San Francisco International Arts Festival Announces Second Outdoor Program

San Francisco International Arts Festival has announced that the organization will present a week-long program of live, in-person and virtual performances, films and panel discussions from October 18-24, 2021 culminating in two-full days of outdoor events at Fort Mason on the weekend of Saturday-Sunday October 23-24.

The program will include engagements by members of Bons Tempos Theatre Company on tour from Mexico City with the US Premiere of Qaddafi's Cook, the English language World Premiere of, Performance in a Field by Pop-Up Theatre from St. Petersburg, Russia and concerts and presentations by more than two dozen Bay Area based artists and ensembles in the disciplines of dance, music, performance art and theatre.

The Festival website will be live with the full schedule, the box office will be open and tickets on-sale on Monday August 23 (one month from the date of this release and two months before the outdoor component of the program begins).

The program also marks the return of the SFIAF's popular Festival Passes. At last year's event members of the public were restricted to seeing a single show, which meant a lot of people had to make hard choices as to the performance they were going to attend. In 2021 audiences can, once again, sample several concerts in a day embracing multiple countries and cultures-- as has always been the Festival's intent.

In addition to the international companies, highlights include:

CHELLE & Friends led by composer and singer Michelle Jacques. Ms. Jacques has been commissioned by the Festival to create a body of work titled Daughters of the Delta about significant (but often forgotten) women composers and band leaders from Louisiana whose contemporary accounts documented the phenomenon of the Great Migration. Daughters will premiere in 2022 and Ms. Jacques will present excerpts on October 24.

The Festival debuts of:

• The all-women hip-hop crew, Mixd Ingrdnts Dance Company led by co-directors Shinobi Jaxx and Samara Atkins;
• Los Nadies (The Nobodies), the politically inspired Latin street band inspired by Eduardo Galeano's celebrated poem;
• Bay Area body percussion ambassador Keith Terry with his musical quintet Free Dive;
• Sandy Cressman with her Brazilian inspired ensemble Homenagem Brasileira;
• The gamelan / folk fusion ensemble Purnamasari finally celebrating the release of their two-year-delayed album, The Weaver;
• Online poetry interventions and intermissions curated by Kimi Sugioka.

In addition, ABADA Capoeira will use the occasion to celebrate the birthday of founding artistic director, Mestra Cigarra (Marcia Treidler) and there will be new works presented by solo artist Nkechi Emeruwa-Neuberg, performance installations by No-emi Judy Shintani, new choreography by Alyce Finwall and Natasha Adorlee of Concept o4. Plus new site-specific works by Jesse Bie of STEAMROLLER and Amy Downing Lewis of Push-Up-Something-Hidden.

The list of confirmed artists to date includes: ABADA Capoeira San Francisco, Abhinaya Dance Company of San Jose, Alyce Finwall Dance Theatre, Bons Tempos Theatre Company, CHELLE & Friends, Cinematic Theatre, Concept o4, Florante Aguilar, Free Dive (featuring Keith Terry), Homenagem Brasileira, Las Almas Piano & Bandoneon Duo, Los Nadies, Mission Hot Club, Mixd Ingrdnts Dance Company, Nkechi Emeruwa-Neuberg, No-emi Judy Shintani, Pop-Up Theatre, Purnamasari, Push-Up Something Hidden, Rosewater Vigilante, Sha Sha Higby, SISK Dance, STEAMROLLER Dance Company and Theatre Flamenco de San Francisco.

Festival Director, Andrew Wood said of the program, "We are delighted to be able to stage this year's program. We have been advocating for the safe return of live performing arts since the summer of 2020, so we are thrilled to be able to feature and provide income opportunities for so many local artists. Ironically it will be exactly one year since our landmark First Amendment Event at Fort Mason in October 2020. Who could have imagined how bizarre the interim 12 months would have been."

Finally and sadly, these are likely to be the final Festival program presented by SFIAF at Fort Mason. After a relationship spanning more than a decade since 2009, the Festival is seeking pastures new.

For more information visit www.sfiaf.org or 415-399-9554.

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