Kora music from West Africa Featured Feb. 4
Sean Gaskell fell in love with the West African Kora at a live performance more than a decade ago. Since 2015, he has performed on the instrument full-time at libraries and schools across the US and will be performing in Port St. Joe on Feb. 4 at the Tuesdays at Two Lecture.
The Kora is a 21-stringed harp-like instrument that has an 800-year history with the Mandinka people of northwestern Africa.
Gaskell will be the presenter at the Corinne Costin Gibson Memorial Public Library’s next lecture in the annual eight-week series. He will describe how the kora is constructed with a special focus on the detailed work involved.
He has made three trips to Gambia, West Africa, where he studied music and culture with a host family of musicians. This performance will blend some of the traditional songs and stories learned from his teachers in Gambia with his own interpretations of the music, as well as the history of this instrument and his experiences learning his craft.
The lecture, free and open to the public, will be at 2 p.m. ET at the library at 100 Library Drive in Port St. Joe, and is made possible with support from the Friends of the Gulf County Public Libraries. Refreshments provided by local bakeries will be served prior to the event. For more information call (850) 229-8879 or visit www.nwrls.com
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.