No Small Money Brass Band performed two awesome sets to close the night at BUKA Restaurant in Brooklyn. One of NYC’s hottest dance party sensations. Inspired by the rhythms, folk songs, highlife classics, indigenous church and big brass band music traditions of Africa and the Caribbean. No Small Money is really bringing something new to the dance floors of New York City. And folks are dancing!

The Literary Conference followed, after the panel had to be moved to wbai radio station due to technical difficulties. The panel’s theme: Root Words: A Celebration & Discussion of African Literature. Our panelists are Catherine E. McKinley, author of Indigo: In Search of the Color That Seduced the World; Tanya Wright, author of Butterfly Rising, actress (HBO series True Blood) and director; Ngozi Achebe author of Onaedo – The Blacksmith’s Daughter; FitzGerald Chinemerem Ajoku author of “Continental Drift” The African, African American Experience and Marva Allen partner and CEO of Hue-Man Bookstore and Cafe in Harlem.

The music is exhilarating. The banter between band members, the improvisation with Anthony Sloan and the play on words and songs, the restaurant bell chiming in at inordinately appropriate moments, the foot traffic and street conversations, even MTA buses and vehicular traffic contributed to this unique Brooklyn experience. Tuelo le Badimo led by Tuelo Minah truly brought down the blessings of the Ancestors to NY Afro Fest 2011.

Afrobeat band, Asiko led by Folorunso Kolade, AKA Bros Foly, opened the NY Afro Fest 2011 with a great performance at BUKA Restaurant in Brooklyn. Look for Asiko on AfrobeatRadio on WBAI soon.

On Saturday September 3rd, 2011, we were honored to have with us via telephone two African American writers, activists, and radio hosts to speak with us about the controversy surrounding the new Martin Luther King Memorial Monument now in place between the Lincoln and Washington Monuments in Washington D.C..
Our guests are Kevin Alexander Gray and Dr. Jared Ball.

Back Seat at the Drive-in
Surabstract paintings
September 8th – October 15th, 2011

The reception is on Thursday, September 8th, 6-8pm. The artist will be present.

SKOTO GALLERY 529 West 20th Street, 5FL.
New York, NY 10011 212-352 8058

September 17 to 18, 2011

BAMcinématek BAM
Peter Jay Sharp Building 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn
For Schedule/Times/Tickets: BAM.ORG

Just a few years old, Africa Fashion Week is a phenomena occurring in London and elsewhere, is part of an on-going effort to improve African trade and encourage sustainabilty, fair trade and green marketing. Enjoy Dowoti Desir’s images from the event.

Following the passing of Benoit Mandelbrot this week, Horace Campbell writes of the mathematician’s groundbreaking academic work on fractals and the concept’s historical centrality in African knowledge systems.

The soul of African music, says Atongo Zimba, lies in our traditional musical instruments. Atongo Zimba, is a master of the Koloko, a two stringed Calabash lute played in the savannahs of northern Ghana. His music, a fusion of the traditional and the modern, is rooted in this tradition.