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Music Africa is holding a SUPPORT AFROFEST concert featuring a loaded line-up of four top African music acts:

The Resolutionaries Marimba Band (Zimbabwe), Donné Roberts (Madagascar), Ruth Mathiang (Sudan), and Afrafranto (Ghana). With many other special guests.

The concert takes place at the Centre for Culture and Arts, 918 Bathurst Street (two blocks north of Bloor Street). Spring into Afrofest and show your support for Afrofest 2011 at the same time.

Some of the details still need to be worked out with the City of Toronto, but Music Africa is confident Afrofest 2011 on July 9th and 10th will take place at Queen's Park. When the details are resolved (e.g. the costs of policing for road closures) we look forward to the biggest Afrofest yet. Music Africa has suggested additional measures that will ensure Queen's Park is left in the best possible shape.

At the April 22nd event Music Africa will be announcing many of the artists who will perform at Afrofest 2011. In addition, all fans attending the Support Afrofest concert will receive free one-year memberships to Music Africa.  It will enable members to be kept informed on any developments, and to readily give input in any process to explore venues for the future.

FOUR GREAT ACTS, ONE GREAT CONCERT

The Support Afrofest concert goes on Good Friday, April 22.
At the Centre for Culture and Arts, 918 Bathurst Street (two blocks north of Bloor Street; near Bathurst subway).

Doors open at 7 pm, performances begin at 8 pm. Tickets $20 at the door.

info@musicafrica.org or afrofest@musicafrica.org

Music Africa is delighted to team with HotDocs in co-presenting the Canadian premiere of a documentary about one of the most remarkable vocalists in the history of Afropop.

"Mama Africa" is an affectionate biography of the legendary South African singer-activist Miriam Makeba. The documentary shows her poverty-ridden childhood, her early success as a vocalist in an all-woman's group, and her early flowering of international success in Europe and the United States. On television she wore no makeup and refused to curl her hair, a style that would come to be known internationally as the ‘Afro look’.

In 1963 she testified against apartheid before the United Nations, it resulted in South African authorities refusing to allow her to return to her native country. Makeba lived as an exile for the next 27 years, in the United States, Guinea and Europe. (Her 1968 marriage to black power activist Stokely Carmichael resulted in the cancellation of her American record deals and tours.) "Mama Africa" shows Makeba’s undaunted dedication throughout those years to both her political activism and her music, the costs and tragedies they entailed, and, in later life, the rewards for her efforts – She returned to liberated South Africa in 1990, where her work received renewed acclaim and a great many international honours.

Rich in details, anecdotes and archival footage (on Makeba’s political commitments, her marriages, and her musical collaborations – with Harry Belafonte, Dizzy Gillespie and Paul Simon, to name just a few superstars she performed with), “Mama Africa” honours a legendary voice, a natural beauty, a passionate activist for justice, and a woman whose moral conviction never wavered.

www.hotdocs.ca/film/title/mama_africa

HotDocs is an annual 10-day festival, held each spring in Toronto, showcasing 190+ international documentaries.

There are three screenings of “Mama Africa”:

Sat, April 30, 6:15 pm (Bloor Theatre, 506 Bloor Street West)
Sun, May 1, 6:30 pm (Tiff Bell Lightbox, 350 King Street West)
Sun, May 8, 1:30 pm (Isabel Bader Theatre, 93 Charles Street West)

Tickets $14 each; Daytime screenings free, subject to availability, to students and seniors

HotDocs box office at 131 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Telephone orders 416-637-5150
http://www.hotdocs.ca/festival/online_box_office/#hdtickets