Dear Friends,

San Francisco Department of Public Health, in partnership with the Department of Emergency Management and the Mayor's Office, has issued recommendations to protect against the spread of COVID-19, also known as coronavirus. Due to these recommendations, we unfortunately have to cancel this concert.

Sincerely,

Asian Improv aRts

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Asian Improv aRts, API Cultural Center, and Lenora Lee Dance are pleased to present

Wong Works Spring 2020

a rare concert of works by composer/saxophonist Francis Wong.

Friday, March 20, 2020

945 ArtSpace at 945 Clay St., San Francisco 94108

Admission is $20. Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wong-works-spring-2020-tickets-96248926129

Contact: Vinay Patel, vinay@apiculturalcenter.org

https://www.facebook.com/events/541110149841549/

Included in the program will be works that give voice to Wong’s family’s experiences in the Chinese Diaspora as well as his experiences as an activist and community worker from the Asian American Movement of the 1970s to today. This special concert draws on Wong’s body of works that address themes of loss, persistence, hope, and realization.

Joining Wong will be an ensemble including musicians William Roper, Deszon X. Claiborne, and Scott Oshiro as well as members of Lenora Lee Dance and rapper A.K. Black.

945 ArtSpace

Asian Improv aRts, API Cultural Center, Lenora Lee Dance, and Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC) are pleased to announce that we have secured a Chinatown storefront space under the auspices of CCDC at 945 Clay St., between Joice Alley and Stockton St. Our vision for 945 ArtSpace is for it to be a place for artists and cultural activists to work; to build pieces, brainstorm concepts, work on day to day planning and implementation, engage with community members, and share artistic work in the intimate setting of a storefront space. We plan to organize this activity through a Resident Artist Program, Resident Curator Program, and Technical Assistance Incubator.

About the Artists

Francis Wong - Composer/saxophonist and community worker active since 1982 and co-founder with Jon Jang of Asian Improv aRts. He has 20 CD recordings as a leader or co-leader with a variety of ensembles and has performed nationally and internationally. He is also known for his work in Bay Area communities for his activism in many social movements from his days as a student to a variety of community-based and workplace organizing campaigns.

William Roper - William Roper is a multi-disciplinary artist residing in Los Angeles. His experience ranges from the symphony stage to free improvisation groups. He has toured Europe, North and South America, and Japan as a soloist and with ensembles. His musicianship is represented on over 60 recordings, including twelve as leader and co-leader. He has played or recorded with numerous artists and ensembles including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Elton John, Leon Russell, Yusef Lateef, Michiyo Yagi, James Newton, Bobby Bradford, Francis Wong, Horace Tapscott, Anthony Braxton, Douglas Ewart, Daisuke Fuwa, Michael Vlatkovich, Vinny Golia, Wadada Leo Smith, Tim McGraw, Glenn Horiuchi and many others. In addition, he has played on several major motion picture soundtracks.

Deszon X. Claiborne - is one of the busiest musicians in the Bay Area. His very diverse credits include Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, Bo Diddley, Phyllis Hyman, Jay McShann, Michael White, Andy Narell, Alex Acuna, Ray Obiedo, Alphabet Soup, Charles Brown, Dave Ellis, Rodney Franklin, Peter Apfelbaum, and Jon Jang. He studied with Ralph Humphrey, James Levi, Billy Cobham, Richard Peterson, Barry Jekowsky and Kenneth Nash, and has taught at the Stanford Jazz Workshop and Berkeley's Jazzschool.

Scott Oshiro is a Flutist and Electronic composer from the Washington DC Metropolitan Area. Over the past year he has been playing with Francis Wong and Asian Improv in San Francisco. Scott is currently pursuing his PhD in Computer-Based Music Theory and Acoustic Sciences at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).

Lenora Lee Dance - The mission of Lenora Lee Dance (LLD) is to create and present large-scale multimedia performance works integrating dance, original music, video projection, text and installation that connect various styles of movement and music to culture, history and human rights issues. Lenora Lee (artistic director) has been a dancer, choreographer, and artistic director in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. She has been an Artist Fellow at the de Young Museum, a Djerassi Resident Artist, a Visiting Scholar at New York University through the Asian/Pacific/American Institute, an Artist in Residence at Dance Mission Theater, and a 2019 United States Artist Fellow.

A.K. Black was born in Sunnydale and grew up in Bayview Hunters Point. He started rapping in 1987 while working as an outreach worker for Community Substance Abuse Services (CSAS), as a way of expressing social and political concerns that plague Black communities and other communities of color.