[Freedom archives news] Struggle for a New World! Fred Ho Memorial Tribute - Sunday September 7th 2-4:30p Oakland

[Freedom Archives Events]

Contact: Claude Marks, Freedom Archives
tel: 415-863-9977
claude at freedomarchives.org <mailto:claude at freedomarchives.org>


For Immediate Release
August 13, 2014

*STRUGGLE FOR A NEW WORLD!
Fred Ho Memorial Tribute*

*Sunday SEPTEMBER 7, 2014***

2:00--4:30pm@ Oakland Asian Cultural Center

388 9th St #290,Oakland, free admission

Co-sponsored by Freedom Archives, The Poetry Center and the Design 
Center for Global Needs at San Francisco State University, and Oakland 
Asian Cultural Center

On Sunday, September 7^th an all-star assemblage of musicians, writers, 
and activists will gather in Oakland to honor Fred Ho --- celebrated 
composer-bandleader, virtuoso baritone saxophonist, author of multiple 
books, and lifelong radical activist. A self-described "revolutionary 
/matriarchal///socialist and aspiring Luddite" (New York Times), Fred Ho 
for four decades was a fierce warrior against exploitation and 
oppression wherever they persisted, including in his very public battle 
with cancer. /

/

Fred Ho's family will be present, and footage from the documentary /Fred 
Ho's Last Year/ (Stephen de Castro, 2014) will be screened.

Featured performers will include:


The Afro Asian Music Ensemble
Ben Barson
Davheed Behroozi
Jimmy Biala
Winston Byrd

Royal Hartigan

Mark Izu

Masaru Koga
Genny Lim

Hafez Modirzadeh
Gwendolyn Mok
Ken Okada

John-Carlos Perea
Rova Saxophone Quartet
Akira Tana

Marty Wehner

Francis Wong

Brenda Wong Aoki



With speaker/emcees: Diane Fujino, Matef Harmachis, and Tony Marks-Block.

"Fred Ho writes, speaks, and plays in order to persuade and inspire, to 
expose the crimes of the ruling class, and to challenge the status quo 
so that we imagine a different future." ---Robin D. G. Kelley, historian 
and biographer of Thelonious Monk

*Fred Ho biography* (born Fred Wei-han Houn, August 10, 1957, Palo Alto, 
CA; died April 12, 2014, Brooklyn, NY). One of the outstanding composers 
of his generation, New York-based Chinese-American saxophonist and 
cultural activist Fred Ho founded the Afro-Asian Music Ensemble (1982), 
the Asian-American Art Ensemble (1981-88), and the Monkey Orchestra 
(1990), all of them fusing Western and Eastern instruments and 
influenced by Afro-American traditions, especially inspired by Charles 
Mingus's orchestras. Later ensembles included The Green Monster Big 
Band, The Saxophone Liberation Front, and Brooklyn Sax Quartet 
(cofounded with David Bindman). Among many honors, he was the first 
Asian American musician to be awarded the Duke Ellington Distinguished 
Artist Lifetime Achievement Award.

The names of Fred Ho's many recordings, from the 1980s forward, express 
the singular fusion of art and activism that became his insistent call: 
/Tomorrow Is Now, Bamboo That Snaps Back, A Song for Manong, We Refuse 
To Be Used and Abused/ (all 1980s); /The Underground Railroad To My 
Heart, Monkey/ /Parts One and Two/, /Turn Pain Into Power/; /Yes Means 
Yes, No Means No, Whatever She Says, Wherever She Goes!/; /Warrior 
Sisters/, the "vampire opera" /Night Vision/, and the 12-movement 
theatre piece with dancers and Kung Fu fighters /Once Upon a Time In 
Chinese American/ (all 1990s); /The Black Panther Suite/; /Red Arc: A 
Call for Liberation/ (with poet raúlrsalinas), /Deadly She-Wolf Assassin 
at Armageddon/Momma's Song, Big Red, The Sweet Science Suite/, 
/Snake-Eaters, Celestial Green Monster, Year of the Tiger/ and /The 
Music of Cal Massey: A Tribute/ (2000--2012).

In addition to his music, Fred Ho authored, co-authored, and edited many 
articles and books, the latter including /Wicked Theory, Naked Practice: 
A Fred Ho Reader, Afro Asia: Revolutionary Political and Cultural 
Connections Between African Americans and Asian Americans /(with Bill 
Mullen), /Diary of a Radical Cancer Warrior: Fighting Cancer and 
Capitalism at the Cellular Level, Raw Extreme Manifesto: Change Your 
Body, Change Your Mind, Change the World While Spending Almost Nothing/; 
the anthologies /Sounding Off! Music as Subversion/ Resistance/ 
Revolution/ (with Ron Sakolsky), and /Legacy to Liberation: Politics and 
Culture of Revolutionary Asian Pacific America/ (with Carolyn Antonio, 
Diane Fujino, and Steve Yip). He was the subject of the book-length 
study /Yellow Power, Yellow Soul: The Radical Art of Fred Ho/ (ed. Roger 
N. Buckley and Tamara Roberts) and featured in Bill V. Mullen's /Afro 
Orientalism/.

New York Times Obituary for Fred Ho, April 12, 2014:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/13/arts/music/fred-ho-56-composer-and-radical-activist-dies.html

The Guardian (UK) obituary for Fred Ho:
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/apr/28/fred-ho


Fred Ho at Big Red Media, Inc.
http://www.bigredmediainc.com/brmflash/

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org


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