Luvvie Ajayi and Yvonne Orji Bring Jesus and Jollof Live To Harlem As The New Headliners For The Apollo Theater’s Africa Now! Festival

‍Harlem, NY, March 28, 2019– The Apollo Theater will present Luvvie Ajayi, New York Times best-selling author and Yvonne Orji of HBO’s Emmy nominated series Insecure in Jesus and Jollof Live on Saturday, April 13 at 8:00 p.m. as part of the Africa Now! Festival, presented in partnership with World Music Institute. The mainstage presentation is hosted by Young Prince with music by DJ mOma and a live performance by Kaleta & Super Yamba Band. This season, we are expanding the Africa Now! Festival to celebrate its growing prominence by presenting contemporary musicians alongside cultural innovators transforming television, podcasts and film.

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Additional Africa Now! Festival events include the Theater’s popular Apollo Music Café with performances by Tosin and Allinor on April 12 at 10:00 p.m. and an Africa Now! after-party performance by Young Paris on April 13 at 10:00 p.m. Also, on April 13 at 2:00 p.m., the Apollo in partnership with the New York African Film Festival will present a free film screening of The Wedding Ring. Check out www.apollotheater.org/africanow for updates.

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About Jesus and Jollof

Comedienne and actress Yvonne Orji and award-winning writer and cultural critic Luvvie Ajayi, two proudly Nigerian women, have teamed up for a podcast exploring their lived experiences, relationships, aspirations, and everything in between. They recognize the need for people to see others, often like themselves, living their dreams. Why “Jesus and Jollof?” Those are the two things they cannot do without.

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Tickets and Information

Tickets for Jesus and Jollof Live and Apollo Music Café are available at the Apollo Theater Box Office: (212) 531-5305, 253 West 125th Street, and Ticketmaster at 1-800-745-3000, www.apollotheater.org/africanow

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Apollo Music Café: Africa Now! Featuring Tosin and Allinor Friday April 12 at 10:00 p.m.

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Tickets: $22

A renaissance force to be reckoned with, the music of composer, vocalist and percussionist Tosin speaks highly of his African origin, coupled with his exploration of jazz, funk, rock, reggae and Latin American music.

Being a bandleader with four albums to his credit, his most recent projects include singles: "What Are We Gonna Do?", and African-themed remix of Pharrell Williams’ “Happy.” With keen interest and passion for teaching, Tosin continues to inspire both the young and older generations of drummers and music lovers through his teaching programs and workshops.

Originally from Ghana, West Africa, Allinor has always been influenced by the music of his motherland as well as his deep roots in spiritual music. Blending western blues, highlife and reggae with traditional music, he creates a soul stirring, mood setting style of melodic rhythms.

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Africa Now! Film Series

Curated in Partnership with the New York African Film Festival Featuring The Wedding Ring by Rahmatou Keïta

Saturday April 13 2:00 p.m. Soundstage

Tickets: Free

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The Wedding Ring – Screening at 2:00 p.m. in the Soundstage

Tiyaa is a student and a member of a prestigious aristocratic family. She returns home to sultanate of Damagaran, in Niger, for the winter holidays. As planned, she is expecting the young man she met at the university she is studying at, in France, to make a formal proposal of marriage. He too comes from a prestigious family, not far from Damagaran, in the Emirate of Maïduguri and her parents cannot reject such an eligible fiancé.

Tiyaa is overwhelmed. While expecting him, she has time to inform her friends of this secret Parisian love. Life is pleasant and peaceful, but time passes, and the handsome suitor is slow to come. Tiyaa has the opportunity to discover in her surroundings other women whose love stories, marriage, desertion or divorce tell of the relationship between men and women in the Sahelian society.

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Apollo Music Café: Africa Now! Afterparty Featuring Young Paris

Saturday April 13 at 10:00 p.m. Tickets: $22

Born to Congolese parents in France, and raised in New York, Young Paris totes an original story that blends cultures from three corners of the world. Through his work as an artistic director, music producer, and songwriter, Young Paris is re‐defining EDM with his combination of Afrobeats and has been featured in Billboard, Complex, The Fader, REVOLT, BET, Vice, Paper Mag, and Pigeons & Planes.

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#AFRICANOW

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About The Apollo Theater

The legendary Apollo Theater—the soul of American culture—plays a vital role in cultivating emerging artists and launching legends. Since its founding, the Apollo has served as a center of innovation and a creative catalyst for Harlem, the city of New York, and the world.

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With music at its core, the Apollo’s programming extends to dance, theater, spoken word, and more. This includes special programs such as the blockbuster concert Bruno Mars Live at the Apollo, the world premiere theatrical reading of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s National Book Award-winning Between the World and Me, 100: The Apollo Celebrates Ella, the annual Africa Now! Festival, and the New York premiere of the opera We Shall Not Be Moved. The Apollo is a performing arts presenting organization that also produces festivals and large-scale dance and music works organized around a set of core initiatives that celebrate and extend the Apollo’s legacy through a contemporary lens; global festivals including the Women of the World (WOW) Festival and Breakin’ Convention; international and U.S.-based artist presentations focused on a specific theme; and Special Projects, multidisciplinary collaborations with partner organizations.

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Since introducing the first Amateur Night contests in 1934, the Apollo Theater has served as a testing ground for new artists working across a variety of art forms and has ushered in the emergence of many new musical genres—including jazz, swing, bebop, R&B, gospel, blues, soul, and hip-hop. Among the countless legendary performers who launched their careers at the Apollo are H.E.R., Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, Billie Holiday, James Brown, D’Angelo, Lauryn Hill, Dave Chappelle, Machine Gun Kelly, Miri Ben Ari, Sarah Vaughan, Gladys Knight, and Luther Vandross; and the Apollo’s forward-looking artistic vision continues to build on this legacy. For more information visit https://www.apollotheater.org/

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About World Music Institute

Founded in 1985 as a not-for-profit, World Music Institute (WMI) has served as one of the leading presenters of world music and dance within the United States.

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WMI is committed to presenting the finest in traditional and contemporary music and dance from around the world with the goal of inspiring wonder for world cultures through music and dance.

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WMI aims to enrich the lives of people living in New York by promoting awareness of other cultures and their traditions. WMI collaborates with community organizations and academic institutions in fostering greater understanding and appreciation of the world’s cultural traditions and presents at venues throughout the city.

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Under new leadership since 2015, its 30th anniversary season, World Music Institute has introduced an ambitious expansion of concert offerings that include contemporary as well as the traditional world music that WMI has long been known and admired for. In addition, the institution has launched new partnerships with Cathedral of St. John the Divine, City Winery, The Cutting Room, and Joe's Pub, while continuing partnerships with Merkin Concert Hall, Storm King Art Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Town Hall, Symphony Space, (le) poisson rouge, Littlefield, and Apollo Theater (the annual Africa Now festival).

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WMI has presented more than 1,500 concerts and events featuring artists from more than 100 countries across all continents. Through powerful programming, WMI is creating a movement that promotes awareness of and engagement with other cultures, helping to encourage deeper understanding of communities around the globe.

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Support

The Apollo's season is made possible by leadership support from Coca-Cola, Citi, Ford Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, the Jerome L. Greene Foundation, and the Jerome L. Greene Arts Access Fund in the New York Community Trust Public support for the Apollo Theater is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

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