Pass Blog
SANKOFA – a conversation and listening session with KING THA
We were honoured to host royalty at the Chimurenga Factory on 22 July 2024 – our revered King Tha, the earth-acclaimed singer-songwrioter and bandleader Thandiswa Mazwai joined us for groundings pon her new LP and our long march back to total liberation.
King Tha was in conversation with our sister-comrade-poet-theorist Uhuru Phalafala.
Listen to the session here:
We retreat forward, always.
Launching The Breathers – THE LATEST IN THE CHIMURENGANYANA SERIES
We are pleased to be launching the latest addition to the Chimurenganyana series, The Breathers, a collaborative long poem by Daniel Borzutzky and Stacy Hardy. The Breathers is an attempt to experiment with ways to document both the suppression of breath caused by capitalism, and the liberation of breath, or, the mere act of breathing as a form of political resistance to those forces that confront our bodies with what cannot be said, what cannot be seen, and what cannot be …
Category: Live Events, News, Pass Blog
Tags: Bongani Kona, Daniel Borzutzky, Fred Schmalz, Stacy Hardy, The Breathers
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Heliacal Rising of Sothis – a celebration of Kelan Phil Cohran
Chimurenga proudly presents “Heliacal Rising of Sothis“, a celebration of the late great musician and educator Kelan Phil Cohran on his birthday 8 May 2024, also the 59th anniversary of the founding of AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians). Cohran was a co-founder of AACM as well as the founder of the Afro Arts Theatre. His seminal group the Artistic Heritage Ensemble generated numerous recordings and offshoots, including groups such as Earth, Wind and Fire and The Pharaohs. …
BHEKI KHOZA TRIO
We are pleased to host veteran guitarist, composer and mbaqanga jazz revivalist Bheki Khoza at the Chimurenga Factory. Bheki is a graduate of the legendary collective African Jazz Pioneers and has played with masters like Victor Ntoni, Winston Mankunku, Barney Rachabane, and more. He also wrote the music for Zola Maseko’s award winning film Drum (2004). For this session, he is accompanied by Allistair Gibbs (bass) and Nicholas Dlakavu (drums). Friday, 26 April 2024, 7pm Chimurenga Factory – 157 …
AFRICAN DAY – a listening session with Tete Mbambisa
We are delighted to host our elder, the pianist and composer Tete Mbambisa at the Chimurenga Factory on 27 March 2024 from 7pm, to celebrate the arrival of African Day, his latest LP. The album was recorded during the heyday of the As-Shams label in 1976, but never released. It features the cream of South African jazz, including: Sipho Gumede (bass), Gilbert Matthews (drums), Dennis Mpale (trumpet), Duke Makasi, Basil Coetzee, and Barney Rachabane (reeds). Bra Tete’s musical journey began …
Category: Live Events, News, Pass Blog
Tags: African Day, As-Shams, Barney Rachabane, Basil Coetzee, Dennis Mpale, Duke Makasi, Gilbert Matthews, Sipho Gumede, Tete Mbambisa
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SESASEDI SA TSODIO / SA KOŠA KE LEROLE: a screening of two film-essays
We are delighted to present a screening of two film-essays by Rangoato Hlasane – Sesasedi Sa Tsodio and Sa Koša Ke Lerole. Sesasedi Sa Tsodio delves into the kwaito DNA and its multiple umbilical cords searches for and celebrates the musicality of leleme la MaAfrika – sonic and phonetic aesthetics of black world making. The character of Tsodio as lyrical fiction/mythology travels through orature and storytelling in black musical and sonic histories of the past, present and future. Traveling banners, …
Category: News, Pass Blog
Tags: kwaito, Mahikeng, Mamelodi, Meadowlands, Rangoato Hlasane, Sa Koša Ke Lerole, Sesasedi Sa Tsodio
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Ubuhle Bendalo Community Arts Festival
We are proud to announce the 2nd edition of Ubuhle Bendalo,“the beauty of creation/nature”,an annual community arts festival organised by multi-disciplinary artist Breeze Yoko in collaboration with pan-African arts platform Chimurenga from 16 – 18 February 2024. Consisting of exhibitions, talks, workshops, performances and more, this year’s edition aims to bring our arts community together by providing a platform for engagement, collaboration and play. It features some of the country’s leading radical creators, including Mzwandile Buthelezi, Loyiso Mkhize, The Ninevites, …
Category: Live Events, News, Pass Blog, Pass Pop-up, Pass Radio
Tags: Breeze Yoko, Community Arts Festival, Ubuhle Bendalo
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A LIVE BROADCAST WITH DAMOLA OLOWADE
We’re delighted to host a listening with Lagos born, Pitori based rapper/producer Damola Owolade on PASS, Friday, 24 November from 7pm. Damola is one-half of the celebrated Pan Africanist prog-rap-folk duo Deep Dive Set, who harness the archaeological function of the hip-hop art form: excavating samples like fossils, fragments of forgotten history resurrected and immortalized by the very act of their discovery. The raw materials of Damola’s production come from sakara, apala, juju, fuji, highlife and other sounds in the …
Category: Live Events, News, Pass Blog, Pass Radio
Tags: apala, Damola Olowade, fuji, highlife, juju, sakara
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HOPHUIS: A SITE OF DANCE AND SOLIDARITY
The film and pumplet publication Hophuis (both directed by Ilze Wolff) document a series of journeys and activations at the Steinkopf Community Centre in Namaqualand in the Northern Cape. The town of Steinkopf is situated in what was declared a “Coloured Reserve” by the apartheid government in 1948 – previously Kookfontein, it was renamed by German missionaries who settled there in the 18th century. Along with a new name, the missionaries brought what James Baldwin referred to as “theological terror”, …
Category: Live Events, News, Pass Blog
Tags: Carmen Cloete, hophuis, Ilze Wolff, Letitia Pandohe, Nicholae Young, ǂhoab Soreb
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