Son[i]a #381
Marissa Malik
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It’s tempting to describe Marissa Malik’s practice as a crossroads—one where music production intersects with mysticism, DJing and astrology. But the way she talks about these complementary aspects instead suggests that they are all on a sort of Möbius strip, a continuum with no beginning or end, on which they harmonically coexist and feed back on each other.
This paradoxical geometry relies on a worldview and a critical gaze that has allowed Marissa to explore and put her own spin on the correlation between language, racial segregation and gender, especially in the framework of diaspora communities like her own: Marissa (also known by her musical moniker Manuka Honey), was raised in Connecticut by a Mexican mother and a Pakistani father and is now based in London. Which also goes some way to explain her often chaotic reinterpretation of Latinx-infused club music from all over the Global South.
We sat down with Marissa Malik to talk about language, rituals, migration, mysticism, barriers, queerness and sexuality in her musical domain. And we got the ball rolling with her dissertation ‘Language Erasure: The loss of mother tongue(s) in diaspora’.
Imani Mason Jordan
In this podcast interdisciplinary writer, artist, editor, curator and plant lover Imani Mason Jordan reflects on the conflicting meanings of community, which they sum up as “ a feeling and a relationship”. Finding guidance in the writings of Audre Lorde (and others)—through collective reading and listening—, Imani makes an urgent call for action, in order to disrupt and overcome the numbing of our emotions. Cadence, resonance, repetition and the bodily urgency of protest speeches operate in their artistic vocabulary as key tools for world-breaking, as well as world-making.
Yasmine Boudiaf
Researcher and creative technologist Yasmine Boudiaf describes her art practice as “tin foil hat research”. She creates playful projects rooted in deep research methodologies ranging from writing to computing, in order to shed some light on the shape-shifting White Devil tactics behind ruling powers and new technologies. In this podcast, Yasmine Boudiaf walks us through some of her experiences in the corporate world and the performative aspects of negotiating the deeply entrenched British class system. She talks about AI ethics and the theater behind policy-making as well as soft power and Newspeak.
DJ Riobamba
Sara Skolnick (aka DJ Riobamba) talks about organising parties for almost ten years, about multiple identities, the traumas of migration, processes of assimilation, music, catharsis and activism, the queer space that opens up in the underground scene, her social intervention projects, the origins of dembow and reggaeton, Justin Bieber, y… toda esa vaina.
Itxaso Corral
The work of artist Itxaso Corral calls on an extensive glossary of concepts, media, and practices that explore beyond the bounds of closed definitions, in a gesture that simultaneously expands the scope of possibility of so-called live arts. In this podcast, Itxaso Corral shares with us the small rituals that give shape and meaning to her artistic activities: pulsations of life that emerge through performance, dance, singing, and calligraphy as experiential spaces, which are the result of lived experience and long durations, and of the energy that arises from learning and doing with others.