DRUMBEAT NEWSLETTER ISSUE #3 MAY 7, 2014

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CARNAVAL SAN FRANCISCO Email: [email protected] Web: www.carnavalsanfrancisco.org

ISSUE #3

Meet our Carnaval San Francisco 2014 Queen Valencia Newton & King Delvis Savigne Friñon!

Twenty contestants vied for the Carnaval

San Francisco King and Queen crown in this year’s competition on April 26th and performed to a sold-out house at Brava Theater Center in San Francisco. The winners were Valencia Newton, this year’s Carnaval Queen, and Delvis Savigne Friñon, our King, who will serve as the official ambassadors of Carnaval San Francisco 2014, and lead the Grand Parade on May 25th.

King and Queen contestants competed in a 3-minute dance in Carnaval costumes, sometimes accompanied by other dancers and musicians. In a stylish, high-powered yet graceful display, Valencia Newton demonstrated her

talents in Calypso, Caribbean, African and Samba dance along with her partner and King contestant Dave Dickson from Sistas-Wit-Style, accompanied by CD and live drumming from Val Serrant. Delvis Savigne Friñon, with his partner of one year, Fredrika Keefer, wowed the audience with a modern fusion dance filled with balletic leaps, mixed with Caribbean folk and Salsa!

Valencia Newton — Queen of Carnaval San Francisco 2014By Michael Nolan

Across the street from the cloistered Mills College

campus in East Oakland, a group of women are listening to Soca music and busily sewing Carnaval costumes in the Sistas–Wit–Style storefront studio (also referred as Mas Camp). Valencia Angela Newton sits down at a kitchen table to be interviewed in her new role as Queen of Carnaval 2014.

Valencia, 23, is a proud native of Oakland who graduated from Webster Academy, Frick Middle

MAY 7, 2014

Queen Valencia and King DelvisPhoto by Max Koo

School and the East Oakland School of the Arts, located in Castlemont High School where she was Salutatorian in her 2008 graduating class.

She entered UC Berkeley that fall where she pursued a course of study in Social Welfare and Dance and graduated with a BA in 2012. She also took classes in Theater and worked on several productions.

Valencia became immersed in Carnaval culture in her preteen years. She has trained with various Caribbean groups such as J’ouvert, Islands of Fire, Malick Folk Performing Company, and Embarcadere Travelers. She has performed with renowned drummers Val Serrant, Swadi, Tumani, and Hugh, and studied dance in Trinidad and in Salvador, Bahia Brazil. She has also performed at numerous Soca Monarch and Calypso Fiesta competitions and traveled extensively with Sistas–Wit–Style in Houston, Texas, Miami, Brooklyn and Trinidad and Tobago.

Valencia has been co–lead dancer and choreographer for Trinidadian group Sistas–Wit–Style Folk Performance Dance Company (SWS) for the past 13 years. SWS is Oakland–based, founded in October 2000, by Merissa Lyons, and Kianna Rachal, managed by Annabelle Goodridge, later accompanied by Valencia Newton. This year, the company celebrates its 10th year as a Carnaval contingent.

The Caribbean, the American South and Gulf of Mexico are definitely in her blood line. It is not surprising that she was adopted by the Trinidad and Tobago community at an early age. Her mother, Veronica Hernandez of Oakland is the daughter of Antonio (of Puerto Rico) & Flora Hernandez (from Mississippi). Her late father, Walter Newton (brother of Black Panther Party co-founder Huey Newton), was born in Louisiana and came to Oakland in the mid-1940s.

Valencia has been utilizing her artistic talents for the greater community good in poetry, dance, theater and academics. Together with Sistas–Wit–Style, Queen Valencia provides a support system for youth and adults who want to fight obesity and channel their energy into positive pursuits. The goal of their classes is to help create a safe space free of the negativity and violence the participants often face. It also

offers what Valencia coined a “dance workout workshop” or “fitness fun” providing a sense of self. Valencia continues to teach dance and academics to children, youth and adults in Bay Area schools and New Karibbean City in Oakland, Saturdays 12—2pm; and costume making in the Sistas Mas Camp, 5859 Mac Arthur Blvd. Oakland, open daily after 4pm, sistas-wit-style.com.

Queen Valencia aspires to pursue a Masters in Social Work and Fine Arts

Delvis Savigne Friñon — King of Carnaval San Francisco 2014By Michael Nolan

The 24–year–old Cuban dancer descended the stairs of Dance Mission and entered Cafe

Boheme for the interview with Drum Beat. It was just a few days since the gracefully muscular Delvis Savigne Friñon was chosen Carnaval King at the annual Competition held this year at Brava.

Delvis was born in Santiago de Cuba on Nov. 20, 1989 and has resided in San Francisco for the past year. He is a graduate of the Jose Maria Heredia Academy of Art in Santiago with a degree in Contemporary and Folkloric Cuban dance. He was evaluated by the national court and gained the place of soloist for his advance dance technique.

Nobody in his family was previously involved in dance. In his boyhood, Delvis mostly played baseball and did judo, but his mother noticed his natural dancing talent at various family and neighborhood celebrations and sent him to performing arts school in Santiago.

In Cuba, he has danced professionally with Danza del Caribe Dance Company and performed with them at the 2008 Expo Mundial del Agua in Zaragoza, Spain. He has also performed with the National Dance Theater of Jamaica, which draws upon African Caribbean folk traditions as well as modern dance.

Since moving to the States, Delvis has danced

DRUMBEAT NEWSLETTER ISSUE #3 MAY 7, 2014



with Kim Epifano, Dance Brigade, Arenas Dance Company, Anne Bluethenthal and Dancers and the Alayo Dance Company. He teaches modern dance Saturday mornings at Dance Mission.

