Sonic Interventions
Intervening Arts - Freie Universität Berlin
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Podcasting Oral history in the Kitchen
Sonic Interventions
07/19/24 • 33 min
In the last episode of this season, Adriana Raczykowski is in conversation with Polish artist and curator Patrycja Rozwora, who founded the Kitchen Conversations Podcast. Patrycja talks about her podcast practice and Eastern European and Central Asian narration in the arts.
In conversation with
Patrycja Rozwora
Patrycja Rozwora (she/her) is a Warsovian artist, author, curator and podcaster based in Berlin. With her background in Conceptual Art and Critical Studies, Patrycja is interested in curatorial and accommodating practices, investigating narratives about Eastern Europe, Central Asia, specifically the post-socialist sphere. She studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. Her graduation project of the Kitchen Conversation Podcast has led her to become the host of a continuous platform of over 50 episodes featuring voices of artists and creatives, who speak about their urgency to create from an eastern positionality. Through her multifaceted work, she has collaborated with various institutions, such as the Tate Modern, William Morris Gallery, the Polish Cultural Institute London, Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, Berlinale, or the GoEast Film Festival.
Credits
Sounds Soundsample – Snippet from the Kitchen Conversations Podcast, Episode 18 “Grandma’s Tales ep. 3”, by Patrycja Rozwora, published Monday Sep 13, 2021.
Visuals Portrait Visual by Jonas Kröper
Podcast Info Curation and host for this episode Adriana Raczykowski, Student Assistant, Leuphana University Lüneburg Podcast Founder Dr. Layla Zami, Postdoctoral Researcher in Performance Studies, FU Berlin Producer Freie Universität Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Intervening Arts (SFB 1512 Intervenierende Künste, TP B05) Funded by German Research Society (DFG) In Cooperation with FU Berlin, Institut für Theaterwissenschaft Eufoniker Audioproduktion
From Private to Public: Entering the Polish Drag Scene (in Polish)
Sonic Interventions
06/14/24 • 25 min
In this episode in Polish language, Adriana Raczykowski is in conversation with Lulla La Polaca, who is widely recognised as the oldest Drag Queen of Poland. She traces back her roots as a performer in times of PPR, and talks about musical inspirations, the importance of friendship and community, and her hopes and wishes for younger generations of drag artists in Poland today.
In conversation with
Andrzej Szwan
Andrzej Szwan was born in 1938 into a Jewish family in Warsaw, where he survived the Warsaw Ghetto and the Uprising in 1944. As a witness of these times, Andrzej often speaks about his experiences as a child in Second World War Warsaw and is an advocate of collective memory and commemoration. Andrzej always dreamed of studying theater, which he was not able to pursue professionally at the time. In the period of the Polish People’s Republic, Andrzej performed in crossdress in private spaces around friends and community where the persona Lulla was born, inspired by Polish pop cultural icons, such as Hanna Banaszak or Irena Santor. After the fall of the Iron curtain, the term “Drag” started to appear in Poland - something associated generally with the opening towards “the West” and its cultural legacies. A key figure in that history (among various others) is the artist and activist Kim Lee. Lulla and Kim befriend each other in 2008 and it is Kim that brings Lulla to the Drag stage in 2012. In recent years media attention has risen intensively around Lulla and her performance, and this is how today she is widely known as the oldest Drag Queen of Poland and considered an icon of pop culture, who speaks openly against repression and violence against the LGBTQIA+ Community. Lulla has been the main character of the documentary “Boylesque” (2022) by director Bogna Kowalczyk and has recently also published a book about her life, “Lulla La Polaca”, authored by Wiktor Krajewski.
References
Kim Lee – is a prominent figure in the Polish Drag scene, who is often attributed to be the Warsovian Queen of Drag. The Vietnamese-Polish artist & activist, born Andy Nguyen, played an integral role for the Warsaw Drag community as well as the Vietnamese diaspora. She passed away in 2020 in relation to COVID-19. In 2023 the Wola Museum (part of the Museum of Warsaw) presented an exhibition in memory of her legacy and artistry.
