It is with great honour and excitement that I share with you my most recent album with Kalimba Kalimba (Ici Bas, Rien N’est Impossible/Here Below, Nothing is Impossible) has been nominated in the World Music category for a Canadian Folk Music Award!
It’s a boy! Introducing Nkoni Leo Woloshyn Backo
We are delighted to announce the arrival of our newest family member – Nkoni Leo Woloshyn Backo – who arrived bright and early on August 11th at 7:51am a little bit earlier than the estimated due date (which was August 16th)). Our baby’s first name, Nkoni, translates as “love” in Njacko’s mother tongue. The “N” is pronounced as a soft “nnn” sound.
Nkoni weighed in at 7 pounds 1 ounce, 51 cm long, and was born in the water at home. His birth was supported by an amazing team of midwives from the Kensington Midwives Clinic, a doula from Simply Healthy Family, and Val’s sister Steph.
Mom and babe are doing very well. Thank you for being patient with us on email communications – we are slower to respond than normal but we have really enjoyed reading the notes of welcome and congratulations we have received so far!
Here are a few photos from Nkoni’s first few weeks with us.
Summer Camps, Indiegogo, July Concerts
Hello out there! Happy summer!
We just sent out Njacko’s July newsletter, and you can view it online here.
Summer camps
Njacko is looking forward to teaching at two different summer camps. The first camp, Africa Week at Garrison Creek Art Education Centre, is for children ages 4-10 and runs the week of July 22-26. You can find out more about the camp, including how to register (which you need to do soon!), at garrisoncreekartcentre.ca. Njacko really enjoys teaching at this camp – he has been there every summer since 2002!
The second camp is for adults – it is called WorldSongs Vocal Camp and runs from August 5-11. Njacko will be teaching along side camp leader Alan Gasser and Dr. Kathy Bullock at the beautiful Sugar Ridge retreat centre in Midland, Ontario (about an hour and a half north of Toronto). If you are interested in the camp, please have a look at the information on the camp website (www.worldsongs.ca) and register soon since there are only a very few spots left!
Raising Funds for Ecole St. Albert Le Grand
We are so grateful for all of the support we continue to receive for our partnership with Ecole St. Albert Le Grand in Bazou, Cameroon. We held our 4th annual fundraiser on May 11th at the Gladstone Hotel with amazing performances by Soli & Rob, Naomi Tyrrell, Njacko Backo, Mother Tongue, Eh?!, The Reel Bulgars, and MC’s Luther Hansraj and Jacques Yams. We have already collected more than $2,800 and are anticipating that we will collect a total of $3,000 by the beginning of July! Today we dispatched the first 750,000 CFA to the school so that they can get this summer’s project started. The goal for this year is to complete the rehabilitation of the remaining school buildings on the main school site as much as possible.
This year, the second last year of our partnership with the school, we have doubled our fundraising efforts. Our overarching goal for the partnership is to help the school gain financial independence so in addition to the May fundraiser which was held to fund the building rehabilitation work this summer, we are running an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds to help the school start their own small business. We have just 3 days left to meet our Indiegogo fundraising goal of $6,915 to assist the school with starting their own small business – if you haven’t done so already, please visit our campaign site at igg.me/at/BazouSchool – and check out the great perks that donors can chose from! The funds raised through Indiegogo will be used to help the school start their own small business which will be administered by the parent council. All of the proceeds from this business will go to the school which will increase their income without increasing school fees for the students. Continue reading
Building Capacity at Ecole St. Albert Le Grand
Hello there! We just sent out our most recent newsletter. If you didn’t receive it and would like to, please sign up for our mailing list (you can do this at the right hand side of the screen). You can also view the newsletter online here.
We have two very big news items this month. First is that our fourth annual fundraiser for Ecole St. Albert le Grand is coming up on Saturday May 11th. The second is that we just launched an Indiegogo campaign for Ecole St. Albert Le Grand, and it is running until June 30th!
First, a word about our fundraiser:
We are grateful that the Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen St. W.) will be hosting our fundraiser again on May 11th in their beautiful Ballroom. As was done last year, we will be holding two events:
Afternoon Family Fun for Bazou
* Featuring Soli & Rob, Naomi Tyrrell, and Njacko Backo!
