Angela-Sadio

Angela-Sadio is a community artist working with social justice and the performing arts to reclaim lost African heritage and empower youth through the arts, creating space for expression and elevated consciousness. As the founder of Camara Arts, “keepers of tradition,” an arts organization that centers African pride and legacy through historical teachings and empowering youth, women, and elders by utilizing African dance and drumming, Angela-Sadio has fostered partnerships with the Bright Lights, FACTS Folk Arts Charter School, the Church of the Advocate, and DanceAfrica Philadelphia. Her goal is to “elevate African Arts to a higher level of legitimacy and respect”.

Angela will create a private dance class with a group of Muslim women, mothers specifically and their children. The class will provide access to those who normally cannot participate due to religious restrictions where men are not allowed to be present (there are usually male drummers). This class will allow the women to reclaim their heritage as African American women and thus empower them where they otherwise cannot participate in dance classes, providing them an outlet for their emotional and physical bodies to release in a safe space for expression as women. Their children will also experience exposure to their own culture helping them to reclaim a connection to their traditional cultural practices. 

Angela "Sadio" will begin the preproduction phase of an educational documentary, that uses dance ceremonies, rituals, and interviews to share the spiritual and cultural functions of African dance. During a yearlong study in Guinea, Angela "Sadio" videotaped these many forms of dance. By sharing the meaning and purpose of these African dances through film, she is documenting and preserving this important cultural knowledge. This documentary will be a tool in her work with African American and Latino youth across Philadelphia, encouraging self-empowerment and change through this ritual art form.