Fish Fry Friday

Posted by admin on May 14, 2012 in Frontline, News & Events | 0 comments

Fish Fry fundraiser @ Unity

Unity Bar­ber­ship Fri­day, May 18th

Three Rivers Insti­tute of Afrikan Art & Cul­ture will serve up lip-smacking Talapia sand­wiches and coleslaw this Fri­day, May 18th, from 4-8PM. Unity is located at 921 E. Pon­tiac Street, Fort Wayne, just east of Hanna Street. Orders can be placed in advance by call­ing 260 969‑9442. 

There will be enter­tain­ment, as well, fea­tur­ing Min­neapo­lis Spo­ken­Word artist Mankwe Ndosi, and TRIAAC’s own Three Rivers Jenbe Ensem­ble. Come early, eat hardy, and com­mune with your neighbors.

Catch Continuuum Saturday at the Cafe

Posted by admin on Mar 21, 2012 in News & Events | 0 comments

New jazz quar­tet at Acoustic Cafe

Aric Curry: Poet with a message

Sat­ur­day evening, March 24^th, promises to be a show­stop­per at the Acoustic Spo­ken­Word Cafe. Head­ing the lineup is the rel­a­tively new jazz ensem­ble fea­tur­ing sax-man Quincy Sanders.

Con­tin­u­uum played its first gig in early Decem­ber 2011 at the Dash-In, in down­town Fort Wayne. The mem­bers of Con­tin­u­uum have per­formed together in other music projects around town and have played in var­i­ous funk, reg­gae, gospel, blues, rock, and jazz groups. The group—Quincy Sanders on sax, Jesse West on pic­colo bass, Bryan Nel­lums drums, and Marco Rubio bass—performs ren­di­tions of tra­di­tional jazz as well as it’s own com­po­si­tions, tak­ing care to blend in their own new pro­gres­sive ideas.

One of the unique qual­i­ties about Con­tin­u­uum is that it fea­tures two bassists; Marco Rubio and Jesse West han­dle the bass busi­ness. Jesse West plays the pic­colo bass that’s tuned an octave above Marco Rubio’s tra­di­tional bass. West started explor­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ties of using the pic­colo bass as a solo instru­ment with the inten­tion of hav­ing it replace the role of jazz guitar.

Con­tin­u­uum per­forms a wide range of jazz styles, and have per­formed at the Dash-in, Deer Park, pri­vate par­ties, and around Indi­anapo­lis. Continuuum’s next free per­for­mance is in Deer Park, at Deer Park Pub, on April 6th. You can check­out Continuuum’s per­for­mance sched­ule online on Face­book (search con­tin­u­uum spelled with the let­ter U 3 times).

But before that gig, catch the quar­tet live at the Acoustic Spo­ken­Word Cafe, 501 E. Brack­en­ridge Street, at Downtown’s most artist-friendly venue.

Poet Aric Curry will take the sec­ond half of the evening fill­ing it with his adept word­flows. Aric is a high school stu­dent who comes from a tal­ented fam­ily of word­smiths. The young poet cut his teeth at Weisser Park Com­mu­nity Cen­ter with the SBA Acad­emy. Come see this young man with a mes­sage, and bring your own for the Open Mic that fol­lows the sec­ond set.

Cafe hours are from 7-10PM, and admis­sion is only $5.oo. The first cup of cof­fee is on the house, and dona­tions are accepted for all other drinks and snacks.

A Taste of New York in Downtown Fort Wayne

Posted by admin on Mar 13, 2012 in Blog, Frontline, News & Events | 0 comments

A Down­town Artists’ Venue

Acoustic Spo­ken­Word Cafe

Music isn’t hard to find in the Sum­mit City, and the qual­ity of musi­cian­ship is top notch. But there is one thing that sets TRIAAC’s Acoustic Spo­ken­Word Café apart from other venues — it’s an artists’ venue. Patrons who come to the Café come to hear the musi­cians and poets who bring their work to the boards. Much like Fort Wayne’s for­mer Toast & Jam or the  the atmos­phere and patron expec­ta­tion at New York’s Vil­lage Van­guard, “when the artists present every­one listens.”  

Sunny Tay­lor played the Café in Feb­ru­ary, and it was the first time she’d played “unplugged” in a good while Sunny is only one of the incred­i­ble Fort Wayne tal­ents that have graced the boards at the Café this sea­son. Among the oth­ers have been Keith Flye, John Ward, Carol Lock­ridge, Megan King, the Afro­Disi­acs, Fatima Wash­ing­ton, the Bryan Nellems Trio, the Three Rivers Jenbe Ensem­ble, and Mathis Grey. And the sea­son doesn’t wrap up until the end of June.

