Have you ever been to an Ethiopian Boogie Benefit? Didn’t think so. Well now’s your chance. This Saturday, Sept. 30, at Burnham Hall in Lincoln, the Monkton-based Willowell Foundation will present an evening of Ethiopian food prepared by local Ethiopian chefs, arts and crafts recently brought back from Ethiopia and music by New Nile Orchestra.
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 wall flower to get up and dance.
Admission is $10, kids under 12 are free. Food is $10 for adults and $5 for kids. The Boogie begins at 7 p.m. and wraps up around 10:30 p.m.
All proceeds will 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. One Love Theater was founded by street children in Hawassa Ethiopia in 1998. Now it’s 19th year OLT has performed for hundreds of thousands of people throughout Ethiopia and in UN 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 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.
Tickets will be available at the door. For more information and to RSVP, visit willowell.org, email [email protected] or call (802) 453-6195.