Bay Area Bop & Beyond: A Cool Exchange Between Old Friends

Imira Baraka

Poet Imira Baraka and saxophonist Sonny Simmons shared the stage in performance at EastSide Cultural Center in Oakland on November 13, 2011.

Coming into its 5^th year, Oakland’s own EastSide Cultural Center is known as the platform for artists, activists and brave truth-tellers.

This lively community arts district is one of the few places where the predominantly Asian, Latino, Native and African American communities share common ground to create cultural dialogue of understanding and solidarity.


Michel Rabouin, percussionist, Dinah deSpenza, and Eddie Gale, American Trumpeter - EastSide Cultural Center, Oakland, CA - photo by Julian Carroll

The Center is located at 2277 International Boulevard in Oakland in a neighborhood with a rich history in industry and early homesteads where immigration remained constant. With recent immigrants from Asia and Latin America having joined the descendents of earlier African American settlers makes this area of Oakland one of the most multicultural areas in the East Bay.

Having opened its doors New Year’s Eve 2007, EastSide is a spacious yet intimate venue presenting weekly performances and ongoing arts workshops with open rooms for music, dance, theater, multimedia and visual arts.

The fall 2011 line-up included the performance of Amiri Barika and Sonny Simmons.

Hosted by KCSM and KPFA’s Greg Bridges, the poetry came into direct contact with the music.

Joe McKinley, bass

Sonny Simmons, Joe McKinley, Imira Baraka

“The artists here tonight are Freedom Fighters – fighting with their instruments. This stage is the canvas that these artist paint on,” says Bridges.

With over 40 books of essays, poems, drama, music history and criticism, the poet icon and revolutionary political activist Baraka reads his poetry and lectures on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe.

The influences on Baraka’s work range from Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra. Renown as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s, other influences are the Cuban Revolution, Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements.

Somebody Blew Up America is part of Baraka’s first collection of poems published in the Caribbean. The title poem headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors.

The poem’s own detonation caused the author’s photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New York’s “Amsterdam News” and the “New York Times.” Baraka was also featured on CNN, and national and international media.

Baraka has appeared in numerous documentary films including Mario Van Peeble’s “Poetic License” for the Sundance Channel.

Sharing the stage with Baraka was Sonny Simmons.

Firmly rooted in tradition as a disciple of Charlie Parker and master of the saxophone, Simmons inspires and excites audiences and as well as the musicians that share the stage with him.

Simmons embodies the homegrown spirit of Oakland.

“I grew up in Oakland with Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale and all of the beautiful brothers who escaped the revolution,” says Simmons.

His interest in jazz happened at a time when the Oakland scene was really fertile with music. As a kid Simmons witnessed first hand, musicians such as Dexter Gordon, Lena Horne, Cab Calloway and Louis Jordan. As one of the few jazz musicians to also play English horn, in the early 60s he worked with Charles Mingus and Prince Lasha before recording for ESP-Disk.

Both distinguished artists, Baraka and Simmons brought to the stage an aura of literary and post bop celebrity.


Bob Joslin, violin, piano, Sonny Simmons, saxophone

Sharing EastSide’s stage with the two masters were other bay area master musicians, Michael Floyd on drums, Joe McKinley on bass, and Bob Joslin on violin and piano.