Out of fear that Robert Mugabe’s government will have him arrested, the Zimbabwean singer and guitarist Thomas Mapfumo has lived in exile in Eugene, Ore., since 2000. Mapfumo's chimurenga music, or music of struggle, is banned from the airwaves in his home country. But the 66-year-old musician known as The Lion of Zimbabwe will make [...]
In 1976, two decades before helping put together the Buena Vista Social Club, then-Havana resident Juan De Marcos Gonzalez began revitalizing interest in classic Cuban son dance music with the group Sierra Maestra. Thirty-five years later, Gonzalez is no longer a member, but on Tuesday night Sierra Maestra, featuring five of Gonzalez’ original bandmates, will [...]
This year’s 19th annual DC Caribbean Carnival parade, scheduled for Saturday on Georgia Avenue NW, almost didn't happen.
The annual procession, featuring costumed participants on flatbed trucks and on foot, requires a large police presence, and last year the D.C. Police Department hit organizers with an overtime bill, of which $53,000 is still owed. In May, Carnival [...]
Helen Zughaib offers me baklava soon after I enter her Foggy Bottom studio. “It’s not the real thing,” she apologizes. “It’s Greek, so it’s made with honey instead of simple syrup. We Arabs are sticklers about stuff like that,” she laughs.
Zughaib’s Arab heritage (her father is Lebanese, her mother American) informs not only her taste [...]
Before Virginia band Bio Ritmo’s salsa gig at U Street Music Hall Saturday night, folklorist Paulina Guerrero will show her work-in-progress documentary, A Story of Plena. Plena is a Puerto Rican genre in which participants engage in call-and-response chants over funky rhythms tapped on large tambourine-like instruments and on guiros, or hollowed-out gourds. For her documentary, Guerrero [...]
In 1976, then-Havana-based Juan de Marcos González founded Sierra Maestra, a large band that specialized in danceable Cuban son music, one of the root sounds of salsa. Maestra became popular in Cuba, toured Europe, and recorded a number of albums between still beloved by hardcore fans of Cuban music. In the late '90s, González began reaching [...]
The Kennedy Center’s just-concluded Maximum India festival was certainly successful from an attendance standpoint, with sold-out ticketed shows and packed free events. A number of music and dance performances received rave reviews, but not everyone was completely wowed by the festival's curating—at least in India.
Outlook India's Seema Sirohi wrote an article criticizing some of the art exhibits as [...]
Performing on the Millennium Stage, Panjabi MC brought the Kennedy Center’s Maximum India festival to a close last night in front of a crowd of about 1,500. With CD turntables for sampled bhangra beats and snippets of melodic vocal melodies (plus a Jay-Z verse from the “Beware of the Boys” remix), the British-raised Indian’s sound also included his [...]
While most of the Maximum India festival's remaining ticketed performances are sold-out (except for the Ishara Puppet Theatre and some film screenings), there are some free events this weekend worth investigating. Tonight, if you can't get tickets on Craigslist for Sunny Jain & Red Baraat (an outfit that blends bhangra with go-go, soca, and jazz), you can catch [...]
The funny little frog to the right can mean only one thing: The Environmental Film Festival is back. Now in its 19th year, the festival has become a massive understaking, where 150 films from 40 different countries–most for free—screen at museums, embassies, libraries, universities, and movie theaters throughout the District. This year's programming is particularly diverse, including countless screeds against our continued mishandling of fossil fuels, the winner of the 2010 [...]
