iFest

Standout Acts at iFest This Weekend!

noemail@ifest.org — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Standout acts at iFest

ANDREW DANSBY
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

The Houston International Festival begins its second weekend Saturday. It's as stacked as last week's lineup, particularly today. The Neville Brothers and Shemekia Copeland — both Saturday performers — are plenty well-known. Even the Lowrider Band (also Saturday), if not a household name, kind of is — psst . . . it's mostly WAR.

Taj Mahal's the big bopper for Sunday. Here are five other Sunday acts worth checking out. Click here to read the full story

26-Apr-08 7:00 AM

Check Out the Chron.com Review of iFest First Weekend

noemail@ifest.org — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:00:00 GMT

IFest sizzles with LaVette, Carolina Chocolate Drops

Africa may be the anchor of this year's edition of the Houston International Festival -- but a pair of stateside artists proved powerful highlights during Saturday's edition of the two-weekend event.

To these ears, the day belonged to Michigan-born Bettye Lavette, the alternately prickly and polished soul dynamo who spent more than 40 years in obscurity before being truly discovered; and the Carolina Chocolate Drops, an exciting, invigorating, black folk and string-band. Click here to read the full review

24-Apr-08 12:00 PM

Only One More Weekend of iFest. Don't Miss It!

noemail@ifest.org — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:30:00 GMT

One weekend of iFest is down and one to go. If you didn't make it out to iFest last weekend, this is your last chance to be a part of the city's official cultural arts celebration.

Join iFest on three amazing journeys Out of Africa! Explore mankind's earliest roots and follow the remarkable cultural passage outward into the Caribbean and the Americas. Six entertainment zones. Hundreds of performers and arts vendors. New and improved zone for kids. iFest is an entertainment bargain that can't be beat!

Come out to iFest this weekend and see incredible performances by the Neville Brothers, the National Dance Theater of Ethiopia, The Lowrider Band (formerly known as WAR), Shemekia Copeland, Menwar (from Mauritius), the Garifuna Collective (from Belize), Habib Koite (from Mali), Taj Mahal, the Hollisters, Brian Jack and the Zydeco Gamblers, Miss Leslie and her jukejointers, Johnny Falstaff, Joaquin Diaz (from the Dominican Republic) and Somabit (from Mexico).

You won't want to miss the incredible Pan-African Finale featuring Taj Mahal, Menwar, the National Dance Theater of Ethiopia and Habib Koite. We don't know what will happen, and neither do they, but I would not miss this for all the world if I were you. (Sunday, April 27, 7:30pm on the World Music Stage)

You gotta see the Chevron Out of Africa Living Museum in Sam Houston Park which includes an amazing reproduction of the famous Church of Lalibela, a 12th century church carved out of a mountain. You'll experience storytelling, drumming, dance lessons, demonstrations and plays on the Gullah Stage. Four previous Miss Ethiopias are featured in a fashion show on the H-E-B Cultural Stage.

There is something for everyone. Every type of food imaginable is availalable plus incredible shopping in our international arts markets.

Save some cash and buy your tickets online or at any H-E-B for only $12.50. Tickets are $15.00 at the gate. Children 12 and under are free courtesy of Target.

22-Apr-08 3:30 PM

iFest Fan Quiz

noemail@ifest.org — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:15:00 GMT

iFest Fan Quiz

1. Of the world-famous performing artists in this year’s lineup who is a return visitor?

2. Which of these countries has NOT been spotlighted: Turkey, Spain, Germany, France, Ireland, Thailand?

3. Which of the following artists have NOT performed at iFest: Richard Thompson, Youssou N’Dour, Emmy Lou Harris, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Penguin Café Orchestra, John Lee Hooker, Ramsey Lewis, George Plimpton, George Clinton, King Sunny Ade, the Staple Singers, Paco de Lucia?

4. How many volunteer shifts does it take to produce an iFest: 60, 600, 6000, 60,000?

5. We expect two heads of state for this year’s festival. How many heads of state will have been at the opening of iFest over the last two decades: 2, 5, 11, 23?

6. Where did the term iFest come from: a marketing consultant, Out Smart Magazine, the Houston Chronicle, New York Times?

7. What year was the first festival and what was it called: 1987, Houston International Festival; 1980, Houston’s Arts Festival; 1946, Houston’s Victory Festival; 1971, Main Street Art Happening?

8. How long did the first festival last: 6 hours, one day, one weekend, one week?

9. Which of the following was NOT a feature of the first festival: a scale model of Houston made completely of food; a landscaped area made of portable grass, trees and shrubs; a 5-foot high, 1300 pound air mattress for kids to bounce on; a gigantic “art bra” suspended above Main Street?

