Celebrate African Heritage

At the heart of the Embassy Cultural House community is to value and celebrate the accomplishments within our diverse arts and culture community. As part of our commitment to equity our digital and online programming includes events and content to recognize the contribution of Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, elders and youth, women, LGBTQI2, and people with disabilities. We are proud to partner with Mongezi Ntaka to celebrate the pan-African education and cultural project Ngoma Zethu, which includes London's own Lorraine Klaasen, a Juno award-winning musician. Lorraine recently was honoured with the Forest City London Music Award in the category for World Music in September 2020.

Celebration for Lorraine Klaasen's FCLMA World Music Award

Celebration of Lorraine Klaasen's FCLMA World Music Award, February 13, 2021

Virtual Celebration for Lorraine Klaasen's FCLMA World Music Award and Black History Month: Lorraine Klaasen is a South African born singer/performer and a 2013 Canadian JUNO Award winner. In 2020, The Forest City London Music Award (FCLMA) was presented to Lorraine in the category of World Music. To celebrate Lorraine's award the Embassy Cultural House is hosting a virtual reception with Lorraine on February 13 , 2021 at 13:30 EST.
Great write up on Lorraine Klaasen the London Music Office site. See the article in South African newspaper Soweto Live about Lorraine and the February 13th award celebration.

The Ngoma Zethu Project

Vusi Mahlasela one of South Africa's living legends preforming with Lorraine Klaasen in Toronto in 2019.

Supporting the Pan-African cultural project Ngoma Zethu: The ECH is proud to be a supporter of the Ngoma Zethu project, a Pan African Cultural Revolution Conference. The phrase ‘ngoma zethu’ comes from various Bantu languages of East, Central and Southern Africa and it has a wide interpretation and a slightly different spelling on the possessive pronoun [Zethu/Zathu/Zetu] depending on the region of Africa where it’s being used. It can mean ‘Our dance’, ‘Our Song’, ‘Our Culture’, ‘Our drum’ or ‘Our History’. But philosophically it simply means ‘Our way of life’.

This project deals with African Oral Tradition, Humanity, Consciousness, African philosophy, African mythology, African spirituality [Gratitude] & African history. There are 7 Chapters on this project and six are delivered in six different African languages namely Berber, isiZulu, Chichewa, kiSwahili, seSotho and Yoruba. One chapter is delivered in English. Four languages excluding Berber and Yoruba are of the African Bantu tree branch and are very closely related.

The objective of this musical project is to share basic information about indigenous African way of life and its corresponding concepts without colonial and slavery influences. In almost all indigenous African cultures, art is the foundation of all learning. Before slavery and colonialism, most African societies had a shared understanding of humanity [Ubuntu - I am because you are]. Each chapter included in this project focuses on one specific topic and the artists chosen to deliver the individual chapters are of an African tree branch identifiable by the language they are singing in. please visit the Ngoma Zethu website for more information.

On February 28, 2021, the Ngoma Zethu project will be featured at the ‘Pan Africanism in a Changing World Order’. There will be a discussion on Pan Africanism by some of the most distinguished Pan Africanist scholars from some of the world’s best education institutions. Get your free ticket by registering here.

Collaboration with Rungh.org

Rungh is a Canadian multidisciplinary space for creative explorations, featuring work by Indigenous, Black and People of Colour artists.

Collaboration with Rungh.org. The Embassy Cultural House has recently started a conversation with Zool Suleman, one of the founders and Executive Director of Rungh, on ways to cross-promote IBPOC art and culture in Canada. Rungh is a Vancouver-based, Canadian multidisciplinary space for creative explorations, featuring works by Indigenous, Black and People of Colour artists. Rungh has made an important contribution to the diversity and inclusion agenda in Canadian arts and culture and we are proud to have the opportunity to support their work.

EDITORIAL TEAM

CURATORIAL ADVISORS
Jamelie Hassan & Ron Benner

ADVISORY CIRCLE
Samer Abdelnour, Wyn Geleynse, Fern Helfand, S F Ho, Lorraine Klaasen, Judith Rodger, Ruth Skinner, Mary Lou and Dan Smoke,  and Lucas Stenning

COORDINATING EDITOR
Tariq Hassan Gordon

ASSISTANT COORDINATING EDITOR
Olivia Mossuto

WEB DESIGN & SOCIAL MEDIA
Matthew Dawkins, Tariq Hassan Gordon, Olivia Mossuto, Niloufar Salimi, &  Jade Williamson

VIRTUAL TOURS
Andreas Buchwaldt

PRINT PUBLICATIONS
Shelley Kopp, Olivia Mossuto

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Andreas Buchwaldt, Matthew Dawkins,  Ira Kazi, Shelley Kopp, Niloufar Salimi,  Jenna Rose Sands, &  Michelle Wilson,

PAST CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Charlotte Egan,, Mackenzie Smith, &  Jade Williamson

OUR STORY

Artists Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner and jazz musician Eric Stach founded the Embassy Cultural House (1983-1990) located in the restaurant portion of the Embassy Hotel at 732 Dundas Street in East London. Other former members of the board were: Debrann Eastabrook, Henry Eastabrook, Sharron Forrest, Wyn Geleynse, Janice Gurney, Jean Hay (1929 - 2008), Doug Mitchell, Kim Moodie, Gerard Pas, Peter Rist, Wanda Sawicki, Jean Spence and Jennie White. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and website.

This project is supported by the London Arts Council through the City of London's Community Arts Investment Program:

Thank you to our partners

E M B A S S Y C U L T U R A L H O U S E . C A

London, Ontario is on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Lenape, Attawandaron and Huron-Wendat peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Wampum and other treaties.