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Jan 21 2005
Afropulse Concert News
Volume 5 Issue 1
Other Newsletters
February 12 marks what I am betting is one of the strongest concerts of the year. Vusi Mahlasela, voice of oppression, will open with his heart wrenching acoustic guitar ballads. He was a vocal leader demonstrating the resistance of apartheid in South Africa through music. He was jailed for his efforts but received a deeper soul because of it, which shines through in his performances. He is the main reason I have tickets for the show. Ladysmith Black Mambazo are the headliners. They will have the big choir and soaring harmonies to fill the stage at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus. http://www.afropulse.com/music/concerts/2005-02-w2.html "Hotel Rwanda" is the current US release film that you must see. Don Cheadle is the master of the film, starring in a role that requires smooth, unruffled presence in the face of adversity. His calm demeanor belies the terror his family and country face, but in a truly African way captures the essence of dealing with tragedy. It is the first film of Africa that I have seen in the American cinema which shows everyday families living in middle class neighborhoods and worrying about the same things that are portrayed as American dreams: family and opportunity. What a resourceful and admirable man his character was, saving many lives in the face of daily death threats. Unfortunately, the American audiences will remember the unrest rather than the similarity of their lives to an African family's life.
The Francophone society of UCLA is screening "Tasuma", a comedy from Burkina Faso on Tuesday, Jan 25th at the James Bridges Theatre. The shows there are always free. On Wed, Feb 9th, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is featuring a documentary double header at the same location. "Asylum" is the story of a Ghanaian woman who escapes a forced marriage by seeking protection in the US; "The Lost Boys of Sudan" follows the relocation of Sudanese orphans to the suburbs of Houston.
http://www.afropulse.com/music/concerts/2005-01-w5.html Also in store for February is the annual Pan African Film Festival. Temple Bar has their website back online with a full HTML view of each month's events. Special thanks to them, because they seem to be the only venue in town that is supporting African music these days. This month they have Me'shell on bass with Black Gold, a Gambian singer Kadiatou Sibi, Cameroonian bassist Armand Sebal-Lecco, and Blay Ambolley's Ghanain Jazz Highlife each on different nights.
http://www.templebarlive.com/ Here's hoping that 2005 is a great year for all. jay |