BAMPFA

For the month of June, the BAMPFA hosts past episodes of The Electronic Lover, a new audio opera by composer Lisa Mezzacappa and writer Beth Lisick. New episodes will be released at a free online BAMPPFA event on Saturday, June 26 at 7pm PDT. Episode 2 synopsis: The members of the women-only chatroom begin to open up to each other about their lives, desires, and fears. Frankie is fed up with being undervalued by her male colleagues at work. We learn more about Joan's personal journey as she emerges to become the group's leader, confessor, and confidant. Even outside the women's forum, everyone is buzzing with the energy Joan has brought to the online community. Visit theelectroniclover.com for episode libretto.

The Electronic Lover Ep.1: Pilot For the month of June, the BAMPFA hosts past episodes of The Electronic Lover, a new audio opera by composer Lisa Mezzacappa and writer Beth Lisick. New episodes will be released at a free online BAMPPFA event on Saturday, June 26 at 7pm PDT. Episode 1 synopsis: It's the early 1980s, and people across the US are connecting online for the first time. Internet service providers are setting up bulletin boards and chatrooms (also called forums, or “bands” after CB radio) for their customers, allowing people to discuss hobbies, politics, work, life and love with like-minded people they might never have met otherwise. Margot gets hired to be the Community Manager at a new online community. As women in the chatrooms find themselves talked over and preyed upon by men, Joan comes out of her shell and requests a forum for women only. She and Margot emerge as the leaders of a close-knit group of computer-savvy women, and bond over their newfound sense of purpose and possibility. Visit theelectroniclover.com for episode libretto.

Explore the vitality of contemporary Black art and culture in the Bay Area and beyond with this podcast hosted by Ryanaustin Dennis. Today's guest is jose e. abad, a queer social practice performance artist based in San Francisco whose work explores queer futurity through an intersectional lens. They talk about their transition from administrative work for a graduate school to entering the world of experimental dance, the woes of performative liberal politics, and the power of art as a social and political tool. Born in Olongapo City, Philippines, to a Filipinx mother and a West Indian father, jose uses dance and storytelling to explore the complexities of cultural identity, feelings of landlessness, and the memories and wisdom held within the body that the mind has forgotten and history has erased. They have performed in New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco in collaboration with a variety of companies and artists including Keith Hennessy, Scott Wells, Anne Bluethenthal, Brontez Purnell Dance Company, #DignityInProcess, and Detour Dance.

BAMPFA Adjunct Senior Curator for Photography Sandra Phillips closely observes Lee Friedlander's photograph New Mexico (2000), whose stunning composition she sees as “miraculously conceived in the moment,” finding levels of meaning in the evocatively empty street scene. Phillips is also curator emerita of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where she presented countless exhibitions, including the first complete showing of the photographs and writings of Diane Arbus and the first museum exhibition to survey the work of postwar Japanese photographer Daido Moriyama. In 2019 she organized UNLIMITED: RECENT GIFTS FROM THE WILLIAM GOODMAN AND VICTORIA BELCO PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTION for BAMPFA. Lee Friedlander, New Mexico, 2000; gelatin silver print; 15 x 14 1/2 in. University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; gift of Victoria Belco and William Goodman in memory of Teresa Goodman, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco. Copyright by artist: © Lee Friedlander, Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.

Retired BAMPFA film curator Steve Seid interviews TVTV members Megan Williams and Allen Rucker about TOP VALUE TELEVISION. TVTV began in 1972 when a group of mediamakers, artists, and activists used brand-new portable videotape equipment to document the '72 Democratic and Republican presidential conventions. At a time when TV news reporters were weighed down by enormous packs of expensive equipment and gear, this band of "braless, blue-jeaned video freaks," as "Newsweek" called them, set out to revolutionize not only how to capture the news, but how to reframe the daily news cycle. With the sensibilities of the underground and cutting-edge consumer video tech, TVTV and a loose global network of video guerrillas spearheaded community-based news, citizen journalism, and democratized media that continue to gain relevance in the run-up to the 2020 presidential conventions. https://guerrillatv.bampfa.berkeley.edu/

