News
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. …
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, …
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, …
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 …
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”, …
LAUNCHING MINE MINE MINE
LIBERATION RADIO: BOKANI DYER’S RADIO SECHABA
As part of our ongoing study of the cultural work of liberation movements in the struggle against apartheid and colonialism, we’re proud to present a rare Cape Town performance of Bokani Dyer’s Radio Sechaba. Pianist Bokani Dyer is an inheritor of the spirit of the music unit of the liberationist, Gaborone-based Medu Arts Ensemble – famously led during the 1980s by Jonas Gwangwa and Hugh Masekala, and featuring Bokani’s father, the saxophonist Steve Dyer. Radio Sechaba continues the search for …
EPISTROPHIES
We are pleased to present Epistrophies – groundings with Robin D.G. Kelley and Neo Muyanga – in praise and thanks for the melodious thunk of Thelonious Monk! We’ll also be screening Rewind & Play, Alain Gomis’ brilliant filmic take on Monk’s method. (Read more on the film here.) Saturday, 16 September 2023 from 6pm Chimurenga Factory (157 Victoria Rd, Woodstock)