Going Solo

In Walkin' Talkin' Bill Hawkins, W. Allen Taylor goes looking for Cleveland, Ohio's first black DJ, but Taylor's reasons for wanting to know about Hawkins extend beyond the man's cultural significance; Hawkins was also Taylor's father. In this one-man show, Taylor fleshes out Hawkins with interviews, personal remembrances, and music, portraying the many people who knew his father. On opening night of the sixth annual Afro Solo Arts Festival, which speaks to the experiences of black Americans through solo performance, Taylor joins dancer/choreographer Aisha Jenkins (What Possessed You to Say That?, an ode to men who praise, plead, and perform for female passers-by), and Alison Wright, whose comic travelogue Ms. Thang, Whatch' Doin' in Ireland? picks up after the last installment, when Ms. Thang was kidnapped in Paris.

The two-week festival will also include a visual arts exhibit (opening at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Z Space Studio, 10th St. & Mission, S.F.), a hip-hop showcase (3 p.m. Aug. 21 at Theater Artaud, 450 Florida), and the music concert "Elements of Soul II: Blues, Jazz, Gospel, and Spirituals," with performances by the Marcus Shelby Trio, Emmit Powell & the Gospel Elites, and Lady Mem'fis. Afro Solo officially begins at 11 a.m. Saturday with the community forum "Black Artists on AIDS: Saving Lives, Raising Awareness, and Inspiring Hope." It's held at the Center for African and African-American Art and Culture, 762 Fulton (at Webster), S.F. Admission is free. The opening night show begins 8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 18, at Theater Artaud, 450 Florida (at 17th Street), S.F. Admission is $12.50-16.50. For a full schedule of events, call 771-AFRO or see www.afrosolo.org.

-- Heather Wisner