revolutionary noise: music as struggle and healing

Saturday, February 25, 2017 6:00 pm-9:00 pm

[ Institute of Contemporary Art - 118 South 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 ]

Click [here] to RSVP

Leeway Foundation, Girls Rock Philly, and the Institute of Contemporary Art present revolutionary noise: music as struggle and healing, the latest in ICA’s Gather series, which presents special programs collaboratively produced in partnership with area community and campus groups. Join us on Saturday, February 25 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm for an evening of performances and conversation about music as space, community building and survival for both artist and audience. 

The programs will feature three local Philadelphia artists- dj precolumbian (Chaska Sofia [LTA '13, ACG '16, '11]), Moor Mother (Camae Ayewa [LTA '15, ACG '07]) and LaTreice Branson (LTA '16), all of whom are renowned not only for their individual cultural contributions and sound, but also for their innovative collaborative work.

As cultural creators, musicians are offered limited opportunities to discuss their process, their needs, their visions, their analysis, and the intentionality in their work and collaborations. revolutionary noise seeks to disrupt the conventional ways in which we most often interact with and experience music and musicians.

About the Artists

Camae Ayewa is an interdisciplinary artist based in Philadelphia.  A musician performing under the name Moor Mother Goddess, she has toured in Europe and the U.S. and has performed at numerous festivals, colleges, and universities sharing the stage with King Britt, Islam Chipsy, and Claudia Rankine.  A soundscape artist with work featured at Samek Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art Chicago, and Everson Museum of Art, Camae is also a singer in punk band The Mighty Paradocs. Camae is co-founder and organizer of Rockers! Philly, a 10-year long running event series and festival focused on marginalized artists. As a workshop facilitator, she works with youth centered programs, non profits, and shelters. As a curator of fundraising events, Camae has worked with and serves on the board of Girls Rock Philly, and is assistant coordinator of The Afrofuturist Affair, Philadelphia's premiere afrofuturism organization. Camae is also a poet and author of the forthcoming poetry book Fetish Bones and is an avid zinemaker and collector. She is a member of Black Quantum Futurism Collective, which released its first book, Black Quantum Futurism theory and practice Vol. 1. and has been featured at the Schomburg Center, as well as presented installations at the Rebuild Foundation and Temple Contemporary at Tyler School of Art.

Chaska Sofia, also known as dj precolumbian, seeks to expand the cultural position of the DJ—not just playing records and throwing parties—but using the dance floor as a tool for community building and transcending borders. Through her work she re-contextualizes popular culture through an anti-oppression lens to create spaces for collective healing through movement and sound. For more than five years she has spun a mixture of tropical bass, future cumbia, ballroom beats, homo hop, and remixed pop music at house parties, clubs across the country, and produced her own dance parties. Chaska has also broadcast a long-running show on WPEB 88.1 called Radio Estregeno, put out mixtapes, and facilitated art education for youth and adults fusing DJ technique with political analysis to help usher in a new generation of conscious DJs. As a cultural producer, Chaska aims to create spaces that are safe for womyn, queer, trans folks, and “other self-defined weirdos” to celebrate their bodies and genders without the fear of harassment.

LaTreice V. Branson, MFA, GISFA is an educator, musician and motivational speaker based in Philadelphia. Having served as faculty at The Ohio State University and Columbus State Community College, and as tenure-track faculty at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, she has taught several disciplines, including visual art, graphic design, internet literacy, communication arts, and public relations. Surviving graciously with bipolar disorder and clinical depression, LaTreice has chosen to use her gifts and talents to impact her (own) community through wellness workshops that share the restorative power of drumming. Her Drum4L.I.F.E. Program is now serving PEEA (Project Elijah Empowering Autism), The New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and St. James School. LaTreice is also the founder of Drum Like a Lady, a collective of female drummers committed to enriching the community through interactive drum performances and gatherings that feature impromptu, audience collaborations. Her free and publicly-accessible drumming events uplift gender-inclusivity and live collaboration. Her mission is to provide a safe space for women of all ages, ethnic backgrounds, religious beliefs and lifestyles to express their uniqueness through collective drumming, music education, and mental health advocacy.

diane foglizzo (moderator) is currently the program director at Girls Rock Philly but has her rock camp roots at Girls Rock! DC, which she helped found in 2007. She grew up near Philly, but most of her early political formation happened in Washington, DC where she lived for 9 years. She has worked as a union organizer, farmhand, bike messenger and an organizer working to pass federal legislation expanding access to community radio. She plays in bands called Trophy Wife and Shroud. She spends time thinking about sound, gender, whiteness, language, embodiment, healing, and prison abolition. She loves singing with people and makes a zine called "When we sing together, we stay together," which documents political movement songs. 

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