Outside in Sight
The Music of the United Front

First Voice offering for this week is an excerpt from Outside in Sight The Music of United Front, by Greg Chapnick, Sharon Wood (director) (1986) 

United Front featured Mark (acoustic double bass), Lewis Jordan (sax), Anthony Brown (percussion), George Sams (trumpet), Rudi Wongozi (piano). United Front began in 1979 as the Lewis Jordan-George Sams Quartet, and changed name to United Front in 1980 with the release of their album Path with a Heart, was the first of five recordings. United Front toured throughout the country, Europe, and stayed together until 1988.

About Lewis Jordan

In the late 1970's, I first worked with Mark in Marron (with Ray Collins, Kenny Endo, Gordy Watanabe and Paul Yamazaki), and then he joined me in United Front (with George Sams and Carl Hoffman and later Anthony Brown), and in my Music at Large productions, and our duet work leading to our Travels of a Zen Baptist album in 1990. In the 1980's Mark, Brenda, Sachiko Nakamura and I formed SoundSeen, referred to as a "zen cabaret," and produced The Land of Oohs and Ahhs, then Type-O, and Seven Steps to Go.

I am an improviser who loves to inhabit a world with music and verse, and I bring poetry along with my saxophone any time I get a chance. In my offering, which is a poem embedded in music, I've tried to bring a few perspectives at once: that spring is a time to begin to assert ourselves; that there is freedom in beginnings; that we can support one another in our striving; and that we learn as we grow as we learn.

Visit Lewis’s website and the Music at Large website.

About Genny Lim

I’ve known Brenda and Mark for 35 years. We’ve collaborating on many projects over the years from my 1987 performance piece, XX, about the oppression of women, which featured Brenda in the lead to my many poetry and music collaborations with Mark Izu in the early period of Asian American Jazz in the seventies till now. It gives me great pleasure to culminate our decades-old friendship as artists-in-arms to be a part of First Voice’s Offerings to the Earth.

My ode to water is a plea. If we continue to desecrate, pollute and waste this precious element, we will hasten the death of our planet for all living beings. Sea levels have risen to its highest annual level in just the past year and our coastlines are receding. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the catastrophic state of water justice. Twenty-one million Americans, that’s six percent of the population, get water from systems that violate health standards. The Navaho Nation has seen the highest rate of infections per capita in the U.S. and thirty to forty percent of its population have no running water or electricity. It’s time we reverse our course and heal our oceans, rivers and streams, starting with our melting glaciers.

About J-Town Culture Bearers - The Future: Hapa Voices

In 2019, First Voice produced a series of performances called "J-town Culture Bearers" during Sakura Matsuri. Japantown San Francisco is the first one in the nation and one of only three remaining Japantowns. There were over 40 before WWII. Performances were produced in Japantown storefronts as a way to strengthen community in preparation to fight displacement. The Japantown Malls are scheduled to be sold in 2021.  One of the performances was  “ I Too, Sing America" by an incredible performance ensemble, San Francisco Bay Great Theater Company (SF BATCO). This is a video from their rehearsal in a J-town storefront.

Visit SFBATCO’s website.

About Kei Akagi

Pianist and composer Kei Akagi has been a mainstay of the international jazz world for four decades. Perhaps best known for his work as a member of the Miles Davis band in the late 1980’s, his career also includes extended associations with major figures such as Stanley Turrentine, James Newton, Joe Farrell, Al DiMeola, and Airto Moreira. He has also performed or recorded with Art Pepper, Blue Mitchell, Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter, Charlie Haden, Charnett Moffett, Tom Harrell, Bobby Shew, Eddie Harris, Sadao Watanabe, Slide Hampton, Steve Turre, Robin Eubanks, Jean-Luc Ponty, Allan Holdsworth, and others. In 1985, Mark produced Kei with James Newton at the Asian American Jazz Festival at the Asian Art Museum in Golden Gate Park.

 Akagi has recorded 14 albums as a solo artist and leader. As a sideman and accompanist, he is on over 60 albums worldwide, including Miles Davis’ last recorded works. He has also written numerous original works for his own and others’ recordings, with over 100 compositions currently in publication.  

