If you have been looking for a new, soothing sound to add to your mix of music, African music at the festival will touch your heart. Barbea Williams, a local performer and choreographer, teaches African dance. Her Performing Group presents West Africa dances and drums at the festival. The magic of this music occupies a special, unforgettable sanctuary of celebration and gratitude transcending lines of nationality, language and culture. What a tender and poignantly noble fulfillment one feels. Highly recommended.
Much of the thrill comes in the completion of the music due to the African dress; a multitude of distinct styles, forms, and fashions. Broad patterns emerge. The somewhat untailored garment has existed for centuries. An appearance of tailoring seems related to that of the horizontal strip loom, both possibly having been brought to West Africa along the old trans-Saharan trade routes.
In West Africa, women work on a vertical loom, primarily with cotton. Men work on a horizontal strip loom and produce narrow strips which are then edge-stitched together to make a cloth. Dramatic effects are produced when weft-striped strips are connected. They may be matched up to form stripes, alternated to produce a checkerboard effect, a combination of stripes and checks, or produce random designs.
Kente Cloth - is a colorful, narrow fabric strips woven by men in Ghana. These strips are pieced together to make a wider fabric used for garments. An example of kente cloth is shown. |
