Zaki Ibriham…that little bit of sunshine to get you through the day!

Hello everyone,

I am just hanging out listening to Zaki Ibrahim. By far one of my favorite singers. By far. Zaki is one of those singers who’s mind blowing connection to something bigger than us, gives you goose-bumps from head to toe. Then she subtly says  something in such a way that you suddenly see yourself in a whole new way.She is Forever memorable. Forever beautiful. Timeless grace and power on the mic.

In my opinion, over the last few years she has grown into one of the best. Ever. And we are immeasurably lucky to have her booked for the 2009 Sistahood Celebration on March 19th!! YAY!

There is a something about her music that makes you feel lighter. Like it’s just a little bit easier to get through the day, simply because something this beautiful exists. She is the rulenest! Click her picture below to checkout her myspace page. I suggest you listen to ‘You Choose’ while you read the rest of this post

As part of my wild and crazy weekend plans, I have been ‘Stumbling’ around with the theme Future Ancestors in mind, while listening to Zaki and I thought I would share all the awesomeness that I discovered. The technology exists to get us through this mess and make the world better for the ancestors of our future. Totally. All of a sudden things will just shift. I can feel it…

The kinetic Energy of the ocean can generate power!

Silent Urban Wind Power!

Energy Generating Revolving Door!

Wind power for your home!

Awesome energy activists pushing for a market shift!

Sun Farmer!

Grow Coral Reefs With Electricity!

5 OPTIMISTIC Environmental Texts

See! It’s not so bad after all!

And on that note here is something amazing that the earth made:

wow

Werd.

R*

Wisdombook.org

This is something in the works by Andrew Zuckerman. It is super inspiring is a great example of what Future Ancestors is all about.  Bridging our elder’s wisdom into our future. Check out this amazing project.

Hip-Hip Beyond Beats and Rhymes Afterparty! Friday Nov 21

THIS FRIDAY  NOV. 21st
EMERGE VANCOUVER AFTER PARTY
DOORS at 10pm
Gallery Gachet (88 E. Cordova)

Emerge Vancouver’s Afterparty Hiphop show and Community Dialogue will be a bumpin’ night of performance and the People’s voice!  Come support your local Hiphop culture and raise funds and vibes in support of Sistahood Celebration and Battered Womens Support Services!!!

Kia Kadiri
DJ Su Commandante  (Hiphop/Dancehall/Reggaeton)
Toxic Slime http://www.myspace.com/toxicslimemusic
plus surprise artists!

Visual Arts
Balance of Power
Paintings by Martha Jablonski-Jones

Nomads
Photo-based Silk-screens by Anne Russell

Words and Symbols
Photos by Gena Thompson

$5 – 15 sliding scale
Fundraiser for BWSS and Sistahood Celebration

If you couldn’t make it to the screenings, come to the party!
If you came to the screenings, come to the party!

Emerge Vancouver

Corporations and people in power are force-feeding us a brand of hip-hop that isn’t true to its roots. We are taking a stand for some of the core values of true hip-hop. In the words of one of the first hip-hop artists, Afrika Bambaataa, it’s all about peace, unity, love, and having fun.

*HIP-HOP: BEYOND BEATS & RHYMES* is a documentary that examines gender roles in hip-hop through the lens of filmmaker Byron Hurt, a former college quarterback turned activist. Conceived as a “loving critique” from a self-proclaimed “Hip-Hop Head,” Hurt tackles issues of masculinity, sexism, violence and homophobia in today’s hip-hop culture.

During the day, Byron Hurt will be joined by Chuck D front man for Public Enemy in Vancouver teaming up with Battered Women’s Support Services to feature the film’s screenings and engage in talk-back sessions.
AT NIGHT, we party!

www.bwss.org
www.sistahoodcelebration.com

Big Time Picture Post

all photo credits- Vanessa Richards

THE HASTINGS HOOLIGANS

These kids are the dopeness! totally.

Our community sings together @ the Remedy!

The Remedy- Sunday March 30th @ the Heritage Hall

Dear Sistahood Family,So far each event has been mindblowing and fantastic. Thank you to everyone who has come out to support the Sistahood Celebration this month. Big Love to the Working Arts Board, the Sistahood Crew, sponsors, partners and the performers who have all helped to make our festival a success.

I’m trying to keep this email short so please refer to our fantastic website (by 604media) to find out all the details. (www.sistahoodcelebration.com)

Only 2 more events – BOTH events are this Sunday March 30 at the beautiful Heritage Hall on Main St.

