Thursday August 5, Fela: Music is the Weapon @ICE Theaters

AUGUST 5, 7:00pm
General Admission: $5.00

ICE Theaters Chatham 14
210 West 87th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60620
773-892-3204 • icetheaters.com

Can’t get to New York for the stage play?  Come on out to ICE Theaters Chatham to view and discuss the amazing life of Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

Fela was born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria into a middle-class family. His mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was a feminist activist in the anti-colonial movement and his father, Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, a Protestant minister and school principal, was the first president of the Nigerian Union of Teachers. Fela was a first cousin to the African writer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, the first African to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.

Music Is the Weapon is essential viewing for Fela fans. Filmed in 1982, the 53-minute documentary captures the late Nigerian musician/activist at his peak. For the uninitiated, it’s hard to explain–in mere words–how one man could so successfully mate the sexuality of James Brown with the righteous politics of Bob Marley and sinuous sounds of Miles Davis. Fela drew as much inspiration for his “Afro-beat” from Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X as funk, reggae, and jazz. Music Is the Weapon features interviews with Fela and a few of his many wives, along with performances of “ITT,” “Army Arrangement,” and other anthems. A controversial figure throughout his life, Fela is described as both “superstar” and “man of the people.” This short, but potent document ably explores that dichotomy.