Seun Kuti says that too much modern music infantilizes audiences, focusing on superficial ideas rather than higher consciousness.
A student asks whether Seun Kuti feels artists can be separated from their art. He doesn’t believe you can.
Professor Sam Anderson asks about @felakuti’s legacy. “Nowadays it’s mainstream to be Woke”, even artists who formerly weren’t socially conscious.
“Where Fela engaged with the people was in the class struggle. He was very class conscious.” @RealSeunKuti at @NYUAbuDhabi
“True activist and political giant” is the real legacy of @felakuti says @RealSeunKuti. It’s not just about his larger than life “rock star” lifestyle of the 70s.
Nobody “invented” Afrobeat. Everything already exists. We just don’t understand it until someone decodes it. Invention is a capitalist narrative. - @RealSeunKuti
Seun Kuti introduces Frantz Fanon and negritude and #blackexcellence into the conversation, but argues that it can be irresponsible. Responsibility to one’s people is key.
Seun Kuti’s conversation ranges from the creation of Nigeria by Europeans to imperialism to tactics of division and isolation, to structural and systemic racism.
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Poet @thedesertpearl Danabelle Gutierrez visits @SabynJaveri’s @NYUAbuDhabi class Real and Imagined: Women’s Writing Across Worlds and discussed her transition from writing novels to poetry.
She also talks about the ongoing conundrum: where is home? She grew up in 3-4 different countries. She started her time as a poetry focusing on Love Poetry. She admits that it was in part a shield to protect herself from being self-revealing.
Discussion of @RebeccaSolnit and the way that female poets often get classified as “confessional”. “Even if I wasn’t revealing elements of myself in my poetry, people were still interpreting it as “confessional.”
If you want to preserve your country and your culture, you must protect your language.
Dubai based Egyptian chanter @ZigZagGhanim visits Maya Kesrouany’s @nyuabudhabi Arabic literature class in advance of his performance at #Hekayah tonight.
Language is sacred, but not just because it’s the language of religion, but also because of the role it plays in human identity. Language is a living being.
When languages encounter other languages, they change and morph. @ZigZagGhanim’s music mixes classical language and modern forms (like house music) - question: is that encounter “fusion”?
Starting the first @NYUAbuDhabi class visit by @RaviColtrane to two classes combined. Music Technology Fundamentals and What is Music?
Ravi answers the first question.
Music is organized sound.
He goes on to talk about his parents @JohnColtrane and Alice Coltrane. They were pioneers in building a home studio in their house when he was a child. John passed away before he could use it, but Alice used it frequently.
He launches quickly into a discussion of sound, and the role that microphone choice profoundly influences his sound. He built his own recording studio in 1999, built around a Tascam early 24 track unit - tape and hard disc based. It changed everything. Then Pro-tools etc entered
In the wake of @NYUAbuDhabi Climate commitment yesterday, listening to the conversation on Creative Placemaking and the tension between cultural tourism vs serving local community via @GCDNet’a Adrian Ellis. Gonna listen to @AlserkalAvenue’s Vilma next
Interesting conversations about what qualifies as quality of live and how the pandemic reshaped behaviors, needs, and wants, patterns of development and redevelopment. And what we need from our art.
As the conversations goes on, focus on values-based work in terms of behavior, and accountability, but also imagination, storytelling, expression and civic responsibility
This morning, @candocodance Artistic Director Charlotte Darbyshire talks to Lee Singh’s Movement and Meaning class in the @NYUAbuDhabi 1st Year Writing Program. Starts with a brief history of the company and how their decision making process functions.
They started with collective leadership. Eventually funding channels led them to more singular leadership. Post-pandemic they are again thinking about collective leadership, and majority led by people with disabilities.
Discussion about creative restrictions. Charlotte reflects that their limitations are primarily financial. The big curatorial consideration is balancing well-known choreographer/ reputation with riskier, lesser known choreographer