West Africa

First Position favors formula over insight

Mickey Hart on Rhythm Devils, sampling the Big Bang and the healing power of music

Mickey Hart (due tomorrow night at the Ogden Theatre) was one of the Grateful Dead's two drummers; along with Bill Kreutzmann, Hart helped weave the unique polyrhythms of the legendary band. Whether as a solo artist, with the Dead or as an activist, Hart always puts his heart and his being into his ... More >>

Meet Atomga, a homegrown outfit specializing in traditional Nigerian Afrobeat and funk

Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 bring their white hot melodies, thunderous vocal stylings and high vibration rhythms to the Boulder Theater tonight. But while Seun, the son of legendary Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, and his band are clearly the main draw this evening, you won't want to miss the opener, Atomga, a ... More >>

It's nearly Africa at the ninth annual BaoBao Festival

You cannot escape the groove of African dance. Doesn't matter if you're tone deaf, half-dead or were born with two left feet -- African dance will pick you up and fill you with joy and never let you go. Which is why you should let the spirit move you to the BaoBao Festival, an annual celebration of ... More >>

Koffi Toudji uses drums, dance and a little humor to benefit the Koffi Togo band

​Koffi Toudji has been making a positive impact on Denver as a drummer, dancer and teacher of both for more than half a decade, and now he wants to take his energy full circle. Toudji is originally from Kpalimé in Togo, West Africa, and he's putting on the Koffi Togo fundraiser this Saturday, ... More >>

Tantric Picasso: "That alchemy is so precious and nurturing"

Tantric Picasso (due Thursday, February 2 at the Bluebird Theater) started in 2008 among a group of friends who met at school, which is typical enough, but in naming the band, the fivesome created a personal mythology (partly detailed below) that is somewhat embodied in the name with hints of the es ... More >>

Le Havre takes a sentimental look at the port city's working class

Tantric Picasso (due Thursday, February 2 at the Bluebird Theater) started in 2008 among a group of friends who met at school, which is typical enough, but in naming the band, the fivesome created a personal mythology (partly detailed below) that is somewhat embodied in the name with hints of the es ... More >>

Eyes on the prize: Pray the Devil Back to Hell focuses on Leymah Gbowee

Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Prize winner.​The five-part "Women, War & Peace" spotlights the stories of women in conflict zones. Part two of this series, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, features 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee and her work in organizing the women of Liberia to unite, ul ... More >>

Review: Sade and John Legend at the Pepsi Center, 8/11/11

Brandon Marshall​SADE & JOHN LEGEND at PEPSI CENTER | 8/11/11Sade brings a level of splendor, sophistication and smoldering seductiveness to her work unlike anyone else. While plenty of other vocalists admittedly possess a more expansive range, few carry themselves with the sort of grace and g ... More >>

Music Showcase Freebie: You put your weed in there, man.

​There's nothing worse for a pot-smoking music fan than to find your concert joints crumbled into a broken mess at the bottom of your favorite hiding spot. All that work rolling them beforehand, stashing them in your hat and making it through security is gone, and you've got to spend the rest ... More >>

Hessini Roots International combines Southern soul with West African and Mexican dishes

​There's nothing worse for a pot-smoking music fan than to find your concert joints crumbled into a broken mess at the bottom of your favorite hiding spot. All that work rolling them beforehand, stashing them in your hat and making it through security is gone, and you've got to spend the rest ... More >>

Food porn: African Grill and Bar

Mark MangerThe Ford-Wuo family at African Grill and Bar.​For this week's review, I visited African Grill and Bar, an oasis in an Aurora strip mall that offers a culinary journey to West Africa -- as well as an education on the fare served in Ghana, Nigeria, Gambia, Senegal and Liberia. Here's ... More >>

Review preview: African Grill and Bar

Mark MangerThe owners of African Grill and Bar serve dinner with an education.​I love it when an unfamiliar cuisine forces me out of my comfort zone, sending me into a post-dinner frenzy of research as I try to understand a culture through what it eats. When I first sat down at African Grill ... More >>

East Colfax Okra seeds grow the pods for a perfect stew: Kenny Be's Hip Tip

​ Foodies visiting the Kitchen Pavilion during the Denver County Fair will be treated to a cavalcade of competitive cook-offs. A first-class contender for most versatile international ingredient would be the prolific okra pod. Like neighborhood residents, East Colfax okra loves the heat and is ... More >>

Why do Mexican immigrants stay stuck on the bottom rungs of the success ladder?

