“Food, Dance and Spiritual Healing: Transcending Geographic, Cultural and Economic Differences”

This Saturday, March 15th at 4pm, you are invited to hear George Bertelstein, Spiritual Leader of Medicine Path NAC, speak on a panel called “Food, Dance and Spiritual Healing: Transcending Geographic, Cultural and Economic Differences” that is part of a larger event called Field of Inquiry: Future Soul/Global South Edition at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

Where:    Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Grand Lobby and Galleries  
701 Mission St., San Francisco, California 94103
When:     Saturday, March 15th
Time:      4-7pm (George is speaking from 4-4:30pm)
Event:     Field of Inquiry: Future Soul/Global South Edition
Tickets:  Free with RSVP – Sign up here

See below for schedule and details…or join the Facebook Event for more information.

Mitakuye Oyasin!

FIELD OF INQUIRY OFFERINGS (4PM-7PM)

YBCA’s Future Soul Think Tank produces its second set of public, physical responses to its sustained inquiry, creating an assortment of interactive provocations in conjunction with YBCA’s presentation of Companhia Urbana de Dança. Initially beginning with the question “How does the Global South impact our personal understanding of Soul?,” the think tank presents a series of Paolo Freire-inspired “teach-ins,” hosted and facilitated by members of this year’s Future Soul Think Tank.

IN THE LARGE CONFERENCE ROOM

Time: 4PM – 5:20PM
Title: “Food, Dance and Spiritual Healing: Transcending Geographic, Cultural and Economic Differences”
Speakers: George Bertelstein (modern day Medicine Man), Magalie Bonneau-Marcil (Founder of Dancing Without Borders), Chef Sarah Krinon ( Executive Chef/Owner of Miss Olie’s); Organized by Neal Skacel (Sound Designer/Counselor)
Description: Can food, dance and spiritual healing transcend geographic, cultural and economic differences between the Global North and Global South? Three extraordinary panelists speak to their work in doing just that — Chef Sarah Krinon, Executive Chef/ Owner of Miss Olie’s, an Old Oakland eatery named for her grandmother who raised her in Barbados that uses “the flavors of the African diaspora;” Magalie Bonneau-Marcil, Founder of Dancing Without Borders, which has produced large-scale community art supporting reconciliation between the indigenous and the privileged in South Africa & Brazil as well as organizing dance flash mobs for 1 Billion Rising and the Occupy Movement; and George Bertelstein, a modern day Medicine Man initiated in indigenous traditions of both Northern and Southern Americas, who will talk about an ancient prophecy of reunion between the Condor Medicine of the South and the Eagle Medicine of the North, seen by many as reaching fulfillment in the contemporary reality of our increasingly globalizing world.

Time: 5:30PM-7PM
Title: “Alienation, Assimilation & Improvisation”
Facilitators: Sandra Vivanco (Architect / Professor / Latin American Cultural Consultant), Raffaella Falchi (Designer / Dancer / Choreographer / Arts Educator)
Description: The Mission — where so many South, Central-American, Caribbean and Mexican immigrants made their home more than a half century ago, and where cultural artists built the “soul” of San Francisco — is now a hotly contested territory as new populations rush in, lured by the success of the tech industry. In fact, many mega-cities in the Global South have experienced large waves of newcomers — think about Mexico City, Johannesburg, Damascus, Sao Paulo, Lagos, and Bombay to name a few. Even as overcrowding reduces access to basic necessities like clean water, electricity & sewage, it is also often in the favelas, or slums in Brazil, that blocos give birth to carnaval and where music and dance creativity is endless. Such artistic bravado offers a theater of resistance. Join this discussion and movement/music workshop to explore urban carnaval vs. gentrification (i.e., traditional folk/cultural ways meeting the extremely commodified high-tech world) and SF’s particular story around these issues today.

IN THE FORUM

Time: 4PM – 5PM
Title: “Bhangra Dance from India”
Artist: Joti Singh (Artistic Director of Duniya Dance and Drum Company)
Description: Bhangra is a harvest dance originally from the state of Punjab in the northwestern corner of India and Pakistan. As people continue to cross oceans and cultures, Bhangra music and dance ceaselessly evolves, as influences of Hiphop, Reggae and many other genres of music inspire the artists who create this new Bhangra music and dance. Today Bhangra is danced mostly at weddings and celebrations by both men and women. The class will be an introduction to high-energy Bhangra movement. Be prepared to sweat and have fun!

