Global Citizen Festival has announced its latest initiative, Move Afrika, will work closely with Kendrick Lamar. On Monday, Global Citizen announced the festival’s inaugural Move Afrika event in Rwanda will host Lamar as the festival’s headliner. The ticketed event will take place on Dec. 6 at the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda.
The upcoming event will begin the organization’s future expansion of festivals across the African continent. In addition to headlining the December festival, Lamar and Dave Free’s company, pgLang, will curate the upcoming Move Afrika event. PgLang will continue to curate Move Afrika events for the next five years.
“Move Afrika is Global Citizen’s latest effort to address the world’s inequities by creating job and entrepreneurship opportunities for the continent’s emerging generations through an annual series of world-class live events,” per the Global Citizen official site.
The event will also invest in community-provided health services for local communities. Move Afrika will also work with local vendors, agencies, artists and crews to provide on-the-job skill development and training opportunities.
This initiative is set to focus on promoting equity through health, environmental and economic policy goals. The official site explained, “We are calling on Global Citizens to take action to ask African leaders, philanthropy and the private sector to make significant commitments to make meaningful progress towards strengthening health systems.”
The Rwanda capital will continue to serve as the Move Afrika tour’s “anchor city” until 2028. In addition to Kigali, more countries will be added to the tour schedule. The organization is aiming to expand the tour to four more countries by 2025.
“Our goal with Move Afrika is to inspire local youth and artists to unlock their creativity,” said pgLang. “We hope to curate an immersive experience that empowers various communities and cultures across Africa and around the world for a lifetime.”
More recently, the 17-time Grammy winner, 36, collaborated with his cousin and fellow rapper Baby Keem on his latest track, “Hillbillies.”
Lamar also rerecorded a remix of Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” for 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in late October. Ahead of his recent collaborations, the rapper was seen performing “America Has a Problem (Remix)” with Beyoncé during the singer’s birthday show. The two performed on Sept. 4 at the Renaissance World Tour Los Angeles stop.
In other news – Actor Evan Ellingson dies at the age of 35
Former child star Evan Ellingson has died at the age of 35. According to San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department records, Ellingson was found in his bedroom in Fontana, California, on Sunday. A cause of death has not been determined, pending an autopsy.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said Monday in a statement to USA TODAY that the Fontana Police Department is the primary agency investigating Ellingson’s death. Read More
