Distant Relatives Panel LIVE at Nomadic Wax!
December 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment
The Good Dance – dakar/brooklyn
December 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment
The Good Dance – dakar/brooklyn
Part of the 2009 Next Wave Festival
Dec 16, 18 & 19 at 7:30pm
Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group and Compagnie 1er Temps
Choreographed by Reggie Wilson and Andréya Ouamba
Devoted to reinterpreting the movement languages of Africa and the Diaspora through a postmodern lens, Reggie Wilson creates fluid, grounded, and deeply expressive dances. Wilson and his Brooklyn-based company Fist & Heel Performance Group make their BAM debut with The Good Dance – dakar/brooklyn, a work representing the fruits of a collaboration with choreographer Andréya Ouamba and his Compagnie 1er Temps from Dakar, Senegal.
Combining Wilson’s formalist approach with Ouamba’s more improvisational style, the artists create a unique movement vocabulary as they draw from their families’ roots in the Mississippi Delta and the Congo to ask profound questions about migration and identity. Featuring an amalgam of African and African American music, movement, text, and vocals, The Good Dance explores the genealogy of culture to consider the influence—real and metaphorical—of Central African culture on world performance forms.
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
70min, no intermission
Tickets: $20, 30
Costume design by Naoko Nagata
Lighting design by Jonathan Belcher
Pioneer Hip-Hop Activist Waterflow to be featured in NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC LIVE’s “Distant Relatives”
December 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment
“Distant Relatives” Event Dec. 12 – A Conversation on the Deep-Rooted Connections and Evolution of Reggae and Hip-Hop; Moderated by MTV VJ Sway, Made Possible by VTech;
National Geographic Live will wrap up its fall event series with a groundbreaking evening featuring some of hip-hop’s most legendary figures. “Distant Relatives,” sponsored by VTech, will introduce hip-hop icon Nas and Grammy-winning artist Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley in a panel discussion about the complex history and under-examined relationship between reggae and hip-hop.
Moderated by MTV VJ Sway Calloway, “Distant Relatives” will feature a multitude of the indusry’s key contributors, including the infamous Kool Herc, Rakim, Daddy U-Roy, King Jammy, Jeff Chang, Pat McKay, Waterflow and DJ Red Alert.
International record label Nomadic Wax organized the African representation for the panel, bringing in Papa Moussa Lo a.k.a. Waterflow.
Waterflow is at the forefront of Wagëblë, a Senegalese hip-hop group formed in 1997, and an international “voice for the voiceless”. Wagëblë’s messages are universal, but their primary fous is to empower the youth of Africa, bringing politics to the head of the global hip-hop scene.
Waterflow has participated in numerous tours, shows, panels and workshops with Nomadic Wax, and maintains a presence in peace organizations like One People and at the schools and universities of Sénégal. As one of the world’s leading hip-hoppers using music as a platform for social change, Waterflow’s presence at “Distant Relatives” will add a historic, global perspective to an already established group of panelists.
The event will take place at National Geographic’s Grosvenor Auditorium in Washington D.C. on Saturday, Dec. 12, at 7 p.m. Tickets are sold out, but the event will be streamed live and broadcast online for free at Natgeomusic.net.
An open-mic party will be hosted at the popular Washington nightclub, Zanzibar, following the event. Ticket holders will receive free admission with proof of purchase. For more information visit www.zanzibar-otw.com.
Hip-hop has evolved from its expressive African roots, traveled through the Caribbean and American colonies by way of the slave trade, sprouted up in Jamaica, and cemented itself in the streets of New York City as the multi-billion dollar indusry and all-encompassing culture we know today. Discussions will revolve around the social implications hip-hop and reggae culture have on the global community, and explore the origins of a music that traces back to African sounds and expressions.
About Nomadic Wax – Nomadic Wax is a fair-trade international record label and production company dedicated to producing and promoting global urban music and media.
About National Geographic Live:
National Geographic Live is the performing arts division of the National Geographic Society. It features live concerts, films and dynamic presentations by today’s leading explorers, scientists, filmmakers and photographers, covering a wide range of topics, including exploration and adventure; wildlife and habitat conservation; natural phenomena; world cultures and ancient history; and relevant issues such as climate change and sustainability. Proceeds from speaker series help fund future National Geographic initiatives in field research, exploration and education. For more information, visit www.nglive.org.
About Nat Geo Music:
Nat Geo Music, a division of National Geographic Entertainment, was established in 2007 to inspire people to care about the planet through the power of music. Content developed by Nat Geo Music is utilized across all National Geographic platforms, including online media, radio, print media, film and television. The Nat Geo Music label, launched in January 2009, records, releases and promotes modern music from around the globe from a variety of artists and genres. The Nat Geo Music Channel programs music from every corner of the planet and showcases global legends, local stars and up-and-coming artists. For more information, visit www.natgeomusic.net.
About ‘Distant Relatives’:
Damian ‘Jr. Gong’ Marley and Nas, whose success as a duo was fermented in 2006 with the double-Grammy-Award-winning ‘Road to Zion,’ have created the album ‘Distant Relatives’ to explore and celebrate the correlations and connective history between reggae and hip-hop, paralleling both sounds to the motherland. ‘Distant Relatives’ is neither a remix nor a featured guest spot on a single track, but a fully collaborative effort opening new avenues of musical expression.
For interviews, media inquiries, or for information about other projects, etc. please contact Nomadic Wax via Ben Herson at (917) 225-8472 or ben@nomadicwax.com, and Magee McIlvaine at magee@nomadicwax.com.
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Words By : Amanda Macchia : mandee.macchia@gmail.com
