The good folks at CIIS have offered us two tickets to the Touré-Raichel Collective show on November 8 in San Francisco. We’d like to give them away to one of our supporters. Make an online donation before November 5 for your chance to win. We’ll draw one lucky winner at random. Make sure to send us your name, email address, and phone number after you donate so we can contact you and pass your information on to the show organizers. Email matt@dokotoro.org.

I saw them in concert a couple years ago, and it was an amazing show! From CIIS:

If you’re unfamiliar, Touré Raichel Collective are a cultural triumph featuring the guitar virtuoso, Vieux Farka Touré from Mali, and the Israeli pop star, Idan Raichel. Their music reflects the natural spontaneity, free-form creativity allowing audiences to experience firsthand the invention of sublime and transcendent music that crosses boundaries of country, culture and tradition.

First off, we share the world’s concern about the news that the first Ebola case has been confirmed in Mali. The first confirmed patient is a 2-year old-girl in Kayes whose mother died of Ebola in Guinea and was brought back to Mali by relatives. Our thoughts and prayers are with this little girl, her family, and her community.

Keeping with our tradition of Friday party here at Dokotoro, we’ve been thinking a lot about la cuisine (or gwǎ in Bambara–go ahead and pronounce that long a with a falling and rising tone). I just learned about Mariam Diallo, a Malian who stars in her own TV cooking show and has written, with Awa Diarra, a gorgeous cookbook of Malian food. It’s only available in French, but you can download it here, on the Slow Food Foundation’s website (PDF, 4 MB).

See you Saturday, when we will bien manger at our Fall Fundraiser. We’ve got a small army of friends, volunteers, and tanties cooking up tigadegena, dabileni, lenmuruji, nsaame, dolo, and more!

We’ve been busily preparing for our biggest event of the year. If you are anywhere near the San Francisco Bay Area, please join us!

Saturday, October 25, 2014
6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
St. Alban’s Episcopal Church
1501 Washington Ave
Albany, CA 94706

RSVP online or to Lyle Hansen at lyle@dokotoro.org.

Featuring live music from two bands! The fantastic Josh Austin Quartet will play jazz standards, and Dr. Yacine Badian Kouyaté and Friends will play traditional and modern Malian songs. Dr. Kouyaté is from Mali and is a talented musician and music educator. Wear your dancing shoes!

We’ve also planned a great lineup of dishes from across West Africa, including poulet yassa, award-winning sauce arachide, and nsaamɛ. Plus tasty beverages! Come hungry and have your dinner there.