She will be giving a  lecture at the December event in Minneapolis entitled
Music in the African Diaspora.  Her vocal performances range from singing Jazz and Gospel to Oratorio and Opera. Her operatic roles have included Pamina (The Magic Flute), Musetta (La Boheme), Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos) Bess/Serena (Porgy and Bess) and The Countess (The Marriage of Figaro). In addition to her appearances in opera, Yolanda has performed in musicals in MN (“A…My Name is Alice and South Pacific) as well as in Europe (Chatouranga). Her Oratorio performances include Handel’s Messiah (both soprano and alto); Seven Last Words of Christ by Dubois; Poulenc’s Gloria, premier performances of Esperanto by Pierre Huwiler and the Requiem Mass by Nuñez-Garcia
As a guest soloist Yolanda has performed  with such prestigious performance groups as Les Choralies (Vaison la Romaine, France), Choeur Symphonique de Fribourg, La Cuivres Jurassien, Lundi Sept Heures, The Montreux Symphony Orchestra (Switzerland),  The Riga Symphony (Latvia)  and the Israel Philharmonic (Israel) ; Orchestral l’Ensemble Orchestral de Champagnole, de l’Orchestre Symphonique de Pontarlier (France) These performances include participation in the the Nuits des Joux (France); Paleo Festival, and the Festival des Musiques Popularies à Moudon (Switzerland).In recordings, Yolanda can be heard on the “Witness I, II, III” recordings by Vocalessence and on the Swiss produced recordings under the direction of Pierre Huwiler.
Ms. Williams serves as part time faculty with Minneapolis Community and Technical College and the University of Minnesota.  Yolanda can be heard on Sundays, where she holds the position of Director of Worship and Music at Redeemer Lutheran Church in North Minneapolis.

In 1967, Dr. Powe traveled to Salvador, Bahia, Brazil on a Fulbright scholarship.  Amidst his studies he trained with and received a diploma de capoeirista from Mestre Pastinha’s academy, which is only given to those students who distinguished themselves in the art.

In 1972 Dr. Powe opened the first Capoeira Academy in the United States as a community outreach program while Director of Black Education Programs at Eastern Washington State College in Cheney, Washington.
Dr. Powe has also traveled extensively in Africa, Asia, the Indian Ocean, Latin America, Indonesia, and Melanesia and has held various administrative and teaching positions at home and abroad, including: President and Founder of the Black Languages, Arts & Culture Foundation of Paterson N.J., Associate Peace Corps Director (Chad, Niger, Upper Volta), Lecturer in the Program of African and Asian Languages (Northwestern University, Evanston), and Lecturer in the Dept. of Nigerian Languages at Bayero University in Kano Nigeria. He has proficiency in 7 languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French, Arabic, Hausa, Kiswahili and Indonesian) in addition to his native English and has acquired sufficient knowledge of Malagasy ,Quchuca, Tagalog, Zulu, Kiché and Tamil for research purposes. Since 1992, Dr. Powe has worked almost exclusively as an independent writer and publisher, articulating his research into over 70 self-published titles to date.

For more information about his various publications please view his websites: www.danaikipublications.org. and www.blacfoundation.org 
Born and raised in Paterson, NJ, Edward L. Powe has a Ph.D. in African Languages & Literature (specializing in Hausa) from the University of Wisconsin - Madison,(1984), an MA in linguistics with a minor in Arabic  from Indiana University-Bloomington(1971); and a BA with distinction in Spanish with a minor in Portuguese from the University of New Mexico- Albuquerque (1967).

In 1967, Dr. Powe traversed to Salvador, Bahia, Brazil on a Fulbright scholarship.  Amidst his studies he trained with and received a diploma de capoeirista from Mestre Pastinha’s academy, which is only given to those students who distinguished themselves in the art.

In 1972 Dr. Powe opened the first Capoeira Academy in the United States as a community outreach program while Director of Black Education Programs at Eastern Washington State College in Cheney, Washington.
Dr. Powe has also traveled extensively in Africa, Asia, the Indian Ocean, Latin America, Indonesia, and Melanesia and has held various administrative and teaching positions at home and abroad, including: President and Founder of the Black Languages, Arts & Culture Foundation of Paterson N.J., Associate Peace Corps Director (Chad, Niger, Upper Volta), Lecturer in the Program of African and Asian Languages (Northwestern University, Evanston), and Lecturer in the Dept. of Nigerian Languages at Bayero University in Kano Nigeria. He has proficiency in 7 languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French, Arabic, Hausa, Kiswahili and Indonesian) in addition to his native English and has acquired sufficient knowledge of Malagasy ,Quchuca, Tagalog, Zulu, Kiché and Tamil for research purposes. Since 1992, Dr. Powe has worked almost exclusively as an independent writer and publisher, articulating his research into over 70 self-published titles to date.

For more information about his various publications please view his websites: www.danaikipublications.org. and www.blacfoundation.org