And the incred­i­ble mix the Café presents is among its most touted aspects. The artis­tic mix fea­tures musi­cians, poets and a reg­u­lar Open Mic space at each sit­ting of the Café. Poets who’ve appeared at the Café since Sep­tem­ber include Helen Frost, Emmanuel Ortiz, George Kala­ma­ras, Ketu Oladuwa, Mary Ann Cain, Troy Bigelow, Paula Ashe, Tanika Burt, Linda Bess, Teresa Vazquez, and Kemit Oladuwa.

The Acoustic Spo­ken­Word Café is designed as a space for artists to be heard in Down­town Fort Wayne. It’s a venue where artists come to cre­ate, dis­play, present, explore, re-member and remem­ber, engage and entice, invite and move, act and embody, plant and germinate—without rush­ing or feel­ing the pres­sure “to per­form” over the night-life din.

Con­tin­u­uum, a new jazz ensem­ble fea­tur­ing Quincy Sanders on alto sax, Marco Rubio on bass, and Jesse West on pic­colo bass, with Bryan Nellems on drums will close out the win­ter ses­sion of the Café, on March 24. The fea­tured poet for the evening is Aric Curry, a young artist who has devel­oped his skills at the Weisser Park Com­mu­nity Center’s SBA pro­gram. The Café is open the sec­ond and fourth Sat­ur­days of the month, from Sep­tem­ber through June. Round­ing out it’s third year, TRIAAC received fund­ing from Arts United of Greater Fort Wayne to sup­port the work of the café.

Three Rivers Jenbe Ensemble at the Cafe

Posted by admin on Feb 16, 2012 in Frontline, News & Events, TRJE Blog | 0 comments

TRJE comes home to Acoustic Cafe

The three Rivers Jenbe Ensem­ble will per­form live at the Acoustic Spo­ken­Word Cafe on Feb­ru­ary 25, 2012. The evening will begin at 7PM and close out at 10PM. TRJE, as the ensem­ble is pop­u­larly known, per­forms an inter­pre­ta­tion of the tra­di­tional dunun and jenbe drum ensem­ble of the Mande-speaking peo­ple of Guinea, West Afrika.

This group of stu­dents has been play­ing together the last three years, tak­ing over from the grad­u­at­ing ensem­ble mem­bers who pre­ceded and trained them. It has long been an artis­tic prac­tice of the Three Rivers Jenbe Ensem­ble to have the qual­i­fied stu­dents teach their peers. The mem­bers have from six to ten years expe­ri­ence with the ensemble.

The ensem­ble has recently per­formed at Wash­ing­ton Cen­ter Ele­men­tary School and the Friendly Fox Cof­fee­house.This per­for­mance marks the first time the ensem­ble has per­formed in its own space for more than a year.

The Acoustic Spo­ken­Word Cafe is hosted at TRIAAC, 501 E. Brack­en­ridge Street. The cost of admis­sion is $5.00. For more infor­ma­tion call TRIAAC at 260 96909442.

Fabulous Jenbe kids on new drums

Posted by admin on Jan 21, 2012 in Blog, News & Events, TRJE Blog | 0 comments

TRJE blend Ibo Ekwe with Guinean Krin drums

Three Rivers Jenbe Ensem­ble bring new flavors

The Three Rivers Jenbe Ensem­ble Sat­ur­day night reprised its ini­tial per­for­mance at the Friendly Fox Cof­fee­house on Fort Wayne’s South Side with a rous­ing per­for­mance that warmed patrons despite the intem­per­ate weather that blan­keted the region with a few inches of heavy snow. Bring­ing their reg­u­lar tra­di­tional Guinean dunun and jenbe drums inter­pre­ta­tions of the music of the Mande-speaking peo­ple of West Afrika, the ensem­ble for­ti­fied their instru­men­tal range with the addi­tion of the Niger­ian Ekwe and Guinean Krin drums.

The ensem­ble is recrut­ing stu­dents inter­ested in learn­ing about the Afrikan her­itage in Amer­i­can music. For more infor­ma­tion call TRIAAC at 260 969‑9442 or hit the but­ton and fill out the audi­tion appli­ca­tion and email to triaacexad@comcast.net.

Nellems Trio and Linda Bess on tap at the SpokenWord Cafe

Posted by admin on Jan 20, 2012 in Blog, News & Events | 0 comments

Good music meets thought­ful words

Jazz, Soul & Spo­ken­Word at the Acoustic Cafe

The Bryan Nellems Trio will open the show at the Acoustic Spo­ken­Word Cafe on Jan­u­ary 28, 2012. The recently formed ensem­ble fea­tures Bryan Nellems on drums, Phil Shurger on lead gui­tar and Marco Franco on bass. The trio will be doing jazz and soul cov­ers as well as debut­ing some orig­i­nal work by Nellems and Franco.  This up and com­ing trio is mak­ing its mark in the world of music and doesn’t appear to be slow­ing down any time soon; so keep your eyes and ears open for what’s next to come for the Bryan Nellems Trio. 

