Fernando Barba is the artistic director of legendary Brazilian body music group Barbatuques. For anyone interested in learning body music, or deepening your expression of rhythm, this workshop is not to be missed. Barbatuques headlined the International Body Music Festival last year and electrified the festival. Fernando is fantastic as both a performer and teacher.

There will be two classes on Tuesday, one at 6:30pm for people with a little experience with body music (attending any of my ongoing maracatu classes or any of the workshops at the Body Music Festival would count), and the other at 8:00pm for all levels.

Only $15 a class, or $25 for both.

Every year in SF, there's a march through the Mission to celebrate Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). For the past few years, Maracatu Luta has participated, and we've always felt 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'll meet at 6:00pm at 24th + Mission BART to get ourselves organized, then we'll all march down together to the start of the procession.

Jorge Alabe's Grupo Samba Rio will be performing at Il Pirata in San Francisco, and Maracatu Luta will be the special guest performers that night. It's a costume party, (pre-Halloween), so it should be a fun night with a good crowd. There will be a set of pagode, followed by maracatu, and then the Samba Rio bateria for to close the night. Hope to see you there!

On Tuesday May 26th, the California Supreme Court will announce its decision on the constitutionality of anti-gay Proposition 8, which denies marriage rights to same-sex couples in the state of California. With public opinion swinging solidly in favor of marriage equality and ending discrimination against LGBT couples, and a string of LGBT rights victories in other states (Iowa and New Hampshire in particular), there's reason for optimism that the CA supreme court will do the right thing, overturn Prop 8, and uphold civil rights for all couples in our state. In that case, there's going to be a big celebration in the streets of SF to commemorate another historic victory.

However, no one can be sure which way the courts will rule, and it's definitely possible that they're going to uphold this bigoted law. In that case, there's going to be a large protest to demand our civil rights, and express our public outcry that people in this state are losing their rights. In addition to the evening rally and march, there will be a protest with non-violent civil disobedience Tuesday morning at 10:00am. For more information about that, check out http://onestruggleonefight.com.

Jorge Alabe's Grupo Samba Rio will be performing at Il Pirata in San Francisco on the Friday night before SF Carnaval. We've been invited as special guest performers that night. Should be a fun night with a good crowd, and a nice way to bring some maracatu goodness to the weekend of SF Carnaval. Hope to see you there!

May 1st is International Workers Day, the original "Labor day", which started in Chicago during the struggle for the 8 hour day. Today, it's celebrated around the world in just about every country except the one where it started -- here in the U.S. In the past few years, that's changed, especially in 2006 with the "mega marches" for immigrants' rights and the "Day Without and Immigrant" protests.

This year, there are going to be two main May Day events in the Bay Area -- one in the SF Mission, and one starting in the Fruitvale district of Oakland, followed by a march to City Hall. Seeing as how we're based in Oakland, I thought it'd be nice for us to participate in the Oakland event. It's a Friday, but the march itself is starting at 4:30pm, so I'm hoping folks can make it. For more info, you can check out the flyer for the Oakland event.

From the ANSWER coalition mailing list:

The ANSWER Coalition, Muslim American Society Freedom, Free Palestine Alliance, National Council of Arab Americans, and Al-Awda - International Palestine Right to Return Coalition are calling on people across the country and around the world to take to the streets to show solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza and to demand an immediate end to the murderous attacks carried out by the U.S.-backed Israeli military against the people of Gaza.

I'm guessing this will be very similar in terms of logistics for most ANSWER-organized demonstrations: a rally with speakers at the Civic Center, followed by a march to somewhere else in town (e.g. Dolores Park). I would certainly be in favor of Lucha participating in the march, and I'm sure we'd be very much appreciated. Who's up for it?