Strife and discontent often pave the way for musicians to provide a voice of hope for the oppressed. Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars know this all too well, being comprised of a number of talented individuals that originally called Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, home. After rebel attacks prompted them to flee their country in the late 90's for the haven of Guinea, they started making music on any available instrument they could......

To imagine the love child of Maya Angelou and Kara Walker is to envision -- however hypothetically -- the potent soulfulness expressed by Gee's Bend Quilts, now on show at the Austin Museum of Art. The exhibit, Mary Lee Bendolph, Gee's Bend Quilts and Beyond, celebrates the women artists of Gee's Bend, a small African American community in rural Alabama where, even today, only a single road leads in and out. Accordingly, the region's quilts......

A rich West African ambience will set the scene tonight as Lura, the Cape Verde-based singer, performs at Flamingo Cantina in a rare US appearance. Born in 1975, the year of Cape Verde's independence from the militant European colonial rule that stifled public musical expression, Lura's distinctive pop stylings unify the West African influences of the percussive funana beat and the sexual-charged energies of batuque. The origins of her musical career can be linked......