Immigrant tales told while on the move
“Riding Up Front,” the brainchild of Wei-En Tan, is an online collection of stories about and by immigrants, illustrated by commissioned artists. All stories are rooted in transportation experiences of Uber and Lyft drivers and their passengers.
It began with a blog of conversations that “stuck in my head,” said Tan, whose day job is with a clean technology firm in Oakland. Eventually, that blossomed into a site in which stories and images “raise awareness of immigrant rights in America and globally.” The project has taxexempt status and is looking for more submissions and, of course, donations. “We’re trying to build a community,” said Tan.
In a Bay Area entry illustrated by Iris Hopp, Runfang Zhang writes about a Lyft driver turning the car’s music way down low. “Somehow, I suspect, if it were French or Spanish or even Finnish, the volume would be higher. At first I wanted to ask you, ‘What language is that?’ Then, I decided not to, because we both knew, it was Arabic.”
“Women on the Move,” the theme of ODC’s Friday, March 24, gala, aptly describes the trajectory of supporters — from St. Regis to YBCA, then back to St. Regis — who attended. Dinner was tasty, speeches brief, fundraising for educational programs noninvasive. Auctions raise dough, but it always seems to me unfair when ticket buyers have to feel embarrassed for not spending more on luxury items. “Women on the Move” was a guilt-free event.
Instead, Dance Through Time, a company that performs period social dances, dressed students in a variety of ruffled, tied and velvety period costumes; carrying baskets, they sashayed among the tables to accept donations. That company’s artistic director Carlos Venturo and manager Joseph Copley work at ODC, too. Much has changed over the 46 years since ODC was established, said Kimi Okada, who directs the school and was my dinner partner, but collaboration has always been part of its mission.
Five pieces (or fragments) were performed at YBCA. Watching the first, I thought, oh, nothing could be better than this. Then the second — sexy and delicious — began, and I thought, oh this is going to be my favorite. And then the third, and I changed my mind in favor of that one, and again for the fourth, and finally, for 30 seconds of “Walk Back the Cat,” I thought that was the best. I can’t say anything better than that.
Doreen Woo Ho, powerhouse behind the San Francisco Opera’s production “Dream of the Red Chamber,” is just back from Hong Kong, where the work was performed twice. Both performances, part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival, sold out six months ago, within a week of the ticket offerings.
The San Francisco delegation included Mayor Ed Lee and Anita Lee, S.F. Opera Director Emeritus David Gockley, her “Dream” committee co-chair Gorretti Lui, Priscilla Geeslin and Dagmar Dolby. The work was wellreceived: “Those fortunate enough to secure a ticket ... were witnessing a piece of musical history of the sort that rarely happens here. Bravo to all concerned,” observed a reviewer for the cultural website HKeld.com.
The opera lovers are hoping to cement arrangements to perform it in Beijing (and perhaps other locations in China) next September, but that hasn’t yet been finalized.
The United Religions Initiative, which began in San Francisco in 2000 and now includes 750,000 participant members in 99 countries from 250 religions and tribes, threw itself a Circles of Light Gala on Saturday, March 25.
The Rev. William Swing, president and founder of the group, has his standup patter down cold. “What happened when an imam, a rabbi and a bishop went to a fancy hotel in San Francisco on a Saturday night?” The evening started, he says, with an Islamic call to prayer, continued with a Jewish rabbi singing an invocation, then the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir.
Swing reports that when he asked Charlotte Shultz, his dinner partner, whether she would blurb his forthcoming book, “The Sacred and the Silly,” she said she knew him so well and for so long that she could blurb it without even reading it.
In the literary religion, this may not be exactly kosher ... but she would want the same done for her, and after all, the Golden Rule trumps all.
PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING Woman 1: “Well, that’s not going to get me laid.” Woman 2: “That’s not the kind of thing you should share with your mother.” Woman to woman, overheard in the audience of “Into the Woods” at the Golden Gate Theatre by Richard Bucher