Hanna Banaszak – born 1957 in Poznań, is a Polish singer and songwriter. In 2014 she was awarded with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. Among her most famous songs are “Modlitwa” or “Pogoda ducha”.
Irena Santor – was born 1936 in the village of Papowo Biskupie, Poland. She performed as a singer and also starred as an actor in several movies and TV shows. Her Career started in 1950 as a member of the folk group Mazowsze and transitioned to perform as a soloist from 1959 on. She received numerous awards from Poland and internationally. In 2021 she decided to end her career.
Credits
Visuals Episode cover and portrait of Lulla La Polaca by Marek Ziemakiewicz
Podcast Info Curation and host for this episode Adriana Raczykowski, Student Assistant, Leuphana University Lüneburg Podcast Founder Dr. Layla Zami, Postdoctoral Researcher in Performance Studies, FU Berlin Producer Freie Universität Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Intervening Arts (SFB 1512 Intervenierende Künste, TP B05) Funded by German Research Society (DFG) In Cooperation with FU Berlin, Institut für Theaterwissenschaft Eufoniker Audioproduktion
From Ethnographic Colonialism to Sound Collages
Sonic Interventions
03/15/24 • 29 min
This conversation with Zara Julius concludes the third season of Sonic Interventions on South African Sound Art. Zara Julius shares about her debut solo exhibition “Whatever You Throw At The Sea” at the Weltmuseum in Vienna critically reflecting about postcolonial structures in museums and archives. She speaks about her editorial work, her research, and her artistic practice.
In Conversation with
Zara Julius
Zara Julius (1992) is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher and cultural worker based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is also the founder of Pan-African creative research and cultural storytelling agency, KONJO. Working with sound, video, performance and image-based installation, her practice involves the collection, selection, collage and creation of archives (real, imagined and embodied) through extensive research projects. Informed by her working methodology of ‘rapture’, Zara Julius is especially engaged in thinking through the internal workings of the Black sonic, and how they might help us imagine new futures, and experience different present(s) in the face of various unfreedoms, as well as thinking through the carceral logics of intimate and museological archiving practices. Many of Zara’s projects have focused on mapping the sonic and spiritual mobilities of spiritual rapture and rupture with congregants of syncretic traditions, and on (post)apartheid / (post)colonial narratives around race, place and time as. Zara holds a BAHons in social anthropology from the University of Cape Town (2014) and a MAFA in Fine Art by Research and Practice from the University of the Witwatersrand (2021). Zara has exhibited her work across South Africa and internationally. As a vinyl selector, Zara’s sets reflect her desire to travel land, seas and time. She is currently in residence at the Oscillations project, a cooperation between the Akademie der Künste (Germany) and the Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape (South Africa). Website Instagram Whatever You Throw at the Sea Exhibition at Weltmuseum Wien (27 April 2023 – 2 April 2024) Oscillations (Cape Town – Berlin) Exhibition on view in Berlin (27 April 2024 - 19 May 2024
References
- Liner Notes for Whatever You Throw at the Sea
- Fred Moten (USA, poet and scholar) and Stefano Harvey (USA, scholar and activist) Harvey, Stefano & Moten, Fred (2013): The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study. Williamsburg: Autonomedia.
- Dionne Brand (Canada, poet, essayist, and novelist) Quote excerpted from "A Nomenclature of Everything" Brand, Dionne (2022): A Nomenclature of Everything. New and Collected Poems. Durham: Duke University Press.
- Edouard Glissant (Martinique, cultural theorist, novelist, and poet)
- Kamau Brathwaite (Barbados, poet and historian) "Tidalectics" as defined by K. Brathwaite proposes an opposition to the Western philosophical concept of "dialectics" in the context of Caribbean Poetry. Cf Brathwaite, Kamau (1999): conVERSations with Nathaniel Mackey. New York: We Press.)
