HOME | TRACKS | ARTISTS | BUY | CREDITS | PRESS | CONTACT Francisco X. Alarcón Chicano poet and educator, was born in Wilmington, California, in 1954. As a child, he lived in Guadalajara, Mexico before moving to California at the age of 18. He is the author of ten volumes of poetry, has been a recipient of the Danforth and Fulbright fellowships, and has been awarded several literary prizes, including the 1998 Carlos Pellicer-Robert Frost Poetry Honor Award by the Third Binational Border Poetry Contest, Ciudad Juýrez, Chihuahua, 1993 American Book Award, the 1993 Pen Oakland Josephine Miles Award, and the 1984 Chicano Literary Prize. He currently teaches at UCDavis and was recently named one of 3 final nominees for the title of California's Poet Laureate. Avotcja has been published in English & Spanish in the USA, Mexico & Europe. She is a Poet/Playwright & Multi-instrumentalist who both composed & played the score for the Danish documentary Munu. Avotcja is a popular bay area D.J. & the Founder & Co-Director of "The Clean Scene Theater Project/Proyecto Teatral de la Escena Sobria". She teaches Poetry, Creative Writing, Music & Drama in public schools & thanks to the California Arts Council she is also an artist in residence at Milestones Project & the penal system. Avotcja is a proud & active member of DAMO (Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization) & National Writers Union Local #3 Neelanjana Banerjee is a San Francisco-based writer. Her poetry, fiction and journalism have appeared in Clamor, Nimrod, A Room of One's Own, The Asian Pacific American Writer's Journal, Hyphen, Desilicious and Audrey Magazine. The former editor-in-chief of AsianWeek newspaper, she is currently the managing editor of YO! Youth Outlook. She was a part of Bay Area multicultural poetry collective DhaiaTribe, the 2003 recipient of a Jon Sims Center grant for performance. Neelanjana is an MFA candidate at San Francisco State University focusing on fiction. Jimmy Biala is a graduate of residency programs held at Banff Center for the Arts in Banff, Canada and at the University of Matanzas in Cuba, specializing in the study of Cuban Folkloric and religious music and dance. Jimmy is the recipient of a 1998 Downbeat Magazine Jazz Recording and Performance award. He has performed with musicians Carlos Santana, Claudia Gomez, and C.K. Ladzekpo. He currently teaches world percussion at Santa Clara University's School of Performing Arts and teaches music to youth throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Andrew Chaikin is a vocalist and beatboxer, known as one of the world's foremost percussionists. He has shared the stage with James Brown, LL Cool K, Spearhead, Run-DMC, Ray Charles, the Neville Brothers, Michelle Shocked and even President Bill Clinton. He has beatboxed at Carnegie Hall, Bangkok's club Song Slueng and on Fox-TV. Jessica Ivry works as a freelance cellist and music teacher in the Bay Area. She has played as a studio cellist recording for local and national bands, and as a member of Balkan jazz outfit People's Bizarre. Recently Jessica participated at the Mancini Institute at UCLA where she focused on film scores and jazz improvisation. She received her Masters of Music in cello with Bonnie Hampton at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Jaime Jacinto Born in Manila and raised in San Francisco's Richmond District, Jaime Jacinto is a member of the Kearny St. Workshop. His first book of poems, Heaven Is Just Another Country was nominated for the BABRA in 1997. He is currently teaching in the College of Education at San Francisco State University. Ilya Kaminsky was born in Odessa, formerly the Soviet Union, and moved to the U.S. in 1993. He has won the National Russian Essay Contest, the National Shepardi Prize for Poetry, and most recently the Ruth Lilly Fellowship from Poetry magazine. In 1999 and 2000, Ilya served as a George Bennett Fellow Writer-in-Residence at Phillips Exeter Academy. His manuscript was a finalist for the National Poetry Series and the Walt Whitman Award. He has also received the Florence Kahn Memorial Award and the Milton Center's Award for Excellence in Writing. Current work appears or is forthcoming in The New Republic, American Literary Review, DoubleTake, Salmagundi, Southwest Review, Tikkun, The American Writing, Literary Review, and Mars Hill Review. Kaminsky also writes poetry in Russian. His work in that language was recently chosen for 'Bunker Poetico" at the 2001 Venice Biennial. Javier Muñiz was raised in the tough Pico-Union district of Los Angeles and worshipped Cal Tjader, Willie Bobo, Mongo Santamaria and Carlos Santana. Muniz is not only a virtuoso guitarist but he can double on virtually the entire range of dense instrumentals the group demands. At any given time he may abandon his guitar and take up the congas, timbales, bongos or any number of hand percussion instruments. He has studied the art of Bata drumming for the last ten years. Lillis Ó Laoire One of Ireland's best traditional Gaelic singers, Lillis O Laoire was born in the Donegal Gaeltacht in 1961. He became interested in folklore and song from an early age, and he became more actively involved in the traditions of Donegal during his time in Galway. He has lectured, broadcast and performed at home and abroad and has also been engaged in collecting