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Experience the vital link between humanity and the natural world through verbal arts, live music and dance, a drum workshop, and films. Informal conversations follow each event.
This program is presented in conjunction with the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation's thirteenth annual Spring Symposium, Sustaining Cultural and Biological Diversity in a Rapidly Changing World which seeks to reexamine and redefine the place of humans within nature, and to achieve a clearer understanding of the connections between biological, cultural, and linguistic diversity.
Krik! Krak! Haitian Drumming, Storytelling, and Dance (Haiti)
Workshop • 11:30 a.m.
Leonhardt People Center, 2nd floor
Limited to 20 participants, ages 6 to 15
Led by master drummer Frisner Augustin and members of La Troupe Makandal, children explore the remarkable music and dance traditions of Haiti and the New York City Haitian diaspora.
To register, call Central Reservations at 212-769-5200, Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Mansa Mili Mili: Memories of a Sacred Grove
(Sierra Leone)
Performance • 1:00 p.m.
Kaufmann Theater, first floor
Poet Kewulay Kamara and Mande jali musicians present Mansa Mili Mili, illustrating a sustainable balance among the plant, animal, and human worlds in the Kuranko village of Dankawali, Sierra Leone.
Narration in English and Kuranko, accompanied by traditional music.
Threads of Language (Chile)
Performance • 2:15 p.m.
Linder Theater, first floor
Poet Cecilia Vicuña weaves indigenous poetic traditions of South America with Spanish and English, highlighting connections among language, Earth, and water through playful improvisations and chants.
Rising Sun: A Vodou Drama of Rebirth (Haiti)
Performance • 3:00 p.m.
Kaufmann Theater, first floor
Vodou, the Haitian version of an African-based religion with Catholic elements, serves several spirits of nature, including Azaka Mede, who represents Earth, and Lasirèn, Lady of the Sea. Through drumming, song, and dance, La Troupe Makandal dramatizes the tale of the trickster who can turn death into life, reversing Haiti's environmental losses.
Sacred Lands of the Altai (Altai Republic)
Film • 4:15 p.m.
Linder Theater, first floor
Documentary short: The Golden Mountains of Altai.
Producer: Sacred Land Film Project, Director: Christopher McLeod, 10 minutes, 2008.
Following a short documentary on the sacred sites and peoples of the Altai region in Russia, Chagat Almashev, Director of the Foundation for Sustainable Development of Altai, shares stories about environmental conservation and cultural preservation.
For further information, call the Museum's Department of Education at 212-769-5315 between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
For information on the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation’s Spring Symposium, Sustaining Cultural and Biological Diversity in a Rapidly Changing World, please visit symposia.cbc.amnh.org/biocultural
This program is copresented, in part, with the People's Poetry Gathering's Endangered Language Initiative, a multiyear collaboration between City Lore and Bowery Arts & Science to document, present, and translate the poetry and musical traditions of lesser-used languages. For more information on the Initiative, visit http://www.peoplespoetry.org.
Public Programs are made possible, in part, by the Rita and Frits Markus Fund for Public Understanding of Science.
