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African Culture Takes the Stage at the 3rd Annual ACANA African Festival at Penn's Landing  |
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Internationally acclaimed African guitarist and soukous star, originally from Congo, Diblo Dibala and the Loketo will headline the 3rd Annual ACANA African Festival on Saturday August 7, 2010 from 2:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. This free festival taking place on the RiverStage on the Great Plaza at Penn’s Landing is part of the PECO Multicultural series and will also feature Liberian folklore princess Fatu Gayflor, the famous Universal African Dance and Drum Ensemble and the Liberian drum and dance group, The Liberian Theater.
Diblo Dibala, often known simply as Diblo, is a Congolese soukous musician, known as "Machine Gun" for his speed and skill on the guitar. He was born in 1954 in Kisangani. He moved to Kinshasa as a child, and at age 15, won a talent competition, which led to him playing guitar in Franco's TPOK band. Dibala remained with the group for only a short period, going on to play with Vox Africa, Orchestra Bella Mambo and Bella Bella, in which band he first played with Kanda Bongo Man.
In 1979, he moved to Brussels, and in 1981 he joined Kanda Bongo Man's band in Paris. Their first album, Iyole (1981), was a success. Diblo became a sought after session guitarist, working with Pepe Kalle and many other soukous musicians.
In the mid 1980s, he formed his own band, Loketo (meaning 'hips'), with singer Aurlus Mabele, and in 1990 he formed a new group, Matchatcha, which is still active after a number of personnel changes.
Another headliner in this year festival is a cultural and folklore sensational, Princess Fatu Gayflor. Fatu is a Liberian singer. Dubbed "Princess Fatu, the golden voice of Liberia", she has performed at major music venues and festivals throughout the world and has made a number of recordings.
Born in the village of Kakata in northwestern Liberia, Gayflor is a member of the Lorma ethnic group. As a child she learned the rituals and song of her people and learned to play the sekere as a member of the sande society. In 1978, at just 12 years of age, she joined the Liberian National Cultural Troupe (LNCT) in Keneja. With the LNCT she learned traditional songs from 16 different ethnic groups across Liberia. She eventually became the group's lead singer and toured throughout the world with the ensemble; notably performing at the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition.
Gayflor made her first two solo albums in Liberia during the mid 1980s. She left the country for the Ivory Coast in 1989 due to the First Liberian Civil War; making her third album while residing in a refugee camp. She lived for a time as a refugee in Guinea before immigrating to the state of Pennsylvania in the United States where she currently resides. She has become a fixture at folk music events in the Philadelphia area, such as the Philadelphia Folk Festival. She currently teaches at the Folk Arts Cultural Treasures Charter School which is sponsored by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts
The event host, the African Cultural Alliance of North America Inc. (ACANA), is a non-profit Organization that promotes social, arts and culture, economic development in Southwest Philadelphia. They primarily focus our services on the more than 200,000 African and Caribbean immigrants in the city. The ultimate goal is to support the local African and Caribbean immigrant communities’ arts and culture and show grateful appreciation for them by providing significant financial support for the African Cultural Alliance of North America, ACANA events.
Admission is FREE for all PECO Multicultural Series events. KYW Newsradio, CBS 3 and CW Philly along with the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com are proud media partners of the series.
Based in Philadelphia, PECO is an electric and natural gas utility subsidiary of Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC). PECO serves 1.6 million electric and 486,000 natural gas customers in southeastern Pennsylvania and employs about 2,400 people in the region. PECO delivered 84.3 billion cubic feet of natural gas and 38.1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2009.
Founded in 1881, PECO is one of the Greater Philadelphia Region's most active corporate citizens, providing leadership, volunteer and financial support to numerous arts and culture, education, environmental, economic development and community programs and organizations.
Public Programming at Penn's Landing would not be possible without the continued support of corporate partners such as PECO, Verizon, Pennsylvania Lottery, Live Nation, the Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Company and the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, all of whom are committed to serving the Greater Philadelphia community.
The 2010 Summer Program of Free Events at Penn’s Landing is funded and produced by the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC). All events produced by DRWC are FREE to the public on the new RiverStage on the Great Plaza, the heart of Penn's Landing, Philadelphia’s premier Delaware River waterfront entertainment destination. The DRWC is a nonprofit corporation created in January 2009, exclusively for the benefit of the City of Philadelphia and its citizens. The fundamental purpose of DRWC is to design, develop and manage the central Delaware River waterfront in Philadelphia. DRWC intends to transform the waterfront into a vibrant destination location for recreational, cultural, and commercial activities for the residents and visitors of Philadelphia.
For more information and event details, please call (215) 922-2FUN or visit www.delawareriverevents.com. This website is a virtual resource for the waterfront which can help visitors plan to easily park, play and stay all day at Penn's Landing.
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Are you hosting or promoting an event in the Philadelphia Area? If so then we want to hear about it. Email us at editor@philadelphiaathome.com.
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