Join Director Hassane Kassi Kouyaté for an intimate conversation regarding the work Congo Jazz Band and his work in producing and programming French language theater through Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.

About Hassan Kassi Kouyate

Born in 1963 in Burkina Faso, Hassane Kassi Kouyaté, a descendant of a griot family, director, actor in theatre and cinema, and teacher. He has been immersed in the artistic world from an early age, first and foremost by his father, the great comedian Sotigui Kouyaté, as well as by his brothers, one a director, the other an actor. He perfects the different arts that are close to his heart in both Africa and France, such as storytelling, writing, comedy, production and music.

He is the founder of the company Deux Temps Trois Mouvements at the Galante theatre in Avignon and the Yeleen International Festival of Tales, Music and Dance and the Djéliya Cultural and Social Centre in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso.

Since November 1, 2014, he has been director of the National Tropics Atrium of Martinique, where he has worked for the support and professionalization of emerging artists as well as for artistic dissemination as close as possible to the populations of the entire territory of Martinique.

With more than 40 shows to which he has contributed as an actor, author or director, he defends a committed, multicultural theatre that is as open to the contemporary world as to the preservation of memory.

In 2019, he was appointed as the director of the Francophonies en Limousin festival, which occupies a major place in the French-speaking artistic and cultural landscape, it has a project that is demanding and popular and where all its diversity will be expressed. In the footsteps of Monique Blin, Patrick Le Mauff and Marie-Agnès Sevestre, it aims to make the event a major venue for the creation and programming of the French-language performing arts, a place where innovation, relevance, demand and conviviality are mixed.

Click here for interview in French

This talk will be moderated by Dr. Amy Reid

Amy Reid is Professor of French and Director of the Gender Studies Program at New College of Florida. She is an award-winning literary translator focusing on fiction from sub-Saharan Africa; her work has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, and the MLA. Her most recent translation is the novel In the Belly of the Congo, by Blaise Ndala (NY: Other Press, 2023; Toronto, ONT: Scribner Canada, 2023).