META AND THE CORNERSTONES- SOMEWHERE IN AFRICA MUSIC VIDEO PREMIERE!
AFRICA + HOT (A MONTHLY SUMMER EVENT IN NYC) SAT. JULY 3rd _ Crash Mansion NYC 10PM
ZANZI AFRICA WORLD CUP HOUSE MIX BY DJ SIRAK...FREE DOWNLOAD!!!!!
A.R.M TWO AFRICANS AND A JEW E.P VOL.1 ALBUM AVAILABLE NOW!
A.R.M. - Heaven Only Knows ft. Brother Ali
A.R.M. cheekily titled their debut EP Two Africans and a Jew because essentially, that is exactly what they are: two African emcees (Ghanaian/Minnesotan M.anifest and Ugandan born Krukid) working with Jewish American producer Budo. The result of their collaboration is nine new tracks (incredibly long for an EP) which mix Budos funk and soul beats with the two rappers worldy lyricism. With the projects main players working so far apart (Minneapolis, Brooklyn, and Kampala, respectively) you might expect an uneven mix of styles, but surprisingly the trio maintains a singular, cohesive sound throughout the entire EP.
While Two Africans titular first track is a bit of a non-starter, things heat up quickly with the one two punch of Breakdown and Refuse to Lose. The former meshes the two emcees styles nicely over an afro centric, brass heavy beat, with Krukids syllable-snapping bark making a nice counterweight to M.anifests laid back flow. The latter features Twin Cities rising stars Muja Messiah and Dodi Phy, whose intense wordplay takes center stage, while Budo allows the beats ebb and flow around them, letting the emcees spit over minimal beats, but then taking the reins for the epic choruses. Other guests include Atmospheres Slug, who contributes a single verse to Fear of the Mundane, as well as North Carolingian rapper Supastition, who joins in on one of the EPs standout tracks I Shine (technically a bonus track).
There are a couple more standouts in Words, in which Krukid stretches out his rhymes to the point where it sounds like he is going to asphyxiate himself, as well as Bets on Me, a fun, funk sampled romp that closes the EP out. Two Africans does linger a little long on the melancholy, with two back to back heart-rending mediations on human relationships (Something and Ballad for You) but it does little to darken the tone of an otherwise sprightly work. In the realm of local hip hop, 2010 has a lot to live up to after last years banner achievements. With a few more records like Two Africans and a Jew though, we could be well on our way to living up to those expectations.
Jon Behm
In Cape Town, there are two realities. Sixteen years after the end of apartheid, South Africa prepares to host the FIFA World Cup and the country is ripe with celebration. New hot spots, airports and stadiums were built to welcome travelers from around the world. However, there remains a generation that lives in extreme poverty, with many youth falling into lives of violence, drugs and abuse.
Streetball is a fast paced documentary that tells the stories of South Africas 2008 Homeless World Cup team. The Homeless World Cup is an annual soccer tournament that draws teams from over 56 countriescomprised of homeless and the excluded. The SA Squad consists of ex-convicts, former gangsters, orphans and recovering drug addicts that band together to represent their country, proving that no one is beyond redemption. Streetball is a story of hope and of the resilience that dwells within the human spirit. But while these mens dreams are simply to have a home and to be recognized as people who need care, often times the realization of those dreams is accompanied by a sobering reality.
TINARIWEN LIVE IN BROOKLYN SUN 6/27: 7:30pm / $25
Tinariwen - Aman Iman Documentary
TINARIWEN BIOGRAPHY
How do you compress a thirty-year epic into a few pages? Tinariwen, whose back-story has variously been described as the most compelling of any band (Songlines), the most rocknroll of them all (The Irish Times), hard-bitten (Slate.com) and dramatic (The Independent), are both a dream and a nightmare for any aspiring music writer: a dream because the most superficial headlines of their tale rebellion, guns and guitars, desert nomads, Ghadaffi, the real Saharan blues are like easy nuggets of gold to thrill-seeking journalists and literary prospectors. And a nightmare, because none of these clichés really do the band justice or even begin to describe who they are, what they feel or the music they play. The following comprises only the chapter headings, the main way markers of the long road the group have travelled from the wild empty places of the southern Sahara desert to the concert stages of the world.
