Teesee's Town: Blue Nefertiti stars in Paris@Night, Gala kicks off African fest

A special performance by Blue Nefertiti’s “Paris@Night,” a French cabaret solo act by Celia, the younger sister from Les Nubians, highlights Wednesday’s Gala & Awards Ceremony. The event kicks off the 20th annual Chrysler Financial

Celia from Les Nubians (below)

Presented by Africa International House, the gala will be held in the Hospitality Tent on the grounds of the festival in Washington Park at 51st and Cottage Grove. The colorful event will also include signature cocktails, music, dancing, scrumptious buffet, a showcase of authentic and museum-quality African art and fine art including works of Dayo Laoye, the artist for the official 2009 African Festival image. Also on display will be the works of other premier fine artists including Nii Oti, Frank Frazier, Woodrow Nash and Jeffrey Williams. Participating galleries include Faie–African Art in Bronzeville and the Woodshop Art Gallery.

Blue Nefertiti’s style is a direct reflection of her vast influences in music, luring her audience into her world of experimental music. Jazz, electronic, soul, house, reggae and hip hop are the soundtrack to her narrative love triangle between Africa, Paris and New York City. The show is an unconventional melange of ingenious originals and innovative eloquence of Miriam Makeba, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Edith Piaf, Josephine Baker, Minnie Ripperton, Dave Brubeck; the sophistication of Joao Gilberto; the vocal acrobatics of Bobby McFerrin; and the dynamic duality of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. She began singing professionally with Helene, her older sister, in France during the mid-1990s, later forming the internationally renowned singing duo, Les Nubians. After 10 years in the business, a myriad of recordings and awards, Blue Nefertiti is now outwardly expressing her inner workings where the blues of past loves mingle with the pink and gold of life’s joys, the intensity of an eternal glimpse, the memory of a sacred moment and the urge of colorful souls calling out for love.

Gala tickets are $75 per person; $125 per couple. For gala and festival info, call (773) 955-ARTS (2787). Also, visit www.africanfestivalchicago.com.

Wedding Bells will peal on Saturday afternoon when the Hon. Dorothy Brown, clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, and Dr. Benton Cook III, a clinical psychologist, repeat sacred marital vows at King of Glory Tabernacle Church of God in Christ during a ceremony co-officiated by the Rev. Jesse Hodges and Rev. Marshall Hatch.

Honorable Dorothy Brown

The groom, founder and CEO of Family Wellness Institute, is an ordained bishop in Word on the Move Christian Fellowship who also worked with Presiding Bishop G.E. Patterson of COGIC in Memphis. For 20 years, the groom-elect was a producer with NBC-TV in Denver. The Consulate General of India and a number of elected government officials are on the prestigious guest list for the wedding and reception. The bridal party of 16 will wear crimson and cream, which just happens to be the colors of Delta Sigma Theta, the bride-elect’s sorority. God bless!

Coo-Some Twosome – Longtime partners and soulmates Col. Eugene F. Scott, president of the Chicago Defender Charities Inc., and Beverly A. Reed, poet/humanitarian and the Charities’ program manager, have married!

Photo by Sadiya Coates

The couple had a quiet ceremony officiated by Sharon Daley, prepaid legal executive, and attended by three of their combined total of 10 children, among others. The coo-some twosome will honeymoon in the Caribbean once the dust has settled from the 80th Annual Bud Billiken Day Parade & Picnic.

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