LA marathon winners: Aleksandra Duliba from Belarus, 1st time Marathon Runner/Winner and also 1st to cross Finish line (Male or Female) and Ethiopian Erick Mose from Kenya. Nice to see professional athletes from all over the world especially from The Motherland. There wasn’t much of an audience, but nice location for the finish line near Santa Monica Beach.
The Zanzibar venue in Santa Monica hosted a party in honor of the Fela Broadway Cast and Sandra Izsadore (Fela Kuti’s ex-wife, top right). The Fela Broadway Cast was not scheduled to perform, local African dancers and drummers were (See pictures). There was also great live DJ African music. Only one of the dancers (Kouyate) from the Fela Cast made a brief appearance on stage to customarily pay hommage and show appreciation for the performance since the featuring local artists were very talented and experienced. Great night!
MAD LION showed the extent of his talent as one of the best hip hop reggae artists of all-time. Live energy and lots of comedy from Mad Lion on stage.
KRS ONE cleary demonstrated that he is indeed a veteran in the game. KRS ONE showed why he’s considered one of the best lyricists/freestylists of all-time…Spittin’ off the dome and personally interacting with each and everyone of his fans during and after the show. Great live energy, pre show DJs played a lot of hip hop classics.
The band did a great job displaying all of the cultural musical elements that are the foundation of all modern music by performing great Blues, Jazz and New Orleans Folk music. There was great crowd participation since it was Mardi-Gras and attempts to recreate that New-Orleans scene within the music hall with the beads, dancing, chanting and line dancing around the room. The show was somewhat of an American music history lesson.
Many different Workshops which featured West African dancers and drummers from different countries (Senegal, Guinee and Congo). Definitely worth attending just to watch, the dancers were put through intensive dance classes and seemed to get both a great workout and lesson out of these dance workshops.
Wolof Times reporters Bunaama Diagne, Sunny Moore and Fusicology.com’s Asya Stein outside the El Rey Theatre after Femi Kuti’s performance. Show was live, the “Los Angeles Afrocentric Tribe” was there, Femi was very professional yet with a great sarcastic sense of humor like his father the great Fela Kuti (RIP). Well-accomplished musician on the Saxophone as well as the keyboards.
This young lady is so so talented, it seemed like she was using her voice as a Jazz instrument, you can tell she’s classically-trained yet hip hop influenced as well as other music genres. Top-Notch Diva/Singer 🙂
The show was full of upcoming artists’ guest appearances but the legendary Stevie Wonder was well worth the wait. Such a talented singer, keyboardist, music director and COMEDIAN (which I was unaware of LOL). He cracked hilarious jokes about his disability and was very gracious after the show to his fans with interactions and posing for pictures even though he was exhausted. The legendary NY rapper Doug E Fresh did a great job hosting the show.
One of the best artists/painters from the Motherland, Senegal to be more specific, based in Los Angeles. You can see a lot of his Afrocentric art on the walls of the Zanzibar in Santa Monica. He also designs mostly female clothing which features his art. The Festival occupied miles and miles of the Abbot MC Kinney Boulevard starting from Venice Beach. It featured a huge DIVERSITY of vendors (Food, Clothing, Art etc…), artists and live DJs. Definitely a must-go every year!
Here with the legendary keyboardist/singer Selwyn Brown of Steel Pulse (Right). Show was live as always, such talented icon reggae singers/musicians. Every song was just PURE FIRE! LIVEST Performance!
These ladies can actually play some basketball. It seems like the Lingerie part of the game is just to attract a largely male-dominant audience but these young ladies are straight up hoopers 🙂
Brother J (Right), one of the leaders of the East Coast Hip Hop Afrocentric movement in the early 90s and also one of my favorite rappers of all-time, has now relocated to Los Angeles where he is a Board member of Message Media Ed. This Learning Center provides digital education and professional development to African-Americans of all ages to bridge the divide/gap in this area between races/classes in Modern American society.
Clarisa Rose (Right) is a new upcoming artist, winner of 106&Park in 2010 judged by Alicia Keys. Clarisa gave me goosebumps and almost brought me to tears with her sultress voice delivery over Hip Hop tracks. The festival featured professional and street basketball players competing in a tournament as well as performances by upcoming artists in the legendary Venice Beach setting.
GANGSTA Reggae performance from one of my favorite Marleys! He sings with such conviction and emotion, using that melodious and beautiful Lion Roar so typical of the Marleys. Great performance!
Gramps of Morgan Heritage (Left, Keyboardist/Singer) after a live performance with one of Reggae’s legendary and most talented families.
Erykah Badu deejaying after her DOPE performance as DJ Loretta Lynn. She was playing a lot of old school 70s R&B and classic East Coast Hip Hop especially Biggie. Such GREAT selection and musical taste that we can definitely hang :).
WOLOF WEAR 