In the early 1960s, Mali threw off the yoke of French colonial rule and became an independent country, ruled by a new African elite from the capital Bamako. A thousand miles away in the northern desert regions, the nomadic Touareg or Kel Tamashek (The Tamashek speaking people) had trouble recognising the legitimacy of their new rulers or accepting their socialist laws and taxes, their alien ways and demands. In 1963 there was a Touareg uprising in a large remote part of the desert called The Adrar des Iforas, around the small outpost of Kidal with its old French Foreign Legion fort. It was brutally suppressed by the Malian army. The period still haunts the local population like a nightmare. Of the many stories of suffering and incidents of callousness that survive in the collective memory, there is one that is crucial to our story. It concerns a mason and trader by the name of Alhabib Ag Sidi who was arrested in front of his family in the village of Tessalit, taken to the barracks in Kidal and executed for aiding the rebels. The army then went and destroyed Alhabibs herd of camels, cattle and goats. His young four-year old son Ibrahim witnessed this wanton act of destruction before travelling north into exile in Algeria with his family and their one remaining cow. By 1964 the uprising had been crushed, and the Adrar des Iforas was turned into a no-go zone, ruled by the Army.
Ibrahim Ag Alhabib grew up in refugee camps near Bordj Moktar or in the deserts around the southern Algerian city of Tamanrasset. He hated school and preferred running wild in the bush. One day he saw a film at a makeshift desert village cinema. It was a western and it featured a cowboy playing a guitar. The instrument made Ibrahim dream. He built his own guitar out of a tin can, a stick and bicycle brake wire. He started to play old Touareg melodies on it, and modern Arabic pop tunes. After a while, he became pretty good. He was a solitary kid anyway, who kept himself to himself and was known as Abaraybone or raggamuffin child by the other kids and adults.
At the age of 9 Ibrahim ran away from home in a cement truck, to earn some money and see the world. He grew up wandering around Algeria and Libya doing odd jobs carpenter, builder, tailor, gardener. It was a precarious existence; made bearable by the companionship of many other young Touareg men who were living the same marginal life in exile. The northern desert regions of Mali had been struck by a catastrophic drought in 1973-4, which had almost wiped out the animal herds and the traditional nomadic way of life with it. Algeria and Libya was awash with errant exiled Touareg youth, jobless, paperless, surviving by any means necessary. They would gather together in groups and sleep rough on the outskirts of villages and towns, sharing food, cigarettes, songs and stories. The police would harass them mercilessly, shouting Hey you! Les chomeurs! (unemployed in French). In the age-old tradition of the underclass, this insult was turned into a badge of honour, and these young men became known as the ishumar generation.
Towards the end of the 1970s, Ibrahim began to meet other Touareg of his age who shared his passion for music of all kinds, from traditional Touareg poetry and song to the radical chaabi protest music of Moroccan groups like Nass El Ghiwane and Jil Jilala, from Algerian pop rai to western rock and pop artists like Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, Carlos Santana, Dire Straits, Jimmy Hendrix, Boney M and Bob Marley. His most important early musical partners were Inteyeden Ag Ablil, his brother Liya, aka Diarra, Ag Ablil, and Hassan Ag Touhami aka The Lion of the Desert. This group of friends got together in Tamanrasset, and began to play at parties and weddings. They acquired their first real acoustic guitar in 1979, and their reputation grew. They were new and radical inasmuch as they wrote their own poems and songs not the old Touareg verse of heroic deeds and fair maidens but new lyrics about homesickness, longing, exile and political awakening. In order to keep out of trouble with the law, Ibrahim, Inteyeden and their friends would often just disappear off into the desert for a night or two, to drink tea, make music and sleep under the stars. People began to call them Kel Tinariwen, which translates literally as The People of the Deserts or roughly and more accurately as The Desert Boys.
In 1980, Colonel Ghadaffi put out a decree inviting all young Touareg men, who were living illegally in Libya, to come and receive a full military training at a designated camp in the southern desert. It was an opportunistic move. The Touareg had long held a reputation as brilliant bushmen and desert fighters. Ghadaffi dreamed of forming a Saharan regiment, made of the best young Touareg fighters, to further his territorial ambitions in Chad, Niger and elsewhere.