Poet Linda Bess will read new and res­ur­rected work that explores iden­tity, reflec­tion, addic­tion, love, hate, and life. She finds her way through poetry that explores her iden­tity of being female, Asian-Caucasian, and Amer­i­can. She turns to her past to find answers through explor­ing pho­tographs, quo­ta­tions, and artis­tic work of oth­ers to cre­ate poetry, as well. Her expe­ri­ence of being a recov­er­ing alco­holic, hav­ing chronic pain, and being bipo­lar leads her on a path from mak­ing grave mis­takes to find­ing new life in sobri­ety and health. By explor­ing the par­a­digms of love and hate in every­day life, her work begs for answers that all of us seek – why too often through suf­fer­ing we must fight to find light.

For infor­ma­tion about the Acoustic Spo­ken­Word Cafe, call 260 969‑9442 or email aswc_triaac@comcast.net. See you there!

SpokenWord Cafe featuring AfroDisiacs

Posted by admin on Jan 2, 2012 in News & Events, SpokenWord Blog | 0 comments

2012 Cafe opens with AfroD sound

Hot con­gas and vocal gui­tar are thrilling

If you lis­ten to WBOI’s music roundup you’re bound to hear that the Afro­Disi­acs is play­ing some­where in the region. One

Afro­Disi­acs bring­ing the funk

of the Fort Wayne’s most sought after duos, the Afro­Disi­acs fea­tures William Brown on con­gas, and Mike Rogers on gui­tar; the part­ners bring seduc­tive vocals to their orig­i­nal mte­r­ial and covers.

The Fort Wayne, Indi­ana based group has an inter­est­ing story… What started out as a two-piece acoustic show, evolved into a group per­form­ing shows as a four-piece AND a two-piece. Quite fre­quently at that. The two-piece fea­tures a world/soul/acoustic sound, includ­ing orig­i­nal songs, as well as ren­di­tions of cov­ers, giv­ing that fresh Afro-D sound. The four-piece, on the other hand, fea­tures a more jazz/funk/fusion feel, involv­ing mostly all originals!

The two-piece will be on tap Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 14, from 7-10PM. Admis­sion is $5.00. Afro­Disi­acs hopes to share their love of music with every­one, and begin an out of town tour, com­ing soon!!!

Opening 2012 at the SpokenWord Cafe

Posted by admin on Jan 2, 2012 in News & Events, SpokenWord Blog | 0 comments

2012 Pow­er­house Duo opens Cafe

Fatima Wash­ing­ton at the Acoustic Spo­ken­Word Cafe

Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 14 the Acoustic Spo­ken­Word Cafe opens the sea­son with two incred­i­ble Fort Wayne tal­ents: the allur­ing Fatima Wash­ing­ton, and the dynamic Afrodisiacs.

Fatima opens Spo­ken­Word Cafe

“Before fame, pho­tographs, and tabloids, there is tal­ent.  And Wash­ing­ton has it — the kid of voice the ear fol­lows through wind­ing scales…It’s both soft and pow­er­ful filled with the echoes of R&B and soul pio­neers such as Aretha Franklin and Patti LaBelle.” –Emma Downs, The Jour­nal Gazette

She’s a reg­u­lar at Blu Tomato. She’s opened for nation­ally known acts. Now, the allur­ing ly soul­ful Fatima Wash­ing­ton is bring­ing her voice and charisma to the Acoustic Spo­ken­Word Cafe, in down­town Fort Wayne.

After tak­ing off four years to attend col­lege, Fatima made up her mind to pur­sue music full time.  At home in Fort Wayne, Indi­ana, Fatima started singing back­ground vocals on var­i­ous stu­dio record­ings for Sweet­wa­ter Sound.  Most recently, Fatima has opened for Bobby Valentino, the SOS Band, Adina Howard, The Whis­pers, Paul Anka, Ty Causey, and sung along­side Tony Award win­ner Heather Headley.  Addi­tion­ally, Fatima has toured New York, Cal­i­for­nia, Chicago, Atlanta, and var­i­ous parts of Europe, includ­ing Paris, leav­ing indeli­ble marks at every event.

 Fatima recently released the first sin­gle, Fool for Love, off of her yet to be titled debut CD.  Fatima has a strong hand in the evo­lu­tion of her CD work­ing with pro­duc­ers such as Michael John­son, DJ Polaris, and Eclipse. 

 In a short time, Fatima has gone from just another young per­former to hav­ing her own night at The Blu Tomato every Sat­ur­day, Fri­days at The Legion Post 148, local recog­ni­tion, and this is only the begin­ning.  “Fatima Wash­ing­ton was once shy.  You’d never know it to see her on stage now… to hear her these days is to real­ize that the wall­flower has most cer­tainly bloomed.”  (Sean Smith, Fort Wayne Reader).    With the tal­ent that she pos­sesses this singer/songwriter is well on her way to suc­cess in the music indus­try.  She’s just wait­ing to be in the right place at the right time doing the right thing in front of the right people.

