[Wadabo_updates] FREE AFRICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL IN PROVIDENCE, SEPTEMBER 19-20

THE BASICS:

Come to Providence SEPTEMBER 19-20, 2008 for a two-day African Music Festival that will include workshops, lectures, and performances of music of Africa and the diaspora. Special focus will be given to the role and presence of African music at Brown University over the past twenty years. The festival will coincide with Professor Martin Obeng's twentieth year teaching at the university and with the completion of the James T. Koetting online archive of field recordings made by the late Brown professor Koetting in the 1970s (Orwig Music Library and the Center for Digital Initiatives). 

SOME MORE DETAILS:

The festival will draw connections between African and Ghanaian traditions and a broader dispora of African-derived music making. Presentations and performances will focus on the interrelationship between African traditions, Afropop, jazz, and funk. Hearing the music of traditional artists back to back with music that intertwines jazz and Afropop with traditional elements will help audiences understand the aesthetic and cultural similarities between African diasporic musics. 

The festival will feature Kwaku Kwaakye (Martin) Obeng, Midawo Gideon Foli Alorwoyie, Carl Atkins, Bill Lowe, Wes Brown, Kwabena Boateng, Sarah Botchway, and others. Musicians will discuss the multiple roles they play as artists, composers, educators and scholars, and lead performances and workshops. Workshops and lectures include: a seminar on Ghanaian drumming, dancing, and singing that will engage participants in dialogue about the place of African musics in the contemporary world; a lecture with Professor Carl Atkins, a renowned jazz performer and scholar on processional and parade music in the diaspora, beginning in Africa and culminating in modern manifestations like the marching and show bands found in present-day, historically black colleges and universities; a reading by renowned Ghanaian author Ama Ata Aidoo; and a full-band performance led by Martin Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng. 

In addition to celebrating the dynamic forms of African music and the unique contributions of Martin Obeng, Freeman Donkor, and James Koetting to Brown University's African music program over the past 20 years , the festival will provide a framework from which to present the launch of Brown's online James T. Koetting Archive, a digitized collection of African field recordings by Koetting. The archive highlights Kasena music from Northern Ghana, a type of music that has received little scholarly attention since Koetting's work. 

SCHEDULE:

(All events are FREE and are located at Brown University. Campus maps can be found at: http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/Facilities_Management/maps.php)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19

12PM KOETTING DIGITAL COLLECTION PRESENTATION 

Lecture and demonstrating of the James T. Koetting digital collection (Grant Recital Hall)

3:45PM GHANAIAN DRUMMING AND DANCING WORKSHOP AND PANEL

With Gideon F. Alorwoyie, Kwabena Boateng, Samuel Nyamuame, Sarah Botchway, and Martin Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng (Salomon Hall)

5PM GHANAIAN DRUMMING AND DANCE ENSEMBLE REUNION 

Reunion for current and former students (Salomon Hall)

8PM TRADITIONAL GHANAIAN DRUMMING AND DANCING PERFORMANCE

Reception to follow (Salomon Hall)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20

3:30PM LECTURE AND FILM BY DR. CARL ATKINS

A lecture/presentation on processional and parade music in the African Diaspora, featuring the film "Didn't We Ramble On" (Salomon Hall)

8PM READING BY GHANAIAN AUTHOR AMA ATA AIDOO, PERFORMANCE BY MARTIN KWAKU KWAAKYE OBENG AND BAND 

Reception to follow (Salomon Hall)

QUESTIONS? 

Contact Jori at writetojori [at] gmail [dot] com

_____________________________

Jori Ketten • The ArtsLiteracy Project

jori@artslit.org • http://www.artslit.org