Elegba Folklore Society

25TH ANNUAL DOWN HOME FAMILY REUNION, A CELEBRATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN FOLKLIFE
2015-08-15 16:00 - 23:00 (America/New_York) | Abner Clay Park, Brook Road and West Clay Street, Richmond, 23219, United States
The 25th Annual Down Home Family Reunion explores a full spectrum of music, dance, stories, food, shopping and enrichment in this weekend Celebration of African American Folklife. As Richmond’s Cultural Ambassador,
Elegba Folklore Society presents this cultural arts festival,
in this notable anniversary year, that takes attendees on a journey of heritage and folklore from West Africa into the Americas.
On Saturday, August 15, the 25th Annual Down Home Family Reunion will happen, 4:00 – 11:00 p.m., at Abner Clay Park, Belvidere and West Leigh Streets, downtown Richmond, VA in Historic Jackson Ward.
Join us — again this year (Yay!) — for this event designed to link West African and African American cultural traditions and to demonstrate ways these practices have influenced the American South.
The mainstage features the traditional music of Benin, West Africa, Latin Funk, The Down Home Blues, and, of course, Elegba Folklore Society’s African dancers, drummers, singers and masquerades.
This year’s headliner is none other than pioneering Philadelphia soul singing group THE DELFONICS!
The VIP Gold Circle
The VIP Gold Circle returns this year. Festival attendees may obtain special seating at the stage throughout the day, complimentary food and beverages and a private meet and greet with the 25th Annual Down Home Family Reunion’s headliner, The Delfonics. Tickets are $30.00 and available at below or by calling or visiting Elegba Folklore Society’s Cultural Center, 101 E. Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia, 804.644.3900

JUNETEENTH 2015, A FREEDOM CELEBRATION – ESU FESTIVAL
2015-06-21 04:00 - 19:00 | African Burial Ground, Broad and 15th Streets, Richmond, VA, 23219, United States
Sunday – June 21
• Esu Festival • 4:00-7:00pm • Free
• The Esu Festival happens at Richmond’s African Burial Ground, 16tth & Broad Streets.
►Ceremonies and rituals for healing and ancestral veneration lead by the Ile Ise Ejiogbe Ifá Temple.

JUNETEENTH 2015, A FREEDOM CELEBRATION - IN REFLECTION
2015-06-20 16:00 - 23:00 | Manchester Dock, 139 Virginia Street, Richmond, VA, 23219, United States
Saturday – June 20
• In Reflection • 4:00-11:00pm • Free
• The historic Manchester Dock, 1308 Brander Street 23224, on the south bank of the James River, was an entry port for Africans being brought into the Americas to be sold into slavery, and it is the site for In Reflection.
►Ashby Anderson’s Afrikan Arkestra will perform Anderson’s original composition, Undertones: An Aural Memorial for the African Burial Ground.
►Elijah Coles, the 11-year-old spoken word prodigy will recall the words of Frederick Douglass
►Elegba Folklore Society’s African dancers and drummers
►The Esu Festival’s Market Day featuring food, information exhibits, art and imports along with special engagement for children.
►Annual Torch Lit Walk on the Trail of Enslaved Africans, about 8pm, led by Elegba Folklore Society’s performers with African dance and music and staged interpretations happening at the Dock, at the Canal Walk’s Turning Basin, the Henry Brown Memorial, the Reconciliation Statue, at the site of the infamous Devil’s Half Acre (Lumpkin’s Jail) in Shockoe Bottom and at Richmond’s African Burial Ground at 16th and Broad Streets.

