Sometimes one voice is not enough.
When different voices join together, it gets harder to ignore them.
When voices resonate, movements get sparked, and rebellions or cultural waves are started.
In this issue, we’d like to talk about choruses and the way they resound in society. And we don’t necessarily mean choirs, where people get together to sing, although we do love ourselves some senior citizens blasting Sonic Youth at the top of their throats.
There are many types of choruses. It might be musicians raising their country out of the ashes of a civil war. It might be gay parents carving out space for themselves in the history of families. It might be workers mourning the loss of their factory.
One thing is constant: the power of unity is achieved as choruses are created.
Here’s this newsletter’s map, a map of voices echoing across the planet:
Our first chorus is from Burundi. This landlocked country has suffered a lot in the past few centuries: first under the yoke of colonization, then as civil war and ethnical cleansings tore it apart. But now a group of wildly talented and ambitious musicians is rebuilding the country’s cultural landscape with their music. They’re all relatively unknown outside of East Africa, but we’re bringing their music directly to you with our three-part roadmap to all the Burundian hitmakers you should know.Β Here’s part one.
Crooners, rappers and comeback kids, a diva and a soccer hymn: our first dispatch of freshest tunes from Burundi will satisfy your Afrobeat, R&B and hip-hop cravings and lift you up
Our second chorus is from Canada, and this one comes with a twist. In director Julia Ivanova’sΒ two documentaries, three queer families get to tell their stories: both at the start of their journey, and a decade in. A rare treat for all “where are they now” lovers, the films also allow a bunch of lovely individuals raising their kids to have their voices heard by the majority. These voices might not seem conventional at first, but the refrain is one we all know well: toddlers are adorable, and teenagers are scary.
FROM CANADA:
Soon after Canada legalized same-sex marriages, Julia Ivanova filmed four gay fathers realizing their liberties. She returned a decade later to see how the dads, their co-parents and kids were doing
Our third chorus is from Poland. And it’s not merely a chorus, it’s a dance troupe, a performance art collective, as well as a swell gang of working people who are nostalgic for the good times they had while employed at Poland’s leading agricultural manufacturer.Β A wildly original project, this documentary unfolds like a complex, multifaceted opera, against the backdrop of a factory in shatters.
FROM POLAND:
Former workers of Polandβs manufacturing giant are asked to reinterpret their labor rituals through dance and music in a visceral body of analytical work from Polandβs finest young artists
Will East Africa gain on West Africa’s reputation as the musical stronghold of the continent?
Will we live in a time when everyone, no matter how sheltered, knows a couple of queer parents, or even a throuple of co-parents?
Will humans find happiness on the brink of deindustrialization?
Only time will tell. But what we know now is that once there were enough of the beautiful, original voices to make those subjects matter, and the framework of our culture to evolve.
Join in: your voice matters, too.
Hope you enjoy Supamodu and feel compelled to share it with your friends.
Thank you for being a friend! π
β The Supamodu team
