The Centre for Sound Communities Blog

Global Musics Local Connections Film Festival

February 17, 2017

Please join us in attending the Global Musics Local Connections Film Festival. McConnell Library, 50 Falmouth Street, Sydney, Nova Scotia. Tuesday and Thursday  7:00 pm – 9:00 pm.  February 28 –The Sunjata Story: Glimpse of a Mande Epic  The life of Sunjata Keita, the prince who founded West Africa’s greatest empire almost 800 years ago,…

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Lassana Diabate in Cape Breton on February 2017

February 17, 2017

Fodé Lassana Diabaté is a virtuoso balafon player who comes from Guinea, where the balafon originates. The balafon as an instrument played by griotsdates back at least to the 13th Century. Lassana began playing balafon at the age of five at home in Conakry with his father, Djelisory Diabaté, a master balafon player, from Kindia. Lassana makes his own balafons out of the…

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Interview with Kassé Mady Diabaté

February 6, 2017

This interview and recital was shot in September 2015 at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, where Kassé Mady Diabaté performed with his group composed of his cousin, Lansiné Kouyaté(balafon), Badjè Tounkara(nkoni) and Balaké Sissoko(Kora), all jaliw or Mande oral artists. This exchange illustrates the process by which they change the repertoire they inherit from their forebears and…

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Digital Poetry Translations

January 27, 2017

The digital interns engaged in three poetry exercises today in anticipation of creating an online poetry archive. For the last project of the morning, the interns used digital photographs of different locations around Cape Breton University that they had taken the previous day, while learning how to use the photography app of iPads from the…

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Digital Intern Orientation

January 26, 2017

Today our ten digital interns began their orientation at the Centre for Sound Communities. We would like to congratulate and thank them for being a part of this project. We are really looking forward to getting started with such a great team! The orientation began with a warm welcome for our interns, an overview of…

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Donovan Shirt performs traditional Cree dance

May 26, 2016

Rapper and motivational speaker Donovan Shirt from Edmonton, Alberta, was recently spotted performing a traditional Cree dance on a moving escalator! Donovan participated as part of Singing Storytellers in October 2014 in Cape Breton.

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Excited to be in Kazakhstan at ICTM World Conference!

July 16, 2015

I’m thrilled to be participating in the International Council for Traditional Music World Conference that opened today in Astana, Kazakhstan at the Kazakh National University of Arts! I’m here with more than 400 delegates from over 100 countries, sharing research and engaging in exciting discussions about music and culture from around the world. We began our first day, welcomed by Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime…

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Kazakh bards featured in tonight’s ICTM concert!

July 16, 2015

It’s been a wonderful first day at the International Council for Traditional Music World Conference in Astana, Kazakhstan at the Kazakh National University of Arts!

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Singing Storytellers – Sunjata Story – featured on BBC!

June 29, 2015

We are so proud to have had the Singing Storytellers “Sunjata Story” filmic material previewed in London, England at a SOAS conference on identities last week! LISTEN to Cherif Keita tell us about the story during his recent interview on the BBC!

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Curating Ethnomusicology/Exhibiting Music events begin Monday, June 15!

June 13, 2015

I’m proud to be a part of the Exhibiting Sound team, and looking forward to  opening of a week of exciting events at Cape Breton University. This Monday at 9 a.m we begin the Curating Ethnomusicology pre-conference workshop! The first public Exhibiting Sound event is Curating Ethnomusicology, a pre-conference workshop in digital humanities being held at CBU from June 15-16. This event brings together…

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