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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!!!

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.

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. 

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