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Urban Guide Listings to plan your week by Oakland Slam Team battles other Bay Area teams. 2002 Oakland Battle of the Bay So you think 170 people showing up to the Black Box Theater for the Oakland Slam Finals was something? Or the fact that folks were packed to the rafters at the Justice League in San Francisco to see who'd make the SF Team was the shit? Well, if you think seeing the Bay's best word-rhyme-jugglers-metaphor-slingers duke it out for spaces on one of the respective teams that will represent the Bay at the National Poetry Slam in Minneapolis this August was the bomb, then you ain't seen nothin' 'till you've watched it go down at the 2002 Oakland Battle of Bay! This Thursday night, the four Bay Area teams - representing Berkeley, San Jose, San Francisco, Sacramento, and our very own Oaktown - will be in full effect throwing words to claim Bay Area bragging rights as the "best in the Bay." Come out and support your favorite team. Staying loyal to your zip code is not required. All proceeds will help local teams get to the Nationals. Thu/11, 9pm. Black Box Theater, 1928 Telegraph, Berk. $10. 451.1932. (CS) The mother of civil rights revisited. Mary Ellen Pleasant: Mother of Civil Rights in California Who knew that one of the most talked about woman in San Francisco during the mid-1800s was an African American woman by the name of Mary Ellen Pleasant? In a time when African Americans were rarely mentioned in the press, she garnered at least 100 articles for her achievements as a philanthropist, abolitionist, and freedom fighter. For over a century, her story has been obscured by tabloid-fueled scandals and betrayal, until now when the African American Museum and Library of Oakland un-veils a new exhibit that serves to set the record straight about the life and legacy of this early Californian. Born into slavery in Georgia, Pleasant rose to become one of the most richest and most powerful women in San Francisco when she arrived here in 1852 to escape persecution under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. She would go on to cross racial and class boundaries to achieve freedom and equality for herself and her people. Her many accomplishments included helping slaves escape the South, organizing to keep slavery out of California, as well as amassing a great fortune of $30,000,000(!) through a secret partnership with Scotsman, Thomas Bell. With text, images, and artifacts, this compelling exhibit tells the story of a captivating and influential woman, known as the Mother of Civil Rights, who not only helped shape early San Francisco, but whose contributions to the civil rights struggle would go unsurpassed until the 1960s. July/15-Sept/7, 12-5:30pm, Tues - Sat. African American Museum and Library of Oakland, 659 14th St., Oakl. Free. 637.0200. (CS) Music with Wings: Sukay's Andean and chamber hybrid. Sukay Once when I was commuting on BART, silently damning myself for forgetting that fantasy read, and feeling my eyes and those of my fellow strangers' gel over from the rolling monotony, an Andean flute trio stepped onto our train playing a music that swelled the car. All those disenchanted eyes looked up, and around, and at each other, smiling like they were surprised to be awake. For the three odd minutes before the next stop, the car held elation, divinity, community, and a sense of timelessness. When the trio stepped off to jump into the opposite train, the air thickened again, and heads fell back into novels and news. But no more relying on chance to feel and hear the buoyant jubilance that Andean music imparts. Bolivian ensemble, Sukay, is coming to Berkeley this Friday. With pan-pipes (zampoñas), notched flutes (kenas), bombo and wankara drums, and a ten-stringed mandolin backed with an armadillo shell, the group blends pre and post-colonial styles to reinvent the husky and enchanting music of the Andes. Sukay has taken their part chamber, part indigenous renderings to Carnegie Hall, the Smithsonian, and now to local cultural hot house La Peña for a CD release. Like their name, which in Quechua means "to open the Earth and prepare it for planting," Sukay's music can clear those mental weeds and make room for imagination. Fri/12, 8pm. La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck, Berk. $12-$14. 849.2568. (EP) Picks by Chris Baker (CB), Aimee Le Duc (AL),Erica Pedersen (EP), Alexi Somon (AS) and Gabriel Serpa (GS). [ East Bay | Metroactive | Archives ]