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One Mic: Hip Hop Culture Worldwide

The Kennedy Center, in collaboration with Hi-ARTS, producers of the Hip-Hop Theater Festival, presents One Mic: Hip-Hop Culture Worldwide, a festival celebrating this uniquely American art form. The festival highlights MCing, DJing, b-boying, and graffiti writing, the original four elements of hip-hop culture, alongside contemporary interdisciplinary work born of hip-hop aesthetics. The festival will showcase performances from internationally acclaimed artists such Hip Hop Legend Nas, Senegal's Ker Gui, Cabo Verde's Shokanti, Trail Blazer MC LYTE, South Africa's Black Noise and more.Ticketed and free performances and exhibitions explore the breadth and depth of hip-hop today.

Many events are free. Visit www.kennedy-center.org/onemic

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                               MEDIA CONTACTS: Angela Olson

December 20, 2013                                                                202-994-3087; olsona@gwu.edu

                                                                                                Nicole Carlotto

                                                                                                202-994-6466; nfcarlotto@gwu.edu

  GW Lisner Presents a Double Bill of Afropop Stars

Oliver Mtukudzi & The Black Spirits, and the Krar Collective

  Jan. 16, 2014

  EVENT:                      Oliver Mtukudzi & The Black Spirits with Krar Collective

  WHEN:                       Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014; 8 p.m.

                                    WHERE:                     The George Washington University

                                    Lisner Auditorium

                                    730 21st St., NW, Washington, D.C.

                                    Foggy Bottom-GWU Metro (Orange and Blue lines)

                                    TICKETS                    Tickets are $25, $27.50 and $32.

  MEDIA:                       Media interested in covering this concert should contact Angela Olson at

                                    202-994-3087 or olsona@gwu.edu.

                                    BACKGROUND:      

     GW Lisner presents a double bill of Afro-pop musicians Oliver Mtukudzi & The Black Spirits, and the Krar Collective. The program kicks off with Oliver Mtukudzi (Tuku), who was recently inducted into the Afropop Hall of Fame.  His music reflects influences from his native Zimbabwe, as well as the rhythms of African roots music. Tuku’s famous guitar work and vocals are accompanied by his band The Black Spirits, a mixed ensemble of young and veteran musicians. The second half of the program features the Krar Collective, dubbed by critics as “The Ethiopian White Stripes.”  The Krar Collective’s set will include a contemporary take on traditional Ethiopian music.

       Lisner Auditorium has long been known as a world music destination for D.C. audiences. Upcoming world music concerts include: the Soweto Gospel Choir, Feb. 12; Angelique Kidjo, Feb. 16; and Johnny Clegg, March 29.

  About GW Lisner Auditorium

     Built in 1943, GW Lisner Auditorium is an historic D.C. cultural institution. A vibrant cultural asset to the university and to the city, Lisner recently completed significant renovations with state-of-the-art sound and light upgrades, a new maplewood stage floor, re-upholstered seats, new carpets and other interior improvements. (See a time-lapse video of renovations.) Take a look at Lisner.  

  Information about the diverse lineup of vocalists, world music, rock, dance and discussions scheduled for the 2013-14 season at Lisner Auditorium is available online.

    -GW-

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"The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.".

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MEDIA: Kristin Guiter, (202) 288-5624 / kguiter@arlingtonva.us

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

VIDEOS:   Soleil Soleil video Meklit Hadero                   TV Interview of Meklit Hadero on PBS Arts Quick Hits    

MEKLIT HADERO Mesmerizing Ethiopian-American Vocalist (& TED Global Fellow) SATURDAY, JANUARY 18 / 8pm “[Meklit] sings of fragility, hope and self-empowerment… [with a] sensuous, gentle sound. She is stunning.”      – San Francisco Chronicle

ARLINGTON, VA—Blending traditional Ethiopian songs infused with jazz and an Afro-beat punch, vocalist Meklit Hadero has been featured widely on NPR, PBS and National Geographic. A “TED” Global Fellow, she is also the founder of the Arba Minch Collective of Ethiopian artists in Diaspora who collaborate with both traditional and contemporary artists in their homeland. The unique talents of the Ethiopian-born, U.S.-raised artist will be showcased when she returns to perform at Artisphere on Saturday, January 18 at 8 p.m.

