8TH STEP joins forces with our musical cousin CLEARWATER WALKABOUT COFFEEHOUSE to present the colorful sight and joyful sound of South Africa for a Get Out the Vote Musical Rally
Livestreamed to your living room via Zoom!
An evening of high energy, colorful music encouraging Americans of all races, cultures, ages and political affiliations to put down hostilities (and guns) , to VOTE AND ENCOURAGE VOTING ON NOVEMBER 3rd, our national election!
Sing Along as Loudly as You’d Like All Evening…
“Steeped in myriad influences…dancehall reggae…joyful lilt…” BILLBOARD
In these challenging times of divisive rhetoric and social strife, the music of Sharon Katz & The Peace Train inspires us to re-examine issues currently dividing people and to do something constructive about improving human relations and social justice.
Sharon Katz & The Peace Train
From Disney World’s International Festival to Nola’s Heritage Jazz Fest, from Harlem to Hampton, Memphis to Cincinnati, and from Philadelphia’s Penn’s Landing to Washington, to DC’s Duke Ellington School of Performing Arts, Sharon Katz & The Peace Train has thrilled audiences of all ages with the unstoppable beat and amazing harmonies of South African music and dance.
Grammy nominated singer-songwriter Sharon Katz was born and raised in Port Elizabeth, now known as Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa.
As a young teenager during the terrible apartheid era, she would sneak out to the “Blacks Only” townships by hiding under blankets in the back seat of her friend’s car. There she met with the now-famous actors in South African playwright Athol Fugard’s mixed-race, anti-apartheid theatrical circle, John Kani and Winston Ntshona. This propelled a lifelong mission: using music to help break down apartheid, the country’s artificially-imposed racial barriers.
Katz made history in her home country of South Africa in 1992by forming the country’s first-ever, 500-member multi-cultural and multi-lingual performing group, and staging the production “When Voices Meet.”
The following year, her concert “The Peace Train” rocked the nation, so she hired a train – hence The Peace Train – to take 150 of the performers, her friends Ladysmith Black Mambazo, as well as TV and radio crews on tour throughout the country. Nelson Mandela's musical ambassadors would inspire people of all races, cultures, ages and political affiliations to put down guns and hostilities and prepare for the country’s transition to a peaceful democracy.
A few months later the world watched Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first democratically elected President.
Mandela’s “Cultural Ambassadors” Sharon Katz & The Peace Train - 45 members-strong - brought their music and message to the U.S. for an 8-city tour. An instant hit, they sold out all their CDs at the first concert. Later at Nola’s Jazz & Heritage Fest, 100,000 fans screamed for more. Happily, Katz established a U.S. base of operations.
Back home in South Africa (and in other troubled spots around the world), Sharon has used her music therapy techniques to help heal the nation from the wounds of apartheid. She earned a reputation for converting “gang members into band members.”
Katz has released several CDs, and DVDs that feature the legendary Pete Seeger in concert with The Peace Train. With Abigail Kubeka of Miriam Makeba’s Skylarks she has toured and recorded Double Take. With Sting, Paul Simon, Tina Turner, Elton John and Madonna she recorded the Grammy nominated hit album Carnival.
Livestreamed to your living room via Zoom - join us!