There’s a lot happening in Accra these days. This weekend is no exception. Here are three awe-inspiring events that you should check out:
What: YARI YARI NTOASO: International Black Women Writers Conference
When: Thursday, May 16 – Sunday, May 19
Damage: FREE
Come out to the TALK PARTY SERIES tonite as we celebrate TAWIAH’s new mixtape “FREEDOM DROP” with a listening session. We will also be premiering her second single, “FACES” – directed by Mantse Aryeequaye, produced by REDD Kat Pictures + ACCRA [dot] ALT.
TAWIAH wants to know what you think about her new album and video! We’ll have a Skype call session with the singer/songwriter in London and you’ll have a chance to share your thoughts.
As lovers of good music, the party wouldn’t be complete without the DUSTLYVE Booth’s Kobby Graham + DJ Kev keeping buttorses shaking on the dance floor all night. So come out and let’s get live together.
We’re collecting books to support the Community Creative Center. Be kind and bring a book to donate for this worthy cause.
Yellow Fever: TRAILER from Ng'endo Mukii on Vimeo.
Graduate student Ng’endo Mukii gave folks at the Royal College of Arts in London pause for the cause with her thesis film, Yellow Fever. The ten-minute film is an exquisite exploration of race, gender and beauty regimens told through the intimate perspectives of her Kenyan mother and young niece.
The film mixes media into what Mukii calls an “almost schizophrenic self-visualization,” employing her study in animation, photography and ethnography. The result is a sincere and stunning composition that examines how African women think about skin bleaching, hair extensions, body image and western pop culture.
The filmmaker says this about Yellow Fever:
I am interested in the concept of skin and race, and what they imply; in the ideas and theories sown into our flesh that change with the arc of time. I believe skin and the body, are often distorted into a topographical division between reality and illusion. The idea of beauty has become globalised, creating homogenous aspirations, and distorting people’s self-image across the planet.
NG’ENDO MUKII
Mukii is definitely on our radar. Can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.
SANFORD BIGGERS: I am actually a Japanese artist wearing the mask of a Black man manufactured by a White person to look like your idea of a rapper.
The Brooklyn Museum was buzzing on Thursday night, May 24th. Creatives from all over New York City were decked out in their flyest Afro-prints and chunky glasses, gathered for the screening of The Triptych, the latest documentary film series by Terence Nance, presented by Afro-Punk Pictures and the Weeksville Heritage Center.
TERENCE NANCE: When you need something done, you often look to hire people, but you forget that your friends are capable, creative people, and often make the best team.
You may know Nance, Triptych’s Director, and Shawn Peters, Director of Photography, from their collaboration with Blitz the Ambassador on the short film Native Sun (2011), a 20-minute audio-visual treat shot in Ghana. The two also directed the recent Sundance premiere, An Oversimplification of Her Beauty. The Triptych offers a bit more narrative than these abstract delights, but is equally wacky, magical, and visually delicious.
WANGECHI MUTU: The Kikuyu religion that spoke to me was overtaken by Christianity. You had to be Christian in order to be a part of modernity.
The Triptych highlights the work of artists Sanford Biggers, Wangechi Mutu, and Barron Claiborne. The twenty-minute assemblages of interviews, artworks, photographs, text, and abstraction blur the line between life and art, reality and representation. The three profiles, works of art in themselves, are clever, challenging, and laugh-out-loud funny.
BARRON CLAIBORNE: I know how people see me and I know I’m nothing like it. Blackness is an illusion.
CLAIBORNE: “Person” comes from “persona” which means mask…. I’m not really at war with anything. I don’t really care. I just want to do what I want.
BIGGERS: Black black black quack post-black. The way blackness is scrutinized on a daily basis, it fucks your head up. It’s not about the mask, but what’s behind it. The duality ingrained in society and the various avatars within yourself.
The conversations invite us to explore the experiences and observations behind Biggers’s subversive performance and installation pieces, Mutu’s mythical collage creatures, and Claiborne’s beautiful and wry photographs.
WANGECHI MUTU: My creations are mythical, magical, beyond human.
BIGGERS: As an artist, I find history like a sculptural material – malleable – the meanings reassembled to make new features.
The shorts are the first in what promises to be a vibrant and significant series. Nance and Claiborne, Co-Director, conceived the project together, expanded to include Mutu and Biggers, and will continue to chronicle the work, lives, and practices of some of the freshest visual artists today.
NANCE, BIGGERS, MUTU + CLAIBORNE CHOP SHOP
After the films closed, the wit and humor continued through a Q&A led by Ghanaian journalist and writer Esther Armah. The group of four friends could not stop laughing, even while engaging complex racial and socio-historical theory. They touched upon commonalities in the way they embrace grayness and reject binaries of black and white. They addressed the strong family influences that have pushed them in their work, and the challenges they still face in the art market despite their success. Claiborne said that while artists like Damien Hirst have mastered how to monetize their work, many of those who have been labeled as Black artists are still figuring it out. As the audience geared up for applause, Claiborne winked, “Now everyone should pay me $100 on their way out, meet you in the lobby.”
