08.23.18
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• ARTS •<br />
‘FOR A BETTER LIFE’<br />
HOPEFUL POP FROM ROONEY<br />
AT THE REGENT NEXT THURSDAY<br />
FILM | THEATER | BOOKS | MUSIC | COMMUNITY | LISTINGS<br />
SWEET SUCCESS<br />
ONCE-FORGOTTEN SINGER RODRI-<br />
GUEZ RIDES HIS ‘SEARCHING FOR<br />
SUGARMAN’ SECOND CHANCE INTO<br />
CAL STATE LA<br />
PARENTAL<br />
NIGHTMARE<br />
THE INNOVATIVE THRILLER ‘SEARCH-<br />
ING’ IS GROUNDBREAKING BOTH IN<br />
ITS VISUALS AND CASTING<br />
P.25<br />
P.27<br />
P.31<br />
Marjani Forté-Saunders<br />
GET YOUR OWN...<br />
BY JOHN SOLLENBERGER<br />
FREE MUSIC<br />
One Colorado’s<br />
free summer<br />
music series<br />
features vocalist<br />
and songwriter<br />
Korey Dane at<br />
7 p.m. tonight,<br />
Thursday, Aug.<br />
23, at 41 Hugus<br />
Alley, Pasadena.<br />
Call (626) 564-<br />
1066 or visit onecolorado.com.<br />
PHOTO: Maria Baranova<br />
If you’re looking for a fanciful tale about unicorns, you might be<br />
disappointed. Marjani Forté-Saunders’ “Memoirs of a…Unicorn”<br />
isn’t about a one-horned creature so much as “the power of culture<br />
and the ingenuity of black men,” as seen through the eyes of<br />
a Pasadena-native who went on to become a 2014 Princess Grace<br />
Choreography Fellow.<br />
Born and raised in Northwest Pasadena, Forté-Saunders and<br />
her husband composer, Everett Saunders, a native of Philadelphia,<br />
are currently co-directors of the Alkebulan Cultural Center,<br />
located in a converted Pasadena firehouse on North Raymond<br />
Avenue. Pasadena is where Forté-Saunders got her start with the<br />
Ebony Jivettes.<br />
KINDRED<br />
SPIRITS<br />
DANCER MARJANI FORTÉ-SAUNDERS<br />
EXPLORES THE POWER OF CULTURE<br />
AND FAMILY IN ‘MEMOIRS OF A…<br />
UNICORN’<br />
BY JANA J. MONJI<br />
“It’s the first place I started dancing,” Forté-Saunders noted<br />
during a recent phone interview. The Jivettes were meeting in<br />
Loma Alta Park in Altadena when Forté-Saunders was only 3. She<br />
continued to dance, coming under the tutelage of Nailah Randall-<br />
Bellinger. “She specifically wanted to dance within my cultural<br />
heritage,” she recalled of her mentor, but Randall-Bellinger also<br />
backed that up with a ballet foundation.<br />
After graduating — partially attending both Marshall Fundamental<br />
and the LA County High School for the Arts, she ultimately<br />
earned a bachelor of arts degree in marketing and dance from<br />
Loyola Marymount University. She traveled as a performer with<br />
Urban Bush Women Dance Co. for five years, and co-founded<br />
CONTINUED ON PAGE 22<br />
COOL CARS<br />
Classic Car Night<br />
features vintage,<br />
classic and exotic<br />
cars and newer<br />
model sports<br />
cars, live music<br />
and burgers<br />
from 6 to 8 p.m.<br />
Friday at Lake<br />
Avenue Church,<br />
393 N. Lake Ave.,<br />
Pasadena. Admission is free, but donations are<br />
accepted to cover the cost of food. Call (626)<br />
844-4700 or visit lakeave.org.<br />
SCI-FI<br />
The South Lake<br />
Avenue Business<br />
District free,<br />
rooftop film<br />
series features<br />
“Star Wars: The<br />
Force Awakens,”<br />
starting with a<br />
deejay spinning<br />
tunes and<br />
family activities<br />
at 6 p.m. Saturday, followed by the film atop the<br />
parking structure at 55 S. Lake Ave., Pasadena.<br />
Call (626) 792-1259 or visit southlakeavenue.<br />
org.<br />
JAZZ FINALE<br />
The Playhouse<br />
District Summer<br />
Jazz Concert<br />
Series concludes<br />
with smooth jazz<br />
by the Michael<br />
Haggins Band<br />
from 5 to 7 p.m.<br />
Sunday in Vroman’s<br />
courtyard,<br />
695 E. Colorado<br />
Blvd., Pasadena. Free. Call (626) 744-0340 or<br />
visit playhousedistrict.org.<br />
<strong>08.23.18</strong> | PASADENA WEEKLY 21
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