Red Hot & Riot in Brooklyn

When I read the news on the Red Hot & Riot Live concert going down at the Brooklyn Academy of Music next weekend, December 1 & 2, I nearly flipped my wig. With a friend of mine leaving for Africa today to play in a series of concerts (one of which includes a World AIDS Day show) and this too-good-to-be-true-to-believe concert line-up right in Brooklyn I could barely contain myself. Not only will my friend and I be connected in spirit by an echoing drum beat moving waves across oceans, we’ll be celebrating and contributing what little we can to help the AIDS situation in Africa and locally. I can’t speak on the details of the show my pal will be performing at only because I do not know, but I can share with you all that I know about the one going down at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Performers for the two-night event include Tony Allen, Amadou & Mariam Cheikh Lo, Dead Prez, Keziah Jones, Les Nubians, Meshell Ndegeocello and Yerba Buena. Created as a tribute to the late Fela Kuti and Afrobeat music, the two nights of music will bring acclaimed African artists together with a younger generation of international artists in addition to raising HIV/AIDS awareness in the community. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the African Services Committee. The organization is NY based and promotes the health and self-sufficiency of local African and Caribbean immigrant communities through the provision of HIV/AIDS care and support services. In other words you’ll want to be there if your calendar happens to be bare on December 1 and/or 2, 2006. I’ll be in the building both nights.

See bam.org for ticket information.