Friday, October 4, 2019, 8:00 pm until 11:00 pm
w/ 47Soul+Les Filles de Illighadad. Tickets available at laudable.productions.
The Super Collider is back this October! Its HAFLA (????) time — the word means party in Arabic — with Arabic New Wave from the Levant and pioneering female-fronted Tuareg trance rock from Niger. Once again, we’re debuting two international artists in Western Mass and setting you up for some serious dancing.
47 Soul is a synth-driven New Wave electro Dabke group from Palestine/Jordan/UK that is taking the world by storm. Beloved by Arabic youth across the world, their music is shaking things up globally with their message of international political solidarity and a joyful call for a borderless humanity. (Their break-out video “Intro to Shamstep” just hit ten million views on YouTube). The band’s music is rooted in traditional Dabke, which is a Levantine folk style from the 80s that literally translates to “stamping of feet.” The genre has broken out of its regional locus in recent years thanks to Omar Souleyman, who released hundreds of live recordings of his sets at Syrian weddings; the cassettes eventually reached elated fans in Europe and the USA and set the stage for an electro Dabke revolution. 47 Soul’s ability to infuse the emergent genre with elements of with dub, hip-hop, and rock, as well as to sing in both English and Arabic, has made them more accessible to Western audiences.
VIDEO: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0aPuIpOAoc]
Les Filles de Illighadad (“The Girls of Illighadad”) are all from the village of the same name, a secluded commune in central Niger, far off in the scrubland deserts at the edge of the Sahara. The surrounding countryside supports hundreds of pastoral families, living with and among their herds, as their families have done for centuries. Fatou Seidi Ghali is the first Tuareg female guitarist in Niger. Sneaking away with her older brother’s guitar, she taught herself to play. That in itself is groundbreaking, but what’s more interesting is the music they’re playing: in a place where gender norms have created two divergent musics, women typically confine themselves strictly to tende — a ceremonial music for festive events with singing, clapping, and traditional drums. While the past twenty years have seen the rise of fantastic male-driven Tuareg guitar bands, such as Tinariwen and Bombino, women have been noticeably absent. Les Filles’ innovation is their transliteration of tende into guitar. Its never been done before, and the resulting sound has mesmerized audiences in Europe and North Africa. We are beyond thrilled to welcome Les Filles de Illighadad on their debut US tour.
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Exciting News for A Happening IV: Leviathan
Cloudgaze and Eggtooth Productions are thrilled to announce that we have received a generous grant from the Markham-Nathan Fund for Social Justice to support our 2024 Immersive Arts Festival, “A Happening IV: Leviathan.”
This festival will transform the Shea Theater into an exploration of theme, hosting installations, music, theatrical performances, and movement pieces, featuring the collective contributions of over 30 local artists. Audiences will experience otherworldly environments and narratives inspired by folklore, fairy tales, horror motifs, American literature, and the mythos of the Old Testament, all of which delve into the central question guiding the festival: "What does it mean to encounter something greater than yourself and to be consumed by it?" Through this theme, we explore how a community reemerges and imagines itself after destruction and transformation.
With the support of the Markham-Nathan Fund, we are excited to create an event that complicates perspectives and fosters meaningful dialogue. We are grateful for this partnership and for the work of the Markham-Nathan Fund for Social Justice.
Thanks to the Mass Cultural Council for their vital support this year.We'd also like to thank the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts for their support in the form of a Flexible Funding grant. We couldn't do this work without you!