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front page news Idris and Rhodessa Go Digital! Holiday Gift Ideas From San Francisco to South Africa Idris' Italian Diary - Collegno, Italy November 2005 Photo Gallery |
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Welcome to Cultural Odyssey's first e-newsletter! The last six months has truly been one of the most significant times in the history of the organization. The work of Co-Artistic Directors, Rhodessa Jones and Idris Ackamoor, continues to set new standards of excellence locally, nationally and internationally. We want all of our supporters to know what we have been up to in 2005. At the end of the year, we at Cultural Odyssey want to give thanks to all of our supporters for the ongoing love and goodwill bestowed upon us by you. If Cultural Odyssey has touched your life in a beneficial way, or if you have heard about our work and support it, please consider making a year-end contribution to our organization. Your donations will help to support the wonderful programs and services that we provide to the San Francisco Bay Area, the nation, and the world! Your contributions are also tax deductible! [ donate online ] On to the news!!! In June Cultural Odyssey's Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women performed at the first Network of Ensemble Theater Festival in Blue Lake, California. The Festival was the first one dedicated to the ensemble theater movement in the U.S., and took place over six days presenting 14 companies of regional and national stature. The Medea Project was outstanding and received a standing ovation for their performance.  In July Rhodessa Jones and Idris Ackamoor were invited to travel to South Africa and perform at the Urban Voices 2005 International Arts Festival of the Diaspora. Thanks to the donations of several Board members and well wishers money was also raised to have Social Worker and Medea Project member Sean Reynolds as well as videographer Gaidi Nkruma come along and participate in the many activities that Jones and Ackamoor conducted. Please see the article "From San Francisco to South Africa" that Idris wrote for the November issue of Theater Bay Area Magazine detailing the fantastic trip.
Returning from South Africa Ackamoor & Jones immediately headed to the renowned National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Since the inception of the Festival in 1989 Cultural Odyssey has presented numerous artists and productions. Their series, "New Performance in Black Theater" curated by Idris is a fixture at the Festival. This past August Cultural Odyssey presented wonderful established and emerging artists every evening at the Festival. Artists presented included Marc Bamuthi Joseph in "Word Becomes Flesh", Hanifah Walidah, in "Black Folks Guide to Black Folks", Alexander Thomas and LeVan D. Hawkins in  "Black Stuff", The Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women in "She and Other Stories", Carlton and Maurice Turner of MUGABEE in "Batteries in the Killing Machine", and Idris Ackamoor and Rhodessa Jones' "In Search of Human Culture".
Also in August Rhodessa gave the keynote address at the National Association for Drama Therapy Conference at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. As well, Cultural Odyssey collaborated with the AfroSolo Festival presenting two weekends of performances entitled, "Transmigrations". The collaboration was partly funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Transmigrations featured new and past works of Cultural Odyssey and Afro Solo. Productions presented included Idris Ackamoor in "An American Griot", Rhodessa Jones in "The Living Memory Project" featuring pianist Fred Harris, vocalist Cheryl Scales with direction by Venus Opal Reese, Ise Lyfe in "Whose Crazy?", Venus Opal Reese in "Split Ends", and The Medea Project in "She". Rhodessa was Scholar/Activist-in-Residence at Intercollegiate Women's Studies of the Claremont Colleges during the Fall 2005 semester. In addition she visited classes and gave a variety of talks and lectures on her work. While at Claremont Rhodessa also performed and lectured at the California Institute for Women in Chino, California. Medea Project ex-offender, Felicia Scaggs, joined Rhodessa as the guest artist.  In October Idris and Rhodessa performed "In Search of Human Culture" at Carpetbag Theater's "Show What You Know Festival" in Knoxville, Tennessee. Idris and Rhodessa conducted workshops on "Art as Business" and "Creative Survival" for the general community and a women's thereputic community shelter.
The Medea Project has truly gone global! Rhodessa and Idris departed for Torino, Italy for an extended residency. Presented by the Malafestival and producer Alessandro Tessitore Jones & Ackamoor conducted workshops in an Italian Prison with female inmates in the Medea Project process. In addition, they performed "In Search of Human Culture" at the prison and conducted workshops with actresses and actors from the Torino arts community.
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