May 3, 2022
For immediate release
Contact:
Andrew Wood 415-399-9554 (o) 415-305-1102 (c) [email protected]
Emily Lee 415-399-9554 (o) 415-609-8870 (c) [email protected]
Before the Move to San Francisco State University,
SFIAF Plans a Summer Series
Calendar Editors Please Note
Who: San Francisco International Arts Festival
What: SFIAF 2022 Summer Series Multiple Artists
Where: San Francisco and Oakland
Date & Time: June 11 - July 2, 2022
Tickets: $10 - $25
Box Office and Information: https://www.sfiaf.org or 415-399-9554.
Photos Available on Request
San Francisco May 3, 2022: San Francisco International Arts Festival (SFIAF) is pleased to announce its 2022 Summer Series featuring three remarkable concerts.
The series will open with SFIAF’s first ever production in the East Bay, when Michelle Jacques with her New Orleans Big Band, CHELLE! And Friends presents the world premiere of Daughters of the Delta about powerful women from Louisiana.
This will be followed by SFIAF's first international presentation of the COVID-19 era. David Brandstätter of Germany will make his US debut in collaboration with Ms. Jacques for the North American premiere of FRE!HEIT.
The series will conclude in early July with another world premiere, Religion Kitendi - Dress Code by Congolese choreographer (and Bay Area resident), Chanel "Byb" Bibene of Kiandanda Dance Theater.
SFIAF Director, Andrew Wood said of the Summer Series, "After two years of planning outdoor programs, we are very pleased to be going back into the theatre again. This is a transitional year and, although smaller than the Festival, we consider the Summer Series to be mighty and we have three powerful projects to share in June and July. We've worked with Michelle and Byb throughout the pandemic to create two world premieres. And we are picking up where we left off with David Brandstätter. We were originally going to present FRE!HEIT in 2021."
Details on all three engagements are as follows:
CHELLE! and Friends
Daughters of the Delta (World Premiere)
Duration: 90 minutes plus intermission
Saturday June 11, 8:00pm (artist talk to follow) Sunday June 12, 2:00pm (reception to follow)
Tickets: $20 Advance, $25 Door F/T Students & Seniors: $10
Plymouth Jazz and Justice Church 424 Monte Vista Ave, Oakland, CA 94611
URL Link & More Details: https://www.sfiaf.org/2022_chelle_and_friends
Celebrated joyously in Michelle Jacques’ signature New Orleans Big Band style, Daughters of the Delta is an anthology that honors African American women composers and musicians hailing from Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Seminal figures whose body of work became the backdrop to the Great Migration as Black people moved out of the South during the Jim Crow era. But also individuals whose names were in danger of being written out of history.
Exploring the genres of Spirituals, Gospel, Jazz and the Blues, and featuring original compositions and lyrics by Ms. Jacques and Cava Menzies with new arrangements of traditional songs by Brian Dyer, Daughters invokes the memories of these legendary ladies and invites their spirits into the house. Join CHELLE and friends to celebrate the likes of great women such as Becky Elzy and Alberda Bradford, Lil Hardin Armstrong, Lizzie Miles and many more.
David Brandstätter in collaboration with Michelle Jacques
FRE!HEIT (2014, US Premiere)
Duration: 60 minutes w/o intermission Friday-Saturday June 17-18, 8:00pm (Reception Friday, Artist talk Saturday) Sunday June 19, 2:00pm
Tickets: $20 Advance, $25 Door F/T Students & Seniors: $18
CounterPulse 80 Turk Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
URL Link & More Details: https://www.sfiaf.org/2022_david_brandstatter
German performance artist, David Brandstätter collaborates with mezzo-soprano, Michelle Jacques for the US Premiere of FRE!HEIT (freedom in English). Brandstätter remains in fragile suspension, balanced on white porcelain cups that he deploys into allegorical constellations; while Jacques narrates, sings and sermonizes from a repurposed pulpit in this thought-provoking, text-driven tour de force.
A ritual of questioning and liberating the imagination. Initially intended as a solo performance, in essence, the piece has been thoroughly repurposed as a two-person multidisciplinary project. Further, this latest manifestation of the work is the first time it has been performed since the COVID-19 pandemic, which has added yet another layer of complexity to the meaning of Freedom.
Kiandanda Dance Theater
Religion Kitendi - Dress Code (World Premiere)
Duration: 60 minutes w/o intermission
Friday–Saturday July 1-2, 8:00pm (Artist Talk Friday, Reception Saturday)
Tickets: $20 Advance, $20 Door F/T Students & Seniors: $16
ODC Theater 3153 17th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
URL Link & More Details: https://www.sfiaf.org/2022_kiandanda_dance_theater
Featuring the choreography of Kiandanda Dance Theater artistic director, Chanel “Byb” Bibene and an original score performed live by composer Manolo Davila, Religion Kitendi uses haute couture fashion to examine the prevailing legacy of the slave trade and European colonization of Africa.
The evening-length work invokes the spirit of Congolese sapeurs, dandily dressed men and women who endeavor to survive economic hardship and political turmoil by feeling good in their attire. There is an ironic humor in the trend of people spending large sums of hard-earned money to seek joy and hope in kitendi (clothes). But these acts bring affirmative feelings of prosperity, and with them a sense of healing and belonging. By extension, the piece looks at how the practice has become manifest in other Black communities throughout the Diaspora.
Calendar Editors Please Note
Who: San Francisco International Arts Festival
What: Summer Series featuring Multiple Artists
Where: San Francisco and Oakland
Dates: June 11 - July 2, 2022
Tickets: $10 - $25
Box Office and Information: https://www.sfiaf.org or 415-399-9554.
Photos Available on Request
~XXX~
