Comedian Micia Mosely is best known in the Bay Area for her
one-woman show Where My Girls At?, an endearing satire of the
lesbian community in Oakland (hence the characters: a high-femme, a
sage-burning earth mother, a tough-talking weed dealer, and a
doctrinaire revolutionary). Now back in her native Brooklyn, Mosely is
building a stand-up career while working as an education consultant.
She still flits back to the bay several times a year to perform
segments of her show, which has garnered a cult following. But lately,
Mosely’s set her mind on loftier things — like breaking down the
fourth wall. “My idea is to break down this idea of ‘here’s the show,
here’s the audience, never the two shall come together except in the
lobby for autographs,'” she said. Thus, her ideal venue would have
multiple stages, so that anyone could jump in at any time. She thinks
she’s found the perfect place to try it: a warehouse in West Oakland
called thaSauce.
ThaSauce is the brainchild of Jeff Straker and Eliezar Goco,
founders of the performance company hippysauce. Straker and Goco bill
their venue as a “21st-century bohemian club” — part industrial,
part utopia, part funky arts space. It’s a 1,800-square-foot live-work
warehouse with a 1930s Art Deco facade, tons of houseplants, and a cafe
that serves macrobiotic and raw food. Inside, it’s furnished with
candles, bamboo mats, and vintage lamps — mostly scavenged,
recycled, or refurbished, in keeping with thaSauce’s ecological bent.
In recent months, Straker and Goco started bringing other artists and
promoters into the fold, with the idea of opening thaSauce up for
gallery exhibitions, yoga classes, and perhaps video shoots. They’re
currently developing a business plan and hope to set it in motion this
year, Straker said. In the meantime, thaSauce will function as a
sometime cafe and performance venue. This week, it will launch the
first installment of a monthly series called aidingANDabetting, with
Mosely as the inaugural host.
Mosely says the first aidingANDabetting — called
“Manifestation: Celebrating Life Creativity and Love”—
will function like a jam session. She’ll do some stand-up and perform
some of her characters from Where My Girls At? alongside local
improv actor Thandiwe Thomas De Shazor, who will hopefully bring his
own characters into the fray. (He’s best known for creating the
Prophetess, a churchwoman and talk-show host with mercenary impulses.)
The event also features spoken-word poetry by Aya de León and
urban dance choreography by Soul Nubian. Mosely hopes to create a show
that’s organically grown, so to speak. “When you play Yerba Buena and
La Peña, you get the nice polished huge production, but here’s
what happens when we get together and just jam,” she said. “It’s that
kind of vibe that we’re interested in expanding and letting people in
on the secret.” On Thursday, April 2, at thaSauce (950 30th St.,
Oakland). 6-11 p.m., $15-$20. HippySauce.com or NurshaProject.com
