At an annual Native American speaker series held at Tufts University last winter, Aquinnah Cultural Center program director Linda Coombs saw a performance by a women’s musical group that simply blew her away. Of course, she wasn’t yet the program director at the time, but when she took on the role in May of this year, she knew she wanted the group, Ulali, to be part of the cultural center’s summer season schedule.
Marafanyi
The Marafanyi beats go on, from Sunday, August 22, through Tuesday August 24: workshops where adults, children and families together can learn West African drum, dance and song will be held at the Chilmark Community Center. For details and registration, e-mail Mary Ambulos at [email protected] or see online marafanyi.com.
All or none. That’s what is listed under religion on Nora Guthrie’s birth certificate. Even with folksinger Woody Guthrie as a father and a famous Yiddish poet for a grandmother in a densely populated Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, N.Y., Ms. Guthrie grew up in a household where religion was understood to be a personal connection for each individual.
At six o’clock on Tuesday, State Beach seems as it does any other day of the week at this time. Calm waves lap the shore as seagulls fly above and toddlers race through the sand.
Singing the Stories
Ulali, the Native American a cappella singing group. has performed nearly everywhere: the Smithsonian’s Folkways 50th Anniversary Gala at Carnegie Hall, Woodstock 94, the Hollywood Bowl, the New Orleans Jazz Festival, Madison Square Garden, even the Olympics. They have traversed the world too. From Fiji to New Caledonia; Portugal to Brazil.
And on Wednesday, August 25, at 5:30 p.m. they play the Aquinnah Cultural Center.
Smooth Jazz
Enjoy an evening of contemporary chamber jazz in Vineyard Haven on Sunday, with a new jazz ensemble consisting of professional musicians from West Tisbury and Chilmark: Eric Johnson on electric and nylon-string guitar, Tauras Biskis on percussion, and Boaz Kirschenbaum on fretless bass guitar.
The concert is on August 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the Katharine Cornell Theatre on Spring street in Vineyard Haven. The program will feature the music of Pat Metheny and Jaco Pastorius.