March 10, 2009

AMHERST, Mass. – During the afternoon and evening of Sunday, March 29, Amherst College will host the African Underground Project, an award-winning documentary film series, panel discussion and live performance showcasing African hip-hop music and youth involvement in social and political action. The two-part program will feature a screening of the documentary African Underground: Democracy in Dakar, followed by a conversation with the filmmakers and artists in Stirn Auditorium at 3 p.m. and then a hip-hop performance in Buckley Recital Hall (within the Arms Music Center) at 8 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public, although the evening show requires tickets.

African Underground: Democracy in Dakar follows the controversial 2007 presidential elections in Senegal through the eyes of the country’s young people and hip-hop community. Its screening, the subsequent panel discussion about it and the evening hip-hop performance are sponsored by Amherst’s Music and Black Studies departments, Career Center, President’s Office, Center for Community Engagement, African & Caribbean Students Union, Martin Luther King Committee and Campus Center Program Board, as well as the Five College African Studies Program.

To view the trailer of African Underground: Democracy in Dakar, go to nomadicwax.com/film/democracy-in-dakar.  For more information about the African Underground Project, go to nomadicwax.com.

###