Views & Voices is a series of brief and personal responses to works of art and film by BAMPFA staff from different departments and UC Berkeley students. At a time of distance, these commentaries are designed to bring you closer both to individual people behind BAMPFA and to individual works in our collections. We hope you'll enjoy hearing these personal views. Here, BAMPFA Curatorial Assistant Lucia Olubunmi Momoh looks at a compelling photographic portrait—specifically, a carte de visite—of abolitionist, suffragist, and American civil rights icon Sojourner Truth. She discusses the image in relation to Truth's life and work, as well as to contemporary social justice movements like Black Lives Matter. Momoh, who co-chairs BAMPFA's Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion task force, envisions her professional museum work as an extension of her social and environmental activism. Subscribe to the BAMPFA Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bampfa/id1520467594

Deontré Martin is a yogi, writer, activist, and student of his queer Oakland/bay area community. Deontré is the founder of “i freaking love yoga”, a weekly, all-inclusive qtpoc- centered yoga gathering in West Oakland's Lower Bottoms neighborhood. His connection to yoga began in 2006, realizing it's potential for self-reflection after a particularly painful breakup. In 2008, Deontré dedicated a year to becoming a studio apprentice and completing a 200-hour ashtanga yoga teacher training. He enjoys the internal fire generated by asana and sees that fire as a tool to bring more clarity in our relationship to ourselves, our bodies, and those around us. Instagram: www.instagram.com/honeybearswag/ Soundcloud: Dmart82 – Gorgeus-lifestyle-gurus Ritual in time: www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9vSPq60lU0 I freaking love yoga: www.facebook.com/ifreakingloveyoga

Views & Voices is a series of brief and personal responses to works of art and film selected by BAMPFA staff who work in different departments . . . some, by UC Berkeley students as well. At a time of distance, these commentaries are designed to bring you closer both to individual people behind BAMPFA and to individual works in our collections. We hope you'll enjoy hearing these personal views. Here, Saffron Sener, a UC Berkeley undergraduate who co-chairs the BAMPFA Student Committee, responds to Hans Hofmann's painting And Out of the Caves the Night Threw a Handful of Pale Tumbling Pigeons in the Light in terms of its poetic title.

Views & Voices is a series of brief and personal responses to works of art and film selected by BAMPFA staff who work in different departments . . . some, by UC Berkeley students as well. At a time of distance, these commentaries are designed to bring you closer both to individual people behind BAMPFA and to individual works in our collections. We hope you'll enjoy hearing these personal views. Here, Delphine Sims, a PhD candidate in UC Berkeley's History of Art Department, reflects on photographer James Oliver Mitchell's multivalent portrait of Beat-era poet Diane di Prima.

Born in Philadelphia, he earned a BA at Morehouse College and an MFA in Film and Television Production at USC's School of Cinematic Arts. His award-winning short films have played at festivals including American Cinematheque, BlackStar, and Camerimage, and have been supported by Bureau of Creative Works, Issa Rae Presents, NoBudge and Vimeo. He is currently developing the narrative feature JOY AND PAIN, supported by the San Francisco Film Society (SFFILM) and the Westridge Foundation. We talk about his transition from working on Wall Street to becoming an Independent Filmmaker, the Great Migration of black people west, and the development of his new narrative feature JOY AND PAIN. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/s.jenksii/ A CRAFTSMAN: https://vimeo.com/320896354 Short Film Review: https://shadowandact.com/shortfilmshoutout-a-craftsman-is-a- sobering-haunting-look-at-grief Website: http://www.sanfordjenkins.com

Views & Voices is a series of brief and personal responses to works of art and film selected by BAMPFA staff who work in different departments . . . some, by UC Berkeley students as well. At a time of distance, these commentaries are designed to bring you closer both to individual people behind BAMPFA and to individual works in our collections. We hope you'll enjoy hearing these personal views. Here, UC Berkeley PhD candidate Ramón de Santiago leads us through the magnificent late fifteenth-century tapestry, Ecce Homo (Behold the Man).

