Tom Dent Congo Square Symposium - Congo Square: Crossroads of the Afro-Atlantic World. The symposium is free and open to the public, takes place at the Jazz & Heritage Center (1225 N. Rampart Street), from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. The event is presented by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation as a part of the Foundation’s Tom Dent Congo Square Lecture Series. The final hour of the symposium will feature a drum workshop and a cocktail reception.
It is going to be spectacular! I know the presenters, and they are brilliant, just starting with Dr. Robert Farris Thompson a/k/a Master T, Vaquero his own self, Alex LaSalle and many more. Appropriate langniappe, Dr. Henry Drewel, a Yoruba cultural historian and specialist, is in New Orleans for something else, and will be attending. This another of these events in which the members of the audience will be as brilliant and informed as the presenters.
The Schedule and description of the topics are here on the Jazz & Heritage website.
The day following the symposium, the Jazz & Heritage Foundation will present the third annual Congo Square Rhythms Festival in nearby Armstrong Park. The festival is free and open to the public. It will feature music, food and a large crafts area. Performers include Ensemble Fatien (featuring Ivorian multi-instrumentalist Seguenon Kone, Dr. Michael White, Sunpie Barnes and others), the Kumbuka African Dance Ensemble and many more.
Last night Vaquero presented his New Orleans premiere performance of "Kiss You Down South" at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Then, dinner, at a French restaurant on Magazine. This afternoon, it's a lecture to a music class at Tulane.
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The Congo Square Symposium was a terrific success.
Vaquero's described it in one of Da List's mailings:
"the congo square mini-conference yesterday was off the hook. there was an overflow crowd at the former funeral home that now houses jazz and heritage
on rampart street. people were excited to get to hear Master T, and i mean robert farris thompson, in action. T was in new orleans for the first time in quite some years and did not disappoint. we had three visiting scholars (me, T, and alex lasalle, who is, in T's, words, an elder disguised as a 30-year-old) and a panel with four new orleanians, one of whom, herreast harrison, was interviewed by T, in a conversation that covered everything from the merits of garden-grown peppergrass to the spiritual transforming power of the wall of feathers. alex lasalle is a drummer and musicologist who knows perhaps 600 bombas, and my talk referenced things i've learned from him so extensively that it made sense to have him there to explain in
his own words and demonstrate. afterwards there was a drum jam with alex, luther gray, uganda roberts, and other new orleanian skin-smackers. but the best part of the conference -- and this is how you can tell when it's a good
conference -- was the public. we had good presenters, but in an empty room it would have meant nothing. it was the people that made it rock, and we had a marvelous collection of heads. today's my chill day, and i'm gonna spend it at the congo square rhythms festival, where alex is helping kick off the drum circle in half an hour."
Jennifer from the Community Book Ctr, is at the jam. She's selling three books, all three are Vaquero's. She brought cartons of the books!
The concert at NOMA also went off very well.
Love C.
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