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Naomi in the news

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Leah Garchik about Angélique Kidjo’s concert at the Nourse Theater: :

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Naomi on CalDay addresses the crowd before the performance.

“(The concert) was as expected, a leap-from-your -seat and shake your booty op, and by the time she sang her last song, the audience had swarmed the stage and the aisles. Near the end of the show, she sang while walking through the audience, then invited folks to join her onstage. One of those was a young blind woman, a strawberry blonde you’d take at first glance to be Nordic, who took the stage with the guidance of a man in African dress. She was one of the individual fans who stepped forward to dance with the drummer. When the show seemed to be over and the audience began to leave, she lingered onstage to talk with Kidjo, a chat that spurred a concert addendum. The woman spoke a bit of Yoruba, had studied the singer’s music, and said she wanted to sing a Kidjo song to Kidjo. The audience, half out by then, turned to listen, as the “amateur” belted it out , Kidjo listening with a stunned expression on her face. There was huge applause, of course.

As we left, I caught up with the woman, who is Naomi Scott, 22, an African American studies student at UC Berkeley. She identified herself, in response to my inquiries, in precise African-accented English, her speaking voice sounding much—to my untrained ears—like Kidjo’s. “I want to teach traditions,” she said of her academic goals. “It’s good to be connected to your ancestral heritage.”

Naomi is a member of the African Music and Dance Ensemble directed by C.K. Ladzekpo, in the Department of Music. Their last concert was on Saturday, April 2, in Hertz Hall.