10. What year was the official poster art pulled and destroyed after it was printed, and why: 1989, Robert Motherwell’s rendition of the tricolor was deemed disrespectful to officials in Paris; 1991, artist Masami Yamada’s rendering of a classical theater figure in the “I Will Rescue You” pose was considered too archaic by up-to-date champions in the cultural ministry in Tokyo; 1992, Juan Mariscal’s cartoon treatment of Velasquez’ Las Meninas was judged to be too controversial by Madrid; 1995, artist Bedri Baykam’s inclusion of a belly dancer in the same frame as a Turkish flag was deemed an absolute no-no by Ankara?

11. Which royal visitors were NOT at the opening of their country-related iFest: Duke and Duchess of Kent; King Mswati III of Swaziland; Prince Akishino of Japan; Princess Elena of Spain?

12. We brought large animals to the festival one year. Which was it: 5 elephants for Thailand, 2004; two giraffes for West Africa, 1996; 15 giant pythons for India, 2005; one panda for the first Chinese salute, 1997?

13. For Ireland, 2001, we brought over the descendants of a great Irish writer who was it: James Joyce, WB Yeats, Oscar Wilde, Dylan Thomas?

14. Which of the following did our French artists NOT do for the 1989 salute to France: they hoisted Mr. and Mrs. Marquis de Sade on cranes suspended over the crowd where they frolicked in an obscene manner; they erected a guillotine at City Hall and announced they would be chopping off the head of a live pig on the final day; at the City Hall reflection pond, they created an “everyday-life museum” in a plexiglas case where, among other things, they displayed a mom dressed as a wet nurse, breastfeeding a real infant; they performed a “play for one” in the back of a tiny Deux Cheveux car brought over from France; they decapitated a pig on the final day?

15. Which of the following has NOT been part of an iFest commissioning in the past: Edward Albee, Wynton Marsalis, George Plimpton, Seamus Heaney, Garth Fagan, Robert Motherwell, Juan Mariscal?

Fan Quiz: Answers

1. Hugh Masekala. He appeared when iFest saluted southern Africa in 1998.

2. Germany

3. Ramsey Lewis. He was booked, though, but when he took to the stage, we’d rented the wrong brand of piano – he was under contract to a specific brand and couldn’t play on a competitor. So he didn’t perform. All the others in the question were booked and did play.

4. 6,000

5. 11

6. Out Smart Magazine, specifically writer Anne Seibert; iFest makes for a more succinct headline.

7. 1971, Main Street Art Happening. It later became the Houston Festival; in 1986 it changed to the Houston International Festival.

8. 6 hours

9. A gigantic “art bra” suspended above Main Street. This happened at the 2nd, 1972 Art Happening.

10. 1995, artist Bedri Baykam’s inclusion of a belly dancer in the same frame as a Turkish flag was deemed an absolute no-no by Ankara. The other posters were commissioned without controversy.

11. King Mswati III of Swaziland.

12. 5 elephants for Thailand, 2004.

13. James Joyce. Wilde had no descendants and Thomas was Welch.

14. They did not chop off the head of a pig on the final day – though they did all the other things, which made everyone think they just might make good on their decapitation promises for their finale back in 1989.

15. Seamus Heaney. He did appear during the 2001 iFest in collaboration with Imprint. The others in the question have all been part of iFest commissioning.

17-Apr-08 11:15 PM

Civil Rights Timeline

noemail@ifest.org — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:00:00 GMT

“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America

The U.S. Civil Rights Movement ranks as one of the most profound watershed events in world history. While there is much in the areas of race relations and social reform to be accomplished, no informed observer can deny the momentous changes brought about by what most people consider ordinary people. For many activists and some scholars, the civil rights movement ended in 1968 with the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. Others have said it was over after the Selma march, because after Selma the movement ceased to achieve significant change. Some, especially African Americans, argue that the movement is not over yet because the goal of full equality has not been achieved.

Milestones in the Modern Civil Rights Movement
1944
April 3 The Supreme Court rules in Smith v Allwright that the Texas White Primary is unconstitutional. This case originating in a suit filed in November 1940 by Dr. Lonnie Smith, a dentist in Houston’s Fifth Ward, and supported by the local NAACP, and Thurgood Marshall. This victory removed the major obstacle to voting faced by Texas blacks. Later that year Smith was elected precinct election judge.

1947

March 3 Texas Governor Beauford Jester signs into law the bill that creates Texas State University for Negroes (renamed Texas Southern University in 1951). Texas acquired the property and facilities of Houston College for Negroes for the new university, which was created for the purpose of perpetuating the segregation of higher education in the state by establishing an African American law school.

