NADINE MCNULTY         Afrofest 2006

Nadine McNulty is one of the most passionate and dedicated people active in the African community. Her love for Africa, the people, the music is evident in her work with Music Africa for approximately a decade. Nadine is the Artistic Director for Toronto's annual Afrofest, which takes place at Queen's Park every year. The weekend festival displays a colourful collection of artisans, musicians, dancers, chefs, designers and vendors that has attracted close to 70,000 visitors.

Nadine has a natural gift for bringing people together, which is a quality she admires about the African communities she has lived in and visited. As well as living in Nairobi Kenya, she has visited Tanzania, Rwanda Zahir, Uganda and Egypt. Her previous work with music companies in Africa led her to the extensive co-ordinating for the Music Africa board here in Toronto. This festival has proudly become the largest gathering of Africans in North America and continues to grow each year.

The communal and spiritual nature of everyday life in most African communities is what attracts Nadine to the cultural roots and creative expression she passionately promotes within her work. If our media focus were to turn from the war-torn, poverty stricken broadcasting just for 50% of the time, people around the world would have a different perspective on the beautiful and rich lifestyle within the Great Continent. For example, most natives of Africa speak several languages, not dialiects, but actual languages due to the large concentration of various cultures within each country. This quality alone supports an openness that allows the merging of many differences towards a community spirit. Music is integral in all parts of African life, from birth, to holidays, rights of passage, marriage, spritual occasions, etc.

Nadine has so much respect and admiration for a culture, that since the biginning of time maintains traditions that we all should learn from, as she has, about being a real person, sharing, generosity, appreciating the basic qualities of human existance. And any music that can be found in the Western world can also be found within the African music including rock, punk, blues, reggae, etc. But Nadine's work involves sharing the natural and original sounds from a continent that is so misunderstood.

The excitement Nadine shares with me in only one conversation cannot be contained within this article ! But I will follow up with another review at a later date. In the mean time, see you at Queens Park   www.musicafrica.org !

Eryn Rene Vogn