Don’t get Andrew Wood started on the travails of obtaining visas for foreign artists.
The voluble Englishman is the founder and artistic/executive director of the San Francisco International Arts Festival, which infuses the Mission District with dance, music, theater, circus arts and more from April 29-May 10. This year’s program features more than 50 artists from nine different countries, with a global reach that’s climbing back to pre-pandemic levels.
But due to the torturously slow, expensive, and opaque process to acquire visas for performing artists several much-anticipated events have been cancelled, like the California premiere of the evening-length modern dance duet “Impasse” featuring Nigerian Ireland-based dancer and choreographer Mufutau Yusuf, and Ivoirian Germany-based choreographer Kôdrô Aoussou Evry’s “Ici N’Est Pas La Paroisse (This Is Not The Parish).”
“If we were bringing Afrikaners it would really easy,” Woods said with a bitter laugh, referring to the Trump Administration’s welcome mat for white South Africans. Even in better times, the visa process for rising artists presented particular challenges.
“The artists we get have just made it in their own countries,” he said. “They haven’t toured yet. It’s always difficult to get visas, especially when artists are coming for the first time and you have to prove their of international quality.”
The State Department roadblock is just the latest hurdle the SFIAF has faced since Gov. Newsom’s stay-at-home order in March 2020 shuttered in-person performances. Last year, the National Endowment For the Arts pulled funding from numerous Bay Area arts organizations, including the SFIAF just as the festival was opening.
But in its third season returning to its origins in the Mission after years of presenting at Fort Mason, the SFIAF is more deeply integrated into the neighborhood than ever. “Every year we get a better sense of how we can operate,” Wood said. “We added Masonic Hall this year, and Mission Bowling called us about next year. We’re still in regular venues. We’ve got five performances at Dance Mission, and we’re back at the Marsh.”
Many of the festival’s events transform neighborhood establishments into opportunities for intimate art experiences, like Muddy Waters Coffee & Lounge, where Brazilian guitarist, vocalist and activist Bia Ferreira holds forth Sunday, May 10. She’s a powerhouse performer who has become a major exponent of Black lesbian feminism in a country where gay, lesbian and trans people are often targeted with deadly violence.
Ferreira preaches a gospel of self-love and self-determination set to an intoxicating array of Afro-Brazilian and Caribbean grooves, including a recent immersion in reggae. She’ll be playing several new pieces as well as material from her breakthrough 2019 album “Igreja Lesbiteriana, Um Chamado” (Lesbitarian Church, A Calling).
“Every concert is a meeting of the Lesbitarian church,” she said in a recent call from São Paulo. “We talk about technologies to keep ourselves alive. It’s a critique and an embrace, receiving people to be who they are. It’s about human rights and equal rights. I don’t care if you’re lesbian, gay straight, Christian or Hare Krishna.”
The majority of the performers featured at the festival are based in the Bay Area, representing the far-flung diversity of the region’s arts scene. With most performances lasting an hour or less, and few tickets costing more than $30, SFIAF is eminently accessible and affordable.
For Wood, the point isn’t just to bring the world to the Mission. It’s to transform the way people experience the neighborhood, “finding spaces people wouldn’t associate with theater and presenting an immersive event,” he said. “The interest in being in the neighborhood is bringing in people to play, going to places they wouldn’t ordinarily go to, seeing things in ways they wouldn’t normally see there.”
The festival’s offerings can be a little overwhelming. I’m recommending a show for every night the program is active, each in a different venue.
Cirque Kirkasse “Santé!”
Wednesday, April 29-May 1, 7 p.m. Cesar Chavez Elementary School Playground. $20-$30
The recently launched Quebecois circus company presents a kinetic acrobatic production that takes place on the back of their custom-built truck.
InkBoat “Clouds from a Crumbling Giant: our wild shining days”
Thursday, April 30-May 2, 8 p.m. May 3, 3 p.m. Z Space. $20-$30
The ever-bracing Mission-based Butoh-inspired troupe explores the liminal spaces between incarnations, a recurring dream laced with Paul Simon’s “A Hazy Shade of Winter.”
John Calloway’s Afro Filipino Project “New Voices”
Friday, May 1, 7:30 p.m. Monkeybrains. $30
The educator and Latin jazz maestro John Calloway showcases four Afro Filipinx next-generation artists–Ting Alvarez, Umali Horne, Jasmine Miller, and Jojo Thompson–accompanied by Calloway’s combo.
Dandelion Dancetheater / Wandering Ensemble “Parable of Belonging – Cycle 1”
Saturday, May 2, 2:30 & 5:30 p.m. Ruth’s Table. $5-$40
An interdisciplinary performance envisioning possible futures for the Bay Area inspired by Octavia E. Butler’s dystopian masterpiece “Parable of the Sower” and adrienne maree brown’s “Emergent Strategy.”
The Oneness Collective “Oneness – The Blossoming”
Sunday, May 3, 6 p.m. Dance Mission Theater. $30-$40
A dance celebration of unity created by six artistic directors of Bay Area companies devoted to six classical Indian dance traditions, including Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Manipuri, Mohiniattam, and Odissi.
Belville Productions “Rio Journal”
Thursday, May 7, 7 p.m. and May 9, 2 and 8 p.m. Theatre of Yugen. $20-$30
A joint US/Brazilian production, “Rio Journal” is based on the reportage, letters, and diaries of a young American journalist broadcasting from Brazil during the military dictatorship 1963-1971, evoking a harrowing time set to a samba score.
Steamroller Dance Company “Bespoke”
Friday, May 8, 7 p.m. Masonic Lodge Banquet Room. $5-35
An immersive tribute to the American musical featuring dancers guiding the audience through a pastiche of musical genres, “Bespoke” features the first collaboration between the company and the local community choir Singers of The Street, a group of Bay Area singers, artists and musicians who are or have been homeless.
Rhonda Sauce “This Must Be the Place”
Saturday, May 9, 8 p.m. Fingersnaps Media Arts. $35-$40
Accompanied by first-call keyboardist Adam Klipple, lustrous Bay Area singer/songwriter and guitarist Rhonda Sauce premieres a set of original songs, revealing her new incarnation as a performing artist.
Melody of China with Amir Etemadzadeh & Aydin Shaterian “A Night of Chinese and Persian Music”
Sunday, May 10, 7 p.m. An Evening of Chinese and Persian Music” $17-$30
Melody of China, the Bay Area’s leading purveyor of traditional, folkloric and contemporary music, teams up with two masters of Persian classical music for a program of traditional repertoire and new works created for this East-meets-East collaboration.