“You may not have heard Meklit Hadero’s music before, but once you do, it’ll be tough to forget. Hadero’s sound is a unique blend of jazz, Ethiopia, the San Francisco art scene and visceral poetry; it paints pictures in your head as you listen.”                                - NPR’s Tell Me More

Meklit’s music influences range wide—from the jazz and soul favorites she grew up on; to the hip-hop and art-rock she loves; to folk traditions from the Americas and her forebears’ East African home. Emerging from her adopted hometown of San Francisco, Meklit erupted to national notice with the 2010 release of “On a Day Like this…” on Porto Franco Records. Hailed by Filter magazine for “[combining] New York jazz with West Coast folk and African flourishes, all bound together by Hadero’s beguiling voice,” her full-length debut brought Meklit’s music to a whole new audience. It also announced the arrival, as the San Francisco Chronicle has put it, of “an artistic giant in the early stages.”

The journey that brought Meklit to the Artisphere stage included many stops. Born in Ethiopia in the early 1980s, she grew up in Iowa, New York and Florida. After studying political science at Yale, she moved to San Francisco and became immersed in the city’s thriving arts scene.

  Named a TED Global Fellow in 2009, Meklit has served as an artist-in-residence at New York University, the De Young Museum, and the Red Poppy Art House. Meklit has also completed musical commissions for the San Francisco Foundation and for theatrical productions staged by Brava! For Women in the Arts.

  ###

  ABOUT ARTISPHERE   Artisphere connects artists and audiences through an eclectic mix of fresh, thought-provoking arts programming. We’re your spot for insight into the creative process and to engage in artistic adventures—from contemporary visual art, live music and theatre to new media, film and dance. Come explore, experience and engage—collide with art. Artisphere is located at 1101 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, Virginia, two blocks from the Rosslyn Metro (blue/orange) and within walking distance of Georgetown. Admission to Artisphere and all its visual art galleries is free; there is a cost for ticketed events. Artisphere is pleased to offer its patrons free parking evenings after 5:00 p.m. and all day on weekends. For more information about Artisphere, visit www.artisphere.com.

  Artisphere is managed by Arlington Economic Development and supported in part by the Rosslyn Business Improvement District, corporations, foundations and individuals.

  Address/Contact Artisphere 1101 Wilson Boulevard Arlington, VA 22209 Phone: (703) 875-1100 TTY: (703) 228-1855 Please note that Artisphere’s Spectrum Theatre is directly adjacent to Artisphere’s main building and is located at 1611 N. Kent Street.

Admission and Tickets Admission to Artisphere and its galleries is always free; there is a cost for ticketed events. Tickets for all events, unless otherwise noted, are available for advance purchase online through tickets.artisphere.com. Tickets are also available for purchase through the Box Office Call Center at (888) 841-2787.

Hours* Wednesday-Friday: 4:00 –11:00 p.m. Saturday: Noon – 11:00 p.m. Sunday: Noon – 5:00 p.m. Monday – Tuesday: Closed *Open later pending programmed event

Online Follow Artisphere on Facebook and Twitter. View Artisphere's YouTube page.

Free Parking Free parking with validation on evenings (after 5pm) and all day on weekends. For events at Artisphere (1101 Wilson) use the N. Kent Street garage entrance; validate at Artisphere’s Front Desk. For events at Artisphere’s Spectrum Theatre (adjacent to Artisphere and located at 1611 N. Kent) use the Arlington Ridge Road garage entrance. No validation needed for Spectrum Theatre events.

Metro Two blocks from Rosslyn Metro (blue/orange).

DC Circulator The Dupont-Georgetown-Rosslyn line drops two blocks away.