Les Blank, Maureen Gosling, and Chris Strachwitz on CHULAS FRONTERAS and IN HEAVEN THERE IS NO BEER Recorded July 15, 2012 as part of Always for Pleasure: The Films of Les Blank Les Blank and Chris Strachwitz, who made CHULAS FRONTERAS, and Blank and Maureen Gosling, who made IN HEAVEN THERE IS NO BEER, take us behind the scenes of the making of these films, drawing out links between Tex-Mex Norteño music and the polka, and relating stories about each film's premiere. They briefly mention DEL MERO CORAZÓN, a tribute to Norteño love songs made by the three of them and Guillermo Hernandez. archive.bampfa.berkeley.edu/film/FN19617 bampfa.org/program/always-pleasure-films-les-blank

Views & Voices is a series of brief and personal responses to works of art and film selected by BAMPFA staff who work in different departments . . . some, by UC Berkeley students as well. At a time of distance, these commentaries are designed to bring you closer both to individual people behind BAMPFA and to individual works in our collections. We hope you'll enjoy hearing these personal views. Here, Curatorial Assistant Claire Frost takes an intimate look at one of Eva Hesse's diminutive sculptural "Test Pieces", and considers their experimental role in the artist's practice.

Today we talk to writer and thinker Akande X, a Black Life Alum who in 2018 shared their multimedia presentation “That Feeling When” explores the intersection of blackness, comedy, the Internet, and politics. In an moment when white nationalism has a deep foothold in Internet culture, “TFW” provides a theoretical approach to the ethics of the Internet and the substance of memes as comedy and as political message, revealing how memes are one of the most subversive, volatile, and promising black art forms today. In our conversation we cover affect theory, their work as the editor of Maji News, a Afrofuturist community newspaper, and theorist Aria Dean's seminal article on meme culture Poor Meme, Rich Meme. Show Notes Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/basedzizek/ Aria Dean Article: https://reallifemag.com/poor-meme-rich-meme/ (Poor Meme, Rich Meme) Affect Theory: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emotion/ Book Recommendation: https://lithub.com/ottessa-moshfeghs-year-of-anything-but-rest-and-relaxation/ Outro Song TikTok : https://www.tiktok.com/@itsjustnyissa/video/6849116103512247558?lang=en Photo Credit: Andrea Nieto

Views & Voices is a series of brief and personal responses to works of art and film selected by BAMPFA staff who work in different departments . . . some, by UC Berkeley students as well. At a time of distance, these commentaries are designed to bring you closer both to individual people behind BAMPFA and to individual works in our collections. We hope you'll enjoy hearing these personal views. Here, AJ Fox, shares his very personal experience encountering the video installation Simulated Marin Tour. AJ Fox, BAMPFA's Media Relations Manager, shares his very personal experience encountering the video installation Simulated Marin Tour, which evoked his discovery of the Northern California landscape. A lifelong film lover, Fox holds a BA in Film and Media Studies from Dartmouth College; he joined BAMPFA in large part because of its internationally renowned film and video programming. Click here to see the video version of this podcast to see an excerpt from SIMULATED MARIN TOUR https://youtu.be/odaxmatlPuI bampfa.org

Views & Voices is a series of brief and personal responses to works of art and film selected by BAMPFA staff who work in different departments . . . some, by UC Berkeley students as well. At a time of distance, these commentaries are designed to bring you closer both to individual people behind BAMPFA and to individual works in our collections. We hope you'll enjoy hearing these personal views. Here, Claire Ittner discusses Romare Bearden's 1973 work, "Final Study for Berkeley - The City and Its People". Relocating Romare Bearden's Berkeley: Capturing Berkeley's Colorful Diversity https://boomcalifornia.com/2016/12/26/relocating-romare-beardens-berkeley-capturing-berkeleys-colorful-diversity/ https://bampfa.org/program/about-things-loved-blackness-and-belonging

