DC African Events Calendar!

Event & Ticket Link - $75Honoring the essence and heritage of West Africa’s unique and diverse culture and cuisine, Kith/Kin at the InterContinental Washington D.C. – The Wharf will be transformed into a vibrant night market on Tuesday, October 1st, 2019 from 8 pm to midnight in celebration of the award-winning Afro-Caribbean restaurant’s 2-year anniversary.

The interactive and enlightening evening will be accentuated with stunning waterfront views of the Potomac River on The Wharf, delicious food, eclectic sounds featuring live music entertainment from DJ Chardabat ranging from Afrobeats and Highlife to Afro-Soul, all intertwined with live dancing and sounds from traditional Djembe & Talking Drums.

Priced at $75 per person, eight chefs from throughout the District and DC area will create their spin on classic and modern West African dishes.

Event & Ticket Link - $50 - $75

https://youtu.be/uMK0prafzw0

Venue & Ticket Link - $20
KOKOKO! is a collaboration between a Congolese collective of street musicians who have created instruments out of found objects & French producer Débruit.

Festival website - Free festival!Chopteeth Afrofunk Big Band will bring that golden age African big band sound to life, along with original material from their award-winning albums. Lots of horns, lots of fun!

FB Event Link - no cover!
Meet us at Port-au-Prince - a crossroads for those who love Haiti, her culinary and artistic offerings, as well as the arts and culture beyond her shores. Indeed, we aim to be a true "port" where the world intentionally collides! Coming up in our music series, we present to you Kameleon Beats, made up by Didier Prossaird and Hector Barez (aka "Coco").

Didier Prossaird was born in Saint Denis, France, and grew up in Paris before moving to Saint Barth’s in the Caribbean where he performed for many years with many Island bands, occasionally jamming with Jimmy Buffet. Didier first came to the US in 1995 where he resides since. His Salsa band Sin Miedo (www.sinmiedo.us) has recorded four albums and has been performing in the DC-Baltimore area, collaborating with salsa greats Tito Allen and Frankie Vasquez, touring the US and abroad with the Washington ballet and providing Salsa music for the hottest dance nights in the Capital. 

Hector “Coco” Barez . Born in Santurce, Puerto Rico in 1976, he is one of the most active musicians of the new wave of young Puerto Rican percussionists today. Coco began his musical career in 1998 performing with many different Puerto Rican folkloric groups.
He attended classes at The Music Conservatory of Puerto Rico, the LA Music Academy and The Interamerican University Of Puerto Rico but attributes his highest education to the streets of San Juan. Coco has had the opportunity to record, collaborate and perform with a wide variety of Latin and World music artist including Bio Ritmo, Alma Tropicalia, Don Omar, Bacilos, Mana, Alejandro Sanz, Shakira, Ruben Blades, William Cepeda (Puerto Rican Folk Jazz), Cultura Profetica, Calma Carmona, Diana Fuentes, Jerry Rivera, Jerry Medina & La banda, Tego Calderon (Hip-Hop), Jossette Reily (Flamenco), Furia Flamenca, to name a few.  

Didier and Coco have started playing together in 2017 and became Kameleon beats Duo. The name comes from the ability of the musicians to perform many different styles of music changing their musical color as the chameleon does to blend in his surroundings. The repertoire includes Caribbean Creole, Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, American and French music all linked with their love of improvisation.

Festival website - Free festival!
Chopteeth Afrofunk Big Band will bring that golden age African big band sound to life, along with original material from their award-winning albums. Lots of horns, lots of fun!

Venue & Ticket Link - $10
This screening is part of Multiflora Productions annual music festival series Flash of the Spirit. 
A filmed account of the Zaire 74 soul music festival, originally intended to be in concert with the famous Rumble in the Jungle bout in Kinshasa, Zaire in 1974. In 1974, music producers, Hugh Masekela and Stewart Levine worked with the boxing promoter, Don King, 
 to create a music festival in Africa to run concurrently with his championship boxing match he arranged with Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, aka "The Rumble in the Jungle," in Kinshasa, Zaire. However, due to an unforeseen delay due to Foreman injuring himself
 in training, it was decided that the music festival must still go on as scheduled. This film covers the preparation of that festival with both stage construction and the arrival of the participating musicians. When all is ready, the people of Zaire got to experience a musical event that Africa had never seen before with great African-American and local artists performing with verve and purpose, with the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, just the biggest star of this musical extravaganza.

Venue & Ticket Link - $39.50 +fees
Wale is one of the most idiosyncratic talents in hip-hop after unleashing his distinct mixtapes in 2005, with his debut album, “ATTENTION DEFECIT,” arriving in 2009. After signing with Rick Ross’ Maybach Music Group imprint in 2011, he released his breakthrough, now Gold-certified sophomore album, “AMBITION” – which spawned the Grammy-nominated, Platinum-certified hit single “Lotus Flower Bomb (feat. Miguel)” – followed by 2013’s Gold-certified album “THE GIFTED,” which debuted atop Billboard’s “Top 200 Albums” chart and features the 2X Platinum-certified single “Bad (feat. Tiara Thomas).” Wale released his fourth studio album, “THE ALBUM ABOUT NOTHING,” his collaborative album with legendary comedian Jerry Seinfeld, in March of 2015, becoming his most eclectic, entertaining and personal album to date.

Most recently, Wale partook in several high profile events at The White House, including First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Reach Higher” initiative for higher education, as well as becoming the first rapper to open the State Of The Union, performing right before President Obama’s final State Of The Union Address.