Accessibility Artisphere is wheelchair accessible. Assisted listening devices are available for seated events. Sign-language interpreters available; two weeks advance notice requested. The hearing impaired can learn about our upcoming programs by phone by dialing 711 (a national relay service) and requesting our calendar number (703) 875-1136. To access general information about Artisphere or to request a sign-language interpreter, request (703) 875-1100. The information will be provided by text.

###

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14 track album

Munit + Jorg second album, a studio production entitled “፪ ። 2”, was released in March 2013. The title represents the fact that it is the two of them that were the executive producers and artistic directors this project. It is also their second album and the blend of two cultures that has created their unique music! 

The long-awaited album contains 14 songs, of which 9 are originals and 5 are well-loved familiar tunes ranging from an updated classic by  legendary krar player, vocalist and actress Asnakech Worku, to children’s songs and an Ethio-jazz standard originally arranged by Ethiopian musical icon Mulatu Astatke. The combination of the new and old provides something for everybody, for those who crave to remember the good old days to those who crave new visions, styles and sounds in Ethiopian music.

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We are pleased to announce that Munit + Jorg are finally making their way to DC for their first US tour. Opening for them is DC's own Feedel Band. We'll also have a special DJ set by Toothpick. 

Get ready for a night of Ethio-soul and Ethio-Jazz and some funky grooves provided by our DJ. 

Munit + Jorg : Coming to America :: East Coast Tour

w/ Feedel Band + Dj set by Tooth Pick

Monday July 1st

Tropicalia // 2001 14th st NW (lower level)

Doors at 8pm

Adv Tix : $15 // DOS : $20 : http://munitjorgdc.splashthat.com/#!

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DrewCool goes IN on this mixtape. listen, download, reblog. Like what you hear? Come hear him spin at #AfricanaSummer this Sunday at Sankofa in DC. 2-8pm. 

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#AfricanaSummer is back this weekend. DC, spend your memorial day sunday with me and my friends at Sankofa. Good good. Great music. sKrong (yes, with a "k") drAnks (also yes, with an "a"). 

details on the flyer. come thru! 

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Sat 5.18 - Global Dance Party at @Artisphere w/ Nappy Riddem, ELIKEH and Black Masala. Tickets are $12 : http://bit.ly/GlobalDanceParty 

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It’s starting to get sticky in Washington DC and that means it’s time for music to migrate from the nightclub to the street. To bring people together in the name of celebrating African music and da...

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Infographic on Africans living in DC. We spend so much money in the city yet lack adequate resources and support from the government. 

There's a coalition that's working on changing that. Please read the Call of Action below and reblog, re-tweet, email this to your network!

URGENT CALL TO ACTION!

MOVEMENT TO STOP THE EROSION OF THE AFRICAN CULTRAL COMMUNITY IN DC

Greetings Family, 

 LET US MOVE FORWARD IN ONE SPIRIT!!! tomorrow, Tuesday, May 7 and Wednesday, May 8 to call, email and visit with DC City Council members to stress the same three issues:

  1. Stop the erosion and focus on the preservation and sustainability of the Africa cultural organizations in the District of Columbia. It cannot be done by organizations alone.

2. Provide Grant Making Authority for the Mayor's Office on African Affairs (OAA) equal to other DC government offices with similar mandates that will allow OAA to oversee technical assistance grants that permit African cultural organizations to maintain their presence in DC.

3. Provide immediate relief, including appropriate studio space for KanKouran,and engage in discussions with other organizations like the African Heritage Dancers and Drummers to ascertain their needs and options.