FILMMAKER SAM KESSIE x RAHIEM OF GRANDMASTER FLASH
As if the three gorgeous films and a brilliant Q&A were not enough, the after-party did not disappoint. The artists and filmmakers stuck around to chat with audience-members, while Eclectic Method projected rap video remixes against the glass entrance. Claiborne kept his camera going the whole night, making live art portraits in front of his signature bright print screen.
YASIIN BEY aka THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS MOS DEF
Celebrity spottings included Mos Def a.k.a. Yasiin Bey, Rahiem of Grandmaster Flash, Ghanaian filmmaker Sam Kessie and Rwandan electropop singer Iyadede aka “That Girl from Africa.”
IYADEDE, SAM KESSIE + ROBIN RISKIN POSE UP
Good thing Brooklyn’s finest photographers were out to capture the fabulous evening. It was one dope night of art, film, and music…and should be just the first of many.
*photos + words by Robin Riskin aka @rriskinitall
AFRO-PUNK PICTURES PRESENTS THE TRIPTYCH
We’re really blown away by this. If you don’t believe in magic after watching these three previews, go see your doctor. Wish we could teleport to the Brooklyn Museum to peep the cinematic action.
If you are in the NYC area on next Thursday, May 24th check out The Triptych. It’s a three-part short documentary film series presented by Afro-Punk Pictures and the Weeksville Heritage Center. The films chronicle the artistic process of three Black visual artists: Kenyan-born Wangechi Mutu, Sanford Biggers and Barron Claiborne (co-creator of the series).
As Afro-Punk puts it, “The first in the series features [three] contemporaries, luminaries and friends. Spanning the artistic gamut from interdisciplinary to photography and performance, their keen reflections on the world are at once startling and insightful.”
Shout out to the homies Terence Nance (Director) and Shawn Peters (Director of Photography) of the film series. Nance and Peters collaborated with Blitz the Ambassador on the Native Sun (2011) film, as well as many of his other music video and film projects. Nance is also directing the documentary on Blitz’s 2011 Homecoming concert in Accra with Les Nubians (co-produced with REDD Kat Pictures). 2012 is a hell of a year for Nance whose debut film An Oversimplification of Her Beauty received rave reviews at Sundance.
For more information, check out www.afropunk.com.
Can’t get enough of #CHALEWOTE2012? Well, feast your eyes on these beauties.
GRAFFITI IN ACTION
GENERIK VAPEUR PRESENTS BIVOUAC
JAMES TOWN ACTOR, GENERIK VAPEUR
GENERIK VAPEUR LUVS THE KIDS
SYNPOP OF FAINTMEDAL PERFORMS LIVE
FAINTMEDAL
GRAFFITI WORKS @ THE KINGS WAY BLDG
CAPOEIRA
@simpol_tinz, THE SANKWAS BOIS
NEW MORNING ART THEATER CAFE
LADY JAY + OGA CHUXX ARE ALL SMILES
THE WINNEBA MASQUERADE PARADE
CIRCUS GHANA
SIDEWALK STREET ART
DJ SanSe (HEAVY WARMUP)
ART BY MUSAH SWALLAH, NMA
WINNEBA STILTWALKER
TEI HUAGIE COLLECTION
BADBOY STELOO, MC
SARI AT THE ANOKYE’S SWORD FILM WORKSHOP TENT
Zohra Opoku, CHALE WOTE 2012 Installation Artist Takes a Ride
James Town is now the official capital of cool after a successful second edition of the CHALE WOTE Street Art Festival. Between the Light House and the old Kings Way building next to Ussher Fort, visitors got an epic street art tour featuring Accra’s most progressive artists collaborating with a host of international participants. What was obvious were the variety of styles of the murals and installations spread across the streets and the definitive new pop art culture on the rise within Accra.
CHALE WOTE 2012 Graffiti Work
ACT for Change's Nii Ayikwei, Ga-Mashie Style
IAN QUHACHI IN THE ZONE
RAAM, LIVE PAINTING MOVEMENT
MUSAH SWALLAH, NIMA MUHINMANCHI ART
WASTE (RE)COVERED EXHIBIT, SUNANDA MESQUITA
Graffiti art lovers got more than their fill watching Kwabena Danso and Takoradi-based Ian Quhachi spray out the Ghana Space Station inside the old Kings Way building which also doubled as the official party lounge with Kobby Graham, Jason Kleatsh (GALT Faculty), BBrave (Akwaaba Music), DJ Kev and SanSe (Heavy Warmup) manning the DUSTLYVE DJ booth. These fellas dug out phenomenal music set after set for the large eclectic audience that turned up for #Chalewote2012.
ANANSE & CO.
