Saul Williams: Poetry & the Rebranding of Social Movements {Night Two}
A South Africa Event on 2016-04-16 19:00:00
RIOTcon 2016: Mapping a Movement invites you to hack into the mind of Saul Williams as he speaks on poetry as design, and reads selections from his new works, "US(a.)" and Martyr Loser King. Accompanying Saul in performance are vocalist Koku Gonza, and "Afro-Vegan" author/chef Bryant Terry. MartyrLoserKing has just tagged his screen name onto the White House lawn via remote drone. He’s working from a remote e-waste camp in Burundi, Central Africa, neighboring the more well-known Rwanda, with equipment scrapped together from our old Dell PC towers and Sidekick IIs. Homeland Security, the NSA, and the CIA are tracing his signal back to a place that isn’t on the map or on the grid, and the alert level rises when he hacks NASA just to show he can do it. At least, that’s what Saul Williams will tell you when you ask about his new album and the story it’s inspired. Written and recorded between Senegal, Reunion Island, Paris, Haiti, and New Orleans and New York, Martyr Loser King is a multimedia project that engages the digital dialogue between the 1st and 3rd Worlds, and the global street sounds that yoke the two. presented by RIOTcon 2016: Mapping a Movement special thanks to guest hosts Asya Shein of Fusicology + Lauren Ash and Zakkiyyah Najeebah of Black Girl In Om __________ Performing with Saul Williams: LADAN OSMAN was born in Somalia and raised in Ohio. She earned a BA at Otterbein University and an MFA at the University of Texas at Austin. Her chapbook appears in Seven New Generation African Poets (2014). The Kitchen-Dweller’s Testimony (2015) is the winner of the Sillerman First Book Prize. A Pushcart nominee, her work has appeared in Apogee, The Normal School, Prairie Schooner, Transition Magazine, and Waxwing. Osman has received fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center, Cave Canem, and the Michener Center for Writers. She is a contributing editor at The Offing and lives in Chicago. KOKU GONZA sings smile inducing melodies about love; her music and stage presence winning endearing comparisons to South African songstress, Miriam Makeba. Koku, whose Kihaya name means "lovely," thanks her father, a Tanzanian folk musician, for her early education in music and globalism. Now living in Chicago, her singing and songwriting have taken Koku around the world, with notable performances throughout the UK and France. Currently recording new work with legendary house guru Anthony Nicholson and Grammy award-winning guitarist Isaiah Sharkey, Koku is all smiles – singing about more love, to more people, in more and more places around the world. BRYANT TERRY is a 2015 James Beard Foundation Leadership Award-winning chef, educator, and author renowned for his activism to create a healthy, just, and sustainable food system. He is currently the Chef-in-Residence at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco where he creates programming that celebrates the intersection of food, farming, health, activism, art, culture, and the African Diaspora. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, and All Things Considered among many other publications. Bryant’s fourth book, Afro Vegan was published by Ten Speed Press/Random House April 2014. Just two months after publication, Afro-Vegan was named by Amazon.com one of the best cookbooks of 2014. In December it was nominated for an NAACP Image Award in the Outstanding Literary Work category. __________ Don’t miss RIOTcon: Mapping A Movement, featuring Michael Eric Dyson, Bryant Terry, Saul Williams, and more, at Chicago Theological Seminary on April 15 + 16, 2016. RIOTcon (Raging Issues of Today) gathers activists, students, scholars, religious leaders, artists, and concerned community members at this annual Spring conference, which is quickly becoming a leading event for social justice. RIOTcon 2016: Mapping a Movement focuses on the history, organization and necessary tools for social justice movements. These two days feature a dynamic program and training schedule, including three keynote addresses, panel discussions, workshops, performances, and special events led by the brightest minds of today.
at The Revival
1160 E. 55th Street
Chicago, United States
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