CALL, VISIT OR EMAIL MAYOR VINCENT GRAY AND DC COUNCIL MEMBERS LISTED BELOW

Phil Mendelson, Chair, DC City Council: (Tel: (202) 724-8032; Email: pmendelson@dccouncil.us (Key Person)

Marion Barry (Ward 8); Chair 202-724-8045 Email: mbarry@dccouncil.us

Kenyan McDuffy (Ward 5) 202-724-8028 Email: kmcduffie@dccouncil.us

Tommy Wells (Ward 6) 202-724-8072 Email: twells@dccouncil.us

Yvette Alexander (Ward 7) 202-724-8068 Email: yalexander@dccouncil.us

Jim Graham (Ward 1) 202-724-8181 Email: jgraham@dccouncil.us

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yes, this is how we do at Sonic Diaspora. Live in DC? Come check us out this Sunday as we kick off Africana Endless Summer Series at Sankofa. RSVP here

high energy mixtape. listen at your own risk. you've been warned. 

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In a world where people are increasingly skeptical of advertisements, consumers trust word of mouth referrals more than twice as much as paid ads. But as marketers, getting others to spread the word about our brands isn’t as easy as we’d like – until now.

Creating highly shareable content...

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Sonic Diaspora is back with some fresh stuff for your summer. 

Africana Endless Summer Series kicks off Sunday 5.12

at Sankofa Cafe (2714 Georgia Ave NW)

We're going to be there every other sunday with some of your favorite DJs from Philly, Chicago, DC, NY and ATL.

Strictly Positive Vibrations and Libations. 

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"we should all be feminists". chimamanda ngozi adichie speaking on gender, culture and how to unlearn it all. 

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brilliant. really well written.

Drake and East African Girls

I am an East African Girl. A couple years ago, one of my friends told me that being an East African meant I’m not really black. A visibly mixed-race girl with a “high yellow” complexion and sandy brown hair telling me I’m not black didn’t sit well with me. I wanted to tell the girl, in the words of CB4, I’m black y’all. I’m black like the back of Forrest Whitaker’s neck. I’m black like Snoop Dogg’s lungs. I’m black like some Helvetica font against a white backdrop trying to sell you stuff.

I’m a black woman. But my nose, my loosely coiled curls and my fivehead make me black in a way that extends the colorism debate, creating this hierarchy of aesthetic value where I’m not just black, I’m also acceptably black.

Back in the day, white people went to East Africa to find Iman, their acceptable black girl. When white people did this, former Essence Editor-in-Chief Marcia Gillespie called East African model Iman Abdulmajid “a white woman dipped in chocolate,” highlighting Iman’s acceptable blackness while also lamenting the fact that black women’s beauty is often measured in their proximity to whiteness.

Two decades later, Bill Cosby in his “Ask the Ethiopian” speech said African Americans should aim higher than menial jobs because menial jobs are for “Ethiopians,” i.e. immigrants, i.e. The Other. Marcia and Bill emphasized the otherness of East Africans like we’re not black, too, which is why I’d like to tell Bill: please let us, East Africans, have all the menial jobs. But in accordance with Marcia Gillepsie’s criticism, make sure those shitty jobs aren’t jobs where the way we look will inspire racists to pat us on the back and deem us more respectable or better than other black people. This is what the fashion industry notably did this with Iman. 

East African Girls, Iman included, take part in a system that marginalizes and limits other forms of aesthetic blackness. Every image of Iman or Yasmine Warsame or Liya Kebede reinscribes white beauty through black beauty. Reinscribing white beauty through black beauty has always been with us, but in recent years it has inspired rappers to reference East African Girls like we’re the 49th Law of Power, predictably denigrating black women who lack acceptable blackness in the same tired ways.

The first rapper I remember rhyming about East African Girls was Nas. In “The Set Up,” a song from Nas’ “It Was Written” album, Nas raps, “They thought the hoes were Somalian.” The “hoes” in question are “two fly bitches, Venus and Vicious.” On his latest album, “Life Is Good,” Nas references East African Girls again, in a party song called “Summer” ft. Miguel and Swizz Beats.

East African Girls have been referenced in several other songs: Wale’s “No One Be Like You” (“Somalian women, Ethiopian queens/Never could tell the difference, I just know that you mean”) and “Hold Yuh Remix” (“I’m lookin’ for an Ethi-Somali here beside me”); Tinie Tempeh’s remix of Drake’s “The Motto” (“My bitch booty bigger than a fucking Eritrean”); Common’s “Celebrate” (“Exotic broads lobbyin’/Spanish, Somalian”); Drake’s “Where To Now” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Poetic Justice” ft. Drake.

