by Howard Campbell
SOUTH FLORIDA – Ladies will be in the spotlight on March 16-17 during the 11th Rhythms Of Africa which takes place at Miramar Cultural Center. Dubbed ‘Strength Of A Woman’, it has Etana and Alison Hinds as headliners.
With March designated as Women’s History Month, the event’s founder Willie Stewart said it is appropriate the show has a gender theme. He also believes strongly in saluting achievers before they die.
“We must give people due respect when they are alive and not gone. It takes nothing to big up our great female artists as it is an honor to do so,” the veteran drummer told South Florida Caribbean News.
Performers are expected to perform songs made famous by Caribbean female acts over the years. Etana, a leader of the neo-reggae movement in Jamaica, and Barbadian Hinds, a standard-bearer for soca for over 25 years, will lead the way. Dwisdom from Jamaica, best known for the 1991 ballad, My First Real Love, will also perform.
Last August, Caribbean music lost Trinidadian soca star Denyse Plummer, who helped push women to the forefront of that genre which exploded in her homeland during the early 1980s.
Rhythms Of Africa will also salute the contributions of Ibo Cooper, keyboardist and co-founder of Jamaican band Third World, who died in Jamaica last October.
Stewart was a member of Third World for 21 years, and a close friend of Cooper.
The London-born Stewart first staged Rhythms Of Africa in 2010. Since its inception, the show has featured students from the Broward County school system, whom he has tutored.
