NUBIAN KNIGHTS NETWORK: 5/1/12

QUOTATIONS OF "BLACK"

"Whenever I use BLACK it relates to some history of Africans in that particular place. It’s the idea of the color BLACK as a metaphor, or as a representation of African-Americans. It’s the notion of BLACK- BLACKNESS - and all its other meanings in relation to the history of race..."

- Fred Wilson

"Most of my fortitude to continue doing the work comes from the moral outrage I feel about the injustices that Black people endure disproportionately daily."

- N. Abdul-Wakil

"In the end, what matters is not skin shade but pan-African consciousness. Loving your complexion, your nose, lips, hair length and texture, no matter what the politics or trends decide, and simply be. That's the problem with us (African folks). We're still learning how to love ourselves. So used to glorifying others and putting others first..."

- Dredlocks Tree

Thursday, May 31, 2012

The 41st Annual International African Arts Festival: "BAADENYYA" (Since 1971)
June 30th - July 4th, 2012
9AM - 9PM Daily (Rain or Shine)
Bklyn, NYC

WOW! This is so historic! Can you believe this awesome Africentric event had first started in 1971???

"BAADENYYA" in the African Swahili language means "Brotherhood & Sisterhood" and it is so INCREDIBLE that International African Arts Festival has endured the test of time.

- ROD

Official Website: iaafestival.org

Click To Enlarge

The 41st Annual International African Arts Festival will take place during Saturday, June 30th thru Wednesday, July 4th, 2012 at Commodore Barry Park (Navy Street, between Park and Flushing Avenues, on the border between Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene) rain or shine.

The 5-day annual arts and crafts festival includes an African Marketplace, dance and music performances, and fashion shows. The festival is dedicated to the preservation of art forms, traditions, and cultures of Africa and its diaspora.

For more information, visit: www.iaafestival.org or connect on Facebook.

About The International African Arts Festival...

The International African Arts Festival began in 1971 as the African Street Carnival, a PTA’s block party fundraiser for an independent school in Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn with local entertainers, about 20 arts and crafts vendors, along with food prepared by the parents. Almost 2,000 people came to the event and it was a success. The International African Arts Festival (IAAF) has been part of the Brooklyn’s cultural landscape for 40 years. Each year a committed team of Board members, consultants, part-time seasonal staff and volunteers, work together to transform a city park into an outdoor African cultural oasis that celebrates traditional and contemporary expression of various African cultural art forms.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

THPAC's 36th Season
SOULS OF OUR FEET:
PEOPLE OF COLOR DANCE FESTIVAL
June 17th, 19th, & 20th, 2012 @ 7:00PM
Kumble Theater in Bklyn (NYC)

Official Website:
Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center

Click To Enlarge

THELMA HILL PERFORMING ARTS CENTER (THPAC)

Presents

The 36th Season (2012)

SOULS OF OUR FEET:
PEOPLE OF COLOR DANCE FESTIVAL
With A Special Re-Creation Of "Tilt" By George Faison

The 36th Season (2012) Runs

June 17th, 19th & 20th, 2012
At The Kumble Theater
At Long Island University, Brooklyn
7:00PM

BUY TICKETS (Kumble Theater)

(May 15, 2012 – New York) – Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center (THPAC), in association with the Kumble Theater at LIU Brooklyn celebrates its 36th season of astounding performances with the Souls of Our Feet: People of Color Dance Festival June 17 at 7pm, and June 19, 20 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $15/$12 (students and seniors) and may be purchased at the Kumble Theater box office, 718-488-1624, and online at www.kumbletheater.org. Special ticket sale price of $10 before June 17.

The Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center is proud to announce a special re-creation of Tilt by renowned Tony and Emmy Award winning choreographer and director George Faison. Originally choreographed for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1975 Tilt foreshadowed the end of pinball machines and the coming age of video games. The work features the music of Labelle and Ashford & Simpson. This revival for THPAC will introduce a whole new audience to this masterwork.

The season will also include choreographer and former Hamburg Ballet principal dancer Francesca Harper, rising dance powerhouse Sidra Bell; three emerging “Dance Sons of Brooklyn” Germaul Barnes/Viewsic Expressions Dance, Malcolm Low & Jamal Jackson Dance Company; the fast-rising dance company from Philadelphia, Danse4Nia Repertory Ensemble; and making their first time appearance in THPAC series DANCE IQUAIL. THPAC's annual dance festival has become the must-see dance event not only for Brooklyn dance enthusiasts, but also for the entire city. The anxiously anticipated festival has earned a reputation for showcasing established, emerging and new choreographers and dance companies.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

About Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center (THPAC)...
The Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center (THPAC) was founded 36 years ago to support the creative ideas of choreographers and dance companies of color. Our mission is to offer performance opportunities to artists so they can share their work with diverse communities, furnish rehearsal and "incubation" space for choreographers and dancers, and serve as a bridge between artists and the community.

Over the years, THPAC has supported and attracted emerging and established dance artists of color who seek out the organization’s experimental, yet historically aware environment. THPAC has become a viable institution for communities that have traditionally celebrated and reflected on their social and cultural issues through the rituals of music, dance, literature, and performance.

THPAC’s founder Larry Phillips began working as a dance therapist in Brooklyn at a community center that sponsored children's education and support programs for single parents attending New York Technical College. The programs were the forerunner of THPAC. In 1977, he renamed the organization after his deceased but renowned and highly influential teacher, Thelma Hill. Ms. Hill is remembered as a positive force in the dance world of New York City and beyond. She also danced with the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater and the historically significant New York Negro Ballet Company. She was a member of the dance faculty at the American Dance Festival and devoted herself to teaching dance most notably at the Clark Center. She died tragically in a fire in November 1977 but her passion in nurturing talent lives on in the organization that proudly bears her name. For more information visit http://www.thelmahill.com/

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

About Alex Smith

Alex Smith was appointed Executive Director by the THPAC board in 1995 and later Executive Chairman. Under his tutelage and passionate commitment over 150 artists have been presented in performance including Ron Brown, Valerie Winborne, George Faison, Louis Johnson, Marlies Yearby, and Fred Benjamin, seven new programming formats have been added, and THPAC’s annual Life Time Achievement Awards, whose recipients include Louis Johnson, George Faison, Ella Thompson Moore, Dianne McIntrye, Fred Benjamin, and Kathy Grant and Dudley Williams, were established.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Watch “Nhojj – MUSIC and the Word”

Nhojj – MUSIC and the Word chronicles homosexual indie singer-songwriter Nhojj in preparation for the landmark “Out & Proud” Brooklyn Museum First Saturday concert. Through interviews, rehearsal and performance footage, the 16 minute short elaborates on the power of music, and the positive messages behind the lyrics of his songs.