PHILADELPHIA, PA. (Top40 Charts/ Penn's Landing Corporation) - The 2008 Program Season at Penn's Landing, presented by Independence Blue Cross, features a diverse schedule of events including the twelve different multicultural festivals that make up the PECO Multicultural series. This year Penn's Landing Corporation embraced the opportunity to once again expand and enhance the PECO Multicultural Series. New this year to the multicultural series is the ACANA (African Cultural Alliance of North America) African Festival. This festival will take place on Saturday August 2 from 12 Noon until 8:00 p.m. and features Internationally acclaimed reggae star, Maxi Priest.
Maxi Priest, the celebrated Grammy Award winning artist, who is also known widely by his many fans and admirers as the "King of Lovers Rock," has a twenty year music career, which remains as strong as ever. The mega star will share the stage with Liberian sensation Gebah Swaray & the Safari Jazz Band to create an exciting day of stage entertainment.
Of Jamaican descent, and the second youngest of nine children, Priest, who was born in Lewisham is famous for one of the hit singles, "House Call," in which he featured ragamuffin star Shabba Rank and another "Close to you," which won him more international fame and a billboard top honors.
Priest's parents moved to London, England from Jamaica to provide more opportunity for their family. He grew up listening to gospel, reggae, R&B, and pop music. His music is sometime closer to rhythm and blues and pop music, than to reggae music itself. The U.K. reggae artist Maxi Priest started his musical career in the eighties when he joined Saxon Sound International.
His first major album was the self-titled ''Maxi Priest'' (1988) which, along with his cover of Cat Stevens' "Wild World," which established him as one of the top British reggae singers of all time. The internationally acclaimed vocalist is one of only two United Kingdom reggae acts (other being UB40) to score an American Billboard magazine Number One. That was with the song entitled "Close to You" (Maxi Priest song), which was released in 1990.
In addition, a duet (music) with Roberta Flack - "Set the Night to Music" - also reached the United States Top Ten in 1991. In the latter half of his lengthy recording career, Priest has favored working alongside other artists, both established and up-and-coming. He has worked with Sly & Robbie, Shaggy (artist), Beres Hammond, Jazzie B, Apache Indian, Roberta Flack and Shabba Ranks.
With his appealing blend of dancehall, roots, lovers rock and soul, Maxi Priest has achieved a tremendous breakthrough to a worldwide audience, thus becoming one of the most popular international reggae singers since the "King of Reggae," Bob Marley.
Liberian star Gebah Swaray is a versatile and original master guitarist, composer, arranger, and producer hailing from the Duala section of Bushrod Island in the West African country of Liberia. As founder and driving force behind Swaray Productions along with his life partner, Maudeline Swaray, Swaray has formed a musical niche, an original sound - that fuses traditional Liberian music with elements of soukous, jazz, reggae, and calypso music. With these noted elements, the Swaray Productions envisions a plentitude of years of producing quality, far-reaching music that will impact the lives of those who listen. Since its inception, Swaray Productions has directed its focus and resources to defining and promoting a style of music that depicts and celebrates Liberian musical art.
Admission is FREE for all PECO Multicultural Series events and KYW Newsradio is a proud media partner for this series. The event host, the African Cultural Alliance of North America Inc. (ACANA), is a non-profit Organization that promotes social, arts and culture, economic development in Southwest Philadelphia. We primarily focus our services on the more than 200,000 African and Caribbean immigrants in the city. The awareness and funds that are raised will be a direct reflection of the Philadelphia spirit displayed by all of the contributors related to the event as well as the supporters in attendance. The ultimate goal is to support our local African and Caribbean immigrant communities' arts and culture and show our grateful appreciation for them by providing significant financial support for the African Cultural Alliance of North America, ACANA events.
Based in Philadelphia, PECO is an electric and natural gas utility subsidiary of Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC). PECO serves 1.6 million electric and 480,000 natural gas customers in southeastern Pennsylvania and employs about 2,500 people in the region. PECO delivered 78.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas and 39.9 billion kilowatt-hours-hours of electricity in 2007. Founded in 1881, PECO is one of the Greater Philadelphia Region's most active corporate citizens, providing leadership, volunteer and financial support to numerous arts and culture, education, environmental, economic development and community programs and organizations.
Penn's Landing Corporation is the non-profit organization responsible for funding and producing public programming on the Great Plaza, Philadelphia's Delaware Waterfront Park. Independence Blue Cross is the presenting sponsor of the 2008 Summer Season at Penn's Landing. All events produced by Penn's Landing Corporation are FREE to the public and on the Great Plaza, the heart of Penn's Landing, Philadelphia's premier riverfront entertainment destination.
Public Programming at Penn's Landing would not be possible without our presenting sponsor Independence Blue Cross and the continued support of PECO, Bank of America, Pennsylvania Lottery, Live Nation, and the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, all of whom are committed to serving the Greater Philadelphia community.
For more information and event details, please call (215) 922-2FUN or visit www.pennslandingcorp.com. The Penn's Landing Corporation website is a virtual resource for the waterfront which can help visitors plan to easily park, play and stay all day at Penn's Landing.
For more information on event locations and event details, please call (215) 922-2FUN or visit www.pennslandingcorp.com. The Penn's Landing Corporation website is a virtual resource for the waterfront which can help visitors plan to easily park, play and stay all day at Penn's Landing.
