Tatenda! Siyabonga! Thank You!

Lora Lue Chiorah-Dye and Peter Masundire were the “point persons” for the 2002 Zimbabwean Music Festival. They got the ball rolling to bring Zimfest back to Seattle, and arranged for sites and sponsorships. The core members of the organizing committee put in countless hours of planning, phone calling, e-mailing, administrative and clerical work, and errand-running: Mary Cairns, Yalonda Gill, Lee Eddy, Claire Jones, Simme Hammer, Jacques Johnson, Sheree Seretse, and Yvonne Moyo.

Please join us in thanking all the teachers and performers who were the heart and soul of the festival. Without giving your music and sharing your knowledge, there would be no Zimfest. We are also deeply indebted to the numberless volunteers who donated their time during the festival to help everything run smoothly. We could never have done it without you!

Many individuals and organizations have given generously of their time, skills, and services in support of Zimfest 2002. Our heartfelt gratitude to:

• Seattle Center for agreeing to sponsor Zimfest 2002, and especially to Steve Sneed and Paula Rojo-Vega for providing their generous assistance in the use of Center House facilities
• Sheryl Wiser of Seattle Center Marketing for her efforts to get the word out to Seattle media
• Our partner institutions and the individuals who have worked with us to ensure a successful festival:
  The Children’s Museum — Charlotte Beall
  The Children’s Theater — Jeff Kaminski and Lisa Jarrett
  Experience Music Project — Shannon O’Hara and Joey Roberts
• Sacred Heart Church for providing their kitchen and space for the Zimbabwean dinner
• Saigon Printing for their work on both the Registration and Festival Guides, and for their extra effort to have them ready so quickly
• Seattle Pacific University for providing affordable accommodations for out-of-town guests
• Uzuri Gifts, Afrikando Restaurant, and John’s Music for serving as outlets for concert tickets

We see farther when standing on the shoulders of those who came before. Thanks for advice, directions, occasional consolation, and numerous inherited procedures from all the previous Zimfest organizers. Special thanks to our immediate predecessors Larry Israel and Angela Marie of Santa Cruz, and to the board of the Zimfest Association for underwriting us and getting us going.

The individuals, organizations, and communities who sponsor visiting Zimbabwean guests provide an invaluable service to a much larger Zimfest community, and this year we were indebted to:

• Marilyn Kolodziejczyk and Kutsinhira Center for sponsoring Zimbabwean guests Cosmas Magaya, Beauler Dyoko, Tsitsi Magaya, and Musekiwa Chingodza
• Saralynn Clark for her generous donation to defray Sheasby Matiure’s travel expenses and to Titambe for hosting him
• Erica Azim and MBIRA for sponsoring Forward Kwenda

Many more thanks to our Zimfest family and friends:

• Larry Israel for his prompt and careful services as Zimfest webmaster
• Ross Thompson for setting up and maintaining the miraculous on-line database and registration system; Claire Jones for overseeing the registration process (including sorting out the complex formulae for Canadians); Simme Hammer, Elisha Brobodsky, Sue Letsinger, and Kendra Dupuy for data entry; and Marthe Wambaugh for creating order out of the Zimfest files before they degenerated into chaos (merci beaucoup!)
• Petra Siemion for typing and formatting the Registration Guide and for her eagle-eyed proofing of numerous Zimfest documents
• Graham Burdekin for formatting and laying out the beautiful Festival Guide (Graham, we can’t thank you enough for bailing us out!)
• Erin Ely for arranging to have more of those wonderful mbira bags made
• Mark Cohen for being the official Zimfest 2002 photographer
• Chris Halaska for agreeing to stage manage all three evening concerts
• Carl Smool for his advice and help with the decorations
• Valerie Pickens for providing professional CPA consultation services
• Marshall Lewis for enthusiastically taking on the unenviable job of bookkeeping
• Lee Eddy for coordinating volunteers as well as handling accommodations
• Simme Hammer for handling all festival artwork plus the Market booths
• Sheree Seretse and Mary Cairns for organizing the concerts
• Claire Jones for coordinating the workshops
• Melissa Shaffer for printing and distributing concert tickets
• Paul Novitski and Dandemutande for enabling the virtual community that materializes once a year at Zimfest

And last but not least, thank you to everyone who came. Hope you had a great time at Zimfest 2002!