In this podcast groundbreaking designer Dr Saki Mafundikwa speaks with Astehmari on his life story, his experience with ancient African Design and how that relates to broader ideas of global design, cultural integrity and the value of an African place of being in regard to design heritage. We explore the great potential of his groundbreaking educational organisation, Vigital Academy, as it transforms with the new era and continues to honour its duty as a unique custodian of African design principles.
“A collective using #bullerengue as a tool for self-awareness to understand our inner rhythm and connect with our creative self”
Bullerengue is a traditional musical genre and dance from the Caribbean Region of Colombia and the Darién Province in Panama. It is typically sung and preserved primarily by elderly women, accompanied by local artisan drums, and developed in the Palenques or Maroon communities.
In this podcast Astehmari speaks with Rafael Esteban Cardona Hernandez and Valeria Pacific of Bullerengue Circle just after they facilitated their first cultural arts workshop at the Chestnuts Community Centre in Tottenham N15. It was wonderful and we had an insightful reasoning on the origins of the African-Colombian cultural arts, rooted in the Palenques Maroon communities’ traditions you know we went deep.
We’re pleased to welcome the new Circle into the centre and look forward to future workshops and programmes by these reverent art practitioners. The Bullerengue Circle workshops explore the “Afro Colombian” rhythms of Bullerengue through dance and drums, breath command, freedom of expression and the raising of One’s well-being are at the heart of the point. Sessions are multi-lingual with a good depth of historical insight and due respect the Ones who came before.
Astehmari Batekun speaks with Master Drummer Alexandre ‘Alex’ Yemaoua Dayo, this light intro opens the way for two more part in the series. In this interview you get to know where this wonderful creative artist is coming from, nature and nurture, wisdom and revolutionary movements.
Recipes for Resilience: Superfoods for Climate Action!
Youth empowerment for young people aged 14 to 18.
FOOD! We love it in all forms and ‘flavas’.
Food not only sustains us but it also connects us to each other and to our heritage. Food gives us a sense of community and culture. But did you know that our food choices can help save the planet? Did you know that food helped our ancestors fight oppression?
The Black Open University has teamed up with
The University of the West Indies
University of Edinburgh and
Caribbean Youth Environment Network (CYEN)
To help open up this very special opportunity to engage with youth across the Caribbean and specialist educators in heritage, food systems and climate change.
Get in touch with Astehmari as soon as possible for special UK participation access links and further guidance.
The Recovered Art Collective are displaying their art from Monday 25th Oct 2021 for 7 days. We had a chance to speak with Rohan, Sylvanno, Adolphus and Mitchel and the reasoning went deep into the nature of art and recovery.
Check out the show now and make sure you attend the gallery display this week.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced Catalyst Housing as his development partner for a major redevelopment of the St Ann’s Hospital site in Tottenham.
Catalyst’s plans for the site involve building 934 homes, with 50 of these affordable homes set aside for community-led housing, enabling local people to own some of the homes and making St Ann’s one of the largest community-led housing schemes in London.
On Saturday 25th Sept 2021 Abundance Centres were honoured to open Catalyst Housing’s first Peace and Wellbeing Festival designed to engage the local community in sharing their hopes and aspirations for the new development.
In this podcast (Part 4) you’ll hear the Festival’s closing activities and commentary. The Hope Tree was a special contribution to the Festival, listen to the insightful reason with creator Donald Waugh, Pavement 2 Catwalk, rounding up hope.
The whole day was wonderful and so we’ve got a great series of podcast treats for you, stay tuned.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced Catalyst Housing as his development partner for a major redevelopment of the St Ann’s Hospital site in Tottenham.
Catalyst’s plans for the site involve building 934 homes, with 50 of these affordable homes set aside for community-led housing, enabling local people to own some of the homes and making St Ann’s one of the largest community-led housing schemes in London.
On Saturday 25th Sept 2021 Abundance Centres were honoured to open Catalyst Housing’s first Peace and Wellbeing Festival designed to engage the local community in sharing their hopes and aspirations for the new development.
In this podcast (Part 3) you’ll hear from Russell Miller as he shares insight on tree life in the New St Ann’s Neighbourhood. Russell facilitates a wonderful tree walk tour of local trees, in this podcast we recorded half of the tour shared during the Festival.
The whole day was awesome and so we’ve got a great series of podcast treats for you, stay tuned.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced Catalyst Housing as his development partner for a major redevelopment of the St Ann’s Hospital site in Tottenham.
Catalyst’s plans for the site involve building 934 homes, with 50 of these affordable homes set aside for community-led housing, enabling local people to own some of the homes and making St Ann’s one of the largest community-led housing schemes in London.
On Saturday 25th Sept 2021 Abundance Centres were honoured to open Catalyst Housing’s first Peace and Wellbeing Festival designed to engage the local community in sharing their hopes and aspirations for the new development.
In this podcast (Part 2) you hear from attendees, stall holders and presenters of the Festival:
● Binary Drumming (#uLearnNaturally) with Astehmari & the Abundance Centres‘ cultural arts and Community Science Labs team.
● Poet Jo Roach shares a selection of touching poetry.
● Sereena Keymatlian and team from the Haringey Play Association reason on the value of free play and adventure.
● Russell Miller shares insight on the Black Mullberry tree, here more of his insights on other local trees in Part 3 of this podcast series.
● Finally we hear some summary thoughts from the Festival host, King David from Black People Giving (BPG); on a mission to establish and maintain peace and well-being locally and beyond.
The whole day was wonderful and so we’ve got a great series of podcast treats for you, stay tuned.