Ticket Link - $20
Multiflora Productions annual Flash of the Spirit festival music series presents the mythical Haitian voodoo roots rock legends RAM in Washington DC!

If you made your way to Hotel Oloffson in Port-au-Prince almost any Thursday over the last 25 years, you would have been greeted by the raw and powerful music of RAM-ancient folkloric polyrhythms intertwining harmoniously with punk rock guitar riffs and swinging Caribbean melodies. It is at these now legendary sweat-drenched gigs where RAM established themselves at torchbearers of a voodoo rock sound.

Firmly rooted in a city that has seen much political upheaval, RAM has been a target of regime censorship, and has continued to be a voice for the people of Haiti throughout upheaval and change. One of the prominent bands in the mizik rasin musical movement, the band incorporates traditional vodou lyrics and instruments, such as rara horns into modern styles. The band performs in Haitian Creole, French, and English.

In 2018 RAM partnered with Arcade Fire for performances, recordings, and to parade in New Orleans as part of Arcade Fire’s Krewe du Kanaval.

Rasin is a musical style that began in Haiti in the 1970s when musicians began combining elements of traditional Haitian Vodou ceremonial and folkloric music with rock and roll. This style of modern music reaching back to the roots of Vodou tradition came to be called mizik rasin (“roots music”) in Haitian Creole or musique racine in French. In context, the movement is often referred to simply as “rasin” or “racine.”

Venue Link - $10
This concert is part of Multiflora Productions annual music festival series Flash of the Spirit. A Washington DC native, Uasuf Gueye blends hip hop, r&b, jazz, rock, and West African Manding music all played on traditional West African instruments. Come to Bossa in Adams Morgan, D.C. and enjoy the robust grooves of Uasuf Gueye accompanied by the highly talented and versatile musicians in the Urban Virtuosos band. The unique and soulful sounds will inspire a captivating and enjoyable experience.

Venue & Ticket Link - $20Chopteeth is a 12-piece Afrofunk orchestra exploring the common groove between the funkiest, most hip-shakin’ West African and American popular music on the planet.

The core of the Chopteeth sound is Afrobeat: a big-band funk invented by Fela Kuti in 1970’s Nigeria. Afrobeat is a spicy stew of modern jazz, Yoruba tribal music and burning, James Brown-inspired rhythms.

Chopteeth’s sets feature original compositions along with updates of African dance classics, all while remaining true to the spirit of the music and its message. Band members step to the mic to serve up lyrics in a total of seven different languages.

Chopteeth, the "Crazy Fools of Afrobeat", called for rhythmic regime change on the band's award-winnnig 2008 debut CD, with its dynamic original songs. And in 2010, the band's live CD unleashed the power of Africa's Golden Age, featuring choice selections from Ghana, Senegal, Congo, Guinea, and Nigeria.

Ticket Link - $10
[Part of Multiflora Productions annual Flash of the Spirit music festival series that culminates with a special live appearance of W.I.T.C.H. at Union Stage on Oct. 21!]
WITCH (We Intend To Cause Havoc) were the biggest rock band in Zambia in the 1970s and spearheaded a new genre dubbed Zamrock, fusing influences that ranged from the Rolling Stones to Black Sabbath and James Brown and mixing them with traditional African rhythms and bush village songs. At the peak of their popularity, the band often needed police to keep fans at bay while their lead singer Jagari – whose name is an Africanisation of Mick Jagger’s – riled up crowds by stage diving from balconies and dancing manically as the WITCH’s blend of psychedelic rock and African rhythms permeated the surrounding atmosphere.

Venue & Ticket Link - $29.50
VIEUX FARKA TOURE & BOMBINO “Sons of Sahara Tour” -All Standing In The Flex Stage!

Doors 6pm, Showtime 7:30pm

Facebook Event PageBorn in Lome, Togo, DOGO played in different bands in the Togolese capital before acting as the leader of the band of the University in Lome. DOGO moved to the United States and founded the DC-based Afrofunk band Elikeh. Known for their high energy live performances and original material, Elikeh released 3 albums and an EP that received rave reviews by The Washington Post, National Public Radio, World Music Central...

Currently spending more time in his native country, DOGO released 4 singles since 2017 that have been on many radio charts in Togo prompting radio hosts and journalists to proclaim DOGO. "L'enfant du pays" (The native son). His first album will be released early 2020. Be the first to listen to the songs!

Venue & Ticket Link - $20
This concert is part of Multiflora Productions annual multicultural music festival series Flash of the Spirit. Witch was a Zamrock band formed in the 1970s. Widely seen as the most popular Zambian band of the 1970s, 
W.I.T.C.H. (an acronym for "We Intend To Cause Havoc") 
 were formed during Zambia's golden post-independence days, and were headed by lead vocalist Emanuel "Jagari" Chanda. With the economy collapsing in the late-1970s, and increasing government authoritarianism, Witch, like most Zamrock bands, were reduced to playing daytime shows to avoid the curfews, and faded away. This prompted Jaggari to leave the band and pursue his career as a teacher. The Witch Band later recruited Patrick Chisembele and Christine Jackson as lead vocalists. This was the time the band switched from rock to disco music. After the departure of Patrick Chisembele and Christine Jackson, the witch further switched to the Zambian traditional music, Kalindula led by Chris Mbewe. Under this genre, they recorded hit tracks such as Janet, Nazingwa among others.