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

School is back in session!

The 2017-2018 school year has started! this means that we will be resuming our regular classes at WWU, on Mondays starting at 6pm in VU room 464, and on Thursdays at 6pm on the ground floor of Bond Hall (focusing on music first).

Here are a couple of pictures from last year - hoping for another good year!

We are already happy to announce that Mestre Silvinho will be up in Bellingham on Sunday November 5th for a workshop and roda that will be open to the public, sponsored by the WWU Music Department. Workshop at 2pm, roda at 4pm, location TBD!

Mestre Silvinho playing with Ryan at the 2017 Afro-Brasilian Festival

Our roda at the Latinx Student Union's Mezclada

Our roda at the African Caribbean Club's heritage dinner.

We also want to take a minute to celebrate the life of Sylvia Robinson, who was instrumental in helping the International Capoeira Angola Foundation put down roots in the United States.
In the picture below, Sylvia is on the left on a panel discussion that also includes (from the left) Sheryll, also an influential woman at the beginning of FICA - DC, Mestra Janja, Contra-Mestra Cristina, Mestra Gege and Mestra Paulinha.

We have been practicing the corrido:

Bahia de todos os santos,
Bahia dos Orixas,
Bahia de Mae Menininha
Meniniha do Gantois

Here is some information about her, linking back to the FICA DC archives website:

http://ficadc.blogspot.com.br/2008/05/me-menininha-do-gantois.html

an excerpt:

[...]
Admired for her wisdom, grace, knowledge, humility, and firm hand, for 64 years, the incomparable Mãe Menininha held the highest rank in the Candomblé hierarchy, that ofIalorixá, or Mãe de Santo, a position that combines religious guidance, political leadership and therapeutic power at the Terreiro do Gantois… with great spiritual powers and rare personal charisma, Mãe Menininha was largely responsible for the diffusion and popularization of Candomblé in Bahia.
[...]

it's that time of the year again...

long days, warmer weather, the end of the school year... time to start training at Boulevard park.

Afro-Brasilian Festival!

Sunday, May 15th in the Multipurpose Room of the Viking Union!

 10am: Capoeira Angola Class with Mestre Silvinho
1:30pm: Samba Class with Dora Oliveira
2:45pm: West African Drum Class with Manimou Camara
4pm: West African Dance Class with N'nato Camara
5:15: Capoeira Angola Roda

 Free for students, $5 per class for the general public.

 Thanks to:
 WWU Dance Department
WWU Anthorpology Departmet
WWU Music Department
Bellingham Community Food Co-op
International Capoeira Angola Foundation

When someone with a nice camera comes along during music practice...

Thank you Fernando! these are beautiful.

This reminds me a throwback picture, back from 2013:

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