6th Annual Mafrika Music Festival in Harlem

One of the biggest and most innovative expositions of African/world music and cultural in New York history is coming to Harlem on Sunday June 24th .
The Mafrika Music Festival will feature bands and artists from the Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea., USA, Puerto rico and Jamaica.

The traditional and contemporary rhythms will sizzle in Marcus Garvey Park 120th street and 5 Avenue from noon until eight. With thousands of first-generation African/World immigrants living in New York City, and millions more whose roots come from the continent, the festival will be both a reminder of home as well as a chance for the uninitiated to experience one of the world’s most vibrant sounds for the six time.

“There is something about the rhythms of Africa that are magical and stir the soul,” said festival executive director Abdel Kader Ouedraogo, himself a native of Burkina Faso. “Everybody who hears cannot fail to be moved.”

Historians say that the call-and-response of African/world music, as well as the subtle and complex cross-rhythms, were the original source material for uniquely American genres of music such as jazz, doo-wop and hip-hop.

But as anyone who comes to the Mafrika festival will hear, the “mother of hip-hop, soul and Rock/blues” has not remained locked in a time warp. It has grown up in its own greenhouse through the centuries and evolved into an exciting and unique music of its own.

“This is really a chance for Africans to get to know their American brothers a little better,” said Ouedraogo. “And it is also a chance for Americans to see a living reminder of where their own musical traditions originated.”

After Party at Shrine World Music Venue, 2271 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd, www.shrinenyc.com