Afrakan Masala at West Oak Lane Jazz & Arts Festival

The Arts and Aesthetics Collective started this season at the West Oak Lane Jazz and Arts Fesival on June 20. The theme was Afrakan Masala: Rhythmic art and syncopated fashion expressed through improvised cultural stylings. The show featured the designs of Second World Productions, Natty Rebel, hair and makeup by Exavia's Locs and Twists. We also featured brand new art by Willis Nomo. The lovely Khenti hosted the show before the eager early attendees of the weekend festival.

The Collective would like to thank Kelly Walker of Art Noir for his support and invitation to participate, Ahmed Tahir at Pear of Africa for contributing clothing, all of our beautiful models. Thank you to the dedicated and talented Feya and Ferugh of Second World Productions, to Natty Rebel, Exavia, Willis Nomo, and Khenti. Thank you all for another great show!

Afrakaltural Outreach to the Youth of Point Breeze

Point Breeze Civic Association has asked PKDG's Afrakaltural Outreach department to develop curriculum for their Little Leaders summer program. We are implementing age-appropriate portions of our Developmental Education Program designed to teach conflict resolution and anger management. Group activities are designed to foster leadership skills while team building lessons teach our youth how to work together for the benefit of the whole group.

"The children of the Little Leaders summer youth program are diligent, bright and well behaved. They are receptive to and appreciative of our Afrakaltural approach, responding with eager curiosity toward cultural lessons which increase their self-esteem. They make it a pleasure to interact with them each week," says instructor Sxmt Sekayi. Atef Ture adds, "We hope to work with them further, in various capacities and environments with increasing challenges and team building missions."

Summer 2008 Begins

Odunde 2008
June 8th

As always with Odunde our New Year's celebration began with a procession to the river in praise to Oshun. To us the spiritual and community connectedness consumates the reasons for this festival's existence. One minor hiccup, or major depending on your perspective, was the late arrival of KRS-1. As the ehadliner for this year's entertainment, KRS-1 was not allowed to perform, due to arriving almost an hour late. with only minutes left the city began to shut down the festival, thus curtailing any performance. Needless to say, many Odunde attendees were dissappointed. Due to the professionalism of founder, Lois Fernandez and daughter Oshunbumni the festival the crowd remained calm and concluded without a hitch.

Wall Street Fashion Show
June 1st

We also had the pleasure of attending a fashion show at Wall Street, which is located in West Philly. The Wall Street complex is impressive in that it has two large buildings and a vast open air venue suitable for concerts and vending. Second World Production and Simply Netfah presented the two best lines in our "biased" opinion.