Sean Jacobs's Blog, page 664
March 30, 2011
'We should have left it in North Africa in the first place'
This conversation on CNN (about an escaped Egyptian cobra at the Bronx Zoo) strikes me as a particularly apt allegory of the United States' relationship to the revolutions throughout Africa and Asia.–Sophia Azeb.
March 29, 2011
Lagos Dance
[The video for Nigerian singer Siji's tune "Ijo"] showcases an open audition held for dancers drawn from the bustling metropolis. It features cameo appearances from a colorful cast of characters including Afrobeat Singer, Ade Bantu, the delightful songstress, Yinka Davis, radio impresario Tintin 'The Koolness' as well as a royal prince …
Via NaijaBlog.
March 26, 2011
The Zim Alliance
"The Zimbabwe Alliance is a funder/advocate partnership to promote a vibrant civil society and a successful democratic transformation in Zimbabwe. The alliance is non partisan and does not accept corporate funds." Nothing here we are not in support of, so we figured we'd share this promotional video for the Zimbabwe Alliance, recorded by Nomadic Wax's Magee McIlvaine.
March 25, 2011
Music Break
I love this track, "It Would Be," by Cape Town musician Alleycat (government name: Elslin Grootboom) featuring T100. It's Cape Town: the Jamaican riddim, transplanted patois, and the stripped-down video. (Artists in Cape Town rarely do bling unlike their Johannesburg counterpunts.) I also recognize the milieu: The music video was filmed in and around an area, Elsies River on the Cape Flats, where I spent most of my school holidays as a teen a long time ago. (My cousins still live there.) Things haven't changed much for the city's poor. As for Alleycat, he's been rapping since the mid-1980s. In an email, he describes his lyrics as "stirred by emotion – happiness, social welfare, love, fears, amusement, failures and achievements." Bring that emotion.
"What do African leaders have in common?"
Seun Kuti has a new album coming out next month: "From Africa With Fury: Rise." He also has time to talk politics, including why we're not seeing Egypt-style revolutions in Sub-Saharan African countries and what he thinks about African political leaders.
"Sub-Sahara Africa is very divided … We don't have unifying culture. In the north we have Islam and it's unified by that. I so want to see my brothers with the voice to speak together in every part of Africa … "Everything is against the common man in Africa … No one cares what happens to you. Everyone has to toe the line. Nothing is cheap in Africa, though we are the poorest. Everything is imported, costs too much, so this is about the young man in Africa, fury, being an African, a young man with everything against you. That's why I wrote the song 'Rise.' People want to change things for themselves. 'Rise,' for me, is the [center] of the album, where I'm speaking my mind the most: How I wanted to think about Africa, how our rulers treat us, how we should see ourselves, what we want for our children … What do African leaders have in common?" "They talk a lot of s—.
Ouch.
March 24, 2011
Video: Homosexuality is African
The 46-minute video of the recent BBC World "Debate" with the unfortunate title: "Is Homosexuality Un-African?" It is as African as sadza, ugali, nsima, asaro and pap, of course.
The show was recorded in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Via My Big Debate.
The Video: 'Is Homosexuality Un-African?'
The 46 minute video of the recent BBC World Debate with the unfortunate title "Is Homosexuality Un-African?" (it is not) recorded in Johannesburg, South Africa, is finally online.
Via My Big Debate.
Music Break
Remember the Belgian-Congolese project Héritage? It took them a while to record a video for one of the featuring songs. The two singers on this track are Stefy Rika and Nina Miskina. You'll recognize the infamous Africa Museum's diorama in the first part. It gets interesting halfway through.
'A Roaming African Biennial'
Friday, March 25, 7 p.m and Saturday, March 26,
Gabi Ngcobo's Proposition imagines a pan-African biennial of contemporary art based on two models: Manifesta,the roaming European biennial of contemporary art; and the Africa Cup of Nations, a nomadic biannual soccer tournament. How do we reframe questions around biennials to consider the geographical scope of this continent alongside logistical challenges, linguistic and cultural divides, and uneven economic realities?
On March 26 at 2 p.m. Binyavanga Wainaina, Director of the Chinua Achebe Center for African Artists and Writers at Bard College, NY joins Ngcobo to speak about his experiences based on Pilgrimages, a project by the Achebe Center, in which fourteen prominent writers were sent on a guided pilgrimage to thirteen cities in Africa (and Salvador do Bahia, Brazil) during the 2010 FIFA World Cup held in South Africa.
Gabi Ngcobo is an independent curator based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her curatorial projects include "Second to None" at Iziko South African National Gallery, "Olvida quen soy/ Erase me from who I am" at CAAM, Canary Islands, Las Palmas 2006, "Titled/Untitled," a curatorial collaboration with Cape Town based collective Gugulective and "Scratching the Surface Vol. 1," a manje-manje projects initiative at the AVA Gallery, Cape Town. In 2010 she co-curated "rope-a-dope: to win a losing war" at Cabinet, New York, "Second Coming, a curatorial collaboration" at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College. She recently co-founded the Center for Historical Reenactments, an independent platform based in Johannesburg, and curated "PASS-AGES: references & footnotes" at the old Pass Office, Johannesburg as well as an ongoing research project titled Xenoglossia. She is a graduate of the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College.
Propositions is a public forum that explores ideas in development. Each two-day seminar introduces a topic of current investigation in an invited speaker's own artistic or intellectual practice. Over the course of a seminar session, these developing ideas are responded to, researched, and discussed to propel them forward in unique ways. This month's Proposition is by Gabi Ngcobo.
The structure of Propositions is as follows:
Friday, 7:00 PM – Initial proposition and lecture
Saturday, 2:00 PM – Guest speaker responds, followed by discussion with audience
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