By African Diaspora Network Leadership: Almaz Negash
Building Africa’s Future: Magnifying What is Within
This Silicon Valley-based symposium is a catalyst for diaspora-driven initiatives and investment with the potential to shape the Continent’s future. The 2016 and 2017 gatherings drew over 430 invitation-only participants from communities in Africa (30%), Europe (10%),Canada (2%), and the United States (60%). Discussions and workshops included African angel investing bootcamp, emerging investment opportunities, Fintech, energy, and Africa’s changing investment landscape.
African Diaspora Investment Symposium 2018 shall examine the crossroads between human capital, natural resources, technology, innovation, entrepreneurship, and investment in Africa. Through these sectors, our expert speakers will explore bold policies, innovative business models, and technologies that are shaping Continent’s future.
Our 2018 theme, “Building Africa’s Future: Magnifying What is Within,” seeks to amplify the changemakers and leaders shaping the Continent’s future. Experts, panelists, and participants will engage in fruitful dialogue to examine the crossroads between human capital, natural resources, investment, entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology in Africa.
This two-day conference will provide networking, community-building, and knowledge-sharing with symposium attendees as we celebrate a spirit of abundance and unearth the richness of the Continent’s resources, as well as the talents and contributions of Africans, friends of Africa, and Diasporans.
Keynote Speakers
Josh Ghaim, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer, Johnson & Johnson Family of Consumer Companies
Ambassador Ertharin Cousin, Distinguished Lecturer at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI)
Jim Shelton, President of Education, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s, and former Deputy Secretary of Education under President Barack Obama.
— If You Go:
January 26-27, 2018 | Computer History Museum | Mountain View, CA
Ethiopian Gold Series Featuring Hamelmal Abate in NYC Hosted by Africology
New York (TADIAS) — Ethiopian music star Hamelmal Abate, who won the best traditional music prize at the 2017 All African Music Awards this past November, will be performing live in New York City this week.
Hamelmal is being hosted by Africology as part their Ethiopian Gold Series with the concert taking place at the new Yeresso lounge in Harlem on Friday, January 12th.
Hamelmal Abate. (Photo: Facebook)
“Fresh from winning The AFRIMA Awards in Nigeria, the Ethiopian musical icon Hamelmal joins us in Harlem, New York City to celebrate the holidays and pay homage to the local musical legends who paved the way,” the announcement says.
“Hamelmal is currently working on her 9th studio album with Africology’s DJ Sirak.”
— If You Go:
Ethiopian Gold Series Featuring: HAMELMAL ABATE
Fri, Jan 12, 2018, 9:00 PM –
Sat, Jan 13, 2018, 4:00 AM EST
YERESSO LOUNGE
2400 Adam Clayton Powell Jr Boulevard (7th Ave)
(140th and 141st Streets)
New York City, NY 10030 Click here to buy tickets
New York (TADIAS) — This month a new award-wining Amharic drama from Ethiopia entitled Yenegen Alwoldim by filmmaker Fortuna Moges will screen in New York City. Sponsored by ECMAA (Ethiopian Community Mutual Assistance Association) the event is scheduled to be held on Sunday, December 10th and will also feature a Q&A with the filmmaker as well as remarks by Dr. Shimelis Bonsa from New York State University.
The film, which is based on a true story, takes place in 1978 in Addis Ababa and is a reflection on how young people coped and used sports to conceal their political activities during the height of the Red Terror period, an era memorialized for its brutal Bolshevik style elimination of real and perceived ideological opponents by Marxist cadres of the Derg regime.
Fortuna Moges says the movie is an adaptation of an Amharic book called EPRP and Sport. “Even though the setting is mainly in Addis Ababa in 1978, the story represents the youth of the period,” Fortuna explains in her artist’s statement. “The lead character, Adugna, is a coach of Abri Kokeb football club, financially supported by Mercato merchants. Adugna is married and lives with the love of his life Lensa, a beautiful young lady who has witnessed the tragic killings of her father and only brother by revolutionary guards and subsequently suffers a miscarriage. Lensa then becomes pregnant again and Adugna is excited to be a father.”
Sadly Adugna — who dreamt of building a successful club and had no interest in politics — ends up getting ensnared anyways in the toxic social environment simply because of his association with the players that he coaches, the majority of whom happen to be secret members of the Ethiopian People Revolutionary Party (EPRP), the main opponent of the ruling Derg. They “use football as their only cover to survive and overthrow Derg,” Fortuna says. “They left no stone unturned to realize their political vision.”
Fortuna who was born and raised in Ethiopia studied film and art at Addis Ababa University where she earned her undergraduate degree.
“We see the life of that generation through the ups and downs of Adugna,” She says speaking of her debut film Yenegen Alwoldim.
New York (TADIAS) — The 2016 released film Woven by Ethiopian-American filmmaker and actress Salome Mulugeta will make its New York premiere at this year’s African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF) on November 25th that will be held at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Directors Salome Mulugeta and Nagwa Ibrahim share that: “Woven is a film intended to capture the visual beauty of Ethiopian culture and traditions, rarely depicted in American cinema while also highlighting the importance of the immigrant experience in the fabric of American culture, which we feel is particularly relevant at a time when xenophobia is on the rise.”
The film’s synopsis explains that: “Attempting to integrate her mother’s traditions with her own dreams, Ethiopian-born Elenie Tariku’s life is destroyed when a mysterious crime in New York takes the life of her only brother. As Elenie searches for the truth behind his death, her life intertwines with an intriguing man whose own personal turmoil brings them together for better or worse.”
There will be a Q&A with director Salome Mulugeta after the screening.
—
WOVEN – Q&A
NY Premiere
SAT, Nov. 25 @ 8pm
Red carpet @ 7pm
Teachers College, Columbia University
525 W 120th St
COWIN CENTER – Entrance on Broadway between 120th and 121th
New York, NY 10027 Click here to buy tickets
New York (TADIAS) — Next month the Tafari Makonnen School Alumni Association in North America and the Ethiopian Community Mutual Assistance Association will host a book presentation and discussion at Columbia University featuring the new Amharic book by Dr. Aklilu Habte entitled History of the Haile Selassie I University: Development and Expansion of Higher Education in Ethiopia.
In his memoir Dr. Aklilu, who was born in Addis Ababa in 1929, brings forth an intimate knowledge of the evolution of higher education in Ethiopia that’s drawn from his personal experience not only as a graduate of the University College of Addis Ababa (that later become Haile Selassie I University and now Addis Ababa University), but also from his subsequent tenure as a lecturer in Education, Dean and President of the University from 1969 to 1974. Dr. Aklilu earned his Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Manitoba (Canada) in 1955, and his Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Education from Ohio State University in 1956 and 1958.
(Photo: akliluhabte.org)
(Photo: akliluhabte.org)
Dr. Aklilu also worked for three years as Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs in Ethiopia before joining the World Bank in 1977 where he served as Director of Education and Training for 10 years and then as Special Advisor on Human Resources Development to the Vice President of the Africa region for 3 years. He later worked for the United Nations as Chief of UNICEF’s Education Division and Special Advisor to the Executive Director for 3 years.
New York (TADIAS) – The Wegene Ethiopian Foundation will host its annual fundraising event this weekend with the theme “A Night of Hope” that’s scheduled to be held on Saturday, October 21st at The Waterford in Springfield, Virginia.
Wegene is celebrating its 17th anniversary this year and was established by by a group of like-minded friends in D.C. metropolitan area as a way to give back and assist “less fortunate and disadvantaged children and their families in Ethiopia.” Wegene focuses on “overcoming three critical barriers in the seemingly unbreakable poverty cycle: little or no education, poor housing, and family instability.”
Tadias had featured an interview with the foundation’s inspiring Founder, Nini Legesse, as part of our “Women’s History Month” series in 2012. Nini was one of the fourteen community leaders from the East African Diaspora that was honored at the White House as a “Champion of Change.” Nini said: I founded Wegene in 2000 with similarly inspired friends who like me had left their home country in their teenage years.”
Nini added: “We felt morally obligated to give back. Even though my friends and I feel grateful for the security, opportunity, education and better life that we enjoy in our adoptive country, the United States, we wanted to assist those who have less opportunities in Ethiopia. The goal of Wegene is to enable hardworking, poor families to meet their daily needs and send their children to school in a sustainable way.”
The 2017 event will feature dinner, music and presentations.
New York (TADIAS) — The Girls Gotta Run Foundation (GGRF), which employs a successful method of combining athletics, education and others skills-training to empower young women in rural areas in Ethiopia, is hosting an “International Day of the Girl 5k Pop-Up Run & Panel” in New York City on Wednesday October 11th. The run and panel discussion is hosted in recognition of the International Day of the Girl.
For the past five years October 11th has been designated by the United Nations as the International Day of the Girl, honoring the world’s 1.1 billion girls who are “a source of power, energy, and creativity.”
According to the United Nations “the day aims to highlight and address the needs and challenges girls face, while promoting girls’ empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights.”
The event announcement adds: “Girls Gotta Run is the only non-profit organization in Ethiopia that uses the national sport of running as an innovative approach to creating safe spaces, ending child marriage, and expanding access to secondary school for vulnerable girls. All proceeds generated by the 5k pop-up run and panel discussion will go towards providing GGRF Athletic Scholarships for girls in Ethiopia.”
Following the run, a panel discussion will take place at Shutterstock HQ at Empire State Building, with various “female changemakers and running ambassadors, exploring the creation of safe spaces through running and how sport can be a community empowerment [and] mobilization tool.” Panelists include Mekdes Mersha, Model & Clinical Researcher; Beatrice Frey, UN Women Communications Specialist and Sport Portfolio Coordinator; Alison Désir, Founder of Harlem Run & Run 4 All Women; Jessica Zapotechne, Founder of Girls Run NYC & Black Roses NYC; and Candice Huffine, Model & Founder of Project Start.
“The IDG GGR 5k pop-up fun run will start at 6 pm at Shutterstock HQ and run along the West Side Highway,” Organizers say. “All runners are welcome.”
New York (TADIAS) – Although Ethiopia and Italy have strong diplomatic ties today they also share the common history of the Battle of Adwa in 1896, which is remembered as the first and decisive routing of a colonial power by an African army — a battle credited for launching a global movement to “unscramble” the continent from European domination.
An upcoming special presentation by Dr. Ayele Bekerie on the topic of Adwa and current Ethiopia-Italy friendship will be held in Harlem on Friday, October 6th hosted by the Ethiopian Community Mutual Assistance Association (ECMAA).
Professor Ayele, who gave a lecture on the same subject last week at Central Connecticut State University, told Tadias that his talk in New York will likewise include the contemporary alliance between Ethiopia and Italy as well as plans to establish a Pan-African University in Ethiopia.
Dr. Ayele is an associate professor and coordinator of international affairs in the Department of Heritage Conservation, Institute of Paleo-Enviornment and Heritage Conservation at Mekelle University. He was an Assistant Professor at the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University. He is the author of the award-winning book Ethiopic, An African Writing System: Its History and Principles — among many other published works as well as a contributing author in the acclaimed book One House: The Battle of Adwa 1896 -100 Years.
Moreover, Dr. Ayele is a contributor to Tadias Magazine, and for the past several years has published a series of exclusive annual articles on this website emphasizing not only Adwa’s significance in modern African history, but also calling for the registry of the historical location as a UNESCO World Heritage Site:
— If You Go:
Presentation by Dr. Ayele Bekerie: The Battle of Adwa
Date: Friday, October 6, 2017
Time: from 6:30 to 8:30pm
Place: 220 Manhattan Ave corner of 110th St. & Cathedral Parkway
Direction by subway: B, C, to Cathedral Pkwy (110 St)/Central Park West
Organized by Ethiopian Community Mutual Assistance Association of NY, NJ & CT.
New York (TADIAS) – The Ethiopian film Lambadina will make its Washington, D.C. premiere next week. Directed by Messay Getahun, Lambadina features 9-year-old Joseph, the abandoned son of Solomon, who finds refuge in another home and falls in love with the daughter (Ruth) in the new family. Showing resilience and overcoming several obstacles in life Joseph eventually emigrates to the United States taking a riveting journey from Addis Ababa to Los Angeles.
“The beginning part of the film has elements of true events” explained Messay Getahun in a Q&A with Tadias last year pointing out that parts of the narrative are autobiographical.
“It’s a story of a split that happens between a father and son during uncertain times in Ethiopia.” Messay shares. “That portion of the story is actually my personal story. My dad was involved in politics. I was about 6 years old and a new government was coming to power, so I based the story from some childhood memories I had of an era that I thought was important for the source of the film.”
Regarding the title Lambadina Messay tells Tadias that the word is “an Ethio-Italian word which means ‘lantern’ or ‘night light.’ The definition represented the theme of the film, which is about overcoming the obstacles that life throws at you. I also wanted a one-word title. Something foreign enough but yet easy enough to pronounce. We wanted to make a universal film. Something the older generation, the younger generation, Africans and non-Africans could watch,” Messay says. “Finding a good balance was essential.”
— If You Go:
Lambadina Premieres in DC
October 12th & 13t
The Miracle Theatre
535 8th Street, SE
Washington DC 20003 www.lambadinamovie.com
Washington, DC (TADIAS) — The Ethiopian Community Center in Washington, D.C. is hosting a timely event this coming weekend for qualified individuals to start their citizenship application process.
The organization announced that it will hold “a free citizenship workshop and application assistance for eligible permanent residents” on Saturday, September 23rd at Edna Cromwell-Frazier Community Room.
The workshop is being arranged in collaboration with the DC Affordable Law Firm, a non-profit “low bono” firm that provides affordable legal services to DC residents.
ECC also states that “immigration lawyers, paralegals and interpreters will be available to provide free services.”
— If You Go:
Saturday, September 23, 2017
Time: 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Edna Cromwell-Frazier Community Room
1400 14th Street, NW
(corner of 14th and U Streets, NW)
Washington DC
Please bring all your immigration documents and court papers. www.EthiopianCommunityDC.org
Los Angeles (TADIAS) – Since 2002 when the city of Los Angeles officially designated the neighborhood on Fairfax Avenue between Olympic and Pico Boulevard to be recognized as “Little Ethiopia” — making it the first street in the United States to be named after an African nation — the Ethiopian American community has been hosting a popular outdoor festival every second Sunday of each September to celebrate Enkutatash.
This year the festival will honor the local Edir named Dir Biyaber Mutual Assistance Association, which has a membership of 2,000 families and representing over 10,000 individuals.
“This organization has done a great service in our community,” says Nikki Legesse of the Little Ethiopia Cultural and Resource Center, adding: “they are going to be the keynote speakers and they will be recognized by various dignitaries at the festival.”
The Little Ethiopia neighborhood in Los Angeles, California. (Photograph: Little Ethiopia Business Association)
(Photos: TADIAS)
According to the 2017 festival announcement: “Dir Biyaber Edir Mutual Assistance Association, was established on September 1, 2014 for the purpose of providing monetary assistance for funeral expenses. The association acts like a low-cost funeral insurance service for its members here in the U.S. The members pool their money to cover the high cost of burying loved ones. Members pay a one-time membership fee and a minimum affordable monthly amount, so that the emotional struggle of losing a family member is not compounded by financial difficulties. Continuing the Ethiopian cultural tradition of Edir, the association encourages its members to attend services to comfort and support the families in times of emergencies.”
The Little Ethiopia Street Festival and Enkutatash celebration takes place on Sunday, September 10th and as always features live music, food, vendors, and a cultural dance performance. Invited guests include city officials and other dignitaries.
— If You Go:
The 2017 Annual Little Ethiopia Street Festival
Sunday, September 10th, 2017
Fairfax Avenue (Between Olympic & Whitworth)
Los Angeles, California
For more info call: 323.360.4431 or 310.877.3530 www.littleethio.com
New York (TADIAS) — The Mayor of San Jose, California, Sam Liccardo, will join the Ethiopian community for Enkutatash celebration on Saturday Sep 9th.
Hosted by the Ethiopian American Council the New Year’s party will follow the annual Ethiopian heritage flag raising ceremony at the New City Hall of San José a day earlier supported by the City Council. According to the announcement this event will honor the Ethiopian Nurses Association of California — a non-profit organization that provides health education and awareness to the Ethiopian Community in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. The press release added: “The association will be honored for its many years of service by working with community-based organizations, corporations, and other entities to sponsor health fairs and health education and outreach for the Ethiopian-American community.”
(The event poster: Courtesy of EAC)
Organizers say tickets for Enkutatash party with Mayor Liccardo are limited and can be purchased at two locations: Gojo Ethiopian Restaurant (1261 W San Carlos St, San Jose, CA 95126) and Kategna (1663 W San Carlos St, San Jose, CA 95128).
In addition, the Ethiopian Community Services (ECS) will hold its 13th annual outdoor Enkutatash festival on Sunday, September 10th from 1:00 PM. -7:30 PM at Guadalupe River Park (Arena Green West). ECS says city officials and other dignitaries will also be in attendance along with thousands of Ethiopians & Ethiopian Americans.
— If You Go:
San Jose New Year’s party (Enkutatash)
On Saturday Sep 9th, 2017
Time: 08:30pm
2500 Masonic Dr San Jose
Saturday Sep 10th, 2017
Ethiopian Community Services (ECS) Enkutatash Festival
Guadalupe River Park (Arena Green West)
San Jose, CA
Info@ecssanjose.org or 408-482-6497
New York (TADIAS) — For the upcoming Ethiopian New Year Wayna will perform at a special midnight concert at Joe’s Pub in New York City, honoring Ethiopian music legend Bezunesh Bekele.
Wayna who spent a better part of the year performing with Stevie Wonder as a soloist and supporting vocalist, has previously performed at the Kennedy Center, the White House, Lincoln Center, and the Blue Note along with a 3-month performance residency in Ethiopia in 2016. The Ethiopian American Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter started her one-of-a-kind tribute to Bezunesh this summer with a show at Bethesda Blues and Jazz Supper Club in Maryland held this past June.
The late Bezunesh Bekele — who was once dubbed the “First Lady of Addis” and the “Aretha Franklin of Ethiopia” in the 1960’s and 70s — was a popular and one of the most iconic Ethiopian female singers of her generation.
Below is a Tadias exclusive video from Wayna’s first show paying tribute to Bezunesh Bekele:
— If You Go:
Wayna at Joe’s Pub
Friday, September 8 at 12 AM
Joe’s Pub at The Public
425 Lafayette St
New York, New York 10003 Click here to buy tickets
New York (TADIAS) — Helen Mesfin from the popular Helen Show on EBS TV is launching a trailblazing annual event entitled “Empower the Community” in Washington, D.C., combining her broadcast experience with her professional work in the hospitality industry, and creating a space for community members to participate in panel discussions as well as provide resources and information for families. The event is scheduled to be held at the DC Convention Center on Saturday, August 26th, 2017.
Panel discussion topics include “The Power of Civic Engagement” featuring Menna Demissie, who is Vice President of Policy Analysis & Research at the Congressional Black Caucus; Henock Dory, former White House Policy Advisor for the Obama Administration’s Office of Public Engagement & Intergovernmental Affairs; and Yodit Tewolde, criminal defense attorney, former prosecutor, and legal analyst. Additional speakers include Dr. Senait Fisseha, MD, JD Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Director of International Programs at the Susan T. Buffett Foundation; and Dr. Debrework Zewdie, Distinguished Scholar at CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy.
