Performance and Processional

Sunday, September 1 from 1-4 pm

The Barnes Foundation

2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway

Enjoy the celebration of Yoruba-rooted song, drumming, and dance traditions from Yorubaland (Nigeria), Cuba, Haiti, and Brazil, as Modupúe | Ibaye: The Philadelphia Yoruba Performance Project headlines the PECO Free First Sunday Family Day at the Barnes Foundation. Performed by an intergenerational and intercultural ensemble of Philadelphia’s Yoruba-rooted artistic, cultural, and spiritual practitioners, this festive event will begin with an outdoor processional and ancestral tribute, followed by a series of performances inside the Barnes Foundation. Featured artistic collaborators and creators on this project include Gilset Mora, Cleonice Fonseca, Lela Aisha Jones, and Alex Shaw. Artistic consultants include Baba Joe Bryant, Baba John Wilkie, Jeannine Osayande, and Christian Noguera.

Immediately following the performances, select community members who have contributed throughout the project will join project leaders Lela Aisha Jones, Alex Shaw, and Germaine Ingram in the Barnes’ Comcast Auditorium to share and discuss their perspectives on the arc and the significance of Modupúe | Ibaye for Philadelphia’s Yoruba-rooted communities and beyond for this 2-year journey. This event will be an open invitation for the wider public to experience the unique ways that global traditions have emerged in the research of this project.

Program Schedule

1:00-1:30pm: Outdoor Processional (starting at the fountain at 20th St. and Ben Franklin Parkway)

2:00-3:00pm: Indoor Performances featuring diverse Yoruba-rooted drum, song, and dance traditions

3:15-4:30pm: Panel conversation in Barnes' Comcast Auditorium with project leaders and guest community participants

Tickets are free and available on a first-come, first-serve basis at the ticket counter at the Barnes Foundation.

On Sunday, September 1, there will be a number of road closures around the Barnes Foundation. For more information, please click here.

Intercultural Journeys’ Modupúe | Ibaye: The Philadelphia Yoruba Performance Project has walked alongside multiple communities to manifest a diverse set of performative experiences stemming from Yoruba-rooted ancestry, culture, and spirituality. For more information, please visit interculturaljourneys.org/yoruba.

Modupúe | Ibaye: The Philadelphia Yoruba Performance Project has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.