A Stampede For Uncle Steve On June 29

THE Committee for Relevant Art will hold a special art stampede for Steve Rhodes on Sunday June 29 at the National Theatre. It is not yet clear if the Steve Rhodes Orchestra will perform, but the plan is to have a range of personalities who have passed through the grandmaster, including alumni of the Steve Rhodes Voices and artists who have worked directly with him, to talk about how he rubbed off on them. The stampede is scheduled to start at 1pm, run for five hours, with musical interludes and a screening of Femi Odugbemi's documentary. The audience will retire to O'Jez Restaurant at the National Stadium for a huge highlife party for the departed patriarch. "CORA doesn't do art stampedes for individuals anymore, but this is special," says Jahman Anikulapo, the Foundation's programme chairman. "The most we do for individuals is an Arthouse Forum, which is more specific than art stampedes. But for us, Uncle Steve is Huge, very large." Anikulapo said, "some of the alumni of the SR Voices will come on stage and do some of the stuff that are in the Voices' repertory." He says that CORA expects the Orchestra to do his more recent work, "but we haven't concluded." CORA hopes that, with such personal testimonies, music and film pieces, and "we would be able to tell the artistic story of the man's life." Anikulapo said that a majority of the Art community who could not be part of the funeral would have been effectively engaged. CORA has decided that each of its remaining programmes for the year, including the Book Editing Workshops and the Book and Art Festival.

*Culled from ARTSVILLE, The Guardian June 22