LINCOLN — On Saturday, Oct. 1, from 7-10:30 p.m., at Burnham Hall, the Willowell Foundation and Vermont Folklife Center will present an Ethiopian Boogie Benefit featuring The New Nile Orchestra and Band Of The Land for a dance party featuring “New England’s Finest Ethiopian Funk.” The bands are playing to benefit One Love AIDS HIV Awareness Theater, a theater troupe in Hawassa, Ethiopia that performs shows about AIDS and gender equality in rural towns in southern Ethiopia.
The program will also feature Ethiopian food prepared by local Ethiopian chefs and arts and crafts recently brought back from Ethiopia that will be on sale. All proceeds will benefit One Love Theater.
One Love Theater (OLT)was founded by street children in Hawassa, Ethiopia in 1998. Now in its 18th year, OLT has performed for hundreds of thousands of people throughout Ethiopia and in U.N. refugee camps. Aside from performances, OLT offers theater, gymnastics, visual arts and music classes at no cost to children in Hawassa and each year recruits promising performers to join its touring company.
Many auxiliary programs have grown from OLT, including the Vermont Ethiopia Teacher Exchange, sponsored by the Willowell Foundation, Vermont Folk Life Center and Castleton State University, and Long Live the Girls, a writing program for girls in Ethiopia sponsored by Break Arts, an organization based in Chicago.
The New Nile Orchestra has been performing their high-energy brand of world music for more than 20 years across New England. Singer/dancer Kiflu Kidane and his band create infectious rhythms that, combined with Kidane’s remarkable dancing and singing, inspire even the most committed wallflower to get up and dance.
Band of the Land (BOTL) is a trio of Vermont musicians who recently returned from Ethiopia where they toured and performed with One Love Theater. BOTL consists of Eli Goldman of Underhill, Dan Hibbs of Jericho and Lillian Seibert of Lincoln. Their sound combines elements of acoustic roots, rock, folk and consists of original tunes written collaboratively in uplifting three-part harmony.”
Tickets are $10/adults, kids under 12 free; food tickets are $10/adults, $5/kids and will be available at the door. For more information and to RSVP, visit www.willowell.org, email [email protected] or call 453-6195.