Views & Voices is a series of brief and personal responses to works of art and film selected by BAMPFA staff who work in different departments . . . some, by UC Berkeley students as well. At a time of distance, these commentaries are designed to bring you closer both to individual people behind BAMPFA and to individual works in our collections. We hope you'll enjoy hearing these personal views. Rachael Dickson, BAMPFA Associate Director of Administration, shares her responses to the painting "Four Brushtrokes Over Figure" by Hyun-Sook Song. She focuses on the artist's exacting and evocative technique and on the contemplative power the work holds for her. https://bampfa.org https://bampfa.org/program/architecture-life

From the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, this is Off the Shelves. Highlighting some of the rare treasures of BAMPFA's Film Library & Study Center. Through the project “Saving Film Exhibition History: Digitizing Recordings of Guest Speakers at the Pacific Film Archive, 1976 to 1986”, BAMPFA is digitizing a decade's worth of guest-speaker recordings, filmmaker presentations, panel discussions, and Q&A's from the early years of the Pacific Film Archive, making them available online for the first time. This episode features David Lynch returning to the Pacific Film Archive in 1986. This project is supported by a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources. The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Views & Voices is a series of brief and personal responses to works of art and film selected by BAMPFA staff who work in different departments . . . some, by UC Berkeley students as well. At a time of distance, these commentaries are designed to bring you closer both to individual people behind BAMPFA and to individual works in our collections. We hope you'll enjoy hearing these personal views. Listen as Jamie Danis discusses Fred Wilson's Wanderer https://bampfa.org/views-and-voices-personal-perspectives-collection Subscribe to the BAMPFA Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bampfa/id1520467594

From the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, this is Off the Shelves. Highlighting some of the rare treasures of BAMPFA's Film Library & Study Center. Through the project “Saving Film Exhibition History: Digitizing Recordings of Guest Speakers at the Pacific Film Archive, 1976 to 1986”, BAMPFA is digitizing a decade's worth of guest-speaker recordings, filmmaker presentations, panel discussions, and Q&A's from the early years of the Pacific Film Archive, making them available online for the first time. This episode features David Lynch introducing Eraserhead in March of 1978. This project is supported by a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources. The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Views & Voices is a series of brief and personal responses to works of art and film selected by BAMPFA staff who work in different departments . . . some, by UC Berkeley students as well. At a time of distance, these commentaries are designed to bring you closer both to individual people behind BAMPFA and to individual works in our collections. We hope you'll enjoy hearing these personal views. Listen as Lynne Kimura looks at a 13th century Chinese painting of the Bodhisattva Manjusri. https://bampfa.org https://bampfa.org/program/buddhist-art-roof-world https://bampfa.org/program/deities-demons-and-teachers-tibet-nepal-and-india Subscribe to the BAMPFA Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bampfa/id1520467594

A View of Ad Reinhard's Abstract Painting Sherry Goodman, BAMPFA Director of Education Sherry provides a personal view of the museum's monumental all-black painting by Ad Reinhardt (1913-67), including her experience looking at it together with UC Berkeley students and its relevance for the current time. Ad Reinhardt Abstract Painting, 1960-1965 60 x 60 1/4 in. University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Gift of Ad Reinhardt

From the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive this is Black Life, a podcast that explores the vitality of contemporary Black art and culture in the Bay Area and beyond. As you stay in place, we reached out to creatives to ask about the pressing themes that shape their work. I'm your host, Ryanaustin Dennis. Today we will be talking with Oakland-based musician, night-life organizer, producer, and DJ MahaWam, whose experimental sound is a percussive mix of hip-hop and modern electronic music. For more about MahaWam: HOPING NO ONE NOTICE (Official Video):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pReD5WRO3vI Website: https://mahawam.com Music: https://mahawam.bandcamp.com/album/is-an-island Instagram: mahawam.exe Cover Art: Dancing, West Oakland, CA Photo by Joanne Leonard, 1967