Скачать или смотреть Omnira Institute (Full Performance) — Sounds of California: Bayview (2018)

Based in Oakland, Omnira Institute is led by Wanda Ravernell and Tobaji Stewart, Lucumí (a Yoruba-based religious practice) priests. The organization seeks to illuminate the connections between the African American experience and African spirituality through their sacred drumming and chants. Their Awon Ohun Omnira Choir preserves West African musical and movement traditions that have been carried on for generations. The group also brings their music and offerings to sites of police violence to support grieving communities who have lost young men of color.

The Sounds of California: Bayview concert, held at the Bayview Opera House on April 29, 2018, was designed as a cross-cultural platform which recognized migration as a journey to create new homes, building upon the cultural threads of the places we physically leave behind. Hosted by beloved San Francisco actor and activist Rhodessa Jones, the concert featured Bay Area artists Omnira Institute’s Awon Ohun Omnira Choir, La Familia Peña-Govea, Özden Öztoprak and Işık Berfin, and the Au Co Vietnamese Musical Ensemble. Their music amplified four cultural communities’ experiences of migration and immigration: African American, Mexican and Mexican American, Kurdish Alevi, and Vietnamese.

Sounds of California: Bayview (2018) captures themes of migration, immigration, and home through the music and voices of Bayview-Hunters Point, and nearby Bay Area communities. Developed by the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, in collaboration with community organizations, artists, and residents, the collection includes rich oral histories from Bayview’s artist-activists, a commissioned video essay on Bayview’s history, neighborhood fieldwork, and recordings from a concert at the Bayview Opera House. For more information, visit: soundsofca.actaonline.org.

Sounds of California: Bayview was produced in partnership with Bayview Opera House, Radio Bilingüe, and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Sounds of California: Bayview was made possible with support from the James Irvine Foundation and the San Francisco Arts Commission. The concert was filmed by Jon and Joanne Ching.