“Empower the Community Weekend is a groundbreaking new event that will bring together the largest East African community in the Washington D.C. Metro Area,” Helen says. “The event provides panel discussions, entertainment, empowering information on education, career, arts, finance, health & wellness, giveaways and much more.” She adds: It’s focused on providing resources and family centered activities. We will have various pavilion and activities engaging families with information they need to live productive lives and thrive.”
Helen says the program will also include kids corner with activities such as “reading time, games, fun exercises, art and a booth by D.C. United Soccer Clinic.
Empower the Community Weekend will be launched Saturday August 26th, 2017 by the producers of Helen Show on EBS TV. (Courtesy photos)
Here is a summary of parts of the program on August 26th from 11am-7pm at the Washington Convention Center
Empower Youth: follow your passion. Actress Azie Tesfay; Director/Producer Messay Getahun; Author Michael Asmerom, and Graphic Designer Heli Amare.
Business Leaders Panel: Getting To The Top: Strategies for breaking through the glass ceiling with successful Ethiopian American business leaders. Tefere Gebre, Executive VP AFLCIO, Meskerem Tadesse Director of Center for Minority and Business and Professor of Business Administration and 2 more to be announced next week.
Health & Fitness Pavilion:
Free health screenings provided by Kaiser Permanente, American Kindy Fund, Silver Spring Smiles & Pearl Smiles Dental – BMI, blood pressure, blood glucose, dental screening, fitness consultants, zumba, resources for families with special needs, giveaways and much more. Partner organizations and sponsors are Kaiser Permanente, American Kidney Fund, Ethiopian American Nurses Association, Silver Spring Smiles & Pearl Smiles as well as Ethiopian American doctors.
Career Pavilion:
Hear high energy career motivational speakers. Learn career advancement tips. Participate in informational interviews. Receive mini career coaching. Assess your career aptitudes. Partner organizations include 21st Century Community, YEP – Your Ethiopian Professionals, Alexandria Workforce Development and MBC.
Finance Pavilion:
Topics covered include raising money savvy kids, financial responsibility, creating generational wealth, dealing with college debt, getting your credit right, securing your family’s financial future, and home buying 101. Partner organization are Primerica, CLRA group and Your DMV Team.
Immigration and Legal Issues with Attorney Yemmi Getachew & Hellina Hailu
Fear NOT, Know Your Rights as Immigrants – 11am
Surviving the Stop – How to Engage with Law Enforcement 1:00pm
Teaching Kids & Young Men What to Expect and Know
Warrior Moms – Special Needs Parenting
Leah Tesfa, Birollei Debela and Salem Hagos
Entertainment
Wayna, Ras Nebiyou, Ethiopian Traditional Band, Abel Dureyew, Comedian Gergish and more.
Vendors at the event will also be selling various artisan merchandise
— If You Go:
Saturday August 26
11am -7pm
Walter E Washington Convention Center
801 Mt. Vernon Place, NW
Washington DC 20001 www.empowercw.com
New York (TADIAS) — Enkutatash is around the corner and so is the fourth annual Ethiopia Fest Chicago, a colorful September festival in the “Windy City” marking the Ethiopian New Year.
The Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago (ECAC), host of the weekend celebration scheduled for September 9th, announced that their holiday gathering this year features live music, food, fashion show, cultural performance and a gursha contest.
“We are really excited to see Ethiopia Fest continue to grow bigger and better each year,” said Dibora Berhanu, Events Director of the ECAC’s Auxiliary Board. “This year we have all five hours packed with great entertainment and an array of vendors.” She added: “It will be a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon [celebrating] the beautiful Ethiopian culture.” The program also includes traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony and poetry reading by up-and-coming artist, Tigist Dadi.
The non profit organization said it’s expecting up to a thousand people to attend. “This Festival is a wonderful opportunity for Ethiopians in Chicago and other members in the community to engage in festivities to celebrate the New Year,” the press release stated. “The attendees include the Greater Chicago Ethiopian community, adoptive communities, the African and African Diaspora communities, as well as many people who travel from all over the Midwest.”
The press release notes that the festival organizers have partnered with Ethiopian Airlines and offering a raffle of a round-trip ticket to any Ethiopian Airlines destination in Africa. “We also have many local sponsors including The Wild Hare, New City Moving, The African Life, The Meeting Point, Safari Lounge & Ethiopian Cuisine, Ian Sherwin Gallery, and Selam Ethiopian Kitchen” states the press release.
— If You Go: Admission is only $5 and free for children under 5. You can purchase your tickets online or with cash at the door. For more information on Ethiopia Fest Chicago, please visit ethiopiafestchicago.com.
Taste of Ethiopia brings together food, culture and role models in the immigrant community
Denver isn’t in the dark about Ethiopian food.
In some cities, Ethiopian cuisines are a niche market for adventurous foodies. But Colorado has become a hub for African-inspired restaurants serving the country’s famous spicy-sour mix of injera bread and stews.
That why for the last five years, thousands of locals have flocked to the annual Taste of Ethiopia…
The food isn’t the only thing that draws people to the festival and keeps them coming back. The rich culture does as well.
“We’re bringing the community and culture to those who have left Ethiopia and it’s our way of passing our heritage to the next generation of kids who are born here in American society,” said. Neb Asfaw. “We want to preserve our heritage and also bring it to the local community.”
Most important to the festival and the Ethiopian community was to take the time to honor model citizens who are involved with and supporting the immigrant community.
Investment manager and business owner Mel Tewahade said he moved to the U.S. from Ethiopia 35 years ago with little more than $20 in his pocket.
“I help people in the community to get acclimated to American way of life and adjusting to cultural differences,” Tewahade said. “Making life easier for newcomers. How should they dress themselves and cut their nails and present themselves to have opportunity in labor market.
Tewhade said he sees a lack of role models in the black community and is trying to fill that void.
New York (TADIAS) — A well-timed discussion entitled How Should We Care About Africa will take place at The New School in New York City on July 27th featuring the award-winning New York Times journalist Jeffrey Gettleman. The event will be moderated by Hiwot Nega, founder and CEO of the NYC-based professional network company, Clewed, and will cover Ethiopia as a case study while highlighting the experience of The Times’s East Africa Bureau Chief.
Jeffrey Gettleman, a long-standing Africa correspondent for The New York Times, is the winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting and author of the new book Love, Africa. The upcoming event discussion is described in the announcement as focusing on his work as a journalist and changing the conversation about Africa.
In addition to The New York Times Gettleman’s work has appeared in National Geographic, GQ, Foreign Policy and The New York Review of Books. “He studied philosophy at Cornell University before winning a Marshall Scholarship to study at Oxford.” Gettleman is currently based in Kenya.
— If You Go:
How Should We Care About Africa: A Talk with Jeffrey Gettleman
Thu, July 27, 2017
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
The New School
63 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10003 Click here to RSVP
In the mid-’60s, Mulatu Astatke began bending the rules of American jazz to fit the traditional music of his native Ethiopia and ended up launching an entire genre known as Ethio-jazz—a profoundly deep and funky style that hasn’t lost a shred of its cool over its 50-year run. The revered composer and multi-instrumentalist has collaborated with Duke Ellington and been sampled by Kanye West, and you certainly shouldn’t miss him when he hits SummerStage for the first time.
— If You Go:
Mulatu Astatke at SummerStage
Sunday, August 20th, 2017 at 6:00 pm
Central Park, SummerStage
Rumsey Playfield (enter at Fifth Ave and 72nd St)
New York
FreeEvent
More info at http://www.cityparksfoundation.org/summerstage
New York (TADIAS) — The U.S.-based non-profit organization for Ethiopian health care professionals in the Diaspora, People to People (P2P), announced that it will be hosting its 9th annual Health Care and Medical Education conference on September 23rd, 2017 at the Residence Inn, Pentagon City, just outside of Washington, D.C.
“The central theme for this year will be ‘Cancer and Cancer Care,’ a topic you will agree, is gaining increasing importance in Ethiopia and beyond,” said Dr. Enawgaw Mehari, Founder and President of P2P in a statement.
The conference will address the current status of cancer care in Ethiopia and participants will “brainstorm on ways to support clinical care, education and research in this field,” Dr. Enawgaw shared in his letter. “To this end, we have assembled an impressive roster of speakers with wide experience in academia, and building and supporting fellowship programs in Hematology and Oncology.”
Dr. Enawgaw added: “P2P has been promoting the concept of triangular partnership since its inception in 2009. This model recognizes the pivotal role Diaspora Health Professionals can play in fostering partnerships between US and Ethiopian institutions of higher learning. The conference this September will provide further opportunity to network and meet Ethiopian and US institutions of higher learning who share the same mission and vision.”
— If You Go:
P2P 9th annual Health Care and Medical Education conference
September 23rd 2017
The Residence Inn, Pentagon City
Arlington, Virginia www.p2pbridge.org
Related: Watch: 2015 People to People (P2P) Conference Award Ceremony
New York (TADIAS) — A timely bone marrow donor drive is being hosted by the Ethiopian Sports Federation in North America (ESFNA) at this year’s annual Ethiopian soccer tournament and cultural festival that’s taking place this week in the Seattle suburb of Renton, Washington.
ESFNA announced that the bone marrow registry will be held in the vendor area of the tournament and festival in coordination with Be The Match organization, which is operated by the National Marrow Donor Program.
“Our hope is to offer a cure for the thousands of people diagnosed with life-threatening cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma each year,” ESFNA said. “Many of these people are of Ethiopian descent.”
Last month we featured Elsa, an Ethiopian-Canadian mother of two children, who is currently in urgent need of life-saving marrow transplant, and who has not yet found a match in the current International Registry of 29 million individuals.
“We encourage all interested parties to please visit the Bone Marrow Registry at Renton Memorial Stadium,” ESFNA added. “Through your donations, lives can be saved.”
New York (TADIAS) — Last week the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C. hosted an evening of painting and Ethiopian Jazz “under the summer skies” with Beteseb Center and Feedel Band.
We featured the Beteseb art program when it was first launched two years ago as a weekly Saturday painting session for amateur artists in a rental space on 18th street in the Adams Morgan neighborhood.
Beteseb founders Solomon Asfaw and Aleme Tadesse envisioned providing a creative outlet for individuals as well as groups not only to create art, but to also jumpstart a movement for youth to spend their time in more rewarding ways. Indeed the movement is underway and growing. The most recent event at Smithsonian on June 17th was “attended by 529 people while 189 people painted,” Beteseb shared adding “Thanks for Feedel Band making the evening super nice.”
Below are photos from the event:
Beteseb announced that it will host its next event in August and September, closer to the Ethiopian New Year. They will also “be opening up more weekly paint sessions in Virginia in addition to the current one every Saturday in Adams Morgan.”
New York (TADIAS) — Last month Ethiopian-American artist Julie Mehretu was inducted into the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters. The Academy, which is chartered by the U.S. Congress, was established in 1898 “as an honor society of the country’s leading architects, artists, composers, and writers.” According to the organization’s website: “The Academy seeks to foster and sustain an interest in Literature, Music, and the Fine Arts by administering over 70 awards and prizes, exhibiting art and manuscripts, funding performances of new works of musical theater, and purchasing artwork for donation to museums across the country.”
This week Julie Mehretu and Jessica Rankin’s art works are also featured at Columbia University’s Wallach Art Gallery. The exhibition, aptly titled “Uptown,” inaugurates the gallery’s new space in Harlem at 125th Street and Broadway.
“Uptown showcases established and mid-career artists alongside emerging talent from Harlem, El Barrio, Washington Heights and all neighborhoods in between,” the gallery announced. “With this initiative, the Wallach Art Gallery joins northern Manhattan’s vibrant art scene. Uptown celebrates these neighborhoods long at the vanguard in nurturing vital, internationally recognized art.”
— If You Go:
SPECIAL EVENTS AT THE WALLACH ART GALLERY
615 W. 129th St
(Enter on W. 125th street, just west of Broadway)
Uptown exhibit is open from June 2 – August 20, 2017
New York (TADIAS) — Following her performance with the Stevie Wonder as a soloist and supporting vocalist, Ethiopian American singer Wayna is starting this summer with a one-of-a-kind tribute to Ethiopian music legend Bezunesh Bekele. Wayna’s upcoming concert is scheduled to be held at Bethesda Blues and Jazz Supper Club in Maryland on Friday, June 9th.
As a Grammy-nominated musician Wayna has previously performed at the Kennedy Center, the White House, Lincoln Center, and the Blue Note along with a 3-month performance residency in Ethiopia in 2016. Wayna also recently released a music video this past March in honor of Women’s History Month entitled You’re Not Alone, which featured images of Ethiopian women by photographer Aida Muluneh as well as photos of women that she encountered at the historic Women’s March on Washington in January 2017.
New York (TADIAS) — Society of Ethiopians Established in Diaspora (SEED) marks its 25th anniversary this year with its annual awards dinners ceremony scheduled to take place in Hyattsville, Maryland on May 28th. The line-up of the 2017 honorees include social entrepreneurs, physicians and celebrity artists.
The U.S.-based non-profit organization, which aims to empower the Ethiopian American Diaspora in the areas of “academic excellence, professional development, and community service,” announced that its 25th anniversary award recipients include Ted Alemayehu, Founder and Chairman of U.S Doctors for Africa (USDFA); physicians Dr. Ambachew Woreta and Dr. Zaki Sherif, author and poet Lemn Sissay, as well as the founder of Sewasewe Genet Charity and Development Organization (SGCDO), Abba Kefyalew Abera, and musicians Mahamoud Ahmed and Tewodros Kassahun (Teddy Afro).
In addition SEED said it will posthumously recognize the late Dr. Maigenet Shiferaw, founder of the Ethiopian women for Peace, Democracy and Development (EWPD) and co-founder and President of the Center for The Rights of Ethiopian Women (CREW), “as a distinguished scholar, author and our venerated teacher; in appreciation of her lifelong dedication and struggle for human rights and women’s rights; in acknowledgement of the rich and positive contributions she has made in the Diaspora Community and legacy she has left behind by exemplifying the highest ideals and standards of our community; in recognition of her inspiring academic excellence and many other positive attributes.”
The 2017 SEED Student Honorees are Kirubel Aklilu, Rackeb D. Mered, Teferi D. Tadesse, Yeabesiera D. Tadesse and Ms. Rahel Boghossian (Harvard Law School, Harvard University, Class of 2017).
— If You Go:
25th ANNUAL SEED AWARDS DINNER
Date: May 28, 2017
College Park Marriot Hotel
3501 University Blvd. E.
Hyattsville, MD 20783
301-985-7300 www.ethioseed.com
Video: Tilahun Gessesse SEED Award Acceptance Speech — May 28, 2000
New York (TADIAS) — Next week an Art in FLUX exhibition, curated by Henone Girma, will open at ALOFT Harlem as part of the New York organization’s mentoring initiative. The exhibition entitled Woe-nderland features five NYC-based artists including emerging Ethiopian American artist Tariku Shiferaw whose work we highlighted here last year. Additional participants include Belinda James, Ben Ponté, Elan Ferguson and JaSon Auguste. Tariku’s work is currently part of the 2017 Whitney Biennial.
The show, which opens on Wednesday, April 19th, “presents works that evoke a collective feeling of world-weariness that saturates the current climate and paints an honest picture of lamentation apt for recent events,” states Art in FLUX.
According to the press release “the title Woe-nderland takes as its point of departure the 1996 single ‘If I Ruled the World’ by recording artist Nas that begins with “Life, I wonder, will it take me under, I don’t know” – a simultaneous testimony to the ills of society and contemplation of its potentials.”
The press release adds: The exhibition offers a rather satirical lens through which we may reimagine our current social construct – this perhaps creating a timely opportunity for relating and purging.
About the Curator:
Henone Girma has been a gallery assistant at Art in FLUX since September 2016. She also works as a Research Associate for the Arts of Global Africa department at Newark Museum in New Jersey. She is a recent graduate from New York University with an MA in Visual Arts Administration. Henone wrote her final thesis on contemporary Ethiopian art as it relates to the art market. She hopes Woe-nderland will be the first of many exhibitions she will have the opportunity to curate as she continues her career as an arts advocate and professional.
— If You Go:
Exhibition: Woe-nderland
Artists: Tariku Shiferaw, Belinda James, Ben Ponté, Elan Ferguson, and JaSon Auguste
Opening: Wednesday, April 19, 2017, 6:00 to 9:00 PM
Dates: April 19 through August 31, 2017
Location: Aloft Harlem, 2296 Frederick Douglass Blvd. between 123 and 124th Streets, NYC
Hours: Daily 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM
Info: www.artinfluxharlem.com
Chicago (TADIAS) — The Chicago area is home to one of the earliest Ethiopian immigrant communities in North America. And so is the Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago (ECAC), which marks its 33rd anniversary next month, as one of the oldest Ethiopian American organizations in the country “serving as a cultural anchor of the Chicago-area Ethiopian community” for more than three decades.
The non-profit was established after “the tragedy of a car accident in 1984 which took the life of an Ethiopian immigrant in Chicago,” which “sparked ECAC’s founding members to establish the association.”
(Photo: Courtesy of ECAC)
Since 1984 ECAC has also served as an “open door for refugee populations” including from Asia, Middle East, and Eastern European nations “seeking its services in areas of advocacy, education, employment, healthcare, and community outreach.” Today ECAC is also home to the only Ethiopian museum in North America “with more than two thousand Ethiopian artifacts in its collection – made possible by the generous donation of the late musician, composer, choreographer, conductor and cultural expert, Tesfaye Lemma. This one-of-a-kind collection has not only impressed but educated hundreds of visitors on Ethiopian culture, history, and tradition.”
The Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago will host its 33rd Anniversary Benefit Dinner on Saturday, May 13, 2017 at ECAC’s Community Center (1730 E Greenleaf Ave). Organizers share that the festivities will feature guest speakers, live entertainment and an Ethiopian dinner.
New York (TADIAS) — Tsion Cafe and Zoma restaurant are set to showcase their delicious Ethiopian cuisine at the 2017 Harlem EatUp Food Festival.
Co-founded by Marcus Samuelsson three years ago the popular annual fair highlights the eclectic mix of dining places found in New York City’s uptown neighborhood. The 2017 Harlem EatUp Food Festival is scheduled to take place from May 15th to 21st.
This week Tsion Cafe won the qualifier contest sponsored by Citi Bank (@citi Market Challenge) to participate in this year’s Harlem EatUp Festival “offering an exciting sampling of Harlem’s sights, flavors and sounds, from artists of the kitchen, canvas, stage and streets.”
“Today we came to showcase our rich Ethiopian food and we made a good representation of our cuisine and we won the challenge,” said Beejhy Barhany, owner of Tsion cafe, in an interview with the local Fox5 TV station following the contest on Tuesday, March 28th.
Zoma restaurant:
Also featured at the 3rd annual Harlem EatUp Festival is Zoma restaurant, which has been around for more than a decade. “Henock Kejela is an Ethiopian-born restaurateur,” notes the announcement. “His restaurant Zoma was opened in 2006 in Harlem, New York.”
Zoma is located at 2084 Frederick Douglass Blvd (8th Ave) Corner of 113th st. New York. (ZomaNYC.com)
In addition, this year the festival includes an homage to Billie Holiday at the Apollo kick-off concert, as well as The Harlem Stroll – an outdoor event described as a “feast of a tasting presenting a collection of Harlem’s favorite restaurants in an all-you-can-eat format.” The EatUp! Main Stage, sponsored by Macy’s, will also feature “live culinary demos and performances featuring Harlem’s chefs, musicians and dancers alongside guests from NYC and beyond.”
New York (TADIAS) — Next week two Ethiopian American organizations are collaborating to host a timely healthcare conference in San Jose, California focusing on the prevention of diabetes, one of the top chronic diseases in the United States, which also affects many individuals in our community.