JUNETEENTH 2015, A FREEDOM CELEBRATION - THE SYMPOSIUM
2015-06-19 06:00 - 22:00 | VCU Campus (Academic Learning Commons, Room 1107), 1000 Floyd Avenue, Richmond, VA, 23284, United States
Juneteenth 2015, A Freedom Celebration’s The Symposium will feature elder activist, Bobby Seale, on June 19. Nearly 80 and a grandfather of four, Bobby Seale is the elder activist still speaking out on college campuses and in communities about the Black Panthers — founded as the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense with Huey P. Newton in 1966 — and about social justice issues, including voting rights, education, employment and equality. He shows the similarities of the 1960s protest movement with today’s activism. Then, his work followed that of Martin Luther King. “Dr. King was speaking about what we have to do to end this discrimination, this institutionalized racism,” Seale said. He recalls Dr. King urged members of the audience to boycott companies that refused to hire African Americans, bread companies in particular, saying, “We want to make Wonder Bread wonder where the money went.” Inspired and committed to speak out while nurturing from within, Seale informed that the Black Panther Party’s goals included decent education, full employment, housing, free preventive health care and an end to police brutality. According to the theme of Juneteenth 2015, A Freedom Celebration, Self Determination, Black Lives Matter — in 1865, in 1965 and, especially now, in 2015. Mr. Seale will address actions for African Americans in 2015.
Friday – June 19
• The Symposium • 6:00-10:00pm • $10 for 1 and $18 for 2
• The campus of Virginia Commonwealth University in the Academic Learning Commons, 1000 Floyd Avenue 23284, Room 1107.
►Bobby Seale (keynote speaker)
►Elegba Folklore Society’s African dancers, drummers and singers
►Celebrated jazz vocalist and actress, Desiree Roots will also appear.
►Exhibitors

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April 4: THE FUTURE IS NOW!
2015-04-04 18:00 - 2015-04-05 00:00 | Richmond’s African Burial Ground, Both Sides of the 1500 Block of E. Broad St., Richmond, 23219

April 4: BLUE COATS PARADE
2015-04-04 09:30 - 11:30 | E Main Street in route to the Capitol, Richmond, 23219
Please fill out the following form if you would like to participate in the Blue Coats Parade:

Standing on the shoulders of our African Ancestors, we are speaking our truth. This is an honest acknowledgement of the history that affects us all. Africans enslaved in America had names. They had spirit, they had intellect, they had dignity. We are because they were. We come from cultured and technical societies. They envisioned a future, and we are here. They resisted enslavement and fought for freedom from the beginning. They are empowering this moment. Today opens the way to tomorrow. Together we are elevating in Self Determination.

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April 3: SELF DETERMINATION!
2015-04-03 16:30 - 23:30 | Shockoe Bottom and Richmond’s African Burial Ground, Both Sides of the 1500 Block of E. Broad St., Richmond, 23219

Hidden Colors 2 + Live Music by UNIX!!!
2015-02-13 18:00 - 21:00 | Elegba Folklore Society’s Cultural Center, 101 E Broad St, Richmond, VA, 23219, United States
“Hidden Colors 2” is the follow-up to the critically acclaimed 2011 documentary about the untold history of people of African and aboriginal descent. This installment of goes into topics such as the global African presence, the science of melanin, the truth about the prison industrial complex, how thriving Black economic communities were undermined in America, the hidden truth about Native Americans, and much more.
Join us on Friday, February 13th @ 6p in the Ęlęgba Folklore Society Cultural Center for a special viewing of the film “Hidden Colors 2”. There will also be live music provided by Richmond, VA native, UNIX.
Unïx is a singer with a warm, magnetic personality who captures attention with his sound and lyrics. Blessed with a soulful voice with a spiritual undercurrent, Unix is unafraid to change his sound thriving in transformation. No genre lays claim to his message.

"CONGRUENT IMAGES" EXHIBITION AT ELEGBA FOLKLORE SOCIETY OPENS DURING FIRST FRIDAYS ARTWALK
2015-02-06 17:00 - 21:00 | Elegba Folklore Society’s Cultural Center, 101 E Broad St, Richmond, VA, 23219, United States
Richmond, VA • On February 6, 2015, Elegba Folklore Society will present paintings by veteran Richmond area artists P. Muzi Branch & William “Blue” Johnson in an exhibition entitled, Congruent Images. This showing will open with a public reception as a part of the First Fridays ArtWalk, 5p – 9p. Congruent Images will run through April 30.
These artists project the warm stories of African Diasporic heritage in the images of their subjects — people as individuals, playmates, colleagues and families as portrayed in an expressive moment of life — extracted before the viewers’ eyes and in relationship with heart.
Branch, who holds an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, has exhibited widely in and out of the United States. His work is a part of corporate and private collections. He is an artist educator and mentor, and he serves as Director of Cultural Programs at Virginia Commonwealth University Health Systems. An accomplished bassist, he is a part of the internationally recognized Plunky and Oneness.
Johnson is an artist educator whose iconic profiles are seen on canvasses, paper and apparel. He sees his work as a community resource and wants his work to reflect a continuum of aesthetic principles derived from Africa and America.

