Juneteenth Jamboree
Hosted by Lower Depth Theatre in partnership with Boston Court Theatre
The Schedule
1:45 PM | Doors Open
2:00 PM – 2:05 PM | Welcome Remarks @ Main Stage
2:05 PM – 2:35 PM | Le Ballet Dembaya @ Main Stage
2:35 PM – 3:15 PM | 40-minute intermission
Tacos, quilting, crafting + more!
Graffiti Art Exhibit @ Main Stage
3:15 PM – 3:30 PM | Narratives @ Lobby
3:30PM – 3:50 PM | Storytelling with Gerald C. Rivers @ Branson Stage
3:50 PM – 4:00 PM | 5-minute break/transition
4:00 PM – 4:20 PM | '“Abolitionist Biscuits” play reading @ Branson Stage
4:20 PM – 4:25 PM | 5-minute break/transition
4:25 PM – 4:55 PM | Drum Circles with Clarence “Chazz” Ross @ Main Stage
5:00 PM | Event concludes
Dance Performance by Le Ballet Dembaya (2:00 PM)
Le Ballet Dembaya is a professional West African Drum and Dance Company based in Los Angeles, California. With Guinea being their primary country of study, they practice traditional percussive rhythms, typically played on djembe and dundun drums, accompanied by intricate, polyrhythmic dances from various regions throughout West Africa. In hopes of preserving a beautiful cultural tradition Dembaya’s members have dedicated themselves to studying and mastering this art, while exposing its powerful healing qualities.
Though they have been an official group only since 2015, the members of Le Ballet Dembaya have been drumming and dancing together since early childhood. Their parents are all among some of the first generation of people in Los Angeles to study, practice and celebrate the traditions of djembe music. So the artists in this company were raised together as brothers and sisters in this Los Angeles drum and dance community, and often gathered to practice the West African rhythms and movement. Little did they know that they would grow together to form Le Ballet Dembaya (which means “family” in the Soussou language spoken in Guinea). This name was chosen to acknowledge the sibling-like bond between the company members, to acknowledge their parents and elders whose footsteps they are following in, and to pay homage to their ancestors whom they honor each time they practice or perform this beautiful art form. Le Ballet Dembaya hopes to use this as a tool for education, healing, and empowerment in greater Los Angeles and beyond.
Storytelling with Gerald C. Rivers (3:30 PM)
Gerald C. Rivers is a classically trained Actor and has been a company member at the Will Geer Geer Theatricum Botanicum, other theatres where he has worked include Tony Plana’s East LA Classic Theatre, Garry Marshall’s Falcon Theatre, The Hippodrome in Florida, The Georgia Shakespeare Festival and Jomandi in Atlanta. Training includes: LA City College, Morehouse College and work in improv and voice-over. He is an incredible voice-over talent with over 100 credits including Wreck it Ralph, Disney’s The Lion Guard, ABC Mouse, Tobacco Free Florida Campaign, television and radio commercials as well as several popular video games including Zelda, Word of Warcraft, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, just to name a few. He spends his time playing golfing and teaching west African Djembe as a Master drummer. And is most known as “The Voice of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”
A Staged-Reading of “Abolitionist Biscuits” by T. Tara Turk-Haynes (4:00 PM)
"Abolitionist Biscuits" takes us back to Texas, 1865 with slave owner, MRS. ADAMS and her enslaved person, CHARITY, right before receiving the news from General Gordon Granger that all enslaved people are officially free. Then the play catapults us into present day with the characters' descendants. Although Charity now owns Mrs. Adams' old house and lives a modern life, Mrs. Adams appears stuck in the 19th century.
Directed by Drina Durazo
Featuring: Yvonne Huff Lee, Janellen Steininger, and Sean Walton
with Stage Directions Read by Elliyah Banks
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
T. Tara Turk-Haynes is a writer whose work has been featured in various stages and screens including Lower Depth Theatre, Rogue Machine, Company of Angeles, the Hip Hop Theater Festival, the Actor's Studio, Ensemble Studio Theater, the Schomburg, and the Kennedy Center. She is a graduate of Lang College and Sarah LAwrence, receiving the Lipkin Playwrighting Award. She has been a Cycle of Violence Fellow at Lower Depth Theatre, Van Lier Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop, a member of Cosby Screenwriting Program, the Producers Guild Diversity Workshop, the Underwood Theatre Writers Group with Julia Cho, Rinne Groff, and Theresa Rebeck, and Company of Angels Writers Group. Her screenplays range from shorts to full length. She won Best Screenplay at African American Women in Cinema and was an Urbanworld Screenplay Finalist. Also a producer, she has co-produced the webseries “Dinner at Lola” featuring Tracie Thoms, Yvette Nicole Brown, Bryan Fuller and Nelson Ellis among others. As a fiction writer, her shorts and novellas have been published in various publications. She was published in Signifyin Harlem, Obsidian Call & Response: Experiments in Joy, Reverie: Midwest American Literature, the international anthology “X:24”, African Voices and Stress magazine. She has also been featured in Tamara Winfrey’s Harris’s “Dear Black Girl” and on several podcasts on diversity, equity, and inclusion. She has just finished a novel and a TV pilot on the Harlem Renaissance. She is a founding member of the producing playwrights’ collective The Temblors and was a member of the 2021 Geffen Writer’s Room.
Drum Circle with Clarence “Chazz” Ross (4:25 PM)
CHAZZ’s performance teaching reflects forty years of achievements in African music & dance, Latin percussion, martial arts, stand-up comedy and acting. He plays amazing African and Latin instrument combos- with wondrous bursts of excitement! His mastery of exotic stick, hand and wind instruments, includes didgeridoo, djembe, congos, cajongos, cajon, bongos, kalimba, udo, timbales, whistles, flutes, temple blocks, singing-bowls and harmonica.
Aside from regularly performing at the LA Opera, Aquarium of the Pacific, Skirball Cultural Center, Riverside Drum, Mask & Dance Festival, Juneteenth Celebration-Santa Monica, Honor Thy Father Awards, Burbank City Council, San Bernardino County Fair, Forest Lawn, Survivor TV Show, Wooli-Me Expo and The NAACP Awards, CHAZZ has shared stages with Al Jarreau, Chaka Khan, Phil Perry, Ruby Dee & Ossie Davis, Malcolm Jamal-Warner, Eddie Griffin, Ray Brooks, DangerMan, Liz Lomax, Tommie Davidson, Annie McKnight, Rahshad Muhammad, George Makinto, McTate Stroman, Shafeeq, HB Barnum, Marcus Johnson, Mykal Ali, Ella Joyce, Richard Gant, Peggi Blu, Mekiel Rueben, Louis Gossett Jr., Low Riders (War) and the Oba-Oba, Brazilian Dance Troupe.
CHAZZ is a DreamShaper, Skirball Docent Instructor, VIP Mentor, VAPA Certified Music Curriculum Integrator, SAG-AFTRA Fellow, Black-Belt MMA, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Brother and an honored graduate of Boston University and Boston University and UCLA Law School.
Taco Man Catering
Tacos: Carne Asada, Chicken, Hawaiian Pork (al pastor), Grilled Veggies
Toppings: Red & Green Salsa (Mild) | Chopped Onions & Cilantro | Limes | Grilled Onions | Grilled Jalapenos
Sides: Red Mexican Rice | Pinto Beans