Akagi’s performance schedule revolves around two major international concert tours a year. As Professor of Music at the University of California, Irvine, he oversees the jazz studies program, teaching jazz history, theory and composition, jazz piano, and performance. He is also a recipient of the distinguished title of UCI Chancellor’s Professor.

About Isa Musni

Isa is primarily trained in dance with a strong interest in musical theatre and an affinity for videography. She currently works with local theatre company SFBATCO as a social media manager, photographer/videographer, and often as a performer. Isa first started working with Mark and Brenda when she was 17, choreographing and performing in their piece “Most Beautiful Girl in the World” (2012) and as the dramaturg for MU (2013). Most recently, Isa performed with SFBATCO as part of J-town Culture Bearers (2019). Isa graduated with a BFA in Dance from The California Institute of the Arts where she practiced contemporary, modern, and ballet techniques as well as dance-for-camera. She is represented in the bay area by RAE Agency.

"Escape" is the frantic search for "completely natural" surroundings, the discovery of release from the inside out, and accepting that even a facilitated environment is a gift made possible by nature.

About Noe Tanigawa

An award winning journalist, Noe Tanigawa was raised in Wailupe Valley, east Oahu and currently covers art, culture, and ideas for Hawaii Public Radio.  Among other things, her stories have dealt with Honolulu's built environment, Kanaka Maoli views about land, as well as Hawaii style and culinary arts. A focus since 2019 has been Hawai’i’s unsheltered community. Noe hosts a bi-weekly Aloha Friday Conversation focusing on art, culture, and ideas in Hawai’i. Noe is also Brenda’s cousin.

Noe maintains an active art studio.  She participated in a 2015 U.S. Arts in Embassies residency in Palau, and her works are currently on view at Saks 5th Avenue Waikiki.  

She says “I’m so proud of Hawai’i’s rich, rooted creative scene! The suite closes with a romp through some of the good times, a reminder during this pandemic of what we have together.

Living here, those of us who love Hawai’i feel our kuleana (responsibility) every day. The sun, the clouds, the blue sky, the rustling leaves, every wave that laps on the shore gives us energy to reinvest in our work together.”

Visit Noe’s website.

Apology

    Mahalo to @ohtoro for “Ocean,” 

Realization 

     “Oceans” by Juan Ramon Jimenez

Honolulu Valentine 

     Mahalo to @ohtoro, @illnomadic and @supergroupers for “Flowers That Pass on By featuring Neal Chin”  

Illnomadic is from Iran, Neal from Maui, Ohtoro has ties in Los Angeles, Japan and Honolulu. They earn their roots in Honolulu, as I do, through service to our place.

About Mark Shigenaga

Born in LA, raised in Orange County and living in the Bay Area since the early 80’s, it wasn’t until 2008 when I recaptured my passion for photography. It is through this pursuit that I have connected to many local ethnic communities, deepened an interest in my Japanese American heritage, and met Brenda and Mark. This chance alignment at the 2013 San Jose Obon led to a commission to photograph MU later that year. I have since documented many First Voice performances: Suite J-Town (2015), Uncle Gunjiro’s Girlfriend (2016), Aunt Lily’s Flowerbook (2018), Mark Izu’s Japanese-American Home Movies to Light (2018), and a project of First Voice’s ongoing Hewlett 50 commission (2021). While my photographic style continues to evolve, I’m most inspired by images that portray the vibrancy and Soul of our collective communities, whether through the sharing of various art forms, celebrations, or remembrances.

Video credits:
Edited by tashi tamate weiss
Music by Mark Izu

View more of Mark’s photos on Flickr.

