By BROOKE HENDERSON

Special to the South Florida Times

DAVIE — Broward County is earning a name for itself in this season of the arts through its Overheard Series. Story tellers, activists, poets, and more will stopover the South Campus Performing and Cultural Arts Theatre, 7200 Pines Blvd in Pembroke Pines, to share their gift.

Guests will discover the truth about icons from Frida Kahlo to Rodney King, hear the cold truth about HIV/AIDS, and absorb revealing stories of life as an afro-women, a man without his right hand, and a boy trying to save his mother from herself. Each event begins at 8 p.m. Cost is $10, or free with a Broward College I.D.

Frida: Unmasked — Nov. 8. Frida Kahlo is renowned as the harbinger of art, life and beauty. Many know of her relationship with chronic pain, the love affair with Leon Trotsky, the final overdose. But few are aware of her Jewish background. Theatre artist Deborah Sherman, a Columbian Jew, candidly explores this unchartered territory through the lens of Kahlo’s words, including Kahlo’s enigmatic bisexuality and her bond with her husband Diego Rivera. This piece pays homage to the icon, recognizing her pain- both real and imagined.

Roger Guenveur Smith: Rodney King — Nov. 13. Before the Kardashians, there was King. Smith seamlessly fuses facts and friction, motion and emotion into a gripping narrative for the man deemed “the first reality TV star.” From the harsh initial glare of the national spotlight as a victim of police brutality to his involuntary martyrdom that ignited the L.A. riots to his lonely death at the bottom of a swimming pool, the history and tragedy of Rodney King is illuminated in poetry. With grace and empathy, impossible questions will be asked.

David Harrell: A Little Potato Hard to Peel—Jan. 23. The journey began the day he was born without his right hand, and David Harrell will take the audience back in time. It starts as one man’s challenge to accept his own strengths and limitations, then grows into a compelling charge for us all. In the end the audience will be able to answer the question, “Are we truly more than the sum of our parts”?

Alexis Caputo: Afro-Diaries — Feb. 27. This production is a powerful exploration of women, politics, issues of gender, race, equity and equality in society. Caputo will also perform excerpts from her distinctive portfolio; a blend of theater, dance, choreography, music, poetry and spoken word, and the visual arts of painting and film/documentary. Excepts include Spit Boxing, The Waiting Room, The Lynching Eye, Raw Footage, SOULED OUT, and Truths Carved from the Belly, Woman of the Drum, The Proud Pilgrim, and Deconstruction & Deliverance.

 

Carlos D’Amore: No Parole — March 27. In this energetic adventure play, it is always a wild ride. D’Amore provides a hilarious look into the real life of his flamboyant, live-for-the-moment con artist mother. Through his eyes, the audience treks from Peru to New York as the extraordinary woman poses as a professor, daycare worker, even an immigration attorney. In No Parole, D’Amore is dragged along on all of her escapades and forced to act as her partner in crime when all he really wants to do is save her from herself.