2014 Capital City Kwanzaa Festival
2014-12-27 13:00 - 21:00 | Altria Theater, 6 N Laurel St, Richmond, 23220, United States
Children under 12, Free! Group rates are available: story1@efsinc.org or 804.644.3900

REAL Black Fridays Sale
2014-12-26, 2014-12-19, 2014-12-12, 2014-12-05 | Elegba Folklore Society’s Cultural Center, 101 E Broad St, Richmond, VA, 23219, United States
This year skip all of the traffic, lines, and mall madness and give your loved ones the gift of culture… Join Elegba Folklore Society for the REAL#BLACKFRIDAY, and pick up items such as– Fine African art, imports, and crafts– Beautiful clothing, jewlery, and accessories
– Incense, oils, and shea butter
– Holiday ornaments
– and much more

Ancestral Homage is a Key to Wholeness
2014-11-19 17:00 - 21:00 | Hermes A. Kontos Medical Sciences Building Courtyard, 1217 East Marshall Street, Richmond, 23298
In April 1994, human bones and artifacts from the 19th century were discovered in an abandoned well uncovered during construction on Virginia Commonwealth University’s MCV Campus. The well’s contents are believed to have been discarded in the 1800s by medical staff.
These humans, mainly of African descent, were not shown the respect they were due, neither in life nor in death. The university is committed to moving forward in a manner reflecting the dignity that should be accorded these individuals and has created the East Marshall Street Well Project to facilitate a process with the community that ensures the remains receive appropriate study, memorialization and reburial.
Virginia Commonwealth University and the East Marshall Street Well Planning Committee for an open house and ceremony Wednesday, November 19, 2014 from 5p to 7:30p.
Be a part of the Processional that Precedes Remarks at 5:30p.
Elegba Folklore Society’s Libation Ceremony at 6p.
Hermes A. Kontos Medical Sciences Building Courtyard
1217 East Marshall Street
Richmond, Virginia 23298
Valet parking available

Join a Tour
2014-11-08 09:30 | Elegba Folklore Society’s Cultural Center, 101 E Broad St, Richmond, VA, 23219, United States
Join us on this Saturday, November 8th and experience the “In The Beginning… Virginia” tour. Journey into Richmond’s history to visit the sites where few monuments exist. Contact us at (804) 644-3900 for more details.

ĘLĘGBA FOLKLORE SOCIETY’S PERFORMERS PRESENT “A FIRE FOR FREEDOM" AT HENRICO’S HARVEST FESTIVAL
2014-10-18 13:45 - 16:00 | Meadow Farm, 3400 Mountain Road, Glen Allen, VA, 23060, United States
RICHMOND, VA • Ęlęgba Folklore Society’s performers will add a cultural history element to Henrico County’s October 18 Harvest Festival, with an original work, A Fire for Freedom, at Meadow Farm, 3400 Mountain Road, on Saturday, October 18 at 1:45p. The Society will give three consecutive presentations at The Barn. Admission is free.
Toussaint L’Ouverture changed the course of history.
In another sense, so did Patrick Henry.
And, then there was Gabriel.
He was a proud Black man, born into slavery but determined to be free.
At the age of 24, he organized what many historians consider the most extensive, well-planned attempt at a mass slave rebellion in U.S. history.
Every school child should know his story. There should be a statue of him on Virginia’s Capitol Square. Schools should be named after him. Bridges. Libraries. Cities.
Come to the area where he was enslaved, and see the plan unfold in A Free for Freedom.
A Fire for Freedom is an historical interpretation that chronicles the planning in August of 1800 of Gabriel’s Rebellion from the point of view of Gabriel and his cohorts. Families can attend and achieve a clearer understanding of the influences on and motivations for self determination, manhood and freedom from enslavement for all in Virginia in the setting where the planning occurred.
For more details call 804.644.3900.