Seeing it as a heaven-sent chance to learn how to be soldiers and take back their homeland by force, Ibrahim and most of his friends answered the call immediately. Their training was very tough, and lasted only nine months. Four years later, in 1985, they were invited back into a new camp near Tripoli. This time it was run by the leaders of the Touareg rebel movement, the MPA (Mouvement Populaire de lAzawad). Ibrahim, Inteyeden, Diarra and Hassan were joined by a whole new group of aspiring musicians, including Keddou Ag Ossade aka Hiwaj, Mohammed Ag Itlale aka Japonais, Sweiloum, Abouhadid and the young Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni. They formed a collective and built their own make-shift rehearsal studios, equipping it with basic gear bought with the money from a communal chest into which all recruits paid contributions. Their job was to write songs about the rebellion, about the aspirations of the Touareg for political freedom, for education and development, and then to record these songs without payment for whoever turned up at their door with an empty cassette. It was a propaganda machine for a people without any other forms of media whatsoever. The cassettes were taken back to camps and villages throughout the Sahara, copied, and then copied again and again and again. It was a cassette-to-cassette grapevine and the sound quality was as atrocious as the message was powerful.
Ibrahim, Inteyeden, Japonais, Diarra, Hassan and their friends never saw themselves as one-dimensional propagandists however. They were musicians and poets. Their songs spoke of deep personal struggles and of their love of their desert home, as much as they raised the flag for the rebel movement. In 1989, frustrated by the lack of progress and by broken promises, the members of Tinariwen escaped from the Libyan camp and headed south into Mali. Ibrahim found himself back in Tessalit, the village of his birth, for the first time in 26 years. And then, in June 1990, the rebellion began.
It lasted about six months. The Malian government offered peace terms to the MPA in January 1991 and the Tamanrasset Accords were signed. The rebel movement split into different factions comprising those who were pro or contra the Accords. It was a confusing, desperate and often dispiriting time. Most of Tinariwen decided to leave the military life behind and go back to being musicians.
And that was itsix months of open combat in a story lasting three decades or more. No wonder the group are frustrated and bored by journalists who remain obsessed with the romantic myth of guns and guitars, of rebellion and war. In 1991, Ibrahim and his friends had no doubt that they were musicians first and foremost. They had become soldiers only out of necessity, for a brief and painful period. It was all over in a flicker.
The group headed home to Tessalit and Kidal, or went to seek work in Gao, Mopti and Bamako. Some, like Keddou, accepted posts in the army, the customs service or in education under a UN sponsored programme aimed at reintegrating rebels into civil society. In groups of two, three, four or more, they also began to play gigs openly. Touareg from all over the Sahara were delighted finally to encounter the group who had invented the modern Touareg guitar style, who had been the pied pipers of the rebellion and whose songs defined the story of a whole generation. Their secret was unveiled.
But it was a discreet success. In 1992 some of the members of Tinariwen went to Abidjan in Ivory Coast to record a cassette at the legendary JBZ studios. They played gigs for Touareg communities throughout north and West Africa, but not that often. They were nomads at heart, and the collective was often spread out over thousands of miles. But that was the groups strength. Just two members could get together in a village with a guitar or two, a djembe or water can for percussion, and sing the songs of Tinariwen. Its often said that every Touareg from Tamanrasset to Niamey and from Timbuktu to Ghat is a member of Tinariwen, so widely are their songs known and treasured. They are more of a social movement than a desert rocknroll band.
I AM AFRICAN | BHF MAGAZINE
BHF is a pioneering African fashion and lifestyle magazine that has been upending social stereotypes about Africa since 2007.
Through fashion, art, and culture, we have reintroduced the world to Africa in a vibrant form that had never been seen before: telling our own stories and presenting a colorful, more rounded view of what it means to be modern, forward-thinking, and African in the 21st century.
BHF showcases ground breaking African fashion and vivacious African lifestyle with all its rich complexities. Our pages reflect the diversity of the continent and the Diaspora, with artistic contributions from all over the world and an inclusive audience that continues to grow exponentially.
BHFs inspirational I Am African gallery has drawn contributors from far and wide, young and old, black and white.
Widely lauded for our online publication, we recently launched our print edition in form of a catalog. Unboxed: African fashion Index is the premier issue of an ongoing BHF Style catalog series set to prequel the formal print edition of BHF Magazine.
