By 1961, Paris was not so gay for Josephine Baker.

The French still loved her, as they had since 1928, when she first wowed them with her risque song-and-dance cabaret act.

Poet Kwame Dawes provided the words for HOPE & Wisteria, two back-to-back performance pieces that explore different aspects of the black experience. But his contribution, vital as it is, is only one part of the puzzle. Each production is a multimedia piece using music, images and Dawes’ poetry.

A play tackling the HIV-AIDS epidemic could leave an audience feeling hopeless, but the enthralling performances of Sharisa Whatley and Marylynn Melissa Gwatiringa in In the Continuum humanize the crisis and even bring comic relief to the issue.

It was a privilege to witness Kim Wayans’ performance Thursday night in her autobiographical one-woman show, A Handsome Woman Retreats.

PHOTOS: National Black Theatre Festival Youth Talent Showcase

By parts comedy, mystery and drama, The Return puts a South African twist on the adage that you can’t go home again.

Like a good blues song, Ethel Waters’ life peaks and dips like ocean waves.

In Through the Night, a one-person show that wound up its run yesterday in Shirley Recital Hall at Salem College, Daniel Beaty took on a nearly impossible task. That he succeeded so memorably is a testament both to his frightening talents as a performer-writer and to the National Black Theatre Festival for having the good sense to showcase them yet again.

More than 400 years after it was first performed, William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark remains one of the most enduring plays ever written. And in Revenge of the King, it gets a hip-hop makeover by the Black Theatre Troupe from Phoenix, Az.

Imagine sitting in your living room and having a cup of tea with one of the most influential figures in American history.