One of Philadelphia’s oldest dance companies and a driving force behind the African cultural renaissance in the region, Kùlú Mèlé African Dance and Drum Ensemble, surprised Philadelphia’s library patrons on a recent afternoon as part of Knight Foundation’s Library Acts of Culture.

“I happened to walk into the public library, and I heard all this music,” said library visitor Milton Robinson. “I said, am I in the right place? I stopped and went over to see it for myself.”

Drummers and dancers performed Fula Fare, a celebratory dance of the Fulani people of West Africa. By performing pop-up performances at four West Philadelphia neighborhood libraries, the dance company got the community thinking about its libraries in a whole new way.

Photo: Kùlú Mèlé African Dance & Drum Ensemble performs a Library Act of Culture at the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Paschalville Library. Photos by Dave Tavani.

Surprised visitor Kadeena Fulton said, “It was fantastic. For them to come into this area of an inner city…it was a good idea, so that we can know where our roots come from.”

About Knight Foundation’s Library Acts of Culture program Knight Foundation’s Library Acts of Culture brings artists out of performance halls and into libraries and people’s everyday lives. As libraries continue to reinvent themselves in the digital age, they have become spaces that are more about creation than collection. Spread throughout neighborhoods, we thought Library Acts were an organic way to bring the arts to all communities. Read more.

– Megan Wendell is a communications consultant for Knight Foundation