* 3-5pm
* $10/child suggested donation
An Evening for Bazou
* Featuring Mother Tongue, Eh?!, The Reel Bulgars, and MC’s Luther Hansraj and Jacques Yams
* Doors at 8pm, show starts at 8:30pm
* $20 suggested donation
Advance tickets are available directly from us (Njacko and Val), and also from African Drums & Art Crafts (618 Dundas West (West of Spadina in Kensington Market)).
If you would like to learn more about our partnership with Ecole St. Albert Le Grand (including photos and videos from projects completed at the school), please visit our project blog at www.BazouSchool.blogspot.com. You may click the images below for the full event details (English and French).
Second, a word about our Indiegogo Campaign:
In parallel with the fundraiser at the Gladstone this year, we are running an online Indiegogo campaign. Why are we running this online campaign in addition to our May 11th fundraisers? Excellent question. We are in the fourth year of our five year partnership with St. Albert Le Grand, and our overarching goal for the partnership is to help the school gain financial independence. We are continuing our fundraising at the Gladstone this year and next year to complete the repairs to the school buildings, however the funds raised through Indiegogo will be used to help the school start their own small business. The proceeds from the small business will all go to the school which will increase their income without increasing school fees for the students. Interested in finding out more? Please check out our campaign at igg.me/at/BazouSchool, and share it far and wide! The campaign is presented in both English et en français.
WorldSongs Vocal Camp
Njacko is really excited to be part of the WorldSongs Vocal Camp for the very first time this year. Njacko will be teaching along side camp leader Alan Gasser and Dr. Kathy Bullock at the beautiful Sugar Ridge retreat centre in Midland, Ontario (about an hour and a half north of Toronto).
When we last checked with Alan, there were still a few spots left. If you are interested in the camp, please have a look at the below flier and the camp website (www.worldsongs.ca) and register soon!
Lyrics for “Tu Es Mon Coeur”
Greetings everyone! We’ve had such wonderful feedback from folks about Njacko’s interview on CBC’s Here And Now this past week when they featured his new song Tu Es Mon Coeur as their Song Of The Week. A big thank you to Marina Wray for the invitation to join the show!
We have had a few requests to see the lyrics for Tu Es Mon Coeur, so here they are (in English and French)! If you haven’t had a look already, please check out the video for this song on YouTube. Continue reading
Thank you for an incredible Launch Toronto!
Chip getting DOWN
Well, it’s two days later and we’re still all abuzz with the energy from the CD launch on Friday February 22nd at the Gladstone Hotel. What a night! We want to thank all of you who came out to support the launch and dance the night away with us. We also really want to thank all of you who came out only to find that the venue was already full – thank you so much and we apologize that you weren’t able to spend the evening with us.
Now that the album is out, you can purchase it directly from us if you are in Toronto, or from African Drums and Art Crafts located in Kensington Market. Additionally you can purchase Ici Bas online through our website, CD Baby, or iTunes.
Finally, we’re really excited to share the news that Njacko will be featured on CBC Radio One’s Here and Now tomorrow (February 25th) at 5:20pm. We hope you can tune in!
A blast from the past…
Njacko and I have been talking a lot about the new album Ici Bas lately as we are gearing up for the launch on February 22nd. We were brainstorming around a press release the other day and I suggested that the new album is an important milestone in his career. He started laughing and jumped up to grab a copy of the very first record he ever recorded, Bamiléke Reggae. This is a photo of the back of the album:
Here is a translation from the text on the bottom of the left hand side of the panel: “I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, and it’s not me who is thanking you, all of you who contributed to the making of this first foundation stone.”
Here’s to the first stone which has led to the most recent milestone!
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
May 2013 bring you and your loved ones joy, happiness, and health. Let love guide you for the year. We love you as love loves you.
We invite you to read our most recent newsletter, please click here to see it.
Our New Year’s gift to you: a sneak peak at our new album. Please have a listen to “Tu es mon coeur” and let us know what you think!
Baki is Back!
After several months of being sold out, we have great news. This week we stopped by Pixel Print to pick up 200 shiny brand new copies of Baki and the Magic Egg/Baki et l’oeuf Magique. You can now purchase a copy directly from us, from African Drums and Art Crafts in Kensington Market, or A Different Booklist at Bloor and Bathurst.
Baki is an original story written by Njacko and beautifully illustrated by Bruce Parsons. It is written in both English and French, and is the first in a series of Njacko’s children’s tales. His next story, The Lion Who Wanted To Be Vegetarian, is currently being illustrated and will be launched next year.
If you would like to take the book for a test drive before making a purchase, we invite you to stop by the Toronto Public Library to check out a copy.
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