GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP MUSIC FESTIVAL RETURNS TO NEW BERN FOR SECOND YEAR

The Second Annual Global Citizenship Music Festival returns to New Bern on Saturday, May 17, 2025,

from 3:00 to 8:00 pm at Union Point Park. This free unique music and dance event will be presented to our community by Arts To End Genocide (ATEG) in partnership with Faith Connection and The Atlantic Dance Theatre. Performances by musicians from cultures represented in our community will share songs from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Included in this year’s Festival are Los Sabrosos Del Son (Latin), Solo (West Africa music & dance lessons), Unknown Tongues (Zydeco & dance), K’nyaw (Burmese music & dance), and Soulful Sisters (Hindu dancers). A community choir, comprised of singers from many local church choirs, will close the program with familiar songs that remind us of our shared experiences as human beings in a connected world. We are pleased to have Valentina Wilson of WCTI-TV 12 serve as our program emcee this year.

This year, the Global Citizenship Music Festival has added a fun and educational activity for children to participate in a free Instrument Making Workshop to use their imagination for designing their own musical instruments using simple, everyday materials. This activity is perfect for adults to share with their children to engage in something entertaining and creative while listening to music from other parts of the world. The Festival will be held light rain or shine, and those attending should plan to bring their own seating or blankets. Food trucks will be available at the event.

“We hope this event will allow everyone in our community to experience a festival designed to share a unifying spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood through the power of music to bridge cultural divides and transcend language barriers to connect people,” said ATEG founder and New Bern resident Mitch Lewis.

For the past 12 years, ATEG’s program in Bamako, Mali, West Africa, have provided critically needed assistance to women and children, particularly in the Faladje Camp, the home of over 1,2000 IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) who fled terrorism in Central Mali to live on top of an active garbage dump in the Capital City. Initially, with the financial support of the two Rotary clubs in New Bern, and a Global Grant from Rotary International, ATEG was able to establish a Children’s Clinic that today serves both the camp and street children, as well as adults, for malaria treatments and other medical needs. Now, with the support of individual citizens from New Bern, ATEG is providing food, healthcare, women’s skills training, and childhood education at the Faladje Camp. A secondary program in a camp outside of Bamako has been established to raise crops that have improved the health of those in the camp as well as provide crops to sell in the local markets.

“Since the dismantling of USAID in areas of critical need, such as Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world, ATEG remains one of only three agencies from 30 active partners serving IDP camps just six months ago,” explained Lewis. “One of these agencies provided psychological counseling and the other helps with sanitation through the WASH program. ATEG is the only remaining NGO committed to a food distribution program, but we are only able to provide rice to about one-third of the camp’s population. When the freeze went into effect after USAID closed, people showed up who were not on our regular distribution list asking for rice, including elderly and disabled people. It broke our hearts to say no, but we were not prepared for this contingency or have the funding to expand our program at this time,” he said.

Although the Second Annual Global Citizenship Music Festival is offered free to the community, ATEG hopes for the continued support of the generous citizens to make voluntary (or monthly) donations at https://www.artstoendgenocide.org or at the event on May 17. “100% of all money raised goes directly to the programs serving the women and children in the IDP camps in Mali,” said Deedra Durocher, a member of the ATEG Board of Directors. “With the support of our community to provide basic food and health services to these vulnerable people, we are showing there are caring people in the United States who have not abandoned them.”