He went to New York with Nicole Klaymoon's Embodiment Project where they participated in the annual APAP (Association of Performing Arts Presenters) conference, and at ODC last December. Delvis recently was awarded a scholarship to study at the Alonzo King LINES Ballet of San Francisco this summer. He will be performing at Dance Brigade’s “Summer Feast” in August held at Dos Rios in Mendocino County.

His parents and siblings still live in Cuba. His father, Victor Savigne Savigne is a sailor in the merchant marine and his mother, Georgina Friñon Alvarez is a director of personnel at a large agricultural farm. His older sister, Maillenis Castillo, is a teacher of computers in Havana. His older brother, Dennis Savigne Friñon, is a pianist, and his younger sister, Yaretza Perez Friñon, works in immigration at the Havana Airport.

Delvis has participated in the Carnavales of Santiago, Cuba since he was 10 years old. He is well versed in the dance and music Carnaval traditions of Conga and Comparsa. He has also danced in El Festival del Caribe, a festival that is held every July in Santiago, dedicated to the traditions of Caribbean countries.

Coincidentally, Delvis’ hometown of Santiago de Cuba is an official “Sister City” of Oakland, California, the hometown of Queen Valencia.

Carnaval After Dark at the ExploratoriumBy Amie Valle

On May 1st, 2014, Carnaval San Francisco drummed their way through the

Exploratorium for a night filled with science and Carnaval–themed activities. Starting with a presentation by guest curator and Executive Producer of Carnaval, Roberto Hernandez, participants enjoyed entertainment by steel pan drummer Lisa LaMantia; mask making with Steve Pogni, owner and designer of San Francisco's MASK; cuica, glove-a-phone, and shaker

making; Samba and Zumba classes with Maisa Duke, director of Energia do Samba and Jaime Martinez, director of the Pan American Dance Company; drum circles with Carnaval San Francisco's own Arturo Carillo; costume making with Jorge Durate; and a scientific look at soccer, in tribute to Carnava's theme, La Rumba de la Copa Mundial — Celebration of the World Cup, with physicist and author Paul Doherty, Science writer Pearl Tesler, and members of the Stanford Women's Soccer Team.

The evening was capped–off by an exciting parade through the Exploratorium, led by Metzi Henriques and Fogo Na Roupa. Event–goers

were able to join the parade with their newly–made instruments, costumes, and dance moves they learned earlier in the evening. It was a truly unforgettable event.

Roberto's Rendevous with Latin Music and CarnavalBy Michael Nolan

It’s the First of May and we’re inside Kanbar Hall at The Exploratorium where Carnaval Executive

Producer Roberto Hernandez is serving as guest curator for “Carnaval After Dark” at the popular science museum on the San Francisco waterfront.

Roberto talks about growing up with Latin music in the Mission and his decades-long involvement with Carnaval. His Nicaraguan grandfather cultivated his early interest in the music and culture, and by the time he was 7 he

The Carnaval After Dark Parade winding through the West Gallery






was playing guitar at Sunday Mass at St. Peter’s Church on Alabama Street.

Later it was Desi Arnaz’ “Ricky Ricardo” character in I Love Lucy that sparked his passion for percussion — first the bongos, then the congas. A Cuban neighbor further cultivated Roberto’s interest in drums and their intersection with the religion and culture of the African diaspora.

As a teenager, Roberto joined the Rumba percussion parties in Dolores Park. He described the role of Chepito Areas in bringing strong Afro–Cuban percussive elements into the performances of Carlos Santana.

In 1979, he joined Marcus Gordon and Adela Chu in the first Carnaval Parade in Precita Park. Roberto told how Carnaval grew every year expanding into the Mission, then Civic Center, finally returning to the Mission and its current location.

As an adult, Roberto got to travel to Cuba, Jamaica, Brazil, Trinidad and Nicaragua where

he observed how the drum and dance are so embedded in the daily lives of the people. In the Rumbas he observed in Havana, he saw how people spontaneously connected through

music, culture, food, cigars and conversation. In Brazil, he learned how the Samba “escolas” work year–round on their costumes, songs, and choreography.

“They get a lot of love all–year long,” Roberto declared. “Central to it all is the connection of the human hand to the animal skin of the drum."

UPCOMING EVENTS:Pre–Carnaval Party atCha Cha Cha/Original McCarthy'sWEDNESDAY, MAY 14TH 6 PM TO CLOSING TIME

2327 Mission Street betw. 19th & 20th

A Salute to the Carnaval Volunteers. Free admission.

Sign-up to be a volunteer at Carnaval San Francisco! Or come and support us with Carnaval-themed cocktails and tapas on menu. Your purchases help support Carnaval. Join us as we celebrate with music by Jorge Alabe & Samba Rio LIVE at 8 PM, and meet our newly-crowned Queen Valencia & King Delvis.

CARNAVAL WOULD LIKE TO THANK SOME OF OUR SPONSORS:


SFMTAProLocal

FunCheapSFXFINITY

Alcance Media GroupKOFY

Barefoot Wine & BubblyGrants for the Arts

Ford

Monster Energy DrinksESPN SportsPost CerealsSparkling Ice

Nestle NesquikFacebookBudweiserTelemundoRecology

BART

Carnaval San Francisco is May 23RD—25TH!GRAND PARADE MAY 25TH

PURCHASE GRAND PARADE SEATS NOW!

www.carnavalsanfrancisco.org/parade.html

Roberto Hernandez discusses the history of Carnaval

DRUMBEAT NEWSLETTER STAFF:

Roberto Hernandez, Publisher

Michael Nolan, Editor

Amie Valle, Art Director

Stella Adelman, Reporter

DRUMBEAT NEWSLETTER ISSUE #3 MAY 7, 2014

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