A Taste of Africa Workshops in African music, song,dance and percussion. Admission free and all are welcome This year, the Irish World Academy has the honour of having two internationally acclaimed African artists, O’dyke Nzewi and RAS Mikey Courtney within its community. For three evenings over the course of the Spring semester, O’dyke and Rasmikey will conduct an interactive workshop focusing on the music and dance of a different region in Africa, followed by a social gathering. The “Taste of Africa at UL” is a social event fashioned after a typical social evening as is experienced in many indigenous african cultures, requiring creative participation in african music-ing, dance-ing, singing and cusine…join us to consumate this all African cultural recreational experience where we collectively create our own musics and dances. O’dyke Nzewi is an African Classical Concert Drummer and a cultural arts education specialist. He runs international workshops and writes on the theory and practice ofIndigenous African musical arts practices, with a strong bearing on the creative philosophies as it is encountered in many African communities. He is currently pursuing a Practice based PhD at the University of Limerick. He runs the Centre for Indigenous Instrumental Music and Dance Practices for Africa (CIIMDA), an organization that re-orientates teachers on the use of African indigenous musical arts practices for classroom music education. He plays a wide range of unique indigenous African music instruments, predominantly from the south eastern parts of Nigeria, these include the Quad bell orchestra, the twin slit drums, gourd shakers, notched flute etc. RAS Mikey C is an African born American pursuing an MA student in Ethnochoreology. RAS has a B.F.A in Dance from U Arts in Philadelphia. RMC has worked worldwide with his company F.I.V.E. Productions, Raven-Symone, Pilobolus Dance Theatre, and others. RMC is the former Director of the Eallaz Dance Studio in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and featured with Aster Aweke, Kenny Allen, the Sub-Saharran Informer, as well as co-producer of Adama Ethiopia 2000 and Reggae by the Nile. RAS’s works are a reflection of his spirit and his passion for the performing arts as a cultural and social movement