- Vuyiswa Xekatwane, also known as Gogo Mahlodi (writer, healer, and diviner based in Johannesburg)
- Tina Campt (USA, scholar) Frequencies of Care Project Credits Sounds Whatever You Throw at The Sea Vinyl by Zara Julius With additional field recordings provided by the Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Participants: Tabea Briggs, Emily Joost Chychy, Faris Cuchi Gezahegn, Louis Deininger, Ava Binta Diallo, Masimba Hwati, Katia Ledoux, Vuyiswa Xekatwane Visuals Podcast Cover: Vinyl Cover, Whatever You Throw At The Sea, Photo courtesy of Zara Julius
Podcast Info Concept Dr. Layla Zami, Postdoctoral Researcher in Performance Studies Producer Freie Universität Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Intervening Arts (SFB 1512 Intervenierende Künste, TP B05) Funded by German Research Society (DFG) In Cooperation with FU Berlin, Institut für Theaterwissenschaft Eufoniker Audioproduktion
Song and Gender in Zulu Cultures
Sonic Interventions
03/01/24 • 32 min
In this episode recorded at the University of Pretoria, Prof. Nompumelelo Zondi, gives insights into her book on women’s song in rural Zulu culture. She presents an understanding of song as a medium of resistance and resilience, and uses her own voice to share examples.
In conversation with
Nompumelelo Zondi
Nompumelelo Zondi, also known as “Mpume”, is a Vice-Dean of Research and Postgraduate Studies in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of the Free State in South Africa. Prior appointments include: University of Pretoria (Professor and Chairwoman in the Department of African Languages), State University of New York at Albany, and University of Zululand (Associate Professor). Her research engages with gender, performance, literary traditions, and folklore in Zulu and Shona cultures. As an activist, she advocates for women’s and children’s rights such as gender-based inequalities and has published several articles and papers in local and internationally acclaimed journals. In 2007, Zondi obtained her PhD from the University of KawZulu-Natal which she dedicated to the women of the rural community of Zwelibomvu, near Pinetown. In her monograph “Bahlabelelelani – Why Do They Sing? Gender and Power in Contemporary Women’s Songs” (2023), she reflects on the content and purposes of song as a means to empower women in Zulu society. University of Pretoria Book Bahlabelelelani – Why Do They Sing? (2023): Routledge University of KwaZulu-Natal Press
References Umemulo - Traditional Zulu coming-of-age ceremony for women (usually done at the age of 21). The rituals includes the traditional Zulu dance Ukusina, which involves a spear, and guests gifting the young female with money and other blessings.
Credits Sounds Singing during the interview by Prof. Zondi Senzeni Na – University of Pretoria students, conducted by Dr. Michael Barrett (video here) Visuals Cover and Portrait: Nompumelelo Zondi, Photo by Layla Zami
Podcast Info Concept Dr. Layla Zami, Postdoctoral Researcher in Performance Studies Producer Freie Universität Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Intervening Arts (SFB 1512 Intervenierende Künste, TP B05) Funded by German Research Society (DFG) In Cooperation with FU Berlin, Institut für Theaterwissenschaft Eufoniker Audioproduktion
Stimmbezirke (in German)
Sonic Interventions
03/15/23 • 35 min
In this episode in German language, musician Natalia Kiës and photographer Elias Wessel discuss the project “It’s Complicated - Ist möglicherweise Kunst". The conversation facilitated by Dr. Layla Zami addresses information overflow, photography as painting, and the possibility for sound art to intervene into social media algorithms.
In Conversation With
Natalia Kiës
Natalia Kiës has been always communicative, her main language is music: While her contemporaries mauled their flutes, melodica and glockenspiel to create some sound, five-year-old Natalia sat in front of the piano at home to practice classical music with childish enthusiasm. This idyll was cut off after the collapse of the Iron Curtain, as her family moved from Upper Silesia to Germany and Natalia was forced to leave her beloved piano behind. At first she was forced to take a break from her passion for music, but the urge to dedicate her life to music only grew. She studied classical piano at Folkwang University of the Arts Essen followed by Jazz/Pop vocals at ArtEZ University of the Arts Arnhem. She also completed a second degree in psychology at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf on the influence of music and stress on cognitive performance. In New York, she completed master classes with Gretchen Parlato, Kurt Elling, Shai Maestro and Taylor Eigsti. With Percussionist and Grammy Award-Winner Keita Ogawa, Moto Fukushima on bass and Manu Schlindwein as producer, JazzSick Records released her latest Album “Phœnix” in February 2023.
