South African Fashion Show to Take Place on August 3 at
Long Island University’s Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts

Brooklyn, N.Y.— Long Island University’s Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts will be the setting for an unusual fashion show featuring the fashion, crafts and other handiwork of South African rural women, part of a special exchange project between South Africa and Brooklyn.

Jazz Africa Heritage Festival (JAH), an international African art, culture and heritage economic development initiative led by South African President Thabo Mbeki, is the South African sponsor of the fashion show and other events taking place in Brooklyn. Working with JAH is South Africa’s Meropa Heritage Project, which links the couture skills of rural South African women and South Africa’s emerging international design and marketing industry.

The Meropa Heritage Project fashion show will take place on Thursday, August 3, from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Kumble Theater at the Brooklyn Campus, located at the corner of DeKalb and Flatbush avenues in Downtown Brooklyn. Leeta Mbulu, South African recording legend and national icon, will appear in a rare United States performance. The event is free and open to the public, but reservations are required.

A delegation of 40 cultural, economic and traditional leaders from South Africa, who are here to develop cultural and economic ties with Brooklyn’s leaders, will attend the performance. The fashion show is coordinated by the Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium and a team of community partners, including the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and others.

For more information, call the Kumble Theater box office at (718) 488-1624, or visit www.kumbletheater.org.             

Long Island University opened its Brooklyn Campus in 1926, welcoming a diverse population at a time when other major universities enforced quota systems against racial and ethnic minorities. Located at the corner of Flatbush Avenue Extension and DeKalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, the Campus is accessible to all major bus and subway routes and the Long Island Rail Road.