Akpe Brochure Short

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Can You Help?
The Akpe Cultural Center will cost
approximately $300,000 to build, and
we need your help to make it a reality.
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The Akpe Cultural Center will:
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• Preserve and promote traditional
African performing arts
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• Offer world-class instruction in African
drumming, dance, singing, and
storytelling
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• Attract students and artists from
around the world
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• Foster creative new fusions of African
arts with others from around the globe
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• Help local children learn about and
participate in their own cultural heritage
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• Boost the economy of the entire
Kokrobite area
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This project is sponsored by the
Boulder County Arts Alliance, and all
donations through BCAA are tax
deductible. For more information about
the center and ways to donate, go to
maputomensah.com.
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“Akpe” means gratitude in the Ewe
language, and we are grateful to so
many for making this dream possible.
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Akpe Cultural
Center
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Kokrobite, Ghana, West Africa
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Winter 2016 Construction at
the Akpe Cultural Center
Once, Kokrobite was home to the
Academy of African Music and Arts, one
of the premier centers for African
performing arts in Ghana.
The Mensah brothers intend to change
that. They are currently building a new
cultural center in Kokrobite.
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When complete, it will restore to the
children of Kokrobite and to students
everywhere a place to learn and explore
the phenomenal arts of Africa.
But AAMA is no more, and many other
cultural centers in Ghana have also
disappeared. The children of Kokrobite
have nowhere to learn their own cultural
heritage, and students and artists around
the world have lost a place to absorb the
sound and spirit of Africa.
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Kids dance before they learn there is
anything that isn’t music.
-William Edgar Stafford