San Diego Reader

At first it looks as if you walked into a club, instead of Mo`olelo's latest offering. DJ Double D hosts a dance, punctuated by a slashing disco beat. He eliminates dancers until only people of Iranian and Guatemalan roots can remain. A man in a red short-sleeved shirt, Levis, and black Converse All-Stars continues. And for 80 minutes, much of which he dances, Robert Farid Karimi - "spoken-word artist" and national slam-poetry champion - recalls his youth as a "mixed race" person. Wherever he turned he hit walls: going to Guatemala City at age eight and being labeled a "gringo"; the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, which made him a "front to unite against" at school. Even his parents took sides. Karimi's going back becomes a quest, literally to find his voice. He explores threads of styles, songs, and dances; he tries them on, snips here, stretches there, saves parts, rejects others, and learns not to "follow everybody's moves." Throughout he's an engaging narrator and, with some exceptions, DJ Double D's "soundscape"'s as agile as Karimi. The exceptions: at times the music drowns out Karimi's voice. It shouldn't, because he has a lot to say. 619-342-7395.

March 5 through March 21