Presented by Ethiopian Community Services and the Ethiopian Nurses Association of California, the 3rd Annual Health & Wellness Conference features speakers from Stanford Health Care, Kaiser Permanente and Santa Clara County Valley Medical Center.
The Ethiopian Nurses Association of California (ENAC) is a non-profit organization that “aims to provide health education and awareness to the Ethiopian Community in the greater San Francisco Bay Area,” while Ethiopian Community Services (ECS) is a 20-year-old non-profit organization that is “committed to providing culturally-based adjustment and long-term services that enhance productivity and self-sufficiency within the Ethiopian Community in Santa Clara County (SCC).”
“Please join us as we come together to learn about diabetes prevention and management, and how we can empower ourselves to live happier, healthier lives,” organizers announced.
Sponsored by Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager & The Health Trust the event is scheduled to be held on April 8th at the Isaac Newton Senter Auditorium in San Jose.
— If You Go:
Free admission! Food! Giveaways! Health Fair!
Saturday, April 8, 2017 from 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM (PDT) Please RSVP by 4/1/17
For more information:
Phone: 408-681-8910
Email: info@ecssanjose.org
Talk and Q&A with Efrat Yerday in partnership with Jewish Voice for Peace
New York — Join us for a talk by Efrat Yerday on the contemporary parallel struggles of Ethiopian Jews in Israel/Palestine and Black Lives Matter in the US and on the struggles of black people against racism from a transnational perspective. In recent years, Ethiopian Jewish activists have begun to gradually perceive their struggle in universal terms, adopting global anti-racist strategies on the one hand, but often without giving up their precarious privilege as Jews. More specifically, they have drawn from the Black Lives Matter movement, invoking practices and language that transcend the local so as to garner universal legitimation. African American leaders such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King are quoted frequently in demonstrations and on social media by Ethiopian activists; the clashes in Baltimore, Fergusson and Missouri are linked to the clashes in Rabin square in Tel Aviv. Efrat Yerday is a writer, scholar, editor, and activist. In 2010–2011 she served as the spokesperson for the Israeli Association for Ethiopian Jews and published opinion pieces on racism in general and institutionalized racism in particular. Over the years she has also published reviews of nonfiction dealing with Ethiopian history and the absorption of Ethiopians in Israel. In 2010 she established the Young Ethiopian Students blog, inviting critical thinking and challenging the establishment and academic narrative of the immigration and absorption of Ethiopian Jews. Yerday teaches at Ben-Gurion University in the Negev and writes regularly for Hamakom hakhi kham begehinom (The Hottest Place in Hell) and for other media outlets.
— If You Go:
Mar 27 2017 7:00PM
Center for Jewish History Chapel
15 West 16th Street
New York , New York 10011
Between 5th & 6th Aves. Click here to buy Tickets
New York (TADIAS) — The second installment of the Addis Calling group exhibition curated by Addis Fine Art Gallery will open in Ethiopia’s capital city on March 25th. The exhibition promotes the works of contemporary Ethiopian artists and will remain on display until May 20th, 2017.
“Representing a new selection of local talent engaged in a diverse range of artistic expression, the exhibition is an exciting mix of painting, glass mono-prints and photography,” the gallery announced in a press release.
Artists featured in Addis Calling II include Addis Gezahegn, Mulugeta Kassa, Abiy Solomon and Bezawit Wondwossen.
Below are bios of each artist courtesy of Addis Fine Art gallery:
Addis Gezahegn
Addis Gezahegn (b.1978), a long-time artistic presence in Addis Ababa, is known for portraying the multifaceted characteristics of the city’s residents by detailing the external facades of their homes,” His signature piece in the exhibition, from his series Floating City, features a vast, dramatic night sky—a black expanse that towers above a shimmering horizon of urban homes that mostly appear rootless, blurred, and ephemeral. Over the years, he has taken an increasingly reductive approach to his work, rendering entire cityscapes as a flat patchwork of colorful doors and gates. Gezahegn is a 2011 graduate of Addis Ababa University’s Alle School of Fine Art and Design.
Mulugeta Kassa
Paintings by Mulugeta Kassa, UNTITLED III, 2012, Glass Mono Print, 40 × 30 cm and UNTITLED I, 2012
Glass Mono Print 40 × 30 cm. (Courtesy photos)
Mulugeta Kassa (b.1973), co-founder of the experimental collective Netsa Art Village, considers the singular nature of conception and fertility through his glass mono-prints. Embryo and phallus-like structures float by in a sea of neutral grays, greens, and browns. One of these is tweaked to reveal the outline of a woman carrying a mountain-like bundle of sticks on her back. Kassa graduated from the Addis Ababa School of Fine Arts and Design in 2003.
Photographer Abiy Solomon
Photo by Abiy Solomon, LALIBELA IV, 2014, Digital Archival Print, 47 x 70.5cm, Edition of 7 + 1AP.
Abiy Solomon (b.1983), is a photographer and one of the most prominent graphic designers in Addis Ababa. In his photography series, Primordial Modernity: The Raw Spirit of Lalibela, he offers a meditation on spirituality and the profound interiority of faith, as he photographs monks in Lalibela exiting and entering the hushed, dark spaces within the ancient rock-hewn churches. Offset by the bright sunlight that pours in through the open windows and doorways, the images are imbued with a reverent feeling: a contemplation of light and darkness, as well as the inner and outer manifestations of religiosity. Solomon holds a degree in Animation and Visual Effects from Maac University in India (2008). He is the founder and Creative Director at Orangeswitch, a design company, and Partner at Africology Media.
Bezawit Wondwossen
Painting by By Bezawit Wondwosen, Untitled X, 2016. (Courtesy photograph)
Bezawit Wondwossen (b.1987) uses bold, thick strokes of blues, oranges, and browns to create an abstract yet vigorous cityscape, against which splashes of black silhouette. The black forms a meditative core—seemingly haphazard, yet controlled; ornamental, yet integral to the logic of the works. It pulls viewers in to contemplate its various weights, and the sense of angst it evokes—a feeling Bezawit, a 2003 graduate of the Abyssinia School of Fine Arts, ascribes to the travails of womanhood.
— If You Go:
Addis Calling II Exhibit
March 25th through May 20th, 2017.
Addis Fine Art gallery
(3rd Floor, Red Building Behind Mafi City Mall)
Bole Medhane Alem
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Tel: +251 913 426553 www.addisfineart.com
New York (TADIAS) — This year marks the 121st anniversary of Ethiopia’s victory at the Battle of Adwa, which took place on March 1st 1896. This past weekend in Washington, D.C., Ethiopian guests and friends of Ethiopia from across the U.S. came together for the 6th Annual Victory of Adwa Commemorative Dinner — a black tie affair hosted by Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie, the grandson of Emperor Haile Selassie. The program was held both in celebration of Adwa as well as to recognize individuals who have distinguished themselves through their dedicated contribution to Ethiopian society at large.
New York (TADIAS) — Next week in New York City Ethiopian-American novelist and writer Dinaw Mengestu will be one of the featured speakers at a Pen America town hall meeting entitled “The Role of the Writer in Trump’s America.”
“The role of the writer is being tested in an era of new and intensified attacks on the First Amendment, the discrediting of the press and journalists and efforts to obscure and distort the truth,” Pen America stated in a press release. “Writers have been at the vanguard of chronicling, interpreting and helping shape responses to fast-breaking developments that have the potential to remake essential aspects of our politics and society.”
In addition to Dinaw Mengestu scheduled speakers include Daniel Alarcón, Masha Gessen, Salman Rushdie, and Andrew Solomon.
Pen America added: “The last few months have seen so-called fake news and “alternative facts” challenge the authority of legitimate news sources, expertise and scientific knowledge discredited, and the value of arts and culture questioned. At the same time, millions of Americans are finding new ways to express their views in protest. These developments pose important questions for the role of the writer: Do writers have any unique obligations that derived from the political challenges of the day? Should the roles of writer, artist, citizen, and activist converge? How can the breadth and diversity of the literary community be reflected without detracting from unified efforts? What obligations exist within and amongst the literary community and its sub-cultures? Does the literary community need to evolve to meet the challenges of this moment, and how?”
TOWN HALL MEETING: The Role of the Writer in Trump’s America Opening remarks from Daniel Alarcón , Masha Gessen, Dinaw Mengestu, Salman Rushdie, Andrew Solomon, and more to be announced. (Pen America)
Following remarks from the featured writers an open mike discussion will be held among members of PEN America.
— If You Go:
Wed, March 8, 2017
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST
Frederick P. Rose Auditorium
41 Cooper Square
New York, NY 10008 Click here to register
New York (TADIAS) — U.S. Congresswoman Karen Bass who is the Ranking Member of the House Africa Subcommittee will host the 2017 Africa policy breakfast kickoff event next week in Washington, D.C. focusing on how to win contracting opportunities with the U.S. Government.
“Getting the correct information and details on this process is often thought of as complex and difficult,” said the email announcement from Rep. Bass who represents California’s 37th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. “This event will feature experienced contracting experts with years of experience in the U.S. public and/or private sector to help us kick off the 2017 series of Africa Policy Breakfasts.”
The panel will be moderated by the Honorable Lauri J. Fitz-Pegado, a Partner at The Livingston Group. “Appointed by President Clinton and confirmed by the Senate, Ms. Fitz-Pegado served in the Department of Commerce, under the late Secretary Ronald H. Brown and Secretaries Mickey Kantor and William Daley, as the Assistant Secretary and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service.”
Guest speaker includes Dr. Sharon T. Freeman, President of All American Small Business Exporters Association, as well as expert panelists Eugene Cornelius, Deputy Assistant Administrator for International Trade, Small Business Administration; Mahmoud Bah, Acting Vice President of Administration and Financing and Chief Financial Officer, Millennium Challenge Corporation and Kimberly Ball, Deputy Director, Office of Small and Disadvantaged business Utilization, U.S. Agency for International Development.
— If You Go:
2017 Africa Policy Breakfast Kickoff:
Contracting Opportunities with the U.S. Government
Monday, February 27, 2017
8:00 AM – 10:00 AM
2044 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515 Click here to RSVP
New York (TADIAS) — This coming weekend at the Army and Navy Club on Farragut Square in Washington, D.C., Ethiopian guests will gather for a black tie event hosted by Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie, the grandson of Emperor Haile Selassie and head of The Crown Council of Ethiopia. The event is both a celebration of Ethiopia’s historic victory at Adwa as well as to give out honorary medals to selected individuals who have distinguished themselves through their dedicated contribution to Ethiopian society at large.
This year the most prestigious award the “Grand Officer of the Imperial Order of Emperor Menelik II,” which was founded in 1924 during the reign of Empress Zauditu, will be bestowed on Elias Wondimu, the Editorial Director & Founder of Tsehai Publishers in Los Angeles, California. In a statement Prince Ermias shared that Elias is being honored for preserving “the national identity of Ethiopians and Africans, and contributing to a greater understanding of Ethiopia and Africa by people outside the continent.”
In addition Denver, Colorado-based businessman Mel Tewahade, among others, will be given the “Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Honor” (GOSE) during the private ceremony to be held on February 25,2017 at the Annual Victory of Adwa Commemorative Dinner, according to Gregory Copley, a Strategic Advisor to the Crown Council of Ethiopia.
The newspaper Negarit — The Journal of The International Society for the Imperial Ethiopian Orders — notes that the annual event, now in its sixth year, commemorates the victory of Emperor Menelik II over invading Italian forces at the Battle of Adwa on March 1, 1896.
New York (TADIAS) – One of the oldest immigrant communities in Ethiopia, Armenians, were welcomed to Ethiopia in the early 1900s after they escaped genocide carried out by the Ottoman empire. In addition to thriving as goldsmiths, carpenters, teachers and carpet makers, Armenian-Ethiopians have also greatly contributed to the emergence of modern music in Ethiopia. Kevork Nalbandian was an Armenian who composed the first national anthem for Ethiopia as well as served as the musical director of Arba Lijoch. His nephew Nerses Nalbandian was involved in the founding of the historic Yared Music School in Addis Ababa as well as led the Municipality Orchestra.
Nerses Nalbandian will be honored this month with a tribute concert entitled The Emperor, the Nalbandians and the Dawn of Western Music in Ethiopia, on Sunday, February 19, 2017 in Watertown, Massachusetts. The concert, which is organized by The Friends of Armenian Culture Society (FACS), features Boston’s world renowned and the Grammy-nominated Ethio jazz band the Either/Orchestra and multilingual cast of guest vocalists including Debo band’s Bruck Tesfaye.
“Born in 1915 in Aintab, Ottoman Empire, Nerses Nalbandian settled in Aleppo, Syria after his family escaped the genocide,” FACS said in a press release. “He worked as a music teacher and choir master at the Armenian Orthodox Church in Syria, before moving to Ethiopia in 1938 at the invitation of his uncle Kevork Nalbandian.”
The press release adds: “The program will include music Nalbandian composed and arranged during his tenure as Music Director of the Haile Selassie National Theater (1956-74). The event also celebrates the release of the E/O’s CD Ethiopiques 32: Nalbandian the Ethiopian, for which the E/O has reconstructed and interpreted Nalbandian’s music in live and studio recordings made in Ethiopia, the US and Canada. The E/O’s previous Ethiopiques release, Live in Addis (2005), was called “astonishing…monumental…the best live album of the year in any genre” by Paul Olsen, AllAboutJazz.com. Armenian scholar Dr. Boris Adjemian, the director of the AGBU Nubar Library in Paris, will deliver a short pre-concert talk.”
— If You Go:
FACS presents:
A Tribute to Ethiopian Music Legend Nerses Nalbandian
Featuring Either/Orchestra; Russ Gershon, Music Director, & Bruck Tesfaye, vocalist.
Sunday, February 19, 2017 at 7:00 PM
The Mosesian Center for the Arts [map]
321 Arsenal St
Watertown, MA 02472 Click here for tickets
New York (TADIAS) — Dr. Menna Demissie, who is Vice President of Policy Analysis & Research at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, is the featured presenter at this week’s YEP guest speakers series in DC hosted by Young Ethiopian Professionals.
Menna who also teaches at the University of California, Washington Center specializes in public policy issues relevant to African Americans. Before joining the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Menna was an assistant to Congresswoman Barbara Lee and worked on unemployment legislation, poverty, and foreign policy. Menna “holds a joint doctorate in Public Policy and Political Science as well as a Master of Arts in Political Science and Certificate in African American, African and Black Transnational Studies from the University of Michigan” notes the CBC Foundation website. “She also earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Law and Society from Oberlin College. She has been interviewed on NPR and other media outlets and currently serves on the Alumni board for the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, on the advisory board of the Diaspora African Women’s Network (DAWN), and has served as National Youth Coordinator for the Society of Ethiopians Established in the Diaspora (SEED) since 2000.”
At the upcoming YEP program Menna “will share her journey from leading the CBC foundation’s policy initiatives in the areas of education, economic opportunity, and healthcare as it affects the global black community to serving as an adjunct professor at the University of California Washington Center where she teaches courses on U.S.- Africa Foreign Policy, Race and Ethnic Politics, and American Government.”
If You Go:
YEP Presents Dr. Menna Demissie
“Career Opportunities in Government and Public Policy”
Thursday, February 2, 2017 from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (EST)
Washington Marriott Marquis
George Washington University Room
901 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, DC 20001 Click here to RSVP
New York (TADIAS) — This weekend in Washington, D.C. renown photographer Chester Higgins, Jr. (formerly with the New York Times) and acclaimed filmmaker and professor Haile Gerima will hold a timely public conversation on the need to produce images that positively impact the connection between continental Africans and those residing in the Diaspora. The event is part of an upcoming documentary film on the life and work of Chester Higgens, Jr. by one of Gerima’s former students, director Patrick Yussuf.
Parts of this conversation, which takes place on Saturday, January 28th at Sankofa Book Store & Cafe, will find its way into the film.
“The discussion is on how the use of conscious visuals of Continental Africans are important for building constructive bridges to Western-born African people,” Higgins told Tadias.
“Chester Higgins Jr. has traveled to Africa every year since 1971 as a way to meditate, disconnect and examine his life,” The New York Times wrote in a feature entitled “Chester Higgins’ Homage to Ethiopia,” which highlighted his work from Ethiopia that was on exhibit in 2015 at Skoto Gallery in New York City. “Through the experience of photographing new people and places, his art both shapes and reflects his narrative. And nowhere is that truer for him than in Ethiopia, a place that has long enchanted him.”
— If You Go
Photographer Chester Higgins in Conversation with Filmmaker Haile Gerima
Saturday January 28th, 2017
From 6:30 to 8:30 PM
Sankofa Video & Books, 2714 Georgia Ave, NW
Washington D.C. 20001
Located across from Howard University
Contact: 202-234-4755 or sankofa@gmail.com www.sankofa.com
New York (TADIAS) — This weekend a public forum will be held at Stanford University in California highlighting some of the most pressing and unresolved issues fueling the ongoing political and economic crisis in Ethiopia while currently under State of Emergency including “land and agriculture policy, property rights, human rights, democracy, and rule of law.”
According to the Ethiopian American Council (EAC), the program organizer, the gathering of scholars and activists include Mulatu Wubneh, Ph.D., Department of Geography, Planning, and Environment at East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina whose talk is entitled “This Land Is My Land: the Ethio-Sudan Boundary and the Need to Rectify Arbitrary Colonial Boundaries.”
Other speakers are Mekonnen Firew Ayano, Post-Doctoral Fellow at Harvard University’s Center for African Studies, who is scheduled to address “Ethiopia’s Property Rights, Land and Agriculture Policy” and Felix Horne, a Senior Horn of Africa Researcher at Human Rights Watch, is set to discuss “Human Rights Crisis in the Amhara and Oromia Regions of Ethiopia.”
The Executive Director of The Oakland Institute, Anuradha Mittal, is also scheduled to discuss “The Risk of Land Grabbing From Ethiopian Villagers and its Impact on Food Security.” Additional presentation topics include “access to food, democracy, human rights, and the ethnic federal system in Ethiopia.”
The keynote speakers at the forum are Professor Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, as well as Professor Richard A. Joseph from Northwestern University’s Political Science Department who is among the four inaugural Martin Luther King Visiting Professors at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
— If You Go:
January 21 – 22, 2017
Stanford University
Jordan Hall, Building 01-420
450 Serra Mall,
Stanford, California
Sponsors: Center for African Studies, BSU, SASA, and SEESA Click here to learn more and RSVP
New York (TADIAS) — Just in time for Ethiopian christmas the annual Secret Planet World Music Showcase at DROM in Manhattan will present the legendary composer-arranger and vocalist Girma Beyene, who is scheduled to perform on Saturday, January 7th, 2017 accompanied by DC-based Feedel Band.
Girma who is one of the icons of Ethiopia’s “golden age” of jazz and swing has made a remarkable comeback recently after many years of absence from the music scene. His new album, which is entitled Mistakes on Purpose and recorded in collaboration with the French Ethio-jazz band Akale Wube, is set to be released on January 13th, 2017 as part of the 30th installment of the Ethiopiques CD series.
“This year’s Secret Planet’s lineup continues our tradition of showcasing new talent unlikely to remain secret for very long,” announced Barbès and Electric Cowbell Records, organizers of the NYC international concert.
The 2017 edition includes “artists playing their own version of music from Morocco, Puerto Rico, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Tuva, Venezuela, Brooklyn, Cuba and Toronto.”
