African Film Festival!
Aug 7, 2008 2:37 pm
This weekend on Governors Island the African Film Festival (AFF) is hosting a Family Day Celebration. The activities begin at noon and continue until 6:00 PM this Saturday the 9th. The events seek to promote knowledge and understanding of African culture through interaction, activities, and film. The AFF will celebrate African culture through the voices and viewpoints of Africans themselves. There will be Afro-Brazilian dance classes from 1:30 to 2:30 (led by dancer Quenia Ribero and the drumming group Afro Brazilian Drummers), Senegalese Sabar dance classes from 2:30 to 3:45 (led by Babacar M’baye and Sing Sing Rhythm), Guinean dance classes from 4:00 to 5:15 (led by Mamady Sano and Les Merveilles de Guinea). All of the dancers and musicians are world renown. From 1:00 to 3:00 there will be needle art led by Michelle Bishop, who founded Harlem Needle Arts (HNA), and is looking to foster and preserve art-forms traditionally used in the African culture. Between 2:00 and 6:00, insightful and inspiring films will be played through out the day in Our Lady of the Sea Chapel. Both storytelling and double-dutch will happen from 3:00 to 4:00. Malika Leigh Whitney is a story teller, educator, author broadcaster and director of the double dutch and jump rope training program. Accompanied by a musician, she will be celebrating the richness of storytelling from the African Diaspora with engaging and inspiring stories that will be sure to touch everyone. Throughout the day, the African Film Festival will be serving African inspired cuisine. Chef Abdul Traore will be dishing out Korhogo 126 (which was inspired by the words: dream, food and relax). Chef Traore is from the Ivory Coast – which will be evident when you taste his West African dishes! Chef Charmain Sithappah will be serving his ‘Seasoned Pot’ that combines the flavors of the East and South, and could only be hailed from South Africa. All events (aside from the short films, which will be in Our Lady of the Sea Chapel) will be in Colonels Row. So come out this weekend and explore the culture of Africa. Everyone is welcome!