Meeting the Moment
with Michael Mwenso
and guest C. Brian Williams

Welcome to episode three of Meeting the Moment with Michael Mwenso. 

The evening will kick off with a streaming of No Justice, No Peace, a Step Afrika! work the Center for the Performing Arts co-commissioned as part of the Major University Presenters commissioning project. Don and Mary Ellen Fisher provide lead support. The Debra Lee Latta and Dr. Stanley E. Latta Endowment, along with Susan and Lewis Steinberg, provide addition support. 

Mwenso, a Harlem-based cross-genre artist and leader of jazz-funk band The Shakes, is partnering with the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State to provide opportunities for faculty, staff, students, and community members to engage in thought-provoking conversations that speak to the topics of equity, diversity, and inclusion.

C. Brian Williams is founder and executive director of Step Afrika!, a dance company based in Washington, D.C. The first professional troupe dedicated to the tradition of stepping, Step Afrika! blends percussive dance styles practiced by historically African-American fraternities and sororities, African traditional dance, and influences from various other dance and art forms. The Center for the Performing Arts presented Step Afrika!’s world premiere performance of Drumfolk at Eisenhower Auditorium in January 2020.

The free live series will be broadcast via the Zoom video conference service, and questions will be taken in real time from audience members through the chat function.