Website Spotify Youtube Instagram @nataliakiesmusic
Elias Wessel
Elias Wessel was born in Bonn, Germany and is based in New York City since 2008. In an age of fast-changing technologies, offering numerous ways of generating images, he challenges the conventional definition of painting: Wessel creates his “paintings” without resorting to traditional painting techniques and eschews classical genres. The artist’s abstract works—which in many ways show connections to painterly practices—are in fact made up of photographs and digital material. Over the past several years, his practice has been increasingly focused on investigating the effects of digitization and the digital tools themselves. Above all, the quality of Elias Wessel’s working method lies in the way he links fundamental discourses in the history of photography with latest technologies and current sociopolitical issues.
Website Intermedial Digital Experience "Sprung in die Zeit / Leap Into Time"
References
Current Exhibition in Berlin “Elias Wessel: Delirious Images - Fotografien für die nächste Gesellschaft” March 4–May 7, 2023 Kunstsammlung im Willy-Brandt-Haus, Berlin
Exhibition Film “Elias Wessel—It’s Complicated, Is Possibly Art” by Edna Luise Biesold September 7–23, 2022 1014 New York Curated by Alina Girshovich. With an audiowork by Natalia Kiës.
Latest Books “Elias Wessel: Ästhetik des Konflikts” [Aesthetics of Conflict] Verlag Kettler, Dortmund (2023)
“Textfetzen. It’s Complicated: Texte aus einem a/sozialen Netzwerk 2019–2021. Ist möglicherweise Kunst.” Kulturverlag Kadmos, Berlin (2022)
Expressions NFT Short for "non-fungible token", refers to an informatic technology that can certify the ownership of a digital asset. Over the last decade the uprising of NFT allowed digital assets (esp. crypto currency and digital art) to become an object of financial speculation.
The Black Square (Malevich) A painting created by Kazimir Malevich in 1915. The painting "only" depicts a black square, which is often referred to as a critical approach to and revolutionary moment in art history.
Credits
Sounds “Crystalline”, (Natalia Kiës, Single from the new Album Phœnix, 2022) It’s Complicated – No. 6: Ist möglicherweise Kunst (Elias Wessel, Audio 2:09 min, 2021) Systems at Play (Natalia Kiës, Audio composition made from Ist möglicherweise Kunst 3:04 min, 2022)
Visuals Exhibition view of “Elias Wessel — It's Complicated, Is Possibly Art,” September 7–23, 2022 at 1014 New York. The audio installation is simultaneously playing all audio works from the series “Ist möglicherweise Ku...
Music as Retroactive Reparations
Sonic Interventions
03/01/23 • 31 min
This episode presents BRICKS (A 20-YEAR MUSIC TOUR OF REPARATIONS), and features playwright Charlene Jean, performer Mercy Kelly, and host Dr. Layla Zami. A conversation about decolonial spirituality, matriarchs, gentrification, Black time, and queer performance strategies, enriched with lively audio samples from the performance.
In conversation with
Charlene Jean
Charlene Jean is an experimental theatrical artist, performer, playwright, and producer. She is a playwright of BRICKS (A 20-YEAR MUSIC TOUR OF REPARATIONS. BRICKS is an always-changing script-template detailing the history-repeating shared injustice of "buried" towns, considers the spiritual / land-memory implication of gentrification, and reimagines the biblical story of Jericho as a communal work-strike to alleviate the shared suffering particularly of our Black ancestors and our Unhoused.
