Presented by Annie Ruth, in collaboration with
the Cincinnati Arts Association, Cincinnati Opera, and the Power of Her
Friday, November 20 | 7:00 PM
Streaming FREE TO THE PUBLIC on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram
CINCINNATI, OH – The virtual Dada Rafiki: Conversations on Friday, November 20, 2020 at 7:00 PM will be live streamed FREE TO THE PUBLIC on the Dada Rafiki Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram platforms. The long-running, local annual event is a multi-sensory artistic experience of dance, music, poetry, and song, which shares the empowering stories of inspirational women who positively impact the community.
The event will be hosted by WLWT-TV5 news anchor Courtis Fuller and internationally acclaimed artist/poet Annie Ruth. Special guest performers include the Legendary Clark Sisters, singer/songwriter Sistah LaLa, mother and son William Menefield and Yah’El Abiyah Yisra’el, Cincinnati Opera artist Victoria Okafor, and CA2 Dance Crew.
Dada Rafiki, pronounced (DAH-dah RAH-fee-kee), means sister friend in the Kiswahili language of Eastern Africa. Through this unique multicultural celebration, Annie Ruth honors women from all walks of life and promotes a message of universal sisterhood. This year’s theme is “Conversations,” which promotes a universal message of hope, health, and healing for the world. The event will include programming that encourages interracial, multi-generational, and cross-cultural dialogue.
Dada Rafiki Honorees
- Pastor Dr. Robert L. Harris, Baba of Honor
- Elissa Lee Yancey
- Sheila Holmes Howard
- Anne Cushing-Reid
- Tracey A. DuEst
- Cammie Combs-Montgomery
- Andrea Smythe Taylor
- Rev. Regina Johnson Phillips
- Bernadette Watson
- Delores Hargrove-Young
- Quiera Levy-Smith
- Geneva Watkins Miller
Spotlight Sister Organizations
- New Prospect Baptist Church Culinary Kitchen Ministry
- National Council of Negro Women – Cincinnati Chapter
- Cincinnati Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs
- Queens Village – Cradle Cincinnati
- Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
- Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
- Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.
- Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.
- Gamma Phi Delta Sorority, Inc.
ABOUT THE CREATOR OF DADA RAFIKI
Annie Ruth is an internationally respected artist and arts educator whose work has positively influenced audiences in Europe, Africa, and throughout the United States for more than forty years. She integrates the arts into other areas and uses innovative strategies to make the arts experience both rewarding and relevant. Annie Ruth earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from National University in San Diego, California and studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati, College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP). She is a trailblazer who has received critical acclaim for her work in the community. She fuses her artistic talents with arts education and collaborates with major cultural institutions and museums to bring art directly to communities throughout the United States and abroad.
For more information about Annie Ruth, the history of Dada Rafiki, and how to access the virtual event, visit www.dadarafiki.net and www.annieruth.com.
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Starting this month, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, university theatre performers and regional cabaret headliners will span musical genres four nights a week
Ghost Baby is also adding another layer of performance with the premiere of the new Wednesday night “Ghostlight Cabaret,” an homage to all of the talented professional and community performers who have had the traditional “ghostlight” lit on their stages across the region while live musical theatre has been paused by the pandemic. “We were struck by the realities of all of the theatres and performers who have been impacted by the closures throughout our neighborhood and city,” said Heuser. “The irony of a “ghostlight” representing a safe haven on a dark stage waiting for performances to begin again was not lost on us.” Ghostlight Cabaret presented by Ghost Baby draws on the history of the neighborhood that in the 1870s boasted Heuck’s Opera House, The People’s Theatre and countless vaudeville and variety showplaces and today is home to the city’s ever-growing theatre district. Ghostlight Cabaret will feature regional cabaret
The third installment of The Drama Workshop’s Home View Theatre video series is now available for viewing. The video is called A Paranormal Investigation into The Raven and was written and directed by Dennis Murphy and stars CJ and Betsy Bossart. Ms. Bossart plays the host for the television series Paranormal Investigations. She is interviewing one Edgar Poe (played by Mr. Bossart) who claims to be visited nightly by a ghostly raven. Is this a bonafide haunting or something else entirely? You’ll have to watch to know.
The Kentucky Symphony Orchestra opens its 29th season in an industrial warehouse with a Halloween mix of string classics that should provide a good scare for musicians and audience alike. Keeping musicians employed and playing during the Covid crisis requires following safety guidelines that are nearly impossible to enact with in traditional auditorium settings (visit kyso.org for safety guidelines). However, since the KSO possesses the will, it certainly has found a way, by turning to unconventional spaces. Verst Group Logistics generously offered the Symphony use of its Hebron warehouse with the square footage of a football field and 40’ ceilings to address adequate distancing and circulation concerns. Even the City of Bellevue helped out for a single rehearsal at the former Joe’s Crab Shak to assist with its season opening program dubbed Strings Noir.
Geff Strik‘s Verklärte Nacht is a live musical performance of Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht accompanied by a 28-minute dramatic short film of paintings done in real-time to the music. The paintings are inspired by the music and Richard Dehmel’s poem of the same name, which is also part of the video. The poem details a dark romantic story set in the 19th century. It begins, “Two figures pass through the bare, cold grove/the moon accompanies them, they gaze into it.”
CINCINNATI, OH – Each year since 2015, more than 2,000 music lovers have followed their a cappella star to a NO PROMISES Vocal Band Christmas concert. But in 2020, the pandemic has other plans.
Behind the Curtain Cincinnati 