Saturday, February 15th and Sunday, February 16th, 2020
Doors open at 8.00PM. Showtime starts at 8:30PM.
This very special edition of Salon Africana at The Africa Center in 2020 will feature performances by Salon Africana founder and artist Somi. She will be joined by Otis Brown III (drums), Toru Dodo (piano), Liberty Ellman (guitar), and Keith Witty (drums).
The Africa Center is in partnership with the boutique cultural agency Salon Africana to co-produce a live music series, also called Salon Africana.
ABOUT SOMI Acclaimed vocalist and writer Somi was born in Illinois to immigrants from Uganda and Rwanda. She is known for her wide-ranging vocal technique, her original blend of modern jazz with African musics, and the innate poetry of her songwriting that often gives voice to issues of social justice, transnationalism, womanhood, and global constructions of Blackness. Her latest recording, Petite Afrique (Sony), which won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album, is a timely song cycle about the dignity of immigrants and the gentrification of Harlem’s vibrant West African quarter. Her previous album and major label debut, The Lagos Music Salon (Sony) debuted at #1 on international and U.S. jazz charts. Guest collaborators on her albums include Common, Angelique Kidjo, Hugh Masekela, and Aloe Blacc. Somi is a TED Senior Fellow, USA Doris Duke Fellow, a 2018 Soros Equality Fellow, and a Sundance Theater Fellow. Most recently, has been developing a modern jazz play called “Dreaming Zenzile” that she wrote about legendary singer-activist Miriam Makeba; the play will premiere in Spring 2020.