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Issue: 990 Date: 8/13/2009
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New Happenings at 2009 Festival of Nations
International Institute Presents Culture Corner, "Welcome to My Home", and New Cultural Performances
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St.Louis--The International Institute's Festival of Nations will be bigger and better than ever in 2009. In addition to the vast array of world cuisine, dance troupes, music groups, educational booths, hand-made gifts, and global arts and crafts offered every year, this year's Festival of Nations will also feature a new area called Culture Corner, an opportunity to learn about different coffee and tea rituals in "Welcome to My Home", and several new musical and dance performances. The 2009 Festival of Nations will be held August 29 - 30 in Tower Grove Park.
The Culture Corner will feature several different cultural activities including the art of henna, elaborate ethnic face painting, a Moroccan gift booth, and calligraphy from around the world at the booth Alphabet Soup. The International Institute also has the distinction of featuring several folk art masters and apprentices affiliated with the Missouri Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (TAAP), which will take place at Culture Corner. The TAAP is an initiative to preserve traditional arts funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Missouri Arts Council. The traditional artists will be showcasing their crafts and visitors will have the opportunity learn about the TAAP and the cultural significance of Missouri folk arts. Among the folk art masters to be featured at the festival is nationally renowned storyteller and gospel singer, Gladys Cogswell who will be performing at Folk Grove Stage on Saturday, August 29th at 4:00pm and Sunday, August 30th at noon.
Within the series "Welcome to My Home", visitors will have the opportunity to learn about and take part in different coffee and tea rituals from around the world including Eritrean coffee ritual, Japanese tea ceremony and the exhibit Coffee's Homeland: The Horn of Africa. Directly following "Welcome to My Home" is "Welcome to the Party!" where visitors can dance to global party music. These events will take place in the Chinese Pavilion.
There will also be many new musical and dance performances including Drums of Uzbekistan, Irish dance troupe Milligan Stew, Palestinian dance troupe Banat Salasteen, new local group Choro Guys, two Nepalese dance troupes, St. Louis Slavic musical group Melodija, Afro-Carribean DJ Baba Mike, a Chinese Zither player and many more. All music and dance performances will take place on Forest Stage, World Music Stage and Folk Grove. Visit www.iistl.org/festival.php for schedules and more details about the 2009 Festival of Nations.
2009 Festival of Nations sponsors include Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Missouri Arts Council, Webster University, Neilsen, National City Bank, Boeing, Target, US Bank, Willert Home Products, and media sponsors are Radio Disney, KWMU(90.7FM), St. Louis Chinese American News, and Spainish Newspaper El Mundo Latino.
About the International Institute:The International Institute St. Louis prepares immigrants and other St. Louisans for a shared future by offering integration services, including language and cultural support, economic development, and public policy advocacy. This year's Festival of Nations celebration, August 29-30 Tower Grove Park, is expected to bring together more than 100,000 visitors. Learn more at www.iistl.org |
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