In “Where To Now,” a track off Homecoming Season, Drake’s second mixtape, Drake spits sweet nothings about an East African Girl, over a J. Dilla beat. Drake desires the East African Girl (perhaps as much as he desires getting ghost head from Aaliyah): “Ethiopian girl, Ethiopian girl, with yo long curly hair and yo big ass bootay.” 

In “Poetic Justice” by Kendrick Lamar ft. Drake, Drake does it again: “I was trying to put you on game, put you on a plane/Take you and your mama to the motherland/I could do it, maybe one day/When you figure out you’re gonna need someone/When you figure out it’s all right here in the city/And you don’t run from where we come from.” But couched between another lazy description of a faceless, nameless East African Girl, and Drake’s assertion that East African Girl is busy ignoring him for another man, is a story of afrodiasporic identity, which is what sets Drake apart, narratively, from other rappers.

While Drake’s definition of black beauty may seem limited, his definition of black identity is what Touré would call post-black, and Michelle Wright would call postwar diasporic black. Drake’s flow in “Poetic Justice” facilitates a broader discussion of black identity and black authenticity, a discussion that implicitly critiques Marcia Gillespie’s “white woman dipped in chocolate” statement, positing that East African Girls “come from” the same city Drake does, Toronto. The underlying message is Drake considers us black like him. Drake, as a black Jewish man whose Degrassi character Jimmy Brooks dated a fake East African Girl, occupies a similarly hybrid space like East African Girls. For many East African Girls, that feels like poetic justice because the definition of ‘authentically black’— descendants of Africans brought here as slaves— is a limited definition that doesn’t even include Barack Obama, much less East African Girls.

When one does a cursory Twitter search of Drake’s “East African Girl” lyrics, fetishistic things are tweeted by Drake fans, most notably East African Girls themselves. “Poetic Justice” functions, on some level, as a false empowerment anthem, a Song For East African Girls. There is a pleasure many East African Girls I know derive from hearing men, particularly Drake, talk about us to a larger supposedly authentically black population. A pleasure teenage me would no doubt indulge in, too. It’s a reiteration of our own myth that when God created humanity, he started with the Somalis, Ethiopians and Eritreans first— borne out of us is whiteness and blackness. It’s unscientific but when you’re a teenage girl, especially a young East African Girl, there’s no science needed to justify supremacy or fetish and where those two things interplay.

East African girls are generally not mixed race, yet this idea that we are is deeply embedded in the minds of white racialists, leading some to believe we’re an entirely different, special, exotic breed of people. This goes back to the pseudoscience of Carleton S. Coon’s “The Races of Europe.” Anthropologists and white racialists, which are often one in the same, have been claiming we are of majority Arab or white or “Afro-Asiatic” descent for years. And while that isn’t the sentiment of Drake or Nas lyrics, our alleged mixedness underpins their lyrics by virtue of the sheer selectiveness of the East African Girls shouted out in hip-hop lyrics. When Drake or Nas reference East African Girls, it can be easily inferred that they mean Cushites representing the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia). “Cushite,” a term derived from “Cush” of the Hebrew Bible and Quran, is in reference to our shared “Afro-Asiatic” language classification, which is often mistakenly typified as a shared racial identity. This little mistake triggers a big mistake: the conflation of biology and genetics with race and ethnicity as a social fact, which reifies the racial categories.

One of the most popular threads on Niketalk.com, a sneakerhead forum, is called, “African Women Appreciation Thread: ‘Young East African Girl/Thoroughbreds.” A commenter in the forum who goes by Macc E-Money claims he was deprived of “beautiful African women,” and wasn’t able to procure a Somali “thoroughbred” until he left his home state of Michigan. Macc E-Money references Drake’s “Young East African Girl” lyric, presenting black beauty in a limited way and privileging East Africans over other Africans while passing it off as an appreciation of African beauty.