Event 1:
SUNDAY MARCH 30 – DAY TIME
The Remedy
All day Market, Food, Art zone, and Music
Heritage Hall (Main St/15th Ave)
11am – 5 pm
ADMISSION: FREE!!!

Arts reach people;
Sharing skills and experiences builds awareness;
Community action brings change.

Market, and Music and Dance Performances plus a KIDS ZONE and food and drink!

Over 75 performers,
over 30 community and local fashion/craft groups,
and a big party for the people…

ALL DAY – ALL AGES — and FREE!!!

FEATURING:

First Ladies Crew (FLC): First Nations female emcee’s and singers bringing power: live and direct

GreenTara: Soul-Funk-Jazz-Reggae fusion from one of Canada’s rising stars who dedicates to her home community

Laura “PIECE” Kelley–Jahn : Seattle-based soul and intellect-igniting poet, emcee

No Shit Shirleys: stunning 7-woman acapella vocal ensemble

BPM: bhangra, hip hop, dance hall massive

Cultural Medicine Cabinet: community “choir” calling out political struggle, spiritual journey and upliftment

DJ Blessed: fresh danceable hip hop styles

Hastings Hooligans: youngest freshest emcee in Vancity, mentored by Kia Kadiri.

SVS Style Dance: stunning all-female youth and adult hip hop dance troop

Hip Hop Hope Youth Performers: on the mic and the dance floor youth artists who can move the crowd

The Remedy is centered around the idea of sharing a space of whole-family celebration through performances along with a ‘Community Economy Market’ where social activism/health organizations, local artisans and local sustainability-focused organizations and businesses present and sell their work.

MORE INFO @ www.sistahoodcelebration.com

Food and Drink:

The Coffee Warbler **providing specialty coffees and snacks!
La Creperie Boheme
Salvadorian Network

Community Groups at the Remedy:

Battered Women’s Support Services
Busriders Union
Check Your Head: the youth global education network
Filipino Youth Alliance
Free Geek
GAB Youth Services
Harmony Family Wellness
jet grrl bike studio — providing onsite minor tune-ups! Bring your Bike!!
Justicia for Migrant Workers
LOVE BC: Leave Out Violence BC
No One Is Illegal
The Pal Lodge
PACE Society: Prostitution Alternatives Counselling and Education
Philippine Women Center
Pomegranate Community Midwives
Vancouver Public Space Network
Vancouver Status Of Women
and
more

Fashion Vendors:

Soul Seed (Karla Dombroski)
Handmade jewelry using all natural materials; stone, wood seed, coconut, silver.

Rad Cow (Iris)
Handmade leather belts, cuffs, etc.

DAL (Dorothy Luthy-Harrison)
One-of-a-kind ceramic pendants with lace imagery.

Gretchen Elsner
Clothing made from recycled textiles. Hand made pop-up books.

Damsel Funk (Megan Dunn)
Damsel Funk is dedicated to provide unique, one-of-a-kind garments for free-spirited and earth-loving creative individuals. A wide variety of materials are used to achieve a unique assortment of environmentally friendly exclusive looks.

Candace Curlypaws (Candace Roberts)
Clothing;”Cirque-Quirk”.

Ursula Twiss
hand made silk scarves, hand dyed yarn.
and
more

Event 2:
SUNDAY MARCH 30 – THE EVENING PERFORMANCE
Re:Birth – The Two Sisters
Heritage Hall (Main St/15th Ave)
Doors: 7:30pm Show: 8pm
ADMISSION: $10

The Sistahood Celebration 2008 closes with a multimedia interdisciplinary performance. We are honoured to present 10 extremely talented Vancouver (Coast Salish Territory) artists retelling the legend of the prominent mountain peaks – the Two Sisters. The historical Dance of the Seven Veils, which appears in Assyrian, Babylonian, Celtic and Biblical myths, is used as a skeleton structure on which the performance is draped. The dance is a mystical method of lightening the physical body in order to pass through the gates between worlds (re:birth). It is often also performed as a striptease. The original story has been interpreted in seven acts; each of these seven acts (or veils) refers to one of the seven ancient celestial bodies.
Colloquially, the phrase “doing the Dance of the Seven Veils” is a metaphor for an elaborate presentation of information.

