October 8th, 2011 marked our 4th Life is Living in Oakland. Many thanks to every collaborator, performer, artist, vendor, volunteer, and participant for making it unforgettable. October 8th will truly live in our hearts and serve as a reminder of our possibilities as a community. Watch the video and see the pictures to get a sense of the fun!

The Living Word Project, under the direction of Marc Bamuthi Joseph launches a national tour of ‘red, black & GREEN: a blues‘ (rbGB) with a world premiere on Thursday, October 13th at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. ‘rbGb’ is a collaborative, multimedia performance work that examines environmental racism, social ecology and collective responsibility in an era of dramatic climate change. The performance, which documents the process of producing Life is Living throughout the country, runs through October 22 with shows beginning at 7:30 pm. We at Youth Speaks hope to see you there, but in the mean time, check out this rave review by the San Francisco Chronicle.

October 13 – 15
October 20 – 22
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco, CA
7:30 pm
701 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
A few blocks from Montgomery BART

red, black & GREEN: a blues (rbGb) is a full-length, multimedia performance work designed to jumpstart a conversation about environmental justice, social ecology and collective responsibility in the climate change era. Combining dance, text and visuals in a new mode of kinetic performance, rbGb reunites seven artists from the acclaimed work, the break/s: a mixtape for stage – writer/performer Marc Bamuthi Joseph; director Michael John Garcés; choreographer Stacey Printz; drummer/beatboxer Tommy Shepherd; documentary filmmaker Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi; lighting designer James Clotfelter; and media designer David Szlasa. Joseph is joined onstage in the performance by dancer/actor Traci Tolmaire and vocalist/visual artist Theaster Gates, who is also designing the set. Also returning to the team of collaborators is costume designer, Mai-Lei Pecorari, who previously worked with Joseph on Scourge.

The creation of rbGb utilizes a dynamic research-to-performance methodology that yields community input as artistic resource material; specifically, the voices of people often left out of discussions about “living green.” This research has taken place through Life is Living–a series of community eco-festivals in urban parks nationwide featuring art, activism and education. Interviews, poems, films and murals from Life is Living are being translated into text, choreography and imagery that express the challenge of living green where violent crime and poor education pose a more imminent danger than ecological crisis, and that reveal emerging definitions of environmentalism in these communities.

Set into Gates’ malleable stage installation of repurposed building materials and clay objects, and heightened by Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s vivid films and vibrant graffiti murals from Life is Living, the poetry and performance in rbGb puts forward the idea that valuing your own life, and the life of your community, is the first step to valuing planet Earth.

Life is Living, a national campaign of Youth Speaks Inc. that generates partnerships between diverse and underserved communities, green action agencies, local community groups, urban environmental activists, and the contemporary arts world, is back in the city of Oakland!!! Expect yet another amazing festival with countless activities and performances but what makes Life is Living a standout event is you. Come see yourself reflected through the community of Oakland. Spread the word, grow the movement.

A FREE Celebration of Urban Life Through Hip-Hop, Intergenerational Health, and Environmental Action. Music concert featuring QUESTLOVE + PETE ESCOVEDO JAZZ ORCHESTRA + LOS RAKAS.

Saturday October 8th  |  Oakland CA  |  11 AM – 5 PM
Defremery Park // 1651 West Adeline (Btw 16th and 18th)

Life is Living encompasses a series of six-hour inter-disciplinary, intergenerational, eco-equity festivals in neglected parks in underserved neighborhoods around the country. Previous cities include Oakland, CA; Harlem, NY; and Chicago, IL & Houston, TX.

National funders include Columbia Foundation, Irvine Foundation, East Bay Community Fund, Doris Duke Charitable Fund, Center for Cultural Innovation, and the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts.

Youth Speaks inc. and the Geneva Car Barn and Powerhouse presents:
Life is Living.org Campaign Kickoff

Saturday July 16th 12 – 4pm | Crocker Amazon Park | San Francisco, CA
Celebrating Life through urban performance, intergenerational health, and environmental action.
With Performances by Flipsyde & DJ Q-bert

Youth Speaks Stage

• U14 Open Mic (Hosted by SPOKES)
• Bay Area BNV Slam Team
• The Turf Feinz Hyphy Dance Crew
• FREE visual art + musical performances + family fun

Special Events:

• Life is Living Graffiti Exhibition
• Keba Konte, Drew Vai
• Salsa Dance Class

Youth Speaks Stage
Life is Living.org Campaign Kickoff
July 16th, 12 – 4pm
Crocker Amazon Park, San Francisco

The Bay Area MC Olympic Finals – 1pm
As a culmination of two weeks of competition featuring the best 13 – 19 year old MC’s in the Bay Area, this final will be hosted by Do Dat of the Attik, and judged by illustrious Bay Area MC’s including 2011 Freshmen 10 MC Rafael Casal, Kiwi, Denizen Kane, Dom Jones, and others.  The Champion will earn the opportunity to compete in the Brave New Voices MC Olympics, on Teambackpack.com, and bragging rights to represent Youth Speaks and The Bay Area as the 2011 Olympic Champion.