TRIAAC New Year Schedule

Posted by admin on Dec 31, 2011 in Frontline, News & Events | 0 comments

Open­ing the way

New sched­ule opens more learn­ing opportunities

“A peo­ple los­ing sight of ori­gins are dead. A peo­ple deaf to pur­poses are lost.”–Ayi Kweh Armah..

It is wise to return to ori­gins to retrieve what has been lost

“Se wo were fi na wosankofa a yenkyi”–Akan Proverb

Trans­la­tion: “It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten.”

In his intro­duc­tion to two thou­sand sea­sons Armah tells us that hav­ing lost our way it would be most appro­pri­ate for us to go back to our ori­gins to redis­cover what went awry along our path to the present so that we might use our intel­li­gence and insight today to cor­rect it. The Akan of Ghana refer to this process as Sankofa, retrac­ing one’s foot­steps along life’s path to see what has been lost or for­got­ten that would be of use today. Of course, the human path is one that walks back­wards recall­ing the expe­ri­ence of our ancestors.

And so as we enter 2012, TRIAAC is retrac­ing its course to deter­mine what has been lost that might be regained through ret­ro­spec­tion and applied to today’s envi­ron­ment and expe­ri­ences. We began with the con­scious prac­tice of re-membering our Afrikan past for our­selves and chil­dren, and apply­ing the energy of that quest to mak­ing music and incit­ing move­ment, both phys­i­cal and intellectual.

At the cen­ter of the prac­tice is the Malinke dunun and jenbe ensem­ble that is a fam­ily of tones and rhythms that com­bine to make a sin­gu­larly dis­tinct music rep­re­sent­ing the strength of Mande cul­ture and famil­ial tra­di­tion. The sym­bolic, social, polit­i­cal and spir­i­tual val­ues of that cul­ture as it has been extended through its many mas­ter­ful prac­ti­tion­ers since the 1960s, has been rooted in Fort Wayne for more than a decade now. 

In launch­ing our pro­grams for the third quar­ter, TRIAAC has sought to make this har­monic and rhyth­mic prac­tice avail­able to more chil­dren and adults. Hit the “Sched­ule” but­ton to down­load a .pdf file of our third quar­ter schedule.  

Sched­ule And con­tact us with any ques­tions you may have by click­ing the con­tact link. 

For Love of The Arts

Posted by admin on Dec 30, 2011 in News & Events | 1 comment

Cel­e­braing Women in Word & Song

A cel­e­bra­tion of women in word & song

TRIAAC pro­gram ops fundraiser set for March 3

Artist Judy Chicago said it well: “I believe that it is cru­cial for women artists to sit­u­ate our­selves in the con­text of our own gen­der, class and eth­nic his­to­ries and strug­gles rather than in rela­tion­ship to male histories.”

No doubt! Art is soul expres­sion iden­ti­fy­ing the life force of the human being through whom it is trans­mit­ted. That’s why in bring­ing the city city of Fort Wayne a Women’s His­tory Month cel­e­bra­tion we’ve asked three phe­nom­e­nal women to rep­re­sent their gen­der, class and eth­nic his­to­ries. On March 3rd, from 7:00 to 11:00PM, Carol Lock­ridge, Indiana’s Blues Woman of 2010, Sunny Tay­lor, Fort Wayne’s amaz­ing folk and Amer­i­cana singer-songwriter, and the insight­fully soul­ful Erika Mar­tinez, a West Coast poet and essay­ist will light up the C2G Music Hall, on Baker Street. Down­town Fort Wayne is going to rock!  

Amer­i­cans didn’t pub­licly cel­e­brate women’s his­tory until 1978. It began as a weekly cel­e­bra­tion in Sonoma County Cal­i­for­nia, encom­pass­ing Inter­na­tional Women’s Day on March 8. In 1981, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Rep. Bar­bara Mikul­ski (D-Md.) co-sponsored a joint Con­gres­sional res­o­lu­tion pro­claim­ing a national Women’s His­tory Week, and in 1987, Con­gress expanded the cel­e­bra­tion to a month-long recog­ni­tion of women’s his­tor­i­cal role in the the country’s development.

Women’s role in the arts also was over­looked.  Even with the harsh oppres­sion of slav­ery days Afrikan women managed–sometimes at their own peril–to pre­serve the cul­ture of their ances­try and artic­u­late both their strug­gles and hopes in their own words and images. In cel­e­brat­ing women’s con­tri­bu­tion to our cul­tural iden­tity, we cel­e­brate the best in ourselves.

Join us on March 3rd. Click the but­ton for ticket infor­ma­tion.Tick­ets