Live Music Jam + Solarpunk Riffs at Mabuhay Gardens

8-11 PM: live musicians jam, solarpunk riffs (spoken, improvised words that reflect the future we wish for), and open dancing for anyone who feels moved. A gathering the week of Bobby Fishkin's birthday.

You don't need to dance to come. This part of the night is for listeners, musicians, poets, riffers, witnesses, and friends as much as for dancers.

WHAT ARE SOLARPUNK RIFFS?

Short, spoken, improvised visions of the futures we'd love to live in, riffed over live music. The music answers the words, and the words answer the music. Grab the mic for a line, a verse, or a wish, or just listen and let the room surprise you.

See for yourself: our 15-minute uplink of Shared Origins, Bright Mutual Future from Mabuhay Gardens was broadcast live to events in 70 countries as part of the global ORIGIN festival.

https://www.youtube.com/live/Dj3wJ-9Q4ds?t=2530

https://www.youtube.com/live/Dj3wJ-9Q4ds?t=21048

THE MUSIC

Loke, of the funk jam band «As/Is», anchors the music, joined by a new circle of musicians for the night. At ORIGIN, As/Is scored the spoken word with "word painting": music that colors the meaning of words as they're spoken. This time the words come from the room.

Musicians are welcome to bring an instrument and sit in.

Hear a small window from a past As/Is jam: https://youtu.be/HR2WO0uv_9E

THE DANCING

Juliana Mendonca's contact improvisational dance workshop runs just before, 6:30-8 PM. At 8 the dancers carry their practice onto the floor alongside the music. Join in if you feel like it, or enjoy it from the edges. Contact improv is, in founder Steve Paxton's words, "a martial art, but without the martial... an art-cooperation."

A NOTE FROM BOBBY

This is a gathering the week of my birthday, in celebration, at a favorite place: Mabuhay Gardens. I wanted a room where everyone gets to be an improviser, and where we meet each other in vignettes of the micro-utopian kind.

The building has long been a center for inspirationally positive deviance. It has hosted legends including Louis Armstrong, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Dead Kennedys, Iggy Pop, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, The Specials, Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Herbie Hancock, R.E.M., Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Green Day, Soundgarden, George Lopez, Bad Religion, and Dave Chappelle. On November 19, it's our turn to improvise.

THE FULL EVENING

4-6:30 PM: Solarpunk Happy Hour

6:30-8 PM: Contact Improvisational Dance workshop with Juliana Mendonca

8-11 PM: Live music jam, solarpunk riffs, open dancing, and birthday celebration (this event)

WHERE

Thursday, November 19, 8-11 PM

Mabuhay Gardens, 435 Broadway, San Francisco (https://themab.org)

Full listing: https://luma.com/vsi5fqmv

Listen, play, speak, dance, or witness. Let's meet in the flow.