Salon Africana at The Africa Center.

1280 5th Ave, New York, NY 10029

Doors at 8pm. Performance at 8:30pm. $25 Tickets HERE.

We are pleased to announce a very special edition and the first 2020 program of our series at The Africa Center featuring Salon Africana founder and artist Somi with her band. Concert followed by a 15 minute moderated Artist Talk.

ABOUT SOMI. Acclaimed vocalist and writer Somi was born in Illinois to immigrants from Uganda and Rwanda. She is known for her wide-ranging vocal technique, her original blend of modern jazz with African musics, and the innate poetry of her songwriting that often gives voice to issues of social justice, transnationalism, womanhood, and global constructions of Blackness. Her latest recording, Petite Afrique (Sony/OKeh), which recently won a 2018 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album is a timely song cycle about the dignity of immigrants and the gentrification of Harlem’s vibrant West African quarter. Her previous album and major label debut, The Lagos Music Salon (Sony/Okeh) debuted at #1 on international and U.S. jazz charts. Guest collaborators on her albums include Common, Angelique Kidjo, Hugh Masekela, and Aloe Blacc. Somi is a TED Senior Fellow, a USA Doris Duke Fellow, a 2018 Soros Equality Fellow, and a Sundance Theater Fellow. Currently, Somi is developing a modern jazz play that she wrote about legendary singer-activist Miriam Makeba that will premiere in Spring 2020. Her new album, also about Makeba, will be released in Summer 2020.