(Photo: DROM NYC)
The announcement highlights that “Girma is also the composer of “Muziqawi Silt,” the most covered Ethiopian tune of all time. There has been a regain of interest for Girma Beyene in Europe and now in the US. He will be backed by Feedel Band, a Washington DC-based group made up of former members of some Addis Ababa’s greatest musicians including the legendary Walias band and Aster Aweke.”
— If You Go:
Girma Beyene & Feedel Band at DROM NYC
Sat, January 7th
Doors 7PM
Show 7:30PM
Advance Price $10 GA / Free with APAP Badge
Door Price: Advanced online ticket sales stop at 5pm on day of show
If available, more tickets are available at door www.dromnyc.com
“I am swimming in between Ethiopian tradition that I grew up with [and] American culture that I am experiencing right now,” Abebe explains in his artist statement. “My subject matters reflect the two cultures as well. It also gives me great opportunity to use different mediums to convey my deep passion. Beyond cultures, there is so much for me to learn; so many great artists to learn from, that I know only patience, persistence, practice and education will carry me to my goal.”
The title of Abraham Abebe’s new show Guzo, which means journey in Amharic makes use of “lottery tickets as a starting point then translates numbers from each ticket into visual forms using the metric system. The resulting visual data serves as the basis for the painting, mixed media, kinetic and screen-print that would define the four quadrants on the two-dimensional surface of the stretched canvases, papers and panels.”
Artwork Abraham Abebe. (Courtesy of the artist )
Abraham holds both an MFA degree in Studio Art and a BFA (Cum Laude) majoring in Graphic Design, Painting and Drawing from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, as well as an A.A. degree (with distinction) from Truckee Meadows Community College. He has held several solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows and is the author of Eggmel, a book of poetry written in his native language Amharic.
— If You Go:
ጉዞ ፪ = Journey II by Abraham Abebe
curated by Professor Carlos Herrera
January 9 – February 3, 2017
Reception: January 26, from 5 – 7pm
Artist Talk: January 26 at 5:30pm
Leland Gallery
Ennis Hall
320 West Hancock Street
Milledgeville, GA 31061
New York (TADIAS) — Next week the Ethiopian Jewish Holiday ‘Sigd’ will be celebrated at the American Jewish Historical Society in New York City (AJHS). Organized by AJHS in partnership with Chassida Shmella, the event includes “a special evening of music, artifacts, rituals and food on Sunday, Dec. 18th at 5pm in the Forchheimer Auditorium at AJHS (15 West 16th Street).”
“Sigd: An Ethiopian Jewish Celebration will feature a performance by Anbessa Orchestra, a display of items from the AJHS’ American Association for Ethiopian Jews collection, a ritual led by Ethiopian spiritual leaders and a feast of traditional Ethiopian foods” AJHS announced.
As a holiday celebrated by the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jewish) community, Sigd has been recognized as a state holiday in Israel since 2008. “Sigd commemorates the giving of the Torah and the ancient communal gatherings on Mount Sinai,” AJHS notes. In Ethiopia, “thousands of Jews traveled on foot every year from Gonder Province to the village of Ambober, where the joyous celebration included prayer and fasting. Each year, the Sigd celebration offers a unique experience.”
Anbessa Orchestra. (Photo: Joan Roth)
Abay Mengist will perform a song during the celebration. (Photo: Joan Roth)
— If You Go:
WHAT: Sigd: An Ethiopian Celebration
WHEN: Sunday, Dec. 18 5 pm
WHERE: American Jewish Historical Society
15 West 16th Street – Forchheimer Auditorium
New York, NY Tickets are $25 for general admission, $15 for students, seniors and AJHS members, and $36 at the door.
New York (TADIAS) — The holiday season is officially here. And if you are inspired to make charitable giving this year a benefit event is scheduled next week in New York City “to celebrate and support the youth of Boys’ and Girls’ Towns of Ethiopia.”
The charity, which is similar in concept to the historic Boys’ & Girls’ Towns of Italy, provides assistance to young people in Emdibir, Ethiopia.
“Throughout the night there will be live music, dancing and a short video screening featuring our program in Ethiopia,” the non-profit organization, A Chance in Life, announced. The event will be held on Monday, December 12th at Café Wha? in downtown Manhattan.
“Since the 1950s Café Wha? has been a favorite hot spot cornered in the heart of Greenwich Village,” the announcement said. “Café Wha? was the original stomping ground for artists like Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix.”
The Boys’ & Girls’ Towns of Ethiopia — located in Emdibir of the Gurage Zone in Southwestern Ethiopia and supported by the New York-based non-profit organization, A Chance In Life — is modeled after the first Boys’ & Girls’ Town that was established 70 years ago by Irish priest Monsignor Carroll-Abbing following the end of World War II to assist orphaned children in Europe.
The Boys’ & Girls’ Towns of Ethiopia’s program for youth with disabilities holding a picnic at Ghibe National Park, May 24th, 2016. (Courtesy photo)
Today, in Ethiopia “an estimated 4.6 million children” are growing up without parents, states the organization’s website. “Our towns are vibrant, democratic, self-governing communities run by the young people themselves. These children need the basic necessities to receive a chance in life.”
The towns are designed and organized to empower its members by providing them with basic necessities so they can be “active citizens and productive members of their communities,” explains Gabriele Delmonaco, President & Executive Director of A Chance In Life.
“After [World War II], orphaned and abandoned children all over Europe were shining shoes, panhandling and stealing to survive,” The New York Timesnoted when the founder of the Boys’ & Girls’ Towns of Italy, Carroll-Abbing, died in 2001 at age 88. “His concept of giving troubled children love and his motto ‘a chance in life’ grew as he organized such shelters all over the country. All told, he was credited with feeding and clothing more than 180,000 children.”
The Boys’ and Girls’ Towns of Ethiopia was launched in 2015 while working closely with the Diocese of Emdibir and currently runs three main programs. The first focuses on resources for orphaned and vulnerable youth, providing academic supplies and financial support to attend school as well as giving medical assistance, food and clothing. The second assists young girls to continue their education and help them stay enrolled in school by providing homes for approximately 100 girls in proximity to their high schools. The girls also have opportunities to hold monthly community meetings and support each other in achieving their academic dreams. Last but not least, The Boys’ and Girls’ Town of Ethiopia also provides entrepreneurship and business development skills for individuals with disabilities who often face marginalization. Youth with disabilities also attend biweekly gatherings and share their aspirations and the challenges faced in an effort to develop a strong social network for greater self-reliance and broader participation in society. There are currently 100 youth participants in this program.
The founder of the Boys’ and Girls’ club once said: “Philanthropy means, very simply, an authentic love for humanity.” Monsignor Carroll-Abbing’s words still ring true today, and giving support to youth-led communities not only provides them with much-needed resources, but also encourages agency and transformation while remaining part of one’s home community.
New York (TADIAS) — Last night in New York the Thanksgiving weekend program at Ginny’s Supper Club in Harlem featured a special Ethiopia-inspired dinner menu prepared by Chef Marcus Samuelsson followed by a live performance by classical Ethiopian pianist and composer Girma Yifrashewa.
Girma’s amazing concert on Sunday evening included his original compositions that evoke “Ethiopian melody making,” as he told the audience, “decorated” with sounds of the classical music tradition in combination with Ambassel, Bati, Anchihoye and Tizita based on Ethiopian music’s unique tone scale system.
Watch: Marcus Samuelsson in conversation with Girma Yifrashewa before the show:
Having picked up the kirar as a young child and later discovering piano at the historic Yared School of Music in Addis Ababa during his teenage years, Girma went on to pursue his music and composition studies in Bulgaria at Sofia State Conservatory of Music.
Last night’s piano performance at Ginny’s featured classical pieces by Chopin and Debussy for the first session and his own original compositions fusing the Western classical tradition with Ethiopian sounds for the second part of the evening, which included his playful Chewata, the spiritual Sememen and the joyous Elilta.
Below are photos from Girma Yifrashewa’s Concert at Ginny’s Supper Club in NYC on November 27th, 2016:
Girma Yifrashewa “offers a rare and fascinating example of aesthetic adaptation and convergence,” the New York Times declared three years ago in its review of Girma’s first NYC concert in 2013 at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn. In an article entitled From Chopin to Ethiopia, and Partway Back Again, The Times added: “Since returning to Ethiopia in 1995, Mr. Yifrashewa has promoted awareness there of the standard classical repertory, while also writing new pieces that apply European techniques to Ethiopian musical and folkloric sources.”
New York (TADIAS) — The acclaimed Ethiopian pianist and composer Girma Yifrashewa returns to New York City this month for a Thanksgiving weekend performance at Ginny’s Supper Club on Sunday, November 27th.
Girma, who was trained at Sofia State Conservatory of Music in Bulgaria, says he got started with his musical career at a very young age playing Kirar while growing up in Ethiopia’s capital city before being introduced to piano as a teenager when he was accepted to the Yared School of Music in Addis Ababa.
Girma Yifrashewa “offers a rare and fascinating example of aesthetic adaptation and convergence,” the New York Times declared three years ago in its review of Girma’s last concert here in 2013 at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn. In an article entitled From Chopin to Ethiopia, and Partway Back Again, The Times added: “Since returning to Ethiopia in 1995, Mr. Yifrashewa has promoted awareness there of the standard classical repertory, while also writing new pieces that apply European techniques to Ethiopian musical and folkloric sources. His recital here, one of two American concerts mounted with support from the independent record label Unseen Worlds, was split between canonical works and original music.”
Girma ’s original compositions include Chewata, “meant to evoke an Ethiopian custom of making merry even at times of sadness,” as well as Sememen, “a surging work employing a traditional mode associated with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church,” Elilta, “named for the cheery ululation with which Ethiopians greet joyful occasions and filled with tingling trills that imitated that sound.”
— IF You Go:
Girma Yifrashewa: Special Dinner and Performance at Ginny’s Supper Club
Sunday Nov 27, 2016
Show: 6:00 PM
$85
Ginny’s Supper Club
310 Lenox Ave.
New York, NY Click here to buy tickets
New York (TADIAS) — In the highland town of Bekoji, Ethiopia — where some of the country’s best known long-distance athletes and Olympic medalists come from — running is also a matter of survival especially for young girls who face a high prevalence of school interruption due to expected labor to help their rural families make a livelihood. This was the subject of a multimedia experiential storytelling exhibition at VSCO’s New York space in Manhattan on Thursday evening that included a photo journal, movie screening and a panel discussion moderated by writer, runner, and coach Knox Robinson and featuring a Q&A session on Bekoji with Kayla Nolan, Executive Director of Girls Gotta Run Foundation, the only charity operating in Ethiopia that provides academic and athletic scholarships for young women in the country.
Below are photos from the event:
In addition to the studio installation, which was curated by Robinson, a film by Joel Wolpert and a photography essay by Kent Andreasen was shown in large scale format “to consider the life of young women using the inspiration of world class running to escape the cycle of poverty in rural Ethiopia. The work explores running as a source of personal creativity for the young women; as a flashpoint for designing and realizing a self-empowered future — and as an avenue for reaffirming their human rights and redefining gender roles in the process.”
Led by Ethiopian-American saxophonist Danny Mekonnen and fronted by charismatic vocalist Bruck Tesfaye, the Debo Band serves up a bold reimagination of Ethiopian popular music that conjures up 1970s Addis Ababa with “fierce, jagged, complex, and galvanizing music” (New York Times).
This big band doesn’t just cover neglected tracks from around the world, they rearrange them and up the ante. The process can get wildly imaginative, finding flights of fantasy in underappreciated historical moments, be it Duke Ellington’s travels through Ethiopia or the musical impact of Haile Selassie sending Ethiopian soldiers to fight in the Korean War. Earthy dance floor beats merge with psychedelic effects, rock drive, and spot-on brass—injecting vintage tracks with new life and purpose.
— If You Go:
Lincoln Center Presents Debo Band
Thursday, November 3rd, 2016 7:30 pm Free
61 W 62nd St (Broadway between 62nd and 63rd Streets)
New York, NY 10023
212.875.5350
Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis (FREE) www.lincolncenter.org
New York (TADIAS) — Since it was founded 130 years ago by Emperor Menelik II Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa has endured many trials and tribulations in the country’s turbulent history while the city itself has gone through its own transformations over time to become the “diplomatic capital of Africa” and host the headquarters of the African Union (AU), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and several other international organizations.
Today Addis is also quickly becoming home to the highly acclaimed annual design event in East Africa: Design Week Addis Ababa (DWAA), which takes place each year in mid-January.
For their upcoming 2017 DWAA exhibition (January 14-21, 2017) organizers announced this week that they have launched “a one month Open Call for interested participants and programming partners” covering various fields including architecture, urban planning, industrial design, interiors, visual communication, food & gastronomy, art, multimedia, technology and fashion.
In September the London Design Festival presented Design Week Addis Ababa as a part of the British Council Arts’ Design Connections initiative. And last month two Ethiopia-inspired furniture by Jomo Design Furniture and Actuel Urban Living were selected as part of winning “design concepts” from Design Week Addis and featured at the 2016 international Dubai Design Week festival in October.
Design Week Addis featured during the 2016 international Dubai Design Week festival in October. (Courtesy photo)
“This multidisciplinary festival covers themes in alignment with UNESCO’s Creative Cities Initiative,” the media release said. “The Design Week Addis Ababa festival aims to further the creative industries in Ethiopia and foster the economic potential of designers, creators, and innovators by showcasing their projects and products directly to the end users and commercial partners.
Through the open call participants can propose an “exhibition, open gallery, studio, or workshop, product launch, pop-up shop or installation, competition, informative workshop, talk, or lecture, film screening, fashion show, concert or live performance, cooking demonstration, food/ beverage tasting, social event, or something totally different.”
— You can learn more about the open call for the 2017 Design Week Addis Ababa at www.designweekaa.org
New York (TADIAS) — As part of the Tadias Salon Series Tadias Magazine hosted Marcus Samuelsson at SEI in DC on Wednesday, October 26th for a book signing and afterparty celebrating the release of his latest publication entitled The Red Rooster Cookbook: The Story of Food and Hustle in Harlem.
Below are photos from the event:
“When chef Marcus Samuelsson opened Red Rooster on Harlem’s Lenox Avenue, he envisioned so much more than just a restaurant. He wanted to create a gathering place at the heart of his adopted neighborhood, where both the uptown and downtown sets could see and be seen, mingle and meet – and so he did, in a big way. Ever since the 1930s, Harlem has been a magnet for more than a million African Americans, a melting pot for Spanish, African, and Caribbean immigrants, and a mecca for artists. Named after a historic neighborhood speakeasy, the modern Rooster reflects all of that, from the local art showcased on its walls, to the live music blaring from its performance spaces, to the cross-cultural food on its patrons’ plates and the evocative cocktails in their hands. THE RED ROOSTER COOKBOOK is as lush and layered as its inheritance. Traditions converge in these pages, with dishes like Brown Butter Biscuits, Chicken and Waffles, Jerk Bacon and Baked Beans, Latino Pork and Plantains, Chinese Steamed Bass and Fiery Noodles, Ethiopian Spice-Crusted Lamb, and Rum Cake. Lyrical essays and intimate interviews – including a foreword by New Yorker critic Hilton Als and conversations with unsung neighborhood heroes – convey the flavor of the place. Stunning archival and contemporary photos document Harlem’s past, present, and future.”
New York (TADIAS) – Last month Republican Congressman Mike Coffman of Colorado was one of a few U.S. lawmakers in DC who publicly backed the introduction of a bipartisan resolution “supporting respect for human rights and encouraging inclusive government in Ethiopia.” And this past weekend his Ethiopian constituents of the 6th Congressional District in the Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Area, along with Eritrean and Oromo community associations, held a fundraising dinner at the Aurora Hills Golf Club in support of the GOP Congressman’s re-election efforts.
Ethiopian American businessman Mel Tewahade, who is one of the organizers and a registered Republican, says Congressman Coffman has been a “loyal friend to the Ethiopian community” and the event, which was held on Saturday, October 22nd, was “intended to show our appreciation for his dedication and hardwork.”
Below are photos shared with Tadias Magazine:
Fundraiser for Congressman Mike Coffman at the Aurora Hills Golf Club on Saturday, October 22nd 2016. (Courtesy photo)
(Courtesy photo)
Congressman Mike Coffman speaking during the fundraising dinner at the Aurora Hills Golf Club on Saturday, October 22nd 2016. (Courtesy photo)
(Courtesy photo)
— Related:
Rep. Coffman speaks at St. Mary’s Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC) festival to celebrate Meskel/Demera on October 1, 2016. (Photo: Flickr/Mike Coffman)
Marcus in conversation with Tadias about The Red Rooster Cookbook: The Story of Food & Hustle in Harlem
New York (TADIAS) — Join Tadias Magazine & Marcus Samuelsson at SEI lounge in DC on Wednesday, October 26th for a book signing and afterparty celebrating the release of his latest publication entitled The Red Rooster Cookbook:The Story of Food and Hustle in Harlem.
“When chef Marcus Samuelsson opened Red Rooster on Harlem’s Lenox Avenue, he envisioned so much more than just a restaurant. He wanted to create a gathering place at the heart of his adopted neighborhood, where both the uptown and downtown sets could see and be seen, mingle and meet – and so he did, in a big way. Ever since the 1930s, Harlem has been a magnet for more than a million African Americans, a melting pot for Spanish, African, and Caribbean immigrants, and a mecca for artists. Named after a historic neighborhood speakeasy, the modern Rooster reflects all of that, from the local art showcased on its walls, to the live music blaring from its performance spaces, to the cross-cultural food on its patrons’ plates and the evocative cocktails in their hands. THE RED ROOSTER COOKBOOK is as lush and layered as its inheritance. Traditions converge in these pages, with dishes like Brown Butter Biscuits, Chicken and Waffles, Jerk Bacon and Baked Beans, Latino Pork and Plantains, Chinese Steamed Bass and Fiery Noodles, Ethiopian Spice-Crusted Lamb, and Rum Cake. Lyrical essays and intimate interviews – including a foreword by New Yorker critic Hilton Als and conversations with unsung neighborhood heroes – convey the flavor of the place. Stunning archival and contemporary photos document Harlem’s past, present, and future.”
New York (TADIAS) — Mahmoud Ahmed performed live at Carnegie Hall in New York City last night, becoming the first major artist from Ethiopia to give a solo concert at the world-famous venue.
The 75-year-old Ethiopian cultural icon, who is still one of Ethiopia’s most eminent musicians, played at Carnegie’s Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage.
Below are photos from Mahmoud’s historic appearance at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, October 22nd, 2016:
New York (TADIAS) — An event organized by the Manhattan- based Amnesty International volunteer group, which is free and open to the public, is scheduled on the evening of Monday, October 24th at the New York Society of Ethical Culture to spotlight Ethiopia’s current political and humanitarian crisis.
Steve Latimer, coordinator of the Amnesty volunteer group, says they hope to bring wider attention in the U.S. to the continuing violence and governance issues in Ethiopia. “With the events of the last couple of months, the recent killings during the protest, and the things that has happened since, we are very concerned about human rights violations by the Ethiopian government,” Latimer said. “And this discussion hopes to help educate some people at least in the United States about the situation in Ethiopia, which as you well know not many people in this country are aware of.”
Latimer, who is a retired civil rights lawyer and a human rights activist, told Tadias that Amnesty International will also push at the gathering for the approval of the U.S. Senate resolution on Ethiopia “condemning the lethal violence against protesters, journalists, and others in civil society for exercising their rights under Ethiopia’s constitution.”
