Baati Linguere is taking a back-seat today to allow us get a very important message through. Linguere is excited to share this great news with her faithful readers. I got selected together with a colleague and friend, Aisha Keita to represent The Gambia and Morocco at the MILEAD Institute 2012! The main (but definitely not the only) reason for sharing this is to ask for support to get through with our dreams of getting equipped with enough skills to change lives around the world.
Damaso pulled away from his mother’s clutches, and ran towards a shaggy little doll that would later be labeled ‘fetish’ by Marian, his Italian grandmother. The shaggy doll rolled over his tiny toes as they touched the edge of the waves that washed the doll ashore, scaring and mesmerizing him simultaneously. He withdrew his toes from underneath the foreign object, stepped back and carefully eyed it before deciding to pick it up for further investigation.
The drums roared and the crowd cheered, some clapping and some waving their hands in the air as the wrestlers danced rhythmically in a rather captivating fashion to the sound of music that heavily saturated the atmosphere; making it tense and electric, even though, the actual event had not started yet .As the drummers beat their drums furiously with dexterity, one could tell of their mastery, on the art of drumming.
I have to admit I have never heard reggae sung in Wolof so this was quite refreshing. Sun Sooley born Jules Souleymane Ba ( Dakar , February 1st 1973 ) is a reggae artist who hails from Senegal. I really like him and I've also watched a video of him performing live. He's got a lot of energy and awesome stage presence. Galsen chi kanam!
I can't tell you how much this moved me. I was on my early morning YouTube gigs and came across this video. It features a 19 year old Gambian boy called Mohammed living with AIDS. When I was 19, I was an Mtv junkie. This young man has courage, wisdom, enormous drive and I wish him all the good things life has to offer. Truly inspirational.
Boxing Kitten is simply amazing. It's a clothing line with deep rooted African inspirations designed by Maya Lake.
Maya Amina Lake was born in Brooklyn, NY. She grew up in New Jersey and has a B.A. in African-American studies from Wesleyan University. Lake is a self taught designer and entrepreneur. The majority of textiles used by Boxing Kitten are Ankara fabrics which are 100% cotton veritable wax hollandais prints.
Lately, I've taken a great interest in the African art scene. There is enormous talent in Senegal. I keep smiling as I make new discoveries. I can give you a million and one reasons why the Mona Lisa bores me but that's another post. I'm here to support my people and my continent. African art speaks to me more than anything.
I came across Moulaye Niang today. A very talented jewelry designer and painter who makes his own glass beads. Just breathtaking.
-He was born in Senegal and studied glassmaking at the Abate Zanetti Glass School in Murano,Venice (Italy).
"My project is called Muranero, which is a mix between Murano and 'nero', that means 'black' in Italian.
Quite a morning I've had. I woke up earlier than usual, probably because I went to bed early last night and I wasn't feeling too good. Like any regular day, I reached for my laptop and the first thing I did was look up Cesaria Evora just like I did yesterday. I've been a fan for over 5 years now. Today, my heart was longing for some morna. In case you aren't familiar with morna, it is one of the musical genres in Cape Verde and sounds very different from Cabo or Kizomba. Morna is similar to the Afro Cuban salsa scene and Evora is responsible for bringing it mainstream. After I got done listening to her, I figured I'll listen to some good ole Buena Vista Social Club. If you guessed "Chan Chan" , you got it right! lol That was the first song I played and I put it on repeat until I got sated. Then a quick thought occurred to me.
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