Since its inception in 1989, Brown University’s West African dance program has pioneered the study of Mandé performance. Over the course of 25 years, we have served over two thousand students from around the world and become a transnational program with a research center in Mali. ROC is an annual festival of Mandé performance and social engagement that brings together international artist-activists, educators, students, and community members for a weekend of workshops and performances. ROC is rooted in the Malian cultural belief that art and performance can inspire action and social change.
The theme of this year’s festival is “The Urban Body in Crisis.” This year is unique as the festival marks the two-year anniversary of the coup d’état in Mali. Workshops and performances given by West African guest artists will address the recent occupation of Mali, the ensuing socio-political upheavals, health and educational inequalities, and most importantly, how performance can create a vibrant space for reflection, community building, and reconciliation. In conjunction with Brown’s 250th anniversary, we are inviting alumni who participated in our Mandé program, who have continued on to artistic careers pertaining to social justice in West Africa.
This year, we are proud to present renowned Malian dancers Solo Sana and Seydou Coulibaly. To promote cross-cultural exchange, we are also bringing in American artists whose work focuses on art in the face of adversity. These artists include famous Vogue Femme dancer/choreographer Omari Mizrahi. Vogue Femme is a style of contemporary queer performance that draws from expressions of queerness and femininity. To further challenge gender-norms in male-normative art culture, we are also inviting Ana “Rokafella” Garcia, a b-girl who has created a documentary about women in the male-centric world of breakdancing.
HISTORY OF ROC
Each year, students and educators travel to the Yeredon Center for the Malian Arts, our cultural research facility in Bamako, Mali, to engage in cultural preservation initiatives, educational advancement, and community service. These locally-identified projects utilize performance and the arts to build relationships and collaborations between communities, cultures, and nations. Over the past 20 years, Brown students have participated in building schools, created public service programs broadcast on Malian radio stations, painted community murals, and created theatrical performances on malaria prevention, healthcare, and the environment. These projects have helped sustain local artists, their families, and surrounding communities. To see examples of selected student projects, click here.
Phase I of the Rhythm of Change (ROC) Festival commenced in 2010, when students in the Mandé Dance & Culture class were partnered with international social justice organizations to build partnerships between Malian performers and activists. The 2010 ROC Festival invited over three-dozen international artists and social organizers to engage in embodied learning and present a call to action to the Brown and Rhode Island communities. The initiative included integral support for the creation of a Burundian refugee drum ensemble in Providence.
Phase II of the ROC Festival was launched in the summer of 2011, after a year of continuous fundraising by Brown students. Funded by the Brown Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards (UTRA Program), students traveled to the Yeredon center in Mali to organize “The Communal Bowl,” a conference that brought together leading Malian artists and nutrition experts in order to investigate the artist’s role in building education and awareness surrounding Mali’s malnutrition crisis. Students witnessed the provocation of a vibrant discussion and connection of resources between artists and nutrition professionals from traditionally distant sectors.
The ROC Festival 2012 further investigated performance’s role in social change through the lens of nutrition, health, and empowerment. The ROC Festival 2013 honored the men and women who utilized performance and creative processes to resist complacency, violence, and oppression.
Join us in our continued exploration of how the arts contribute an active and integral role in human survival and development.
The theme of this year’s festival is “The Urban Body in Crisis.” This year is unique as the festival marks the two-year anniversary of the coup d’état in Mali. Workshops and performances given by West African guest artists will address the recent occupation of Mali, the ensuing socio-political upheavals, health and educational inequalities, and most importantly, how performance can create a vibrant space for reflection, community building, and reconciliation. In conjunction with Brown’s 250th anniversary, we are inviting alumni who participated in our Mandé program, who have continued on to artistic careers pertaining to social justice in West Africa.
This year, we are proud to present renowned Malian dancers Solo Sana and Seydou Coulibaly. To promote cross-cultural exchange, we are also bringing in American artists whose work focuses on art in the face of adversity. These artists include famous Vogue Femme dancer/choreographer Omari Mizrahi. Vogue Femme is a style of contemporary queer performance that draws from expressions of queerness and femininity. To further challenge gender-norms in male-normative art culture, we are also inviting Ana “Rokafella” Garcia, a b-girl who has created a documentary about women in the male-centric world of breakdancing.
HISTORY OF ROC
Each year, students and educators travel to the Yeredon Center for the Malian Arts, our cultural research facility in Bamako, Mali, to engage in cultural preservation initiatives, educational advancement, and community service. These locally-identified projects utilize performance and the arts to build relationships and collaborations between communities, cultures, and nations. Over the past 20 years, Brown students have participated in building schools, created public service programs broadcast on Malian radio stations, painted community murals, and created theatrical performances on malaria prevention, healthcare, and the environment. These projects have helped sustain local artists, their families, and surrounding communities. To see examples of selected student projects, click here.
Phase I of the Rhythm of Change (ROC) Festival commenced in 2010, when students in the Mandé Dance & Culture class were partnered with international social justice organizations to build partnerships between Malian performers and activists. The 2010 ROC Festival invited over three-dozen international artists and social organizers to engage in embodied learning and present a call to action to the Brown and Rhode Island communities. The initiative included integral support for the creation of a Burundian refugee drum ensemble in Providence.
Phase II of the ROC Festival was launched in the summer of 2011, after a year of continuous fundraising by Brown students. Funded by the Brown Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards (UTRA Program), students traveled to the Yeredon center in Mali to organize “The Communal Bowl,” a conference that brought together leading Malian artists and nutrition experts in order to investigate the artist’s role in building education and awareness surrounding Mali’s malnutrition crisis. Students witnessed the provocation of a vibrant discussion and connection of resources between artists and nutrition professionals from traditionally distant sectors.
The ROC Festival 2012 further investigated performance’s role in social change through the lens of nutrition, health, and empowerment. The ROC Festival 2013 honored the men and women who utilized performance and creative processes to resist complacency, violence, and oppression.
Join us in our continued exploration of how the arts contribute an active and integral role in human survival and development.