Celebrating Coast Salish Day

The city of Bellingham officially designated the second Monday in November as Coast Salish Day. To commemorate that day, and reflect on the legacy of the interactions between the people who have lived here since time immemorial and those of us who have settled here, we thought we'd share this video made by Lisa Cook. a graduate of Northwest Indian College.

Iê! Reconheço que essa terra é a casa ancestral de um povo bem antigo que é preciso respeitar. A essencia desse povo é na terra, é no mar é nas arvores, nos rios é a historia do lugar. Agora moramos juntos, juntos vamos trabalhar para defender essa terra para defender o mar! Nessa roda de Angola é bonito de se ver vem p’ra roda meu colega a amizade vai crescer, camarada! Iê viva meu Mestre! Iê quem me ensinou! Iê a Capoeira Iê é de Angola

Iê! I recognize that this land is the ancestral home of a very ancient people who are worthy of respect The essence of this people is in the land, is in the sea, is in the trees, in the rivers, it’s the history of this place. Now we live together, together, let us work to defend this land to defend the sea! In this roda of [capoeira] angola it’s good to see you come to the roda, my friend, our friendship will grow! Iê long live my Mestre Iê who is the one who taught me Iê about Capoeira Iê it’s from Angola

At Culture Shock 2017

Culture Shock is an excellent, annual, free event hosted by the Ethnic Student Center at WWU.

We were honored to share some what we have learned about Capoeira Angola there.

Note: our performance starts at 1:38:20

Parabens!

It is a thrill to find out that the International Capoeira Angola Foundation officially recognized its first female MestrA - Gege Poggi! It's a proud day to be an angoleir@!!!

Obrigado, Mestre Silvinho and Caitlin!

Thank you Mestre Silvinho and Caitlin for coming to Bellingham to train with us and help us grow in the art!

During his workshop, Mestre mentioned percussionist Nana Vasconcelos. Below is a video displaying his amazing use of the berimbau.

Mestre Silvinho was in Bellingham to do a series of workshops organized by Kuntz and Co. His visit was covered by the Western Front and by the Cascadia Weekly, which unfortunately included a picture of another artist.

Spring 2014 scheduling (UPDATED)

Until June 2nd:

Regular class will continue to be held on Mondays at 5:30 in the MPR at WWU.
Music class on Saturdays at 11am at the Whatcom Peace and Justice Center (1220 Bay street); on nice days, we will move to the Farmers' Market.

There will NOT be a music class on Saturday May 10th, or Saturday May 17th.

SAVE THE DATES!

 Sunday May 4th C2C is organizing their second annual farmworker solidarity march.
12pm: Leave from the intersection of Meridian and Prince, Bellingham
1:30pm: Rally at the Whatcom County Courthouse, Grand and Lottie, Bellingham
2:00pm: Rally and Food at Maritime Heritage park

Mestre Silvinho will be giving a workshop here in Bellingham on Tuesday May 6th in WWU's Carver Gym, Room 60, from 6 to 8pm. Beginners and non-students welcome!

Treinel Huu

Treinel Huu (pictured at left, from FICA-Chicago) will be visiting Seattle on Saturday and Sunday May 17th and 18th.







May 31st will be our fifth annual Afro-Brasilian Festival - stay tuned for the schedule!

Mestre Cobra Mansa will be in Seattle on June 6th to the 8th to teach classes and share his new documentary (trailer below).

The roots of capoeira angola

Mestre Cobra Mansa has been working on a documentary on the african roots of capoeira.

The video below is for the appeal for funding that they did some time ago - and it contains some amazing footage on its own, including Mestre Cobrinha playing some intense games against Mestre Moraes.

An interview with Mestre Cobra Mansa

Mestre Cobra Mansa is the founder of FICA, and a great, wise elder. This is a great video with a little bit of his history, and his current project Kilombo Tenode.

Happenings!

Here's a picture of our final roda after training in Vancouver: Cheryn looks ready to go! On the viola is Yui (not sure about the spelling) from FICA - Tokio!

And here is a picture and video from our performance at the LSU heritage dinner:

Ie, vamos embora camara'!