Full Video: Remembering 1619 Artistic Performance (August 20, 2019)
On August 20th, 2019, in the pre-Covid-19 world, many of us saw an amazing and transformative performance created by Faye Carol, Joanna Haigood, Marcus Shelby, Cheo Tyehimba-Taylor, David Goldberg, Kim Euell, Steven Anthony Jones, and Joe Warner. The performance took us from Mother Africa in the 1600s to the present day.
In the intervening seven months, Meher Dhaliwal with pro bono assistance from Gary R. Greenstein from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati has been working to get the rights to the songs used in the performance. Think Sisyphus. We secured the rights for use on August 20th but securing them for use in a video to be housed on our website took a lot longer and more money. Luckily, our friend Henry Hecht made a gift that covers the added expenses.
There was another complication that will be apparent to those of you who were there at the SF Jazz Center. The brilliant video that was projected on the screen at the back of the stage contained a lot of material from various license holders. It was simply too burdensome to locate all the license holders so the filmmaker, Kevin Johnson of NorthStarr Media Group, went back and deleted all that video.
We asked Kevin for a lot during the editing process required by our licensing challenges and we are grateful for his talents and the incredible amount of time he spent.
Despite the edits, the performance is still powerful and painful. We present to you Remembering 1619.
~ Eva Paterson
Thank You for Remembering 1619 with Us!
“We all thought it was spectacular. The singing of Faye Carol brought us to tears (and to our feet); the music of the Marcus Shelby Orchestra was potent; the dancers were pure joy; the readings by Steven Anthony Jones shook us; and the visuals were completely captivating. Half the time I didn’t know where to direct my eyes there were so many amazing things happening at once,” a friend of mine who was there on Tuesday wrote to me.
On August 20, 2019, we gathered together to remember the 400 years since Antoney and Isabella arrived at Jamestown and the suffering and triumph, sorrows and joy of Black people during those four centuries.
Our incredible team of artists and creatives took us on a journey of 400 years that evoked pain and pride, but it mainly provided us with a more profound understanding of the connection between what started on this continent in 1619 and present day manifestations of racism and white supremacy. Those who suffered in the past spoke through the performances and urged all in attendance to work hard to make things more fair.
Deepest gratitude to our creative team: Marcus Shelby and The Marcus Shelby Quintet; Zaccho Dance Theatre’s Joanna Haigood, Lydia Clinton, Clarissa Dyas, Delvis Friñon, Frankie Lee Peterson III, and Jarrel Phillips; actor Steven Anthony Jones; The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol; pianist Joe Warner; directorial consultant and dramaturg Kim Euell; set designer Wayne Campbell; and filmmakers Cheo Tyehimba Taylor and David Goldberg. I was proud to be a part of this team as executive producer.
Thank you to SFJAZZ for providing us with a beautiful venue, to Normie Pineda and the team at Leftwich Event Services for helping us pull this event off, and to videographer Kevin Johnson, photographer Bob Hsiang, and all the volunteers who helped us that evening.
I especially want to thank my friends and colleagues who are the EJS team–Anna Basallaje, Keith Kamisugi, Ginger Johnson, Chris Bridges, Mona Tawatao, Meher Dhaliwal, and Yoana Tchoukleva along with the members of the Board of Directors of EJS.
Finally, we could not have had such a successful event without the generous contributions of our fabulous sponsors and the support from our host committee. They are listed below and I hope you will take a little time to reach each and every name on the list. Each one played a critical part of bringing our event to life.
~ Eva Paterson on behalf of the Board and Staff of the Equal Justice Society
The “Remembering 1619” event was made possible through the generous support of our sponsors:
- Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP
- The Henry L. Hecht Family Fund
- Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock
- Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation
- Emily Scott
- Susan Pritzker
- ACLU of Northern California
- California Teachers Association
- The California Wellness Foundation
- Neyhart, Anderson, Flynn & Grosboll
- Perkins Coie LLP
- Kelly McCreary & Pete Chatmon
- Quinn Delaney & Wayne Jordan
- Leftwich Event Specialists, Inc.
- Sheppard Mullin
- George & Deborah Woods
- Adler & Colvin
- Minami Tamaki LLP
- Arlene Mayerson
- Jude and Julia Damasco
- Thomas Layton & Gyöngy Laky, In memory of Henry Hampton
- Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
- Peter Benvenutti & Lise Pearlman
- Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass, LLP
- Altshuler Berzon LLP
- James Finberg & Melanie Piech
- David Oppenheimer & Marcy Kates
- Barry & Sandy Goldstein
- Cheryl & Charles Ward
- John Crew
- Connie Cagampang Heller & Jonathan Heller
- Steve Zieff & Elaine Leitner
- Robert Hirsch and Shauna Marshall
- Lucinda and Chris Covert-Vail
- Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff & Lowe, LLP
- Kaiser Permanente
- Hon. John M. True & Hon. Claudia Wilken
- Paula & Chuck Collins
- Michael Harris
- Vanessa Holton
- American Constitution Society
- The Impact Fund
- Willie & Robert Demmons
- Lei-Chala Wilson
- Hector Preciado & Trina Villanueva
- Joyce Hicks & Eric Behrens
- NARAL Pro-Choice California
- Joseph M. Sellers
- Legal Aid at Work
- Sara Campos
- Dorothy M. Ehrlich
- William & Arlene Kennedy
- Cheryl Stevens
- Rev. Diana McDaniel
- Monika Kalra Varma and Anurag Varma
- Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area
- Pamela S. Duffy
- Debbie Lee & Bill Tamayo
- California ChangeLawyers
- Richard Drury
With special appreciation to the members of our Host Committee:
- David Berger
- Renel Brooks-Moon
- Sara Campos
- Aldore Collier
- Paula and Charles Collins
- Quinn Delaney and Wayne Jordan
- Willie and Robert Demmons
- Elaine Elinson and Rene CiriaCruz
- Amy Everitt
- Rosemary E. Fei
- Karen Bell Francois
- Sergio Garcia
- Alicia Garza
- Gary Greenfield and Reesa Tansey
- Robert Harris
- Henry L. Hecht
- Hon. Thelton Henderson
- Dolores Huerta
- Kate Kendell
- Celinda Lake
- Shauna Marshall and Robert Hirsch
- Kelly McCreary and Pete Chatmon
- Rev. Diana McDaniel
- Valerie McGinty
- Dale Minami
- Jane and Howard Moore
- Pam Moore
- Dr. Curtis J. Perry
- Hector Preciado and Trina Villanueva
- Leslie Proll
- Drucilla Ramey and Marvin Stender
- Barbara Rodgers
- Emily Scott
- Lateefah Simon
- Abdi Soltani
- Gloria Steinem
- Cheryl Stevens
- Debbie Lee and Bill Tamayo
#Remembering1619