Kasumai Africa is coming to The Triple Door Main stage on November 15th at 7:30pm with some exciting West African music and dance.

This year Thione Diop brings a collaboration of traditional African and American jazz performers. The first set will be traditional African music and dance. The second set is experimental Afro-jazz fusion.

Musicians:

The Spirit of West Africa Festival is an extraordinary event that takes place at the Seattle Center every year. This festival, produced by local Senegalese griot musician, Thione Diop, showcases the sizzling talents of West African musicians, dancers, and artists in the Seattle area and from around the country and brings the community together to celebrate the rich culture and heritage of the West African people.

Welcome!

Experience the  joyful and colorful Spirit of West Africa through the rhythms, melodies and dance of our traditional performers, lively marketplace, gallery of ancient artifacts, films by African directors, African textile display, children’s Ashanti print making, and a fashion show where the beauty of Africans and their creative clothing is accompanied by the ancient rhythms of the drum. Feel and see the connection with the irrepressible spirit of the motherland as it is expressed in Africans everywhere.

Thione Diop
Spirit of West Africa Festival Director

Main Stage

12:00-1:00 Congolese dance workshop by Makeda Ebube featuring live drumming

1:30-2:00 Yah Amponsah and Anokye, Ghana, Traditional Ashanti Drumming featuring Mohammed Shaibu, 

                         Kofi Anang, Etienne Cakpo & Greg Cambell, Sanai Anang & Ama Anang

2:10-2:40 Zambuko Marimba Ensemble, Zimbabwe, by Sheree Sereste

2:50-3:20  Senegalese Sabar Drumming: Mapathe, Gora, and Thione Diop featuring Fama Ndiaye & Adama Dabo

3:30-4:15  De Cajon, Afro-Peruvian

4:30-5:10  Best of Both Worlds Fashion Show, by Nansare Consolata

5:15-5:55  Thione Diop and Yeke Yeke, featuring Etienne Cakpo

6:05-6:40 Traditional Music from Guinea featuring Naby Camara, Abdoulaye Sylla, Manimou Camara, Karim 
Koubassa & Lamine Keita

7:00-8:15   Okropong, Obo Addy, Traditional Drum and Dance from Ghana

SOWA Flier 2012

Spirit of West Africa Festival

The Festival

The Spirit of West Africa Festival is an extraordinary event that takes place at the Seattle Center every year.  This festival, produced by local Senegalese griot musician, Thione Diop, showcases the sizzling talents of West African musicians, dancers, and artists in the Seattle area and from around the country and brings the community together to celebrate the rich culture and heritage of the West African people.

Performers

Experience the excitement, richness and beauty of West Africa through live music, dance, art, film, exhibits, fashion show, marketplace and more at Seattle Center Festal: Spirit of West Africa, May 7th, 12 p.m. – 8 p.m, in Center House.

This lively and colorful festival features traditional performances by world-class griots artists from Senegal, Ghana, Guinea, Benin, Gambia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Liberia.

West Africa is the motherland of traditional rhythms that have given birth to the modern music of the Caribbean and Brazil and to American jazz, hip-hop, blues and rock and roll.  Tightly woven polyrhythms, where each drummer plays a specific contrasting part of the larger rhythm, work together synergistically to create a river of sound that will move you to dance.

Keepers of West African culture, griot families of traditional musicians, drummers and dancers, have kept this music alive over hundreds of generations.  Their presence is essential to all celebrations in the lives of West Africans.  It is with drum and dance that the community is united, strengthened and elevated and the rites of passage of its members lives are celebrated.

The Spirit of West Africa is produced by Thione Diop and the Seattle Center.

Keep checking this site for up to date information. RSVP on Facebook or for more information directly contact Thione Diop at 206-290-5560 or thionediopmusic at gmail dot com.

Schedule

Noon- 1:00
Makeda Ebube
Congolese Dance Workshop

1:30-2:15
Naby Camara &Lagni Sussu
Music from Guinea

2:25-2:45
Yirim Seck
Senegalese Hip-hop

2:55-3:25
Foday Musa Suso
Kora master from The Gambia

3:35-4:05
Best of Both Worlds Fashion Show
Nansare Consolata and many volunteers

4:15 – 4:45
Mapathe Diop
Sabar from Senegal featuring Fama N’Diaye (dancer)

4:55-5:20
Kutt-N Up
Breakdance

5:20-5:40
Dr. W. Joye Hardiman
Story/talk

5:45-6:20
Thione Diop & Yeke Yeke
Senegalese percussion featuring Dora Oliveira (Brazilian dancer)

6:30-7:00
De Cajon Project
Afro-Peruvian

7:10-8:10
Alpha Yaya Diallo
Guitarist, Singer, Songwriter from Guinea