1950

June 5 The Supreme Court rules that segregated law and professional schools in the State of Texas are inherently unequal, and orders the desegregation of the University of Texas Law School in the Case of Sweatt v. Painter. Thurgood Marshall argued the case originated by the Houston NAACP Chapter. This decision was an antecedent to the 1954 Brown decision.

1952

April 16 Unidentified whites planted a dynamite bomb under the porch of Jack Caesar’s house on Wichita Street in Riverside Terrace. Caesar, a wealthy African American cattleman, was the first black to purchase a home in the all-white neighborhood. No one was injured in the bombing, and blacks continued moving into the neighborhood, triggering white flight and the emergence of the Riverside area of southeast Houston as the neighborhood for of the city’s black elite.

1954

May 17 The Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The ruling paves the way for large-scale desegregation. The decision overturns the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that sanctioned "separate but equal" segregation of the races, ruling that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." It is a victory for NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall, who will later return to the Supreme Court as the nation's first black justice.

June 2 The City of Houston approves an ordinance desegregating its municipal golf courses, within a few months Mayor Roy Hofheinz desegregates the city libraries and the bus system.

1955
Aug Fourteen-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till is visiting family in Mississippi when he is kidnapped, brutally beaten, shot and dumped in the Tallahatchie River for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Two white men, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, are arrested for the murder and acquitted by an all-white jury. They later boast about committing the murder in a Look magazine interview. The case becomes a cause célèbre of the civil rights movement.

September Texas Southern University begins admitting all students regardless of race or color. It is the first Houston area university to desegregate.

Dec 1 (Montgomery, Ala.) NAACP member Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger, defying a southern custom of the time. In response to her arrest the Montgomery black community launches a bus boycott, which will last for more than a year, until the buses are desegregated Dec. 21, 1956. As newly elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., is instrumental in leading the boycott.

1957
Jan-Feb Martin Luther King, Charles K. Steele and Fred L. Shuttlesworth establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which King is made the first president. The SCLC becomes a major force in organizing the civil rights movement and bases its principles on nonviolence and civil disobedience. According to King, it is essential that the civil rights movement not sink to the level of the racists and hatemongers who oppose them: "We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline," he urges.

Sept (Little Rock, Ark.) Formerly all-white Central High School learns that integration is easier said than done. Nine black students are blocked from entering the school on the orders of Governor Orval Faubus. President Eisenhower sends federal troops and the National Guard to intervene on behalf of the students, who become known as the "Little Rock Nine."

October 5 In response to a lawsuit filed on behalf of Delores Ross and Beneva Williams, federal judge Ben C. Connally ordered the Houston Independent School District to desegregate. The District was required to submit a desegregation plan for approval, but the ruling did not set a specific timetable for desegregation.

1958

November 11 Hattie Mae White (Ms. Charles E. White) was elected as a member of the Board of the Houston Independent School District. White was the first African American elected to public office in Houston in the twentieth century. During her two terms on the School Board, she was an outspoken advocate of school desegregation and equal rights.

1960
Feb 1 (Greensboro, N.C.) Four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter. Although they are refused service, they are allowed to stay at the counter. The event triggers many similar nonviolent protests throughout the South. Six months later the original four protesters are served lunch at the same Woolworth’s counter. Student sit-ins would be effective throughout the Deep South in integrating parks, swimming pools, theaters, libraries and other public facilities.

March 4 Eldrewy Stearns and sixteen other Texas Southern University students march from the campus to the Weingarten’s supermarket on nearby Almeda Street and stage a sit-in to desegregate the store’s whites-only lunch counter. This incident launches a three-year struggle that ends the segregation of lunch counters, restaurants, hotels and movie theaters in Houston.

April (Raleigh, N.C.) The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is founded at Shaw University, providing young blacks with a place in the civil rights movement. The SNCC later grows into a more radical organization, especially under the leadership of Stokely Carmichael (1966–1967).

1961
May 4 Over the spring and summer, student volunteers begin taking bus trips through the South to test out new laws that prohibit segregation in interstate travel facilities, which includes bus and railway stations. Several of the groups of "freedom riders," as they are called, are attacked by angry mobs along the way. The program, sponsored by The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), involves more than 1,000 volunteers, black and white.

Oct 1 James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Violence and riots surrounding the incident cause President Kennedy to send 5,000 federal troops.
1963
April 16 Martin Luther King is arrested and jailed during anti-segregation protests in Birmingham, Ala.; he writes his seminal "Letter from Birmingham Jail," arguing that individuals have the moral duty to disobey unjust laws.

May During civil rights protests in Birmingham, Ala., Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene "Bull" Connor uses fire hoses and police dogs on black demonstrators. These images of brutality, which are televised and published widely, are instrumental in gaining sympathy for the civil rights movement around the world.

