On the eve of Changó’s feast day, we honor his fire and strength in our ongoing fight for social justice with a first-of-its-kind Changó Celebration at CCCADI Ilé Oyin featuring:
🎥 Archival Screening
Special screening of archival footage of Changó celebrations across CCCADI’s 50 year history.
🎤 Panel conversation
Esteemed practitioners from across African Traditional Religions reflect on the archival screening and on Changó’s legacy and presence.
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Shantrelle P. Lewis is a multi-hyphen creative and scholar who accesses multiple disciplines to help elucidate African Diasporic history, aesthetics, culture and spirituality. After premiering at BlackStar Film Festival, her critically acclaimed directorial debut, IN OUR MOTHERS' GARDENS, was released on Netflix via Ava Duvernay's ARRAY. Her book, Dandy Lion: The Black Dandy and Street Style, was published by Aperture in 2017. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, LA Times, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, NPR, BBC, Washington Post, Slate, The New Yorker and the Philadelphia Inquirer. As an initiated Lukumi Sango Priest, Hoodooist and New Orleans native, Shantrelle can be found waxing poetics about all things African spirituality online and in person at the BEAUCOUP HOODOO Shoppe, the annual BEAUCOUP HOODOO FEST this October and within her community, the ATRS BOOK CLUB.
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Mahalia Stines Is a Brooklyn based Fiber Artist and Culture conservationist. Although formerly trained as a Costume designer Mahalia has always had a strong interest in fiber and it’s infinite possibilities and applications, an interest that grew from watching and assisting the Russian-Haitian Artist Tamara Baussan at work.
In recent years her practice has evolved into the production of large scale Art Quilts, small mixed media collages and wall scluptures, incorporating various fiber processes and the skills she’d acquired over the years from weaving, felting, embroidery, quilting to beadwork, while exploring themes that range from the Natural World with Mother Nature’s chaos to History in Ayiti Tonma or Our Story
Cultural elements from her Native Haiti often feature prominently in her work. She firmly believes that Culture is our greatest natural resource, therefore sharing the vibrant culture of Haiti has become a mission.
She was drawn to the culture of Vodou and all of it’s facets from an early age, the community centered philosophy of the Lakous, to the music and Esthetics, she finally went through her final initiation in 2015.
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Michael Manswell-Dancer, Singer, Choreographer, Teaching Artist, Artistic Director, Orisha devotee He studied music at Brooklyn College and has toured Europe, the UK, the Caribbean, Central America, and Africa. He studied dance at the Trinidad Dance Theater, worked with Geoffrey Holder and the powerful Cheryl Byron. Mr. Manswell is the Artistic Director of Something Positive, Inc. and performs, and presents lectures and workshops in dance, music, and traditional religious practice both nationally and internationally with the company. He has worked closely with the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI)& the Interfaith Center in their programs. Mr. Manswell was named one of “Brooklyn's Black Men of Distinction 2000” and one of “Brooklyn's Black Dance Kings 2010” and is NYSCA/NYFA Fellow 2022(Choreography). He is currently a Lecturer in Dance at Lehman College (CUNY and teaches for Something Positive, CCCADI, & Abundance Arts Academy.
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Iyalaxé Rita Silva was born in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. She has been initiated in Candomblé for over 23 years and has been a priestess for the last 14 years. She has also been a dancer for more than 40 years and performed with the international dance company Viva Bahia. Rita founded her own company, Bahia Magia, and traveled throughout Brazil and internationally for 20 years. She is also a yoga teacher and has taught Afro-Brazilian dance workshops in New York City public schools since 1994. Her classes introduce participants to the principles of Afro-Brazilian movement and to dances associated with the gods of Candomblé.
🪘 musical offering
A powerful performance in honor of Changó, the owner of the drum, by Melvis Santa & Ashedí
🕯️ community altar
for changó
Help us honor Changó on the eve of his feast day by bringing an offering for a community altar in his honor.
Annually, CCCADI presents a Sacred Traditions program commemorating the feast day of Changó by exploring the many ways African Diasporic communities have preserved Orisha traditions. In this way, CCCADI advances the cultural equity, racial and social justice of African descendant communities through the education of these spiritual traditions.