The virtual event will feature African dance and music in an effort to raise money to fight against police brutality in Nigeria
This Thanksgiving Eve, open your hearts and minds to the Asase Yaa School of the Arts’ “Rise Up! A Virtual Benefit Concert to #EndSARS”.
The funds raised for the benefit will not only go towards the movement ending SARS, the notorious anti-robbery squad in Nigeria, but also to families severely impacted by COVID.
End SARS is a protest against police brutality in Nigeria, but is no different from the Black Lives Matter movement that has erupted across the United States showing how the fight for Black liberation is a global one.
“There are people here in America who are committed to looking at injustice and to provide support to the people affected,” Rubie Inez Williams, Asase Yaa’s director of operations, said.
“We’re all globally being affected. It’s our job to help our community whenever we can.”
The event will be held virtually on Facebook and YouTube Live at 8 p.m. and will feature African inspired music and dances.
Zakiya Harris, the artistic director of the Brooklyn-based School of Arts will be the host, and there will be a slew of performances by the Asase Yaa Youth Ensemble, Chief Sekou Aláje, Chief Ayanda Clarke, Grammy Award-winning percussionist The Fadara Group Music Collective and others.
The event will amplify West African music and influences and will challenge students to use their artistic voices to speak out for global social justice, with them speaking out on the #EndSars movement and giving their own thoughts.
“We want the youth to understand that unity among people of African descent across the globe is so important,” Williams said. “It’s invaluable, it’s monumental especially since we’re also a country in turmoil. George Floyd and all these different moments of police brutality and then Nigeria, it’s all different but the same misuse of power.”
The mission is to provide understanding towards the importance of reaching across oceans and countries to show that even across cultural contexts, solidarity is important.
Community is the main thesis of this benefit, a point that Williams hopes not only her students understand, but the audience as well.
“We’re going to have both the Chief in Nigeria and the Chief in Ghana speak,” Williams said. “Both of them are giving their support to the cause as it’s really about us needing to rise up together, rather than an independent community. We need to really take it upon ourselves to uplift and empower each other.”
