About town - arts and culture this week
By Mona Mattei
African dance and music soiree
African food and culture tantalized the audience at the African Soiree Friday, Nov. 13 at the Holy Trinity Anglican Church hall. Hosted by the Rara Avis Dancers of Granby Dance Studio, a group of African musicians and dancers spent the day in Grand Forks giving a window into their culture. Naby Camara, N’nato Camara, and Kocassale Dioubate brought their unique talents to the Forks for the show playing drums, balaphone, and dancing. During the day, workshops for drumming and dance were held at the studio.
The evening’s event gave a larger group a chance to experience the traditions of Africa. The dinner included a peanut-sauce seafood dish, beef and chicken stew (or vegetarian choice), rice, and yucca with fresh vegetables. After dinner, the band started playing their vibrant rhythms giving way to N’nato and Sasha demonstrating the extremely physical African dance and welcoming the audience to join in. Everyone got involved and the children reveled in the beats.
Joey “Shithead” Keithley solo tour
Joe Keithley (Joey Shithead of D.O.A.) gave it all for the crowd at Jogas on Saturday Nov. 14. Keithley, out touring on his own for three shows around the West Kootenay / Boundary, didn’t hold back for the small venue. As expected from the godfather of punk, his songs expressed his anti-establishment sentiments with strong ties to the labour movement and rage against the political system.
Keithley’s show was high energy acoustic giving the audience just a taste of a night rocking with D.O.A. His covers of Woody Guthrie’s folk songs hyped up with a punk flavour had people singing along while Keithley took the audience on a tour from D.O.A.’s first hit, Disco Sucks, through to new tunes slated for their album coming out in May 2010.