About Seven Steps to Go

We’d like to offer you a work we did in 1987, Seven Steps to Go, a work created by SoundSeen, a Zen cabaret performance art quartet of two dancer/actors and two musicians, directed by Jael Weisman, with costumes by Lydia Tanji and a set designed by Chester Yoshida, presented at Intersection for the Arts when it was on Valencia St. This work features Sachiko Nakamura, one of the first Asian American choreographers in the U.S. and Lewis Jordan a poet, musician and a First Voice board member. Seven Steps to Go is about a young woman tired of duality – black/white, rich/poor, right/wrong. She seeks out a Go Master & his disciples. They teach her seven strategies to use in the game of life.  SoundSeen was one of the first ensembles that incorporated multiple disciplines at the same time – we were considered very avant- garde in those days. Looking back today, I can’t believe I was ever that skinny!
 
Sachi passed away in 2004 – but I still miss her. I miss hanging out with her until the wee hours in Chinatown over prime rib for $3.25 at Woo Loo Gooey. We’re happy we can still share her and SoundSeen with you!

About Keola and Moana Beamer

Mark and Brenda had the honor of working with Keola and Moana on 9/11, a few hours after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. U.S. intelligence thought that the next target was San Francisco so all performances in the City were cancelled. Everyone - the ballet, symphony, opera was dark. First Voice brought Keola, Moana and master Taiko drummer Kenny Endo over from Hawaii; they’d been working for weeks to create a new work together to premiere at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. When YBCA told them they should cancel, Keola said “We're here, it’s a crisis, so we should help out.” Brenda said, “How?” Keola said “We just do what we do.” So they called the theater and asked them if it was okay to defy the ban and go on - surprisingly all of the tech crew wanted to go too! The box office warned them that there might not be any audience. They went out on stage and the place was packed, all 750 seats filled, people sitting in the aisles! When we’re scared, people want to be together.

They performed for over an hour and at the ovation, Keola asked for the house lights to go up so we could see the audience. Then he and Moana began to sing Hawai’i Aloha, a song about the land and its people. On the islands, everyone stands when they hear that song. A few people in the audience knew to stand and soon everyone joined them. Those of us on stage began to weep because we looked out into the audience and could see everyone swaying, holding hands and raising their voices in song. All of us saw each other. All the beautiful colors of the people of the United States. A Shinto priest had put a prayer tree in the lobby and after the performance, many people stopped and contributed a prayer.  Because of the deep sadness and climate of fear in the world at that time and again today, Mark and Brenda always cherish that memory and are so grateful that Keola knew what to do in a crisis
 
This Earth Offering, Hula Mu’umu’u is a ‘Ohana Beamer (Beamer Family) original based on an ancient mo’olelo (story) about the Goddess Hi’iaka and her encounter with an armless and legless woman.

Visit Keola and Moana’s website.

About Wayne Wallace

Wayne is a composer, trombonist, keyboardist, and vocalist. A San Francisco native, his work includes co-composing and co-arranging, along with Jon Jang, the soundtrack to "Speaking in Tongues," an award-winning documentary about bilingual education, a 2002 San Francisco Arts Commission grant for composing the music to The Quilt, and a 1993 N.E.A. grant for jazz composition to compose a three part suite Digging Up the Roots reflecting the diverse musical cultures of the San Francisco Bay Area. He has also composed and arranged the music for the American Conservatory Theater 1993 production of Pecong by Steve Carter and co-composed and arranged the music for the 1991 Theater Works world premiere of the musical Go Down Garvey by Danny Duncan. He has played music with Mark since the 1990’s and composed the music for a quartet version of Brenda’s oratorio Legend of Morning Glory. Wayne been composing one song a day during the lock down, in this Earth Offering he shares a few of them.

Visit Wayne’s website.

About tashi tamate weiss

tashi tamate weiss is a poet and traditional energy worker of japanese and eastern european jewish lineages. her creativity finds a home in experimental film, weaving stories at the threshold between the material and the mystical. tashi’s creative practice serves as sacred ritual for seeding, alchemizing, and cooperating with transformation on personal, global and cosmic levels. 

tashi has known Mark and Brenda since she and their son KK used to wait for the same yellow school bus every morning at Golden Gate Park. she has regarded them as creative and spiritual mentors since elementary school, and feels deeply grateful to be working with First Voice, stewarding their social media and online presence. 

kaeru means to return home--
sometimes we let go of matter
to make return of our spirit
to a home where we are held in universal embrace.
ornate formation of your soul
helixes, escapes, transforms,
before my misty eyes--
i’m speaking to you now from the other side.

