Weekend African Music in DC #2: Internationally Known West Africa at Tropicalia

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Amkoullel, Chosan, Dumi RIght, Magee McIlvaine, Mali rap, Nomadic Wax, Tropicalia, VOA, Waterflow

Before heading over to Lux Lounge and Timaya late on Friday night, I attended an earlier show at Tropicalia.  That venue has hosted several Internationally Known hip-hop nights over the past year, and Friday’s was the first that I was able to attend.  Sahelblog and a couple of African music watchers from the VOA were also on hand, although the crowd was heartbreakingly small (come on DC!).

Upcoming African Sounds at Tropicalia on U Street

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Alliance Francaise, Amkoullel, Chosan, Leila Gobi, Mamadou Kelly, Nomadic Wax, Noura Mint Seymali, Rap in Mali, Tropicalia

Tropicalia has two upcoming shows with a wide variety of African artists that I plan to try to attend.  On September 29, the Alliance Francaise convenes artists from Mali (Mamadou Kelly and Leila Gobi) and Mauritania (Noura Mint Seymali).  I normally wouldn’t consider myself a big fan of the music of the Sahel, but watching ‘The Last Song Before the War‘ has me motivated to go to this.

Hip-Hop is more my thing, so I’m quite excited about the series that Nomadic Wax will be putting on on October 4.  I’ve been wanting to increase my knowledge of rap in Mali (which I understand has a much more thriving scene than neighboring Niger) so am quite excited about Amkoullel as well as the Sierra Leonean diaspora rapper, Chosan.  You can find full length albums by both on Spotify.

Kudos to Nomadic Wax for this series.  I posted about one installment before, but was unable to attend.

Africa in DC this Weekend: Cultural Events – Senegalese Hip-Hop and Movies

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AFI, African Movies, African Music, Nomadic Wax, Senegal hip-hop, Thiat, Tropicalia, Y'en a Marre

There are a couple of exciting cultural events going on this weekend.

Several Senegalese Rappers from the Y’en A Marre (Enough is Enough) movement that helped thwart Abdoulaye Wade’s effort for a controversial (and constitutionally questionable) third term (almost exactly a year ago) will be performing at Tropicalia on U street this Friday.

You can read about the political harassment that one of the performers faced during the Wade administration here.

Read more about the event here:

nomadicwax.org/internationally-known-hip-hop-show-case/

You can read more about the host, Nomadic Wax, and a previous interaction with the DC policy community (in this case the Wilson Center) here (with full video).

Tickets are only $7.  I’m unable to attend, but I hope to hear from those of you who do.

Also going down, from this Thursday through Tuesday, is the 9th annual New African Films Festival at the AFI Theatre in Silver Spring.  I have been to several  films at the previous two editions of this event.  So far, the Franco-Ivorian, ‘Beyond the Ocean’, stands out as a clear favorite.

More info here:

http://www.afi.com/silver/films/2013/v10i1/naff2013.aspx

Speaking of the Ivory Coast, I will take advantage of the snowquester to publish (probably tomorrow) the analytical piece on the absence of Ivorian affairs from the DC policy community that I had promised over the weekend.