Mid-Winter Festival (Mini-Fest ) 

FSGW’s Mid-Winter Festival is usually held at Takoma Park Middle School on the first Saturday in February.  But of course noting is the usual at the moment.

Because of concerns about the pandemic, FSGW will produce an on-line event in 2021 on SUNDAY, February 7, running from 7 to at least 10 pm, featuring many of the performance genres that have traditionally been a feature of this annual event. 

Questions?  Send them to minifest@fsgw.org

Registration

Registration is free but required to get the Zoom link.  

(online) Mid-Winter Festival 2021

If you are able, please donate to the performers:    Support the 2021 Mid-winter Festival performers

What we have planned so far:

Concert & Story Telling (7:30 pm EST)

In the tradition of our annual FSGW MidWinter Festival evening concert, we present a potpourri across many genres by some of the finest performers who now call the Washington, DC area their home.

Kinobe (pronounced Chi-no-bay) is perhaps Uganda’s leading international world musician. He is a singer/songwriter, creative arts producer, educator, multi-instrumentalist and philanthropist whose work has been described as “some of the most exquisite music coming out of Africa today.” For more than 15 years, he has captivated audiences with his soothing rhythms and powerful world-roots-dance melodies that emanate from the diversity of the many traditional instruments he customized to develop his unique sound. Kinobe’s music is soothing, pulsing, meditative, invigorating and intimate —much of it a mix of original and traditional—but the sounds are uniquely his. Many of us in the DC area were introduced to him when he wowed us at FSGW's Washington Folk Festival and other local festivals.

Noa Baum is an enchanting storyteller. NOA IS UNABLE TO APPEAR TONIGHT DUE TO A FAMILY EMERGENCY. SHE SENDS HER REGRETS. She grew in Jerusalem, and is perhaps best known for "A Land Twice Promised," her story of friendship with a Palestinian woman whom she met in California. This remarkable personal narrative explores the conflicts and commonalities of two peoples resident in the same territory, and highlights the power of stories to heal across the divides of identity and build bridges of peace. It is also an award winning memoir, now on Audible with Noa's narration. But Noa has many more stories to tell, and you'll hear some of them at our event. She is an author, speaker, storytelling coach, and the artistic director of The Grapevine, the monthly storytelling series (the second Wednesday of every month) sponsored by FSGW.  

Renee Brachfeld is a long-time story teller, co-director of the MultiFaith Storytelling Institute and co-host of the Grapevine storytelling series (sponsored by FSGW). Renee is widely known as a juggler as well a storyteller, but is unlikely to juggle for you tonight on Zoom.

Eleanor Ellis and Martha Burns aren't usually a duet, but when they get together with their voices and guitars, you can expect everything from blues to ballads, music with roots from the bayous of Louisiana to the cowboy ranges of the Southwest.

Eleanor comes from Louisiana and immersed herself in the blues. She traveled and played with the late gospel street singer Flora Molton and with bluesman Archie Edwards. She is a founding member of the DC Blues Society and the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation ("Archie's Barbershop"), and has written widely about the blues, and produced and edited the video documentary Blues Houseparty.

Martha has roots in New York, spent a lot of time at the Ark in Michigan, and studied 19th-century American popular music while a grad student at Brown University. She brings her unique voice to a broad mix of American musical traditions from many regions and time periods, with a particular love for great old songs that no one else has found yet.

Questions about the concert contact programs@fsgw.org   

Questions contact minifest@fsgw.org