IN THE SCREENING ROOM

Time: 4PM – 4:30PM
Title: “Black Orpheus Redux”
Filmmaker: Scott La Rockwell
Description: Pop into the screening room to catch this 6 minute futuristic “mixtape” snippet version of the classic film Black Orpheus by Marcel Camus as told from the perspective of Mira played by Chinaka Hodge and featuring the artwork of Joshua Mays (looped).

Time: 4:30PM – 5:50PM
Title: “Karaoke Girl”
Filmmaker: Visra Vichit-Vadakan
Description: Part fiction, part reality, Karaoke Girl follows Sa, a young country girl, working at a bar in Bangkok as an escort to support her family back home. (77 min)

Time: 6PM – 7PM
Title: “Samples of Our Ancestors”
Facilitator: Edward Galan (Roots to Water Collective DJ, Dancer, Yogi)
Description: Is American culture a “sample” culture? Does sampling hurt the Global South by taking music out of its original context? Or does it help by introducing a new audience to music that might have otherwise gone unheard? Part listening session (to threads between music of the Global South, Soul/Funk of the 60’s and 70’s, and Hip Hop), part discussion (on the role of the DJ/ producer as a curator/connoisseur of sound and about how understanding the context of the music can deepen our relationship to our ancestors — i.e., can sampling operate as a form of ancestor worship?), and maybe some dancing!

IN THE YOUTH ARTS LOUNGE

Time: 4PM – 5PM
Title: “UpStream / DownStream”
Facilitators: Barbara Jefferson (experience designer / facilitator / trainer),
Jazz Hudson (Experience designer/ facilitator /Artist/ educator)
Description: Reflect upon and create visual story maps of an object, following its journey from the “resources” of the Global South to the pleasure of the Global North, and back to the south as “waste.” Participants start by viewing a visual story map of one object, its pre and post consumption journey and the human communities of the Global South that it impacts along the way. Then they will be invited to create a collective story map of additional objects, imagining its journey from origin to far into the future.

Time: 5:15PM – 6PM
Title: “Soul Searching”
Facilitator: Dr. Umi Vaughan (Professor/Author/Performer)
Description: Where or who is the Global South? And why is Soul so often inextricably tied to the struggle for social justice? This presentation considers Soul as a way of being among people from the Global South. Using examples from his experience as a researcher, percussionist, and dancer in Oakland, Cuba, Brazil and elsewhere, Dr. Vaughan leads participants to examine concepts such as improvisation, collective memory/action, redemption/healing, and cultural counter attack in relation to Soul. He will play recorded musical samples, and engage the audience in performative experiments based on hand clapping and percussion.

Time: 6:15PM – 7PM
Title: “Flipping freedom”
Artist: Evan Bissell (artist/educator)
Description: Words like “freedom,” “sustainability,” “entrepreneur,” and “improvement” are celebrated concepts in the Global North, flowing to the Global South to shape both massive and micro development projects. In this hands-on workshop, we will flip this language given the context of social movements and short writings by thinkers of the Global South (such as Eduardo Galeano, Subcommandante Marcos, Ananya Roy, and Vandana Shiva among others) to create a visual interpretation of the hidden stories in language.

IN THE GRAND LOBBY

Time: 4PM – 6PM
Title: “Sacred Xchange: The Impact of the Global South in the Future of Soul”
Facilitators: Sarah Filley (Artist, Designer, Cofounder and Executive Director of Popuphood), Michael Orange (Top Ten Social, Cinema Club and Broaklyn Film & Theater Co.), Roshanda Cummings (Community Host and Photographer/Writer/Sr. Editor for This Is Vallejo), Amber McZeal (Depth Psychology Ph. D. candidate, Folkloric Dancer and Vocalist)
Description: How does economy articulate the soul? How does the land articulate the soul? How does the individual articulate the soul? How do individuals relay soul in relation to one another? What are the benefits and dangers of this articulation? Join four thought leaders in a conversation around these questions through the following lenses developed as products of their respective paths to healing themselves and their communities: the story of the soil, the psychology of empathy, the embodied sense of place, and creative economic impact.

Free with RSVP
Part of Public Square: Global South Edition

ABOUT THE CREATIVE ECOSYSTEM:

Part academic exercise, part intentional community, the Creative Ecosystem is designed to bring together disparate players from the Bay Area community into a single, collaborative, long-term engagement. By partnering with community leaders from diverse public sector categories—such as academics, arts, business, community organizing, design, environment and holistic health, food and food justice, politics, sports, technology, youth, and social service—YBCA moves the audience experience from a transactional engagement into one centered around collaboration and mutual interests.

For more info, call 415.978.2787 or visit www.ybca.org