​ Foodies visiting the Kitchen Pavilion during the Denver County Fair will be treated to a cavalcade of competitive cook-offs. A first-class contender for most versatile international ingredient would be the prolific okra pod. Like neighborhood residents, East Colfax okra loves the heat and is ... More >>

Most envelopes torn in half in thirty seconds and other weird world records set in Colorado

You got nothing on this, other states.​It was a momentous day for the Centennial State on Saturday, when Deepak Sharma Bajagain shattered the Guinness world records for Most Envelopes Torn in Half in Thirty Seconds and Most Grapes Eaten in Three Minutes with a Small Plastic Spoon (stay tuned - ... More >>

Colorado's No. 1 in fraud complaints: Greeley, Boulder, Fort Collins & CO Springs in top 15

​Statistics compiled by the Federal Trade Commission show that Colorado had the highest per-capita rate of consumer fraud complaints in the nation last year. According to the FTC's Consumer Sentinel Network report for 2010, Greeley, Boulder, Fort Collins and Colorado Springs all ranked among t ... More >>

Students burn bright, fly right in Poetry Out Loud contest

David Mason announces the winner, Samuel Opoku (third from left).​Memorizing and reciting great verse kept the epics of the ancient world alive. It helped former hostage Terry Anderson survive years of dismal captivity -- and countless closet poets from losing their sanity in a tin-ear world. ... More >>

10 things to do for $10 this weekend, January 14-16, 2011

​For those of us that hate outdoor activities, winter is the best time of year, because most things happen indoors. None of those pesky barbecues or the guilt that comes from sitting inside all day when it's a lovely 80 degrees out. We've got plenty of pleasant indoor activities going on this ... More >>

My crazy Christmas: Westword writers share their holiday stories

​Christmas can be intense: Rife with familial undercurrents and financial strain, the yuletide can bring a time of crushing disappointment, dissolving relationships, mounting tension and exploding tempers -- but if we open our hearts and we wish hard enough, it just might also be a time of red ... More >>

Five weird foods to get your Monday off to a scary start

It's Monday, and in case you're worrying about what you did this weekend or worrying about what's ahead at work, here's a heaping helping of weird food to divert you: ​To fuel your engine, how about the candy bar with the world's worst name, asse. ​Or to get your engine running, a nic ... More >>

Free movie time: Daughters of the Dust at the Blair-Caldwell Library

​Every once in a while in these vast United States, you come across an area so remote, so isolated, that the people of that area maintain a culture that is completely removed from the mainstream. The San Luis Valley in Colorado, where people still speak an archaic form of Spanish descended fro ... More >>

Zachrey Harris busted in Joseph Owen Coy case of alleged racial attack on CU's Olubiyi Ogundipe

Zachrey Harris.​On Saturday, Joseph Owen Coy was accused of a racially motivated attack on Olubiyi Ogundipe for allegedly punching the Nigeria-born CU student amid slurs about monkeys and worse -- but Boulder Police didn't know if Coy's two companions would face similar charges. Now, one of th ... More >>

Joseph Owen Coy's companions ID'd in racial attack on Olubiyi Ogundipe near Hookah House

​Yesterday, we told you about the arrest of Joseph Owen Coy on racially motivated crime charges involving Nigeria-born CU student Olubiyi Ogundipe near Boulder's Hookah House. Now the Boulder Police Department has tracked down Coy's two companions that evening, and the city manager has release ... More >>

Joseph Owen Coy accused of racially motivated crime on Olubiyi Ogundipe near Hookah House

​Early Saturday, an altercation took place near Boulder's Hookah House, at 1325 Broadway. And Boulder Police believe what took place constitutes a racially motivated crime -- hence, the accusations against Lafayette's Joseph Owen Coy, who's said to have called CU student Olubiyi Ogundipe and a ... More >>

