PAUL FLORES (USA) & JULIO CARDENAS (CUBA) (DIRECTED BY DANNY HOCH)
REPRESENTA!
Thur-Sat, May 24-26 8:00pm
Mission Cultural Center
$15 General Admission
Presented by SFIAF & Mission Cultural Center & co-commissioned by La Peña Cultural Center

REPRESENTA! is unique within the onslaught of Hip-Hop Theatre pieces coming down the pike for several reasons. It's bilingual, recognizing and celebrating the global reach and internationalism of Hip-Hop Culture. Second, it combines both spoken-word poetry with character portrayals that are hilariously funny. This is where Hip-Hop generation storytelling is headed in the new Millennium, embracing cross-language realities, poly-cultural norms and fractured, contradicting political ideals.

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AfroSolo International Sampler
Thur 24, 8:00pm
African American Art & Culture Complex
$15 General Admission

A special opportunity to plan your week at AfroSolo, excerpted performances by SuAndi, Nawal, Yossi Vassa and Marc Bamuthi Joseph all for one ticket price (see below for show descriptions)

SuAndi (England)
The Story of M
Fri, May 25 7:00pm
Sat, May 26 9:30pm
African American Art & Culture Complex
$15 General Admission

M is dying. She has raised her two children in a time when England simply wasn’t prepared to acknowledge its Black population. She raised them with a smile on her face pumped by her warrior heart and through it all her humour is sharp, witty and sometimes it will make you laugh until you cry.

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Nawal (Comoros Islands)
Music of the Comoros Islands
Fri, May 25 9:30pm
Sat, May 26 11:00pm
African American Art & Culture Complex
$15 General Admission

Celebrating the release of her second CD titled Aman (peace of the soul), singer and composer Nawal kicks off her US tour on the AfroSolo stage. Nawal originates from the Comoros Islands located in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of Africa. Between traditional and contemporary, her music weaves a rich dialog of cultures, a reflection of the diverse character of life in her native islands. Indo-Arabian-Persian music meets Bantu polyphonies, the syncopated rhythms and Sufi trance of the Indian Ocean.

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Yossi Vassa (Ethiopia/Israel)
It Sounds Better in Amharic
Sat, May 26 4:30pm
Sun, May 27 7:00pm
African American Art & Culture Complex
$15 General Admission

Yossi's moving, personal account of his 700km journey on foot from Ethiopia to a refugee camp in the Sudan and from there to Israel. The show portrays nostalgic memories of life in Ethiopia interspersed with a hilarious perspective on lifestyle adjustments made by Ethiopians living in Israel.

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Marc Bamuthi Joseph (USA)
The Spoken World
Sat, May 26 7:00pm
Sun, May 27 4:30pm
African American Art & Culture Complex
$15 General Admission

Representing the Bay Area, internationally renowned spoken word artist Joseph is one of an emerging class of hip-hop theater artists who combines a variety of art forms in his work. This evening's performance will feature excerpts from his evening length works, "Word Becomes Flesh" and "Scourge, as well as new material from the 2008 premiere "The Breaks".

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SFIAF NEW SCRIPT LABORATORY
Brian Freeman (USA)
Here and There
Sat-Sun, May 26-27 2:00pm
African American Arts & Culture Complex
$5 General Admission

Presented by The Magic Theatre, SFIAF,
AfroSolo, Queer Cultural Center & AAACC
This year the Magic Theater will present a staged reading of Brian Freeman's latest work, Here and There, a play about AIDS in South Africa. Here and There examines the AIDS crisis as seen through the eyes of activists involved in reforming the treatment and cultural acceptance of the disease.

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