The Lab: December, 2022

Once again, The Lab will offer two performances during the current month. There will also be a workshop, co-presented with The Poetry Center at San Francisco State University, which will offer a presentation and a talk, both of which will lead up to a performance; but this site will focus only on full-evening performances of music. Both of these programs will take place on the familiar turf of The Lab itself, located in the Mission at 2948 16th Street.

Regular readers probably know by now that The Lab is a short walk from the corner of Mission Street. The location is particularly good for those using public transportation, since that corner provides bus stops for both north-south and east-west travel as well as a BART station. Both of the performances will begin at 8 p.m., and doors will open at 7:30 p.m. Specific information, including a hyperlink to the event page that provides both background material and hyperlinks for ticket purchases, is as follows:

Friday, December 16: The members of Irreversible Entanglements describe themselves as “a band who cultivate the liberation technologies of jazz and associated Black music—root, stem, and branch—into the future.” Their vocalist is Camae Ayewa, who also performs under the name Moor Mother. (Her next performance will be at The Lab tomorrow night.) The instrumentalists are the quartet of Keir Neuringer on saxophone, Aquiles Navarro on trumpet, and rhythm provided by Luke Stewart on bass and Tcheser Holmes on drums. The performance will also include a DJ performing under the name DJ Haram.

Saturday, December 17: Ayewa will return to lead the Moor Mother Ensemble. She is currently on the faculty of the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, where she teaches composition. Her visit to The Lab coincides with the exhibition Drum Listens to Heart, on exhibit at California College of the Arts Wattis Institute, which is located at 380 Kansas Street, between 16th Street and 17th Street, a short walk from the Jackson Playground. The other musicians that will be performing in the Moor Mother Ensemble have not yet been identified.