About
About
“It’s About ‘The Movement,’ Not Only The Steps: Honoring Sankofa in the Afrofuture” brings together key figures, trailblazers, and artists to take a deep dive into the origins, migrations, and evolution of African dance and music in the West. 2025 Mellon Folklorist in Residence Aissatou Bey-Bara will lead us in a dialogue with elders through a Sankofa lens by honoring the past, celebrating the present, and mapping the future.
The political uprising in the late 1960s became a catalyst for a growing need and desire for cultural awareness across various disciplines across African American communities. Developed across all genres of artistry, these elders will uncover their profound personal journeys in preserving African music and dance. Together, they will explore how they rooted themselves in community and share how the Black Power movement catalyzed their commitment to African music and dance.
Mama Aissatou Bey Bara is a creative and cultural warrior known for community activism, folkloric knowledge, and iconic style! Mama Aissatou is a continuing Drum Song Society/Sabar Ak Ru Afriq African Dance Club member with Baba Obara Wali Rahman Ndiaye and the late Mama Andara Koumba Rahman Ndiaye. She has performed at Dance Africa on several occasions with the company and continues as a company elder with the Drum Song Society. She continues pursuing her cultural work as a Board Member of The Council of Elders for African Cultural Heritage and archival work in NYC as an active member of The Black Memory Workers Group.
The event will be moderated by Camille Lawrence, Archivist and Curator of “We Not New To This, We True To This” initiative at The Hemispheric Institute, which will be documented and preserved in the Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library (HIDVL).
Bios
Aissatou Bey-Bara, Mellon Folklorist Artist in Residence Spring 2025
Aissatou Bey Bara is a creative and cultural warrior known for community activism, folkloric knowledge, and iconic style! She lives in Harlem—five generations strong—and participates on many community boards, promoting and directing cultural programming. Mama Aissatou has taught and spoken nationally and internationally, but her cultural journey began with Hati Ast Hasifa Abdur Rahman & Abdul Rahman in Harlem in the 1960s. She was the dance caption for the Weusi Umoja Dancers & Drummers, guided by the Onyango family collective in Baltimore. That collective then joined with the African Heritage Dancers & Drummers under the direction of Baba Melvin Deal in Washington, D.C.
Aissatou is a continuing Drum Song Society/Sabar Ak Ru Afriq African Dance Club member with Baba Obara Wali Rahman King and the late Mama Andara Koumba Rahman King. Aissatou has performed at Dance Africa with the company and continues as an elder with the Drum Song Society. In supporting the initiatives of the Drum Song Society, Aissatou aided in developing a collaboration on cultural projects with the then newly formed Department of Homeless Services to offer cultural programming to children living in temporary housing and supported by the Department of Cultural Affairs, Department of Human Resources, and the Board of Education.
Aissatou offers her experience and expertise in various cultural institutions across cultural communities nationally, including Hawaii, and has contributed internationally to the University of Ghana in Legon, West Africa, Senegal, and South Africa. She continues pursuing her cultural work as a Board Member of The Council of Elders for African Cultural Heritage and archival work in NYC as an active member of The Black Memory Workers Group.
As a Spring 2025 Mellon Folklorist in Residence at the Hemispheric Institute, Bey Bara will curate a collection of her archival interviews with peer elder artists, scholars, and folklorists for the Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library (HIDVL). Additionally, she will participate in public programs throughout Spring 2025.
Baba Obara Wali Rahman Ķing
Baba Wali was born in 1947 and has been involved in the performing arts since the age of three. As a child, he performed at Church socials and community and school talent shows, singing and dancing into his teen years. For the past 60 years, his focus has been in the realm of African traditional arts, drums, dance, music, and philosophy. Throughout his years as a Master Journeyman Artist, musician, choreographer, and artistic director, he has had the opportunity to study with many of the great masters of African music, drum, dance and spiritual science, as well as Black theater. Wali has always sought ways and means of bringing the light of that knowledge into our African American communities. He has written and directed several African choreo-dramas that have been produced at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the DanceAfrica Festival, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, and the Museum of Natural History, and has several recordings to his credit. He has made significant contributions to the development of DanceAfrica from its inception to the present, and has performed on national and international stages. For the past 35 years he has been a distinguished member of the DanceAfrica Council of Elders. Baba Obara Wali Rahman Ķing brings over 55 years of teaching African drum, music, and dance experience to the table for the benefit of our communities.
