The Dragon Café Live Event

1st November 2021

At Draper Hall

MFC Presents The Dragon Café

We joined together at Draper Hall for a Dragon Café Live Celebratory Event! In recognition of Black History Month our activities were focused on Music, Artists, and Dance forms which recognised and celebrated the importance of black history. We had The Singing Group with Vivien Ellis, Ariella & Renzo’s Danceworks which culminated in a Special Performance by Helen McDonald of her self-devised piece ‘Time Travelling with the Jazz Queens’.

‘Time Travelling with the Jazz Queens is a captivating interactive adventure through history, introducing you to the greatest female jazz vocalists of the 20th century. 

’Helen McDonald, vocalist, storyteller and educator is your tour guide; who will take you back to the age of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone. Through them, we meet famous band leaders Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong and hear some of the best known standards from the Great American Songbook including ‘Ain’t Nobody’s Business if I Do’, ‘Blue Moon’, ‘Summertime’, ‘Strange Fruit’ and ‘My Baby Don’t Care’. We learn that in spite of adversity, discrimination and segregation, these icons rose to define Black history, civil rights and the future of music as we know it.’