Attendees of the Oakland Homecoming screening of The House on Coco Road are invited to join filmmakers and the MATATU team at Penrose after the screening, across the street from the Grand Lake Theatre. We celebrate Director Damani Baker and his achievement, and the trailblazing women who inspired the film.

Make plans to visit the MATATU photo booths this year. It's an exciting way to document and share the journey with friends, and high resolution prints are available further down the road. Don't miss out on the fun!

Hassan Hajjaj, considered "the Andy Warhol of Morocco," paints a more complex vision of contemporary Islamic gender roles. Following up on his stereotype-shattering photography series 'Kesh Angels," the artist documents "A Day In The Life Of Karima: A Henna Girl." The Marrakesh-set documentary follows Hajjaj's favorite 'Kesh Angel' character: Karima who is a mother, wife, henna artist, local icon and graduate of what he calls "Jamaa Fena: the university of street life."

A French-Ivorian, who grew up in upper class French society unpacks socio-economic privilege and racial discrimination in France today. Too Black To Be French? centers the question of how nationalism violently and discriminately aims to trump race, culture, and history to maintain a mirage of sovereignty. The event invites participants to dialogue with 3ft x 6ft water color portraits and carry this discussion into the questions and testimonies presented in the film.

One of the Arab world's most transformative leaders, a young Egyptian army officer, leads a coup against his king, winning the support of millions of his countrymen. Over the next 18 years he becomes the most powerful leader of the Arab world, transforming it forever. Now that world confronts his legacy. Work began on the project before the January 2011 uprisings in Egypt and continued filming through General Sisi’s first year in power.

Oakland artists take on a massive mural downtown, only to find themselves at the center of gentrification and a cultural resiliency debate. The evening includes a dance performance by Dance-A-Vision, and a preview of Spencer Wilkinson’s documentary “Alice Street,” an in-depth look at culture keepers from two disparate communities connected through a mural which becomes a symbol of resilience in the fight against displacement, as the corner of Alice and 14th Sts. becomes ground zero for gentrification.

Yrsa Daley-Ward is a model, actor and writer of mixed West Indian and West African heritage. Born to a Jamaican mother and a Nigerian father, Yrsa was raised by her devout Seventh Day Adventist grandparents in the small town of Chorley in the North of England. Yrsa interweaves her experience to fuse poetry with theatre, music and storytelling. She travels a lot, grasping for that illusive thing known as Good Mental Health, and has published two collections: On Snakes and Other Stories, and Bone.

What does it mean to be self? What does it mean to be other? We invite you to engage in an alternate reality experience. Rather than focus on the notion of finding your separate place within the group, we move beyond the polarity mindset of this or that to explore the paradox of the relative and the absolute. Meaning, we are separate individuals and we are the entire universe at the same time. This performance requires active deep listening and the ability to temporarily suspend any judgment. Please join us.

As a revolution sweeps through the area, Ragdha and Amer, who met in a Syrian prison cell, find their love challenged by circumstance. Filmed over 5 years, "A Syrian Love Story" is an intimate and unusually poignant love story from the epicentre of the war, about two people who love each other and their country more than anything else. Armer and Raghda's history is an important and deeply personal reminder that behind every news item there are people just like ourselves.

"The Lover, The Love & The Beloved" is a love poem. It is a love poem about someone, it is a love poem about love itself as the why/how the universe was created and the why/how it is sustained. It is an epic poem that I have been writing for 6 years now. The most challenging verses I've ever encountered to write. I want to share the process because in the affair of love, the most crucial element, besides love itself, is courage.

Courtney Henry & Jeffrey Van Sciver perform a pas de duex from Alonzo King's work "Biophony" which premiered at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in April 2015. This work was a collaboration with natural soundscape artist Bernie Krause and composer Richard Blackford, who worked with King to compose a ballet score from several rare habitats around the globe, both marine and terrestrial.

During the Ferguson protests in 2014, King Britt produced an impromptu performance for Black Lives Matter in St. Louis and in 2015 revisited the presentation in Rotterdam. Utilizing found sounds, dispatch recordings from police communication, and original sound design, King Britt presents Unprotect & Subserve in Oakland, California.