KWABENA DANSO, CAPOEIRA
JAMES TOWN SWAG
TEI HUAGIE'S MANNEQUIN COLLECTION
The artist collectives in Accra have a lot to be proud of, as they have now proven the existence of their own counterculture – one that is edgy, vibrant and extremely innovative. Visual artists from the Foundation for Contemporary Art Ghana (FCA) created a vivid maze of painting on huge plywood boards, on the street and sidewalks. The WEB (Young Designers Hub) held a do-it-yourself accessorizing workshop for festival patrons and showed their wares off in the Designer Digs Tent.
BLOGGER VICTORIA OKOYE HOLDING THE KINGS WAY BLDG DOWN
CRYSTAL TETTEY, PERFORMANCE ARTIST
TOKE OLAGBAJU, ACCESSORIES DESIGNER
MAKI PERFORMS INSIDETHEMOSKITONET
NEW MORNING CAFE IN THEATER MODE
ANGEL FROM NEW MORNING CAFE
FLAT LAND BOYS BIKER CREW
For visitors who hadn’t experienced experimental theater, Bibie Brew’s New Morning Café, James Town-based theater troupe ACT for Change and the international dancers of InsidetheMoskitoNet were eye openers for the crowd. Rolla Wondaland, Flat Land Boys Biker Crew, Riclils Acrobatic Troupe and Circus Ghana performed some gravity defying stunts leading up the very spectacular Bivouac procession by the blue men from Generik Vapeur.
GENERIK VAPEUR IN FULL ACTION
LAURENT FROM GENERIK VAPEUR
The world-traveled street art company from Marseille, France, Generik Vapeur, rocked James Town like never before. Hundreds of people crowded around the blue men as they banged out boogies on oil barrels along High Street and made their way to Mantse Agbonaa for a spectacular finish. Even the traffic stopped to see what the blue men – including 12 volunteers from Alliance Francaise and James Town – would do next.
THE WINNEBA MASQUERADE PARADE
STILTWALKER IN THE SKY
The Winneba Masquerade Parade was also an undeniable attention grabber with 36 members – brass band, colorfully bejeweled dancers and stiltwalkers – hightailing it up and down High Street and throughout Mantse Agbonaa for throngs of excited onlookers. The masquerade even included an awesome azonto breakdown that really got the audience moving on their feet.
The festival ended on a high note with a live music concert in Mantse Agbonaa featuring the latest and greatest artists on the indie scene in Accra. James Town champs Bukom Dancehall, Powers and King Jay held it down for their homefolk. Jojo Abot captivated the people with her jazzy, AfroBeat sonic flow. XFM’s Badboy Steloo + Yaw P performed their Ga + Twi electronica mashups. The SANKWAS Bois teased and toyed the audience with their witty pidgen lyricism. Nigierien band – Juberu and – brought some serious bass funk to the party that had the crowd jumping and shaking about. FaintMedal, the pidgen rock + rap collective, turned the CHALE WOTE live music party out with hard-hitting melodies, spitfire delivery and psychadelic guitars.
MZ. JOJO ABOT KEEPS IT FUNKY FOR THE PEOPLE
If there is any indication that Accra is on the rise, it is partly because of the dedicated work of those who organized CHALE WOTE 2012. The festival was powered by ACCRA [dot] ALT, a cultural network that promotes alternative music and art events, with a host of collaborators throughout the city. These partners include The French Embassy, Institut Français, Alliance Française, the Millennium Cities Initiative, DUST Magazine, the Foundation for Contemporary Art Ghana, Dr. Monk, Indomie, the U.S. Embassy, Lincoln Community School, Trashy Bags, NandiMobile, Pidgen Music, JustGhana, Attukwei Art Foundation, Studio Kurtcyz, among others.
ZOHRA OPOKU CHECKS HER INSTALLATION
For more information on CHALE WOTE 2013, stay tuned to this blog!
CHALE WOTE 2012
COME ONE, COME ALL!
Shout-out to the brilliant Victoria Okoye aka @vickivictoriao + blogger of African Urbanism who created this dandy map for the CHALE WOTE Street Art Festival on Saturday, April 14th 10:00 am – 11:00 pm.
We have tons of out-there activities happening day + night to tickle your fancies. Click on the purple UFOs to find out what’s happening at CHALE WOTE. The festival is free so come out with your peoples.
ABROKWAH, FLAT LAND BOYS BIKER CREW (CHALE WOTE 2011)
Welcome to the Ghana Space Station. Your pilot on this sonic mission is Jason Kleatsh of @GALTFaculty. Dropping jewels as always, bump your eardrums to his latest teaser, Mix3.
If you’re really feeling this mix, we expect to see some serious buttorse action on Saturday, April 14th when Mr. Kleatsh teams up with The Winneba Masquerade to kick off the CHALE WOTE Block Party at Mantse Agbonaa.
Listen + download Mix3 below:
