Celebration of African Cultures

by Juliet Fletcher

Once a year, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at Penn gets some serious rhythm. For the 15th consecutive year, the Celebration of African Cultures will bring together drummers and dancers, costumes and workshops, all echoing in the museum's halls and galleries. This year's performers will include Queen Nur, a national storyteller, who joins Nigerian percussionist Yomi Awodesu to explore the history of her craft in "The Games We Play: Stories, Rhythms and Rhymes in the Oral Tradition." She'll join local Philly artists including the Universal African Dance & Drum Ensemble, the Women's Sekere Ensemble, led by Omomola Iyabunmi, and a West African dance and drum workshop, leading volunteers through the Lower Egyptian gallery with Kulu Mele (pictured). The company uses "sekere," a type of instrument made of beaded gourds. Elsewhere in the museum, other traditional and rare African instruments will be displayed, while museum docent Mawusi Renee Simmons opens up her own instrument collection.

And after all the demonstrations, there'll still be plenty to look at: the Silk Tent, offering the luxurious and long-prized textiles for show and sale in the museum's Rotunda, alongside games of mancala, while the dishes of the day at the Café will include African peanut chicken soup. And the event's curators promise more than a little mystery: Pasha, the masked stilt walker who'll tour the galleries throughout the afternoon, is rumored also to be a world karate champion. His dance steps might raise the roof -- or fracture the floorboards.

Celebration of African Cultures, Sat., Feb. 21, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., free with museum admission, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 3260 South St., 215-898-4000.