Sona Jobarteh and entourage take the stage at the Dakota March 20th. While the venue considers itself “a rare gem in the Twin Cities entertainment scene,” in fact they are the strand and the gems are the performers.
Sona Jobarteh is one of those jewels, more than that, she is a solitaire diamond as she is the first female virtuoso kora player having interrupted the tradition of father-to-son tutoring when she was four years old.
Initially, it was her brother, Tunde Jegede, who introduced her to the kora. Eventually her father served as teacher and mentor, bucking a 700-year tradition that maintained an exclusively-male collective of kora players.
This breaking away from historical convention, “is a very central and important adaptation that tradition must take in order to be relevant to our new society,” said Jobarteh in a press kit promoting her latest tour.
Jobarteh’s progressive thinking led her to found in 2015 the Gambian Academy, an institution for children and dedicated to the social and economic development of the country. By utilizing culture as the means to educate its students, the Academy aims to empower the children to grow to be agents of social change.
All from deciding to pluck the 21 strings of a percussive-stringed instrument in 1987. The last time Jobarteh performed in Minneapolis, she was part of the Global Roots Festival at The Cedar in 2018.
By: Susan Budig (Mshale)
MON MAR 20 • 7PM
NEARLY SOLD OUT. Please contact the box office at 612-332-5299 for seating options.