"Senegalese Culture and the Arts": Brown bag talk, Skillman Library

Topic:

“The Mourides, the Baye Fall, Senegalese Culture and the Arts”

Featuring guest speakers: Dr. Ousmane Sène, Universitè Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal;

Cheikh Lô, Senegalese musician and singer; and Professor Wendy Wilson-Fall, Associate

Professor and Chair of Africana Studies, Lafayette College

The appearance of Cheikh Lô & The Ndiguel Band from Dakar, Senegal is part of Tapestries: Voices Within Contemporary Muslim Cultures, a campus-wide initiative designed to explore the multiplicity of Muslim artistic expressions flourishing on the world stage today.

Lô is a member of the Baye Fall, a movement within the Mouride Sufi order of Islam, which accounts for 40% of the population of Senegal. A laidback crooner with a high, tremulous tone, his voice can suddenly drop to the bassline of Afro-beat, where Cuban influences still hold sway amid the rippling polyrhythms of mbalax – Senegalese dance music. Cross-pollinating with Ghanaian high-life and Jamaican reggae, Lô sings of peace, love, and steadfast spirituality. “Cheikh Lô has a voice that can move from a prescient whisper to a searing gut cry…an eclectic composer and arranger who tries new ideas on every song” (NPR).  He performs at the Williams Center for the Arts, also Wednesday, September 27 at 8:00 p.m.

Tour of the exhibit “The Paintings of Yelimane Fall” follows.

Brown bag lunch provided, while supplies last – arrive early – Admission is free