and publishing the song traditions of the north western region, particularly of Tory Island. Colm Ó Riain Both violinist and composer, Colm likes to sit on borders. Classically, he is a former leader of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland. A well-known fiddler on the Irish music scene in San Francisco, his new group Hy Brassyl explores the connection between Celtic music and Jazz, Brazilian, Cuban, Gypsy and other musical genres. He has written and recorded music for film including, most recently, Black Eyed Dog and Soot City. He has also written for theater and a wide array of ensembles from classical symphony orchestra to multi-ethnic instrumental groups. He is a founder member of Spoken Word theater group Dhaia Tribe and is the violinist with avant garde animation orchestra The Sprocket Ensemble. He performs regularly with Jazz Hot luminaries Hot Club of San Francisco John-Carlos Perea is an urban American Indian electric bassist, cedar flautist and composer whose original work "…pushes beyond the…self-indulgence of old-school fusion to forge a new kind of multiethnic groove." (review of First Dance by Sam Prestianni, SF Weekly). In addition to leading his own groups and performing with San Francisco-based ensembles Gathering Of Ancestors, Red Jade Collective and Con Alma, John-Carlos also leads the Sweetwater Singers, a Northern Plains Intertribal Powwow drum. John-Carlos has lectured at SF State University and Stanford University on the subjects of American Indian Music and American IndianModern and Creative Performing Arts. Oliver Rajamani Born in India, Rajamani studied classical and contemporary Indian music. His most recent tabla guru was the internationally renowned Pandit Aloke Dutta. Rajamani also learned various Gypsy styles of music such as flamenco guitar in the most authentic Roma Gypsy manner, from spending time among the Roma Gypsy community. Rajamani has done extensive traveling in Greece and Israel, studying the Roma Gypsy communities and their music as well as Greek and Arabic music. He has also worked in the Romani Congress (U.N. Reprsentation for the Roma Gypsy's). Rajamani performs on sarod (Indian lute); oud; dumbek; deff; and cajon. Rajamani has performed and recorded with internationally acclaimed artists such as the Gypsy Kings, Glen Velez (Grammy Award winner), Aloke Dutta (internationally recognized tabla player), Lara and Reyes (Latin Grammy nominees); and many other prominent Indian, Middle-Eastern, and Flamenco artists. Marcus Shelby "Shelby is one of the brightest stars of the San Francisco scene, proving equally adept as the leader of a trio, a big band, and a record label." - Forrest Bryant, All About Jazz. Born in February 1966, Marcus Shelby has been playing the acoustic bass for 23 years. In that time, he has built a diverse and accomplished biography. Shelby was bandleader of Columbia Records and GRP Impulse! Recording Artists Black/Note and is currently the leader of The Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, Meet The Composer Resident Composer at Intersection for the Arts, and CEO/President of the San Francisco based independent record label NOIR Records. As the 1991 winner of the Charles Mingus Scholarship, Shelby's studies include work under the tutelage of composer James Newton and legendary bassist Charlie Haden. Pireeni Sundaralingam was born in Sri Lanka and educated in England. She is Poetry Editor of the national political magazine LIP, co-editor of Writing the Lines of Our Hands (the first anthology of South Asian American poets), and a PEN USA Rosenthal Fellow. In 2004, she was named as one of America's "Emerging Writers" by the literary journal Ploughshares. Amy Tobin is a vocalist, composer, and writer. A graduate of the Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Amy has written or co-written three rock opera interpretations of the Book of Esther, as well as a musical about the mythical demon Lilith. She has sung in the Beanweevils and performed her songs a cappella at San Francisco venues ranging from the Hotel Utah to Eros men's club. As a producer and recovering wedding planner, Amy founded The Hub at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. Francis Wong has been a performer on the saxophone and the flute for the past 20 years and a composer for the past 16 years. He is currently a Meet The Composer New Resident in the Bay Area and a recording artist for Asian Improv Records. He leads the ensemble Gathering of Ancestors in addition to directing many special projects. Wong is also active as a community leader and teacher. He was a California Arts Council Artist in Residence 1992-1998 and has been a lecturer in the San Francisco State University Music Department and the American Studies Department at the University of California at Santa Cruz. In 2000-2001 he was a Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Fellow. He is co-founder and Creative Director of Asian Improv aRts, a 15-year-old multidisciplinary arts production company and is the current Executive Producer of Asian American Jazz/SF, the longest running jazz festival in San Francisco. He also serves as President of Justice Matters Institute, a SF-based social justice organization. San Francisco Examiner critic Philip Elwood has named Wong "...among the great saxophonists of his generation."