Black History Month

[Harrow Arts Centre]

Celebrate Black History Month at Harrow Arts Centre.
There's a great programme of music and theatre ahead.

World Music
Harrow Arts Centre
North African Night
Friday 7 October 7.30pm

Featuring Abdelkader Saadoun - King of Rai + band

A five-star gig, packed with fast, heavy dance rhythms that is today's Rai.
£10/conc £8

Theatre
Blowback
Presented by Half Moon Young People's Theatre

Tuesday 11 October 2.00pm + 7.30pm

A powerful 3-hander about race, love despondency, accountability and responsibility. Set in London in the
very near future, Blowback was developed in direct contact with young people, ensuring authentic languageg, as well as an accurate portrayal of Black and diverse cross-cultural inner-city life and characters.
'A thought-provoking and engaging experience'
Time Out
£10/conc £6

Music
An Evening with Willard White -
A Tribute to Paul Robeson
with Neal thornton (piano&arrangements)

Friday 14 October 7.30pm

One of the world's greatest bass-baritones, Willard White sings a programme focussing on 'music of the people' from around the world. A fitting tribute to Paul Robeson, a tireless campaigner for civil rights, whose love of people was an ingegral part of his own choice of repertoire.
TICKETS: £15/conc £12

Theatre
The Market Theatre of Johannesburg presents
The Island
by Athol Fugard, John Kani & Winston Ntshona
Harrow Arts Centre
Saturday 15 October 7.30pm

The Island is a play within a play.
Set in apartheid South Africa, the production focuses on the lives of two political prisoners incarcerated on South Africa’s notorious Robben Island prison, as they prepare to do a two-person performance of Sophocles’ Antigone for other inmates and the prison staff.

The play examines the bonds and tensions between cellmates Winston and John as they labour in the stone quarry by day & rehearse Antigone by night, culminating in the actual performance where the audience for The Island becomes the audience for Antigone.

During Nelson Mandela’s 27-year imprisonment on Robben Island, he also staged Antigone – a loaded tribute to –‘a fellow freedom fighter’ who deliberately defies an unjust law.’ It was a theatrical gesture of defiance. Antigone represented the continuing struggle against an oppressive regime.

Fugard wrote The Island, after studying the history and stories from Robben Island, to focus attention on the terrible conditions black prisoners were made to live and work in and like so many plays from that era, The Island delivers its poignant political message with a humour, humanity and sparseness that is so characteristic of township theatre.

The Island comes from the famous Market Theatre in Johannesburg, whose productions have brought South African theatre to the rest of the world.

TICKETS: £12/conc £10

World Music & Dance
Celtic Caribbean Crossing
in association with Keith Waithe
Harrow Arts Centre
Fri 21 Oct 7.30pm

Award-winning musician Keith Waithe with his brilliant band The Macusi Players & the dynamic, raucous Irish Band, Hoolie, brings us a spectacular night - a feast of a gig - in which Ireland meets African Caribbean and erupts in boundary crunching rhythms and melodies. You’ll be stomping!

+ guests:
Flautist: Jacquelyn Hynes
Irish Dancer: Corinne Daelanie
African Contemporary Dancer: Christine Oshunniyi
TICKETS: £10/conc £8

Singing & Music Technology Workshop
Mon 24 - Wed 26 October 1.00 - 3.00pm
Harrow Arts Centre
For 13 - 18s

A great opportunity to mix singing & vocal gymnastics with modern technology to create dynamic live music.
£7 per workshop or £15 for the three sessions.

Harrow Arts Centre: Bookings 020 8428 0124
Uxbridge Road,
Hatch End,
Middx
HA5 4EA
www.harrowarts.com
[e-mail]

Best wishes and hope to see you soon.
The Arts Centre team

[Dr Roi Kwabena]

Currently available for booking#


Now available for bookings during Black History Month Oct-Nov 2005 Celebrations.

Be at the cutting edge of Cultural Literacy. Book early and avoid disappointment.


"GLORY OF KUSH REVEALED"
Outstanding and Unique

An authentic multi-media exposition harvested from extensive research on that most understood ancient empire ruled by women(KANDAKES-Queen Mothers). This exhibition has been showcased in the
Caribbean, European continent and parts of the UK. It has been hailed by critics as "spectacular and educationally stimulating".
Suitable for all ages.

nefertamu.tripod.com/kush.html

LECTURES:

"Nubian Saynts of Christianity" (with slide presentation)

Exploding the myths about the origins of this belief system> Learn about the continuing invaluable contribution made by blacks around the world over centuries.

nefertamu.tripod.com/nsoc.html

"Blackamores, Maurice, the Green Man and Insula Sacra" (multi-media)

The Sacred Isle (aka England mainland)was described by the Roman writer Demetrius as " full of awesome gloom". This lecture examines the role of the Blackamores, Maurice the Saynt and links the myth of
the Greenman. Highly informative and destined to stimulate much debate on the past, present and future.

"Original peoples of the Caribbean" (multi-media)

No researcher has been more determined that this acclaimed speaker to raise these issues persistently over the last 30 years. The original island names, peoples and cultures are described in detail.

nefertamu.tripod.com/joca.html

other topics
"The Caribbean then and now"
"Intellectual ideas of the Afrikan Diaspora"
"Indigenous peoples of ancient TA-Meri-KA (america)"
"in-VISIBLE IKONS" (images of blacks in media)

The Speaker:

Dr. Roi Ankhkara Kwabena was born in the Caribbean island of Trinidad. He is a cultural anthropologist whose creative work is regularly commissioned by many cultural, educational & local government authorities. He has worked with all age ranges in Europe,
Africa, Latin-America and the Caribbean for over thirty years.

Formerly Vice-Chair of Birmingham Partnership against Racial Harassment, he was recently nominated as an expert to the African American Tribunal for Reparations and is the current European Representative for the IAAR. (International Alliance Against Racism
Xenophobia & Related Intolerance, a UNCHR registered NGO-charged with the responsibility of seeking Reparations for Human Right violations) A Published writer and historian, Roi was appointed Poet
Laureate for Birmingham City 2001-2002 and also served as a Senator in the Parliament of his birthplace.

His positive cultural advocacy has ensured his suitability for a variety of specialist projects addressing wide ranging issues such as functional and Cultural literacy, therapeutic harvesting of Memories by elders and young people (including cross generational
dialogue) Anti-Racism, Community Cohesion ,Social Inclusion, Cultural Diversity , redefining the Heritages of Indigenous peoples plus confidence building for excluded and traumatized students, Refugees, etc.

Dr Kwabena uses story-telling and critical analysis to examine the historical roots of racism and to assess the direct relevance this has on our lives today.

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