LEWISTON — Performers from Africa will be featured Saturday, Oct. 16, as part of the regional conference “African Refugee Health: Best Practices,” hosted by Bates College.

Performing will be spoken-word poet IBe, Somali poet and playwright Omar Ahmed and the Somali rap and dance group Jamal and Friends.

The performance will begin at 7 p.m. in Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St. It is open to the public at no charge, but seating is limited and tickets are required. For reservations, call 786-6400 or e-mail [email protected].

IBe was born in Guinea and grew up in Sierra Leone, Evanston, Ill., and St. Cloud, Minn. He is the recipient of a 2010 Midwestern Voices Award, a 2009 Urban Griots’ Cultural Award and a SASE/Jerome Verve Grant, and was nominated for the Minnesota Academy’s Best Spoken Word Award.

Author of “Bridge Across Atlantic,” a collection of poems about life between Africa and America, he now resides in Minneapolis.

Raised in Jamaame, Somalia, Ahmed is a playwright, poet, Somali elder and peace activist. He will perform his poem “Waddadii Nabadda” (“The Path of Peace”) and recite excerpts from his new novel, “The Flowers and Flames of Turda.” The novel tells the story of a young Somali woman who strives to meet threats first from deep tribal animosities in Somalia and then from the challenges of modernity as a refugee in the United States.

“We have such a rich literature that has survived from our oral traditions. Only a very minute amount of our literature was written down, and even that portion was destroyed in the war. Even our national museum was destroyed, and wild plants are growing there,” Ahmed said.

Jamal Karama, singer and lyricist of the rap-dance group Jamal and Friends, was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, and has lived in Maine for nine years. Karama, who focuses his energies on love rather than controversy, performed at Bates previously as part of the Saaxibo Band, whose members include Maine fiddler Greg Boardman. This time, he will bring a team of four African dancers to join him.