Seckou Keita (photo: Andy Morgan).

Dance, film and music at AfriKàBa festival

Hastings is host to a series of events celebrating African and Caribbean heritage, arts and culture through dance, film and music. The AfriKàBa festival commences on 3 October in conjunction with Black History Month. Zoya Mathison reports.

In Hastings 2010, AfriKàBa was born: a festival that puts African and Caribbean culture front and centre. AfriKàBa engages locally with schools, colleges, academies and libraries to enable young people to learn about the rich diversity of Africa.

The festival opens with a free event at 7.30pm on 3 October at the Stade, where Sonpikkante – literally meaning ‘Hot Chilli’ – are performing. This Afro-Latin explosion will make you dance, even if you think have two (or three) left feet!

Then at 11am and 8pm on Thursday 8 Oct, the Electric Palace Cinema is showing the award-winning film Dear White People. Released in the UK this July, the film follows the lives of young black people and confronts issues around race at an Ivy League university. It has received many accolades, including winning the 2014 Sundance Film Festival’s Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent. This is a sly, modern and provocative satire, which promises to make you think and question today’s post-Ferguson world we live in.

Welsh poet and storyteller Gwyenth Glyn (photo: John Pountney).

The grand finale on Friday 9 October will be held at the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery: kora master Seckou Keita returns to Hastings supported by Welsh poet, storyteller and folk singer Gwyneth Glyn. Seckou, from southern Senegal, was born of griots and kings. A master of the 22-stringed kora, Seckou explores the modern global citizen living with seven centuries of tradition and musical heritage. Gwyneth Glyn expresses her heritage in her own Welsh mother tongue. Delicious Afro-Caribbean food will be served.

AfriKàBa 2015 ticket info: 
Dear White People Electric Palace, Thursday 8 October, showings 11am & 8pm. Tickets £5/£6/£7.

Seckou Keita and Gwyneth Glyn Hastings Museum and Art Gallery, Friday 9 October, 7.30pm. Tickets £20/£15 (with/without Afro Caribbean meal).  

Find out more about AfriKàBa 2015 here.

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