With this production, she is an awardee of the MAP Grant Fund in 2022/2023, a 2023/2024 Creative Capital WILD FUTURES finalist, 2023 Jonathan Larson Grant finalist, and a semi-finalist of 2022-2024 National Black Theatre Playwriting. Her works, which also include KING AFUA and SHIT IN THE BLOOD: A BIOMYTHOGRAPHY OF RECIPES, have been presented at Weeksville Heritage Center, Harlem Film House, Mother New York, International Society of Curational Programming, and JACK Arts Radical Acts Festival. Next, Charlene will act as dramaturg for UGBA (Ungrateful Black Artist)’s show, Dark Skin Support Group, through the Public Theatre’s Emerging Writer’s Group. She will also enjoy a Musical Theatre lab at Manhattan School of Music, a Movement Research lab at Judson Memorial Church, a New Works series at the Brick Theatre, and a Hi-Arts CRITICAL BREAKS Residency, culminating in a live cast album recording of BRICKS, in which she will also perform.
Vimeo Instagram @psalmsofchar Twitter @psalmsofchar Instagram @bricksthemusical Video (BRICKS Work Sample) recorded at the Weeksville Heritage Center in Brooklyn, NY
Mercy Kelly
Mercy Kelly is a Brooklyn-based Black trans visual artist, model, performer, and advocate who isn’t here to be your teachable moment. In BRICKS, Mercy Kelly plays Cassandra, the Matriarch.Mercy’s work focuses on the beauty of fat, femme body performance as liberation. Mercy is passionate about expanding narratives and understandings of what it means to be trans, moving towards re-idealizing the notion of what it means to have a body. Mercy is interested in the ways we map desire, paying particular attention to how hue, color, size, and shape form our deepest longings. Instagram @fatasskellypryce Twitter @fatasskellyripa Expressions projects US-American term referring to subsidized public housing built by the government, usually high-rise towers.
40 acres and a mule A reference to the lack of reparations for African-American people until this day. The expression is derived from the short-lived historical order by Tecumseh Sherman to provide “40 acres and a mule” as a reparation to Black families in 1865. more information
J’ouvert From the Creole expression "jou ouvè", meaning opening day, designates the first day of Carnival celebrations in parts of the Caribbean. Referring here to the New York Carnival Parade initiated by Caribbean Communities, and celebrated annually in September as an empowerment festival for Black Communities in Brooklyn. more information A special note from Charlene Jean on citations in the episode
“How have we collectively chosen capitalism over community” is a question presented by Dayna Lynn Nuckolls/@PeoplesOracle, sidereal astrologer and mentor/Big Sis.
The “urgency...” quote is indeed by Toni Morrison.
Credits Sounds Excerpts from the performance BRICKS (Field recordings by Layla Zami, Weeksville Heritage Center, September 2022) Project Director and Playwright: Charlene Jean Music Director: Franklin Rankin Musicians: Miles Wilkins (Piano), Franklin Rankin (guitar), Immanuel Williams (bass), Ahmad T. Johnson (drums) Cast: Mercy Kelly, Claudia Logan, Ava McCoy, Jarvis Matthews, Tatianna Mott, Jahmar Ortiz, Sunny Selah, Subiya Mboya, Courtney Bryan Devon, Tweet Photos Mercy Kelly, Screenshot from the BRICKS performance video Charlene Jean, Portrait ...
Sounds of Rest
Sonic Interventions
02/15/23 • 32 min
Recorded on the historical site of the Weeksville Heritage Center, this episode welcomes Najee_ (interdisciplinary artist and yogi) and Erica Harper (VP of Learning and Engagement at WHC). The conversation with Dr. Layla Zami addresses restful practices and restorative sounds, African-American liberation history and the meaning of community. An episode full of emotions and information!