Follow tashi on Instagram.

About The Way We Were

Before we make a decision to act, it is sometimes good to look back. Hindsight is 2020. Perhaps Mother Nature is telling us to look back, way back before we polluted the air, the water and the food we eat. Maybe life was good and we didn’t even know it. This week we’d like to offer a CAAM Commission Mark premiered at the Herbst Theater on San Francisco Music Day 2018 - Japanese American Home Movies to Light, featuring Stephen Gong’s collection of families before the Incarceration. Looking back at these happy families in the 1930’s, unaware that they would lose everything and be forced into prison camps terrible as it was, fills us with pride. Because it reminds us that still today our people continue to carry on.

All of us, non-Japanese included, long for the way we were pre-Covid. Perhaps the Japanese concept gaman (the ability to endure the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity) can help us all.

About Olivia Ting

Olivia Ting is interested in digital technology that rearranges our memories and formulates our consciousness within the fabric of contemporary life. She worked as a graphic designer for brand agencies and design boutiques in New York City for several years before returning to San Francisco.

Olivia says "Brenda and I have been talking about these strange times of a pandemic— uncertainty isolating and omnipotent at the same time. We look to the human spirit to bring us through the challenges, and recently the Amabie, a mystical sea creature from Japanese folklore said to have the power to ward off plagues, has resurfaced as a harbinger mascot of hope and perseverance. It was said to have long hair, covered in scales, a beak and three webbed feet; indeed it is a creature that is both familiar and fantastic. Myths and legends are but tributes to the enduring universality of human condition; here perhaps reaching to them reassures that we will come through one way or another, as we always have". She is the designer for We, ARE San Francisco project coming up in 2021, part of a series of Mark and Brenda’s San Francisco project.

Follow Olivia on Instagram and visit her website.

About June Kuramoto

June says "I had the great honor and privilege to work with Brenda and Mark in 2003 on Quan Yin (She Who Sees the Cries of the Universe) with Gagaku Master Togi Suenobu that toured to Hong Kong; and again in 2004, Heaven & Earth at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts with Cherokee flute player Tommy Wildcat & Gale Ross, great-granddaughter of Chief Ross who led the Trail of Tears. 

 I fell in love with the koto when I first heard and saw it when I was about 7 years old and have been playing since then.

 Thousand Cranes is a song inspired by my friend Jeffrey Boshart and co-written with my musical soul brother Derek Nakamoto to honor Mother Earth and keep awareness that it is our responsibility to take care of Her."

Show her now that we do care
With a love that we all share
Send her a thousand cranes
Send her your thousand cranes

 Show her now that we do care
With a hope that we all share
Send her a thousand cranes
Send her your thousand cranes

Visit June’s website.

Emiko Saraswati Susilo

Emiko was raised in a family rich with the arts. She began her study of Balinese dance with Ibu Ni Made Wiratini and her study of Javanese dance with late Master Rama Sasminta Mardawa, teacher of the Court of Yogyakarta. She is a gamelan/vocal student of Bp. Tri Haryanto and Ki Midiyanto. She is a founding member of Çudamani and has been a core leader since the group’s inception. Emiko has a deep love of bringing together traditional and contemporary forms and ideas across the disciplines of dance, music, voice and visual arts. She worked a year on the Drupadi project, a collaboration between Gamelan Sekar Jaya, Shadowlight Productions and Brenda which sadly was cancelled just before opening due to shelter in place. 

Follow Emiko on Instagram and visit her website.

