Meet the Artists

Benefit Arts Showcase Performers

OrigiNation		 Founded in 1994 by Artistic Director Shaumba-Yandje Dibinga, OrigiNation, Incorporated is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that specializes in implementing innovative and dynamic programs, which motivate, challenge, and inspire youth to be the best they can be. They offer quality dance, theater arts, and African history education. Special emphasis is placed on teaching young people between the ages of 5 through 18 the importance of self-respect, health, nutrition, education, self-esteem, and the extent of African influences on various contemporary art forms. OrigiNation serves close to 200 young people annually providing youth of all levels with training in multiple dance forms, public speaking, and martial arts.

OrigiNation also implements special initiatives to raise their students' awareness about pertinent social issues and to facilitate their development into well-rounded, productive citizens within their families and communities. While their programs are open to all youth, they focus our efforts on providing services to young people from Boston's underserved neighborhoods, which include Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan.

KeyChange		 KeyChange is the premiere co-ed forum for Black a capella expression on Harvard College's campus. Founded in 2006, KeyChange brought a change to Harvard's acapella scene by choosing to perform music solely from the African Diaspora. KeyChange's current musical repertoire includes R&B, hip-hop, neo-soul, and Motown and is consistently growing. Despite the variety of music offered on Harvard's campus, the members of KeyChange believe in the need for an a capella group whose song selections and performance focus on and celebrate the unique interests of the Black Community. Black music is a culture and a bonding force in our community and the members of KeyChange hope to affirm that culture at Harvard and beyond.

The Boston Tap Company		 The mission of the Boston Tap Company is to educate and entertain through art as a way of life. Promoting respect for ones self and others while creating a firm foundation of cultural history by means of art as a Universal Language. The Boston Tap Company produces a positive, productive and respectful way of expression that encourages confidence amongst all, At the Boston Tap Company we believe, "The Only Way to Be Different Is To Be Yourself." Winners of the 2010 & 2011 Radio City Christmas Spectacular Opening Act Competition to open for The Radio City Rockettes at the Boston Wang Center.

PADAME		 The Pan-African Dance and Music Ensemble (PADAME) is a performing arts troupe composed of Harvard undergraduate and graduate students that perform both traditional and modern pieces from across the continent. PADAME's goal is to have fun and expose the Harvard and greater Boston community to the many diverse cultural rhythms of Africa.

Kuumba Singers		 The Kuumba Singers of Harvard College were founded in 1970 by African American undergraduates of the Harvard class of 1972. The choir emerged as a source of community, spiritual inspiration, political motivation and cultural stimulation among the small but growing number of Black students at Harvard. The group chose the name “Kuumba” (Swahili for “creativity”) because it best captured the choir’s intent to reflect the creative genius of Black people through the rich diversity of Diasporic music and cultural expression. Reminding the Black community of its past, informing it of its present, and giving it hope and guidance for the future, the Kuumba Singers—through song, dance, poetry, and other forms of artistic expression—have always sought to leave the space called Harvard, and its surrounding community, better than it was found.

For more information about BAF, email BAF@kuumbasingers.org.

 

The Kuumba Singers of Harvard College is a student-run organization at Harvard University
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