AfroSolo

AfroSolo Arts Festival 19

Black Voices Performance Series



	When:		Friday and Saturday, September 7th and 8th @ 7:30pm, Sunday September 9th @ 3:00pm

	Where:		African American Art & Culture Complex (762 Fulton Street, SF) map

	Admission:		$25 each performance, $50 private Gala Reception Saturday, September 8th 6:45 to 7:15pm Reception includes appetizers, wine and reserved seating.

AfroSolo Arts Festival 19 presents its seminal performance series Black Voices featuring Byb Chanel Bibene, Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe, and Jovelyn Richards.

Byb Chanel Bibene performs Skin Talk Skin Mood. When Byb left Africa (The Congo), en route to Europe, USA and Asia, events and people began to demonstrate there was a problem with the color of his skin. Skin Talk Skin Mood speaks of his identity adventures, where his skin color has played an important role in all the societies that he has visited and in which he has lived. Bibene is the acclaimed artistic director/choreographer of Kiandanda Dance Theater; he has performed nationally and internationally.

Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe performs Black Gold, an excerpt from, Traveling While Black, the second show of her Adventures Of A Black Girl trilogy. Black Gold places the West African deity, Mami Wata, and the enslaved explorer, Estavanico in a politically and erotically charged confrontation as it explores the tense conflagration between "oil, water, slavery, colonialism and empire." Ms. Cooper-Anifowoshe is an award winning director, actor and writer, working in the Bay Area for more than twenty years. She helped start AfroSolo and is an alumni festival performer.

Jovelyn Richards performs Strippin' Down To Story. Set in 1865, a formerly enslaved woman named Maw Maw ponders freedom for herself and her only remaining child, Sweet Baby. After three days of sleeping in a bean field, listening to the last of gunfire and chaos, she heads to the river. It is at the river that she asks the spirits to help her survive . . . So begins the journey of a black woman walking into this new world called free. Ms. Richards is an award-winning writer, storyteller, and works with live musicians. She has been performing for the past ten years.

After each performance, there will be a post-performance discussion related to the issues explored in the performance.