Urban Islanders

Long-lived dance group KuluMele is featured at Taller Puertoriqueño, a community center in North Philly. Here are our featured guests:Debora Kodish – Founder and Director of Philadelphia Folklore ProjectEstablished in 1987, the Philadelphia Folklore Project is an independent public folklife agency that documents, supports, and presents Philadelphia-area folk arts and culture - including the arts of people who have been here generations and those who have just arrived. We work to preserve and strengthen the folk cultural life of our communities because we believe that the quality of urban life is directly related to the persistence, diversity and vitality of our vernacular folk cultures.Ira Bond – Drummer for KuluMeleDorothy Wilkie – KuluMele Artistic DirectorDorothy Wilkie began to study African dance as a child in 1955, first as an art form and later as an aspect of her spiritual practice as an orisha devotee and initiate. She joined Kulu Mele as a dancer in 1974 and later became the company’s dance captain.