ACANA: African Cultural Alliance’s 4th Annual Festival

This year, the ACANA Festival is certain to be a big crowd puller. 

In previous years, ACANA Cultural Festival brought on stage such big name artists like Maxi Preast of Jamaica as well as Liberia’s Geibah Swaray of the Safari Band.

[Arts & Culture]

PHILADELPHIA, Penn—It’s about that time of the year again, as the festive season in Philadelphia kicks off.

The African Cultural Alliance of North America (ACANA)’s annual cultural festival is been hosted for the 4th year in the roll. As in previous years, this year’s event will take place at Philadelphia’s Penn’s Landing, a Delaware River Waterfront Corporation managed facility.

The event will take place on August 6, 2011–the stage will light up at 2pm with an array of African, and American jazz musicians, including Go for Broke Band led by Councilwoman Penny MacDonald of the borough of Yeadon, Penn.


This year’s festival will also feature other diverse diaspora groups of artists from Africa, the Caribbean, as well as the US. Among those participating in this year’s festival are: Joan Tigrass Rowley, Trinidad’s queen of soca music; Jodi, a Liberian R&B mega star based in Florida; Rafiya, an American-born Congolese artist; Universal Dance Ensemble, an exact replica of the Ballet African Dance Troup from the Republic of Guinea based in Camden, New Jersey; Kulu Mele Dance Troup, West African culture inspired African American dance troupe and; Coda, a jazz band in Philadelphia.

This year, the ACANA Festival is certain to be a big crowd puller. 

In previous years, ACANA Cultural Festival brought on stage such big name artists like Maxi Priest of Jamaica as well as Liberia’s Geibah Swaray of the Safari Band.

These programs have often pulled in multi-racial crowds of people from all over the Philadelphia region. According to the ACANA ceo Voffee Jabateh, this year’s event is co-hosted by Philadelphia-based African American Museum. It is certain to repeat the success of previous programs.

Among the sponsors are: Excelon company; PECO Energy; Philadelphia Department of Behavior Health; Pennsylvania Council on the Arts through the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance; the Brown Family Shop Rite.

The annual cultural festival is one of the many activities ACANA is spearheading in its 12th year of service to the African and Caribbean immigrant communities. Since its founding in 1999 with the mission to bridge the gap between the African immigrant and the African American communities, the agency has provided assistance to refugees from Africa and the Caribbean who seek asylum and other immigrant benefits. ACANA is now a Bureau of Immigration Appeal fully-accredited agency helping immigrants with legal immigration services.

The ACANA is the second African-founded service organization in the United States providing such services, the other being the Ethiopian Community Development Corporation of Alexandria, Virginia. ACANA was founded by Liberian cultural artists and social work professional.



“Speaking Truth To Empower.”

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