Join Hokoyo this weekend at an event to benefit Tariro

Who: Hokoyo Marimba and Mudzidzi
Where: Cozmic Pizza
Why: To benefit Tariro

Tariro is a grassroots non-profit organization working in Zimbabwe to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS by educating young women and girls. Founded in 2003, Tariro is registered as a 501(c)(3) organization in the United States, and in Zimbabwe as a trust.Tariro’s work with Zimbabwean girls emphasizes the importance of women’s education as an effective response to the AIDS epidemic. Young women in communities affected HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe are in jeopardy of dropping out of school due to a lack of financial resources, putting them at high risk of contracting HIV. Education can reverse this negative cycle, since attending school dramatically reduces the risk that a young Zimbabwean women will become infected with HIV/AIDS. By educating young women, Tariro empowers them to build a future free from poverty and disease.Initially begun as a youth ensemble, Hokoyo has aged into a top-notch group of musicians, spreading their high-energy trance-inducing music to venues and events such as the Boulder Theater, the Eugene Celebration, the Oregon Country Fair, the Zimbabwean Music Festival, and countless more in Oregon and elsewhere.

Hokoyo partnered with master Zimbabwean musicians Musekiwa Chingodza and Ambuya Beauler Dyoko to record their first CD, Chipembere. Since then they have studied with many Zimbabwean and American teachers. They have just released their second CD, Hokoyo Live, available online at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/HokoyoMarimba.

Hokoyo is Casey Barkan, Michael Beardsworth, Jory Christiansen, Will Dickman, Maceo Gutierrez-Higgins, Jake Roberts, Gary Spalter, Eliot Stone, Mandy Walker-LaFollette, Alex Weeks, Grace Wittig and Mason Kline.

Mudzidzi is an outgrowth of an mbira class taught by Joel Lindstrom at the Kutsinhira Cultural Arts center in Eugene, Oregon. A small group from this class organized to perform for an artists’ forum which meets weekly at a Eugene coffee shop for the purpose of drawing or painting musicians as they perform. Mudzidzi has played for this gathering six times since March 2009.

In the past year we have also played at several Tariro benefits and one event in support of Kutsinhira’s Zimbabwe Community Development Project. Mudzidzi plays Mbira dza Vadzimu in a variety of tunings, and an “orchestra” built by Matemai. Mudzidzi is Shona for “student” (singular).

This next Monday is going to be an exciting post. All of Tariro’s students have wrote what we call, “Hero Books.” In these books the girls write about their specific life experiences and their past histories. In next weeks post I’m going to pick one of the books written by a girl and share it with you.