African American Reflections on The Civil War (Dance Theatre)
2014-09-21 16:00 - 19:00 | Henrico Theatre, 305 E 9 Mile Rd, Highland Springs, VA, 23075, United States
Expect the “Wow” factor as you witness the lives and roles of Africans and Africa’s descendants unfold in this drama that informs and empowers. Music and dance punctuate the stories of the spirit and magic of Africa, conditions of enslavement, resistance, the Black Dispatches, United States Colored Troops, women in support, the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment. 90 minutes with an intermission. An ensemble reading is also available.

Comments from the Audience:
“Very thorough.”
“It was amazing how so much information could be presented in 90 minutes. I and my grandchildren were engaged throughout.”

ELEGBA FOLKLORE SOCIETY TO APPEAR IN CURTAINS UP! AT RICHMOND CENTERSTAGE
2014-09-14 18:00 - 20:00 | Carpenter Theatre, 600 E Grace St #400, Richmond, 23219, United States
Richmond, VA • Elegba Folklore Society’s widely acclaimed African dancers, drummers and singers will appear at Richmond CenterStage in a one-night-only special event entitled Curtains Up! to be held at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 14 at Richmond CenterStage in the historic Carpenter Theatre.
The Society’s exciting performers will present Tambour de Guinée. Among West Africa’s Manding, Tambour de Guinée (jen nay) affirms that a woman’s mystique is expressed in both femininity and power. This piece was choreographed by Guinea, West Africa’s Kadiatou Conte (kay dee ah too cohn tay) and features West African master artists, Mito Camara of Guinea and Fode Sissoko of Senegal.
The evening is a kick off the performing arts season and will feature the best that Richmond has to offer through the talents and artistic excellence of CenterStage’s resident companies, including Elegba Folklore Society, Henley Street Theatre & Richmond Shakespeare, Richmond Ballet, Richmond Symphony, School of the Performing Arts in the Richmond Community (SPARC), Virginia Opera and Virginia Repertory Theatre. The City Dance Theatre will also perform.
Attendees can come early for a pre-event gathering beginning at 5:00 p.m. in Rhythm Hall to learn more about Elegba Folklore Society’s upcoming programs and ways to get involved with the organization.
Tickets can be purchased at RichmondCenterStage.com, by phone at1-800-514-ETIX (3849) or at the CenterStage box office, located at 6th Street between Broad and Grace streets in downtown Richmond. Ticket prices begin at $25 for adults and $12 for children 15 and under. Ticket proceeds go to Richmond CenterStage in support of its resident companies.
About Elegba Folklore Society:
Elegba, from the Yoruba cosmology of West Africa, is an Orisa or intercessor who opens the roads, bringing clarity out of confusion. The Elegba Folklore Society is a year-round, lively celebration of African and African-American culture. Enjoy art and imports in our cultural center. Sway with our performance company in the warmth and feel of an African village. Awaken your spirit! Or, participate in a guided heritage tour, In the Beginning… Virginia, Along the Trail of Enslaved Africans and Other Notable Sites. The Capital City Kwanzaa Festival, Down Home Family Reunion, A Celebration of African American Folk Life, and Juneteenth: A Freedom Celebration are events that have delighted audiences during our 24 years. Richmond’s Cultural Ambassador, the Society offers the best in African Diasporic cultural experiences, promoting an understanding of the present by valuing the past. The Society hopes its programs and services are, indeed, road-opening experiences. Embrace the Spirit!

MASTER CLASSES • MASTER ARTISTS SATURDAY
2014-09-13 12:00 - 15:00 | Elegba Folklore Society’s Cultural Center, 101 E Broad St, Richmond, VA, 23219, United States
This Saturday’s The African Drum Workshop and African Dance & Cultural Traditions will feature Master Artists,
Senegal’s Fode Sissoko
and
Guinea’s Mamadouba Mito Camara.
Join us to play, dance or just be in the moment! Classes begin at noon on September 13.

