Darragh Dandurand
Sunday’s sticky, sweet air floated heavy and humid at Rusmey Playfield in Central Park. An audience trickled in gradually to gather for SummerStage, an outdoor festival series in its thirtieth year of being.
The weekend show, arranged by OkayAfrica, featured the likes Mbongwana Star, Batida, and Young Paris; African artists themselves.
globalFEST, the New York City-based nonprofit celebrating the work of global artists, partnered with SummerStage via their monthly globalFEST hangout series. Their monthly program (which is open to the public) brought a group of global music lovers together to learn more about Batida and Young Paris’ work through a pre-show panel hosted by the iconic Fab 5 Freddy.
Their performances, some political, some poetic, all positively dynamic, were so greatly different as they were similar. The energy of Congolese and Angolan artists’ pulse-heavy music – driving drums and consistent rhythm – kept the crowd dancing in the rain-soaked dusk.
Check out the rest of the season’s programming for SummerStage and globalFEST!