Darlene Blackburn
Dancer and choreographer Darlene Blackburn was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 12, 1942. Her mother, Cora, was a homemaker and her stepfather, Richard, worked for the Ford Motor Company. The oldest of four children, Blackburn attended the Chicago Public Schools, earning her high school diploma in 1960. She later returned to school, earning her B.A. degree from Northeastern Illinois University in 1984 and her M.S. from Chicago State University in 1987.
Blackburn began dancing at an early age, and was heavily influenced by some of her teachers, including Jimmy Payne, Tommy Sutton, Lucille Evans, and Tommy Gomez. In 1963, she first started becoming aware of her blackness through Phil Cohran, her life mentor, and that same year she founded the Darlene Blackburn Dance Troupe. Influenced by Margaret Burroughs to study ethnic dance, Blackburn traveled to Jamaica in 1967, studying with the Jamaica National Dance Company. She continued to study foreign dance techniques, spending time in Ghana and Nigeria in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Returning to the United States, Blackburn became the Artist-in-Residence at Purdue University in 1974, where she remained until 1976. The following year, she, along with ten members of her dance troupe, were invited to Lagos, Nigeria, to participate in the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture. Following the enthusiastic response to their performance, Blackburn was invited to become the Artist-in-Residence at the University of Calabar in Nigeria, where she remained for the next three years. In 1983, Blackburn and her dancers began working with Urban Gateways, an arts education agency in Chicago, and over the next few years they sent her throughout the Caribbean to study dance.
Blackburn has worked as a dance instructor at a number of institutions, including the Calumet Career Preparatory Academy, the Chicago Boys and Girls Club, the Goodman Theatre and Mostly Music, Inc. She has also served as choreographer for a number of productions, including Benito Cereno at the Goodman Theatre and The Lion and the Jewel at the University of Chicago. She has also been honored numerous times, including receiving the Outstanding Achievement in Dance Award from Ladies of Distinction and the Alyo Award from the Muntu Theatre of Chicago.
Kimosha P. Murphy
Kimosha Murphy is a choreographer, educator, and cultural ambassador who bridges the worlds of dance, cultural preservation, and arts education for multi-generational communities! As a former Principal Dancer with MUNTU Dance Theatre, she contributed as an artist, youth arts education coordinator, and leader, earning Outstanding Service Awards. Kimosha has performed at BAM, Lincoln Center, Central Park, The Kennedy Center, and international dance stages across the globe.
Beyond the stage, she continued her academic and artistic journey, studying at The School of Performing Arts at The University of Ghana at Legon, Diop University, across Senegal, Ghana, and Gambia. Through her commitment to education, she honed her expertise in West African dance, honoring traditions from Mali, Senegal, Ghana, and Gambia. For 25+ years, she served as the Artistic Director of ALYO Children’s Dance Theatre, inspiring generations of youth through programs rooted in African diaspora traditions and offering residencies and performances that enriched communities nationwide.
Throughout her career, Kimosha has received numerous grants and awards from the MacArthur Foundation, Illinois Arts Council, Department of Cultural Affairs of Chicago, Department of Children & Family Services, Move Me Soul, and many other grassroots organizations. Kimosha is currently a faculty member at The Theater School of DePaul University. She continues to implement innovative practices as a choreographer and arts educator, shaping graduate and undergraduate theatre productions. Kimosha remains committed to empowering artists and is vital to Chicago’s arts education and cultural landscape through dance, rhythm, and voice.
