Above: A proposed resolution in the Council of the District
of Columbia recognizes and celebrates the contributions of
the Ethiopian community to Washington, D.C.; and declares
September 25, 2009, as “Ethiopian-American Recognition
Day”.
Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff
Published: Friday, September 25, 2009
Washington, D.C. (Tadias) – DC Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) introduced a resolution this week to recognize and celebrate the contributions of the Ethiopian community to the District of Columbia; and declare September 25, 2009, as “Ethiopian-American Recognition Day”.
Ethiopian-Americans for Change (EA4C), has announced a partnership with the Major League baseball team, the Washington Nationals— to stage the “Inaugural Ethiopian-American Appreciation Day.”
According to the organizers, the festivities will take place today at the Washington Nationals stadium roof top deck and will include an Ethiopian-American cultural celebration and an award ceremony.
Ethiopian Heritage Appreciation Day at Nationals Park
Events News
Washington City Paper
By Andrew Baujon
Posted: September 23, 2009
Mahmoud Ahmed is to Ethiopia what Cliff Richard is to Britain or Johnny Hallyday is to France—someone whose cultural importance far outstrips any recent musical output. The sextuagenarian singer is mostly known to Western audiences via the French “Ethiopiques” compilations, the best of which chronicle his mid-to-late-’70s recordings, during Ethiopia’s grim Derg years. Featuring Ahmed’s tremulous Amharic over Memphis-inspired grooves, the recordings sound like Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn fronting Booker T. & the MG’s, and his idiosyncratic phrasing and allegiance to the pentatonic scale tilt his songs jazzward as well. It’s a boon of living in an area with a large Ethiopian expat community that a singer of Ahmed’s stature makes it over here; that you can see him and other artists, enjoy a free buffet and coffee tasting, and catch the Nats taking on the Braves all on the same ticket is a minor miracle.
ETHIOPIAN HERITAGE APPRECIATION DAY BEGINS AT 3 P.M. AT NATIONALS PARK,
1500 SOUTH CAPITOL ST. SE. $14.75–30.50. EAFC.ORG FOR TICKETS AND INFO.
Photos courtesy of Ethiopian-Americans for Change.