SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
We can't wait to share our stories with you!
FUNDA FEST 27 TICKETS AND PASSES ARE GOOD FOR IN-PERSON AND BROADCAST PERFORMANCES!
FESTIVAL PASS $60
Single Events $20 / $15 STudent or Senior / $10 CHILD 12 AND UNDER
Funda Fest 27 Events are TBD.
Take a look at what last year's events offered:
Most events will be Live streamed! Enjoy in person or from home.
Friday, Jan. 19th 6-10PM
Opening Party
Join RIBS and our supporters to a ritual around the fire to kindle our FUNDA FEST experience. Following a gathering of stories, drums, music and acknowledgements, join us for a party, with food and music, to celebrate our 26th annual FUNDA FEST.
Venue: Rites & Reason
Saturday, Jan. 20th 12-2PM
Family Fun Day – Choose the location closest to you!
Join RIBS and invited guest storytellers for an interactive, family oriented storytelling program, and craft activities that relate to the storytelling.
Newport: Pell Elementary School • 35 Dexter Street
Westerly: Westerly Public Library and Wilcox Park • 44 Broad Street
Saturday, Jan. 20th 7:30PM
Storytelling for Grown Folk
Join RIBS and featured artist David Gonzalez for an unforgettable evening of cultural Storytelling.
Southside Cultural Center of RI:
393 Broad St. • Providence, RI
Sunday, Jan. 21st 4-6pm
Words and Music, by OUTSPOKEN PVD – Spoken Word Event
Curated by the incredible Sara Lopes, join FUNDA FEST for an evening of poetry and spoken word. In addition to the featured artists, come sign up for the open mic. Vendors and a live DJ make this a great party!
Southside Cultural Center of RI:
393 Broad St. • Providence, RI
Thursday, Jan. 25th 6:30PM
Afro / Caribbean Storytelling in South County
Featuring Amina Blackwood Meeks and Teju Ologboni Celebration of African and Caribbean Cultures
Free: Family Event /All Ages
South Kingstown High School
215 Columbia St, Wakefield, RI
Friday Jan. 26th Time 8-11PM
Urban Legends (The Art of Storytelling in Hip Hop)
Southside Cultural Center of RI: 393 Broad St. • Providence, RI
Join us as we explore the relationship between storytelling and hip hop. Featuring hip hop legends Masta Ace and Akrobatik, other local MCs, freestyle cypher, breakdancers and other surprises. This will be an exciting evening of performance, conversation, and artistic collaboration you won’t want to miss!
Curated by Basement Flavor
Saturday, Jan. 27th 10AM-4PM
FREE Family Fun Day
Join RIBS and invited national and international artists at the BLM RI Center of RI and MPACT Theatre in Pawtucket for a full day of programming. Don’t miss the workshops in the morning, a youth performance by RIBS youth (broadcasted), and a Family Storytelling Concert (broadcasted) by our guest artists in the afternoon. And, all day activities for families, and vendors in our Marketplace.
MPACT Theatre : 25 Maple St. • Pawtucket RI
Saturday, Jan. 27th 7:30PM
Hard to Tell Tales
MPACT Theatre: 25 Maple St. • Pawtucket RI
Hosts: Women of RIBS
Featuring: Brothers Keeper , Regie Gibson, Rochelle Garner Coleman, Len Cabral, Teju Ologboni
The men of RIBS and special guests will present HARD TO TELL TALES, from a Black man’s perspective, at MPACT Theatre.
Sunday, Jan. 28th 3-5PM
Sacred Storytelling
MPACT Theatre: 25 Maple St. • Pawtucket RI
Host: Melodie Thompson
Featuring: Amina Blackwood Meeks, Regie Gibson, Teju Ologboni, Muriel Johnson and The W.A.R. Dance Collective
RIBS tellers host our international artists and invited guests for an afternoon of stories and music that will nourish your soul. Good for all ages.
Thursday, Feb. 1st 6-8PM
Community Flavors
Southside Cultural Center of RI: 393 Broad St. • Providence, RI
Join RIBS & The Jamaican Association of RI to share food and stories around the table. Jamaican fare served in honor of our International guest, Amina Blackwood Meeks, Amaziya the Great, and our own storytellers with Jamaican roots!
