All Events
The UCSB MultiCultural Center in Santa Barbara An Evening of Spoken Word with Javon Johnson
Reds - 211 Helena Ave., Santa Barbara
The UCSB MultiCultural Center is back in town with an evening of energizing grooves by DJ Tempest and an amazing performance by highly awarded spoken word/slam poet Javon Johnson. Merging race and gender theory with comedy, lyricism, and rhyme schemes, Javon has appeared on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and BET’s Lyric. He is currently the Artistic Director of Say Word, an organization that mentors teenagers and promotes creative self-expression through spoken word poetry in Los Angeles. “From subject matter, to wordplay to delivery, he is working it out! It's hard not to have good times while watching him have a good time on stage.” The Los Angeles Times.
An Evening of Music from Ghana with the African Showboyz
MCC Theater
Born and raised in Binaba, a small village in the North East region of Ghana, brothers Napoleon, Joseph, Isaac, and Francis Sabbah have performed for enthusiastic audiences in Togo, Nigeria, Cameroun, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Libya, and Cote d’ Ivoire, while collaborating with Fela Kuti, Femi Kuti, Alpha Blondy, Freddie Meiwey, Ras Kimono, and Steve Wonder. Using the kone, siyak, binbill, and the bintitat, all instruments made in the small village, they sing about peace, happiness, and togetherness. Tickets $5 UCSB students and children under 12/$15 general. Contact the A.S. Ticket Office at 805-893-2064 or buy on-line at www.mcc.ucsb.edu (extra fees apply). Limited seating.
VIETNAMERICA: Drawing Our Past to Write Our Future GB Tran
MCC Lounge
GB Tran, author and illustrator of the graphic memoir VIETNAMERICA, shares the journey of discovering his roots and identity as a first generation Asian American artist. Selected by TIME Entertainment as one of the top 10 graphic memoirs of all time, VIETNAMERICA details his family story of trauma, tragedy, and triumph during and after the Vietnam War as well as GB's own unexpected search to preserve their legacy in a unique and complex art form. Co-sponsored by the American Cultures and Global Contexts Center, the Asian American Studies Department, the Asian Resource Center Educational Opportunity Program, the Hemispheric South/s Research Initiative and the Transcriptions Center.
FILM
An Evening with Director Wayne Wang A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
MCC Theater
Wayne Wang (The Joy Luck Club, Maid in Manhattan, and Last Holiday) screens A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. Enticing and absolutely delightful, this is an amazingly smart and fascinating movie about a Chinese man who, after the death of his wife, decides to travel to the United States in order to see his estranged daughter. In the end, their stories are intimately and irrevocably linked to the legacy of what they went through during the Cultural Revolution. Conversation with Yunte Huang, Professor of English, and director Wayne Wang following the screening. Wayne Wang, 83 min., Mandarin, Persian, and English, 2007, USA. Co-sponsored by the Partnership in International Research and Education in Electron Chemistry and Catalysis at Interfaces (PIRECCI).