Unboxed exclusively exhibits a repertoire of collections by some of Africas most innovative fashion designers as well as coverage of high profile fashion events.
A product of the Design Studios of Geoffrey Olisa, BHF lauds the urbanites, visionary artists, and inspirational men and women who exemplify what it means to be proudly African in an ever-changing global community.
For more information about BHF visit www.bhfmagazine.com or send inquiries to info_bhfmagazine.com
RICHY PITCH FT. M.ANIFEST BLACKSTAR MUSIC VIDEO
RICHY PITCH FT. M.ANIFEST- BLACKSTAR VIDEO
Here goes the very awesome and uber creative animated 8-bit video for the single off Producer/DJ Richy Pitch's upcoming LP, "Ye Fre Mi Richy Pitch," featuring M.anifest. The album will be released on famed record label BBE (Jay Dee, Dj Jazzy Jeff, Will.i.am, etc).
Richy Pitch spent a good chunk of the last 2 years in Ghana and assembled an all-star all-Ghanaian cast for this LP (June Release). The album will feature some of Ghanas finest contemporary music stars such as: Reggie Rockstone, Samini, M.anifest, M3NSA, Wanlov the Kubolor, Yasmeen, Sena, AB, DJ Black and Kwesi Dankwa. Richy Pitch first made his name back in 1996 as resident DJ at the legendary London Hip Hop club night Scratch. He has recorded and produced music in the US with many respected MCs including J-Live, El da Sensei, Mr Complex, Asheru and Apani B where he recorded his critically acclaimed Live at Home LP on New York label Sevenheads.
The video "blackstar" was produced by Tom Jackson (Stringmouse / Ramjamuk). Richy and Tom had a mutual admiration for the ZX Spectrum and decided to style the video with this in mind. Enjoy and do post it up for your readership.
"Blackstar" alludes to the name of Ghana's beloved soccer team, the "Black Stars."
Click for audio: RICHY PITCH FT. M.ANIFEST BLACKSTAR
INTRODUCING ARABESQUE
Contributed by OneRebelGun
MUSIC VIDEOS: ANNA CONDA & STARDUST
Grief is only the memory of widowed affections, Arabesque calms his grief by recounting it. The Toronto born artist has turned the untimely death of his girlfriend and its mourning into an unbeaten career. His heart grieves over what he has lost, his spirit rejoices over what it has left, music. Since the passing of his companion, Arabesques remedy for grief has landed him a dozen heavily rotated singles on commercial radio and a hand full of videos on Much Music and MTV.
One of hip hops most talked about artists, Besque continues to intrigue Musics biggest names. In 2005, Signing with UK based label Sin Nombre with distro via Universal, The Frenzy Of Renown was released with glowing reviews. Shooting videos for singles Bellyache and Stardust. He was nominated Rap Recording of the Year at the 2007 Juno Awards, hosted by Nelly Furtado. International press in various publications, also landing him in a meet and greet with The Source Magazine staff in their Manhattan Office. Fall of 2007 Arabesque graced his first cover of an international magazine with NOX, the leading and most admired English speaking Mid East publication. A slew of global 12 inch singles with a wide-reach across campus radio charts. As well earning himself sponsorships from US Brands, L-R-G and Scifen Clothing. Arabesque has opened up for artists such as Wu-tangs Raekwon, Method Man, Little Brother, Zion I, Dilated Peoples and Sean Paul.
Connecting with Flipmodes first lady, Rah Digga, to record the Hang Your Heroes EP. The combination of synths, vinyl static pops and clever cadence have made the project a memorable one. Shooting videos for singles such as Natures Phone and Anna Conda. Natures Phone broke early that year, with soul house magnate Aaron Ross debuting the single on BBC 1xtra. International sales soared, piercing the experimental landscape.
Tokyoites adopt Arabesques sound with Last Life In the Universe, a Japanese Remix album released by Yanase Productions(Fall 2008). Last Life in the Universe is a melodic album that strikes a good balance between gritty vocals and beats that range from jazzy to soulful to those meant to rock the disco!
