VIDEOS OF OUR WORK

The videos below demonstrate the scope of our artistic vision and why we consider our works Black Swan Events.

Excerpts from THE DREAM INSIDE US

THE DREAM INSIDE US is one woman’s reckoning with the ecological devastation that now threatens all life.  She seeks sustenance from her Civil War ancestors’ extraordinary survival stories, her encounters – both real and mythical - with the Gobi grizzly bear, and from the silent slow-motion procession of 26 red-robed fellow climate activists.     

Excerpts from THE PREPARED TABLE: A Feast of Foods, Live Performance and Stories from Iraq, Afghanistan and the F.O.B. (Forward Operating Base of the U.S. Military). 

THE PREPARED TABLE was presented on November 11, 2015 as an alternative Veterans Day event at the Bellevue Club in Oakland, California. It premiered four days after the terrorist attacks in Paris on Charlie Hebdo and the Hypercacher kosher market. Looking back, it feels that in some small way we were able to create an island of sanity in a world gone made—a least for a few moments. As imperfect as it is, the San Francisco Bay Area is a safe harbor for all of our multicultural identities, including the Iraqis, Afghans and military veterans who so generously agreed to be interviewed, and who were present at The Prepared Table.

And there were a lot of multicultural identities among our performers—from a Palestinian-American singer to a Japanese/Filipina dancer to an Israeli-American pianist. It’s what makes our part of the world a living, breathing answer to all the xenophobia that infects so much of this country and the rest of the world.

THE LOST AMERICAN JAZZBOOK LIVE AT YOSHI’S

Tammi Brown, vocals Dan Zemelman, piano, musical director Special guests: Stanley Jordan, guitar Mads Tolling, violin Sheldon Brown, sax Dan Robbins, bass Joseph Hébert, cello Jason Lewis, drums Original music by Albert Greenberg & Dan Zemelman. Lyrics by Albert Greenberg. JazzBook is the creation of Albert Greenberg. The Lost American JazzBook is a reimagining of America’s art song tradition—the jazz standard.

Excerpts from BURNING LIBRARIES: Stories from the New Ellis Island

BURNING LIBRARIES: Stories from the New Ellis Island originally premiered 2010. The title comes from the saying, ‘If a person dies without their story being told, that’s like a library burning down’ (unattributed). BURNING LIBRARIES is an original performance work that brings to life 35 immigrant stories—from Yemen to Guatemala and from Vietnam to East Texas—through music, dance, aerial arts, puppetry, and video effects.  It was drawn from over 400 oral history interviews, that we conducted over a 6 year period from children in Oakland schools.  Because of the enormous challenges that these immigrant communities face, we are working to bring BURNING LIBRARIES back into the world.

full performance