Africa Now!

Presented in partnership with World Music Institute
March 15 & 16, 2013

The Apollo partners with World Music Institute to present Africa Now! - a weekend festival spotlighting today’s African music scene, centered around a blow out a concert event on the legendary Apollo stage hosted by celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson. From hip hop to Afrobeat, pop to folk, Africa Now! features a powerful line-up of artists who have drawn upon their roots for inspiration – and transplanted them onto the global music landscape.

Africa Now! Artist Talk Panel
March 15, 2013 7:30 – 8:30P
Apollo Soundstage

This meet-the-artist panel discussion with participating Africa Now! artists focuses on how their cultural identities inform their unique brand of music and how, in turn, that music fosters global exchange and transformation.

Participants include Blitz the Ambassador, Lokua Kanza, Nneka, and members of Freshlyground and The Soil.

The discussion will be moderated by WBAI’s Esther Armah.

Tickets: Free. Reservations required.

Click here to register to attend.
REGISTRATIONS ARE NO LONGER BEING ACCEPTED.

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Apollo Music Café
The Soil
March 15, 2013 10P / Bar & Doors Open at 9p
Apollo Soundstage

The Apollo Music Café series celebrates Africa Now! with dynamic South African act The Soil.

The Soil, a 4-member acapella singing group whose music can best be described as ‘Kasi Soul,’ embodies the next generation of South African choral singing. Bringing soulful new anthems from the townships in lush 4-part harmonies punctuated with percussive beat boxing, the group strives to fuse their voices to deliver melodic and harmonious messages that are aimed at uplifting and healing souls all around the world.

Apollo Music Café explores music genres from the Apollo’s heritage – R&B, hip hop, soul, jazz, pop, funk, and rock – transformed by cutting-edge artists in a stylized lounge space.

Tickets: $20
*A-LIST advance price $15 until midnight the day before performance.

Click here for tickets. SOLD OUT!

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Family Showtime: Freshlyground
March 16, 2013 11A
Apollo Soundstage

Freshlyground, the Cape Town-based, multi-racial septet that has achieved superstardom in South Africa and Europe, brings their infectious grooves to Apollo Family Showtime. Their upbeat, easy-on-the-ear Afropop blend has earned them number-one hits, including the 2010 FIFA World Cup theme “Waka Waka,” which they sang with Shakira. At times referencing a maskanda rhythm or incorporating mbira (thumb-piano), or singing Xhosa, a language spoken in South Africa, Freshlyground’s infectious grooves delight stadiums of fans; according to Boston.com, the group provides “a better image of harmonious post-apartheid Africa than any tourism board advertisement could."

Tickets: $10

Click here for tickets. SOLD OUT!

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Africa Now! Mainstage Concert
March 16, 2013 8PM
Apollo Theater

This blow-out concert features Blitz the Ambassador, a Ghanian-born rapper who, with his brass-heavy Embassy Ensemble, unites worlds of hip-hop, Afrobeat, highlife and soukous; Nneka, the Nigerian-German hip-hop/soul songstress who draws on reggae, blues, folk and rap in her anthems of protest and struggle; the Cape Town-based, multiracial pop sensation Freshlyground; and Congolese troubadour Lokua Kanza, whose haunting voice and folk-like songs have made him out of the most beloved African stars of the last 20 years.

Hosted by celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson.

Tickets: $30, $40, $55

Click here for tickets.

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