CT: Mashantucket

WHERE: Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center.

WHEN: Saturday, March 17, 1:00-3:00 pm.

BRIEF ABOUT: Voices of Africa is an international noted cultural music group that presents a unique experience in a cappella vocals and traditional West African percussion rhythms. Their performance includes dance, songs, storytelling, African percussion instruments, and a Q&A about the origins of their drums and music. Following the performance, Penny Gamble-Williams (Chappaquidick/Wampanoag), is a visual artist, storyteller, poet, writer, activist and radio talk show producer and host, takes the stage to talk about the seldom-told story of the early links of Native American and African people.

MORE DETAILS: Call 800.411.9671 or see www.pequotmuseum.org for more March-April programming and upcoming events; or Bill Satti, Director of Public Affairs, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, 860.396.6572  or email wsatti@mptn-nsn.gov.   

Editor’s note: The Mashantucket Pequots are a native Algonquin people in southeastern Connecticut who endured centuries of conflict, survival, and continuity on and around one of America’s oldest Indian reservations, established in 1666. As the first native people within the borders of the continental United States to suffer attempted genocidal massacre by Puritan Colonists in 1637, the Pequots and their repatriation is an unprecedented story of restoration exhibited in detail at the Tribe’s world-class Museum and Research Center.

     Today, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation owns the largest resort casino in North America, Foxwoods Resort Casino, along with several other economic ventures, including the Lake of Isles Golf Course; a joint-venture partnership establishing the MGM Grand at Foxwoods; and Foxwoods Development Company, dedicated to world-class resort development throughout the United States and Caribbean.

     All together, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation remains one of the State of Connecticut’s highest tax payers and largest employers, and has contributed more than $3 billion to the state of Connecticut in accordance with the Tribe’s gaming-revenue-sharing agreement, established in 1993. Likewise, the Tribe provides significant financial contributions to state and local nonprofit organizations that support neighboring communities.