Don’t miss Voyage sans Visa, Tukki saa suné (Voyage without a Visa)
Stories of African immigration told by Senegalese storyteller, singer, and dancer Boubacar Ndiaye
With music and song by Baye Cheikh Mbaye and Pape N’diaye Paamath

Tuesday February 26th
7:30pm
Kresge Auditorium, Visual Arts Center

Senegalese storyteller, singer, and dancer Boubacar Ndiaye shares with us the dreams of his youth to leave for a better world, like the swallows who fly toward new horizons to come back to their nests. In this show, he and fellow musicians Baye Cheikh Mbaye and Pape N’diaye Paamath tell tales of the suffering of families, of women waiting for their husbands to return, of children who have left long ago. They question the place of happiness and the success of immigrants who risk their lives attempting the crossing. They invite us to realize the pain and isolation that leaving one’s homeland for exile can entail.

The artists sing of the beauties of Saint-Louis in Senegal and its surroundings and take us to Tivaouane to discover the art of storytelling, the importance of family, and famous Senegalese teranga, or hospitality. Through music, they also communicate the love they feel for their adopted country. When three carriers of collective memory are united on stage, Africa stands tall in its encounter with the West, dances but also denounces: What does “without papers” mean? Don’t we all come from somewhere?

Free and Open to the Public

Generously sponsored by the Blythe Bikel Edwards Fund, the Africana Studies Program and the Departments of History, Music, and Romance Languages and Literatures.