Hello Friends,
I hope you are all keeping well and enjoying this “fall-summer” as my 5 year old aptly described the season. As we shared with you earlier, it was quite a busy summer with a launch in Ghana, promotion mode and shooting a music video for the the Afrobeat track Mala Lala, which was also recorded as a single in Yoruba—Emi Oko Orin.
A few more updates on our journey with RISE—two days after returning from Ghana, I was at the Museum of African Diaspora (MoAD), sharing the title track Rise and selling copies of the Album, with proceeds supporting the African Women’s Development Fund-USA. My dream to use music to celebrate Africa and promote social justice continues to materialize as I nurture partnerships with organizations honoring and investing in the leadership of African women and girls. I am very excited to announce the collaboration with AWDF-USA as a first step to promoting social justice through music.
AWDF-USA has adopted the title track RISE as the anthem for their Mother Africa Campaign. All AWDF-USA board members received copies of RISE at the recent board meeting in New York, and RISE was played during retreat breaks and the opening of a major event held with Zainab Bangura, former health minister of Sierra Leone and UN Special Envoy on Sexual Violence—needless to say RISE got some great exposure. The board was delighted to learn and fully endorsed the idea of RISE being adopted as AWDF’s Mother Africa campaign theme.
RISE also got some media buzz with a front page feature in the Tracy and Mountain House Press. We continue to look for media profiles of RISE to help spread the word about this independent project. To keep this going, we are looking for opportunities to perform at events and would love any leads or connections you may have
We launched my new Yoruba single Emi Oko Orin last week, and it’s available on iTunes and CDBABY. Stay tuned for the music video release! Subscribe to my YouTube Channel to be notified when the video is uploaded.
With Love
Maame Afon
