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Erica Lee, Administrative Manager

Thingamajigs launches East Bay: Redline Redefined

Thingamajigs presents a new project called Redline Redefined that explores the history of redlining through the lens of 8 East Bay artists to explore the discriminatory practices of redlining and their effects in our neighborhoods.

Thanks to the generous support of California Arts Council, The Bill Graham Foundation, and The Puffin Foundation. Admission is FREE to the sound walk and launch party.

“During the pandemic I made it a point to walk through as many neighborhoods as possible. The more I observed the more I realized that not all neighborhoods were created equally, and this became the basis of the project. Redline Redefined is our way of using artistic means to represent our communities and to tell stories of the neighborhoods that we live in.”

— Edward Schocker, Executive Director of Thingamajigs

Friday, September 30th, 2022: Online Map launches on our website

Saturday, October 8th, 2022: 11AM Sound Walks

Sunday, October 9th, 2022: 1PM

Shapeshifters Cinema, 567 5th St. Oakland, CA 94607

Admissions: Free

August 23, Oakland, CA. Thingamajigs presents Redline Redefined, a new multi-year project that investigates, narrates and celebrates our formally red-lined neighborhoods. Thingamajigs has curated a program of audio and visual pieces designed to transport audiences from their home to the streets of Oakland and Berkeley. Featuring eight of the East Bay's most exciting performing artists, events scheduled include sound walks, live performances, video narratives, poetry readings and an online interactive map. A diverse group of local artists are participating in the project, including performance artist Theresa Wong, Oakland’s Poet Laureate Ayodele Nzinga, and instrument inventor Sudhu Tewari.

Redlining is the systematic practice of denying people financial and other services based on where they lived. In the 1930s, the federal government carved The East Bay into a series of puzzle pieces--imaginary lines were drawn down streets, dividing neighborhoods, families, and entire populations of residents. Redline Redefined project artists explore the balance between the past and present and encourages all of us to to take a second look at who is included and excluded from conversations about development in modern-day East Bay. Come join us in Oakland for an exciting in person launch of East Bay: Redline Redefined filled with live performances, premier film screenings, and artist talks happening through October.

SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE

October 8, 2022 Oakland, CA - Redline Redefined Sound Walks

Participants with different vision, hearing, mobility, or accessibility needs, email erica@thingamajigs.org to arrange accommodations.

11:00 AM: Bike around Oakland with Suki O’Kane

Hop on your bike to explore five locations in the historic Brooklyn and Clinton townships of Oakland with artist Suki O'Kane, who made graphic scores and soundscapes from her field recordings and research of the 1937 Holc maps of these areas. This flat route is slow-paced, family friendly, with frequent stops for a bit of history and plant identification, some deep listening, and conversations about how the red line has always been, and continues to be redefined by people, cultures, and the natural world itself.

This round trip starts at 11AM from the Fruitvale BART taxi stand and will last 60-90 minutes. Bring your bike, water, hat, headphones, and smart phone loaded with the Redline Redefined website.

2:00 PM: Explore sounds with Gabby Wen

Join us at the parking lot and meeting room of the Golden Gate Branch Library to gather and view Commons Archive's publications, listen to sound artist Gabby Wen's compositions made solely with field recordings made in the Golden Gate neighborhood, exchange stories, and enjoy some sweets before heading for a short, intentional walk to listen closely to the sounds of the neighborhood. We will walk to Temescal Creek Park and listen/sing/make weird sounds to the creek that's buried underground but has a small opening covered by a grate near the entrance of the park.

Trip starts at 2PM:

Golden Gate Branch Library

5606 San Pablo Ave.

Oakland, CA 94608

Nearby bus stops: San Pablo Ave. & 56th St, San Pablo Ave. & Stanford Ave., bus lines: 72, 72M, 72R, 802. The closest BART station is MacArthur.

October 9th, 2022 1PM: Redline Redefined Launch party

Shapeshifters Cinema

567 5th St. Oakland, CA 94607

Artists include, Sudhu Tewari, Theresa Wong, Katy Luo, Ayodele Nzinga, Suki O’Kane, Gabby Wen, Maxi Himpe and Hallie Smith.

Further details can be found online at http://www.thingamajigs.org/redline-redefined

About our artists:

Suki O’Kane lives in Jingletown, Oakland and is a musician, composer, improviser and instigator. Suki’s work has been supported by the Creative Work Fund, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Oakland Stock, and New Music USA.

Sudhu Tewari, a resident of South Berkeley, has been described as a bricoleur, junkyard maven, and audio-gadgeteer. He invents and builds musical instruments, kinetic and sound sculpture, interactive installations, audio electronics, and wearable sound art.

Katy Luo, pianist, originally from Oakland California, now lives in Honolulu where she is a lecturer in music at both the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and the University of Hawai‘i at West O‘ahu. For the last 20 years, Katy has taught and performed extensively throughout the US, mostly in New York City, where she resided for 14 years.

Gabby Wen lives in the Gaskill neighborhood of Oakland, and is an electroacoustic music composer and improviser, working with synthesizers, electronics, guqin, field recordings, and miscellaneous instruments and objects to create captivating auditory experiences and narratives.

Ayodele ‘WordSlanger’ Nzinga, MFA, Ph.D. resides in Lower Bottoms of West Oakland. She is a multi-disciplined artist, community advocate, arts educator, and cultural architect invested in designing structures for cultural production. Ayodele Nzinga is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Oakland.

Theresa Wong is a composer, cellist and vocalist living in West Berkeley. She is active at the intersection of music, experimentation, improvisation and the synergy of multiple disciplines.

Maxi Himpe and Hallie Smith both reside in Paradise Park in North Oakland. Maxi is a Bay Area-based interdisciplinary artist, working particularly in theater directing, costuming, queer cabaret, and documentary. Hallie Smith is a musician, composer, and DJ based in the Bay area. Her ambient electronic music is viscous and juicy, it finds home in sound and textile installations including soft circuits and sensors.

About Thingamajigs

Thingamajigs is a genre-crossing arts organization that promotes music and other art forms created with made and found materials or alternate tuning systems. Our mission is to develop and nurture the exploration of alternate materials and methods of creating sound, as well as promote DIY and MAKER collaborative efforts between arts and local communities. Since 1998, we have presented world premiere works and performances by over 275 local, national, and international artists. Our diverse programs foster a larger curiosity about our world of music and culture throughout the Oakland and San Francisco Bay Area. We offer an annual music festival, in-school and after-school classes, and individual concerts and community workshops throughout the year. Community members of all ages have benefited from our programs by gaining knowledge and experience conceptualizing, designing and building instruments from everyday materials, and learning the value of reusing rather than discarding.

We are proud to have Commons Archive and the Golden Gate Branch Library as some of our partners for this project.

CALENDAR EDITORS, PLEASE FILE UNDER EVENTS, FESTIVALS, OR MUSIC:

Thingamajigs launches East Bay: Redline Redefined

September 30th, 2022: Online Map launches on our website

October 8th, 2022 11AM-12:30PM, 2PM-3:30PM: Redline Redefined Neighborhood Sound Walks, Oakland, CA (please see website for neighborhood details)

October 9th, 2022 1PM-4PM : Redline Redefined Launch party Shapeshifters Cinema 567 5th St. Oakland, CA 94607

Admissions: Free

For more information: http://www.thingamajigs.org/redline-redefined