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TAKEN FROM SUMMERSTAGE.COM
Femi Kuti & The Positive Force
DJ Rich Medina
Film screening of Music Is a Weapon
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
From 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM
Central Park SummerStage
The power of Afrobeat is showcased live and on film, as an accomplished son pays tribute to his father’s achievement.
Since the 1997 death of his father, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Femi Kuti has become the undisputed king of Afrobeat, having taken the style worldwide over the last ten years with his band Positive Force. Collaborating with hip-hoppers like Mos Def and Common and touring with alt-rock icons Jane's Addiction, Femi has expanded the music’s scope without sacrificing its relentless, hypnotic beat or its urgent political concerns. Femi’s performance will be followed by a screening of Music Is A Weapon, the 1982 film by Stephane Tchal-Gadjieff & Jean Jacques Flori that remains the definitive documentary on Fela Kuti and his times. Fela Kuti’s influence on black contemporary music cannot be overestimated; virtually all modern forms of black music (from funk to electronic) owe something to his irresistible Afrobeat groove.
A respected DJ and spoken word artist, Rich Medina has worked with Jill Scott, King Britt, Bobbito, DJ Spinna and many others. With residencies at New York’s S.O.B.’s, APT and Table 50, and Philadelphia’s Tragos and Fluid, Medina is familiar to club goers up and down the East Coast. Marked by a strong message of self-empowerment and hope, his sets are equal parts call-to-party and call-to-action.
