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Nawal's performance was outstanding. She is a very talented musician, performer, singer, and multi instrumentalist. Her music is hypnotic and beautiful, her voice is deep and haunting. The performance was very engaging and I was even inspired to buy one of her CDs.

Written on May 29 2007

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More Information About AfroSolo International Artists: Nawal, Yossi Vassa, SuAndi, Marc Bamuthi Joseph

Description

May 24 at 8:00pm:
AfroSolo International Sample Evening
The AfroSolo International Sample Evening is a compendium of excerpts from the four solo artists who will be performing in the AfroSolo International program. SuAndi will perform excerpts from The Story of M, Yossi Vassa will perform excerpts from It Sounds Better in Amharic, Marc Bamuthi Joseph will perform segments of his new work and Nawal will perform a 20-minute music set.

May 25 at 7:00pm; May 26 at 9:30pm
SuAndi: The Story of M
Commissioned by the Institute for Contemporary Arts in 1995, The Story of M has received great critical acclaim in both the United States and Great Britain. The Story of M is a moving tribute to the life and death of a mother who gave her all for her daughter. SuAndi talks of the difficulties her mother faced in raising two black children in racially charged white England in the 1950s and 1960s. SuAndi touches on racism, poverty and sacrifice in a way that has the audience laughing one minute and on the verge of tears the next. Born of Nigerian and British heritage, SuAndi has been a performance poet since 1985 and has worked in many different art forms, including poetry, prose and teaching jazz ballet.

May 25 at 9:30pm; May 26 at 11:00pm
Nawal: Music of the Comoros Islands
As a Muslim-born African woman who does not always adhere to traditional socio-religious codes, Nawal has faced many challenges in her career, yet she remains strong in her message and philosophy. Between traditional and contemporary, Nawal’s 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. Nawal sings in Comoran, Arabic, French and English. An acoustic roots-based fusion, her music is rhythmically compelling and beautifully lyrical. Known as the “Voice of Comoros,” Nawal is also the first Comoran woman singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist to give performances in public. Nawal originally comes from the Comoros Islands, also known as the “Perfume Islands” or “Islands of the Moon,” located in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of Africa. She has gained international praise as a self-produced artist with her powerful voice and socially progressive commentary. She has performed professionally for 20 years, and as a multi-instrumentalist she plays the gambusi (Comoran banjo-like instrument, cousin to the oud), the daf (Iranian frame drum), and guitar, among others. Nawal is currently performing and touring as part of a trio (with Idriss Mlanao on contrabass and Melissa Cara Rigoli on mbira and percussion). For more information, go to www.nawali.com.

May 26 at 4:30pm; May 27 at 7:00pm
Yossi Vassa: It Sounds Better in Amharic
It Sounds Better in Amharic is actor/comedian Yossi Vassa’s personal account of a 440-mile journey on foot from Ethiopia to a refugee camp in Sudan and then, finally, to Israel. Vassa was born in 1975 in the village of Uzava, in northern Ethiopia; and in 1984 he and his family were part of Operation Moses, in which thousands of Ethiopian Jews were resettled in Israel. It Sounds Better in Amharic stages poignant moments -- from the journey, dreams, traditions, and lives of Ethiopian immigrants -- and opens an often hilarious window to the immigrants' cross-cultural encounter with the realities of modern Israeli society. “If there is one piece that literally embodies the Festival’s theme of the African Diaspora, it would have to be It Sounds Better in Amharic,” said Thomas R. Simpson, AfroSolo Artistic Director. “Yossi Vassa treats the subject of forced displacement alternately with a quiet poignancy and an uproarious humor that all audiences can find a way to relate to.”

May 26 at 7:00pm; May 27 at 4:30pm
Marc Bamuthi Joseph: The Spoken World
Representing the Bay Area, internationally renowned spoken word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph is one of an emerging class of hip-hop theater artists who combines a variety of art forms in his work. He has been a featured artist on Russell Simmons' “Def Poetry” on HBO, is a National Poetry Slam champion, a Broadway veteran and an inaugural recipient of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship. He uses theater; West African, tap and modern dance; spoken word poetry; and live music to stretch the bounds of traditional hip-hop and create a new forum for expressive performance art. His performances at SFIAF will feature excerpts from his evening-length works “Word Becomes Flesh” and “Scourge,” as well as new material from the 2008 premiere “The Breaks.”

About AfroSolo Theatre Company

AfroSolo Theatre Company's mission is to nurture, promote, and present African American and African Diaspora art and culture through solo performances and the visual arts. Since 1993, the company has provided a forum to give an authentic voice to the diverse experiences of black people in the Americas. Through art, the company brings people of different ethnicities together to explore and share the human spirit that binds us all.

About the Ticket Supplier: San Francisco International Arts Festival

The mission of the San Francisco International Arts Festival is to promote the City as a major center of creativity and exchange by inviting artists and audiences from around the world to an international celebration dedicated to exploring collaborative projects that push the boundaries of artistic excellence, genre, culture and human understanding.