Harmony Grove in Concert with Special Guests Ketu Oladuwa, Patrick and Samela St. Pierre

This multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural performance is a one-of-a-kind event.  On April 13, 2024, starting at 7:30 pm, atac (formerly Amazing Things Arts Center) in Framingham will present Harmony Grove in Concert with Special Guests Ketu Oladuwa, Samela St. Pierre and Patrick St. Pierre.  Thanks to a generous grant from the Framingham Cultural Council, ticket prices range from $0 – $30.  atac is located at 160 Hollis Street in Framingham.

Harmony Grove is a musical project co-led by vocalist Zoë Krohne and saxophonist Willie Sordillo. This performance, in addition to the 5-piece band,* will feature poet Ketu Oladuwa, who lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and will be coming the Greater Boston area to participate in this multi-arts performance.  In addition to Ketu, visual artists Patrick St. Pierre (of Trinidadian heritage) and Samela St. Pierre (of Peruvian and Dominican heritage) will be painting their impressions of the music in real time during the first half of the performance.  During the second half, Ketu will be reading his original poetry, in interplay with the musicians, who will be improvising to Ketu’s words.

Kétu Oladuwa began the discovery of his Afrikan identity on Massachusetts death row when he was 21 years old.  Convicted of a murder he did not commit, in prison the poetry and music of the Black Arts Movement liberated his sense of self.  Released from captivity in 1971, he has worked as a journalist, educator, community arts activist, and poet.  Now nearly 80 years old, his work as a poet, youth worker, and community Elder continues through his publishing at RootFolkz Poetz Press, public readings, mentoring young poets, teaching Afrikan drumming,  counseling young activists in community engagement, and as the secretary of Fort Wayne’s People of Afrikan Decent Elders Council.  In 1999 he co-founded a traditional Afrikan drum and dance ensemble for young people that studied Mandé culture and music during a two-month emersion in West Afrika.  Since 2007 through a series of poetry, and jazz projects his work in Fort Wayne thrived before the onset of the Covid pandemic. With his daughter, RasAmen, he co-founded Death Row Shadows, to spotlight mass incarceration.