M.ANIFEST THE BIRDS AND THE BEATS FREE ALBUM (16 Tracks)
A.R.M- Heaven Only Knows ft. Brother Ali
Message from M.anifsest
This album is me and my musical team's gift to you-free of charge, pure awesomeness for your aural pleasure. In return all i ask of you is to support a cause! Make a gift to Young Enterpreneurs Africa (YE,A) a nonprofit empowering underprivileged youth in the motherland to turn proverbial lemons into lemonade. www.yea-online.org to donate and for more info. Peace to Ghana, the Mamaland, Minneapolis, and the universe- i dey for you!
M.anifest
A.R.M (Budo, Krukid and M.anifest) album Uprising coming soon! www.arm4arm.com
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD
The world's first ever Pidgen musical film! Starring the FOKN Bois (Wanlov the Kubolor & M3nsa). Coming soon into your eyes and ears! Already selected by the Rio International Film Festival and the Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival.
'Coz Ov Moni' is an amazing pidgin musical trailing the 'hustle' of two friends within a day. The story unfolds as they wake up in the morning with one thing on their mind, to collect a debt owed them by a wily friend. After getting the money, they set off to blow it off on food, partying and women with hilarious and dramatic consequences. While going through the day, the story highlights real struggles of ordinary young Ghanaians in modern Ghana in spite of the strong elements of humor.
The 45-minute or so musical is a pulsating hip hop dialogue with each second of film laced with throbbing beats and rhythms that would have viewers bumping their heads as the story unfolds. There are also elements of black emancipation and the celebration of blackness, as the two lead actors struggle to separate reality from dreams. 'Coz Ov Moni' has cameo appearances from other stars such as Samini, Reggie Rockstone, Mokin, Panji Anoff and several others.
Photos by Russel Eni & Rodney Quarcoo
INTRODUCING MENOOSHA
Contributed by OnerRebelGun
Hailing from Ivory Coast, Menoosha is an upcoming artist who blends rock, hip hop and neo soul. Her latest track "Superhero" features M.anifest from her new album "Satellite Brown Chick".
BIOGRAPHY
Born and growing up in Abidjan (Ivory Coast), the "Manhattan of the Tropics" according to CNN, Menoosha was exposed from an early age, to hot afro beat sounds, as well as contemporary R&B, rock and soul vibrations. She can boast about having been one of the kids who were allowed to stay up late... to sing on stage. With a child choir "Les Oiseaux du Monde" (Birds of the world), she opens for Kool & the Gang and Stevie Wonder in 1988.
In her teenage days, Menoosha and her sister Kim created an a-capella female quartett, with which they regularly performed in school talent shows, church pageants and benefits.
At 18, she packs her luggage, says goodbye to her family and travels to Germany to carry on her artistic mission. This is where she later on opened for Afro pop icon Myriam Makeba (2004) and Lou Bega (2007).
Her greatest inspirations are Chaka Khan, Tina Turner, Fela Kuti, Myriam Makeba and Lenny Kravitz just to name a few.
The melting of such different influences added to Menoosha's imposing personality on stage has resulted to a very interesting "crossover" package.
Today Menoosha has imposed her artistry throughout Europe, with strong, versatile and soulful vocals, and witty songwriting. This made her boldly give a color to her voice: Pink. Not out of reasons of fantasy but simply because it is the color she "feels" when she sings.
Givin it up, her contribution to the successful sampler Mercedes Benz Mixed Tapes (produced by Dario Allegra) was critically acclaimed and celebrated as the best song in 2007. Models of the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week walked to the tunes of Givin it up in Berlin.
Menooshas 5-scale vocals are recognizable on the latest official song to promote the newest Skoda car creation Superb. She presently freelances as a songwriter and graphic designer between Germany and the UK.
Menoosha is in the process of finalizing a sizzling new album with Producer/Composer/Arranger Dario Allegra, whom she refers to as the "new Quincy Jones"...
They together released a 3-track EP "The Three Piece Suite", some sort of appetizer for the upcoming Long Player. Positive reviews followed; on "Crumbs of Love", Menoosha reminds "Soulsite.de" of a "female d'Angelo", while Allesreal.de crowns her as the "new Joyce Kennedy"
DUB INC. Set to perform in NYC June 18th 2010 at 92Y Tribeca
Look out for Dub Inc. In New York City. Thier first live performance will be at 92Y Tribeca June 18th 2010 . Meta and The Cornerstones are set to perform with them. Details will be posted on the Events section of the website.
