News
Monday Blues for Sandile Dikeni (1966-2019)

Friends – please join us in celebrating the life and work of our dearly departed brother and comrade, the poet, journalist and griot of liberation struggles past and present, Sandile Dikeni (1966-2019).
Monday 18 Nov, from 7pm: Monday Blues at Chimurenga (157 Victoria Rd, Woodstock, Cape Town)
Thursday 21 Nov, 5,30 till 7pm: Memorial Service and poetry at St Georges Cathedral (5 Wale st, Cape Town)
The family funeral will happen on Saturday 23 November.
Hamba kahle, Sandile.
FESTAC 77: PASS landing at Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries, New York City

From 23-25 October 2019, Chimurenga’s Pan African Space Station (PASS) at Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries, New York City, explored three narratives related to the participation of African American artists and intellectuals at FESTAC ’77, the 2nd World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, held in Lagos in 1977. Wed 23 October 2019, 4pm – 7pm: Sun Ra Arkestra and the jazz avant-garde at FESTAC As revealed in Chimurenga’s recent publication which compiles stories from/about FESTAC, Sun Ra’s Astro/Afro-mysticism was …
FESTAC ’77 Celebration in New York City (23 – 25 October 2019)

From 23 – 25 October 2019, Chimurenga will install its Pan African Space Station (PASS) at The New School’s Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries, New York City. The three-day broadcast, which will run from 3pm – 7pm (EDT) daily, will explore the participation of African American artists, activists and intellectuals in the 2nd World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, FESTAC ’77, held in Lagos, Nigeria, in January-February 1977. The nearly 700-strong US delegation at FESTAC ’77 was …
Matt Temple of Matsuli Music – 1 Oct 2019
Dubship I – Black Starliner | dub lecture w/ Ralph Borland | Fri 13 September

Today from 5.30pm tune in PASS for a special ‘Friday 13th Hauntological Version’ of artist Ralph Borland’s dub lecture on ‘Dubship I – Black Starliner’ (2019), a large-scale collaborative electro-mechanical musical sculpture that plays on the history of the Black Star Line shipping company, launched 100 years ago by the political activist Marcus Garvey. This live broadcast will take in dub music’s memorialisation of Marcus Garvey, and its engagement with space travel, science fiction and technology. Focusing on …
Tribute to the Ras G & The Afrikan Space Program – Wed 7 August

Wednesday 7 August 2019 from 6pm (SA time), we pay tribute to the Los Angeles beatmaker Ras G (and his Afrikan Space Program) Featuring sounds from Future Nostalgia (Atiyyah Khan and Grant Jurius), Michael Bhatch and Brendan Newman. Back in 2009, Pan African Space Station invited Ras G to perform at All Nations, Salt River in Cape Town. We have since then lost the recording from this event and are still in search of it. For now, this encounter only lives in …
INDESTRUCTIBLE BEATS – Ra Mava & Ben V – Friday 26 July

DJs Ra Mava and Ben V of Indestructible Beats are live on PASS this evening. Tune in right here from 6pm (SA time) Also, if in Cape Town, make sure to catch their event tomorrow afternoon. More info here.
FUTURIST – Tribute to Joao Gilberto and the Universal Soul of Brazil – 23 July

Join us via the spaceways for a tribute to Brazil and the late Joao Gilberto from Grant Jurius AKA Futurist (one part of Future Nostalgia) from 4pm today. Tune in here to listen (Artwork by Grant Jurius)
Listen to the launch of “Sankomota: An Ode in One Album”, LIVE at Chimurenga Factory, Cape Town

“Perhaps outside of Fela’s Egypt 80, very few music bands have managed to influence their countries in the manner and to the extent that Sankomota did. Their emergence, explosive musical repertoire and long-lasting musical effect could neither be predicted nor expected. The effect of their music on the conscience of mortals and politicians alike, can still be felt even today.” On 31 May, we hosted the launch of Phehello Mofokeng‘s reflective essay on Lesotho’s greatest band, Sankomota. “An Ode in One …

