EVENTS

Rwanda Arts Initiative Hosts The Great Black Music Exhibition.
In May 2017, Kigali joined a growing number of global cities in introducing Great Black Music to the city’s residents, and creating a unique musical experience for them.

From the epic stories of the Mandingo griots to the melodic plague of the bluesmen of the Mississippi Delta, from New Orleans to Manhattan clubs, from Yoruba rhythms to the birth of afrobeat, from maloya to samba, from suburbs in Kingston, where ska and reggae appeared, to the empty grounds of the Bronx where hip-hop emerged: the voice, the breath, the rhythms, the soul of millions of slaves deported from the African coast to the Americas have generated a constellation of incredibly rich music. This saga is not specifically American, African, Caribbean or European. It is all at once. This black music shapes world popular culture and transcends any ethnicity or nationalist concept. The Great Black Music exhibition shows, tells and exhibits this formidable musical journey.

On Friday March 24th, Rwanda Arts Initiative kicked off the introduction to Great Black Music to Kigali, a groundbreaking, interactive exhibition, showcasing the evolution of black musical culture through the ages and across continents.

Rwanda Arts Initiative is a platform that brings together Rwandan artists and aims to contribute to the professionalization of the art industry.  The Great Black Music exhibition is supported by Belgian NGO, Africalia, Great Black Music is staged and co-produced by digital arts factory, Atelier 144, and is curated by its founder, Marc Benaiche.

Kigali will be alive with musical events including concerts, jam sessions, and workshops, all featured alongside the Great Black Music Exhibition which will be open from May to August 2017. The exhibition will be hosted for the first time in Rwanda and East Africa after touring nine different countries: Haiti, France, Senegal, Reunion, South Africa, Brazil, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, and Ouagadougou. The exhibition has reached more than 230,000 visitors since its inception in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil in 2009 and it hopes to bring new and joyful insights into the incredible history of Great Black music. The exhibition is a multimedia installation that offers the audience a musical and sensory immersion experience via digital tablets with applications that guide the guest as they walk through the exhibition.

Rwanda Arts Initiative is working in collaboration with the Kigali Public Library, which is providing the space for the exhibition and auxiliary events for four months. With support from Africalia, Rwanda Arts Initiative aspires to bring together music lovers from across the region for a celebration of music, black history, and dignity, thus putting Kigali on the map as a notable cultural city.