National March For Marriage Rights!!

Join the Impact is organizing a nation wide protest to take place in front of city halls all across America against proposition 8 and other anti-gay measures that were passed on Tuesday. The protest will take place on November 15 at 10:30 a.m. on the front steps of City Hall in San Francisco.

We had at least 20,000 people at Friday's protest, let's work on making this one just as big! Please send invites to as many people as possible. Even if they don't live in San Francisco they can attend the event in their city. (If you would like to volunteer please visit our main site to see how you can help out.)

Saturday -- November 15th
10:30am PST (1:30pm EST)
In San Francisco: Protest at City Hall (Civic Center)
Nation-wide: http://jointheimpact.com/protest-locations

Every year in SF, there's a march through the Mission to celebrate Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Last year, those of us who played maracatu decided it was the best parade of the year -- incredible energy and atmosphere. Instead of the police barricades of SF carnival, there was nothing to distinguish the "performers" and the "audience". It really reminded me of carnival in Pernambuco, where the groups just parade informally through the streets and the crowds merge with the bands. However, instead of the drunken revelry of carnival, there was deep respect and an atmosphere of mutual support.

The parade starts at 7:00pm at Bryant and 24th St., marches up 24th St. to Mission St. (stopping at the Mission Cultural Center) and then back down 25th St. to Garfield Square where people setup alters, art installations, and lots of the musicians keep playing. We should plan to meet at 6:00pm to get ourselves organized, and I'll post an exact location for us to gather as the event gets closer.

Jorge Martins is a master drummer from Recife, Brazil. He's a specialist in maracatu, a processional style of music and dance from the state of Pernambuco in the northeast of Brazil that's got deep roots and infectious, joyous rhythms. Jorge has played for many years with Maracatu Nacão Estrela Brilhante do Recife, one of the oldest and most respected maracatu groups in all of Pernambuco. He is also the founder and director of Corpos Percussivos, a group that works to empower underprivileged Brazilian youth through maracatu. Jorge is one of those rare treasures who is both a great performer and teacher.

We are very excited to be hosting Jorge in the Bay Area for this special workshop. Don't miss this incredible opportunity to learn maracatu from one of the best.

No experience is necessary, and instruments will be provided.

$25 at the door, $20 if you register in advance.

After our very successful collaboration at LoCura's CD release party at the Great America Music Hall, Maracatu Luta is teaming up again with LoCura for a performance at The Starry Plough in Berkeley. Also joining the bill will be Sol Jibe. The listing at the Plough's calendar reads:

World Flamenco Funky Badassness with Locura!, Sol Jibe and Maracatu Luta.

This will be a continuous night of music with Maracatu Luta Marching in to rally the crowd during set breaks.

Bring your dancing shoes!

Couldn't have said it better myself. :) Come on down and join us for a night of heavy grooves and dancing. Please spread the word!

We are very honored to have brought maracatu to the Great American Music Hall (for perhaps the first time ever). In addition, this event was be the launch of Maracatu Luta, a new performing group comprised of the more experienced and long-term members of Bateria Lucha which will be specifically focused on maracatu and related rhythms and styles.

We're thrilled to have performed between sets at the CD release party for Lo Cura, a wonderful Bay Area band that's blending flamenco and reggae. We played for a sold-out house, at the peak of the evening between Lo Cura's fantastic set and the performance by Aphrodesia.

The dance floor was packed (we could barely fit onto the floor when we marched out), and the response was fantastic. I made an audio recording of our set. The sound quality isn't ideal since I just placed the recorder off to the side of the stage and didn't have any way to check on it during the set. It definitely sounds a little weird during the first number as we're marching past the thing out onto the front of the dance floor, but it should give you some idea what we sounded like. We played 5 pieces:

This will be the 40th anniversary of a historic march on the Pentagon demanding an end to the Vietnam war. 40 years later, and the U.S. military is bogged down in an even more disasterous occupation. Active duty troops are resisting the war in growing numbers. A clear majority of the U.S. supports withdrawing the troops. However, the stakes are way too high for the U.S. empire to admit defeat and leave, so it's going to take significantly more pressure and action from our side. By continuing to demonstrate, we give confidence to other people that they, too, should move from passive opposition to active resistance. We also support the growing movement of active duty GIs and vets that are against the occupation, since those are the people with the real power to stop the war machine.

Bateria Lucha is honored to have been invited to play on stage at the Labor Rally before the main event, and to lead the Labor "feeder march" over to the Civic Center. So, people who are going to be performing with us need to get to the San Francisco Federal Building by 9:45am so we can get ready before the rally starts at 10:30. After the (short) Labor rally, we'll march (basically around the corner) to the main Civic Center rally site, helping to lead the Labor contingent in chants and songs.

This year, many members of Bateria Lucha marched with Jorge Alabe 's Grupo Samba Rio samba group and Maisa Duke's Energia do Samba in the San Francisco Carnaval 2007 Grand Parade, then played a stage show later in the afternoon.

This year, our "victory" is complicated by the fact that technically, the dancers we accompanied and the musicians were 2 separate contingents. However, in terms of the percussion, we are honored to have won 3rd place for music in the "Brazilian contingents" category! Furthermore, the dance contingent won 3rd place overall for Brazilian contingents. Congratulations to everyone who participated!