San Bernardino, CA – Makeda Kumasi, founder of WE 3 PRODUCTIONS, has been gracing stages professionally across California for over two decades as a phenomenal force with her dancing, teaching, directing, and performances. As a global beacon for the Pan-African arts, she has inspired adults and children alike as a respected resource, particularly throughout Los Angeles’ Inland Empire. As the recent recipient and one of 26 individual artists to receive a Creative Corps Inland Empire Grant from the California Arts Council in addition to an individual Alliance for California Traditional Arts Living Culture grant, Kumasi is observing National Dance Day in a jubilant celebration! National Dance Day, co-founded by Nigel Lythgoe, the co-creator of “So You Think You Can Dance,” and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, is acknowledged each year on the third Saturday in September to demonstrate support for dance as a form of valuable exercise and artistic expression.
As a California Arts Council grant recipient, Kumasi will work in collaboration with Joy Wilson of Caribbean Joy Dance Group and Monique Williams-Randolph of Unity Dance Studio in Victorville, CA on a yearlong project, “Dancing with the Leaders of the Inland Empire.” The expansive endeavor will oversee interviews with local community and government leaders regarding their engagement and knowledge of the traditional dance practices from their culture and or contemporary styles they enjoy. The team will also implement West African, Caribbean and jazz dance workshops; audition for choreography based on the dances mentioned in the leaders’ dance interviews; and produce three multimedia shows incorporating documentary video of the project leaders’ interviews, original choreography, and live music.
The Alliance for California Traditional Arts Living Culture (ACTA) grant is a coveted individual artist stipend that allows Kumasi to repair and maintain the instruments used in her community youth program, “The Sesh Project,” and further develop her “Soulful Saturday Drum and Dance Class” at Akoma Unity Center in San Bernardino, CA, while also providing financial support for her traveling Urban Djali Tour.
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