Africa and The World 2025
Zahra Moves presented an incredible experience of Ghanaian Traditional song and dance. Their drummers shared a musical interlude which brought us to the West Coast of the continent. Followed by an energetic dance segment by the ZahraMoves Performance Team. They invited the audience to sing, clap, and dance along. They wanted everyone to experience the communal aspect of West African dance and drum, and we did!
Zahramoves.com @Zahra_Moves (Facebook/Instagram)
ZahraMoves is an educational and performance-based company founded in 2019 by dance educator/artist Zahra Badua.
We are grateful to Nana Yaa Yeboaa for presenting her original poetry to us as part of this concert.
Nana Yaa Yeboaa is an author, nurse, performance poet, author motivational speaker, an oral historian, storyteller, philanthropist, and host of the Nana Yaa Yeboaa podcast.
She began her storytelling journey as a child in Ghana, learning traditional Ananse stories from the elders . This influenced her passion for literature and education.
www.philjoemultimedia.com / https://www.youtube.com/@Philjoe / https://www.instagram.com/nanayaayeboaashow/
Butterfly Band brought the house down with their amazing highlife rhythms! We were dancing in our seats, in the aisles, and at the front by the stage!
Master percussionist Kofi Ackah, son of Jewel Ackah, was born into a musical family in the town of Ema, Ghana. His father is known as the King of Highlife in Ghana, one of the best Highlife musicians in the world. His father was his mentor. The first band he played with was his father’s, known as The Butterfly Six band. After that Kofi moved to Canada and joined The Highlife Stars with Pat Thomas and Theo Yao Boakye. He also joined the Afronubians band of Tarig Abubakar. He contributed in recordings, and toured across Canada.
Crochet Storm: Coziness Squared imagines the intersection of art and community practice in a designed urban setting. This exhibition featured both the works of crocheters from Bridging Communities, and a community crochet circle led by some of the project participants. The audience was encouraged to both view the works, and join in with crocheting during the exhibition. Works for the exhibition were collected as part of the Bridging Communities project. Bridging Communities is bringing people together across the Bay of Quinte and Eastern Ontario in yarn storming Belleville’s Upper Front Street Bridge. To find out more about Bridging Communities, where you can join free community crochet circles to participate in this project, or about the work going into this exhibition, please visit https://artwithpassion.ca/bridging-communities
Emebet Belete is an artist and educator who was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A graduate of the Addis Ababa Fine Arts School, and Queen’s University, Kingston, her artistic practice reflects her cross-cultural observations living in Ethiopia, Canada and Asia. Her work ranges from oil and acrylic, to collage and mixed media, and can be found at the National Museum of Ethiopia, the Ethiopian National Institute of Culture, the TEDA Archives (Tianjin, China) and in private collections around the world. Emebet is a recipient of Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts creation grants, as well as education and project grants from the OAC and the City of Belleville, which she uses to teach and encourage the arts in schools and the community. She is currently leading the Bridging Communities project. You can see her work at www.emebet.ca, and sign up for art classes at www.artwithpassion.ca.
