Famed Somali musician Aar Maanta is coming to St. Cloud Oct. 7-13 as part of the fourth residency in the Midnimo residency program.
Aar Maanta will perform a public concert at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 13 on the Paramount stage, but before he takes the stage he will spend the week working with students and community members throughout the St. Cloud area. Admission is $10 or free for children, students and employees with a school or college ID card.
Aar Maanta is considered to be the voice of the new Somali generation and is revered as one of the most creative and talented Somali musicians today, both in the Horn of Africa and for the Somali people scattered throughout the world.
Recognized for his engagement with social causes and education, in 2017, Aar Maanta was selected by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to participate in a multilingual music video campaign called Dangerous Crossings to spread awareness about the dangers faced by immigrants attempting to cross the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea from Africa into Yemen.
Most recently in April, Aar was one of five international Somali artists to be honored by Oslo’s House of Literature for creating new standards for how to write literature and innovatively carrying on their history and culture.
With his band, The Urban Nomads, Aar Maanta hopes to take his music not only to the Somali people, but also to the wider community with an album in the works to be released in 2018.
While in residency at St. Cloud State University, Aar Manta will meet in class with students in world music and poetry courses, interview with KVSC and Somali Radio Station and meet with the Somali Student Association.
He will also speak and perform at a music department convocation at noon Oct. 12, Performing Arts Center Recital Hall, where he will perform and discuss his art and artistic mission.
While in St. Cloud he will also speak to students at St. Cloud State Technical & Community College, the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University and South Junior High. He will meet with the Rotary Club and work with children at the Southside Boys & Girls Club digital music lab.
Aar Maanta was originally scheduled to be in St. Cloud for the Midnimo program last October, but the tour was cancelled at the last minute due to visa delays.
Aar Maanta is also doing residencies and performances in Minneapolis and Mankato through a Building Bridges: Arts, Culture and Identity program, the Midnimo partnership. St. Cloud State University is a part of the partnership together with The Cedar Cultural Center, Augsburg College, The Paramount Center for the Arts and Minnesota State University, Mankato Department of Music Performance Studies. The partnership earned a $500,000 grant from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, which is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art.
