(Returning to) Black Frequencies, 31st Oct - 2nd Dec ‘23

A Radical Imagination Lab exploring: How do frequencies invite us to move, shapeshift and restore connections with our ancestral and future kin?

From returning to pirate radio, to exploring carnival as a site for liberation, to DIY sound system building, mask-making, reading circles, and invitations to dance and heal, across the Lab we explored frequencies as portals to liberation.

The Lab was curated by MAIA Fellows, Daniel Oduntan and Adeola, and included:

  • Antenna: Pirate Radio and the Future of Black Broadcast - Daniel Oduntan with David Sonubi, Yaa Adae and Arvil

  • Room to Pass - Adéọlá in conversation with Rawle Gibbons

  • Rehearsing Freedoms: Rituals of Repossession - a live reading + discussion of an essay by Dr Clinton Hutton

  • Building Frequencies: A Sound and Vision Workshop with Daniel Oduntan and Dubmorphology

  • Making Mas(k) with Amaru Chatawa - Connecting Past with Future

  • Community Broadcast (Permission to Play/Invitation to Dance) - a live broadcast, co-curated by the Fellows, reviving the living room as a site of Black cultural production

Watch the video below to get more insight into the Fellows’ practices and their thinking behind the curation of (Returning to) Black Frequencies.

Watch back the online events…

Antenna: Pirate Radio and the Future of Black Broadcast

Chaired by MAIA Fellow, Daniel Oduntan, with guest speakers: David Sonubi (No Signal Radio), Yaa Addae (Open Heart Clinic) and G-Man (DJ and OG in Pirate Radio)

Sharing past, present and future thoughts on Black media and cultural production, together they reflect on the legacy of pirate radio in terms of its cultural and political impacts, and explore what can be cultivated now through exploring Broadcast as an infinite stage.

Room to Pass

Adéọlá in conversation with Trinidadian Playwright, Rawle Gibbons

In conversation, Rawle and Adéọlá look at agency, our collective power to make change, the role of ritual and recognising the value of indigenous forms.

Images 1+2 by 3rd Eye Photography. Images 3,4,5+6 by Thom Bartley