC is mounting a world premiere, The Mothers of Ludlow.  This poignant and beautiful musical drama brings to life the events leading up to the massacre of the striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado in 1914. This massacre captured the attention of some of the 20th century’s most influential left-leaning thinkers, inspiring a novel by Upton Sinclair, thesis by Howard Zinn and George McGovern, and a tragic lament by Woody Guthrie. Written by renowned composer and playwright team, Paul and Martha Boesing, The Mothers of Ludlow is a story of desperate times, racial tension, courage and love, and promises to be unlike any other theater experience offered to Bay Area audiences this summer.

On Sunday July 18th, YMTC will also be holding a post-matinee forum at the Julia Morgan Theater. Two labor historians who are experts on the subject of the Ludlow strike and massacre will lead an open discussion between the audience and the writers, directors, and members of the cast.
www.ymtcberkeley.org
Tickets - through Brown Paper Tickets 1-800-838-3006 or www.brownpapertickets.com/event/111930
Review - SF Chronicle

July 17 (Saturday) 8:00 PM (Free) 885 Clayton St - at Carl St., SF
Song and Poetry Swap
For 28 years, the Freedom Song Network has been helping keep alive the spirit of labor and political song in the Bay Area, on picket lines, at rallies, on concert stages and at song swaps. Bring songs or poems to share. Everyone is welcome, regardless of musical ability or training.
For info: (415) 648-3457

July 24 (Saturday) 7:00 PM ( ($5.00-Nobody turned away for lack of funds ) ILWU 34 Hall - 801 2nd St., SF - Right next to the AT&T ball park
Can’t Stand That Outsourcing:
The Bay Area Rockin’ Solidarity Labor Chorus
 Founded in 1999, The Bay Area Rockin’ Solidarity Labor Chorus performs songs from the deep-rooted and vibrant traditions that sustain the labor movement. This year, the Chorus celebrated May Day in Colorado, as guests of the Rocky Mountain Peace & Justice Center, with five gigs in three days. At LaborFest, the Chorus will be presenting its new program, Can’t Stand That Outsourcing, which takes on the history of globalization and the grassroots struggle against it.
For more info: (415) 648-3457, wynnegilbert@igc.org.
El Coro Jornalero is made up of workers from both the San Francisco Day Labor Program and the Women’s Collective (La Colectiva de Mujeres).   Our songs reflect the day-to-day life, historical presence, and variety of origins of the Latino community, as expressed in folk, historical, and popular music.  At the presentation, we will include a short intro to each song explaining its social context.  We look forward to incorporating children in the Coro in the near future.  Contact person:  Leticia Pavon (Lpavon@aol.com).

El Coro Jornalero se compone de trabajadores de el Centro Jornalero de San Francisco y de la Colectiva de Mujeres.  Nuestras canciones reflejan la vida diaria, la presencia historica, y la variedad internacional de la comunidad Latina, expresada en su musica folclorica, historica, y popular.  En la presentacion, antes de cada cancion, compartiremos una pequena introduccion acerca de la historia de cada cancion.  Esperamos pronto incorporar a los ninos al Coro.  Para mayor informacion:  Leticia Pavon (Lpavon@aol.com).

July 25 (Sunday) 7:00 PM ($10) Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts- 2868 Mission St. at 25th, SF
Folk This! Presents:
Your Tax Dollars at Play
This event was cancelled due to illness.

July 30 (Friday) 7:00 PM ( $10 - no one turned away for lack of money ) Redstone Building  - 2940 16th St., SF
Hotel Voices (Theatre Performance)
Theatre and performance project from Single Room Occupancy Hotel residents by Poor Magazine.
Hotel Voices is a project of POOR Magazine - A poor people led/ Indigenous people led art organization dedicated to revolutionary media access, education and art.
After a free 20 week writing, performance and scriptdevelopment workshop with writers Tony Robles and Tiny aka Lisa Gray Garcia in collaboration with actor and director from Bindlestiff Studio, Allan Manalo, tenants in Single Room Occupancy Hotels have created a powerful, gripping play and will perform it as an ensemble cast.
For more info: (415) 863-6306

July 31 (Saturday) 2:00 PM (Free) Call for Location: LaborFest 415-642-8066
Kenny’s Journey - A Play Reading
Kenny’s Journey, with words and music by Alice Rogoff, is a play for children and adults. It chronicles Kenny, a   child in the Depression, and his journey from the Midwest to California, learning about diverse people and union struggles and terminology along the way. Presented as a Reading in which one can choose to particpate or listen. Some group singing. Light refreshments served. Directed by Alice Rogoff.