The Second Annual Global Citizenship Music Festival returns to New Bern on May 17.
The festival is scheduled for 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Union Point Park, 210 E. Front St.
The free music and dance event will be presented by Arts To End Genocide in partnership with Faith Connection and The Atlantic Dance Theatre.
Performances by musicians from cultures represented in the community will share songs from Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Included in this year’s Festival are Los Sabrosos Del Son, Solo, Unknown Tongues, K’nyaw and Soulful Sisters.
A community choir, composed of singers from many local church choirs, will close the program with familiar songs designed to connect those in attendance.
This year, the Global Citizenship Music Festival has added an educational activity for children.
The free Instrument Making Workshop will encourage children to use their imagination to design a musical instrument using simple, everyday materials.
The festival will be held rain or shine and those attending should plan to bring seating or blankets. Food trucks will be available at the event.
“We hope this event will allow everyone in our community to experience a festival designed to share a unifying spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood through the power of music to bridge cultural divides and transcend language barriers to connect people,” said Arts to End Genocide founder and New Bern resident Mitch Lewis.
For the past 12 years, the Arts to End Genocide programs in Bamako, Mali, and West Africa have provided critically needed assistance to women and children, Lewis said.
Lewis said the organization focuses its work in the Faladje Camp, the home of more than 1,200 internally displaced people who fled terrorism in Central Mali to live on top of an active garbage dump in the Capital City.
Initially, with the financial support of the two Rotary clubs in New Bern, and a Global Grant from Rotary International, the organization was able to establish a Children’s Clinic that today serves both the camp and street children, as well as adults, for malaria treatments and other medical needs.
Now, with the support of New Bern residents, the organization is able to provide food, healthcare, skill training for women, and childhood education at the Faladje Camp.
A secondary program in a camp outside of Bamako has been established to raise crops that have improved the health of those in the camp as well as provide crops to sell in the local markets, Lewis said.
“Since the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in areas of critical need, such as Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world, Arts to End Genocide remains one of only three agencies from 30 active partners serving internally displaced persons camps just six months ago,” said Lewis.
Currently, Arts to End Genocide is the only remaining non-governmental organization committed to a food distribution program, Lewis said. However, they are only able to provide rice to about one-third of the camp’s population.
“When the freeze went into effect after the U.S. Agency for International Development closed, people showed up who were not on our regular distribution list asking for rice, including elderly and disabled people,” Lewis said. “It broke our hearts to say no, but we were not prepared for this contingency or have the funding to expand our program at this time.”
Although the Second Annual Global Citizenship Music Festival is offered free to the community, Arts to End Genocide hopes for the continued support of the community to make voluntary or monthly donations.
Donations can be made at the event in Union Point Park on May 17 or by visiting https://www.artstoendgenocide.org
Deedra Durocher, member of the Arts to End Genocide Board of Directors said 100% of all money raised goes directly to the programs serving the women and children in the internally displaced persons camps in Mali.
“With the support of our community to provide basic food and health services to these vulnerable people, we are showing there are caring people in the United States who have not abandoned them,” Durocher said.