The lines between acceptance, fetishism and exoticism are blurry. It would seem that the primary distinction between black (North American) men, East African men and white men exoticizing East African Girls is that for many white men and even some East African men, the exoticism is firmly rooted in a belief in the racial categories—a belief that race is biological when it is in fact social, and a fetishization and romanticism of our Arab World ties and colonial past. For a lot of black men like Drake, it’s way less insidious. At best, it’s a misguided reinscription of the white standard of beauty through acceptably black women. At worst it’s intra-racial discrimination. Usually, it’s a combination of all these things but if representing, hyping and esteeming women with acceptable blackness is good for all girls—Trickle Down Acceptability, if you will— then we’d probably live in a post-racial world where fairies and dragons and Tupac populated the earth.

Sadly, we live in a racist, sexist world where black men and white people can hurt black women in the same ways. Black women hurt black women, too, but differently: we don’t have each other’s back. Those that see themselves represented in the lyrics and the videos, accept it without questioning it. And those who lament the overrepresentation of East African Girls, frequently fail to realize that the “Young East African Girl(s)” of Drake’s lyrics are like all women of color; they are objectified and male-gazed upon in hip-hop. These women are mythic, “exotic” generalized by rappers as the ambASSadors of their ethnicity or nationality. We are an idea rooted in a scant and skewed example— a token— from Drake’s own lived experience, mixed in with a little bit of mainstream imagery and a history that isn’t even our own.

Perhaps my own cousin, Leyla who Drake once bought lunch for, is Drake’s East African Girl. Maybe his East African Girl is my friend, Ayan that Drake met while clubbing. Maybe his East African Girl is like Helen Gedlu or Lola Monroe. Drake’s East African girl, whoever she is, does not account for of all of us. Our varied hip-to-waist ratios and hair textures and booties (or lack thereof) and cultures make us more nuanced than whatever Drake or anyone else needs to believe.

The overepresentation of East African Girls cannot be separated from broader media representations of acceptable blackness. Broader representations that, in the 90s, brought us acceptable black women like Tatyana Ali, Stacey Dash, Chilly of TLC, etc.; the biggest face being Scandal’s Kerry Washington. It’s no wonder Kendrick Lamar believes there is a balance issue. Kendrick cast Brittany Sky, a black woman, as his love interest in the video for “Poetic Justice.” Brittany Sky is a black woman who is neither East African or light-skinned, however she is every bit as acceptably black as Iman. It’s Drake’s love interest—or rather, sex interest— who is actually balancing representation. But she is who Drake is having sexually for that night, not who, as the video and the lyrics suggest, Drake wants; Drake wants the East African Girl he’s talking to on the phone. Drake is talking on the phone with the East African Girl while his sex interest is splayed across the bed, naked. Thus, even within the video there is a hierarchy. There’s a specific depersonalization and objecthood of the non-acceptable black woman’s body. The non-acceptable black woman is granted zero agency, and rendered the least desirable in a video that is supposedly progressive.

There is nothing progressive about acceptable blackness. There is, however, something progressive about Drake and the internal conversation he seems to be having in his music. When Drake raps about this East African Girl as he is talking to this East African Girl on the phone, he is also talking with other black people. He is having a conversation with Marcia Gillepsie and Bill Cosby and me and that girl I used to be friends with who said I wasn’t black. This conversation requires context that can’t be reproduced for an American audience with a limited knowledge of the nuances of blackness. This conversation cannot translate externally, hence the phone. The video begs for the consistency of our transmuted presence but the direct presence of an East African Girl wouldn’t make sense to an audience that doesn’t understand Drake’s specific location in the diaspora, what diaspora is, or who East Africans are.

This piece can be found on The Feminist Wire.

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good gawd! chills all up and down my spine. zap mama + @MiguelAtwdFrgsn. worth every sec of the 12:16 min vid: