WorldBeat Center
African arts and culture
The WorldBeat Center is a multicultural, nonprofit organization dedicated to individual and community healing through education, music, media art, and dance. For more than 20 years, the WorldBeat Center has been a supportive community focal point for educating, celebrating, and raising awreness of African diasporal world cultures. Their main goal is to promote unity within diversity. The WorldBeat Center presents annual free festivals and cultural celebrations, including Kwanzaa, Earth Day, and the International Dance Festival/Day of the Drum. Their resident artist and companies teach ongoing classes for adults and children in cultural drumming (e.g., African, Japanese taiko) and dance (e.g., Egyptian, Brazilian Samba, etc.).
In 2007 and 2008, the WorldBeat Center received a grant from ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program for support of their annual Kwanzaa in the Park celebration. Kwanzaa in the Park celebrations include music, dance, rituals, and food in recognition of ancestors and as expressions of unity.