In a week, we will celebrate the fifth anniversary of the CHALE WOTE Street Art Festival. The sixth edition of the festival takes place August 15 – 21, 2016, with the participation of more than 200 Ghana-based artists and international artists from ten (10) countries.

SPIRIT ROBOT, the theme for this year’s festival, embraces a power rooted in humanity. It refers to the energetic ability of festival participants to create a new encounter with reality that is entirely of our choosing and construction.

Is this not already happening all around us, as a journey – not a definitive moment, but rather a series of moments? African Electronics was the spark – the blending of different energies to see if a pulse, a thick and palpable current, could be directed to shift or alter the frequency into some other kind of reality. With African Electronics, we got a peep through the window – this is a walk through the front door and a look around the house.

Line Up:

THE OPEN GALLERY
Monday, August 15 - Monday, August 22

For the first time, CHALE WOTE is extending the festival to a full week of activities. This year, we launch The Open Gallery, a collaboration with six (6) Accra galleries and exhibitions
showing the vibrant textures of contemporary Ghanaian art.

Exhbitiions & Venues:

Gallery 1957, Kempinski Hotel

James Town Walking Tours, Brazil House, James Town

Cornfields in Accra, Museum of Science and Technology

Nubuke Foundation, East Legon

Untamed Empire, North Ridge

Mmofra Foundation, Dzorwulu


Talk: FREE THE SPIRIT
Monday, August 15, 2016
Brazil House
6 - 7 PM

Kpakpo Samoa Mark-Hansen, the Logistical Coordinator for CHALE WOTE and a member of the James Town community, opens the festival with a special conversation breaking down the cosmologies of the Ga Mashie – the land, people and culture of the greater Accra region - and the spiritual symbols of the Samai. He connects this history to James Town - the embedded shrines and secret tunnels, crisscrossing migrations and journeys of the enslaved - from the markets and forts to the sea.


Screenings: Diasporadical Trilogia and ACCRA POWER
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Gallery 1957
6 – 9PM

BLITZ THE AMBASSADOR kicks off this event with a close look at a series of his music films entitled Diasporadical Trilogìa. An informal Q+A with Kobby Graham and the audience follows the screening to discuss Blitz’s creative process in music, film, and design, the independent hustle, and everyday life in a police state. 6 – 7pm

Diasporadical Trilogìa follows the story of a woman who mysteriously lived on three different continents at the same time. Through a magical realism lens, she shares her memories of growing up as a little girl in Brooklyn, a young lady in Accra and a middle aged woman in Bahia, while struggling with love, immigration and gentrification.

Also catch the premiere screening of ACCRA POWER and hear it first from the director and artists featured in the film.
Q+A after the screening
Mixer to follow featuring DJ L’oqenz

ACCRA POWER (dir. Sandra Krampelhuber, Austria) provides an eclectic mix of perceptions of power in Accra, one of many thriving urban settings in Africa. The film outlines creative and artistic strategies generated by young Ghanaians who are situated at the crossroads of tradition and various belief systems, high technological and economic growth, infrastructural deficits and a longstanding energy crisis.


The LABS @ CHALE WOTE
Thursday, August 18
WEB DuBois Centre

Untamed Empire
Friday, August 19
1pm – 9PM

The LABS returns to CHALE WOTE with an innovative mix of screenings by independent filmmakers, panel conversations with artists participating in the festival, creative learning labs with experts, and live music and performance installations. The LABS give us a chance to dig deep and explore this year’s theme, Spirit Robot.


JAMES TOWN
Sat, August 20 - Sun, August 21, 2016
12noon - 10PM

For more information, visit www.accradotaltradio.com