Special Event @ Yerba Buena Gardens 6/28 12 Noon - Life Is Living Showcase:: Celebrating Life & Living Through Poetry, Visual Art And Dance Ft. Los Rakas And Marc Bamuthi Joseph

Community Partners:
Youth Speaks, Geneva Car Barn & Powerhouse, Green For All, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Bay Localize, Afro Urbanites, Richmond Spokes, Bitter Melon Collective,YouthSpeaks, Grind for the Green, San Francisco Recreation & Parks, Excelsior Boys & Girls Club, Inc., Filipino Community Center ,Chinese Progressive Coalition, Lick Wilmerding High School, Youth Radio ,Save McClaren Park, Scholar Match, Friends & Advocates of Crocker-Amazon & The Excelsior, Top Ten Social, City of San Francisco, SF Urban Riders, Keba Konte, and the Office of Supervisor John Avalos.

Since 2008, under the artistic direction of Marc Bamuthi Joseph, LIFE is LIVING has grown from a festival that uses art to foster environmental justice to a mobilized campaign much larger in scope. Highly successful LIFE is LIVING events have taken place in Harlem, Chicago, Houston, and Oakland, with further work proposed for Philadelphia, San Francisco, and the Twin Cities.

The campaign includes a traveling environmental caucus & concert, an invitational Graffiti Battle, live action sports, sustainable materials construction projects, and a Speak Green youth poetry event. As we reflect the voices of an emerging cultural majority, we recognize that our arts practices must echo and sustain the lives of the communities we engage.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Photo by Raymond Davis, curated by Rolando “Grow” Brown {more}

Words by Hodari Davis {more} & Rolando “Grow” Brown {more}

Young Gifted and Black + Laroilyn Davis = @LifeisLiving

On Oct 3, 2010, Young Gifted and Black, an Oakland Based ensemble group that studies and performs African American history in the form of poems, songs, spirituals and raps, took songs like the following:

• Minority Report by Jay Z {dig deeper}
• Sweet Honey & The Rock {dig deeper}
• Proud to Be Black by Run DMC {dig deeper}
• I’m Black and I’m Proud by James Brown {dig deeper}

AND MADE THEM THEIR OWN.

Young Gifted & Black not only remixes classic expressions of African American creativity with contemporary styles (making connections between the old and new), they also intentionally re-purpose the values and lessons learned from this in order to create new art, and shape new voice.

Made up of youth grades 2 – 9, Young Gifted & Black has performed for audiences throughout the Bay Area including with Youth Speaks at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco, for the Association of Black Psychologists, the Tommie Smith Track Tournament, and at the Life is Living Festival in Oakland California.

This unique group is Directed by long time educator and activist Laroilyn Davis, and the National Program Director of Youth Speaks Inc. Hodari B. Davis and assisted by several well known artists including Candice “Antique” Wicks, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, and others.

YGB is a project that is sponsored by the 100 Black Men of Oakland.

Photo curated by Nick “Free” James {more} & Rolando “Grow” Brown {more}

Words by Christopher “C+” Mueller {more} & Rolando “Grow” Brown {more}

Tweet by Marc Bamuthi Joseph

@KebaKonte+ growing vegetables and fish together = environmental action. #lifeisliving

A revolutionary urban garden system mimics nature to grow vegetables and fish together, combining aqua-culture (growing fish) and hydroponics (growing vegetables without soil).

Keba Konte, one of Kijiji’s founders, brings aquaponics to the Life is Living Festival on Sunday to improve life with a live construction demo of the urban, sustainable growing system. Though Keba is working independantly of Kijiji Grows at this time, Kijiji Grows began as a collaboration of aquaponic specialists–including farmers, artists, engineers, builders and educators–who advocate for aquaponic gardening.

Check out Keba and co-founder Eric Maundu explain the aquaponic garden system:

Come learn the benefits of this agricultural concept and watch Keba Konte build an auqaponic garden system this Sunday, October 3rd at 11am in Defremery Park, 1651 Adeline Street in Oakland, CA.