Deputy Minister Rejoice Mabudafhasi to deliver an address at the Ubuntu Arts and Culture Festival in New York
The Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture, Ms Rejoice Mabudafhasi, is in the United States of America (USA) to participate at the Ubuntu Music and Arts of South Africa festival taking place from 10 October to 5 November 2014.The festival forms part of the 20Years of Freedom celebrations.
The collapse of apartheid in 1994 heralded a new consciousness that places value in the arts, culture and heritage sectors. The Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) is charged with the responsibility of developing, preserving and promoting South African arts and culture to stimulate nation building, social cohesion and economic development. “The Ubuntu festival is a strategic platform to promote South African arts and culture to international markets. The festival offers us an opportunity to enhance our cultural relations with the US while at the same time cultivating international markets for South African artists”, said Mabudafhasi.
Internationally acclaimed South African musicians and social activists, Hugh Masekela and Vusi Mahlasela, will perform in a show titled “Sounds of Freedom.” The show will take us down memory lane on a musical journey reflecting the trajectory of our liberation struggle, leading up to the dawn of freedom. The festival will also feature South African musicians like the Grammy Award winning Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Afro Jazz sensation, Simphiwe Dana, classical vocalists, Pretty Yende and Elza van den Heever, as well as the popular acapella group, The Soil. There will be a performance of “A Distant Drum, a play based on the life of Nat Nakasa, the South African journalist who was reburied on home soil recently.
Deputy Minister Mabudafhasi is leading the South African delegation to participate in this prestigious occasion. She will be speaking at the official opening of Ubuntu Festival at Carnegie Hall in New York on Friday, 10 October 2014. The event will be attended by prominent arts and culture stakeholders in the US, featured South African Musicians as well as the South African community residing in New York.
Enquiries:
Peter Mbelengwa
Cell: 082 611 8197
E-mail: petermb@dac.gov.za
