[NEohioPAL] Very Special Event this Tuesday

[The Kent Stage]

MARTI GRAS
finally comes to Kent
with COSTLEY COURT
and THE TWIST OFFS 
Tuesday, February 24 -- 7:45 PM 
  
The Kent Stage has donated its space. Musical groups Costley Court and the Twistoffs have donated their funky talents. Local merchants have given gift certificates and baskets for raffle, as boas and masks and costumes come together, as mounds of beads collected at real Mardi Gras parades are being readied for distribution. It’s time for a dance party/concert/costume contest like Kent has never seen.  All to benefit Brian Klempp.  
 
Brian Klempp, a 42-year-old fixture on the music scene in Kent . He is the drummer for the popular big sound funk band, Costley Court, which will be parading and performing Tuesday night. A former KSU student of ethnomusicography, he is also a drummer of traditional African music, who has taught Halim El-Dabh, and who has developed a school of African drumming in the tradition of the great master Mamady Keita, under whom Brian has studied in Guinea, Africa. Brian is a woodworker and craftsman whose work is in countless houses throughout Northeast Ohio . Brian is also the beloved father of two young boys. And he is battling metastasized melanoma. His countless friends are working together to throw a party for Brian on the best day of the year. This party is dedicated to him.

“Every year around this time, I get really depressed because I want to be in New Orleans ,” says co-organizer and former New Orleans resident, Debra-Lynn Hook, now of Kent . “A couple of years ago, we tried our hand at a private party, and 150 people came out of the woodwork, ready for a party in the blahs of February. We had a good time and we raised $1,200 for the Musician’s Village of New Orleans.

This year we’re going public and we're going decked out. I've got hundreds of real Mardi Gras beads that I caught at real Mardi Gras parades. We've got parading musicians and drummers dressed in authentic African garb. Best of all, 100 percent of proceeds are going to Brian. He can't party right now as he is at University Hospitals, doing the real work of being a success story and a cancer survivor. But we can party for him.”
 
Doors open at 7 for cruising a selection of really cool raffle items, including a djembe drum, jewelry, real New Orleans photos and more. 
 
Music starts at 7:45 with African drummers and a musician’s parade at 9. The costume contest is at 10, with male and female winners winning at $25 gift certificate from Ray’s.
Come on down.  It’s time to Laissez Les Bons Temps Roulez at the Kent Stage!
 
Tickets: $12.00 in advance at Woodsy’s Music in Kent
$15.00 at the door/$10.00 for students
Under 21 welcome. (Drinking age laws apply)


      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.neohiopal.org/pipermail/neohiopal-neohiopal.org/attachments/20090221/c2d6d016/attachment-0003.htm>