June 12 (Jackson, Miss.) Mississippi's NAACP field secretary, 37-year-old Medgar Evers, is murdered outside his home. Byron De La Beckwith is tried twice in 1964, both trials resulting in hung juries. Thirty years later he is convicted for murdering Evers.

Aug. 28 (Washington, D.C.) About 200,000 people join the March on Washington. Congregating at the Lincoln Memorial, participants listen as Martin Luther King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

Sept. 15 (Birmingham, Ala.) Four young girls (Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Addie Mae Collins) attending Sunday school are killed when a bomb explodes at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a popular location for civil rights meetings. Riots erupt in Birmingham, leading to the deaths of two more black youths.

1964
Jan. 23 The 24th Amendment abolishes the poll tax, which originally had been instituted in 11 southern states after Reconstruction to make it difficult for poor blacks to vote.

Summer The Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a network of civil rights groups that includes CORE and SNCC, launches a massive effort to register black voters during what becomes known as the Freedom Summer. It also sends delegates to the Democratic National Convention to protest—and attempt to unseat—the official all-white Mississippi contingent.

July 2 President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion or national origin. The law also provides the federal government with the powers to enforce desegregation.

Aug 4 (Neshoba Country, Miss.) The bodies of three civil-rights workers—two white, one black—are found in an earthen dam, six weeks into a federal investigation backed by President Johnson. James E. Chaney, 21; Andrew Goodman, 21; and Michael Schwerner, 24, had been working to register black voters in Mississippi, and, on June 21, had gone to investigate the burning of a black church. They were arrested by the police on speeding charges, incarcerated for several hours, and then released after dark into the hands of the Ku Klux Klan, who murdered them.
1965
Oct (Oakland, Calif.) The militant Black Panthers are founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.

Feb 21 (Harlem, N.Y.) Malcolm X, black nationalist and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, is shot to death. It is believed the assailants are members of the Black Muslim faith, which Malcolm had recently abandoned in favor of orthodox Islam.

March 7 (Selma, Ala.) Blacks begin a march to Montgomery in support of voting rights but are stopped at the Pettus Bridge by a police blockade. Fifty marchers are hospitalized after police use tear gas, whips and clubs against them. The incident is dubbed "Bloody Sunday" by the media. The march is considered the catalyst for pushing through the voting rights act five months later.

Aug 10 Congress passes the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it easier for Southern blacks to register to vote. Literacy tests, poll taxes and other such requirements that were used to restrict black voting are made illegal.

Aug 11–17 (Watts, Calif.) Race riots erupt in a black section of Los Angeles.

Sept 24 Asserting that civil rights laws alone are not enough to remedy discrimination, President Johnson issues Executive Order 11246, which enforces affirmative action for the first time. It requires government contractors to "take affirmative action" toward prospective minority employees in all aspects of hiring and employment.

1966

November 8 Voters elect Barbara Jordan of Houston to the Texas Senate and Curtis Graves of Houston and Joseph Lockridge of Dallas to the Texas House of Representatives. When these three take their seats in January 1967 they become the first African Americans to serve in the Texas Legislature in the 20th century.

1967
April 19 Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), coins the phrase "black power" in a speech in Seattle. He defines it as an assertion of black pride and "the coming together of black people to fight for their liberation by any means necessary." The term's radicalism alarms many who believe the civil rights movement's effectiveness and moral authority crucially depend on nonviolent civil disobedience.

May 16 The Texas Southern University riot culminates with the death of a Houston police officer and a police assault on a TSU dormitory. The riot followed growing tension on the campus related to student efforts to close Wheeler street which bisected the campus, and protests following the drowning death of a black child in a local sandpit.

June 12 In Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court rules that prohibiting interracial marriage is unconstitutional. Sixteen states that still banned interracial marriage at the time are forced to revise their laws.

July Major race riots take place in Newark (July 12–16) and Detroit (July 23–30).

1968
April 4 (Memphis, Tenn.) Martin Luther King, at age 39, is shot as he stands on the balcony outside his hotel room. Escaped convict and committed racist James Earl Ray is convicted of the crime.

April 11 President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing.

1970

July 26 Carl Hampton, the head of People’s Party II, a self-proclaimed Houston black revolutionary organization modeled after the Black Panthers, was shot and killed in a police action near the group’s headquarters on Dowling Street. This incident occurred during the height of militant black power movement in Houston.

1971
April 20 The Supreme Court, in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, upholds busing as a legitimate means for achieving integration of public schools. Although largely unwelcome (and sometimes violently opposed) in local school districts, court-ordered busing plans in cities such as Charlotte, Boston and Denver continue until the late 1990s.

