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Program for Friday, March 28
8:00-9:20 am - Registration of presenters and performers
9:00 am - Musical welcome
9:30-9:50 am - Opening Ceremony
- Ayan (drum poetry). The River Crosses the Path by Okyerema Attah Poku
- Welcome remarks by Kwasi Ampene, FGA
- Welcome remarks by Professor Ayanna Thomas, Dean of Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Dean of Research for Arts and Sciences
10:00-10:20 am - Kay Shelemay (Harvard University) - When Communities of Practice are the Primary Communities of Learning: The Case of Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity
10:30-10:50 am - Ato Quayson (Stanford University) - The Music and Soundscapes of African Literature
11:00-11:20 am - Nana Kesse (Clark University) - Living with Water: Nzulezo and the Making of Aquatic Geographies for Survival
11:30-11:50 am - Ruth Opara (Columbia University) - Her Beat, Her Story: A Woman’s Reflection on Practice and Learning in African Music Research
12:00-12:20 pm - Ray Silverman (University of Michigan) - Exhibition as Translation: Reflections on Collaborative Curation in Ghana
12:30-1:15 pm - Lunch & Critical Performance – David Locke (Tufts University)
1:30-1:50 pm - Kwasi Ampene (Tufts University) & Erica Jones (UCLA) - Restoring Our Soul: Fowler Museum’s Restitution to the Asante Kingdom in Ghana
2:00-2:20 pm - Ingrid Monson (Harvard University) - Working with Malian Bala Artist Neba Solo: Developing the Most Ethical Path
2:30-2:50 pm - Richard Jankowsky (Tufts University) - Ambiguities of Decoloniality in the Ethnography of Tunisian Stambeli
3:00-3:20 pm - Lucy Durán (SOAS University of London) - Studio recordings as ‘musical auracy’ in Mande kora: The impact of Toumani Diabaté’s albums on kora-playing
3:30-3:50 pm - Charrise Barron (Harvard University) - In the Flow and Against the Current: Disrupting the Praise and Worship Music Economy
4:00-4:20 pm - Damascus Kafumbe (Middlebury College) - African Music and Dance Performance in the American Liberal Arts College
4:30-4:50 pm - Pedro Acosta (UFBA Brazil) - Black Ethnomusicology
5:00-5:20 pm - Tony Yeboah (Tulane University) - Deepening the Chronologies of Global Urbanism; the Role of Asante Community of Practice
5:30-6:00 pm - Musical round off with Attah Poku (Tufts University)
Program for Saturday, March 29
9:00 am - Heraldic drumming by Ahenemma Cultural Troupe (New York)
10:00 am -
Procession (1): Nhemfo and Ahemaa (Chiefs and Queens)
Agoro (Dances, singing, rhetoric/poetry/ivory trumpet)
Procession (2): Oheneba Lovelace Prempeh, Mpintin processional drumming by Attah Poku and group
Greetings - Nhemfo and Ahemaa (Chiefs and Queens) greet Oheneba Lovelace Prempeh
12:00 pm - Welcome Remarks
Kwasi Ampene, FGA, Chair, Department of Music
Honorable Ken Asafo Agyei, Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Ghana, Worcester
Kwaku Agyeman Dua, Executive Secretary, Asanteman Council of North America
Patrick Mancha Sossou, President, Ewe Association of Greater Boston
Lady Barbara Acheampong, President, Asante Professionals Club of USA
Seidu Sumani, President, Ghana Association of Greater Boston
Gordon Donkoh-Halm, Founder and Executive Director, African Community Center of Lowell
Helen Peprah Mensah, Asanteman Association of New York, Inc.
Emmanuel Owusu, Executive Director, The African Bridge Network
Remarks from other community organizations present
Nana Otimpie Aben II, Asantehene Sasaamohene
Katrina Moore, Director, Africana Center
Sunil Kumar, Tufts University President
1:00 pm - Introduction of Keynote speaker – Kwasi Ampene, FGA
Performances. Agoro (dance, singing, rhetoric/poetry/ivory trumpets, drum poetry)
Keynote
Empire Rising: The Dynastic History of Asante from 17th-21st Century
Oral Narrative by Oheneba Akwasi Abayie, Asantehene Akomforehene, Coit-Phelps Keynote Speaker
Oral narration mixed with musical and dramatic arts
Expression of gratitude
4:00-5:00 pm Celebration and wrap up
