February 11 , 2008                                                                                                                                            Associate Director of Marketing

                                                                                                                                                                               Phone: 253.573.2360

                                                                                                                                                                               Email: laceyl@broadwaycenter.org

Broadway Center for the Performing Arts presents

A Sunday Afternoon with Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars  

Sponsored by National Endowment for the Arts

Tacoma, WA – The immensely inspirational and energetic Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars will perform Sunday afternoon on February 24, 2008 at 3:00pm in the Pantages Theater. The group is comprised of eight members who met when they were displaced from their homes in Sierra Leone’s capital of Freetown during the country’s tumultuous civil war in the early 1990s. Forced into refugee camps, the members found each other through their love of music, and their music inspired not only the refugees, but served as an instrument of peace that has moved millions all over the world.

Championed by The New York Times, critic Stephen Holden wrote, “As harrowing as these personal tales may be, the music buoying them is uplifting. The cliché bears repeating: music heals and creates community.” Be it via the warm, percussion-steered delights of “Akera Ka Ambonshor”, the spirited skiffle of “Soda Soap” or “Refugee Rolling,” where uprooted souls manage to rise above uncertainty with admirable finesse, Living Like A Refugee is proof that that there is always hope to be found.

Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars formed in a refugee camp in the West African nation of Guinea after fleeing the horrific civil war in their native Sierra Leone. It was in this refugee camp that they were discovered by filmmakers Zach Niles and Banker White, who subsequently shot an award-winning documentary about their story. The documentary, initially backed by such luminaries as Sir Paul McCartney, Keith Richards and Angelina Jolie has since won 13 awards at major film festivals, recently aired on PBS in the US and is available via Netflix and in stores everywhere on DVD.

To date the band has been featured on CNN and CNN International, PBS and CBS Sunday Morning, as well as having performed live on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Their sound is also finding new avenues of exposure including a song in the film Blood Diamond and two humanitarian relief compilations, which they recorded in the studio with Joe Perry and Steven Tyler. For a group that started in a remote Guinean refugee camp and only started touring outside of West Africa less than a year ago, they have come a long way. In the past two years the band has appeared at some of the most prestigious music festivals worldwide including Bonnaroo, The Montreal Jazz Fest, The Ottawa Jazz Festival, The Folk and Roots Festival in Chicago, The Fuji Rock Festival in Japan, as well as headlining at Central Park Summerstage. In November, 2006 the band opened for Aerosmith at the Mohegan Sun Arena and recently performed for an international audience at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

While each of the stories in these songs is told from the band's personal experience, it is the special gift of Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars that the messages they deliver are truly universal. Born in the midst of a violent, decade-long civil war, through music they have found a place of refuge, a sense of purpose and a source of power. The band has seen the worst that this world can offer - yet, through their unflinching spirit and joyful music, they celebrate the best in all of us.

On sale now, tickets are $24, $34 and $44. Tickets may be purchased at the Broadway Center Box Office located on 9th & Broadway or by calling the Box Office at 253.591.5894. To purchase online at any time or for information about upcoming events visit www.broadwaycenter.org.

The Broadway Center for the Performing Arts gratefully acknowledges the following for support of the 2007-2008 Season: ArtsFund, Ben B. Cheney Foundation, The Boeing Company, City of Tacoma, Forest Foundation, The News Tribune, Pierce County Arts Commission, Sequoia Foundation Pierce County Program, and Washington State Arts Commission.

###