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Penn State CPA, Mwenso and the Shakes host Community Jam Session at 3 Dots Downtown

The Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State and 3 Dots Downtown collaborated to host an event with jazz and blues band Mwenso and Shakes that invited members of the community to come and create music.

The “Community Jam Session” took place at 7 p.m. Friday at 3 Dots Downtown.

Michael Mwenso, the band’s leader and vocalist, led the Shakes and audience members on a journey he called “for the soul” and “full of energy,” with the goal of creating connections between people.

“[Connection] is everything you want, it is everything you need,” Mwenso said. “To get to know people on a deeper level is everything.”

To kick off the session, Mwenso invited the audience to join him in a “shake,” asking everyone to stand up and shake their bodies.

This immediately transitioned into musical performance, with jazz and funk songs featuring two vocalists, a dancer, a bass cellist, a guitarist, a pianist, a saxophonist, a trombonist, a trumpeter and two drummers.

After each song, Mwenso performed poetry, with the poem’s main message then being one of the key phrases in the next song.

After an hour of performance and a five-minute break, members of the community played alongside the band with Mwenso leading it all.

Taylor Roig, the director of production, audio and touring for Mwenso and the Shakes, spoke on Mwenso’s leadership at the event.

“He’s leading everyone, from a musical standpoint, from a soulful standpoint. He’s trying to find our community members’ strengths and weaknesses and seeing how they can fit on stage and play with the band,” Roig said. “He’s spending time on stage trying to ignite the crowd. He’s off stage helping out there, too. He is everywhere.”

The presence of Mwenso and the Shakes was felt by everyone, according to CPA Audience and Program Development Director Amy Dupain Vashaw.

“Right now, my heart is racing very fast and full of excitement because this is not something we do regularly,” Vashaw said. “In fact, we’ve never done this because of so many different things like, ‘How do we organize this?’ [and] ‘Will there be enough people attending?’ and things like that.”

Vashaw said she found the message that Mwenso and the Shakes portray to be true to who she is and how she wants to affect the community. She spoke on the group’s ability to perform and engage inside and outside the classroom.

“They will continue to advance anti-racist work through their music, exploring Black music and history and helping people get close to their roots. Moving forward, all of this will have a new structure,” Vashaw said. “Tonight is casual. If you want to bring your instrument to jam, bring your instrument to jam. If you just want to hang out, come and have a hang. That’s how this event came about: Trying to think about the different ways to engage with the community.”

The jam ended around 9 p.m., but many people stuck around the venue, which shone with pink, purple and blue lighting for the event.

Mwenso concluded the night with thanks and shoutouts to all the community performers, many of whom were from local high schools and Penn State University. He also left one more message to everyone in attendance.

“It’s been amazing to connect with the community and get to know everybody. You feel like it’s a home,” he said. “It’s been really special. Keep connecting with anyone and everyone you can, it is one of the keys to life.”