Artists
Meklit Hadero (8 PM show at Memorial Hall)
Meklit Hadero is an Ethiopian American vocalist, songwriter, composer, and cultural activist. Hadero has founded and led many creative and artistic initiatives, from musical collaborations to performance series. She is a National Geographic Explorer, a TED Senior Fellow, and former Red Poppy Art House co-director. In addition, she has served as an artist in residence at New York University and Harvard University. See show details here.
Meklit Music
Video
Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba
Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba ecstatically explore the spiritual songs, stories, and rhythms of Senegal’s millennia-old Mandé culture. Cissokho comes from a long line of prominent griots entrusted to maintain a West African village’s genealogies and important ceremonial affairs through song. Cissokho and his band, Kaira Ba, effortlessly integrate the kora’s traditional sounds with a modern electric guitar rush and an exuberant rhythm section.
Kaira Ba Music
Video
Black Umfolosi
Black Umfolosi is a self-taught Acappella (Imbube) singing and traditional dance group formed in 1982 by school friends in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, who named themselves after the Umfolozi Omnyama River in South Africa- to where their ancestors can be traced. Specializing in imbube music, gumboot dance, and Zulu dance, Black Umfolosi has toured extensively nationally and internationally. Their performances are energy driven and thoroughly engaging, mixing a great gentleness of spirit and song with an exuberance in dance. Their famous Gumboot Dances showcase the traditional styles and rituals of the South African mining regions and are a particular crowd pleaser.
Black Umfolosi
Focus Dance Troupe