About Dewa Berata

Born and raised in the village of Pengosekan, son of a great drummer, Dewa was immersed in Balinese performing arts from birth. He is renowned for his compositional skills in both traditional and innovative styles and a rare ability to communicate a diverse knowledge of Balinese arts to both Balinese and international artists. He is the founder and director of Çudamani, and has lead Çudamani, on tours to venues including a nine-city tour with Arts Midwest 2012-13, Jazz at Lincoln Center (NY), the World Festival of Sacred Music-(LA), the Cultural Olympiad (Greece), EXPO (Japan) and the Tong Tong Festival (Holland) among others. As a result of Dewa’s vision and commitment, Çudamani, has become an important artistic center in Bali, endeavoring to study and preserve rare classic forms of Balinese arts and also provide a space that nurtures the creative energies of young artists in Bali. He is the Guest Music Director of Gamelan Sekar Jaya and had spent months collaborating with Shadowlight Productions and Brenda. Unfortunately they had to cancel performances of their work, Drupadi, due to shelter in place.

Follow Dewa on Instagram and visit the Gamelan Cudamani website.

About The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

Some times things take longer than we’d like. But if our intentions are good and we put in enough love and energy, sometimes our dreams can come true. The Most Beautiful Girl in The World, a story about a boy looking for his dream girl, who finds her but realizes she needs a little TLC. We created it for the 50th Anniversary of the San Francisco Zen Center. The story is sweet and the dance choreographed & performed by Isa Musni with our son, KK, is absolutely charming - enjoy!

About Patrick Makuakane

Patrick is Kumu, choreographer, raconteur, tradition-bearer, proud pagan, cultural innovator, succulent fetishist, prison hula teacher and Aussie dad. I can’t remember when I first met Brenda and Mark, but I do know it was in another galaxy a long, long time ago and it must have been good, cause we’re always super excited to see each other and we got that Hawaiʻi connection thang going. For this offering, I call out to Kapo, woman who dwells in the verdancy—come, enter and inspire me.

Visit Patrick’s website.

About Kenny Endo

Taiko artist, Kenny Endo, has been creating new work for the ancient Japanese taiko since 1975 when he began with with Kinnara Taiko and San Francisco Taiko Dojo.  Kenny later spent ten years in Japan working with Osuwa Daiko, O Edo Sukeroku Taiko, and many amazing artists involved with tradition as a basis of innovation.  He received his natori (stage name and license) in hogaku hayashi (Japanese classical drumming) from the Mochizuki school and studied Edo Bayashi (Tokyo festival music) in the Wakayama style.  He is a performer, composer, and instructor based in Honolulu where he is artistic director of the Taiko Center of the Pacific.  Kenny regularly performs original music with his ensemble, as a soloist, and in collaborations with artists from around the world. 

Moonwind is an improvisation utilizing softer and subtle sounds of the odaiko (large drum).  It is influenced by Kabuki geza ongaku (offstage music),  kakegoe (vocalizations), and rhythmic patterns from hogaku hayashi.  Kenny is proud to perform on taiko provided courtesy of Miyamoto Unosuke Shoten.  Video by Sean Shibata.  Managing director: Chizuko Endo. 

'Brenda and Mark have been great friends since the 70s and I've always appreciated their work.  It's an honor to contribute to First Voice's Earth Day Offerings!'

Visit Kenny’s website.

About devorah major

I do not remember the number of decades I have known and worked with Mark and Brenda. Brenda has inspired me and my work throughout. I have performed my poetry with Mark and others and worked with him as part of a arts-in-residence quartet in the Jazz in the Middle program.

I am San Francisco’s third Poet Laureate, a performance artist, working nationally and internationally and a published author of six books of poetry two novels and a host of short stories and essays and recorded performance poet on two CD poetry and jazz collections with Opal Palmer Adisa and as Daughters of Yam and had individual poems on CD recordings with and without music.

“we are this place” is part of a growing series of poems I am writing that reveal where we sit as humans in this universe and what responsibilities flow from that reality. 

Visit devorah’s website.

About Mas Koga

Woodwind player Mas Koga was born in Chiba, Japan and spent his early years living in three countries and eight cities. After graduating from San Jose State University with a degree in Improvised Music Studies, he lived in San Francisco CA for many years and became an integral part of its unique creative music scene. He has been a part of the First Voice family for many years, appearing in Kabuki Cabaret (2011), MU (2013), and Suite J-Town (2015). He was also featured in First Voice’s Moments series, as well as J-Town Culture Bearers. Mas currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Mas’s sound encompasses the many cultural traditions he’s been touched by, and the worldview developed through diverse life experiences. He aims to create music that respects traditions and goes beyond styles and idioms, and ultimately help diminish all forms of social boundaries.

