Not Apart, Together – Film screening and Panel Discussion
Kala Gallery is excited to present Not Apart, Together, a film screening by The Mycos Project with live original music score by Irene Sazer and Kate Stenberg on Tuesday, November 15, 7-9pm (Doors open at 6:30pm, Program starts at 7pm). The evening includes a panel discussion featuring esteemed Ohlone leaders Corrina Gould, Ruth Orta, Kanyon Coyote Woman Sayers-Roods and environmental biologist Ravinder Sehgal. The discussion will be moderated by writer/educator Anna Lappé.
Free admission. In lieu of event admission fees, we encourage the audience to make donations to The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, Costanoan Indian Research, and/or Partners for Sustainable Development.
Read an article about this event on Berkeleyside.
The Mycos Project is a collective of multi-media artists, educators and scientists founded by Irene Sazer and Kate Stenberg. Mycos, short for Mycorrhiza, is the symbiotic association between plant roots and fungi. The name was adopted as a metaphor for how all life is dependent on all other life. Their mission is to expand climate change awareness through the arts, ecological sciences and Indigenous practice.
Not Apart, Together is a film created by Irene Sazer and Kate Stenberg, and premiered in San Francisco’s Herbst Theater on March 20, 2022 for InterMusic’s SF Music Day with generous support from Kate Bermingham and The Civic Arts Commission (City of Berkeley). The film is a collection of photo stills, video footage, original art and original recorded and live music. It celebrates a diversity of voices sharing information, cultural practices and perspectives. Speaking and singing contributors are Mutsun-Ohlone artist and educator Kanyon Sayers-Roods whose focus is bridging the gap between Indigenous and contemporary value systems, Ravinder Sehgal a San Francisco State University research biologist whose research focuses on the ecology of diseases in birds, and Cyril Kowo, a graduate student of ecological sciences in Cameroon. The film includes video, photo and art footage by Stenberg and Sazer along with Alan Freedman, Kirstan Price, Debbie Fier and Edwin Hacking.
About Panelists:
Corrina Gould (Lisjan Ohlone) is the chair and spokesperson for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan—she was born and raised in Oakland, CA, the village of Huichin. A mother of three and grandmother of four, Corrina is the Co-Director for The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, a women-led organization within the urban setting of her ancestral territory of the Bay Area that works to return Indigenous land to Indigenous people, and the Co-Founder and Lead Organizer for Indian People Organizing for Change, a small Native run organization that works on Indigenous people issues and sponsored annual Shellmound Peace Walks from 2005 to 2009. These walks brought about education and awareness of the desecration of sacred sites in the greater Bay Area.As a tribal leader, she has continued to fight for the protection of the Shellmounds, uphold her nation’s inherent right to sovereignty, and stand in solidarity with her Indigenous relatives to protect our sacred waters, mountains, and lands all over the world.
Ruth Orta is an elder who has been involved with the Ohlone Gathering at East Bay Regional Park District for the last 24 years. Her living family spans five generations: She is a mother of seven, grandmother of 17, great grandmother of 37 and great, great grandmother of sevens. Her message: “we are still here.”
Kanyon Sayers-Roods is Costanoan Ohlone-Mutsun and Chumash; she also goes by her given Native name, “Coyote Woman”. She is proud of her heritage and her native name (though it comes with its own back story), and is very active in the Native Community. She is an Artist, Poet, Published Author, Activist, Student and Teacher. The daughter of Ann-Marie Sayers, she was raised in Indian Canyon, trust land of her family, which currently is one of the few spaces in Central California available for the Indigenous community for ceremony. Kanyon’s art has been featured at the De Young Museum, The Somarts Gallery, Gathering Tribes, Snag Magazine, and numerous Powwows and Indigenous Gatherings. She is a recent graduate of the Art Institute of California, Sunnyvale, obtaining her Associate and Bachelor of Science degrees in Web Design and Interactive Media. She is motivated to learn, teach, start conversations around decolonization and reinidgenization, permaculture and to continue doing what she loves, Art.
Irene Sazer, known internationally as a founding member of Turtle Island String Quartet, is a violinist who has won acclaim as a soloist, concertmaster, recording artist, and respected educator. Sazer is an in-demand genre-hopping violinist and fiddler of many styles. She founded the Real Vocal String Quartet and the School of Strings and String Improvisation in Berkeley, CA. Sazer’s own recording First Things First highlights her original voice as a singer and songwriter. She has recorded and/or performed with Jai Uttal, Ali Akbar Khan, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Natalie Cole, Frank Sinatra, Smokey Robinson, David Grisman, Linda Rondstadt, Bjork, Maria Marquez, and Billy Joel and has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and concert halls around the world. Irene, has been awarded a Gerbode Special Award in the Arts among other grants for her composing work. Over the years Irene has built a body of work in visual arts. She has a distinctive portfolio of drawings, paintings and films.
Ravinder Sehgal is a Professor in the Dept. of Biology at San Francisco State University where he teaches courses in parasitology and emerging infectious diseases. His research focuses on the ecology of diseases in birds. For example, he studies how deforestation affects the prevalence and diversity of avian malaria in African rainforest birds. More recently he has begun studying how global climate change may affect the spread of avian malaria in Alaska and throughout the world. With a PhD in cell biology from UCSF, he takes advantage of current advances in molecular biology to address large questions in disease emergence. From an early age, he was fascinated and saddened by the extinction of species, from dinosaurs to dodos. Through research and teaching he strives to make an impact in conservation biology. He is a vegan activist, and also an accomplished musician, playing bassoon and piano.
Kate Stenberg is a violinist and leading interpreter of contemporary chamber music having premiered over one hundred solo and chamber works in a dozen countries. For three decades she has been involved in commissioning and collaborating with established and emerging composers whose chamber music works often incorporate improvisation and multimedia. Stenberg has premiered new works by such renowned composers as Gabriela Lena Frank, Peter Sculthorpe, Chinary Ung, Tania Leon, and Per Nørgård and her recordings are available on New World Records, Sono Luminous, Newport Classics, New Albion and Other Minds Currently, Stenberg performs regularly with pianist Sarah Cahill. The Stenberg|Cahill Duo is committed to promoting American experimental chamber music and expanding its repertoire by commissioning new works. In 2022 the duo premiered two works by composers Roscoe Mitchell and Pamela Z. Recent appearances have included performances at the San Francisco Performances PIVOT Series and Berkeley Chamber Performances.Kate Stenberg’s passion for chamber music led her to develop and commission new chamber music as co-founder of the Real Vocal String Quartet (with Irene Sazer) and the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble. For two decades she served as first violinist of the award winning Del Sol String Quartet.
Facilitator:
Anna Lappé is a bestselling author, advocate for sustainability and justice along the food chain, and funder for food systems transformation. Since 2016, she has developed and led the Food Sovereignty Fund of the Panta Rhea Foundation. She is also the founder and strategic advisor to Real Food Media, which works with food movement partners around the world to develop powerful media and communications strategies. A national bestselling author, Anna has authored or co-authored three books and is the contributing author to fourteen more, including Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It. She regularly speaks with audiences around the country and her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, among other outlets. Along with her mother, Frances Moore Lappé, Anna also co-founded the Small Planet Institute and the Small Planet Fund, supporting grassroots changemakers around the world. A James Beard Foundation award recipient, Anna lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two daughters.
Event Details
Date: November 15, 2022
Time: 7:00 pm–9:00 pm
Kala Gallery
2990 San Pablo Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94702