Zimbabwean
'mbira queen' to lecture at Center for the Arts
Internationally
recognized Zimbabwean musician Stella Chiweshe will give a free
lecture and performance at UNM on Tuesday, Feb. 18, from 5 to
6:30 p.m. in the Center for the Arts, rm. B-017.
Widely
known as the mbira queen of Zimbabwe, Chiweshe is
the first female artist to gain prestige as a performer of the
mbira, an instrument at the backbone of Zimbabwean music, and
to be honored for participating in this music tradition historically
dominated by males. She is among a handful of female musicians
in Zimbabwe and South Africa who specialize in the genre.
Chiweshe
dealt with the former Rhodesian apartheid system and was part
of the independence movement that created Zimbabwe.
The
colonial government banned the mbira. Musicians performing the
mbira were imprisoned. Stella Chiweshe played anyway and went
underground. Independence came in the late 1970s and she was
able to perform and record in public, said Maria Williams,
associate director for the UNM Arts of the Americas Institute.
For information,
call the Arts of the Americas Institute, 277-2286.