Pass Blog
Rashida Bumbray with Dr. Segun Shabaka
“The primary driving force behind the International African Arts Festival is family – immediate, extended, community and global.” International African Arts Festival, Mission Statement
Curator and choreographer, Rashida Bumbray hosts a conversation with Dr Segun Shabaka, Chairperson of the International African Arts Festival, Brooklyn (1971-2015).
Started as a venture of independent African-centered education centres, The East and Uhuru Sasa Shule, the 43-year-old annual Brooklyn International African Arts Festival celebrates African art with music, dance, storytelling, handcrafted goods, and food vendors.
Rashida Bumbray is a curator and choreographer living and working in New York. Her recent project Funk, God, Jazz, and Medicine: Black Radical Brooklyn, engaged how self-determination can be achieved through the claiming and holding of a neighborhood–but also from radical local battles for land and dignity from the 1960s to today.
Dr. Segun Shabaka is a Brooklyn-based educator, activist and writer. He is the Chairperson of the International African Arts Festival, Brooklyn (1971-2015).
Marilyn Nance on FESTAC ’77
Photographer Marilyn Nance has captured unique moments in the cultural history of the US and the African diaspora, which together amount to an archive of images of late 20th century African American life. She joins us to share tales from FESTAC ’77 in Lagos where she was photographer for the North American Zone.
Vivek Narayanan remixes Ramayana of Valmiki (earliest Sanskrit poet)
Live Sound Collab: Dyani Douze, Taja Cheek & Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa
Chimurenga Library NYC resident Nontsikelelo Mutiti curates a live sound collab between multimedia artist Dyani Douze, code-switcher and Throw Vision member Taja Cheek (Throw Vision) and musician and composer Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa. Dyani Douze is a multimedia artist. She has served as an editorial apprentice on Spike Lee’s documentary Bad 25, and has produced several personal projects, including a short documentary exploring architectural spaces in Paris. Dyani also produces music and DJs at local venues. Taja Cheek is a code-switcher who …
Chimurenga Library NYC residents in conversation
Chimurenga has occupied the Performa 15 Hub with the Chimurenga Library, a library-of-people that engage trade as both the process of buying, selling, or exchanging goods or services and the practice of exchanging ideas, imaginaries, perceptions and vocabularies. We kick off with a conversation between Chimurenga editor, Ntone Edjabe and Chimurenga Library NYC residents, Roger Francis of the Brooklyn-based African Record Centre and Yoruba Book Center (established 1971); artist and educator Nontsikelelo Mutiti, who has set up an African hair …
Category: Pass Blog, Pass Radio
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Wednesday 11 November runnings
PASS is live and orbiting in NYC. We kicks things off with a conversation with Chimurenga Library NYC residents Brooklyn based African Record Centre and Yoruba Book Centre (established 1971); artist and educator Nontsikelelo Mutiti, who is running an African Hair Braiding Salon in the space; and poet, choreographer and Afrosonics archivist Harmony Holiday. Next, Nontsikelelo curates a sound collab between multimedia artist Dyani Douze, code-switcher and Throw Vision member Taja Cheek (Throw Vision) and musician and composer Tanyaradzwa Tawengwa. …
PASS in NY: Africa is a Country and guests
Founded by Sean Jacobs, Africa is a Country is a blog about media, politics, music, events and football. For PASS, Africa is a Country managing editor and music section curator, Boima Tucker, invites friends and colleagues to present: Block The Road: The Sound of Afrosoca with Rishi Nath; DLife, Adrift: A soundtrack for migration with DJ Ushka (Thanu Yakupitiyage) and Sierra Leonean electronic music producer Lamin Fofana; and a discussion on photography with Zachary Rosen, Awam Amkpa, and Delphine Fawundu. …
Category: News
Tags: Africa is a Country, Lamin Fofana, PASS New York, Sean Jacobs, Thanu Yakupitiyage, Zachary Rosen
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PASS in NY: African Record Centre and Yoruba Book Centre
The Brooklyn-based African Record Centre and Yoruba Book Centre, which played a key role in introducing the cultures of the African diaspora to the United States, invite visitors to come dig in their crates. “We introduced African music to the United States. I will make that statement humbly but boastfully at the same time.” – Roger Francis (African Record Centre) Roger Francis and Rudy Francis own the African Record Centre and Yoruba Book Center in Brooklyn, New York. Roger Francis …
Category: News
Tags: African Record Centre, PASS New York, Roger Francis, Rudy Francis, Yoruba Book Centre
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PASS in NY: Freedwomen’s Bureau (Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts)
Freedwomen’s Bureau (Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts) presents a marathon reading of We Charge Genocide: The Historic Petition to the United Nations for Relief From a Crime of The United States Government Against the Negro People (1951). “We maintain, therefore, that the oppressed Negro citizens of the United States, segregated, discriminated against and long the target of violence, suffer from genocide as the result of the consistent, conscious, unified policies of every branch of government.” We Charge Genocide (1951) Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts is the …
Category: News
Tags: BLACKNUSS, Freedwomen's Bureau, PASS New York, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitt
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PASS in NY: Omar Berrada with Ambrose Bye
Writer and translator Omar Berrada offers a meditation on poetry when it holds on to the imperative of “defending the dead,” among the traumas of history and the silences of archives. He does so via recordings of performances by NourbeSe Philip, sampled with the help of Ambrose Bye (Fast Speaking Music). “Zong! not only deals with an historical event (i.e. the massacre of enslaved Africans on board the Zong in 1784), but also speaks to contemporary times, in the sense that …