In conversation with
Najee Wilson
Najee (1987.Charleston South Carolina, USA) is a Multidisciplinary Artist ,Certified Yoga Instructor and Sound Practitioner based in Brooklyn New York, whose insights are rooted in Ashtanga, Rocket, and Iyengar philosophy. Najee_ is inspired to help others thrive in life by nurturing body, mind, and soul with yoga, hoping that you step off the mat feeling invigorated, nourished, and balanced. Najee_ specializes in experimental improvisation in soundscapes and arrangements that imbue the power of sound to facilitate transformative healing experiences . Often utilizing various percussion techniques and a range of vibratory instruments to free the mind and body from stress and create moments of inner peace and balance. Asé. Website Instagram @najeewilson_ Spotify Youtube @najeewilson Flow page
Erica Harper (Weeksville Heritage Center)
Erica Harper is Vice President of Learning & Engagement at the Weeksville Heritage Center. WHC is a historic site and cultural center in Central Brooklyn that uses education, arts and a social justice lens to preserve, document and inspire engagement with the history of Weeksville, one of the largest free Black communities in pre-Civil War America, and the Historic Hunterfly Road Houses. The Center celebrates and centers Black culture, community and creativity; and sparks dialogue and collaborations between local residents, artists, academics and activists that advance us towards a more just and equitable world. Programs include exhibitions, performances and other offerings such as Najee's weekly Rest & Restore session with yoga and sound. Website: Weeksville Heritage Center Instagram @weeksvilleheritagecenter Facebook @weeksville
Credits Sounds Cocoon (Prelude) live and recorded by Najee_ Field recordings by Layla Zami Photos Najee Wilson at Weeksville Heritage Center, Photo by Layla Zami Najee Wilson, Study for Dynamic Peace (Self Portrait 16), 2020 Erica Harper Weeksville Heritage Center Podcast Info Concept Dr. Layla Zami, Postdoctoral Researcher in Performance Studies Producer Freie Universität Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Intervening Arts (SFB 1512 Intervenierende Künste, TP B05) Funded by German Research Society (DFG) In Cooperation with FU Berlin, Institut für Theaterwissenschaft Eufoniker Audioproduktion
Centering Eastern Peripheries
Sonic Interventions
06/28/24 • 31 min
Mala Herba and dogheadsurigeri from the Oramics collective meet with Adriana Raczykowski to talk about the politics of the dance floor and sonic spaces curation. Guided by the motto “Your periphery is our center”, they address Western hegemony in contemporary electronic subcultures.
In conversation with
Paulina Trzeciak (dogheadsurigeri)
Paulina Trzeciak (she/her) is a Polish DJ based in London. Under her stage name dogheadsurigeri, she has performed in different clubs all over Poland and at venues including Colour Factory (London), Fuga (Bratislava), and Garage Noord (Amsterdam), as well as festivals like Tauron Nowa Muzyka Katowice, Open Source Art Festival, and Upper Festival. Her sets include rhythmic switch-ups blending cut-up deconstructed club-music with energetic and fast techno, trance and gabber. Her mixes have been showcased at HÖR Berlin, Red Light Radio, or NTS Radio. As part of Oramics, dogheadsurigeri is outspoken about the lack of visibility of Eastern European artists in the Western art industry. The collective strives to create spaces for the visibility and empowerment of Non-binary, female, and LGBTQIA+ artists, and for solidarities in the music scene. dogheadsurigeri was a speaker at the Unsound Festival in Kraków and the CTM Festival in Berlin.
Website (Oramics) Instagram Soundcloud RA
Zosia Hołubowska (Mala Herba)
Zosia Hołubowska (they/them) is a sound artist, queer music activist, researcher and producer, also known under their stage name Mala Herba. They have composed sound designs and installations for a variety of institutions, such as the Mumok in Vienna, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, and La Gaite Lyrique in Paris. As Mala Herba, they performed at festivals such as Tauron Nowa Muzyka in Poland, the Popfest in Austria, or the Fekete Zaj in Hungary. Their music draws from darkwave and industrial techno and aims to create experimental polyrhythmic soundscapes. In 2023, they released the Album “Singing Warmia” centering on questions of family archives and places of birth.
