[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOq_6aVOqPI]   Italy based, UK Funky influenced, electronic music purveyors Pepe Soup recently released the above song and video, a proud recollection of Liberian childhood punishment survival. The Italian-Liberian duo have been busy this year, releasing a string of EPs on their own label, and contributing to the soundtrack for Al Jazeera and Dutch […]

Photographer Glenna Gordon, no stranger to AIAC, is working on a new project in Staten Island, home to the largest population of Liberians outside of Liberia. I asked her if I could publish some of the work here. You can view the full set here. She also sent this note: Most New Yorkers still think […]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZriKcTa2YUk&w=600&h=373] Back in the states, I’m going to be able to fulfill my promise to post on Liberian music, and the vibrant growing scene there. I’m publishing another couple of articles for Cluster Mag about it, and am really excited about a compilation Akwaaba Music and I have decided to put together. So keep […]

The oldest republic in Africa, Liberia–formed in 1847–celebrates its independence today.  Chances are Dumyarea, the song we wrote about earlier will pump from stereos and in cars, but there’s more. Right now you have two major styles Gbema and Hipco (the co is for Colloquial), and sometimes they mix. All of the songs on youtube are […]

A worthwhile project by two Canadian brothers who grew up in 1970s Liberia–it still feels like 25% of the city are expats–to restore photo memory because so many people here don’t know what Monrovia looked like before the war. Details.

A clip from Ann Buford’s new film, “Elevate,” about four high school athletes recruited from Senegal to play basketball at upscale prep schools in the US. Then there’s “The Redemption of General Butt-Naked” directed by Eric Strauss and Danielle Anastasion. From the film PR: “… Once a brutal warlord who mercilessly slaughtered men, women, and […]

Earlier this week ESPN won seven Sports Emmy Awards, including one for music during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, like the video–played at the start of broadcasts and during breaks from the studio in South Africa–featuring U2 (I prefer Bono when he sings, not when he wants to save Africa) and the Soweto […]

African nationalism from an unlikely quarter;  rapper I-20 from Ludacris-owned label, Disturbing Tha Peace. Great hook too.  (Actually scrap the stuff about unlikely quarters.) via Bombastic Elements

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB3MSIRmBD0&w=500&h=307&rel=0] Sean Jacobs This is worth remembering. In 2004 the Liberian footballer George Weah was awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the Espys. (For those who don’t care: that’s sports channel ESPN’s versions of the Oscars.) This is the man who scored the greatest goal of all time and the only African player to […]

The blog Liberia and Friends reports the American actor/director Dermot Mulroney will develop and probably direct a biopic on the life of Liberian football legend George Weah. (What does Mulroney know about football? Turns out he starred in a film about a young soccer player, “Gracie;” as for Africa, Reuters reports that he produced a film about […]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZOvI9bvruQ&w=500&h=307&rel=0] Rapper Nas narrates a short insert on ESPN’s “E:60” on the Liberian national amputee team made up of men, often former enemies, who lost the use of their legs or arms in Liberia’s very recent civil war.  (Above is a kind of mash up from the in-studio introduction that usually precedes an insert as […]