Louis Alemayehu with Fernando Silva | Ancestor Energy

Poet, musician, educator, and community elder Louis Alemayehu believes that poets are accountable to their communities and that poetry is a tool for healing. His performances—lyrical twinings of jazz, chant, poetry, and song—are art-as-ritual, often performed ceremonially. He currently teaches at the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs with a focus on environmental sustainability and will spend this winter in Ethiopia exploring sacred and historical sites. For this salon, he will collaborate with Fernando Silva, a fascinating electronic improvisational musician with roots in the New Song Movement of Latin America, for an experience combining various aspects of their practices.

Sacred Salons are participatory experiences exploring a wide range of ideas and practices related to the nature of the sacred within a secular, multi-faith society. Visitors are invited to explore historic expressions of the divine, the spiritual, the essential, the most-beloved, and to ponder the word’s meaning to their personal lives. Gather in level 1 of the Atrium of Target Wing.