This is one of a series of diaries I will be posting over the next week or so, introducing the artists who will be performing here in the People's Republic of Cambridge on the 24th of October. The occasion? International Climate Change Awareness Day. The concert?
It's called "Playing for the Planet."
Follow me below the flip to find out more about The Agbekor Drum and Dance Society, to hear some of their exciting music, and to get connected to what's going to be a really exciting event.
But first, a word from our sponsor:
Please participate in an event on October 24. This is as important as it will ever get.
On Saturday, October 24, six different Boston-based performers of international music and dance will join together to draw attention to the global climate crisis. Featured artists include: Balkan and European music by members of the internationally acclaimed ensemble Libana; contemporary Indian classical dance with the Aparna Sindhoor Dance Theater; Japanese classical music for koto and shakuhachi with Ayakano Cathleen Read & Elizabeth Reian Bennett; Hindustani classical music with Warren Senders and The Raga Ensemble; middle-Eastern music with Beth Bahia Cohen, and traditional drumming and dance of Ghana with the Agbekor Drum and Dance Society. The music begins at 6:30 pm, at the First Congregational Church of Cambridge, 11 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA. Tickets are $20; $15 students/seniors. All proceeds will go to the environmental organization www.350.org. For information, please go to the concert website.
The Agbekor Drum and Dance Society is a group of friends who have been studying, teaching and performing the music and dance of the Ewe tribe of Ghana, West Africa for the past three decades. Under the direction of Tufts Professor Dr. David Locke, the members of ADDS present an energetic and tightly synchronized blend of drumming, singing and dancing. While pieces like the intricate "Adzogbo" and "Yeve" are multi-part suites of extraordinary richness and complexity, "Gahu" and "Kinka" are vibrant and kinetic dance music that gets listeners up and moving.
The Agbekor Drum and Dance Society
The Director of the Agbekor Drum and Dance Society is Dr. David Locke, of Tufts University. He founded the ADDS in 1979, and since then he has taught countless young musicians the intricacies and power of Ewe musical tradition. While the members of the Society have come and gone over the years, many of the current members have been affiliated for well over two decades. Some are musicians by profession; others are teachers, painters, administrators and students, all drawn to the tightly knit, kinetically vibrant polyrhythms of this West African tribe.
I've known David for many years, and both my wife and I have learned hugely from him. For many years the Agbekor Society held its weekly rehearsals in our house, so our connection to this music is very deeply felt. Our daughter heard this music in utero, and remembers some of the songs five years later. It's an honor to have them as part of the lineup for this concert. It'll also be a blast; ADDS concerts include opportunities to move to some of the finest dance music anywhere to be found.
Several songs from the 25-part suite called "Agbadza," performed by the Agbekor Drum and Dance Society.
Please participate in an event on October 24. This is as important as it will ever get.
If you live in Massachusetts, here's a link to the Mass Climate Action Network, which gives you a full list of planned activities.
If you don't live in Massachusetts, but you know someone who does...let them know about this.
And if you can make it to "Playing for the Planet," please come up and introduce yourself. You can purchase tickets online through a link at my website.
And if you're somewhere else in the world, please go to 350.org, and either find an action in your area on October 24, or start one yourself.
For example...
You will be pleased to know that there are presently five separate 350 actions scheduled to happen in Ghana on the 24th of October. For example, meet Ghana Youth and Growing Global Warming Movement (GYGGWAM):
Ghana Youth and Growing Global Warming Movement is designed to specifically re-raise awarenees among Ghana young ones on the increasing presence of global warming, its impacts, risks and possible mitigations, GYGGWAM will equally attract the attention of Ghana Community, Local ,Regional and National Leaders for continuous action against the impacts of Global Warming in their various areas. GYGGWAM will equally lay focus on community-based sensitization about Global Warming with the view to putting the presence of Global Warming in the finger tips of every member of the Ghanain Society not only the youth, rural farmers will immensely benefit from the knowledge and information which the community-based sensitization will provide. The components of GYGGWAM will include local group rallies, speeches by selected volunteer young speakers, speeches by invited civil society and political leaders at the umbrella venue. Local program assistants shall take onward rally down their various communities where expository lectures on Global Warming will be finally delivered.
Link
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About www.350.org and the number 350:
Co-founded by environmentalist and author Bill McKibben, 350.org is the hub of a worldwide network of over two hundred environmental organizations, all with a common target: persuading the world's countries to unite in an effort to reduce global levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide to 350 parts per million or less. Climatologist Dr. James Hansen says, "If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm." (Dr. Hansen heads the NASA Institute for Space Studies in New York City, and is best known for his testimony on climate change to congressional committees in the 1980s that helped raise broad awareness of the global warming issue.) Activists involved in the 350 movement include Rajendra Pachauri (Chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), Vandana Shiva (world-renowned environmental leader and thinker), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1984 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and a global activist on issues pertaining to democracy, freedom and human rights), Van Jones, Bianca Jagger, Dr. James Hansen, Barbara Kingsolver and many more.
(complete list of "350 Messengers here)
About the Global Day of Climate Change Action on October 24th, 2009:
Here is the action page at www.350.org
Here is a discussion of the science behind the number 350.
Here is a description of the Day of Action on October 24th.
And once again, with feeling:
Please participate in an event on October 24. This is as important as it will ever get.