The resolution calls for a review of U.S. security assistance to Ethiopia in light of allegations that Ethiopian security forces have killed civilians. It also calls upon the government of Ethiopia to halt violent crackdowns, conduct a credible investigation into the killing of protesters, and hold perpetrators of such violence accountable.
“To use amnesty’s favorite phrase, we just want to shine light on the situation,” said Latimer in a phone interview. “We support the pending Senate resolution about Ethiopia and we are going to be asking other people to write letters and sign petitions because that’s the kind of activity that Amnesty does and they are very good at it.”
The event’s media release states that the panel discussion, which features “scholars and witnesses to the human rights abuses,” is being co-sponsored by the New York Society of Ethical Culture, The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa; The Danbobidu Scholarship and Essential Life Foundation, as well as the Ethiopian Community Mutual Assistance Association (ECMAA), and Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE).
Semahagn Gashu Abebe, a former Ethiopian Public Prosecutor until 2003 who became a human rights activist and the author of The Last Post-Cold War Socialist Federation: Ethnicity, Ideology and Democracy in Ethiopia is a panelist at the event. Other listed speakers are Aklog Birara, President of ABRAW Center for Inclusive Development in Africa; Begna Dugassa, a public health expert and the author of Human Rights and Public Health: Toward Understanding the Root Causes of Social Problems in the Oromia Regional State, in Ethiopia; as well as presenters Obang Metho, Executive Director of SMNE (The Solidarity movement for a New Ethiopia), and former prisoner of conscious Girma Erena. The opening and closing remarks will be made by Adotei Akwei, Managing Director for Government Relations for Amnesty International USA.
— If You Go
MONDAY, OCTOBER 24 th , 6:30PM-9PM
The New York Society of Ethical Culture
2 W. 64th St. (& Central Park West), NYC.
Girma Beyene: Titan of Ethiojazz & Ethiopiques in a Rare NYC Concert
New York (TADIAS) — The legendary Ethiopian singer, songwriter and arranger Girma Beyene will perform live for the first time in New York City next Monday (October 24th) at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center. The concert is part of CUNY’s “A Global Music Series” and the singer will be accompanied by the DC-based Feedel Band
Girma, who used to live in Washington, D.C. for several years beginning in the early 1980’s — long before the D.C. metro area became home to the largest Ethiopian population in America — was also in the U.S. capital last week where he gave a live show at Atlas Performing Arts Center. As The Washington Post pointed out “The great Ethiopian singer, lyricist and arranger first found himself in the District way back in 1981 during a tour in the Walias Band, one of Ethiopia’s most revered jazz troupes. Beyene liked the District enough to stay — but not for good. After many years in the area, he eventually returned to Addis Ababa. It was there, during the 1960s and ’70s, where Beyene had been a major player in one of the planet’s most electrifying music scenes.”
“Girma Beyene is one of the most influential Ethiopian musicians from the ‘Golden Age’ of the 1960’s and 1970’s, which combined African rhythms with American R&B, soul, funk, and big band jazz,” states the announcement from CUNY. “Beyene made a handful of recordings as a vocalist, but it was as an arranger, pianist, and composer that he made his mark.”
His best known hit song Enken Yelelebish/Ene Negne By Manesh, which has been redone many times by subsequent generations of artists, including Jano Band in 2013, tops Girma Beyene’s classics that have been preserved in the Éthiopiques CD collection.
According to The Washington Post, “After co-founding the Alem-Girma Band alongside the great vocalist Alemayehu Eshete, Beyene became a highly esteemed arranger, generating more than 65 songs during what many consider to be the golden years of Swinging Addis. (Among those tunes: the deeply beloved and consummately funky “Muziqawi Silt,” popularized by Hailu Mergia, another giant of Ethiopian song who still lives in the Washington area.)”
— If You Go:
CUNY Presents Girma Beyene
October 24, 2016: 7:00 PM
The Graduate Center/CUNY
Elebash Recital Hall
365 Fifth Ave. (at 34th St.)
New York, NY 10016
ADMISSION: $25, $20 Members (free to CUNY) Click here to get Tickets
Video: Girma Beyene live in Paris with French band Akale Wube — 2015
New York (TADIAS) — This year’s Hub of Africa Addis Fashion Week (HAFW), which celebrated its 5th anniversary, was held last week at the Millennium Hall in Ethiopia’s capital. According to the event’s press release the 2016 runway show featured “designers, stylists, hair & makeup artists as well as models from all across the African continent to promote African Fashion on an international stage.”
Among the local Ethiopian designers highlighted included works by Hirut Gugsa (MELA), Lemlem (LALI COLLECTION), Aynalem Ayele (AYNI’S DESGIN), Mahlet Afework (MAFI), Fikerte Addis (YEFIKIR), Samrawit Mersiehazen (SAMRA Luxury World Class Leather), and Haile Garment by Jackie Mota (RATATOUILLE).
HAFW was held in collaboration with the Italian Embassy in Addis Ababa as well as the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, while Senior Editor of Vogue Italia, Sara Maino, “directed a talk show for industry stakeholders on becoming the next vogue talent at Millenium Hall.”
Since its inception HAFW has featured over 50 African designers and the organizers note that “opportunities that designers have gained include showing during New York African Fashion Week, connecting with international buyers and media, and projecting their brands to the international market.”
The Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization — which allows young and vulnerable rural girls to stay in school while pursuing their dreams of becoming athletes — was established nine years ago, and has been supporting running teams in Ethiopia. Last year the organization rolled out a new program model in Sodo and Bekoji, Ethiopia based on a three-year athletic scholarship that includes “school tuition, participation on a running team, leadership & mentoring skills, entrepreneurship and extracurricular programming around building life skills.”
The event on Tuesday is hosted by Harlem Run, Black Roses NYC and Street Bird Restaurant. “We would like to invite the NYC Ethiopian community and NYC-based Ethiopian runners to join us in this event in Harlem,” GGRF announced.
— If You Go:
Meet: 7pm, Tuesday October 11th at Street Bird
(Marcus Samuelsson’s restaurant on 116th and 8th in Harlem, NYC)
New York (TADIAS) — Ethiopians are one of largest immigrant populations in Montgomery county, Maryland and officials say that will be reflected at the upcoming 8th annual World of Montgomery Festival this month honoring the international local heritage. Montgomery County also has a sister-city relationship with Ethiopia’s historic city of Gonder.
“The World of Montgomery Festival celebrates the many cultures of the DC area with multicultural music, food, dance, exhibits and hands-on activities at Montgomery College in Rockville on Sunday, October 16th, 2016” the media release stated. “The festival promotes cross-cultural understanding by highlighting the cultural diversity of the DC area through immersive activities and performances.”
A spokesperson for the festival, Elizabeth Gallauresi, told Tadias that the Ethiopia section of the family-friendly event will be arranged by the Ethiopian Community Center in Maryland (ECCM), and will include “children’s game, weaving and an exhibition of a live performance by “The Great Ethiopian Cultural Band,” Gallauresi said.
“Ethiopia will be featured in the International Village, during the parade, and on the performance stages” the press release adds. “The free activities at the festival are designed to promote tolerance and appreciation towards the many wonderful cultures that surround us every day. The intention is to help our youth become successful global citizens by instilling multi-cultural appreciation at a young age through fun, educational, hands-on experiences.”
— If You Go:
The event address is 51 Mannakee Street, Rockville, MD 20850. Learn more at www.worldofmontgomery.com
Admission is free. Free parking is available nearby. Free shuttles will run throughout the event from pick-up points from Silver Spring, Wheaton, and Upper County and shuttle schedules are available on the website.
New York (TADIAS) — Earlier this week at Tsion Cafe in Harlem former BBC executive producer Keith Bowers held a book talk and signing featuring his new book Imperial Exile, which has just been published in the United States by Tsehai Publishers, highlighting Emperor Haile Selassie’s refugee years in Bath, England from 1936 to 1940.
Keith Bowers, author of Imperial Exile, making a book presentation at Tsion Cafe in Harlem on Tuesday, September 27th, 2016. (Photo: Tadias)
Imperial Exile book event at Tsion in Harlem on Tuesday, September 27th, 2016. (Photo: Tadias)
At Tsion in Harlem on Tuesday, September 27th, 2016. (Photo: Tadias)
Wayna live at Rockwood Music Hall in New York City on Saturday, September 24th, 2016. (Photo: Tadias Mag)
Last week the Grammy-nominated Ethiopian American singer and songwriter Wayna was back in New York City where she gave another memorable performance at Rockwood Music Hall as part of a special live showcase of “An Acoustic Gold Evening” presented by NYCROPHONE.
In addition to her show at Rockwood Music Hall “Wayna has performed across the US and abroad – including shows at the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Essence Fest, the White House, the Blue Note and Blues Alley,” the media release states. “In 2015, she joined the iconic Stevie Wonder as a supporting vocalist and soloist in his live band, touring extensively with the Songs In the Key of Life Tour and in various performances throughout the US and Canada.”
Wayna at Rockwood Music Hall in New York City on Saturday, September 24th, 2016. (Photo: Tadias Mag)
New York (TADIAS) — Wayna returns back to NYC this coming weekend to perform at the Rockwood Music Hall for a special live showcase of “An Acoustic Gold Evening” presented by NYCROPHONE.
The Grammy-nominated Ethiopian American singer and songwriter takes the stage on Saturday, September 24th along with musicians Nicholas Zorka and Sho Ishikura.
(Courtesy of Rockwood Music Hall)
“Wayna has performed across the US and abroad – including shows at the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Essence Fest, the White House, the Blue Note and Blues Alley,” the media release points out. “In 2015, she joined the iconic Stevie Wonder as a supporting vocalist and soloist in his live band, touring extensively with the Songs In the Key of Life Tour and in various performances throughout the US and Canada.”
(Photo: Instagram/waynamusic)
“2016 kicked off with a 3-month performance residency in her native Ethiopia, where she performed at the newly-built Marriot Executive Apartments in Addis Ababa with an all-star band,” the announcement adds. In the year ahead, she will continue to tour with Stevie Wonder, while writing and recording new music.”
— If You Go:
Wayna at Rockwood Music Hall
Saturday, September 24th
Doors 6:30 PM / Show 7:00 PM
This event is 21 and over
185 Orchard St.
New York, NY, 10002 Click here to buy Tickets
New York (TADIAS) — In a recent interview with Cultured Magazine Julie Mehretu said that “Art’s job is to complicate as much as possible. That’s what we want art for; that’s what we want poetry for -— to be full of contradictions, or to expose contradictions. That’s where radical possibility exists. Imagining other possibilities is how things change.”
Mehretu’s upcoming solo exhibition at Marian Goodman Gallery in NYC (September 22 – October 29, 2016) entitled Hoodnyx, Voodoo and Stelae does exactly that: helps us imagine change, contradictions and complicated other possibilities.
“A series of new paintings will be on view, accompanied in the Third Floor Project space by a new series of drawings, and a large-scale editioned etching, Epigraph, Damascus, 2016,” the press release stated. In addition, “a monograph focusing on Julie Mehretu’s recent work, from 2012 to the present, will be published by Marian Goodman Gallery in the Fall 2016. It will feature a new essay by Glenn Ligon.”
Describing the new paintings that were developed this year the gallery noted how “bold and spirited mark-making merges with an ardent gestural cadence to introduce works at once epic and intimate. Steeped with references from classical mythology and Egyptology, to graffiti, abstraction, poetry and politics, Mehretu’s new paintings capture a gestural force unseen in her work before. Oscillating in viewpoint through their multiple layers of both valiant and minute marks, these paintings insinuate something of a survey of the annals and multiplicities of history, across both politics and art.”
Julie Mehretu. (Photo: By Teju Cole)
Julie Mehretu was born in 1970 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and raised in Michigan, USA. In 1997 she obtained an MFA in painting and printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design, and won the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship in 2005. Her paintings are part of the Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) permanent collection.
She has received international recognition for her work, including, in 2005, the American Art Award from the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the prestigious MacArthur Fellows Award. Mehretu is currently working on large-scale painting for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA), and recently exhibited her artwork in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at the Modern Art Museum Gebre Kristos Desta Center in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy in August 2016.
— If You Go:
Marian Goodman Gallery presents solo exhibition by Julie Mehretu Hoodnyx, Voodoo and Stelae
September 22 – October 29, 2016
Opening reception: Thursday, September 22nd, 6-8 pm
24 W 57th St #4, New York, NY 10019
Phone: (212) 977-7160 www.mariangoodman.com
New York (TADIAS) — Next month Girma Beyene — who is among the few remaining artists of Ethiopia’s legendary musical renaissance of Swinging Addis — will perform live at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center.
Girma’s concert is part of CUNY’s “A Global Music Series” and will take place on October 24th accompanied by Feedel Band.
“Girma Beyene is one of the most influential Ethiopian musicians from the ‘Golden Age’ of the 1960’s and 1970’s, which combined African rhythms with American R&B, soul, funk, and big band jazz,” states the announcement from CUNY. “Beyene made a handful of recordings as a vocalist, but it was as an arranger, pianist, and composer that he made his mark.
His best known hit song Enken Yelelebish/Ene Negne By Manesh, which has been redone many times by subsequent generations of artists, including Jano Band in 2013, tops Girma Beyene’s classics that have been preserved in the Éthiopiques CD collection.
(Girma Beyene performs with European band Akale Wube in Paris last year)
— If You Go:
CUNY Presents Girma Beyene
October 24, 2016: 7:00 PM
The Graduate Center/CUNY
Elebash Recital Hall
365 Fifth Ave. (at 34th St.)
New York, NY 10016
ADMISSION: $25, $20 Members (free to CUNY) Click here to get Tickets
Video: Girma Beyene live in Paris with French band Akale Wube — 2015
New York (TADIAS) –The 2016 Lifetime Achievement Bikila Award will be given to the Pankhurst Family for their timeless contribution to Ethiopian studies. The Canada-based Bikila Award organization announced that Sylvia Pankhurst, Dr. Richard Pankhurst, Rita Pankhurst and Dr. Alula Pankhurst will be honored with this year’s Bikila Award — named after Ethiopian marathon legend and Olympian Abebe Bikila — on September 24th at a dinner ceremony in Toronto.
The organization said it is bestowing the award on the British academic family for “their distinguished achievement and longstanding love of Ethiopia, and for their exceptional and enduring contributions as professionals and scholars to the study and preservation of Ethiopian history.”
The Pankhurst family’s involvement with Ethiopia dates back to World War II. According to Wikipedia, “Sylvia Pankhurst had been an active supporter of Ethiopian culture and independence since the Italian invasion in 1935, and Richard grew up knowing many Ethiopian refugees. Sylvia was a friend of Haile Selassie and published Ethiopia, a Cultural History in 1955. In 1956, she and Richard moved to Ethiopia. He began working at the University College of Addis Ababa, and in 1962 was the founding director of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies. He also edited the Journal of Ethiopian Studies and the Ethiopia Observer. Pankhurst led the campaign for the return of the Obelisk of Axum to Ethiopia. It was re-erected in Axum in 2008. In addition to his numerous books on Ethiopia, Pankhurst has written works on his mother, including Sylvia Pankhurst: Artist and Crusader and Sylvia Pankhurst: Counsel for Ethiopia.”
Photos from last year’s Bikila Award Ceremony and Dinner in Toronto, Canada. (Courtesy photographs)
Additional honorees at the 2016 Bikila Award event include acclaimed artist Alemtsehay Wedajo who will be recognized with the Professional Excellence Award “for her distinguished achievement as an actress, director, playwright, poet, leader, and mentor of the arts,” the Bikila Award organization said.
Honorary guest speakers at the 2016 program include Ethiopian American scientist Sossina M. Haile who is Professor of Materials Science & Chemical Engineering at Northwestern University, as well as Astrophysicist Dr. Brook Lakew, an Associate Director of Solar System Exploration Division at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center. The keynote speaker is Author and Poet Lemn Sissay.
The 2016 Bikila Award ceremony & dinner will feature “cocktails, delicious food, and music by Fantahun & Ethio-Zema, as well as other entertainments and door prizes.”
Below is the complete list of the 2016 Award winners:
Lifetime Achievement Award Winners: Sylvia Pankhurst, Dr. Richard Pankhurst, Rita Pankhurst, Dr. Alula Pankhurst
Professional Excellence Award Winners: Dr. Fikre Germa, Dr. Girma Bitsuamlak, Alemtsehay Wedajo, Dr. Tegest Hailu, Dr. Gezahgn Wordofa
— If You Go:
The 2016 Bikila Award Celebration and Gala Dinner
September 24th, 2016
At Daniels Spectrum
585 Dundas Street East
Toronto, Canada www.bikilaaward.org
New York (TADIAS) — Ethiopian legend Mahmoud Ahmed, who celebrated his 75th birthday this year, will give a live concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City next month — becoming the first Ethiopian artist to perform at the world famous venue. Mahmoud is scheduled to perform at Carnegie’s Stern Auditorium on Saturday, October 22nd.
Mahmoud’s performance is part of Carnegie Hall’s “Around the Globe” program.
Carnegie Hall described Mahmoud Ahmed as an artist “who blends the traditional Amharic music of the African nation with pop and jazz for an ear-opening, ecstatic experience.”
Mahmoud Ahmed is one of Ethiopia’s legends and cultural icons. As Allmusic notes in their highlight of his biography: “His swooping vocals, complemented by the freewheeling jazziness of the Ibex Band (with whom he recorded his masterpiece, Ere Mela Mela), are very different from what normally is lumped into the broad expression Afro-pop.”
Mahmoud Ahmed on the cover of the award-winning Ethiopiques series album. (Allmusic.com)
— If You Go:
Carnegie Hall Presents Mahmoud Ahmed
Saturday, October 22, 2016 | 8 PM
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
881 7th Ave, New York, NY 10019
Tickets from $12 to $70 Seating Chart (PDF) BUY TICKETS
New York (TADIAS) — Having performed 85 concerts in six countries, and reaching an audience of more than 60,000 since their inception in 2011, The Nile Project is kicking off their 2016 tour in the United States with a performance and workshop at Lincoln Center in NYC on Friday Sept. 16th.
The Nile Project is a collaboration of musicians and artists from 11 Nile countries to empower, educate and develop connections through creative cross-cultural interactions — and has presented workshops at 40 universities reaching more than 10,000 students — using art for peace-making and social change.
During the group’s European premiere in Brussels, Belgium this summer the musical ensemble was praised by The Partnering Initiative (TPI) for its “performances of stunning, energetic, unusual music, which are collaboratively composed under the musical direction of Ethiopian-American saxophonist Danny Mekonnen during two-week residencies.”
The Nile Project performing in Brussels, Belgium, July 2016. (Photo: ENile Project Facebook)
Ethiopian-American Saxophonist Danny Mekonnen, right. (Photo: In Brussels, Belgium, July 2016/Nile Project)
The NYC performance takes place “one week before the UN General Assembly, with themes of Art, Environment and Art, and Conflict,” the announcement highlights. “How can art heal the wounds and divisions of conflict? How can art affect the policies and practices that impact the world’s most significant environmental challenges?”
Participating musicians include Jorga Mesfin (Ethiopia), Hany Bedair (Egypt), Mohamed Abozekry (Egypt), Nader Elshaer (Egypt), Selamnesh Zemene (Ethiopia), Steven Sogo (Burundi).
The New York Times reviewed the Nile Project’s performance at Global Fest last year noting: “The musicians had worked out the nuances of modes and rhythms to join one another’s songs, no longer separated by geography or politics.”