November 20 Judson Robinson, Jr. is elected to the Houston City Council. He becomes the first African American to serve in that position since Reconstruction.

1972

November 7 Barbara Jordan becomes the first African American elected to Congress from Texas.

1988
March 22 Overriding President Reagan's veto, Congress passes the Civil Rights Restoration Act, which expands the reach of non-discrimination laws within private institutions receiving federal funds.

1991
Nov 22 After two years of debates, vetoes and threatened vetoes, President George H.W. Bush reverses himself and signs the Civil Rights Act of 1991, strengthening existing civil rights laws and providing for damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination.

1992
April 29 (Los Angeles, Calif.) The first race riots in decades erupt in south-central Los Angeles after a jury acquits four white police officers for the videotaped beating of African American Rodney King.

2003
In the most important affirmative action decision since the 1978 Bakke case, the Supreme Court (5–4) upholds the University of Michigan Law School's policy, ruling that race can be one of many factors considered by colleges when selecting their students because it furthers "a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body."

2005
June 21 The ringleader of the Mississippi civil rights murders (see Aug. 4, 1964), Edgar Ray Killen, is convicted of manslaughter on the 41st anniversary of the crimes.

October 24 Rosa Parks dies at age 92.

2006
January 30 Coretta Scott King dies of a stroke at age 78.

2007
February Emmett Till's 1955 murder case, reopened by the Department of Justice in 2004, is officially closed. The two confessed murderers, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, were dead of cancer by 1994, and prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence to pursue further convictions.

May 10 James Bonard Fowler, a former state trooper, is indicted for the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson 40 years after Jackson's death. The 1965 killing lead to a series of historic civil rights protests in Selma, Ala.

From the “Civil Rights Movement Timeline." Infoplease.
(c) 2000-2008 Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease.

17-Apr-08 11:00 PM

Top 10 Can’t Miss Extramusical Attractions at Ifest

noemail@ifest.org — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:00:00 GMT

The Dean’s List
Top 10 Can’t Miss Extramusical Attractions at Ifest
By Jim Austin
President, Houston International Festival

1. Church of Lalibela: So, European colonists brought Christianity to Africa, right?… Wrong. Very wrong. Emperor Lalibela carved 12 churches out of existing mountains in Ethiopia in the 12th century. Well, maybe he had his folks do the actual carving. Anyway, we’ve created an amazing replica of the most famous of the churches to with the cultural and educational exhibits in the Chevron Living Museum.
2. You do not want to miss the National Dance Theater of Ethiopia. They are known for this reverberating movement in their heads, necks and shoulders that looks physically impossible. I don’t think it is done anywhere outside of the country. And the women are considered by three out of four academic experts to be among the most beautiful in the world. As I say, don’t miss it; it’s their North American debut, four times a day on the WaMu Center Stage at City Hall.
3. The Gullah people were isolated off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia when plantation owners abandoned them because of the malaria-carrying mosquitoes in the area. They preserved their African heritage for centuries. We’re bringing artists and craftsmen from the Gullah region and we’re erecting a Gullah stage. Storytelling, drumming, dance lessons, demonstrations and plays.
4. Have we mentioned that some people say the most beautiful women in the world are Ethiopians? Well, two previous Miss Ethiopias will be featured in a fashion show on the H-E-B Cultural Stage at 2:00 p.m. each weekend day of the Festival. I know I will be there.
5. The Rise and Shine Exhibit at the Julia Ideson library: This display of archaeological artifacts from the TSU archives will shed new light on the ways that African Americans in Texas survived the cruelties of
enslavement and its aftermath, the tenant farming/sharecropping system. Artifacts and historical documents will examine a variety of sites, including the Levi Jordan Plantation in South Texas. Literary readings will take place both Saturdays from 1-5 p.m.
6. Dr. Z New Artist of the Year: This award, named after the late Houston dentist, adventurer and longtime festival benefactor Dr. Z, is given annually to an up and coming artist or group making its iFest debut. The Carolina Chocolate Drops is a young African American trio that demonstrates the black roots of what is considered among the whitest music forms in America -- Appalachian country and bluegrass music. The group plays twice on day one, on Louisiana Stage at 3:30 and on the Gullah Stage at 6 p.m.
7. Some come to iFest for the music, some come for the culture. And some come for the food. There will be African Food on the steps of City Hall. Taste of Africa presented by Melange Catering will serve delicious specialty items like lamb bobotie, beef sosatie skewers and chicken wings peri peri. Plus a selection of Sundowners, refreshing drinks used in the African ritual that marks the passage from day to night. Yum.
8. The iFest Business Conference, Africa: Opportunities with a Social Conscience, will explore sustainable development initiatives on the African continent. Delegates will hear from top experts from the U.S. and Africa on economic development projects and social stability issues that affect Houston businesses interested in this emerging global marketplace. Sponsored by Marathon Oil on the morning of April 18. (For details, visit www.ifest.org)
9. Lunchtime concerts are back on the two Fridays, April 18 and 25. Downtown workers can take in the food, the music (by D.R.U.M. and the Zydeco Dots) and even see the great National Dance Theatre of Ethiopia. Yes, it’s free.
10. Not ready to stop the party? Join us at the official iFest 2008 After Party at Under the Volcano. The New Orleans Hustlers Brass Band -- featuring members of the Soul Rebels -- will perform. Cover charge is $5, with festival staff and volunteers wearing wristbands and/or T-shirts admitted free. Sunday, April 27, 2008, 8:00pm to closing. Under the Volcano, 2349 Bissonnet.