BIO
The band, Dub Inc, now renowned throughout all of Europe, was formed in St Etienne, France in 1997. La-beled as French Reggae, the groups sound is also an immersion of an incredibly diverse array of musical influences, ranging from traditional North African music to Hip-Hop. The bands two lead vocalists embody
this diversity, as one sings in a characteristically raga tone, while the other uses a more far eastern style. This gives the group a unique voice to the world, artistically and culturally.
Dub Inc has toured the world, having rocked foreign audiences in such countries as Germany, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Greece and Morocco, amongst others They have performed for the biggest venues and festi-vals in France (Fete de lHuma, Solidays, Vieilles Charrues ), and as well throughout the rest of Europe (such as Summer Jam in Germany and the Paleo Festival in Switzerland ).
The most remarkable aspect of Dub Inc is the independent nature of their rise to prominence. The band has achieved great fame in Europe while maintaining complete autonomy by being self-produced and self-publicized. Their popularity and stature have been solely a result of the quality of their music and energetic
live performance. In 2004, Dub Inc was bestowed the FAIR prize, a French award given in recognition of excellence as independent artists.
• 800 concerts in 13 years (across France, Germany Portugal, Poland, Morocco, Italy) 115 in 2008 & 2009
• 80,000 record sales
• 250,000+ total attendance on the Dans le Decor Tour (in 2 years)
• Featured alongside such artists as Tiken Jah Fakoli, David Hinds (from Steel Pulse), Lyricson
FALLING WHISTLES- A CAMPAIGN FOR PEACE IN CONGO
Falling Whistles gives a small window into our worlds largest war. Originally just a journal written about boys sent to the frontlines of war armed with only a whistle, readers forwarded it with the same kind of urgency in which it was written and demanded to know
what can we do?
The Falling Whistles campaign launched with a simple response - make their weapon your voice and be a whistleblower for peace in Congo. Read the story and buy the whistle. Proceeds go to rehabilitate and advocate for war-affected children. Share their story and speak up for them.
Together, we'll become the voice of a growing coalition for peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Wait, theres a war in Congo?
The Democratic Republic of Congo is home to the worlds largest and most deadly war. During the past 10 years, roughly 6 million people have died, and nearly 1,500 people continue to lose their lives daily. Sexual violence is more rampant here than anywhere else in the world, and thousands of children are involved in the war. Why?
There are a number of reasons, dating back over a century. However, most of the conflict is tied directly to the country's vast natural resources. They are both a blessing and a curse, making Congo a country of great potential and a frequent victim of exploitation. The minerals found in Congo are used in consumer electronics, including laptops and cell phones. While many benefit from the mineral trade, it is the Congolese people who bear the consequences of a conflict that sustains profitable mining enterprise.
A combination of unstable governance, a history of bitterness between local groups, and international interest in Congo makes this situation one of the most complicated on the planet. It is this complexity that has left the current systems in place largely ineffective. A new approach is needed.
Read More CLICK HERE
INTRODUCING MPHO SKEEF
MPHO is a British talent like no other. A genre-defying singer, songwriter and producer, she has enormous global crossover pop potential. Already a name to drop amongst people in the know, MPHO is set to be one of the most exciting names of 2010.
Her debut single on Parlophone/Wall of Sound, Box N Locks is produced by acclaimed maestro, Switch. The track samples the legendary guitar hook from the Martha and the Muffins new wave hit, Echo Beach.
MPHO was born in apartheid South Africa and raised in a racially mixed family of musicians and political activists in Brixton. Her life story is as colourful as her music, but the overriding theme of both has been MPHOs determination to find her own space, to define herself on her own terms.
So right from the release of her first single shes wasting no time in blowing apart some of the stereotypes shes found most restrictive. On Box N Locks MPHO kicks against the boxes people put her in, and the locks they tried to use to keep the lid on her talent.
INTRODUCING MEKLIT HADERO
If Joni Mitchell were East African and met Nina Simone for tea in San Franciscos Mission District, she might end up sounding like Meklit Hadero. Meklit is a true modern global artist: born in Ethiopia, raised in US and nurtured for the last several years in San Franciscos richly diverse arts scene. Add in a warm and luminous singing voice and lyrical songwriting that moves from the starkly personal to the poetically metaphoric, and you have her entrancing debut full-length recording, On a Day Like This, to be released by Porto Franco Records on April 20th, 2010.
