Kate Hymes, Matsiko World Orphans Choir from Liberia, Juma Sultan Aboriginal Society and more to Perform during a Community Open Day

HRMM hosts a Community Open Day in conjunction with the tall ship Amistad’s visit to Kingston

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

MEDIA ALERT

Contact: Kirsty Gaukel, [email protected]

Join us on Wednesday. August 7, as HRMM hosts a Community Open Day in conjunction with the tall ship Amistad’s visit to Kingston. The Amistad is a replica of the 19th century ship, La Amistad, which became widely known for the 1839 uprising of enslaved captives from Sierra Leone who overthrew the crew and commandeered the ship into waters off the coast of New York. Learn about the Amistad uprising with pay what you can deck tours of the ship, and enjoy African drumming, dancing, free live music and entertainment dockside in the Museum's yard. Tickets and more information can be found at www.hrmm.org/amistad.

More than 100 local musicians, drummers, singers, and dancers will provide free entertainment from 3pm –7pm. A full lineup is listed below. On this flexibly-priced day, the schooner is open for self-exploration from 10am through 8pm, with entry every 30 minutes. A reservation is still required; please reserve for each member of your party for the amount that works for your budget. (You can select different amounts for different members of your party; e.g., you may book one person at $10 and three people at $0.)
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Support for the event is provided by Hudson Valley Credit Union, Radio Kingston, and Stewarts.

Matsiko World Orphans Choir from Liberia, Energy, Kate Hymes, Amadou Diallo, CCE Drummers, Juma Sultan

ENTERTAINMENT SCHEDULE

3:00pm Ms. Rene Bailey (Gospel and the Spiritual)
Ms. Bailey has had a remarkable career. She first started singing gospel as a young girl in the church that her family attended back home in Georgia. Moving north to Connecticut, she hit the New York City music scene where she sang blues and jazz. The transition from gospel to nightclub work came naturally. She spent 20 years as a featured vocalist at the Peg Leg Bates Country Club and for an equally long time she has fronted the Saints of Swing. Combining gospel, jazz, and rhythm/blues, she has performed with such great artists as Louis Armstrong, B.B. King, Aretha Franklin, Dave Brubeck, Ruth Brown, Paul Anka, Sam Cooke, and many more. Meanwhile, she kept her church roots, and today she is  the music director for Samsonville United Methodist Church.

3:30pm     Ulster County Poet Laureate, Kate Hymes
Kate Hymes is a writer and poet living in New Paltz, NY. She has led Wallkill Valley Writers workshops for over twenty years. Writers who have written with her have dubbed her the story doula. Her poems have been published in national and regional anthologies, most recently mightier: Poets for Social Justice, published by Calling All Poets, 2020. She is currently working on poems inspired by the history of people of African descent in New Paltz and Ulster County. She serves as Vice President of the Board of the Dr. Margaret Wade-Lewis Center for Black History and Culture. She is the 2024 Ulster County Poet Laureate, the first to be appointed by Arts Mid-Hudson. 

3:50pm   CCE Drummers

4:10pm Drumsong Orchestra of The Hudson Valley
The Drumsong Orchestra is a community ensemble of Women Drummers and Percussionists from beginner to professional founded by Ubaka Hill—a nationally known percussionist, poet, singer/songwriter, inspirational speaker, visual artist, teaching artist and facilitator of sacred ceremony. The Drumsong Orchestra of the Hudson Valley is a multi-cultural women's drums and percussion performance ensemble. All members participate in regular "playshops" with an opportunity to perform at public events and festivals. All women and all skills levels are welcome to participate.

The Drumsong Orchestra is a community ensemble of Women Drummers and Percussionists from beginner to professional founded by Ubaka Hill—a nationally known percussionist, poet, singer/songwriter, inspirational speaker, visual artist, teaching artist and facilitator of sacred ceremony. The Drumsong Orchestra of the Hudson Valley is a multi-cultural women's drums and percussion performance ensemble. All members participate in regular "playshops" with an opportunity to perform at public events and festivals. All women and all skills levels are welcome to participate. 

4:40pm Matsiko World Orphans Choir from Liberia
Since 2008, the Matsiko World Orphan Choir has brought together our world's orphaned and vulnerable children to share their story of turning the pain of loss, hunger, and hopelessness into personal empowerment through music, dance, storytelling, and the importance of a complete education to break the cycle of poverty. We believe every child has dignity and worth no matter their background. Matsiko World Orphan Choir uses the unifying power of music to uplift every child, bring joy to all who listen, and to inspire generosity that provides a complete education for vulnerable children. Choir members receive a full tuition scholarship through college or university in their home country, and while on tour receive 1:1 school tutoring, improvement of their English language skills, and a cross-culture experience.

5:00pm     CCE Dancers and Drummers
Energy is an Award Winning Dance Company of Kingston, NY. Award Winning Energy Dance Company of Kingston, NY has swept the valley with its fresh and entertaining Hip-Hop, Reggae and Latin dance styles. They have won awards at B.E.T’s segment of “Wild Out Wednesday” and “Showtime at the Apollo” at the world famous Apollo Theater.  They have competed in The Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic in Columbus, Ohio, winning first place in all four dance categories from youth to adults. In addition, they won first place in Hollywood Dance Competition held in Connecticut.  They have performed in the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Culver City, California where they were privileged to dance alongside well known choreographers for various artists.  Energy was the opening act for “America’s Best Dance Crew” and was named Albany’s “Number One Dance Crew” in Albany, New York.

