Caribbean-themed Performance “Rhythms Of Africa/Music Around The World” Returns To Broward

FT. LAUDERDALE – Following its January 2013 performance to a capacity crowd at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center, Rhythms of Africa/Music Around the World returns to Broward County on Sunday, October 27, 4 PM, for a 90-minute performance at Bailey Hall.

Once more, “Reggae Ambassador” Willie Stewart, former lead percussionist and co-director of the international group Third World, will demonstrate the transformative power of music, showcasing the talents of 35 at-risk youth from Broward’s HANDY program. With just 21 hours of intense instruction, Rhythms of Africa shapes musical novices into a polished percussion ensemble to perform on stage accompanied by 15 international professional artists in a 90 minute unforgettable pulse-pounding performance.

Rhythms of Africa is a musical journey that describes the movement of ancient rhythms sprung from the souls of vibrant cultures and carried by hand and heart from Africa to the Caribbean, South America, and the New World. It is truly the rhythms of the Diaspora, seasoned by time, cultivated and rooted by generations of pilgrims. With this presentation by HANDY’s teenagers, another generation embarks on this historic journey.

Workshops will incorporate two additional teaching artists—Lu Welters of Jubilee Dance Theatre and Mootchie Alcin of Chie Moo Arts—to integrate choreographed dance movement and drama to complement both educational and performance components.

The program is a presentation of Embrace Music Foundation, a Broward-based non-profit corporation with a mission to is to restore, preserve, and fortify the impact of music — education, appreciation, and performance — in schools and communities, and to amplify its role in the development of children and families.

Opportunities to support the Foundation and this program begin with a visit to Power2Give:
http://power2give.org/Broward/Project/Detail?projectId=2224
where tax-deductible contributions are matched 1:1 by the Knight Foundation.

“People who watch these kids during the workshops see their incredible development, so that in no time at all, when the performance comes around, their whole lives have changed for the better,” Willie Stewart notes. “So Embrace Music Foundation puts to you this question– If with music we can make this change in just 21 hours, what could we do in a year? Two years? Five years? It’s all about the music. It’s all about the children.”