Dance & Drumming Classes Resuming for the Fall Season with a Free Open House!!!
2014-09-06 11:00 - 14:00 | Elegba Folklore Society’s Cultural Center, 101 E Broad St, Richmond, VA, 23219, United States
What a busy and exciting summer we had! Now as the Fall season approaches, we would like to share with you the opportunity to join in on our African dance classes that take place in our Cultural Center on a weekly basis. Since this is official beginning to our Fall sessions, we would like to invite you to join in on a FREE lesson. All ages and skill levels welcome!
The African Drum Workshop, 11a
African Dance & Cultural Traditions
September 6, Free today as fall sessions begin
Buy 4 & get the 5th class free

RVA as Seen Through the Pinhole
2014-09-05 17:00 - 2014-12-04 17:00 | Elegba Folklore Society’s Cultural Center, 101 E Broad St, Richmond, VA, 23219, United States
Richmond, VA • RVA as Seen Through the Pinhole will open as a part of the First Friday’s ArtWalk, 5p – 9p on Friday, September 5 at Ęlęgba Folklore Society’s Cultural Center, 101 East Broad Street in the downtown RVA arts district at the corner of 1st and Broad. This exhibition of black and white photographs will be available through November 30. The artist, James W. Draper, Jr., produced the photographs using the techniques of pinhole photography.
RVA as Seen Through the Pinhole is a series of photographs depicting scenes around Richmond. This series demonstrates the artist’s fascination with the light tight box or camera obscura and its potential. Says Draper, “The pinhole camera is unconventional photography that challenges the analog in me. The pinhole gives me freedom to go beyond traditional photography.” Because the camera obscura functions like a projector or like a recorder, it can support creativity in the pinhole artist by producing unique images and ideas.
A pinhole camera and imagery to record will be included in the exhibition, and visitors to the cultural center can try it out.
Historically, and according to pinhole expert and enthusiast Anita Chernewski, the image-forming ability of a tiny hole is thought to have been known thousands of years ago by nomadic people of North Africa, who lived in animal skin tents. A pinhole in the tent would project an image of the brilliant scene outside. The pinhole photographic work of Afro Canadian artist Melinda Mollineaux commemorates the forgotten place of Cadboro Bay, where Black people gathered to celebrate Emancipation Day in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Photographer, Draper, with a Masters Degree from Virginia State University, is a retired educator in Richmond Public Schools. He has been a member of the Camera Club of Richmond, National Conference of Artists and the Virginia Educational Media Association, among others. He has taught photography at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College, and he has served as a staff photographer at Richmond Free Press.
Draper has exhibited widely around Virginia, and he has received numerous awards and honors in the field.

24th Annual Down Home Family Reunion August 16, 2014 (Family Festival)
2014-08-16 16:00 - 23:00 | Abner Clay Park, Brook Road and West Clay Street, Richmond, 23219, United States
Elegba Folklore Society Presents the 24th Annual Down Home Family Reunion, A Celebration of African American Folklife
This year’s theme is “Soul Connections”
Down Home Family Reunion, A Celebration of African American Folklife, is a weekend festival of world music and dance, a Heritage Market, children’s events — often powered by the children, themselves — interactive site demonstrations & down home healthy food. This is one of the Society’s original programs created in 1990 to connect aspects of West African cultural traditions with African Americans & to show their influence on the American South. Bringing the world home, audiences are exposed to the artistic expressions — performing and material – of African world cultures in a lively, colorful and informing celebration of heritage and light.
_____________________________________________
Saturday, 8/16, Family Festival
Abner Clay Park, 4p – 11p
Historic Jackson Ward
Downtown
Tickets:
VIP $35 for 1, $65 for 2
Featuring:
Ray, Goodman & Brown
Nathan & The Zydeco Cha-Chas
Proverbs Reggae Band
Elegba Folklore Society
The Winner of the New School Talent Contest (TBA)
VIP Seating includes:
☀ Comfortable Chairs in the Gold Circle
☀ Service of Your Favorite Foods & Beverages
☀ Onstage Meet & Greet with the Festival’s Headliner,
Ray, Goodman & Brown
☀ Photograph of Headliner for Autographing
You can also enjoy:
Heritage Market
Interactive Site Demos
New School Pavilion