5.15pm Amadou Diallo (Duet Drumming, Singing, Storytelling)
Amadou Diallo is a percussionist from Senegal, West Africa, he has made his home in the Hudson Valley since 2001. Amadou enthusiastically shares his culture with children and adults, since arriving he’s done hundreds of performances, workshops, presentations and classes on West African culture and traditional African rhythms. He has done this for both independently in collaboration with and as a guest artist with other area groups and performers. Amadou teaches children in the TOPs program in the Kingston city school district and has an ongoing adult class in the Living Seed Yoga studio in New Paltz, New York. Amadou‘s classes are in the Djembe tradition and feature hand drums and large stick drums called Dun Duns.

5.40pm Maxwell Kofi Donkor
Maxwell Kofi Donkor is an internationally recognized artist and master cultural educator who is most known for his performances and teaching in African Drumming and Dance. For many decades, he has focused on building communities through the arts – teaching students of every age about the authentic histories and cultural celebrations which are still observed to this day. A native of Ghana, Africa, Kofi learned drumming at the knee of his grandfather, a master drummer, as well as learning traditional dances. Kofi also makes drums other traditional instruments of Ghana and teaches the arts of relief sculpture, Adinkra symbolism, mask-making, and more.

6:20pm    Juma Sultan Aboriginal Society
Juma Sultan is a legendary musician, producer, educator and activist whom has collaborated with such luminary artists as Jimi Hendrix, Sonny Simmons, Archie Shepp, Pharaoh Sanders, James “Blood” Ullmer, Dave Burell, Sam Rivers and many more.
A prolific sound recordist, Juma personally documented over 1,500 hours of music pertaining to the Loft and Free Jazz Era between the 60’s and 80’s, accumulating what is widely considered one of the most important archives of American Music, and later receiving a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts to help preserve the collection at Clarkson University.
Juma Sultan wrote and recorded with Jimi Hendrix from 1968 until the guitarist’s death. His work appears on numerous Hendrix recordings that were released posthumously. In addition to Woodstock, Juma also appeared with Hendrix on the Dick Cavett television show, and many other public appearances.
In 1972, Juma formed the New York Musicians Organization (“NYMO”) which organized concerts to protest unfair programming at the Newport Jazz Festival, and also started Studio We, with friend James DuBois, which became an integral part of the Loft Jazz scene – giving musicians a place to perform and develop.
In the early 80’s, Juma Sultan worked with the Fairlight CMI, an extremely complicated early version of the sampler. In addition to producing works for it, Juma spent two years rewriting the manual so that musicians without prior technical knowledge could understand it.
In addition to serving as an interview subject on countless books and documentaries on the life of Jimi Hendrix, Juma Sultan is the subject of an e-book by Stephen D. Farina, published by Wesleyan University Press, entitled “Reel History:The Lost Archive of Juma Sultan and the Aboriginal Music Society”, which is an imaginative, multimedia work detailing the story of the Aboriginal Music Society and how Juma Sultan’s extensive Jazz recordings came to be archived at Clarkson University.

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Ms. Rene Bailey, Drumsong Orchestra of The Hudson Valley, and Maxwell Kofi Donkor

ABOUT AMISTAD

Amistad is what is known as top-sail schooner, or a Baltimore Clipper – a recreation of what historians believe to be the best representation of what La Amistad would have looked like on the outside in 1839. 

The impetus for the building of Amistad came from Warren Q. Marr II, former editor of the NAACP's The Crisis magazine. Marr's inspiration for the recreation emerged during Operation Sail 1976, a tall ship festival held that year in New York Harbor. Participating in that event was a representation of La Amistad; it was actually an old Western Union vessel with its name temporarily hidden under signs proclaiming her Amistad. 
Marr wanted the story of the African captives' fight for freedom on the seas, in a New Haven court and in a landmark United States Supreme Court case, to be told. Marr's goal was to design the re-created vessel as a floating exhibit and classroom, assemble a crew, and sail her from port to port teaching the history of The Amistad Incident of 1839. Marr believed the Amistad story could foster unity among people of diverse backgrounds and help improve race relations.

In the late 90s, Mystic Seaport embraced the Amistad project because it contains many elements consistent with the Museum's mission "to create a broad, public understanding of the relationship of America and the sea." Amistad became the first and largest vessel ever constructed at Mystic Seaport, where shipyard staff coordinated construction with students from vocational schools in Connecticut and with volunteers.
Discovering Amistad picks up the mantle of Warren Marr with our mission of championing the important issues of racial and social justice framed, literally and metaphorically, by the Amistad story.

The Hudson River Maritime Museum is dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of the maritime history of the Hudson River, its tributaries and related industries. In addition to extensive collections documenting maritime transportation, industry, recreation, and natural science, the museum offers classes and programs at its Wooden Boat School, Sailing and Rowing School, and aboard Solaris, the 100% solar powered tour boat and floating classroom. The museum is located along the historic Rondout waterfront in downtown Kingston. Visit www.hrmm.org for more information.

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