While Meklits music is like a sponge soaking up influences from all over the world, in some ways shes the perfect embodiment of the City by the Bay cosmopolitan, striking and worldly, with an outlook that seems to change every few blocks or so. In fact, its tempting to tag Meklit and On a Day Like This with its jazzy but expansive vibe, moods that veer from the hushed to the impassioned, and a female voice so lushly spellbinding it draws you into its world as San Franciscos answer to Norah Jones.
Meklit is a TED Global Fellow, and has played at such venues as Cafe Du Nord, the Independent, the Great American Music Hall, the Bottom of the Hill, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. In the past year, she has toured to Italy, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Germany.
For more information, or to listen to Meklit's music, please go to: www.meklithadero.com
Meklit, "...is an artistic giant in the early stages... She sings of fragility, hope and self-empowerment, and exudes all three. What's irresistible, above all, is her cradling, sensuous, gentle sound. She is stunning." -SF Chronicle.
TEZA Haile Gerima's Latest Feature - Makes New York City Debut
After a successful, eight-week theatrical engagement in Washington, D.C., Mypheduh Films, Inc. is pleased to announce that TEZA, the latest release from world-renowned, Ethiopian born, independent filmmaker Haile Gerima, and the makers of Sankofa, will launch its New York City exhibition at Lincoln Plaza Cinema, on Friday, April 2, 2010.
TEZA, morning dew in Amharic, is Gerima's eleventh cinematic production and seventh dramatic film, and tells a story of hope, loss and reminiscence through the eyes of an idealistic, young intellectual, displaced from his homeland of Ethiopia for many years. The film reflects well on the effects of the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie on Ethiopias history and society, and through a broader lens, TEZA focuses on the ways in which political upheaval and social change have impacted cultures and nations across the larger African Diaspora. Due to the discourse on critical issues it engenders and its exquisite visual tableau, TEZA is an unparalleled work of social activism and cinematic art.
Told mainly through a series of flashbacks, TEZA follows the personal narrative of Anberber (Aaron Arefe), who after leaving Ethiopia for Germany to become a doctor, is led to return to his home village by lingering spirits and haunting visions from his childhood. Using the power of memory as his primary device, Gerima recounts the historical circumstances that have framed the context in which contemporary Ethiopia exists. TEZA has been recognized with over 20 coveted international awards, such as the Oscella Award for Best Screenplay, the Leoncino doro Award, SIGNIS Award, and Special Jury Prize conferred at the 2009 Venice Film Festival; the Golden Unicorn Award for Best Feature Film bestowed at the Amiens/France International Film Festival; the UN-World Bank Special Prize; and Golden Stallion award for Best Picture presented at the 2009 FESPACO Pan-African Film Festival. Leading up to its September 2009, U.S. premiere, the Washington Post called TEZA, Gerimas powerfully universal meditation on the loss of his homeland on the inevitability of loss in general. Called one of the independent cinemas chief chroniclers of the African-American and African Diaspora[n] experience[s], by Variety, Gerima has taught film at Howard University in Washington, D.C. since 1975, and has been producing independent films of distinction for over 35 years, including his groundbreaking 1993 film Sankofa. This historically inspired dramatic tale of African resistance to slavery was called poetic and precisely detailed by the New York Times. Gerimas earlier works include the films Harvest: 3000 Years, which Martin Scorsese described as having, a particular kind of urgency which few pictures possess; and Bush Mama, which the Washington Post reported, crackle[d] with energy, with fury shak[ing] the very frame.
Reflecting on his latest work Gerima stated that, an imaginative oral legacy shapes TEZAS narrative, and that, the film recounts the stories of Ethiopians dislocated by series of complicated and unanticipated historical circumstances. He also conceded that, TEZA is semi-auto biographical, a microcosmic portrait of reality reflecting [his] search for the Ethiopia of [his] youth which exists only in [his] memory and dreams. Through TEZA Gerima invites moviegoers to examine their own notions of nationhood and identity, the construction of memory and the ways in which memories are connected to space and place.