24th Annual Down Home Family Reunion August 15, 2014 (Opening Night)
2014-08-15 18:00 - 22:00 | DoubleTree Hotel, 301 W Franklin St, Richmond, Richmond, 23220, United States
Elegba Folklore Society Presents the 24th Annual Down Home Family Reunion, A Celebration of African American Folklife
This year’s theme is “Soul Connections”
Down Home Family Reunion, A Celebration of African American Folklife, is a weekend festival of world music and dance, a Heritage Market, children’s events — often powered by the children, themselves — interactive site demonstrations & down home healthy food. This is one of the Society’s original programs created in 1990 to connect aspects of West African cultural traditions with African Americans & to show their influence on the American South. Bringing the world home, audiences are exposed to the artistic expressions — performing and material – of African world cultures in a lively, colorful and informing celebration of heritage and light.
_____________________________________________
Friday, 8/15, Opening Night
DoubleTree Hotel, 6p – 10p
Downtown
Tickets:
$15 for 1, $25 for 2
Featuring:
Toby Foyeh & Orchestra Africa
Comedian, Grave Digger
Elegba Folklore Society
Heritage Market
Complimentary Hors D’Oeuvres
Cash Bar

Élégba Folklore Society's performers present African Dance, Music & the Oral Tradition -- where art meets life.
2014-07-10 20:30 - 22:00 | Dogwood Dell, 6000 N. Boulevard, Richmond, 23220, United States
We are saving a seat for you in our audience! Bring a chair, a candle and good vibrations to Dogwood Dell this Thursday, July 10 at 8:30p in Byrd Park. Elegba Folklore Society’s performers present African Dance, Music & the Oral Tradition — where art meets life.
6000 N. Boulevard, Richmond, VA 23220 Free

Juneteenth 2014, A Freedom Celebration - Esu Festival
2014-06-22 13:00 - 17:00 | African Burial Ground, Broad and 15th Streets, Richmond, VA, 23219, United States
Sunday, June 22
Esu Festival
African Burial Ground • 1p – 5p • Free
Ile Ise Ejiogbe Ifá Temple guides Esu Festival’s ceremony and rituals for healing and ancestral veneration. Free.

Juneteenth 2014, A Freedom Celebration - In Reflection
2014-06-21 16:00 - 23:00 | Manchester Dock, 139 Virginia Street, Richmond, VA, 23219, United States
Saturday, June 21
In Reflection
Manchester Dock • 4p – 11p • Free
Performances, speakers, Esu Festival Market Day in the Freedom Market, children’s activities, Annual Torch Lit Night Walk Along the Trail of Enslaved Africans. Free

Juneteenth 2014, A Freedom Celebration - The Symposium
2014-06-20 18:00 - 22:00 | Pine Camp Arts Center, 4901 Old Brook Rd, Richmond, VA, 23227, United States
Friday, June 20
The Symposium
Pine Camp Arts Center • 6p – 10p • $10
Dr. Umar Johnson, Psychologist, Author & Expert on the Education of Afrikan American Children
Ęlęgba Folklore Society’s African Dancers and Drummers
Live Jazz with Sketches.
Esu Festival begins.
Complimentary hors d’oeuvres, Freedom Market.

Tickets are moving fast so purchase your tickets in advance: here

Juneteenth 2014, A Freedom Celebration - Lira In Concert @ The Hippodrome Theatre
2014-06-19 19:00 - 23:00 | Hippodrome Theatre, 528 N 2nd St., Richmond, VA, 23219, United States
Thursday, June 19
Lira In Concert
Hippodrome Theatre • 7p- 11p • $20
Lira, Platinum Selling South African Singer blends R&B, jazz & African styles.
This is her US debut album release, Rise Again.
Essence Magazine’s one of “Five Unique Artists To Change Music in 2012”
Hosted by Jarrard Anthony, Virginia Black Music Foundation

Tickets are moving fast so purchase yours in advance: here

In the Beginning… Virginia, Along the Trail of Enslaved Africans
2014-04-26 13:30 - 17:30
Join us on theTrail on April 26. This time the organizer is the Remembering Slavery, Resistance and Freedom Project. How should we address the legacies of slavery? Events and exhibits have, according to the project, been occurring to “commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation by revealing the enormous influence free and enslaved Africans and, later [sic] African-Americans have had on Virginia. While sites related to African-American labor, life, struggle, and resilience are numerous in Virginia, many state residents and visitors are unaware of these sites and the history they represent.”
