Welcome back to Black Life. This month we’re excited to present a new performance by music producer Dax Pierson. A co-founder of the bands Subtle and 13 & God, a live member of Themselves, and an Anticon associate, Pierson has resided in the East Bay for twenty years. In 2005 a tour accident left Pierson with quadriplegia. With paralyzed fingers, Pierson now produces experimental electronic music using laptop and iOS devices. Please do join us on February 26 at 6pm Pacific and register here to reserve your spot for the digital event. This event will be an interview and listening session. There will not be a performance, think of it as an album release listening party.
BAMPFA Recommendation:
You Will Die at Twenty (Satamoto fel eshreen)
Amjad Abu Alala (2019)
In this visually entrancing film debut from Sudan, religious superstition places a heavy burden on a young man’s life. Faced with a sheikh’s dire prediction of an early death, new mom Sakina becomes overprotective of her son Muzamil, while local boys call him the “son of death.” Seeking a normal adolescence without this anvil over his head, Muzamil finds solace in religion and cinema and develops a crush on a girl. Though the protagonist’s prophesied demise gives the film an undeniable gravity, director Amjad Abu Alala leavens it with warm humanism and graceful camerawork. “Beautifully composed and boasting the kind of sensitivity to light sources and color tonalities usually ascribed to top photographers, the film lovingly depicts the remote east-central region of Sudan as a quasi-magical place of sand, sky, and the colors of the Nile. The story . . . generally has an equally clear-cut quality, simple in the telling yet matched to the pictorial tenor.” (Jay Weissberg, Variety).
BLACK ART MIXTAPE: A MENACE TO MY ENEMIES #8
1. Jamaicans in Bristol 1968
2. Shawty Lo - Dey Know
3. June Jordan - I Must Become a Menace to My Enemies
Be afraid. I plan to give you reasons for your jumpy fits and facial tics
June Jordan - Song of the Law Abiding Citizen
and I can't pay the rent
but I sent 10,000 food stamps
back to the president and his beautiful wife
how lucky I am
hot damn
Take Care,
R + R