Mother Earth
Giver of Life

All Being
Sharing
Vibrations
Resonating

Remembering that
we are all Connected

Remembering
We are One

Follow Mas on Facebook and visit his website.

About Return of the Sun

With spring in full bloom, it seems as though our world is also beginning to reopen and emerge from this pandemic. As we begin coming out of the darkness, we would like to present a video of our show 'Return of the Sun' based on the ancient Japanese legend of the sun goddess Amaterasu. Her brother’s destructive ways forced her to retreat into a cave sealing it with a great boulder. Plunged into a world of darkness, the gods and goddesses placed a mirror at the entrance, then danced & sang. The sun goddess curious, emerged and saw her own radiance. Darkness vanished and life flourished once again.

As part of our original plan for the Earth Dance in the Japantown Peace Plaza with SFUSD students, Andi created this study guide about the history of storytelling, Japantown and how people everywhere honor the Earth.

About Andi Wong

Teaching artist and arts advocate Andi Wong created the study guide and currently works with teachers, students, families and the arts community as the Site Arts Coordinator at Dianne Feinstein Elementary School. As the Arts Coordinator at Rooftop Elementary School, she invited Brenda to do storytelling. She established Rooftop Alterative School’s concept-based arts integration program, “Art Is…” (2006-2018), and has developed curriculum for numerous Bay Area arts education organizations, including the de Young Museum and San Francisco Opera. In 2019, she was the project coordinator for First Voice’s J-town Culture Bearers Series during Cherry Blossom Festival and she continues to work with them on their Hewlett 50 Commission. 

About Marcus Shelby

Much of the foundation of American music is rooted in the history of Black music - spirituals, work songs, freedom songs, and the blues. These various forms of music have been instrumental in the liberation of Black people because of its creative form of messaging. In this video clip, I am honored to share a freedom song (“Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around”), 2 spirituals (“Wade in the Water”; “Amazing Grace”), and some blues in between. I dedicate this to the Earth and much like the Women’s Rights Movement and the Gay Rights Movement, this is a place for music that can articulate our demands for environmental justice, that can inspire us to care for the planet more, and that can move us to work towards international peace. Thank you for this honor to be part of Earth Day.

Visit Marcus’s website.

About Geena Chen

Geena once made a Gantt chart for Aunt Lily's Flower Book (2018), lovingly hosted Brenda and Mark across two continents and six countries, and built a little tea house and vegetable garden in their backyard with KK (2018). Geena is a Strategic Partnerships Director at a circular economy company in London and thinks a soft-boiled egg is a miracle garnish for any otherwise-boring meal.

Follow Geena on Instagram.

About KK Aoki Izu

KK has been Brenda and Mark's son for 26 years. He performed and toured all over the world with them in Suite J-town (2015), MU (2013), Most Beautiful Girl in the World (2011), Legend of Morning Glory (2009), Uncle Gunjiro’s Girlfriend (2007), Mermaid Meat and Other Japanese Ghost Stories (2005), Kuan-Yin: Our Lady of Compassion (2002) and countless others including home productions sitting on a Quaker Oats can and banging on his mother's cast iron pots and pans that were gifted to her by Mark when they first started dating. KK is a self-starting Product Manager who brings a fresh twist of creativity, ingenuity, and catalytic energy wherever he goes.

Follow KK on Instagram.

About Charlotte Blake Alston

I am a storyteller, narrator, singer and librettist. My commitment is to the preservation of traditional stories and oral art forms from African and African American oral traditions. Brenda and I met many years ago (mid-1990's) at a storytelling festival - somewhere in America!! Our paths have been intersecting ever since at storytelling festivals and conferences around the country including the most recent National Storytelling Summit where we were both presenters. I want to express my gratefulness to my kora teachers, the late jali Djimo Kouyate and Yacouba Sissoko for fully embracing this American female storyteller. Gratefulness: Praise Song for Mother Earth is my adaptation of the traditional 'Praise Songs' and 'Praise Poems' of the West African jalis or griots. The 21-string kora is the instrument that is played (primarily by men) as stories of history are recounted in spoken word and song.