— If You Go:
The Nile Project 2016 Tour
Friday, September 16, 2016 at 3:00 PM
Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Appel Room
10 Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019
New York Ethiopian Community to Celebrate New Year — Sept 10th
New York (TADIAS) — Members of the Ethiopian community residing in New York City will be hosting a new year (Enkutatash) celebration on September 10th, 2016, which includes a family-friendly evening program. While the program organizers have modified the celebration by cancelling the music and entertainment program, the Enkutatash/New Year will still be observed at Riverside Church with dinner.
The event is being sponsored by various local businesses including Queen of Sheba, Abyssinia, Awash, Ghenet, Haile, and Meskerem Ethiopian restaurants.
— If You Go:
Date: Saturday, September 10th, 2016
Location: Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive/Claremont Avenue
Time: 6pm to 12:30am
Adults: $50/person in advance $60 at the door
Students: $25
Children 12 and under: free
New York (TADIAS) — As the Ethiopian New Year approaches so are the announcements of annual concerts, fundraising parties, and public celebrations in various Ethiopian communities across the U.S. from coast to coast. And for the past 12 years — rain or shine and under various administrations — the city of San Jose, California has held a flag raising ceremony celebrating the rich and diverse heritage of its vibrant Ethiopian American population and in celebration of the Ethiopian New Year, which this year will be held on September 9th.
The Ethiopian-American Council (EAC) — the sponsor of the annual seven-day-long celebration that kicks-off with the tri-color flag raising ceremony at San Jose City Hall — announced that this year’s event also recognizes the current wave of peaceful demonstrations taking place across Ethiopia. In a press release EAC said the event will “honor the heritage of the Ethiopian-American community of San Jose and to show solidarity with protesters in Ethiopia..the flag raising coincides with the beginning of a week-long celebration of the traditional Ethiopian New Year.”
The non-profit organization said it “encourages all members of the Ethiopian community and their friends who are living in the Bay Area to dress in green, yellow, and red (flag colors) and celebrate with the EAC and civic leaders at the flag raising and the following festivities.”
The press release added: “The San Jose City Mayor, Vice-Mayor, and City Council Members will be in attendance. The EAC and the Ethiopian-American community at large are extremely appreciative of the time and the energy that city officials have devoted to this annual event. The EAC especially wants to thank the citizens of San Jose for their recognition of the diversity that has made this country so great.”
— If You Go:
San Jose 12th Annual Ceremonial Ethiopian Heritage Flag Raising
Friday, September 9th, at 05:00PM
San Jose New City Hall
200 East Santa Clara Street.
San Jose, CA
New York (TADIAS) — At NYC’s Bunna Cafe in Brooklyn everything is eshi, so join them as they welcome Ethiopia’s internationally renowned traditional dance group, Fendika, all the way from Addis Ababa for a live show at LightSpace Studios on September 3rd.
The Fendika group is best known for keeping alive Ethiopia’s ancient Azmari tradition of “musical storytelling that uses improvisation, dance, humor to create a one-of-a-kind collective experience,” Bunna Cafe announced. “Nobody does it better than Fendika.”
Fendika takes its name from its band leader Melaku Belay’s “famous decades-old club in Addis Ababa — a club that has kept its grasp on the traditional art and dance style, in the face of Addis’ own version of gentrification, and a changing, modernizing look and feel in Fendika’s neighborhood.”
Melaku Belay, leader of the Fendika traditional dance group. (Courtesy photo)
(Photo credit: Asmelash Tesfay)
Fendika’s Brooklyn show will open with a performance by diaspora Ethio-Jazz Band Arki Sound led by Samson Kebede.
— If You Go:
FENDIKA returns to NYC
Presented By: Bunna Cafe
Saturday, September 3, 2016 at 9:00 PM
LightSpace Studios
1115 Flushing Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11237
Door: $20 Click here for more info and to buy tickets
New York (TADIAS) — Mulatu Astatke will return to New York City next month for a live show at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) on September 9th.
The concert, which is part of the MetLiveArts program, is presented in collaboration with the World Music Institute.
“Known as the father of Ethio-jazz, composer and multi-instrumentalist (vibraphone, piano, keyboard, organs, and percussion) Mulatu Astatke leaped to international fame in the ’70s and ’80s with his unique mix of Western traditional Ethiopian music and admirers like Duke Ellington and John Coltrane,” states the announcement. “Forced off the road for a time due to the political situation in his homeland, he came roaring back in the ’90s, recording and touring as never before.”
The Met adds: “Known for his fearless experimentation, his music begins and ends with improvisation. Experience the sounds, rhythms, and textures of Ethiopia live in The Temple of Dendur.”
— If You Go:
Mulatu Astatke at The Met Fifth Avenue
FRIDAY / SEPTEMBER 9 @ 7:00 P.M.
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10028
Phone: 212-535-7710
Door: $65.00, Bring the Kids for $1.
Tickets to this event include Museum admission during open hours. Click here to buy tickets
Proceeds go to support AFC projects in Ethiopia including the AFC Children´s Home and children’s hospitals in Addis Ababa as well as the nonprofit’s community outreach program.
The NYC event “will include live auction of artwork by local and international artists, featuring amazing Ethiopian Art, great entertainment, a taste of Ethiopia, assortments of drinks and a pop-up shopping experience, sponsored by brands donating a percentage of the proceeds to AFC,” the charity stated in a press release. “To meet its mission and provide services to the children, the organization started hosting its largest annual fundraiser — an art auction and benefit in Washington, DC in 2006. The funds raised from the one night covered over 80% of the organization’s operating budget and it became so successful that over the past 2 years AFC expanded to organize annual fundraisers in New York City and Los Angeles.”
The announcement added: “The AFC Children’s Home supports HIV positive orphans by providing housing, meals, counseling, enrollment in schools and medical treatments including routine physical examinations and antiretroviral medications. Today AFC is proud to see its children excel and progress in so many areas, including 1 child who has grown up to start his own business, 4 who have finished trade school and are now steadily employed and self-sustaining, 2 who have graduated from university, and 1 student who is attending a pre-med program at a university in Canada. AFC further expanded its efforts by starting a community outreach program in 2011, which currently supports 20 children and youth living with HIV/AIDS in the community as well as the ArtHeals Program that utilizes art to transform children’s wings in hospitals and clinics less frightening and more engaging for the children who have to spend their time there. As of today AFC has completed four projects cleaning and redecorating children’s wings, and adding a playroom and playground at Yekatit Hospital in Addis Ababa.”
AFC said its goal for 2016 is to raise $100K by the end of the year “in celebration of its 10th anniversary since first hosting its annual fundraiser in Washington, DC.”
— If You Go
Artists for Charity (AFC) 2nd NYC art auction
Saturday, August 27, 2016 @ at 7pm
The Brooklyn Art Library
28 Frost Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Tickets: $35 in advance, $40 at the door www.artistsforcharity.org.
New York (TADIAS) — Our latest Tadias Salon Series, held in NYC on Tuesday, August 9th, featured a sold-out live show with renowned British-born Ethiopian poet and author Lemn Sissay at Marcus Samuelsson’s Ginny’s Supper Club/Red Rooster Harlem. The dinner and entertainment program included a musical performance by Grammy-nominated Ethiopian American singer and songwriter Wayna as well as an eclectic collection of Ethiopian music by DJ Mengie.
Special thanks goes to our sponsors Nation to Nation Networking (NNN) and ECMAA, as well as our partners Ginny’s Supper Club, Ms. Ethiopia Alfred and Massinko Entertainment.
New York (TADIAS) — This weekend, for the eleventh year in a row the annual Ethiopian Diaspora Business Forum and Awards Dinner will convene at George Washington University in the nation’s capital.
The 2016 conference will focus on “investments in the manufacturing sector,” says Yohannes Assefa, who organizes the yearly forum, pointing out that this year’s Pioneer Ethiopian Diaspora Business Person of the Year Awardees are Dawit Belay, Founder & CEO of Advantage Industrial (a transformer and power distribution manufacturing company) and Sara Menker, Founder & CEO of Gro Intelligence (an open source data analytics firm based in Nairobi and New York).
“The 2016 Diaspora Champion Awardee is Dr. Liesl Riddle, Associate Professor of International Business at The George Washington University, for her tireless efforts to promote Diaspora investments in Africa,” Yohannes added.
“The purpose of the forum is to promote entrepreneurship among the Ethiopian Diaspora community here as well as worldwide,” Yohannes said in an interview with Tadias. “And, yes, also to build a business-to-business relationship between the U.S. and Ethiopia.” He added: “There is a misconception that we’re all about investment promotion to Ethiopia; no, this is an independent initiative to build an entrepreneurship culture among the Diaspora worldwide.”
“As a community we have had a lot of professional success, but not business success,” Yohannes said. “We are limited to the traditional immigrant business niche such as restaurant, bodega, taxi or other trades such as importing spices and injera, but you don’t see that many Ethiopians in the manufacturing sector, for example, so as a community we need to have a better mix. We need to create a culture of starting and managing a business venture beyond the stereotypical.”
In addition, Yohannes noted that the forum is their “key showcase platform to discuss major issues that come up in the Diaspora business community throughout the year offering a continuing flow of information and exchange of ideas among forum participants, which could include policy challenges, access to finance, etc,” he explained. “Regarding access to finance every year we have a panel addressing that issue and there is always something new to learn.” And last but not least, “there is the networking aspect,” he said. “Connections are forged, information is exchanged and investments are made among forum participants.”
— If You Go:
The Ethiopian Diaspora Business Forum
Saturday, August 6, 2016 from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM (EDT)
The George Washington University
Elliott School of Int’l Affairs
1957 E ST NW, , WASHINGTON, DC Click here for more info & RSVP
Colorado’s Taste of Ethiopia will be more flavorful — both in food and culture — than its previous three celebrations.
The fourth annual festival is set for 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday at Parkfield Lake, 15555 East 53rd Ave. in Denver.
Besides an array of food, including more gluten-free and vegan options this year, the festival is expected to feature 17 professional Ethiopian folk music performers who will travel to Denver. They will play only traditional Ethiopian instruments.
During the festival, 15 Ethiopian immigrants will become U.S. citizens in a 2 p.m. naturalization ceremony.
“The Denver metro area is becoming one of the most diverse places in the United States, and Denver is growing to become an international city,” said Capt. Tewolde Keresemo, a Denver resident of Ethiopian descent who serves in the U.S. Air Force. “The Ethiopian community is playing a key role in the unprecedented renewal of Denver metro as entrepreneurs, consumers, taxpayers, public servants and patriotic neighbors who play by the rules.
“The Taste of Ethiopia showcases the contributions of Ethiopians and the assimilation of our culture to mainstream America. Taste of Ethiopia contributes to the cultural vitality and ingenuity of Denver, as the city transforms into a major international hub that is prosperous, connected and a successful place to live for all.”
On July 25, the festival was recognized in the Congressional Record by U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman of Aurora.
New York (TADIAS) — “Inspire and be Inspired” is the title of a poem that renowned Ethiopian Poet and Author Lemn Sissay wrote to commemorate his installation last year as Chancellor of University of Manchester in England. On August 9th, Lemn will be presenting his recent works during a live performance in New York City at Ginny’s Supper Club in Harlem as part of our latest Tadias Salon Series.
Last week Lemn was featured on BBC Ten Pieces Proms 2016 at the Royal Albert Hall in London in front of a live audience of fifteen thousand that was also broadcast live on BBC’s iplayer on July 24th. In a blog post entitled “From Oscar Wilde’s cell to The Royal Albert Hall,” covering his daily activities of “the past 15 days of a total of 280 days” since starting his role as Chancellor at the University of Manchester, Lemn shared the BBC show as the highlight of his recent schedule.
Lemn Sissay, who was born and raised in Britain, was an official poet for the London Olympics four years ago, and received an MBE from the Queen for Services to Literature. His inspiring life story, which is depicted in the BBC documentary Internal flight, includes growing up in England’s foster care system, yet rising to become an internationally renowned playwright and author of several books of poetry alongside articles, records, public art, and plays. As of August 2015 he is serving as Chancellor of the University of Manchester.
Watch: Inspire and be Inspired – A poem from Lemn Sissay
— If You Go:
Lemn Sissay Live in Harlem at Ginnys’s
Date: Tuesday, August 9th, 2016
Time: 6-7pm VIP reception; 7-10pm Dinner, Spoken Word & Entertainment.
Location: Ginny’s (downstairs at Red Rooster)
310 Lenox Ave (between 125th & 126th)
New York, NY 10027 THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT. NO TICKETS AT THE DOOR.
In addition to an evening of dinner and spoken word with Lemn Sissay, Tadias invites you to a VIP reception to meet the artist through our diamond and platinum sponsorship packages. For sponsorship of Tadias Salon Series at Ginny’s on Tuesday, August 9th please contact us at 646-595-7344, or email us at info@tadias.com.
New York (TADIAS) – Our second event in the Tadias Salon Series is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, August 9th as we host internationally renowned British-born Ethiopian Poet and Author Lemn Sissay in partnership with Ms. Ethiopia Alfred and Ginny’s Supper Club in Harlem. We invite you to a fantastic evening of spoken word, poetry, live entertainment, and a conversation with Lemn along with a dinner feast at Ginny’s.
Lemn is the author of several books of poetry alongside articles, records, public art, and plays. He was an official poet for the London Olympics four years ago, and received an MBE from the Queen for Services to Literature. His poetry has been installed in various historic locations in Manchester and London including at The Royal Festival Hall and The Olympic Park. Lemn’s inspiring life story, which is depicted in the BBC documentary Internal Flight, includes growing up in England’s foster care system, yet rising to become a widely acclaimed playwright and author. Lemn received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Huddersfield in 2009, and currently serves as Chancellor of the University of Manchester.
In addition to an evening of dinner and spoken word with Lemn Sissay, Tadias invites you to a VIP reception to meet the artist through our diamond and platinum sponsorship packages.
Join us in welcoming Lemn Sissay to Harlem, New York as part of our continuing Tadias Salon series and honoring this amazing literary artist.
New York (TADIAS) — Ethiopian Airlines Sunday re-launched service between Addis Ababa and Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.
The three-times per week Addis Ababa – Lome – Newark flights are to be operated by Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the airline announced. Ethiopian Airlines had previously operated service to Newark, canceling the route in 2004 and using Dulles International Airport in Washington DC.
“This new service enables passengers to connect between New York-Newark and many cities throughout Africa,” Ethiopian Airlines said in a press release. “At Lomé, passengers enjoy seamless connections to/from points in West Africa with ASKY, Ethiopian partner airline based in Lomé. Connections are available to/from Abidjan, Bamako, Bissau, Brazzaville, Conakry, Dakar, Douala, Kinshasa, Lagos, Libreville, N’djamena, Niamey, Ouagadougou and Yaoundé.” In addition, at Addis Ababa airport travelers will have further options for connections “to/from points in East and Southern Africa, including Nairobi, Dar Es Salaam, Khartoum, Kampala, Kigali, and Johannesburg.”
Ethiopian Airlines inaugurates the new flight at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on Sunday, July 3rd, 2016. (Photos: by Kidane Mariam for Tadias)
The CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, Mr. Tewolde GebreMariam, said in a statement: “We are thrilled to resume our service to New York, our fifth gateway in the Americas. New York is one of the world’s most economically powerful cities and including it in our ever expanding network will play a critical role in the expansion of trade, tourism and investment between the fast growing continent of Africa and the United States. I would like to thank all who strived hard to make the route possible.”
New York-Newark is Ethiopian’s 93rd international gateway and 4th destination in North America. “Ethiopian currently operates daily nonstop flights from Washington DC to Addis Ababa, as well as three weekly nonstop flights from Toronto to Addis Ababa and three weekly flights from Los Angeles to Addis Ababa via Dublin. Ethiopian is expanding its network rapidly, and in the past year has introduced services to Tokyo, Manila, Dublin, Los Angeles, Cape Town, Durban, Gaborone, Yaoundé, and Goma.”
New York (TADIAS) — Below are photos from last month’s Temsalet Book Signing at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. hosted by Tsehai Publishers and Loyola Marymount University.
The program, which was held on Saturday, June 25th included a presentation by Founder of Tsehai Publishers Elias Wondimu and a book talk by Editor Mary-Jane Wagle featuring Temsalet: Phenomenal Ethiopian Women published by Tsehai last year.
New York (TADIAS) — When Ethiopian-Israeli artist Hirut Yosef returned to Ethiopia in 2002 the trip “sparked a new connection to my roots,” she says, describing her paintings currently on display at Tsion Cafe in Harlem (Opening reception is scheduled for Friday, July 1st). “Inspired by my vivid childhood memories, I began exploring both traditional and modern Ethiopian culture,” Hirut shares. “That trip, the first of several, sharpened my memories and focused my attention on what would become the inspiration for my work – my mother and grandmother.”
Hirut left Ethiopia with her family at the age of five. “As the affairs of immigration and absorption filled our lives over the next several years, the memory of my African roots came only in flashes – games, songs, tastes, smells, and color,” says Hirut in her artist statement. “Growing up in Israel I found myself drawn to American hip-hop and soul, street art and fashion. As I entered school for fashion design, I needed to develop a creative identity – but where would I start?”
‘Afro Punk Mulu,’ by Hirut Yosef. (Courtesy of the artist)
‘Four Women,’ by Hirut Yosef. (Courtesy of the artist)
Hirut adds: “From Ethiopia to Israel, through immigration and absorption, my mother and grandmother continued the traditional crafts of fine embroidery and basket weaving using colorful threads. Those simple geometric patterns have become a strong graphic motif in my paintings. Combining these patterns with images of strong women create the series I call MULU and the BETA CLAN. Mulu is a female name in Amharic, meaning ‘whole’ and ‘perfection.’ Mulu is my alter ego; she represents the special women in my life. In my work, I seek to empower women and build a visual bridge between my native origins and contemporary art and culture, reflecting my connection to fashion, street art and graphics. In doing so, I created a language of my own, redefining a place where the vast influences of my life can coexist.”
Artwork by Hirut Yosef, Nanye and Tatey. (Courtesy of the artist)
Artwork by Hirut Yosef, 1984 and Mimi. (Courtesy of the artist)
Artwork by Hirut Yosef, ‘Fly.’ (Courtesy of the artist)
— If You Go:
Friday, July 1st, 2016
Time: 6:30pm to 8:30pm
Tsion Cafe
763 St. Nicholas Ave
New York, NY 10031 Mulu and the Beta Clan Exhibit
New York (TADIAS) — Continuing their East Coast ‘Experience TSEHAI’ presentation series, California-based Tsehai Publishers and Loyola Marymount University announced they will be hosting a book talk and signing at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. this weekend. Tsehai Publishers is one of the only remaining independent presses affiliated with a university that focuses on African literature and Pan-African voices.
The program at the Library of Congress on Saturday, June 25th also includes a book talk by Editor Mary-Jane Wagle featuring Temsalet: Phenomenal Ethiopian Women published by Tsehai in 2015 and a presentation by Founder of Tsehai Publishers Elias Wondimu.
(Poster courtesy of Tsehai Publishers and Loyola Marymount University)
The book Temsalet highlights 64 remarkable Ethiopian women photographed by award-winning Ethiopian photographer Aida Muluneh including Amsale Gualu, the first female captain at Ethiopian Airlines; Meaza Ashenafi Mengistu, Founder of Enat Bank and prominent lawyer who was depicted in the award-winning film Difret; Marta Mesele Woldemariam, Ethiopia’s first female construction tower crane operator; Meshu Baburi Dekebo, women’s activist and founder of the Jalala Women’s Association; actress and playwright Alemtsehay Wedajo; children’s television program creator and producer Bruktawit Tigabu Tadesse; and art curator and cultural activist Meskerem Asegued Bantiwalu.
