sponsored in part by Yeredon Center for the Malian Arts

The Rhythm of Change Festival, which runs March 2-4 at Brown University, brings together international artists, musicians, dancers, social activists, scholars, and students for an action-packed weekend of performances, lectures, and workshops to explore how the arts can play an instrumental role in social change and cultural understanding in Africa and its diaspora. 

Classes in djembe and doun-doun drumming, West African dance and African song, yoga and meditation; workshops in music and activism, lectures about cultural preservation, dialogues about the arts' global impact, and more!

Festival guests include SIDY MAIGA, SEYDOU COULIBALY, MOUSSA TRAORE, JOH CAMARA, SOLO SANA, LACINA COULIBALY, EMILY COATES (Yale), MICHELLE BACH-COULIBALY (Brown), CHERIE RIVERS (Harvard), TOM RICCIO (University of Texas, Dallas), JENNIFER COATES (Tufts), MATT GARZA (NYU), THOMAS COBURN (Brown/Nuropa Institute)  and introducing international Malian visitors SALI SOUMARE, DJIBRIL COULIBALY and ALHASSANE SISSOKO.Tickets, Festival Schedule, and More Information:http://rhythmofchange2012.blogspot.com

_Our own Sali Soumare, Djibi Coulibaly, and Alhassane Sissoko have been invited to Brown University for their Rhythm of Change Festival which examines arts and social change in Africa and its diaspora.  They're still waiting on visas, but keep your fingers crossed and pencil your calendars!!  March 2-4, all workshops, events, and performances open to the public.  

Some more videos to check out on YouTube:  our welcome ceremony for this year's summer visitors, and Mbakan (of Troupe District du Bamako) teaching visitors 'Fuladugu':

We just uploaded DANSA (traditional dance from the Kayes region) and WOLOSODON [Jondon] (originating from the Mande class of Woloso/Jon - the household slaves).  Both taught my Sali Soumare.

On September 22, 1960, Mali won its independence from France.  Happy 51 years! 

Malians are celebrating today by opening a third bridge in Bamako, a gift from the Chinese government, and lucky for us it's in Sotuba, right on our side of town.  Meaning we won't be strangers to "derriere-fleuve" anymore (the other side of the river), and class participants living over in Badalabougou, Yirimadjo, Sogoniko etc etc etc will have their trip cut in half.  Thanks, China.

Check out a celebratory video for independence day, made with footage from Yeredon by our assistant, Sophie, here.

We are sad to announce that our beloved composer and lyricist Jony Sissoko passed away yesterday morning. We are incredibly grateful for the time he spent with all of us this summer, and for his amazing contributions to the development of Malian music. He believed in the artist's power to incite change, and we hope that work will live on.
Ala ka hin'a la.

Listen to Jony singing one of his final compositions, about malnutrition, which he composed for our conference this summer, here.

Make sure to listen to this great piece on Mali via the BBC.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0145563

Yeredon just invested in a huge canister for the roof so that the house manages water better.  Firstly, it saves energy by using gravity to deliver water to all floors of the house, instead of pushing upwards from ground level.  Secondly, water cuts in the house will become infrequent because the canister holds a huge backup supply!  Hooray for fewer bucket showers!

The end of Ramadan and the Selifitini fête means the artists are back to work in Bamako!  Yeredon will be holding open classes in traditional dance with a rotation of teachers.  Open classes are 5000CFA for 1 hour with live djembe accompaniment on Tuesday and Saturday evenings from 17h30 - 19h00.  If you are in Bamako and would like to arrange a private or group class at a different time, just give Seydou a call at +223 75 13 72 21.

This week we were excited to have Adjaratou Savadogo, a contemporary and traditional dancer from Burkina Faso, stay at the house.  While she was learning Malian dance from Sali, Seydou, and Alhassane, she also gave our teachers a few master classes on traditional Burkina dance.  Our teachers were all sore the next day!  Thank you Adjaratou!