Imagine waking up each morning to drum and dance in one of the world’s primary cradles of rhythm, amongst the world’s prime practitioners of Body Music. Then translating traditional rhythms to the conspicuous sounds of palms, fingers, legs, feet, torso, voice – exploring the confluence of Ghanaian and Body Music traditions in an uncharted cross-cultural language. Throw in market days, village excursions, intercultural exchange, and the 10th International Body Music Festival (IBMF) in Dzodze, Ghana – 6-16 July 2018 will be your unforgettable Body Music Adventure.

Body Music – clapping, snapping, stepping and vocalizing – is an amalgam of composition and choreography, music you can see, dance you can hear. Humans basically have the same instrument, yet they express music on it so differently culture to culture. There is an intimacy, a primacy, of the connection people have when you use your body as the sole instrument. It’s both personal and universal.

While Ghana is “a hotbed of percussive innovation and world rhythm,” IBMF founder and Artistic Director Keith Terry explains, “historically, there has been very little Body Music in their music traditions. There is a potential for the rhythmic language that is everywhere in Western Africa – not, as yet, translated into Body Music – to be explored and articulated in new ways, and the interchange is very exciting. Our partner, Dr. Kofi Gbolonyo, an ethnomusicology professor and Dzodze native, invited the IBMF to his village for this reason.”

Co-produced by Crosspulse and Dr. Kofi Gbolonyo and the Nunya Music Academy, the 10th IBMF consists of TEN days of concerts, workshops and cultural exchange with some of the world’s finest contemporary and traditional Body Musicians, plus intensive workshops in Ghanaian drumming and dance. No prior experience in either art form required, but rampant curiosity expected.

This year’s IBMF will feature Ghanaian artists, plus international Body Music artists from the US, Brazil, France, Israel, Columbia, Austria and South Africa — in concerts, workshops, cross-cultural collaborations, jam sessions, and more. The IBMF offers a unique musical and cultural immersion opportunity for international participants to experience and engage with Ghana while embodying its rhythms in diverse ways.

“This is not a luxury vacation, but rather a deep cultural, Body Music adventure,” says Terry. “Participants will be based in a Ghanaian village for most of it, then in Accra, interacting with cultural and musical institutions there through exchanges, workshops, and nightlife. Mornings will be spent studying music and dance, and in the afternoons, students will learn to translate that learning into Body Music. Trips to other villages to see ceremonies, workshops, and performances will provide the international participants with additional opportunities to experience the roots of Ghanaian culture.”

The International Body Music Festival is both a culmination of Crosspulse’s 40 years developing Body Music as a communicative performance art and educational model; and a jumping off place for a powerful forum of cross-cultural rhythmic performance and community development.

Over the course of its nine previous incarnations, the International Body Music Festival has become a meeting ground for both students and teachers of the various styles of global Body Music. Since 2008, the IBMF has been hosted around the world, from Brazil to Turkey to Indonesia to Paris, though every few years it returns to its home base in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Festival is a moving hub for performers who engage with humanity’s first instrument: the body itself. The shushing of palms, the snapping of fingers, the stomping of feet, and the seemingly infinite potential of the throat and mouth have inspired people worldwide to create moving music, audible dance. Tap, stepping, hambone, flamenco, beatbox, every style that forefronts the sounds of bodies in motion. It’s the oldest music on the planet, and it’s brand new.

Now, a full 40 years since he first coined the term “Body Music” back in 1978, Terry says this will be the final full-scale festival he will produce, preferring to concentrate on professional training and IBMF MiniFests after Ghana.

In honor of this decade-long benchmark, the Percuaction Global Percussion Network plans to honor Terry’s contributions to the field by presenting him with The Percuaction Lifetime Achievement Award during the time of the festival in Ghana, which adds a special value and significance to this year’s program

The Percuaction Lifetime Achievement Award is presented on an annual basis and is the organization’s highest recognition. Since 2012, the prize has acknowledged the life-time missions and achievements of percussive luminaries who have supported Percuaction’s vision of a global rhythm community.

But despite Terry’s impending departure from producing IBMF in upcoming years, he’s not at all worried about the future of the Body Music movement.

“The community will continue to grow, and there are so many places that are interested in hosting IBMF MiniFests in their communities,” he says, “Each new year, I marvel at the quality of the students and the state of the art form. You can see there are lots of embers sparking and we’re leaving Body Music in good hands with the younger generation…I can take a step back. As has happened in past IBMF locations like Bali, Brazil, Turkey, when the young generation experiences Body Music for the first time, then you go back a year later and see it everywhere. I’m really excited by this. It’s happening. It’s moving!”

