The 7th Annual Living Word Festival takes place this week in San Francisco, where artists will discuss the theme "Race is Fiction" in a variety of workshops, panels, music and dance performances, as well as a live graffiti battle.

The festival features such artists as rapper and actor Mos Def, tap star Jason Samuels-Smith, and contemporary choreographer Jacinta Vlach. Since its inception in 2001, the Living Word Festival has hosted several hundred future-thinking, urban-centered performers, and presented its topics to more than 25,000 viewers.

Vlach will be performing this Friday at the Theater ArtAud at 7pm. She's presenting a "first draft" of a new dance theater work called "Animal Farm."

Vlach's flyer says, "Inspired by George Orwell's classic late 19th century novel of the same title, Animal Farm explores the infrastructure of contemporary politics and propaganda. In collaboration with cinematographer Bruce Francis Cole and beat composer Willie Adams, choreographer Jacinta Vlach will parallel the Orwellian vision of communist contradictions to present day corporate elections and how a Utopian society is made impossible by the corrupting nature of the very power necessary to create it. Using various dance forms including Step, Dancehall, Modern, and Ballet, Animal Farm brings together an eclectic fusion of fine art and working class sensibilities. At its essence Animal Farm poses the question: Is it possible to maintain one's
intrinsic values while rising to power?"

If you're in the San Fran area, check out the show at 450 Florida Street.