Artist Statement
Songs for Adaeze is an Afro Futurism Musical Production. Adaeze is a unique coming of age story rooted in folklore from West Africa and the Diaspora with an eclectic sci fi twist and an amazing palate of thought provoking musical numbers. A chance encounter with a mysterious and alluring individual from another dimension, challenges a young woman from a Royal legacy to defy the status quo resulting in a chain of events that that can destroy or revitalize the world she has come to love and cherish as her own. Adaeze’s journey is a quest for love, redemption, self awareness and salvation. This charismatic odyssey will lure the audience into an enchanting moment in time spanning two dimensions co existing and co depending on each other. It will challenge how one sees their own purpose and the impact that human existence serves when merged with clarity of self defined. Adaeze’s song spans beyond age, gender, and class. It embraces the magnificence of blackness.
The vulnerability, the strength, the resiliency and the brilliance of a community that illuminates brilliance on an inter galactic realm that is archived in the history of mankind and the possibilities of all things great and yet to come by a future that is limitless.
This piece was performed as part of BeltLine After Dark + Music in the Park on October 18, 2019, in the greenspace in Ashview Heights and adjacent to the Westside Trail.
Artist Bio
Chiwuzo Ife Okwumabua
Chi Ife is a show producer, production manager, composer, lyricist, and actress for various productions nationally and internationally. Chi was the production manager for Carnival Medea: A Bacchanal that traveled to the 2015 International Collegiate Festival at the Edinburgh Fringe. Chi was one of the producers of the Atlanta premier of Trey Anthony’s hit musical production, ‘da Kink in My Hair at the Cobb Energy. Chi also produced the US premiere of Dr. Zulu Sofola’s classic love story, Wedlock of the Gods at the Southwest Arts Center bringing authentic African Theatre to Atlanta. She was on the planning committee of Dance Africa Atlanta hosted by Giwayen Mata African Dance Company and worked with Georgia State University on the premier of the South African one woman show, Mother to Mother at the Africa Atlanta festival at the Balzer Theatre.
Co-Producer Sunni Williams
Writer, speaker, poet, activist, actress, on air internet show host and entrepreneur. Sunni has experience working in theatre as a writer and actress. She recently made it into the top ten finals out of 1500 for the BET Color Creative TV pilot series contest and was notified she was second runner up to the winning candidate. Sunni also has a strong background in business and marketing and has exhibited her expertise in the corporate sector as well. Sunni is passionate about the youth and has devoted years to working in the juvenile detention center speaking to incarcerated youth and co founded a reading program called Youth Angels to teach at risk youth how to read.