Racial Harmony and Cultural Awareness Task Force to Host ‘An Evening with Meklit’ Friday, Feb. 16

As part of its series of community conversations, the Racial Harmony and Cultural Awareness Task Force will host “An Evening with Meklit: Music, Arts, and Cultural Activism” Friday, Feb. 16 from 7 to 9 p.m. at IHMC located at 15 SE Osceola Ave.

Post Date:01/12/2018 2:47 PM

OCALA, Fla. (Jan. 12, 2018) – As part of its series of community conversations, the Racial Harmony and Cultural Awareness Task Force will host “An Evening with Meklit: Music, Arts, and Cultural Activism” Friday, Feb. 16 from 7 to 9 p.m. at IHMC located at 15 SE Osceola Ave. In this impact-oriented community conversation, TED Senior Fellow lecturer, Meklit, will discuss social issues and her philosophy of cultural activism.

According to her website, music and arts has a potential to address some of the most pressing social issues of our time, and there is an ever-growing interest in creative projects that do just that. Meklit believes that cultural activism should be a recognized path in music, and has spent the last few years both formally and informally coaching many artists in this path as well as developing projects that address social issues. She highlights how this approach allowed her career dexterity, collaboration with a multitude of institutional partners, community connectedness, and expanded audiences. This workshop presents a select set of case studies in cultural activism from several continents.

Meklit is a TED Senior Fellow and her TED Talk, The Unexpected Beauty of Everyday Sounds, has been viewed by more than 1.2 million people. She has received musical commissions from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the MAP Fund and has toured extensively across the United States, United Kingdom and East Africa. Meklit has been an artist-in-residence at New York University, and collaborated with NASA Astrophysicist Jon Jenkins, musical legend Pee Wee Ellis and the BBC Philharmonic. She is a co-founder of the Nile Project, served as musical director for the beloved Bay Area powerhouse UnderCover Presents, and sang alongside Angelique Kidjo and Anoushka Shankar as a featured singer in the UN Women Theme Song.

Meklit was a 2012 TED Senior Fellow and a 2009 TED Global Fellow. She has given three TED talks, with her 2015 talk going online at TED.com, and several performances at seven conferences.

This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited. To reserve your seat, please visit https://meklitocala.eventbrite.com.

For more information, please contact the City of Ocala Recreation and Parks Department at 352-368-5517 or [email protected].