PRESS RELEASE:

West Chester gives World Rhythms™ a grand

send-off to Senegal, West Africa!

On November 20, the West Chester Area School District Council for the Arts has invited Tony Vacca and his World Rhythms™ trio to perform at the first family night concert of this school year. Tony has worked and performed in many of our schools and is a perennial favorite with the children. The World Rhythms™ ensemble is known for their exotic instruments from gongs to balafons, djembe to mbira, djun-djuns to shekerés, which are their tools to reflect the multi-cultural sources of rhythms in America. Joining Tony will be Sekou Sylla, a dancer/percussionist who comes to us from "Les Ballets Africain," the national touring group of Guinea, West Africa. Joe Sallins, bass guitarist extraordinaire, will round out the group. Tickets are $3.00 for adults and $2.00 for children 12 and under and are available through the PTA's of each school. The concert will be at Henderson High School from 7:00 until 9:00 pm.

Then it's off to Africa! From December 2 - 16, 1998, Tony Vacca, together with his World Rhythms™ band, and accompanied by Mrs. Kern, the computer teacher at Fugett Middle School, will be traveling to Senegal to visit and work with Afro-pop superstar Baaba Maal and his ensemble. The main purpose of this cross-cultural collaboration is to demonstrate how peoples from opposite sides of the world can not only create ways of communicating and working together, but also can emphasize and document the very real treasure of our diversity.

*** While the World Rhythms™ ensemble and crew are actually in West Africa, Fugett Middle School and many other schools all over the United States will be keeping in touch with the them daily via Internet email and updates to Fugett's web page. Any school, elementary through college level, who would like to join Fugett and share in this live on-line adventure, can call Mrs. Kern at 436-7176 or email them at fmskids@inet.net to join up.

MESSAGE FROM MRS. KERN: At Fugett, we have already begun the journey by speaking with our social studies classes. The excitement on our students' faces was a sight to behold as they were practically jumping out of their seats to express questions that they wanted to ask their peers in the cities and villages of Senegal. Our students are already planning what pictures of our lives they want to send to the kids over there. From pets to sneakers, holiday celebrations to school dances, clothes fasteners to native animals and plants, calendars to money systems, they showed their boundless curiosity for the far away culture that we are going to visit. And, of course, knowing Tony from previous assemblies and workshops at their schools gives it a special personal touch for the students.

While the team is in Senegal, through daily web site updates and email exchanges we will be:

* Answering the students' questions posed here prior to our departure

* Relating our daily personal and cultural experiences

* Sending photos of people, events, nature, and artwork

* Posing questions that can be debated in the classroom (or family living room)

* Interviewing children, teachers, musicians, village elders and Griots (historians)

* Transmitting a daily mystery photo for use as a class puzzle

* Sharing quotes from Wolof and Fulani wisdom

* Asking for student opinions and advice as we travel

For future follow up and connections, we will be giving each participating school a video that we make of the Senegalese children as we meet them on the trip. In addition, we hope to establish long term US/Senegal pen pals and perhaps even foreign exchange visits. Of course, any of the schools can invite Tony Vacca to come for an in person school program between January and June to hear stories of the trip first hand and to experience the music as it has been passed to him. There's a good chance of Massamba Diop joining Tony here on tour in April, and he would love to join Tony for the school visits. Hopefully, this will be only the first annual in a series of real/virtual visits to Africa.

MESSAGE FROM TONY VACCA: Our host, Senegal's Afro-pop superstar, Baaba Maal, speaks of respecting elders, working together, and being "true to your word." He unites young and old, city and village people. He is a voice of reason and national pride, a voice for tolerance and awareness, a voice for cooperation and compassionate embracing of common ground.

My work in the schools here in the US has shown me the profound curiosity our children have for the music and culture of Africa. By bringing them with us on our journey, live on the Internet, we hope to answer many of their questions and open their eyes to the wonders on the other side of the world. In the process of building friendships overseas, it is our deepest hope that they will also open their minds and hearts to their own neighbors, to the student sitting across the aisle from them in class, to all the members of our American family.

(We are asking each participating school for a donation of $150 to cover the on-line costs of this project. We are also open to corporate sponsorship.)

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