May 9, 2020
Fendika Cultural Center
The last in-person concert we had was a Negarit performance on March 13th. COVID_19 cases had just started being confirmed in Ethiopia. In the interest of public health, Melaku called the shot and closed Fendika; a few days later, the Ethiopian government ordered all performance venues to close.
Fendika is not the same without the bustling crowd every Monday (with Kayn Lab), Wednesday (with Funk Disciples), and Friday (with Ethiocolor or Negarit). But we still want to engage with our audiences in Ethiopia and around the world. We also need to keep supporting our dedicated musicians, dancers, visual artists, and workers, who are all stranded without work and income, as is Fendika itself. Although we are fortunate enough to survive for a short time through support from some of our international supporters, we need to find ways to sustain ourselves through these difficult months and into the future.
A challenge often presents new opportunities. COVID_19 has forced many people to stay inside; it has also allowed us to go inward for meditation and for new solutions. Fendika’s new solution is to ramp up the building of our digital community. Wifi was installed in Fendika in April, about a month since we closed our door. On April 24th, Melaku gave a live DJ session on Facebook, drawing more than 7000 views to date. The 40-minute live-stream was engineered by our very own Mesay Abebay, using a cellphone fixed on a make-shift “tripod.” We were very nervous as the technology was all so new to us. But it worked! People all over the world told us that the music shared by Melaku lifted their spirit. Music is love. Music is medicine.
Encouraged by the enthusiastic response to the first session, we have come up with more streaming ideas, and reinvigorated the goal to build up Fendika’s YouTube channel. Since then, there have been two editions of full Fendika Live concerts (on May 1st and May 8th). We had some technical glitches with the first one, but having learned from our mistakes, we succeeded with the second concert and reached hundreds of audiences around the world, some of whom are new to Fendika. Our YouTube adventure is just beginning, but it’s already helping us realize our goal to share joy, love, and peace through the beauty of Ethiopian music and dance, especially at the difficult time of COVID_19.
We still need some help to reach our short-term goal to have 1000 subscribers to Fendika’s Youtube channel, so that we can livestream with much more ease, and stay in touch with our global Fendika Family on daily basis. Please subscribe. We thank you on behalf of all of Fendika’s musicians, dancers, visual artists, and dancers. And thank you for being part of the Fendika Family! We love you!