Grantee Database
AfroSolo Theatre Company
Grant Year
2025-26
Grant Program
Impact Projects
Award Amount
$22,000.00
Project Description
With support from the California Arts Council, AfroSolo Theatre Company will offer “Black Women: Resilient,” a Black women-led multi-disciplined theatre-based project based on the five principles of Trauma-Informed Care – safety, choice, collaboration, trustworthiness, and empowerment – to create and perform solo performances based on their life experiences.
The program includes four 8-week sessions—two in the fall and two in winter/spring—offered both online and in-person at the Dr. George Davis Senior Center. Participants will create original solo pieces based on their lived experiences, building confidence, writing, and public speaking skills. The project will culminate in a public performance at the AfroSolo Theatre Festival in September 2026.
Organization Summary
AfroSolo was founded in San Francisco in 1993 as an act of cultural resistance and affirmation. What began as a focused intervention in solo performance has grown into one of the Bay Area’s longest running Black-led multidisciplinary arts organizations.
AfroSolo’s core programming is anchored by the annual AfroSolo Arts Festival, a year long multidisciplinary celebration of Black arts and culture. Each year’s programming is united by a central theme and structured around three signature components. AfroSolo in the Gardens is a free outdoor jazz concert at Yerba Buena Gardens featuring acclaimed Black vocalists and instrumentalists in an accessible public setting. AfroSolo in the Gallery is a curated visual arts exhibition showcasing five Black artists at the African American Center of SF’s Main Public Library. The Black Voices Performance Series is the centerpiece of the festival, presenting solo theatre, poetry, spoken word, and dance by African American and African Diasporan artists in culturally significant venues.
AfroSolo also operates year round community engagement and artist development programs. In 2025: STOP! SHOW! & CONTROL!: The Art of Surviving Police Stops, a theatre and community dialogue series designed to decrease harm during law enforcement encounters; Ongoing: Black Women: Resilient, a writing and performance workshop for Black women; senior writing workshops at the Dr. George W. Davis Senior Center; and storytelling initiatives that support formerly incarcerated Black men and other systemically marginalized participants.
During the 2026-2027 period, AfroSolo will include The Sovereign Self Project within its core program continuum as an artist development and performance lab. Informed by AfroSolo’s solo performance legacy, the project combines writing, embodiment, devised theatre, and collective authorship so Black adult participants can transform internalized racial narratives into original performance material. The work is designed as a developmental laboratory that strengthens voice, confidence, creative skill, and pathways to public presentation.
Organization
AfroSolo Theatre Company
Address
762 Fulton Street, Suite 307
Third Floor
San Francisco
94102
County
San Francisco
Region
Bay Area – San Francisco
Website
Congressional District
California's 12th congressional district
State Assembly District
District 17
State Senate District
District 11
