What does it mean to say Africa to the world (as it pertains to African music)? What is African poetry and what does performance poetry look like on the continent? Exploring the influence of music and poetry on shaping perceptions, this panel discussion engages with artists, poets, and cultural critics. It delves into the power of lyrics and verse in challenging or reinforcing narratives about Africa. The conversation will emphasize the role of musicians and poets in advocating for nuanced storytelling, and cultural pride, and dispelling common misconceptions.
This event is part of the Speaker Series, a yearly assortment of panels, with professionals and experts in different fields, held by Columbia University’s African Development Group to unpack and discuss important topics regarding the African continent.
Columbia Global Center Tunis is a partner in the 2024 series which will be exploring the theme “African Narratives”. How is Africa represented in mainstream media? Whose responsibility is it to curate these narratives? And what do these narratives perpetuate?
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Speakers:
Yacine Boulares is a French-Tunisian saxophonist and composer based in Brooklyn. After graduating from the Paris National Conservatory Yacine moved to New York on a Fulbright scholarship in 2009 to attend the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music where he was exposed to a myriad of different music. Soon after that, he started touring with Fela Kuti's ex-drummer Jojo Kuo and Haitian Kompa legends Tabou Combo and found a deep echo of his Tunisian roots in their music. These influences urged him to seek his own identity and his explorations of North & West African rhythms which led to the creation of AJOYO, a mystic brew of African tradition, jazz, and soul. Yacine composed the music and lyrics of two albums that celebrate life, love, and justice. (2015&2020) In 2014, he became part of Placido Domingo’s Encanto Del Mar (Sony Classical). This is where he met cellist Vincent Segal and began to explore the forgotten Tunisian Stambeli repertoire with drummer Nasheet Waits. In 2015, Abu Sadiya was granted the French American Jazz Exchange grant, the Arab Fund for the Arts and Culture as well as the Brooklyn Arts Fund (2016 & 2018). The album was released in 2017 and hailed by Le Monde as “a glittering instrumental suite, all fluidity and golden colors”. The trio performed at Jazzahead in 2017 and their US tours included both the Lincoln Center and the Jazz Gallery. In 2019, Yacine was selected to be a part of the prestigious Joe’s Pub Working Group to develop his newest project IFRIQIYA, a multimedia performance exploring the Afro Tunisian rhythmic traditions. In 2020; Yacine founded the label Shems Records and the Habibi Festival in New York, a three-day festival dedicated to contemporary Arabic culture.
Ladan Osman is a Somali-American poet and teacher. Her poetry is centered on her Somali and Muslim heritage and has been published in several prominent literary magazines. She is the author of Exiles of Eden (2019), winner of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and The Kitchen-Dweller’s Testimony (2015), winner of the Sillerman Prize. A 2021 Whiting Award winner, she has received fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, Cave Canem, the Michener Center, and the Fine Arts Work Center. Osman's first short film Sam Underground profiles Sam Diaz, a teenage busker who would become the 2020 American Idol. She’s the co-director/writer of Sun of the Soil, a short documentary on the complicated legacy of Malian emperor, Mansa Musa.
Teemanay is an Afrobeats singer, songwriter, and producer hailing from Nigeria, Africa. A committed pan-Africanist and staunch human rights activist, Teemanay spent his formative years in Nigeria before pursuing studies in clinical anatomy, a branch of medicine, with aspirations of becoming a Doctor. However, his passion for music, which began at the tender age of 4-5 years when he started playing instruments, remained unwavering. Joining the church choir at the age of 12, music became an inseparable part of his life, even amidst the rigors of medical school. Having traveled the globe and graced stages in numerous cities, including Lagos, Johannesburg, London, New York, California, Atlanta, and more, Teemanay continues to share his music with diverse audiences.