Visit Charlotte’s website.

About Shoko Hikage

Koto (Japanese zither) player Shoko Hikage is grateful to have studied with wonderful teachers, Chizuga Kimura, Iemoto Seiga Adachi, Tadao and Kazue Sawai and more. She, Mark, and Brenda have worked together on Aunt Lily’s Flower book (2017~) Uncle Gunjiro’s Girlfriend (2016), Suite J-town (2015),  Mu (2013), Kabuki Jazz Cabaret (2011) and more projects. Her piece is titled "E - A - H". In April 2020 she assembled an unusual Koto tuning form using the pitch of E, A and H (B) The inspiration of this work came from the combination of the sound (pitch) and space.

Big 'Arigato' to Brenda and Mark!  I’m grateful to have had valuable experiences from those great projects which continue to be a great influence on me. Sharing good energy! Even at this difficult time, we are still able to receive the gift from Mother Earth. Thanks to Mother Earth.

I wanted to share my mother’s haiku poem and illustration. Yes! Brenda translated it into English beautifully.

Don’t crush the Horsetails!

Go Arounds!

See? How happy they look!

The english translation by Brenda Wong Aoki, is organic and poetic rather than literal. The Poem are meant to be spoken.

Visit Shoko’s website.

About Eryn Kimura

Eryn Kimura (she, her) is a japanese-/chinese-american self-taught visual artist. Working in collage, she composes cacophonous yet fractal visual symphonies using fragments from print media and found ephemera. While scrutinizing mechanisms of hegemony in visual culture vis-a-vis memory, Eryn employs the process of collage as alchemy, reimagining and archiving ancestral pasts and futures. Eryn was born and raised in San Francisco, on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone land. Eryn worked together with Mark and Brenda in Suite J-Town in 2015. She has lived and worked in Kyoto, Japan and Paris, France. 

Visit Eryn’s website.

About Leticia Hernandez

Leticia Hernández-Linares first saw Brenda perform The Queen’s Garden in the early 90’s in Philadelphia.  Brenda’s integration of storytelling, performance, and music profoundly influenced Leticia’s artistic development.  About fifteen years later, they worked together in the Interdisciplinary Writers Lab, and in 2012, Leticia invited Brenda to perform in the closing of her ten year series Amate: Women Painting Stories. A long time Mission based poet, Leticia is an educator, cultural worker, writer, interdisciplinary artist, and mother of two sons. Madre Mar is a poemsong that incorporates Alfonsina y el mar, by Mercedes Sosa’s, played by her teenage son, Mahcic. Madre Mar talks about the relationship between motherhood, ancestors, and nature––how the currents and tides and spirit can empower maternal insticts and overcome generational cycles of trauma. 

Videographer Serafín Riley-Hernández

Follow Leticia on Twitter and visit her website.

About the New Obon for All Ancestors

Our Earth Dance began in 2015 when, with a grant from the California Arts Council, we produced a 18 month large scale community organizing project called 'Suite J-town'. 8,500 people of all ages participated in our art-making, performance and film events. We closed with the 'New Obon for All Ancestors’ which Ayana Yonesaka choreographed and we now call the Earth Dance.

About Janice Mirikitani

Janice Mirikitani was the second poet laureate of San Francisco. She is a beloved friend of Mark and Brenda's and has known them for decades. Her poetry and activism is committed to addressing the horrors of war, combating institutional racism, and advocating for women and poor people.

About Unity Lewis

Since 2001, Unity has taught Hip-Hop, art and life skills in public and private schools across northern California and on the island of Guam, where the Guam Legislature awarded a Resolution for his contribution to students’ lives. He continued to teach until 2011, then chose to shift his focus to creating, releasing and performing his own art and music full time. 