New York (TADIAS) — In college, Ethiopian-born artist Miku Girma studied textile surface design, which led him to launch Rep Worldwide — a multi-medium art business venture which produces art, clothing and accessories. This week, Miku (also known by his street name Rep1) along with his mentor Larry Toth will be exhibiting their current and previous art works in a pop-up gallery at 265 Bowery in New York City.
“His curiosity for art came from the many stamps his mother used to get him as a child,” notes the event’s announcement. “Now as an adult he has been showcasing his unique, sometimes political artwork on the streets of New York City and other major cities.”
Miku, who currently lives and works in NYC, was born in Addis Ababa and moved to New York at a young age. He has been part of NYC’s street art scene for more than a decade.
“Mankind has always made art outdoors from cave drawings to Egyptian pyramid hieroglyphics because it is open for everyone to see & read the message,” Miku says.
Artwork by Miku Girma, ‘Collage.’ (Courtesy of the artists)
Artwork By Miku Girma. (Courtesy of the artists)
Artwork By Miku Girma, ‘self portrait.’ (Courtesy of the artists)
The announcement adds that “Miku also took some time off from city life and the art world to learn organic farming where he studied Natural Process Farming. He is staunch believer that we are what we eat and food is our medicine.”
“By mixing his multicultural background with the current underground culture, he comes up with a fusion of edgy art.”
— If You Go:
Pop Up Show – “Streets Are Talking”
Miku Girma with Larry Toth
Thursday, June 16, 2016
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
265 Bowery
New York City
NY 10002-1201
More info at www.facebook.com/events/730107777092570/
New York (TADIAS) — This month, a walkathon is scheduled in New York City to raise awareness and support Ethiopia’s first educational facility designed for autistic children — the Nia Foundations-Joy Center in Addis Ababa.
“An estimated 500,000 people are affected by autism in Ethiopia,” says the Ethiopian Community Mutual Assistance Association NY (ECMAA), which is hosting the NYC walkathon on June 18th at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem.
“Zemi Yenus is the founder of the Nia Foundations-Joy Center. Zemi created the Nia Foundation because she has a son who is autistic and had no one to help, and with a quest to make a difference she opened the Joy Center,” ECMAA said in a press release.
“The Foundation runs five core programs: Yagebagnal (“It Concerns Me”), Women for Leadership, Youth Empowerment, Empowering Mothers of Children with Different Abilities, and The Joy Center for Children with Autism and Related Developmental Disorders (the primary and largest program),” ECMAA announced. “The center focuses on full integration of children with autism into society by working closely with the kids, their parents, and extended family networks, as well as the greater Ethiopian community.”
—- If You Go
ECMAA NY WALKATHON:
Walking for Ethiopian Children with Autism
June 18th, 2016 at 10am
Marcus Garvey Park
West 122nd st & Mt.Morris pk west
New York, NY 10027
More info at ECMAA NY Tri-State on Facebook
The Nile Project European Tour Kick-off in Belgium & UK
This June, the Nile Project will make its European premiere with concerts in Brussels, Bradford, and London. [The group] will also be performing on BBC Radio 3 on June 17 at 11pm (UK Time)
Described as “a committed, euphoric international coalition” by the New York Times, the Nile Project brings together artists from the 11 countries sharing the world’s longest river to combine their instruments, languages, scales and rhythms in one of the tightest cross-cultural collaborations in music. The project’s mission is to inspire, inform and empower Nile citizens to collaboratively cultivate the sustainability of their shared ecosystem.
The Nile Project has designed an innovative musical process that allows its artists to self-organize by leveraging each other’s strengths in order to unearth a unique sound representative of the Nile watershed as a whole. By creating award-winning music within a participatory leadership framework, the Nile Project Collective provides a blueprint for new ways in which Nile citizens can organize themselves across sectors to generate creative and mutually-beneficial system-wide solutions in response to their shared hydro-political challenges.
Now in its 4th year, the Nile Project is growing beyond its musical program to strengthen its mission of Nile stewardship. As its musicians will be performing in the UK, the initiative will be announcing its inaugural class of Nile Fellows in partnership with universities in Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Rooted in the same principles of its musical collective, the Nile Fellows program aims to translate the group’s musical inspiration into an engine of environmental innovation to develop creative solutions to Nile sustainability.
New York (TADIAS) — Renowned Ethiopian painter Wosene Worke Kosrof returns to New York City next week for his latest solo exhibition at Skoto Gallery, one of the oldest and continuously operating galleries in the U.S. specializing in contemporary African art. Wosene’s upcoming show entitled Words: You Are Always New, features his new artwork that will be exhibited from June 2nd through July 30th, 2016. The artist will be present at the reception from 6-8pm on Thursday, June 2nd.
“Wosene Worke Kosrof’s recent work continues his long-standing exploration of the interplay between language, identity, aesthetic beauty and material using the language symbols of Amharic – one of the few ancient written systems in Africa – as a core composition element,” Skoto Gallery said in a press release. “His work is dense with visual complexity that reflects an awareness of a vast array of both formal and inherited traditions. He relieves words of conventional meanings and, instead, explores their aesthetic, sensual, and visual content to speak boldly and clearly to a universal audience.” The press release added: “With Amharic calligraphy, Wosene explores the aesthetic dimensions of the script rather than producing legible text.”
“I am seeking the poetic or artistic value of the fidel or language symbols themselves, and I see my work as visual poetry,” says Wosene. “The writing in my painting does not tell a literal story, but rather a visual story. The Amharic fidel are extremely beautiful and have rhythmic and dancing forms. I ‘choreograph’ them on canvas, I cut them apart, turn them upside down, repeat sections of them to discover the beauty of written language and to think about how we communicate. I communicate with color, line and composition, rather than with sounds, conventional words and literal narratives.”
Painting by Wosene Kosrof. Through My Window III, 2015, acrylic on linen, 26×26 inches. (Skoto Gallery)
Wosene Worke Kosrof was born 1950 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and received a BFA from The School of Fine Art, Addis Ababa and a MFA from Howard University, Washington DC in 1980. He is an artist of international reputation, widely exhibited in Africa, Europe, Japan, the US and the Caribbean. Recent exhibitions include the Sharjah Museum Calligraphy Biennial, UAE, 2014; Transformations: Recent Contemporary African Art Acquisitions, Fowler Museum, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 2009; Newark Museum, Newark, NJ 2004; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 2004; and Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa, Whitechapel Gallery, London 1995. Collections include the National Museum, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; The National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; The Newark Museum, NJ; The Neuberger Museum at Purchase, NY; Birmingham Museum of Art, AL; Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN; the Fowler Museum, UCLA, CA; Samuel P. Harn Museum, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL; and The Voelkerkunde Museum, Zurich, Switzerland as well as many international private and corporate collections.
Artist Statement:
I am the first Ethiopian-born painter to transform Amharic script into contemporary abstract art, and these script-images have now become recognized internationally as my ‘artistic signature.’ Amharic, derived from the ancient language Ge’ez and a major modern language of Ethiopia, is one of the few written systems indigenous to Africa. Though Ethiopia has centuries-old traditions of two-dimensional art that include script, such as Coptic icon paintings underscored by written narratives, the script symbols themselves were never developed as a fine art form.
During the past thirty-five years, I’ve produced five major series of paintings in which I have defined an ‘aesthetics of script’: Graffiti Magic (1980-1987); Africa: The New Alphabet (1988-1994); Color of Words (1995-2003); Words: From Spoken to Seen (2004-2008); and, in my current series WordPlay (2009-present), painting has become an intense process of ‘dialoguing’ with the script images, exploring the versatility and playfulness of their surfaces and interiors, dissecting their ‘skeletal’ structures, observing the ways they move, interact, and intersect. I elongate, distort, invert, dissect, and recombine their shapes and volumes, and turn them inside out to discover their moods, tempers, and personalities. On canvas, the script images are divested of their literal meanings to become gesture, dance, music, movement, and stories of the human drama.
I don’t pre-sketch paintings; my process is inchoate and exploratory: the interplay of accident and intention, of mastery and uncertainty, of curiosity and discovery. Quick-drying acrylics allow me to easily build and destroy colors and figures on canvas. I use a wide-ranging palette, from bold primary colors to muted tones that look almost repellent on my palette, but that smoothly integrate into a composition; to black and white paintings with bare touches of color; to works in several tones of a single color.
Since my student years at the School of Fine Art in Addis Ababa (1967-1972), American jazz has asserted a significant influence on my painting. Like jazz music, the script provides a repertoire of dense, yet supple, elements that lend themselves well to visual improvisation. Jazz also influences my sense of composition: like improvisational music, the language symbols can be juxtaposed on canvas in nonverbal ‘word-plays’ to create a visual language of form and color, rhythm and movement.
— If You Go:
Skoto Gallery Presents Wosene Kosrof
Recent Paintings: Words: You Are Always New
June 2 – July 30, 2016
529 West 20th Street, 5FL
New York, NY 10011
212-352 8058 or info@skotogallery.com www.skotogallery.com
New York (TADIAS) — Established more than 90 years ago in Addis Ababa as one of Ethiopia’s premier modern educational institutions Tafari Makonnen School (TMS) was one of the most prestigious public schools in Ethiopia, graduating students who became the country’s first batch of diplomats, teachers, doctors, civil administrators, economists, senior military leaders, lawyers and professors. Now renamed Entoto Technical & Vocational Education Training College, those enrolled at TMS were recruited and trained from a pool of the nation’s best and brightest students.
“We came from all over Ethiopia,” recalls Dr. Bisrat Aklilu, President of the TMS Alumni Association in North America and retired United Nations official who graduated from the school in 1967. The alumni association is currently preparing to host its third general assembly on May 29th in Washington, .D.C. In a recent interview with Tadias Magazine Dr. Bisrat noted that the alumni association was established in 2011 by some of the school’s former students who currently reside in the United States “as a networking platform and as a way to give back.”
“After all most of us got where we are today because of the solid education that we received at TMS,” Dr. Bisrat added. “So it’s important that we pay back and also give the same opportunities to others who are there now. Obviously, the nature of the school has changed but that does not mean the importance of a world-class education has. In this country, as you know very well, schools basically flourish and survive on the basis of the contribution that they receive from their alumni. So we wanted to do the same for our school.”
What had distinguished TMS during its heydey was not only its focus on high quality education and its diverse multicultural student population, but also that the education system “instilled a sense of duty and service to the community and country” Dr. Bisrat said. “It was not about thinking only of yourself. Those who could not afford it were given allowance and boarding, and most importantly, civic and moral integrity was emphasized as part of the curriculum.”
“It was a very strict education and if you succeeded in finishing 12th grade then you were pretty much guaranteed acceptance to a college,” Dr. Bisrat continued. “And certainly more than 99% if not 100% went on to pursue higher education. Incidentally, the same Canadian teachers, most of them Jesuits, that taught us were later on asked by the Emperor to establish the first University College of Addis Ababa, which is now Addis Ababa University.”
At UN headquarters in New York where he worked for over 30 years Dr. Bisrat headed the Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office (MPTF), which he established in 2004 to “manage the resource of UN-wide bodies with an estimated six billion dollar operation,” he told Tadias. Since his retirement from the UN in 2013 Dr. Bistart said he has found more time to dedicate himself to his role as President of TMSAANA. “One of our efforts is to restore back the school’s name to Tafari Makonnen,” he says. “It’s important to keep the historical legacy of an institution like that.”
TMS was initially inaugurated on April 27, 1925, by its founder Ras Tafari Makonnen Woldemikael who was a regent at the time and later coronated as Emperor. The school’s first Superintendent was Ethiopia’s first medical doctor, Hakim Workneh Eshete, who had previously served as Emperor Menelik’s personal physician.
In addition, it was Dr. Workneh who was chosen to lead an official Ethiopian delegation to the United States in 1927 — just barely a decade before Italy’s fascist invasion of Ethiopia turned everything upside down for his first group of students at Tafari Makonnen School and for Ethiopia as whole. According to historian Bahru Zewde, Hakim Workneh was sent to the U.S. “to negotiate with a New York company, J.G. White Engineering, to build a barrage on Lake Tana; Ras Tafari (later Emperor Haile Selassie) had selected this company in response to the Anglo-Italian agreement two years earlier, which had placed Lake Tana in the British sphere of influence,” Wiki states. “This visit was significant not only for Workeneh’s meeting with the company, and officials of the United States which included President Coolidge, but for arriving in Harlem, where he delivered Ras Tafari’s greetings to the African-American community and Tafari’s invitation to skilled African Americans to settle in Ethiopia.”
TMS’ Alumni Association of North America currently has approximately 280 members and seeks “to identify specific activities and projects to help the school in terms of quality of education and to assist current and future students,” Dr. Bisrat said. “We also coordinate and engage with similar local organizations in Addis Ababa including our counterpart, the Tafari Makonnen School Alumni Charity Association (TMSCA).”
Dr. Bisrat shared with us the following quote from the inaugural speech given at the school by Regent Ras Tafari Makonnen on April 27, 1925:
This school is an instrument which will operate on our country’s behalf through the knowledge which God gives to each of you according to your lot, once you have matured and have become vigorous in intelligence. So, I beg of you to help the school which nurtures you, give you the food of knowledge: to see that it does not shrink but expands, that it does not fall but grows in strength.
— If You Go:
TMS Alumni Association in North America (TMSAANA)
3RD General Assembly — May, 29 2016
Washington, D.C.
For more info email: alumni@tmsaana.com www.tmsaana.com
New York (TADIAS) — The 2nd annual Harlem EatUp Food Festival is scheduled to take place from May 19th to May 22nd, 2016 at various venues in Harlem. The four-day festival, which was launched last year by the Ethiopian-born chef & entrepreneur Marcus Samuelsson and veteran event marketer Herb Karlitz allows participants “to see and taste all Harlem has to offer from the artists of the kitchen, the canvas, the stage and the streets.”
Former President Bill Clinton is the honorary chair of the festival, and the program includes the Dine In Harlem series, where “an array of Harlem restaurants and chefs will host acclaimed chefs from NYC and across the country to collaborate on multi-course menus that showcase the unique feel of Harlem’s landscape.” Participating restaurants include Samuelsson’s Ginny’s Supper Club, Harlem’s famous Sylvia’s Restaurant (the Queen of Soul Food), Melba’s Restaurant, The Cecil, Minton’s and Blujeen.
“Menus will be paired with wines from the Bordeaux Wine Council, and each dinner will feature dynamic Harlem artists and performers, making Dine In Harlem one of the biggest multi-room dinner parties this season,” notes the Times Square Chronicles.
(Photo courtesy HarlemEatUp.com.)
(Photo courtesy HarlemEatUp.com.)
In addition, this year the festival features the Saturday and Sunday stroll at Morningside Park — sponsored by Citi bank and Aetna — highlighting “unlimited tastings of Harlem’s signature dishes, samplings of craft beer, fine wine and bespoke cocktails.”
New York (TADIAS) — At least seven Ethiopian films are set to screen in NYC in May 2016 as part of the New York African Film Festival and the 13th Annual Sheba Film Festival.
Hermon Hailay’s Price of Love will be featured at Lincoln Center this week at the NY African Film Festival as well as Director Yared Zeleke’s award-winning drama LAMB; Red Leaves by Bazi Gete starring Debebe Eshetu; Afripedia X New York by Ethiopian and Eritrean filmmakers Teddy Goitom and Senay Berhe of Sweden; and The Dance of King David by Axel Baumann exploring the Ark of the Covenant. In addition, If Only I Were That Warrior, directed by Valerio Ciriaci about “the Italian occupation of Ethiopia and its unresolved legacy today,” will screen on May 24th at Tsion Cafe in Harlem as part of the 2016 Sheba Film Festival.
Below are the schedules, venues and brief descriptions of the films as shared by festival organizers.
PRICE OF LOVE – CENTERPIECE NIGHT FILM (N.Y. PREMIERE)
May 6th and May 10th
Hermon Hailay, Ethiopia, 2015, 99min.
In Amharic with English subtitles
Teddy (Eskindir Tameru), the son of a prostitute who grew up on the streets after his mother’s death, desperately tries to avoid the temptation of his old ways of chewing khat and drinking. His only support system is his priest, who bought him a taxi license on the condition that he live a decent life away from his past. But after Teddy intervenes in a fight between a prostitute, Fere (Fereweni Gebregergs), and her ex-boyfriend, who sells women to “work” in the Middle East, his taxi is stolen by the latter as leverage. As a result, Teddy finds himself caught up in a relationship with Fere, and during the search for the car, they discover the price of love..
THE DANCE OF KING DAVID
May 9th
Axel Baumann, USA, 2011, 32min.
In English and Amharic with English subtitles
Over 2900 years ago, King David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. When he did, King David, “danced before the Lord with all his might” (2 Samuel 6:14). The Dance of King David is a documentary film about the history and the contemporary worship of the Ark. This film examines the disappearance of the Ark from Israel and its reemergence in Ethiopia. We witness the “Dance of King David,”—an ancient rite still performed today by Jews and Ethiopians alike and we learn firsthand what it means to believe in the supernatural powers of this sacred object. (Screening with Black Jews: The Roots of the Olive Tree)
AFRIPEDIA X NEW YORK
May 10th
Teddy Goitom, Benjamin Taft, Senay Berhe, Sweden/USA, 2016, 12min.
In English
In the first in a series of short films set in the African diaspora, we meet Ethiopian/Eritrean Missla Libsekal, the founder of online publication Another Africa, as she embraces collaboration to counter the assumed perspectives of Africa and Africans. Senegalese/French photographer Delphine Diallo shares her passion and challenges in mindfully shifting her lens between Dakar and New York, while Somalian/Australian world champion Hula Hoop master Marawa continues to perfect her passion in the face of conventional expectations. Welcome toAfripedia, welcome to creativity.
LAMB
May 26th
Yared Zeleke, Ethiopia/France/Germany/Norway/Qatar, 2015, 94min.
In Amharic with English subtitles
Yared Zeleke’s remarkable debut feature tells the story of Ephraim, a young Ethiopian boy who is sent by his father to live with distant relatives in the countryside after his mother’s death. Ephraim uses his cooking skills to carve out a place among his cousins, but when his uncle decides that his beloved sheep must be sacrificed for the next religious feast, he will do anything to save the animal and return home.
RED LEAVES
May 27th
Bazi Gete, Israel, 2014, 80min.
In Amharic and Hebrew with English subtitles
Seventy-four-year-old Meseganio Tadela (Debebe Eshetu) immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia nearly 30 years ago, but has zealously chosen to retain his culture, speaking very little Hebrew. When his wife passes away, he sets out on a journey to visit his fully assimilated children, eventually coming to realize that he belongs to a rapidly disappearing class. Ethiopian-Israeli director Bazi Gete’s debut feature is a beautifully acted, movingly rendered portrait of a man struggling with his place in the world. (Screening with Cholo)
SHEBA FILM FESTIVAL BY BINA CULTURAL FOUNDATION AT TSION CAFE
763 St Nicholas Ave, New York, New York 10031
MEKONEN: THE JOURNEY OF AN AFRICAN JEW
May 10th
Directed by Rebecca Shore , Israel/Ethiopia , 2015, 45 mins
Synopsis:
The film follows the backstory and personal journey of Mekonen Abebe, a young African-Israeli Jew, once a young shepherd in Africa and now a commander in the Israeli Defense Forces. Mekonen is one of many brave young men and women drafted into compulsory service in the IDF, to defend their homeland and the liberal values of democracy, freedom and equality. Born and raised in an Ethiopian village, Mekonen was a 12-year-old shepherd when his father died suddenly, less than a day before his family was to move to Israel. The film accompanies Mekonen back to Africa on an emotional journey. He explores his roots, makes peace with his past and embraces his future in Israel. After a difficult adjustment period in Israel, Mekonen was fortunate to attend the Hodayot High School, which educates children from troubled backgrounds and helps integrate them into Israeli society. Mekonen became a decorated officer in the IDF, while staying true to his Ethiopian roots and culture. Mekonen is an uplifting and inspiring film that will move audiences and show viewers that anything is possible with the right attitude, tools and support.