17-Apr-08 11:00 PM

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO PURCHASE $8.50 TICKETS

noemail@ifest.org — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Fly out the door today and get your iFest ticket for only $8.50 – at any H-E-B or buy online at www.ifest.org and print your tickets at home. Special Early Bird ticket discount through midnight today, Wednesday, April 16. Tickets will be $12.50 after today and then $15 at the gate; Target Kids Free: all children 12 and under are FREE.

Join iFest on the three amazing journeys Out of Africa! Explore mankind’s earliest roots and follow the remarkable cultural passage outward into the Caribbean and the Americas. Six entertainment zones. Hundreds of performers and arts vendors. New and improved zone for kids. iFest is an entertainment bargain that can’t be beat!

Ticket proceeds benefit the arts and education programs of the Houston Festival Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. The cornerstone of the education program is the Teacher’s Curriculum Guide, which reaches hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren throughout greater Houston. Our kids learn all about a different spotlighted country or cultural theme each year, thanks to the festival and you, our customers.

Save some moola and buy your tickets online now!

16-Apr-08 8:00 AM

Out of Africa: Roots and Branches of American Music

noemail@ifest.org — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Out of Africa
Roots and Branches of American Music
By Rick Mitchell
Director of Performing Arts
Houston International Festival

Genealogical Narrative

The urge to make music seems to be central to the human experience. All cultures have developed some form of musical expression, from the simple sound of the human voice, blowing through hollow reeds and clicking two sticks together to finely-tuned orchestral timbres and mathematically precise rhythms and meters.

But no continent is more musical than Africa, which has produced a fabulous range of musical expressions, from the rhythmically intense hand-drumming of West Africa to the mellow marimbas and kalimbas of East Africa, and from the lush vocal harmonies of South Africa to the Arabic-influenced melodies of North Africa. In many African cultures, music is not so much understood as a pleasant diversion or an elevated artistic statement, but as an essential soundtrack accompanying all daily activities.

In Latin America and the Spanish Caribbean, African musical concepts intermarried with Spanish, Portuguese and Native American musical forms and instruments to produce such 20th Century hybrids as Afro-Cuban son and rumba (grounded in religious rituals preserved from West Africa and the Congo), Puerto Rican bomba and plena, Dominican merengue, Colombian cumbia (reflecting a strong Native American flavor), Brazilian samba and many other regional variants. The Garifuna people, descendents of marooned slaves on the Caribbean coast of Central America, have maintained their own language and an almost-purely African approach to music-making for centuries. (The Garifuna Collective performs on the World Stage on 4/27.)

In the French Caribbean – and in New Orleans, essentially a Caribbean city until the early 19th Century – a similar mating took place to produce Haitian compas, Antillean zouk, the Creole inflections of Louisiana zydeco and the distinctively syncopated New Orleans parade rhythm known as “second-line.”

In the British Caribbean, the musical offspring included Jamaican mento (inspired by the sea shanties brought to the island by Irish indentured servants in the 17th and 18th centuries) and reggae (closely identified with the back-to-Africa sentiments of the Rastafarian religion), Trinidadian calypso (incorporating steel pan drums made from discarded oil barrels) and soca (“soul-calypso”), and Bahamian junkanoo.

In English-speaking North America, plantation slave owners did not permit Africans to make and play their traditional hand drums. And so the polyrhythms of West Africa were reinvented in the complex hand-clapping patterns of African-American gospel music. The ngoni, a small harp-like instrument played by West African griots (musical story-tellers and historians), was reborn as the banjo, while the griot archetype of the traveling story-teller was reincarnated as the itinerant Delta bluesman, moving from town to town with just his guitar in hand. Over the centuries, these forms evolved to produce the brilliant spectrum of African-American music in the 20th Century – ragtime, jazz, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and hip-hop – that has come to dominate the world’s popular culture.