Unity has collaborated with artists such as Stic.Man of Dead Prez, Sly Stone, George Clinton, Umar Bin Hassan of The Last Poets and many others. He was commissioned by Brenda Aoki, Mark Izu to create a new work for Earth Dance 2020, which was cancelled by the pandemic. He is honored to still have this opportunity to join forces with the First Voice family by presenting this offering to Mother Earth. 

Earth 2020 is a rap song and visual audio collage constructed by Unity, with the intent to refocus the viewer on what is truly important right now in this moment; remembering our connection to each other and our environment, and harmonizing with nature and one another so that we have a future here.

Follow Unity on Instagram.

About Tenaya Lee Izu

Tenaya Lee Izu (b. 1992 Oakland CA) lives and works in New York City. They are currently working with the collective CFGNY.

In their video the text is a collage from the Tao Te Ching and the lyrics of Hitomi's intro song to the anime Inuyasha, plus their own words.The video, which is in the form of a karaoke video, is made up of original and found footage, plus scans from a softcore magazine. There's a common narrative that love will deliver us in the face of oblivion; that reciprocated desire will make us fundamentally complete. Also, they love melodramatic fan generated content and are Mark and Brenda's nibling.  

Follow Tenaya on Instagram and visit their website.

About MU

In celebration of Earth Day, Mark and Brenda are so happy to share a work they did in 2013 with their son and other artists in the First Voice Fam. It’s a story about a young man, unhappy with his life in the Land Above who falls into the Deep Blue Sea and has an amazing adventure in the land of the Dragon Queen where he learns that everything is connected -  All is MU.

About Shinji Eshima

Shinji Eshima has been a double-bassist in the San Francisco Opera since 1980. He has also served as Associate Principal Bass in the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra since 1982.

Born in Berkeley, CA in 1956 to a Japanese American family, Mr. Eshima has written over 30 works including ballets, operas, hymns, choruses, solos, chamber pieces and soundtracks.

He is a dear friend of Mark and Brenda’s and, in his offering, he is accompanied by Benjamin Freemantle, a principle dancer for the San Francisco Ballet. It was a spontaneous video that was shot in each in their separate homes during this lockdown.

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About Ayana Yonesaka

Born and raised in Sapporo, Japan, Ayana Yonesaka moved to San Francisco in 2009 to pursue her career in dance. Since graduating summa cum laude with a BA in Dance from San Francisco State University in 2013, she has worked in the Bay Area as a dance instructor, performer, and choreographer. In addition to teaching at San Francisco Youth Ballet Academy, RoCo Dance & Fitness, and ODC, she also directs ayanadancearts, a company she founded in 2017. She was a First Voice Suite J-town Mentee (2015), and developed a new dance as part of our ‘Moments’ salon series in the First Voice Studio, and continues to work with us today.

Ayana aims to create highly innovative choreography that is rooted in contemporary dance aesthetics with a strong Japanese cultural narrative. Her work seamlessly navigates her Japanese and American identities, choreographing through a unique cross-Pacific framework.

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About Marissa Katarina Bergmann

Marissa Katarina Bergmann ( Aimari ) is a visual artist, photographer, filmmaker, vocalist, and arts educator based in San Francisco, CA. Her work is interdisciplinary in nature and explores the boundaries of identity and culture, the personal and the political, time and space, and holding on and letting go. Marissa began working with First Voice as a vocalist and photographer for MU (2013), was a Suite J-town Mentee (2015), developed music for a recording as part of our ‘Moments’ salon, and continues to work with us on many of our projects.

Marissa grew up in the California Mojave Desert with parents of Japanese and German ancestry. Memories of the warm desert sun and time spent in her grandmother's house —a place with a golden atmosphere of repair— still fuel her work today. She writes: "In making art, I have found a place of healing that touches first myself and then ripples onward. I bring intimacy into public settings so that I may preserve, remember, and pass on a spirit of warmth, acceptance, and love. Every gesture has the potential to be a small act of peace.”

Follow Marissa on Instagram and her art on Instagram.