Ifiok Etuk is suburban superhero Aurora Wraptight: Kenny Be's Hip Tip

full-sized comic below​Aurora Wraptight Real name: Ifiok Etuk; Occupation: Soul feeder; Suburb of operations: Aurora; Eyes: All-seeing; Hair: All-growing Suburban superhero skill: After years of thankless toil in the corporate ranks of Taco Bell, Aurora Wraptight learned that his path to true ... More >>

Soldiers in a barrel: Restrepo belongs to the soldiers in Afghanistan

full-sized comic below​Aurora Wraptight Real name: Ifiok Etuk; Occupation: Soul feeder; Suburb of operations: Aurora; Eyes: All-seeing; Hair: All-growing Suburban superhero skill: After years of thankless toil in the corporate ranks of Taco Bell, Aurora Wraptight learned that his path to true ... More >>

World Cup Quarterfinals

full-sized comic below​Aurora Wraptight Real name: Ifiok Etuk; Occupation: Soul feeder; Suburb of operations: Aurora; Eyes: All-seeing; Hair: All-growing Suburban superhero skill: After years of thankless toil in the corporate ranks of Taco Bell, Aurora Wraptight learned that his path to true ... More >>

Ray LaMontagne, the Walkmen, Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars shows announced

​Ray LaMontagne and his backing band, the Pariah Dogs, visit the Boulder Theater for an eTown show Thursday, August 12, five days before before his fourth album, God Willin' & The Creek Don't Rise hits stores. The live radio show taping hosted by Nick and Helen Forester also includes music and ... More >>

Gunning for World Cup Glory

​Ray LaMontagne and his backing band, the Pariah Dogs, visit the Boulder Theater for an eTown show Thursday, August 12, five days before before his fourth album, God Willin' & The Creek Don't Rise hits stores. The live radio show taping hosted by Nick and Helen Forester also includes music and ... More >>

Simone Says

​Ray LaMontagne and his backing band, the Pariah Dogs, visit the Boulder Theater for an eTown show Thursday, August 12, five days before before his fourth album, God Willin' & The Creek Don't Rise hits stores. The live radio show taping hosted by Nick and Helen Forester also includes music and ... More >>

Porn site preys on lonely chain-store fans

​One day it was Home Depot, the next it was Wendy's, and then a secret admirer told me he'd stopped by "applebees and thought about u." Now I just got an e-mail from someone who spotted me at Starbucks -- at least according to this: Howdy Patricia. not usually this brave, i thought i saw u b ... More >>

Book Buzz

​One day it was Home Depot, the next it was Wendy's, and then a secret admirer told me he'd stopped by "applebees and thought about u." Now I just got an e-mail from someone who spotted me at Starbucks -- at least according to this: Howdy Patricia. not usually this brave, i thought i saw u b ... More >>

Africa Dances

​One day it was Home Depot, the next it was Wendy's, and then a secret admirer told me he'd stopped by "applebees and thought about u." Now I just got an e-mail from someone who spotted me at Starbucks -- at least according to this: Howdy Patricia. not usually this brave, i thought i saw u b ... More >>

Stand and Deliver

​One day it was Home Depot, the next it was Wendy's, and then a secret admirer told me he'd stopped by "applebees and thought about u." Now I just got an e-mail from someone who spotted me at Starbucks -- at least according to this: Howdy Patricia. not usually this brave, i thought i saw u b ... More >>

Colorado Connection

A powerhouse of a woman speaks for Unique Lives.

To Africa, With Love

A powerhouse of a woman speaks for Unique Lives.

Beyond the Bush

The Urban Bush Women join forces with Compagnie Jant-Bi.

African Delight

Culture abounds at the fifth annual African Extravaganza.

Moral Fiber

Culture abounds at the fifth annual African Extravaganza.

The Iron Age

Iron Ladies of Liberia takes an in-depth look at the country's new leader.

To Die For

Get a mouthful of Asmat art.

Making the Music

Wu Fei curates the Colorado Creative Music Series.

Chic Cause

Wu Fei curates the Colorado Creative Music Series.

A Pirate's Life for Me

Going overboard at Ocean.

Mama's House

For Ghanaian immigrants, there's no place like home.

Sing Out

Denver Gay Men's Chorus tunes up the First Amendment

Bite Me

Rice Checks

Hit Pick

Dialy Kounda

African Drums Beat

West African groups find ways to spread the music and dance.