Performers, Critics, Masks

I'm in a 3-day conference on African and Afro-Caribbean Performance at the University of California, Berkeley.

So much to take in. My mind's already overflowing with what I heard today:

Gerard Aching's keynote on trangressive performance in Trinidad's Carnival.

Christopher Connelly on the impact of post-election violence on grassroots development theatre in Kenya.

Awo Mana Asiedu on feminist theatre in Ghana.

Ariel Scott on the choreography of Fagaala, a dance piece on the Rwandan genocide by Senegalese Compagne Jant-Bi.

Kevin Wetmore on the staging of Soyinka's Samarkand as an all day ritual festival in LA.

And that's just Day One!

I'm skipping tonight's screening of U-Carmen eKhayelitsha. Lead actress, opera singer Pauline Malefane, is here in person for the conference and will do a live Q and A after - which I do feel wistful about missing. But I need to put in some hours of work to justify spending all day at the conference tomorrow.......