A West African performing group with an emphasis on cultural and artistic education.

Kenna Sarge – Artistic Director (kennajean13@yahoo.com or 612-418-1646)

Kinyari Al-Ahad 
Yetunde Whittaker
Yonci Jameson
Selima Al-Ahad
Deja Stowers
Jasmine Harris
Ashley Akpaka

Khettesar Menheer

Seakh Menheer

 

Voice of Culture is a collection of artists dedicated to the study of West African arts and culture. As is custom in West Africa, all company members play instruments, sing and dance in the cultural tradition. We strive to share the beauty and the cultural specificity of the traditional rhythms, movements, and songs of West African people. We do this through performances, workshops, artist residencies, presentations in schools, and cultural exchange. As descendants of enslaved Africans, this study is a great honor to us, and an attempt to discover truths about the culture we lost over the Middle Passage. It is through the art of our ancestral people that we come to understand our history, our ancestry, and our places in contemporary society.

Voice of Culture Events (2009):

• Muticultural Student Fashion Show @ Normandale Community College (Bloomington)
• Opening Eyes to the Northside @ the Capri Theater (Minneapolis)
• Global Hotdish Variety Show @ the Minnesota History Center (St. Paul)
• Senegalese&Guinea Dance Workshops with Rich Baba Faye and Zalika Reid @ the Peace Palace (Minneapolis)
• Djembe Drum Workshop with Sekou Conde @ Hospitality House (Minneapolis)
• J-term Dance Residency @ St Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists (St. Paul)
• The Rabbit Show @ Bryant Lake Bowl (Minneapolis)

Things to come:

• Voice of Culture continues to travel the US and the globe to study with masters of West African drum and dance. Help us get to the Collage des Cultures Africains in Oakland, CA, March 12-15, 2009. VOC will be traveling with all the company members to take drum, dance, and song classes with artists like Zak and Naomi Diouf and Nimley Napla (a former MN resident artist from Liberia), to name just a few of the 20 workshops being offered.
• Voice of Culture aims to offer a community drum and dance experience focusing on cultural dances of the Malinke and other West African groups. Starting in spring of 2009, this class will be open to all ages and levels of dancer, in accord with West African ideas. VOC drummers will accompany the class, with a full cardiovascular warm up and technical breakdown of movements. Sample this class at the 2009 American College Dance Festival Association's North Central Regional Conference at the University of MN.
• VOC will be performing as a part of the Young Dance Cabaret – March 29, 2009 at Patrick’s Cabaret in Minneapolis.
  

Contact information:

Kenna Sarge

612-418-1646

Kennajean13@yahoo.com