African Community

Higher Ground International will hold a Cultural Extravaganza dinner dance Saturday at The Providence Hilton to benefit families in Liberia and Sierra Leone as well as those who have immigrated to Rhode Island.

The event includes cocktails at 5 p.m. followed by dinner and entertainment which will include African drumming, dance performances and a fashion show. The Rev. Matthew Kai, president of the State Council of Churches, will speak. .

For tickets, contact Henrietta White-Holder, president of Higher Ground International, at (401) 724-1503 or visit www.highergroundintl.org

African American Community

The All-White Affair: A Summer Eleganza, now an annual part of the Sound Session Festival, will take place Thursday starting at 6:30 p.m. at Waterplace, a restaurant and lounge. Drawing from the charm and beauty of Caribbean, Pacific, and Island cultures, Eleganza guests are urged to wear all-white attire.

The event is sponsored by The Rhode Island Young Professionals, in partnership with the Mu Theta Lambda Alumni Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and the Providence Black Repertory Company.

There will be a jazz reception at 7 p.m., dinner at 8, followed by dancing and other entertainment.

Dinner tickets are $60; entertainment-only tickets are $25.

Ticket holders also will be admitted free to The Black Rep’s Xxodus Café Friday before 10 p.m.

To buy tickets, call Erika Readat, (401) 419-0088 or visit www.riyp.org.

For a complete schedule of Sound Session ’09 concerts and events, visit www.providencesound session.com.

Gay community

New York playwright Anne Phelan will teach young people how to create a performance piece using their own stories in the first of 12 creative workshops on Saturdays at Youth Pride Inc.

Phelan, a member of the Dramatist Guild and a 2004 Edward F. Albee Foundation Fellow, has had plays published and produced in New York and New England.

Other workshops led by artists, activists and educators include auditioning for the camera, LGBTQ art history and art making, cooking, tango, salsa, public speaking, acting, creative movement and queer pop culture.

Workshops, held from 10 a.m. to 3 pm., are free and open to youth ages 13-23.

Space is limited. To join, complete a registration form available at www.youthprideri.org or call (401) 421-5626.

Native American Community

Native arts and crafts, food and dancing will be featured at the Northern Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island’s 1st annual Intertribal Powwow on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Hope High School baseball field, 324 Hope St., Providence.

Free and open to the public, the event is officially part of the Providence Black Repertory Company’s 2009 Sound Session Festival and is intended to show strength and unity amongst the tribal nations of New England.

For more information, call War Chief Raymond “Smiling Oak” Watson at (401) 338-7606, e-mail smilingoak@Northern

NarragansettIndianTribe.com or visit www.NorthernNarragansett

IndianTribe.com.

pjnews@projo.com