IF ONLY I WERE THAT WARRIOR
May 24th
Directed Valerio Ciriaci, USA/Italy, 2015, 72 mins
Synopsis:
“If Only I Were That Warrior” is a film about the Italian occupation of Ethiopia in 1935 and its unresolved legacy today. Driving this investigation is the story of a recently constructed monument to Rodolfo Graziani, a Fascist general remembered for war crimes committed during the invasion and occupation of Ethiopia, which sparked international protests and brought this chapter of history back to the forefront of public discourse. The film’s primary aim is to offer an unprecedented glance at the controversial memory of the Fascist invasion in Ethiopia. Italy’s uncomfortable relationship with its colonial past has been a matter of discussion in academia, but the general public never engaged in a critical discourse on the real events that took place during Mussolini’s campaigns in Africa. No court ever reviewed the crimes committed. Graziani, a main player during the Ethiopian campaign and later the viceroy of the new colony, was never put on trial for his crimes. To this day many remember him as a hero in his hometown of Affile, the small town not far from Rome where the monument was erected in 2012.
New York (TADIAS) — Ethiopian American artists Selam Bekele and Gabriel Teodros will co-present their work entitled Ethiopian Surrealism: Beyond Abyssinia this weekend at a student-led conference on Afrofuturism at The New School in New York City highlighting “imagery and artistry in representation of Ethiopian culture in film and the arts.”
The three-day conference, which kicked off on Friday evening, is hosted by Students of the African Diaspora (S.O.A.D) based at The New School University. According to the organizers, the gathering explores Afrofuturism “as a cultural and aesthetic movement through a series of art happenings, performances, lectures, panels, workshops, theater pieces, film music, scholarly works, and community events.”
Selam described Afrofuturism as “a growing artistic movement; as a mix of science fiction and social justice,” as her work was featured on PBS last year. “The movement uses elements of fantasy and magical realism to examine narratives from the African Diaspora and construct stories of the future.”
Selam and Gabriel’s presentations includes Ethiopian American saxophonist and bandleader Danny Mekonen of Debo Band.
— If You Go:
Afrofuturism Conference 2016
Ethiopian Surrealism: Beyond Abyssinia
(Saturday, April 30th, 2016 at 2:00 PM)
THE NEW SCHOOL
63 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10003
Related: Watch: Selam Bekele, an Oakland Afrofuturist | KQED Arts
Maaza Mengiste Speaks on Refugee Crisis at Pen World Voices Festival
New York (TADIAS) — Ethiopian-American writer Maaza Mengiste is one of the featured speakers at a panel discussion in NYC this week entitled Country of Nowhere: The Refugee Crisis that will be held at Nuyorican Poets Cafe as part of the 2016 PEN World Voices Festival. Panelists include Naila Al Atrash, Marlon James, Laila Lalami and Sunjeev Sahota.
“What is the responsibility of writers in humanitarian crises such as the Syrian refugee crisis? Few countries have offered shelter. Politicians and pundits have responded with hateful rhetoric and fear mongering,” states the announcement from PEN America. “Join a conversation with writers whose work contributes to an understanding of displacement, dislocation, and collective responsibility.”
Maaza Mengiste is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Beneath the Lion’s Gaze. She was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University. Maaza is also the “writer for the Ethiopia segment of GIRL RISING,” a feature film that tells the stories of 10 extraordinary girls from 10 developing countries around the world. Maaza’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian, BBC Radio, The Granta Anthology of the African Short Story, and Lettre International.
—- If You Go:
Country of Nowhere: The Refugee Crisis
Tuesday, April 26, 2016, 7:00pm Nuyorican Poets Cafe
236 East 3rd Street, New York, NY 10009
Tickets: $12 in advance/$15 at the door/$10 students only at the door. Purchase tickets here.
New York (TADIAS) — Call of Ethiopia — a poem by the distinguished African American writer Langston Hughes — was read by Elias Wondimu during his presentation of Tsehai Publishers on Saturday, April 16th in the lobby of the Schomburg Center in Harlem dedicated to the poet. Tsehai Publishers is one of the only remaining independent presses affiliated with a university that focuses on African literature and Pan-African voices. Saturday night’s program also included a book talk by Editor Mary-Jane Wagle featuring Temsalet: Phenomenal Ethiopian Women published by Tsehai in 2015.
During her presentation Mary-Jane Wagle highlighted some of the 64 remarkable Ethiopian women photographed by award-winning Ethiopian photographer Aida Muluneh and featured in the book including Amsale Gualu, the first female captain at Ethiopian Airlines; lawyer and women’s bank founder Meaza Ashenafi Mengistu (who was also the attorney and real-life inspiration for the award-winning film Difret); Ethiopia’s first female construction tower crane operator, Marta Mesele Woldemariam; women’s activist and founder of the Jalala Women’s Association, Meshu Baburi Dekebo; actress and playwright Alemtsehay Wedajo; children’s television program creator and producer Bruktawit Tigabu Tadesse; and art curator and cultural activist Meskerem Asegued Bantiwalu.
The presentations by Elias Wondimu and Mary-Jane Wagle were followed by a book signing session. Guests enjoyed Ethiopian food and coffee catered by Bunna Cafe as well as Sheba Tej and wines from Ethiopia, Chile, and South Africa served by Tsion Cafe.
This event was part of the Tadias Salon Series and co-hosted by Tadias Magazine, Tsehai Publishers and Loyola Marymount University.
New York (TADIAS) — One of the oldest Ethiopian churches in NYC, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Medhanialem Church, which is now located in the Bronx, announced that will hold its second annual celebration — the Medhanialem Kebre Baal — this weekend.
The church moved into a newly purchased building in the Bronx two years ago achieving a major milestone for the community after three decades of service from a rental space inside the Riverside Church in Uptown Manhattan.
The 2nd annual celebration is scheduled for Saturday April 2nd, 2016. Organizers note: ዋዜማ or Eve Service starts at 3 PM on Friday, April 1st.
— If You Go:
302 East 206 St
Bronx, NY 10467
email: info@medhanialem.org
website: www.medhanialem.org
New York (TADIAS) — Ethiopian poet Bewketu Seyoum, author of the new Amharic book KeAmen Bashager will hold a book-talk this weekend at Bunna Cafe in Brooklyn.
The event, which is scheduled for Sunday, March 13th, is hosted by the Ethiopian Community Mutual Assistance Association (ECMAA) in New York City: “Join us for early dinner and drinks, and listen and talk with Bewketu,” Bunna Cafe announced. “Presentation begins at 4:30 and will be made in Amharic.
Per Amazon: “Bewketu’s new book ‘KeAmen Bashager’ consists of twenty imaginative, humorous, satirical essays based on his travel, political, and historical accounts. Bewketu eloquently states in the prologue that his travel accounts are “…more of imaginative than pictorial…”; his political essays are “…an amalgam of humming and lampoon, not a serious ideological analysis…” and the historical figures he brought to our attention are pioneers and founding fathers of a great nation Ethiopia.”
‘KeAmen Bashager’ (Amharic) Paperback – 2016 by Bewketu Seyoum (Author)
— If You Go:
Sunday March 13, 2016
Time:3:30-6:00pm
Bunna Cafe
1084 Flushing Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11237 www.bunnaethiopia.net
New York (TADIAS) — The City of Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer announced that he will host a forum for the Ethiopian Community this week, in partnership with the Los Angeles Police Department.
A representative of the City’s Attorney office told Tadias the upcoming event, which is open to the public, will be held at St. Mary’s Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church at 6:00 PM. on Friday, February 26th.
“Connect with the Los Angeles Police Department’s Wilshire Area Station, which serves the Little Ethiopia area. Learn about how we work together to keep the neighborhood safe and about the many different services we provide. Bring questions, concerns and ideas. Invite friends, family, and colleagues” the announcement said. “We will also have useful crime prevention tip sheets (contractor fraud, immigration fraud, senior fraud, Identity Theft, etc) available for everyone to take home with them.”
Last Summer City Attorney Feuer also hosted a roundtable with members of the Little Ethiopia business community in addition to delivering the keynote address at the 2015 Little Ethiopia Cultural Street Festival in September.
— If You Go:
L.A. Ethiopian Community Forum
Friday, February 26th at 6:00 PM.
St. Mary’s Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
5707 Shenandoah Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90056
Free parking available www.lacityattorney.org
Three years ago, the Washington, D.C. area organization opened a library and research center dedicated exclusively to Amharic publications — the first of its kind in the U.S. The original collection featured more than 900 Ethiopian books and rare periodicals including newspapers, biographies, children’s books, fiction, political journals, comedy and poetry publications.
TCEC’s tutoring and mentoring program will be held every Saturday from 2-6pm at the Silver Spring Civic Center located at 1 Veterans Plaza, Silver Spring, Maryland.
“The core group managing the program has been providing mentoring and tutoring services for more than a decade in the Washington DC metro area and comprises of accomplished individuals. Tayitu Cultural & Educational Center encourages local area parents to participate and get their children registered in this exciting opportunity,” stated the press release from TCEC, adding that “Tayitu calls on volunteers to join the program and be role models to our children by helping in schoolwork and occasionally getting involved in sports, arts and other scheduled programing.”
Roots were tangled, elastic and portable at this year’s Globalfest, the annual showcase for world music that started in 2003. With 12 overlapping sets on Sunday night at Webster Hall, Globalfest included dance music, protest songs, tradition, fusion, electronics, shtick, spirituality, camp and the blues. Some of the musicians were self-conscious emissaries from their homes; others were expatriates and widely traveled citizens of a connected world. Through the years, Globalfest has demolished the stereotype of world music performers as naifs playing the only music they know. Instead, it presents tradition as a choice and a resource, affirming a heritage or giving it a personal twist…
Fendika, named after the group’s club in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is led by a whirlwind of a dancer, Melaku Belay. The music — for voices, percussion and krar (lyre) or masenko (one-stringed fiddle) — was sparse but mesmerizing, a gallery of regional modes and rhythms matched by twirling, shaking dances.
New York (TADIAS) — Ethiopia’s Fendika traditional dancers are back in New York where they will perform at Globalfest 2016 this coming Sunday. Fendika is one of 12 international groups, including from Mexico and Haiti, that is scheduled to be showcased at the 13th annual Globalfest concert.
Fendika kicks off their NYC show with an appearance at Bunna Cafe in Brooklyn on Friday, January 15th, ahead of their Globalfest performance at Webster Hall in Manhattan on January 17th.
The event at Bunna Cafe features music by DJ Selam Bekele who “combines the improvisational Azmari tradition with digital surrealism to bring you a multi-media sensory experience live from the Diaspora,” Bunna Cafe announced. And as to Azmari music, “Nobody does it better than Fendika.” Organizers share that “legendary, Melaku Belay’s famous dance troupe performs at Bunna on Friday, January 15 in an early celebration of the Timket holiday.”
The New York Times described last year’s Globalfest festival as “full of fusions both geographical and temporal: local and far-flung, old and new” and “what fortified nearly every performance was the sense that the music still comes from some place like home.” The Times noted “Fendika, an ensemble led by the exuberant dancer Melaku Belay, mixes traditional music and dance from Ethiopia.”
— If You Go:
Globalfest 2016
Sunday, January 17th
Webster Hall
125 East 11th Street
New York City www.globalfest.org
New York (TADIAS) — Singer and songwriter Meklit Hadero will perform at the 2016 New York City Winter Jazzfest on Saturday, January 16th at Zinc Bar in Greenwich Village.
Winter Jazzfest takes place over two-nights on January 15th and 16th at various venues in the Village and will showcase more than 100 groups. “Continuing a tradition of supporting like-minded jazz presenters Winter Jazzfest is pleased to again feature the unique programming visions of Revive Music and New York Hot Jazz Festival who will each curate their own stages during these two-nights,” organizers announced.
Meklit is also scheduled to perform at another NYC venue, Iridium, on Monday, January 18, 2016. The concert will feature her latest music This Was Made Here, which is “deeply inspired by Mulatu Astatke, the Godfather of Ethio-Jazz.”
“This Was Made Here was sparked by a conversation between Meklit and Mulatu late one night after Meklit’s 2011 full band debut in Addis Ababa,” the Iridium said in its announcement. “Mulatu urged her to not play Ethio-Jazz as he and others created it 45 years ago, but to take it further and be a part of its evolution. He tasked her to make her own mark on this music, and she is now responding in song.” Meklit’s third album featuring these songs is scheduled to be released in May 2016 by Six Degrees Records.
New York (TADIAS) — Addis Fine Art announced that it will launch its new gallery in Addis Ababa on January 9th, 2016 with an inaugural exhibition featuring contemporary Ethiopian artists including Dawit Abebe, Workneh Bezu, Tamrat Gezahegne, Yosef Lule, Leikun Nahusenay, Emanuel Tegene and Michael Tsegaye.
The group exhibition entitled Addis Calling “celebrates the breadth and depth of artistic practice in Addis Ababa through the presentation of works by seven contemporary artists who live and work in the capital,” Addis Fine Art said in a press release. “The exhibition — a vibrant mix of painting, photography and mixed media — reflects the dynamic artistic activity in Addis Ababa today.”
Founded by Mesai Haileleul and Rakeb Sile, Addis Fine Art gallery aims to represent established and emerging international artists primarily from Ethiopia and the Diaspora.
Founders of Addis Fine Art Mesai Haileleul & Rakeb Sile. (Photo: 2015 Addis Fine Art)
Addis Fine Arts’s official website states that “AFA strives to promote the work of Ethiopian artists on a global stage, increasing their visibility and inscribing their practice within the global language of cultural production.”
— If You Go:
Addis Calling Exhibit
Jan 9th through Feb 12th, 2016
Bole Medhane Alem
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Tel: +251 913 426553 www.addisfineart.com
New York (TADIAS) — The U.S.-based African diaspora music production and entertainment media brand, Africology, will launch an online video streaming program (Africology TV) next month profiling up-and-coming artists from Africa and the Diaspora, including a weekly list of top ten music videos.
The launch party for Africology TV will takes place on New Year’s day 2016 at Studio XXI in New York City.
In the following audio interview with Tadias, Africology co-founder Sirak Getachew (DJ Sirak) discusses their new television venture as well as his thoughts on Ethiopian rap star Teddy Yo. “What he has done is that he took traditional Ethiopian folk music in a sense and blended it with hip-hop” says DJ Sirak, acknowledging that he is one of the few local artists who has successfully gained widespread popularity with this fusion.
New York (TADIAS) — The Houston, Texas branch of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) will host representatives from the Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS) for a dinner meeting at Space Center Houston on Thursday, December 3rd.
“The Houston Section of AIAA is pleased and honored to be hosting Dr. Tulu Besha Bedada and Dr. Berhan Gessesse of the Ethiopian Space Science Society,” AIAA announced.
Dr. Tulu and Dr. Berhan will be discussing Ethiopia’s fledgling space program including “enhancing earth observation technology for water resource monitoring, supply and sanitation development from an African perspective.”
The recent trip to Ethiopia by NASA’s administrator Major General Charles F. Bolden, who visited the Entoto Observatory in Addis Ababa, and his subsequent “discussion with the Ethiopian Ministry of Science and Technology will be one of the major focus areas of our public talk,” AIAA said.
The presentation by the Ethiopian guests provides an overview of Ethiopian space activities from the late 1950s to current times on work done by ESSS and Entoto Observatory.
“Our presentation will remind us about our long term partnership with USA through highlighting Ethiopia’s collaboration with Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory on the first of its kind space geodetic and astronomical earth observation satellite tracking and imaging mission” says ESSS. The mission used “a network of 12 BEKER NUN Camera deployed all over the world in the early days of space development. One BEKER NUN camera was installed in Ethiopia in 1966 and was in operation until 1973.”
The program also features a talk highlighting the “development of a concept to address and realize the prime objectives and aspirations of a water initiative program” launched by Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie, grandson of Emperor Haile Selassie, on “water resource status in Ethiopia (both surface water and groundwater); earth observation technology and water resource monitoring nexus; water pollution and quality monitoring; water-borne and water-related diseases; major challenges for the realization of clean water supply program in rural Ethiopia; and establishing national and international partnership & cooperation for water initiative programs in Ethiopia.”
In addition, the evening includes a Q&A and panel discussion covering topics such as a “new water initiative project for Ethiopia; the way forward for initiating space and Earth observation projects; and how to proceed to establish R&D collaboration between Ethiopian Space Science Society/Entoto Observatory and various organizations.”
— If You Go:
Thursday, December 3, 5:30pm,
Space Center Houston
Astronaut Gallery
1601 Nasa Rd. 1
Houston, TX 77058 Click here to RSVP
New York (TADIAS) — The 2015 Artists for Charity (AFC) Holiday Benefit will take place on Saturday, December 5th in Washington D.C. to be held during the week of World AIDS Day.
“This year, AFC is excited to showcase the amazing work done through its ArtHeals program, an initiative aimed at improving children’s wards in hospitals in Ethiopia,” AFC said in a press release. “A live auction will take place featuring artwork from local and international artists.”
AFC said that it is “thrilled to be able to expand the collection of art this year with generous pieces donated by the McMillan- Stewart Foundation and the work of several prominent African artists.
“A small grassroots organization with a big cause, AFC operates a children’s home that raises HIV positive, double-orphaned children in a loving family environment,” the organization said. “AFC was one of the first children’s home to accept children living with HIV in Ethiopia.”
In addition to the live-auction, the holiday event features Ethiopian food, drinks, and live cultural music.
— IF You Go:
AFC 9th Annual Art Auction Benefit
Artists For Charity
Saturday, December 5, 2015
7:00 PM to 10:00 PM
641 S Street Northwest, #b
Washington, DC 20001 Click here for ticket information
More info. at: www.artistsforcharity.org.
New York (TADIAS) – Last week New Jersey’s first Ethiopian owned church property was inaugurated in West Orange, New Jersey. The Amanuel Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo church, which was founded in 2006 has a new permanent location at 15 Dean street in West Orange, NJ.
Below are courtesy photos from the celebration on November 14th:
New York (TADIAS) — Recently we featured Afripedia — a visionary online platform developed by self-taught filmmakers Teddy Goitom and Senay Berhe — featuring visual artists, fashion designers, filmmakers and cultural activists across the African continent.
On Sunday, November 15th National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY will host an evening of Afripedia film screenings (Afripedia x Kenya and Afripedia x Ghana) followed by a conversation with Co-Founders Teddy Goitom and Senay Berhe as well as musical performances by African visual artists Blinky Bill and Jojo Abot.
Afripedia was initially launched to showcase a series of films highlighting six African countries and is currently being developed into to a hub where African visual artists can share their work and get hired by multimedia organizations worldwide. Afripedia’s expansion is supported through a one-year residency at the New Museum’s incubator (New Inc.) in New York City.
— If You Go:
In Situ: Afripedia
Sunday, November 15th, 2015
at the National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11249
Purchase tickets here.
Watch: The first Virtual Reality music video in Africa, that was shot in Addis by Afripedia for Ethiocolor Band