Featuring:
Laura Albert—dance
Namchi Bazaar—dance
Nadia Chaney—poetry
Candice Curlypaws—music, dance
Cris Derksen—music
Melissa Estable—dance
Summer Jundi—dance
Krista Lomax—visual scape
Amanda Nahanee—storytelling, song
Shyama Priya—dance

You made it to the end!!
If you are one of the first 10 people to email me (sistahood@gmail.com) back your favourite Sistahood event this past month – you will receive 2 tickets for the Two Sisters and a present at the door.

Thank you for your support and we will see you on Sunday!!
The Sistahood Crew and The Working Arts Society

The Working Arts Society acknowledges the financial support of; the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage, Canada Council for the Arts and British Columbia Arts Council.

The only event of its kind in Western Canada, the Sista’Hood Celebration is an annual multidisciplinary arts festival that explores the convergence of women in music, dance, spoken word, media arts and activism. www.sistahoodcelebration.com

CAN’T STOP WON’T STOP Tickets On Sale Now!

Just want to let everyone know that tickets are now on sale for Can’t Stop Won’t Stop at Beatstreet Records 439 W. Hastings St. (*Cash only for tickets*).

 Tickets are $7 (incl. service charge) in advance & $10 at the door.

2 weeks to go….

check out the Facebook event page here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=10014811306

Thanks

 

Monstrous Beauty – raw and beautiful

With six more sleeps ‘til Monstrous Beauty Cabaret, I’m starting to get friggin’ excited.

It’s Amber Dawn this is the third time I’ve participated in the Sistahood Cabaret: twice as a performer, and this year as a performer and co-director.

Something very eye-opening happened to me in 2006 when I first stepped onto the Sistahood stage. Let me give you a bit of background . . .

Since 2004, I’ve toured the USA each February with a radical and very controversial performance art show called, The Sex Workers’ Art Show. It is on this tour (and at other equally trangressive venues, such as Mondo Homo Dirty South/ Atlanta, GA) that I really learned to become an uncensored, over-the-top – with love – performer. I also came to believe that if I really wanted to bring the freak to the stage I needed to leave town to do it. In Vancouver I all to often felt like an ugly duckling that does vulgar things on stage that makes her audience wince a little. (Hey, we’ve all have our insecurities, right?)

. . . so as I was saying about 2006. I had just got home from touring and I did my first Sistahood show and realized that I love performing in Vancouver – or at least at Sistahood. This festival is make of hard-working geniuses, who’s art, like mine, isn’t a candy-coated easy swallow.

I give enormous thanks to the Sistahood founders and organizers who have built this house for all of our raw, challenging, political and beautiful art to live inside. It feels great to come home.

And speaking of raw and beautiful, I hope to see a full house at the Cabaret on Friday. We’ve chosen the theme Monstrous Beauty and are taking burlesque back to its roots: as it describes a caricature of women, a hyper exaggeration or grotesque or vulgar parody of womanhood. If you are a thesaurus nerd like me, you’ve most likely seen grotesque and burlesque paired as synonyms.
We’re returning to burlesque’s origins: hyper femininity to the point
of (hopefully) being challenging and thought-provoking to view. An
performative exploration of ways in which femininity is a burden or
vilified or glorified or overdone in this world.
Dig?

Bahamadia @ the Launch = A Spiritual Experience

Hey Everyone,

Rachel Flood (Sistahood’s founder) here just dropping a quick note to wax poetic about how amazing the launch was last night!! Holy heck…so freaking amazing. So much love. So many people. So so so so so awesome! I was telling a friend of mine who’s first introduction to Sistahood was last night, that a night like that is like church for me. Hands in the air, praising the most high, feeling the love, open to the goddess and all her goodness. It may sound cheesy but I feel like that is why hip hop is so much more than just a genre for all the true heads. It gets inside you. It touches a rhythm deep in your soul and it hold you tight when you feel like you are living a ‘hard knock life’ or lifts you higher when your life is on the upswing. Just as the Queen B said last night you get back what you give to it and last night we were given a true gift.

The Sistahood audience is unlike any other in this subdued town and I feel so blessed to be apart of the show as an audience member now There was a time when I didn’t have time to stop and enjoy the events, but now I get to pick a spot right up front and stay there ALL NIGHT!! So BIG thanks and BIG love to the Sistahood crew (ANNA IS THE RULE-N-EST!!) and the Working Arts Board for all their dedication, love and support!

Anyway, that’s it for now. Check out the pic below of me and my homies Colleen and Dule with Anna and Sarah in the background deep in our spiritual practice!

Werd.

See you all at Marika Swan’s art opening on Saturday night @ the Bump & Grind on the drive