On Saturday, February 6 at 2 p.m., experience the richness and astonishing beauty of African culture through dance, music, storytelling, and art which has flowed from Africa toward the Caribbean and the United States for centuries. Costumed musicians and performers from Hartford’s Sankofa Kuumba Cultural Arts Consortium will take audience members on a journey through the African Diaspora, starting in Africa to honor the ancestors who came from there. 

Audience members will be incorporated into the performance, first by learning a few phrases and commands in an African language.  Stories and songs performed by the group will provide a window into African, African-Caribbean, and African-American history and culture. Ensemble members, who always perform wearing traditional African garb with traditional instruments, will demonstrate different rhythms and sounds of drums and perform some dances.   After these performances, audience volunteers may be called on to learn some simple drum rhythms and dance moves. 

Audience members will leave the performance with deeper understanding and appreciation for traditions of Africa and the African Diaspora which have become such a central aspect of American culture, including social and sacred dance, improvisational polyrhythmic music, and bold abstract visual and textile art.   Sankofa Kuumba’s program is designed to draw audience members of different backgrounds closer together, one reason that Windsor Conversations on Race (WCOR)  and the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ) are community partners for this performance.  Cost for the program is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and students, and $4 for WHS, WCOR, and NCCJ members.  Program fees offset program costs but nobody will be turned away for lack of funds.

Windsor Historical Society’s winter-spring programming is supported by the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, the George A. and Grace L. Long Foundation, and the Greater Hartford Arts Council.

The Windsor Historical Society, founded in 1921, invites visitors to explore the people, places, and events that have shaped Windsor for over 370 years.  The Society’s museum includes changing and permanent exhibition galleries; a hands-on history learning center for families; a research library and manuscript collection housing Windsor photographs, documents, ephemera, and genealogical materials, a museum shop and two historic houses open to the public--the 1758 John and Sarah Strong House and the 1767 Dr. Hezekiah Chaffee House. 

The Windsor Historical Society is located at 96 Palisade Avenue (Route 159) and is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.  General admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and students and free to children under 12 and WHS members.  Call (860) 688-3813 or visit us on the web at www.windsorhistoricalsociety.org for directions to the Society and more information about programs.  To receive e-reminders for public programs, please send your e-mail address to jalberti@windsorhistoricalsociety.org.

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