Friday, Feb. 2nd 7-10PM
Liars Contest
Cape Verdean Club: 329 Grosvenor Ave, East Providence, RI 02914
Your tale must be appropriate for family audiences.
Hosted by the incomparable Lady J and Len Cabral, this will be a fun time!
A FUNDA FEST favorite! Don’t miss your chance to sign up to tell your biggest whopper before a live audience and a panel of judges for cash prizes! Come early and get on the list.
First prize $200! Second Prize: $100. Third Prize: $50.
Doors open at 7. Lies fly at 8 pm.
Food and drinks available.
Vendors, too!
Saturday, Feb. 3rd 10:30AM-5:30PM
Black History Live+
Southside Cultural Center of RI: 393 Broad St. • Providence, RI
10:30am: Doors open to public
11am-12/12:15pm: Sylvia Ann Soares’ Defiance! In Our Defense. What might elder Nancy Elizabeth Prophet have thought about racism?
12:00- Let’s Talk about It (join the artist in a conversation about the work)
Sylvia Ann Soares portrays a compelling new radical Nancy Elizabeth Prophet (1890-1960,) African American Narragansett-Pequot, first known graduate of color from RI School of Design (1918.) Including Prophet’s life experience, her friendship with W.E.B. Du Bois and her teaching at Spelman, we newly witness an elder Prophet’s likely responses to racist incidents in the US and in Rhode Island.
12:30-1:30pm: Screening #1 – The Price of Admission (black baseball) Film – approx. 1:00
1:30-2pm: Let’s Talk About It
The Price of Admission, a documentary film about Rhode Island Black Baseball, tells a story about baseball, power, money and the black community from the early 1900’s through The Jazz Age and the Great Depression of the 1930’s. It is an epic tale about two nearly forgotten men, Arthur James “Daddy” Black and Daniel “Big Dan” Whitehead, who made sports history in Rhode Island and broke barriers while doing so. This film brings their story into the light for the first time. It showcases an aspect of black community life in Rhode Island that has waited until now to be told in film.
Elmcrest Films, LLC is premiering “The Price of Admission” during the RIBS 2024 Fundafestevent. The film combines narration, voice acting and musical talents from Rhode Island and the region with rarely seen documentary and photographic images to tell a compelling story of friendship, rivalry, sport, money, power, tragedy and hope. The documentary captures a little understood moment in baseball’s eventual emergence as an integrated national pastime.
2-3:20pm: Screening #2 – Fully Ourselves: A Story of Black Tennis – approx. 1:20
3:20-3:50pm: Let’s Talk About It
Produced by Rhode Island Black Storytellers (RIBS). Written and directed by RIBS member Rochelle Garner Coleman, this film layers a dreamlike perspective on a story of African American involvement with the game of tennis. RIBS storytellers and Rhode Island artists share the stories of Black pioneers of the sport. A celebration of strategy, resilience, and triumph, “Fully Ourselves” explores the inspiring journey of tennis players who strove to get ahead in an unequal society under insurmountable odds. Not only pushing themselves, pushing boundaries, but claiming the most outstanding victories in the history of the sport. Made possible with support from The Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, The Rhode Island Foundation, The Providence Shelter for Colored Children and The Black Philanthropy Bannister Fund
4pm: Two Wings To Heaven:
The Story Of Bessie Coleman, African-American Aviatrix & Barnstormer
5:15: Let’s Talk About It
April Armstrong’s original show tells Bessie’s story from childhood through her graduation at the French aviation school with dialogue, song and movement. Thirteen different characters interact; including a dreamy visit from Harriet Tubman, Joan of Arc and Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the historic figures who gave Bessie the inspiration she needed to succeed.
Saturday, Feb. 3rd 7:30PM
Storytelling For Grown Folk: Black History Olio
Southside Cultural Center of RI: 393 Broad St. • Providence, RI
Hosts: Amina Blackwood-Meeks
April Armstrong
Featuring: RIBS tellers and special guests
OVER 25 PERFORMERS!
…Bringing us their talents from the African diaspora.