Confirmed teachers/performers for IBMF 2018 (more announced weekly on our website):

Bryan Dyer, circle singing/beatbox (USA)
Dr. Kofi Gbolonyo, dance/sweat (Ghana)
Evie Ladin, MoToR/dance (USA)
Rémi Leclerc &Quelen Lamouroux, Humanophone (France)
Tupac Mantilla, body music (Columbia)
Molodi, stepping (USA)
Pedro Consorte & Zuza Gonçalves, Musica do Circulo (Brazil)
Max Pollak, RumbaTap (Austria/USA)
Charles Raszl, choreography (Brazil)
Lior Shoov, improvisation (Israel)
Keith Terry, body music (USA)
Vuyani King Gaba Gumboots Idadla Feni, gumboot (South Africa)

Please check out the details and read our full press release on our OPK here. And please let me know if you’d like to cover let me know if I can arrange an interview with IBMF Founder and Creative Director Keith Terry!

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The 144 citizenship candidates originate from the following 52 countries: Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, People’s Republic of China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote D’Ivoire, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Ghana, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kosovo, Liberia, Mexico, Montenegro, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, Republic of Serbia, Russia, Senegal, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, St. Kitts-Nevis, The Gambia, Togo, Turkey, United Kingdom, Venezuela, Vietnam and Yemen. Of those naturalizing, two are currently serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.

This year, USCIS will welcome more than 10,000 new citizens in nearly 130 naturalization ceremonies between Nov. 7 and 13. Of those being naturalized, more than 250 are veterans, service members and military spouses. USCIS is asking new citizens and their families and friends to share the experience and photos at their ceremonies via Twitter using the hashtag #newUScitizen.

WHO:
USCIS New York District Director Phyllis Coven

WHEN:

Friday, November 13, 9 a.m. (media will be escorted in starting at 8:30 a.m.)
WHERE:
USCIS NY District Office
26 Federal Plaza (please use the entrance on Duane Street between Broadway and Lafayette)

CONTACT:
Katie Tichacek, USCIS Public Affairs Officer, 212-264-5098, 202-420-9581 (cell) katherine.tichacek@uscis.dhs.gov

NOTE:
Media interested in participating, please RSVP to Katie Tichacek (contact info above) no later than 9:00 am EST on November 13.

– USCIS –

News Release Nov. 9, 2015

USCIS Will Host Naturalization Ceremonies to Honor Veterans and their Families

WASHINGTON—Veterans, service members and military spouses across the country will become U.S. citizens this week as they take the Oath of Allegiance at special Veterans Day naturalization ceremonies. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will highlight the sacrifices that military members and their families have made while serving our country. From Nov. 7-13, USCIS will welcome more than 10,000 new citizens in nearly 130 naturalization ceremonies across the country and around the world. Of those being naturalized, more than 255 are veterans, service members and military spouses.

Many current and former military members and their families are eligible for citizenship, including expedited screening and overseas processing, under special provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Since Oct. 1, 2001, when data collection on military naturalizations began, more than 109,000 service members have become U.S. citizens, including individuals serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea, Germany, Japan and elsewhere. In 2015 alone, USCIS hosted nearly 175 naturalization ceremonies at military installations in the U.S. and abroad.

“On Veterans Day, we salute the men and women who have so courageously served our country and defended the freedoms that it was built upon. Among our brave veterans are thousands of immigrants, many of whom vowed to defend their new home even before they were citizens,” USCIS Director León Rodríguez said. “It is because of their extraordinary sacrifices, and those of their families, that we can enjoy the rights and liberties of living in this great country.”

USCIS has a robust military outreach program that provides information about immigration and naturalization to service members and veterans at military installations, Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals, universities and various military organizations. USCIS also has offices on multiple military installations, including Fort Benning, Georgia; Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; and Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. These offices identify recruits who may be eligible for naturalization.

USCIS’ Veterans Day activities this year will feature a naturalization ceremony at the USS Torsk and USS Constellation, located at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland, on Nov. 11. During this event, Dan Renaud, USCIS associate director for the Field Operations Directorate, will administer the Oath of Allegiance, and Sgt. Maj. Mercy A. Diez of the U.S. Army Band will be recognized as an Outstanding American by Choice.

Other ceremonies include events at:
· American Heroes Air Show in Orlando, Florida, on Nov. 7.
· Cullman Performance Hall of Tryon Palace in New Bern, North Carolina, on Nov. 11.
· Joint Base Lewis McChord in Seattle, Washington, on Nov. 13.

In addition, 12 recruits will become new citizens at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California, through the Naturalization at Basic Training Initiative. Developed with the Department of Defense, this program allows enlisted service members to complete the naturalization process during basic training.

USCIS invites new citizens, and their families and friends, to share their experiences from the ceremonies through Twitter and other social media using the hashtag #newUScitizen.

For more information on USCIS and its programs, please visit uscis.gov or follow us on Twitter (@uscis), YouTube (/uscis), Facebook(/uscis), and the USCIS blog The Beacon.

– USCIS –

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