Presented by Duniya Dance and Drum Company , Yerba Buena Gardens Conservancy, and the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, the African arts festival is a family-friendly celebration of live music and dance, featuring Bay Area ensembles representing different regions of the African diaspora.

 

A highlight of the festival will be a live preview of  "Raices et Résistance," an innovative collaboration between Duniya Dance and Drum Company and the Afro-Cuban Arenas Dance Company. This unique performance explores the vibrant, layered, and largely unknown socio-political relationship between Guinea, West Africa, and Cuba, forged by the transatlantic slave trade and the post-colonial cultural exchange that began in the 1960s.

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The Festival will also feature vendors offering a variety of traditional African food and goods for sale, including clothing, jewelry, waist beads, and art, as well as interactive activities for children such as dance and drum lessons and face-painting. The 5th Annual African Arts Festival takes place 11:00am-4:00pm on Saturday, September 7th at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco. Admission is free.