Credits
Sounds
Oscillator Composition – composed and performed by Mala Herba Pulsating and for later – composed and performed by Mala Herba
Visuals
Episode Cover: Oramics profile VA by Oramics dogheadsurigeri Portrait Mala Herba Portrait by Filip Preis
Podcast Info Curation and host for this episode Adriana Raczykowski, Student Assistant, Leuphana University Lüneburg Podcast Founder Dr. Layla Zami, Postdoctoral Researcher in Performance Studies, FU Berlin Producer Freie Universität Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Intervening Arts (SFB 1512 Intervenierende Künste, TP B05) Funded by German Research Society (DFG) In Cooperation with FU Berlin, Institut für Theaterwissenschaft Eufoniker Audioproduktion
Portraits of Queer Joy
Sonic Interventions
05/10/24 • 26 min
Season 4 of Sonic Interventions takes listeners to Poland, and is guest-curated by Adriana Raczykowski. In episodes 14 to 17, she is in conversation with Polish artists, activists and curators who intervene into society through curation, drag performance, visual arts, and podcasting. This episode features 100Lesb.com, a portrait cycle of 100 Polish lesbians and non-binary people in Warsaw. Co-curators Ola Kamińka and Wojtek Zrałek-Kossakowski touch upon reclaiming representation and queer resourcefulness as forms of intervention.
In conversation with
Aleksandra (Ola) Kamińska
Ola is a queer-feminist scholar, writer, creative and publisher, investigating topics of girlhood, queer time and related narratives in comic and youth culture. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Warsaw in Gender Studies and Queer Theory and is currently a member of the Gender/Sexuality Research Group at the American Studies Centre, University of Warsaw. In 2015, Ola founded the DIY queer-feminist zine collective Girls and Queers to the Front together with her best friend, Agata Wnuk. They organize workshops, events and publish zines in Polish and English, each centering a different topic that is examined through the lens of hundreds of participants and authors. Ola is invested in creating safer spaces of expression for the queer community and together with her partner, photographer and curator Katarzyna Szenajch, she co-created 100Lesb.com. Ola is part of the Warsaw based queer post-punk project NANA, which can be heard in this episode.
Wojciech (Wojtek) Zrałek-Kossakowski
Wojtek is a dramaturg, writer, director and sound designer for theater and radio. In Poland, his work is tied to institutions such as Teatr Studio in Warsaw, Teatr Wybrzeże in Gdańsk, or Teatr Nowy in Poznań. Outside of Poland he has also worked as a dramaturg for the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin. As part of the socio-political platform and NGO Kultura Polityczna, Wojtek is a curator of the cultural center Jasna10, a place dedicated to provide collective, artistic and educational space for artists and creatives, through grants and residencies for example. Together with curator Elżbieta Zasińska, Wojtek co-hosted the 100Lesb.com project at the Jasna10 Cultural Center in 2021 in Warsaw.
Adriana Raczykowski
Adriana Raczykowski is a German-Polish researcher and graduate student in Urban Studies in the Erasmus Mundus Program “4Cities”. She curated this guest season during her time as a student research assistant at the Collaborative Research Center Intervening Arts (Leuphana University, Institute for Philosophy and Art History). Adriana is engaged in radio community, experiments with audio formats and knowledge production, and questions of heritage.
References Katarzyna Szenajch – is a photographer and the initiator of the 100Lesb project, based in Warsaw. Katarzyna is one of the artists that created the visual material of the portraits and is Ola's collaborator and partner.
Stop Bzdurom – was a queer-feminist anarchist collective, fighting for LGBTQIA+ rights and intervening against queerphobic legislation. The group has been attributed with spreading the viral slogan “Dyke, you are not alone!” on stickers and banners.
Karolina Breguła – Let them See Us (Niech nas Zobaczą), 2003, Portrait cycle of queer couples in public space.
Hanna Jarząbek – Margin of Difference (Margines odmienności), Photo Report of Lesbians in everyday life.
Ela (Elżbieta) Zasińska – is also a Co-organizer of 100Lesb at Jasna10 Cultural Centre. Ela is involved in the Jasna10’s program for supporting marginalized artists and organizes a queer-feminist debate cycle "Ciałostanowienie".
