Sankofa Concert: Healing, Reflection, and Renewal

This event is only open to the Stanford community and affiliates. Masks are required for this indoor event.

Sankofa is a word in the Twii language of Ghana, and it literally means to “go back and fetch it.” Sankofa also implies an active forward hope in the face of remembrance and history. Sankofa also is a way to heal and renew will forging forward with resilience.

The events of the recent year and a half –– starting with Covid-19, continuing with the renewed energy for racial justice in the wake of the deaths of many Black men and women at the hands of police and the spike in anti-Asian violence, and extending through the tumultuous events surrounding the election and presidential transition –– have shaken the Stanford Community and global community alike. The COVID and bigotry dual pandemic reveals our physical fragility and mortality, our societal limitations, and shortcomings … and the encounter is terrifying. We have witnessed a rise in bigotry and xenophobia along with the pandemic, and the most recent spate of anti-Black and anti-Asian violence ignited a shared urgency and renewed commitment to transformation.

We also cherish how far we have come so that we can begin healing the immediate wounds and start reimagining how to rebuild a more just and resilient global society. Now more than ever, we need to honor the past while mustering our resilience beyond self-determination to renew our community in healing and life-giving ways. We must go forward, but we also must honor what we have experienced in the past 18 months and counting. Not only the disruption, loss, and grief, but also the herculean efforts of front-line healthcare workers to care for the sick and dying, of activists to give productive voice to profound frustration over justice delayed and denied, the incredible work of scientists and researchers to create new vaccines and treatments for an emerging disease. Our work is in the here and now. We are forging a future that respects the past but carves something new.

Please give your voice and join Sankofa World Music Concert, the closing ceremony of Stanford’s Festival of Reflection and Renewal.

This Concert is also the Closing Ceremony of We Are Stanford: A Festival of Reflection and Renewal.

Featured Visual Artist:

• Z.M. Rebecca Nie, the concert’s visual director and featured video/algorithm artist. Stanford Buddhist Chaplain-Affiliate

Featured Musicians:

• Dr. Jiayue Cecilia Wu, the concert’s music curator and featured musician/composer. Prof. Wu is an award-winning scholar, musician, and audio engineer

• Dr. Scott L. Miller, Professor of Music at St. Cloud State University, Minnesota• Dr. Jane Rigler, flutist, composer, educator, and producer

• Stanford Middle East Ensemble, Stanford Middle East Ensemble plays music from across the Middle East region

• Alkimiya Transfer, Stanford-based Alkimiya Transfer (Barbara Nerness and Stephanie Sherriff) is an ambient noise duo

• Bonnie Wai-Lee Kwong, poet, musician, multidisciplinary artist, and engineer

• Prof. Chris Chafe, composer, improviser, and cellist

Concert Leadership:

• Spiritual Director & Advisor – The Rev. Dr. Sakena Young-Scaggs, Senior Associate Dean of ORSL and Pastor of Memorial Church

• Concert Curator – Dr. Jiayue Cecilia Wu

• Visual Director – Z.M. Rebecca Nie

• Technical Director – Michael J. Hodgson

• Manager of Resources and Community – Claudia V Dorn

• Stage Manager – Diane Abundabar

To protect yourself, your loved ones, and our community, please abide by our COVID and contact tracing guidelines for Sankofa World Music Concert at Memorial Church.

• All adults must attest to full vaccination and a negative COVID test within 72 hours of the event. All children over 6 months must attest to a negative COVID test result within 72 hours of the event.

• All participants must register for services use this link: https://bit.ly/3u41Q6G.

• Additionally, all off-campus guests must complete the Stanford Visitor: Daily COVID-19 Health Attestation before entering Memorial Church on the day of the event. The link to the form is https://stanford.io/39wev8R/.

o Stanford students, staff, and faculty who live on campus are not required to complete the attestation.

o On the day of the service, guests may complete the forms at home or use their electronic device to complete the forms once they arrive at Memorial Church.

o ORSL Staff will be available outside of Memorial Church to assist guests in completing the forms. Doors will open at 7:30 pm.

• All participants must bring and wear their masks while waiting to enter Memorial Church and throughout the concert.

o Children ages 2 and older need to be masked.

o All participants must remain masked, including musicians, choirs, and speakers.

o Participants who do not comply with wearing masks will be asked to leave.

• All participants are encouraged to maintain a social distance of at least 6 six feet from those outside their household and keep a pew between themselves and others while seated in the Church.

• There is NO eating or drinking inside Memorial Church.

• On the concert day, guests who are feeling ill or someone from their household is ill must not attend.

Host or Publisher Stanford ORSL & Ho Center for Buddhist Studies