Events Calendar

[CANCELLED]

“Heavy, meditative, and tender” (New Yorker), Les Filles de Illighadad bring a sublime sound from central Niger. Guitarist/vocalist Fatou Seidi Ghali leads this ensemble through a hybrid of two distinct sides of Tuareg music: the hypnotic, polyphonic rhythms of tende—performed exclusively by women—and the newer, dreamily melodic guitar-based ‘desert blues’ that—until Ghali—had been made only by men. With trance-inducing singing, chanting, clapping, and the centring low rhythm of the askalabo—a partially submerged calabash—the ground-breaking group’s communal spirit is at turns celebratory, mournful, and healing.