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News
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Lithuania
Multicultural Menu Features Rock, African
Rhythms, and Fusion
On May 6th, starting
at 7pm at the Balti Drambliai ("White Elephant")
Cafe in Vilnius, Lithuania, the Minciu Sodas Laboratory
("Orchard of Thoughts", at www.ms.lt)
has organized a multicultural menu of musical
and artistic talent, including American JB Willit,
Plazi and Afroband (from Togo, Liberia, and Nigeria),
and Lithuanian sculptor-poet Algirdas Zokaitis,
among others. There will be an open mic, and all
are encouraged to bring drums!
The Cafe, located at Vitalius Perkauskas, Vilniaus
g. 41 in Vilnius, is at +370 (5) 262 0875 (telephone),
and see www.baltidrambliai.com
or write to info@baltidrambliai.com
for more information. The musicians themselves
can be reached at +370 (608) 70684 (spokesperson,
JB Willit) or +370 (603) 306286 (program director,
Plazi). And concert organizer, Andrius Kulikauskas
(head of Minciu Sodas), can be reached at +370
(699) 30003, Grudu g 6, Vilnius LT-11306, ms@ms.lt.
JB Willit, a native of Oakland, California, is
a metalsmith, mason, glassblower, and musician,
whose musical influences include Tool, Alice in
Chains, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Bjork,
Annie Lennox, Black Sabbath, and Bob Marley. There
is no more moving tribute to JB, as both a person
and artist, than the one his brother, Richard,
has posted at http://people.tribe.net/jbwillit.
He writes: "JB is my brother and there are
many things I like about him, but the biggest
thing I admire is that--when life has hit him
hard and knocked him down--he gets right back
up and starts the good fight for life again. JB
is a very talented mason and musician: the two
occupations may not seem to go hand in hand, but
I have worked with him and what he can do with
bricks, stones, and mortar is an art in itself.
I have watched him compose and sing: his knowledge,
skill, and artistic sensitivity in performing
his music reminds me of Johnny Cash (just a different
kind of music), because he has had to teach himself
while going down a very rough road of life."
Plazi,
originally from Togo, is the lead singer of Afroband--one
of the most talked-about new groups in Lithuania--who
say they are hoping to create a Lithuanian fusion
music, based in part on the rhythms of West Africa.
Afroband has played on national TV and at Lithuania's
Independence Day celebrations, has been played
on the radio--providing the music for a political
talk show about immigration--and has jammed live
with some of Lithuania's most popular musicians.
The
band was born in the Pabrade Centre for Immigrants,
home at the time for its four members, who arrived
here from Liberia, Nigeria, and Togo. In a country
whose population is overwhelmingly white, it is
rare to see a black person, even in Vilnius. Plazi
says that he thinks exposure to Afroband's music
is changing some people's minds about immigrants
to Lithuania, and that their popularity is a sign
of change, as the country--which is for the first
time receiving immigrants from across the world--starts
to embrace other cultures as part of its own.
For more see news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4723268.stm.
During the concert, Minciu Sodas will be hoping
to sign up interested people for the work of its
online laboratories, among these being the working
group Holistic Helping (in English)--led by OWB
News Director, Janet Feldman--which seeks to learn
how we can create local and global ripple effects
as we help each other (groups.yahoo.com/group/holistichelping).
And Talka (in Lithuanian), led by Zenonas Anusauskas,
to learn how we can collectively manifest our
creativity (groups.yahoo.com/group/talka).
This is the second year Minciu Sodas has participated
in One World Beat: in 2005, members organized
a joint Lithuanian-Austrian "drums and bells"
event to celebrate the first day of spring--the
original Earth Day--which occurred during the
festival. We thank them for donating their time
and talents, for their caring, and for their invaluable
work, which illuminates, inspires, and truly makes
a difference.
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