Indeed, all North American music – including forms now most often identified with white musicians such as bluegrass, country and rock – comes out of this musical melting pot of European (especially Scots and Irish) and African ingredients. American music is, by definition, multicultural, and more often than not, the crucial innovators have been African-American. From ragtime to rap, through blues, swing, rhythm and blues and rock and roll, a clear pattern has emerged; today’s black music will become tomorrow’s “mainstream” popular music once white Americans have embraced it. (For a lesson on the dark roots of Appalachian country music, see the Carolina Chocolate Drops, performing 4/19 on the Louisiana and Gullah stages.)

Now here is where it gets even more interesting. When modern African musicians heard recordings from North and South America and the Caribbean, beginning early in the last century, they recognized the music as African-inspired, of course, but they also heard variations that did not previously exist in Africa – complex horn charts, harmonic improvisation based on the European scale, the 4/4 swing beat, and electronically-amplified instruments. And so Louis Armstrong became a hero in South Africa, giving birth to the uplifting township jazz of Hugh Masekela. James Brown became a hero in Nigeria, giving rise to the militant Afrobeat funk of Fela Kuti. The electric Delta blues of John Lee Hooker reconnected with the ancient griot tradition of Mali’s Ali Farka Touri. Brazilian bossa-nova journeyed back across the Atlantic to dance with the ancestors in Cape Verde and Angola. Caribbean calypso gave back its African DNA to Ghanian highlife. And Afro-Cuban rumba mutated into Congolese soukous, arguably the most popular pan-African style of the past 30 years.

And so we have come full circle, as the Out of Africa tree with so many New World branches has dropped seeds that have resulted in a new flowering of creativity in the music of the Motherland. This is the third journey, the journey back to Africa that has inspired such great black artists as Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, as well as great non-black artists including Brazil’s Antonio Carlos Jobim, Puerto Rico’s Eddie Palmieri and the USA’s Paul Simon. In the simple and eloquent words of Bob Marley, the music of Africa and the music of the Americas share “one love, one heart.”

What follows are some of the musical roots and branches on the Out of Africa tree, and where and when they can be found at this year’s iFest.

African Roots

The National Dance Theater of Ethiopia: Center Stage, 4/19 and 4/26, 1, 3, 5 and 7 p.m.; 4/20 and 4/27, 12:30, 2:30, 4:30 and 6:30 p.m.
Soular Grooves Sound System featuring DJ Josh Zulu (South Africa) and DJ Simiyu (Kenya); World Stage, all four days, continuous performances between live acts.
D.R.U.M.: World Stage, 4/19, 2:30 p.m.; Houston Stage, 4/19, 7:30 p.m.
Grupo de N’Golo: Gullah Stage, 4/19 and 4/26, 5 p.m.; 4/20 and 4/27, 4 p.m.
Emman Legrand: HEB Cultural Stage, 4/19, 7 p.m.
Drum Talk with Kweku and Friends: International Stage, 4/19 and 4/20, 6 p.m.
Irunmole Dance and Drum Theater: HEB Cultural Stage, 4/19, 8 p.m. and 4/20, 6 p.m
Culturally Yours (Kenya): International Stage, 4/20, 4 p.m.
Koumanke’le African Drum and Dance Lessons: Gullah Stage, 4/26, 4 p.m.
Harrison Kumi: HEB Cultural Stage, 4/26, 6 p.m.
The Zeitor African Dance Ensemble: HEB Cultural Stage, 4/26, 7 p.m.
Menwar (Mauritius): World Stage, 4/27, 1 p.m.
Habib Koite (Mali): World Stage, 4/27, 4:15 p.m.
Pan-African Finale with Hugh Masekela and Guests (South Africa): World Stage, 4/27, 7:30 p.m.

New World Branches

Afro-Caribbean

Imaniah: Gullah Stage, 4/19 and 4/20, 12 p.m.
Soular Grooves Sound System featuring DJ Sun (Suriname) and DJ Kool Emdee (Jamaica): World Stage, all four days, continuous performances between live acts.
Emeline Michel (Haiti): World Stage, 4/20, 4 p.m.
The Wailers – Songs of Bob Marley (Jamaica): World Stage, 4/20, 6:15 p.m.
Steel Vibrations: Gullah Stage, 4/26, 12 and 6 p.m.
The Garifuna Collective – A Tribute to Andy Palacio (Belize): World Stage, 4/27, 2:30 p.m.
Trenchtown Texans: Houston Stage, 4/27, 3 p.m.

