Event Calendar
Upcoming Events
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Kronos Quartet - Awakening
A 90-minute program that not only memorializes the events of 9/11, but also offers audience members a chance to reflect on the tragedy in a way that offers both healing and hope.
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Laurie Anderson - Homeland
A series of songs and stories that creates a poetic and political portrait of contemporary American culture, and addresses the current climate of fear, obsession with information and security.
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Shakespeare & Company in Hamlet
Renowned company’s first national tour features a real-life mother and son in the roles of Queen Gertrude and Hamlet.
Spirit of Uganda brings African culture to the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts
Performer: Spirit of Uganda
Filed under Press Releases on March 26, 2008.
University of Florida Performing Arts
315 Hull Road
PO Box 112750
Gainesville, FL 32611-2750
352-392-1900
352-392-3775 Fax
www.performingarts.ufl.edu
Spirit of Uganda brings African culture to the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts
March 26, 2008
For more information contact Amy Douglas at 352-392-1900, ext.324 or e-mail adouglas@performingarts.ufl.edu.
For tickets, call 352-392-ARTS (2787) or toll free (within Florida) at 800-905-ARTS (2787).
GAINESVILLE, FL – The arts provide entertainment and enlightenment, allow us to share and celebrate our cultural heritages, and provide a connection to one another. They can also provide hope as demonstrated by Spirit of Uganda, a riveting program of music and dance for audiences of all ages that brings to life the sounds and movements of East Africa.
Slightly smaller in size than the state of Oregon, the Republic of Uganda is located at the center of East Africa, in one of the continent’s most fertile and resource-rich areas. Home to 28 million people – 50 percent of whom are under the age of 15 – Uganda has suffered over the last several decades from the devastating impacts of war, political instability, extreme poverty and the HIV/AIDS crisis. For the children of Uganda, who make up half of the country’s population, these obstacles can difficult, if not impossible, to overcome. But one organization is changing that.
Spirit of Uganda is the public face of Empower African Children (EAC), a non-profit organization launched in 2006 by Alexis Hefley. Hefley’s work with Africa’s children dates back to 1993, when she first traveled to Uganda to live and work with AIDS orphans. After spending 18 months there, she returned to the United States and founded the Uganda Children’s Charity Foundation. Hefley led that organization for 10 years before launching EAC.
There are many organizations that provide food, shelter, clothing and other necessities to the poorest of Africa’s inhabitants. Empower African Children’s goal is go beyond the basic necessities and provide African children with something that is also desperately needed: hope. EAC’s programs provided a fresh, new approach that unlocks the potential of Africa’s future generations through an innovative education. Its holistic approach to education provides tools for success in life, creating confident, skillful and visionary leaders.
Images in the media allow many of us to believe that life in Africa is bleak. But there is also a great sense of community, joy and faith. Most importantly, Africa’s children are filled with possibility. Spirit of Uganda represents that possibility.
The young performers who make up Spirit of Uganda serves as “ambassadors” for the 2.4 million Ugandan children who have been orphaned by war, poverty and AIDS. Ranging in age from eight to 22, they personify the resilience and promise of Africa’s next generation as they promote awareness of Uganda’s dual crises of AIDS and civil war. Their performances help raise funds to support themselves and others displaced in their homeland, as well as provide much needed funds for EAC’s programs.
One of EAC’s “success stories” is Peter Kasule, the Artistic Director and Master of Ceremonies for Spirit of Uganda. Kasule’s mother died when he was nine and his father died four years later of AIDS. In 1996, Kasule accepted an invitation from Uganda Children’s Charity Foundation to join the U.S. Scholarship program as one of its first participants in 1996. The scholarship allowed Kasule to attend high school in Dallas, where he won many awards for his musical skills including “Best Percussionist” at the 2000 International Jazz Festival in New Orleans. An original member of the Children of Uganda company, Kasule served as that group’s director from 2004-06. With assistance from EAC’s scholarships program, he graduated from the College of Santa Fe in 2007. After briefly working at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., Kasule returned to his homeland to direct EAC’s artistic initiatives.
For Kasule, the arts are an important part of Uganda. “Dance, music, and storytelling record our histories and instill values,” he writes. “They help raise children, celebrate milestones, provide assurance, dispense justice, proclaim beliefs and sustain societies. For those of us who have lost our parents, our elders and neighbors, who witness the daily struggle to carry on, these rhythms and patterns are a comfort, they are our teachers and tools of survival.”
Spirit of Uganda will perform at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts Wednesday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are: $30, front orchestra, mezzanine and mid-orchestra; $25, rear orchestra; and $20, balcony.
Macy’s is the National Sponsor of the Spirit of Uganda 2008 Tour.
Tickets are available by calling the Phillips Center Box Office at 352-392-ARTS (2787) or 800-905-ARTS (toll-free within Florida) or by calling Ticketmaster at 904-353-3309 or toll free at 800-277-1700. Orders may also be faxed to 352-846-1562. Tickets are also available in person at the Phillips Center Box Office, University Box Office at the University of Florida Reitz Union and all Ticketmaster outlets; and on the web at www.ticketmaster.com. Cash, checks, Visa and MasterCard are accepted. Group tickets are also available.
The Phillips Center Box Office is open Monday – Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. and two hours prior to the performance.
Performance dates, times and programs are subject to change.
University of Florida Performing Arts does more than entertain. It breaks down walls. It breaks down the walls between people by increasing cultural awareness through programming that attracts artists and audiences from around the globe. It breaks down the wall between patron and performer with educational programs such as master classes, artist residencies and pre- and post-performance discussions. It breaks down the wall between health and illness with AIM Together, a collaborative program between UFPA and Shands HealthCare that brings world-class performing artists to those who are hospitalized. It breaks down the wall between idea and realization by commissioning and nurturing new work. Art doesn’t have walls. But sometimes life does. UFPA breaks down the walls, enriching the lives of the citizens in the Heart of Florida, helping to make Gainesville “the #1 place to live.”
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Web sites
University of Florida Performing Arts: www.performingarts.ufl.edu
Empower African Children: www.EmpowerAfricanChildren.org.
Spirit of Uganda performers’ blogs: http://blog.empowerafricanchildren.org/
For interviews, please contact Amy Douglas at 352-392-1900, ext. 324.
For press credentials to photograph the first 10 minutes of the performance (no flash), please contact Amy Douglas at 352-392-1900, ext. 324.