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<font size=3>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<br><br>
CONTACT:<br><br>
Elena Serrano: 510-508-9173 elenas@mindspring.com<br>
Maisha Quint: 510-866-7604 maisha.quint@gmail.com<br>
EastSide Arts Alliance: 510-533-6629
<a href="http://www.eastsideartsalliance.org/">
www.eastsideartsalliance.org</a><br><br>
<br>
EASTSIDE ARTS ALLIANCE presents<br><br>
World Premier of The Sisyphus Syndrome<br><br>
Oakland, CA: The Sisyphus Syndrome is a newly commissioned jazz
opera by poet and playwright Amiri Baraka and saxophonist and composer
David Murray. This groundbreaking and timely project details the
African-American struggle in the United States using poetry, live music,
dance and mixed media.<br><br>
David Murray will lead The Freedom Now! Band, and Amiri Baraka is
directing the piece in addition to being a featured performer. Dancers,
actors, and digital design round out the production to make it a
compelling, insightful piece that offers both a historical perspective
and a road map for the future. This collaborative effort to create
a modern urban opera merging two of the most active, sometimes
controversial, and always cutting-edge artists in contemporary literature
and music promises to introduce challenging social commentary and
innovative concepts.<br><br>
When describing this unique partnership Baraka says, “We want the music
and words to extend to each other, be parts of the same expression,
different pieces of the whole.” Murray says, “The subject has got
to be America and what America is trying to be, so lets make an opera
about what it can be.”<br><br>
<br><br>
Thursday, Friday & Saturday<br><br>
May 8, 9, 10<br><br>
EastSide Cultural Center<br><br>
2277 International Blvd.<br><br>
Oakland, CA 94606<br><br>
<br><br>
Tickets:<br><br>
$20 General Admission<br><br>
$10 Students up to 19 years old (with student ID)<br><br>
Discounted group rates for students available, call 510.533.6629<br><br>
<br><br>
The EastSide Arts Alliance (ESAA) is a group of artists and community
activists of color who live and work in the Lower San Antonio
neighborhood of East Oakland. Having recently purchased a multi-use
building that is the site of the new EastSide Cultural Center, ESAA is
poised to be a part of the new cultural renaissance that Oakland
represents.
<a href="http://www.eastsideartsalliance.org/">
www.eastsideartsalliance.org</a><br><br>
<br><br>
EastSide Arts Alliance •
<a href="http://www.eastsideartsalliance.org/">
www.eastsideartsalliance.org</a><br><br>
PO Box 17008<br><br>
2277 International Blvd.<br><br>
Oakland, CA 94606<br><br>
510.533.6629<br><br>
<br><br>
<br><br>
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<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
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