Afro-Latin

Grupo Fantasma: World Stage, 4/19, 4 p.m.
Felipe Galvan y los Skarnales: Latin Stage, 4/19, 8:15 p.m.
Folklor y Ritmo de Panama: International Stage, 4/26, 2 p.m.
Joaquin Diaz (Dominican Republic): World Stage, 4/26, 2 p.m.; Latin Stage, 4/26, 6 p.m.
Grupo Capoeira Brazil: International Stage, 4/27, 3 p.m.
Mary’s Band: Latin Stage, 4/27, 2 p.m.
Grupo Batacha: Latin Stage, 4/27, 4 p.m.

Jazz

Nelson Mills’ Tribute to Cab Calloway: Cotton Club, 4/19, 2 and 6 p.m.
Gloria Edwards’ Tribute to Dinah Washington: Cotton Club, 4/19, 4 and 8 p.m.
Swing Jam with Samarabalouf and Red Stick Ramblers: Louisiana Stage, 4/19, 9 p.m.
Houston Sax Summit with Kyle Turner, Mike Reed, Kelly Dean and Cameron Scott: Houston Stage, 4/20, 6 p.m.
A Jazz and Poetry Experience: HEB Cultural Stage, 4/26 and 4/27, 12 p.m.
Barrie Lee Hall’s Tribute to Duke Ellington: Cotton Club, 4/26, 2 and 4 p.m.
Carolyn Blanchard’s Tribute to Lena Horne: Cotton Club, 4/26, 4 and 8 p.m.
Leo Polk’s Tribute to Louis Armstrong: Cotton Club, 4/27, 1:30, 3:30 and 5:30 p.m.
Taj Mahal: World Stage, 4/27, 6 p.m.

Blues

Sonny Boy Terry: Houston Stage, 4/19, 2:30 p.m.
Earl Gilliam: Houston Stage, 4/19, 4 p.m.
Little Joe Washington: Houston Stage, 4/19, 5:30 p.m.
Buddy Guy: World Stage, 4/19, 8:30 p.m.
Diunna Greenleaf’s Tribute to Bessie Smith: Cotton Club, 4/20, 1:30, 3:30 and 5:30 p.m.)
Sonny Landreth: Louisiana Stage, 4/20, 4:30 p.m.
Charlie Musselwhite: Louisiana Stage, 4/20, 6:30 p.m.
Shemekia Copeland: World Stage, 4/26, 6 p.m.
Trudy Lynn: Louisiana Stage, 4/27, 4:30 p.m.

Gospel

Shrine of the Black Madonna Choir: HEB Cultural Stage, 4/19, 9 p.m., 4/20, 7 p.m.
Expletive Deleted: HEB Cultural Stage, 4/26, 9 p.m.
Soulfruit: Louisiana Stage, 4/27, 12:30 p.m.; International Stage, 4/27, 7 p.m.
Jones Family Singers: Louisiana Stage, 4/27, 2:30 p.m.; HEB Cultural Stage, 4/27, 7 p.m.
JAWEG Young Gospel Showcase: International Stage, 4/27, 6 p.m.

Soul/Funk/R&B

The Low Rider Band – The Original Members of War: World Stage, 4/26, 4 p.m.
Tony Henry’s Tribute to Sam Cooke: HEB Cultural Stage, 4/19, 6 p.m.
Bettye LaVette: World Stage, 4/19, 6:30 p.m.
Ayo: International Stage, 4/19, 7 p.m.
Joe Lee McCoy: HEB Cultural Stage, 4/26, 8 p.m.
The Neville Brothers: World Stage, 4/26, 8:15 p.m.

Zydeco/New Orleans Brass Bands

Zydeco Dots: Houston Stage, 4/19, 1 p.m.
Voodoo Brass Band: Gullah Stage, 4/19 and 4/20, 1 p.m.
Terrance Simien: Louisiana Stage, 4/20, 12:30 p.m.; International Stage, 4/20, 7 p.m.
Trombone Shorty: Louisiana Stage, 4/20, 2:30 p.m.
The Bluerunners: Louisiana Stage, 4/26, 3:30 p.m.
Soul Rebels: Louisiana Stage, 4/26, 5:30 p.m.
Brian Jack & the Zydeco Gamblers: Louisiana Stage, 4/26, 7:45 p.m.
Step Rideau & the Zydeco Outlaws: Louisiana Stage, 4/27, 6:30 p.m.

Hip Hop

Hip Hop Poetry with Funk Bank: International Stage, 4/19 and 4/26, 8 p.m.
I-Fresh Hip Hop Fest with Bobbie Fine and Zin: International Stage, 4/19 and 4/26, 9 p.m.
Karina Nistal & the Rebel Crew: Latin Stage, 4/27, 6:15 p.m.

10-Apr-08 12:00 PM