Credits Sounds Romance – composed and performed by NANA Band (PL)
Visuals Episode Cover: Exhibition 100Lesb – Photo by Paulina Czarnecka Aleksandra Kaminska (portrait) – Photo by Katarzyna Szenajch
Podcast Info Curation and host for this episode Adriana Raczykowski, Student Assistant, Leuphana University Lüneburg Podcast Founder Dr. Layla Zami, Postdoctoral Researcher in Performance Studies, FU Berlin Producer Freie Universität Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Intervening Arts (SFB 1512 Intervenierende Künste, TP B05)...
Invoking South African Histories
Sonic Interventions
02/15/24 • 28 min
This episode features cellist, composer, and scholar Dr. Thokozani Mhlambi, who talks about the role of radio, music traditions as cultural archives, and music performance in the context of South Africa. He discusses and shares excerpts of his “Zulu Song Cycle” and the production “Hail to the King” about Dingane kaSenzangakhona. Recorded at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.
In conversation with
Thokozani Mhlambi
Dr Thokozani Ndumiso Mhlambi is a creative musician, songwriter, researcher, and cultural pioneer born in Madadeni, KwaZulu-Natal. Mhlambi holds a PhD in Music from the University of Cape Town with a thesis on “Early radio broadcasting in South Africa: culture, modernity & technology.” Drawing his inspiration from various folk music traditions, he plays the baroque cello blending engaging performances with critical thought. He has performed at various performance spaces across South Africa such as the National Art Festival, Baxter Theatre, Soweto Theatre, and the State Theatre in Pretoria. At the University of Cape Town, Mhlambi won the African Studies Prize and is associated as the NRF Postdoctoral Fellow in Innovation at the Archive & Public Culture Research Initiative. His research interests include early African intellectuals as composers, South African and Zulu radio broadcasting, and South African urban music, to name a few. In 2019, he collaborated with SAVVY Contemporary and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, in the project „The Vulnerable Archive.” In 2020, he was chosen as an Artist in-residence at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. In 2022-23, he was an Artist Fellow at the African Multiple Clusters at the University of Bayreuth in Germany.
References Sounds Zulu Song Cycle – album by Thokozani Mhlambi, recorded in 2019 (more info) Princess Constance Magogo Sibilile Mantithi Ngangezinye kaDinuzulu (1900-1984) – princess by birth and famously known as composer, musician, and singer (more info) Credits Sounds Tracks from the album: Zulu Song Cycle (2018)
- Track 4 "Interlude - Bach Prelude D minor", Thokozani Mhlambi (Solo Baroque Cello)
- Track 2 "Ndemka (trad.)", Thokozani Mhlambi (Bow & Voice)
- Track 1 "Hamba Uyothela", Thokozani Mhlambi (Composer and Performer: Cello, Voice)
Uyi'ndlwane' mbana. Performed by Amabutu of the Buthelezi clan, composed by M. Nge'ngelele, 1955. International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. (full credits) Durban Beach Sound Field Recording, (Field Recording) A New Sensation of Life, Thokozani Mhlambi (Composer and Performer: Cello, Voice) Visuals Episode Cover, Thokozani Mhlambi, Photo by S. Zondo Special Thanks Kamogelo Molobye at the University of the Witwatersrand, School of Arts, where this episode was recorded.
Podcast Info Concept Dr. Layla Zami, Postdoctoral Researcher in Performance Studies Producer Freie Universität Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Intervening Arts (SFB 1512 Intervenierende Künste, TP B05) Funded by German Research Society (DFG) In Cooperation with FU Berlin, Institut für Theaterwissenschaft Eufoniker Audioproduktion
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How many episodes does Sonic Interventions have?
Sonic Interventions currently has 18 episodes available.
What topics does Sonic Interventions cover?
The podcast is about Humanities, Society & Culture, Performance, Theater, Podcasts, Arts, Diversity and Performing Arts.
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The episode title 'From Private to Public: Entering the Polish Drag Scene (in Polish)' is the most popular.
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The average episode length on Sonic Interventions is 28 minutes.
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Episodes of Sonic Interventions are typically released every 14 days, 1 hour.
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The first episode of Sonic Interventions was released on Jan 16, 2023.
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