Whispers of Night – Majid Araim, Benjamin Shirley
Workshop: Friday, January 27, 2023, 4:30pm-6:00pm
West Village Dining Commons
Room 175
532 8th St NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
Performance: Saturday, January 28, 2023, 6:00pm start time
West Village Dining Commons
Room 175
532 8th St NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
Whispers of Night is an ongoing musical collaboration between Majid Araim and Benjamin Shirley, a multi-instrumental duo rooted in the sounds of the South and dedicated to exploration, improvisation, and creative expression. After almost a decade of collaboration and tours across the US and Europe, our duo has honed a sympathetic and dynamic musical bond, persistently seeking to cultivate novel concepts of composition, recording, and presentation in our musical practice. Since 2014, we have developed a conception of improvised music nurturing the sound worlds of acoustic instruments such as fiddle, mandolin, cello, banjo, harmonica, drums, and voice, bringing to the fore their resonance and timbres with the elemental feeling of the music traditions of our southern Appalachian region.
Doctor Calico
Doctor Calico
Workshop: Friday, February 10, 2023, 6:00pm – 8:00pm
West Village Dining Commons
Room 175
532 8th St NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
Performance: Saturday, February 11, 2023, 6:00pm start time
West Village Dining Commons
Room 175
532 8th St NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
A child prodigy on piano & drums at age four. Played glockenspiel in the orchestra at age six. Experiments with tape and turntables by age 8 and programming BASIC on a Commodore 64 and analog synthesizers utilizing subtractive synthesis at ten. Produced first catalog by age 15 on home built four-track studio called Soundworks, received the Governors Award in Art and with a GED began producing records. Signed a publishing deal for a 300 song catalog by age 18 with MCA. Produced for many major label artists including Organized Noize, Akon, X-Clan, Toni Braxton, Elephant Man and many more. Entered night classes at Emory and Oglethorpe Universities and traveled throughout Latin America and Europe, expanding knowledge of culture through total immersion. Self taught in over a hundred instruments. Started the award winning Renaissance Kids program for College Park schools from age 6-18 through a grant awarded by the state of Georgia. Founded a 60 week residency in 2015 at the Magnolia House in Historic West End Atlanta with the chat of philosophy at Spelman University, Dr Al-Yasha Williams. Currently working as a DJ and electronic musician at Underground Atlanta Arts facility partnered with Mike Stasny and performing at various venues in the city. Recent accomplishments include going viral as an influencer on Instagram, sharing live musical performance and archival content, with over a million views and growing on a self made platform with no advertising or paid partnernships.
William Barrow
Workshop: Friday, February 24, 2023, 5:00pm – 8:00pm
West Village Dining Commons
Room 175
532 8th St NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
Performance: Saturday, February 25, 2023, 6:00pm start time
West Village Dining Commons
Room 175
532 8th St NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
William Barrow is a multidisciplinary artist from Hazel, Kentucky. Through experimentation with electronics, sound, and video, they seek to explore larger systems of control and new ways that individuals and communities can shape these systems to meet their own needs. His use of dated electronics, audio and video tape machines, and synthesizers create ever evolving, interconnected systems. The outcomes of which range from tranquil washes to harsh, anxiety inducing attacks on the senses. He studied at Murray State University, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in video and performance in Murray, Kentucky. Since moving to Atlanta, he has joined the Atlanta Improvisers Orchestra and is currently studying electronics at West Georgia Tech. He has worked in collaboration with dancers, electronic and acoustic musicians, and provided live sound for Butoh dance workshops and yoga classes.
Adia Davina
Workshop: Friday, March 31, 2023, 4:00pm – 7:00pm
West Village Dining Commons
Room 175
532 8th St NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
Performance: Saturday, April 1, 2023, doors at 6:00pm, start at 6:30pm
West Village Dining Commons
Room 175
532 8th St NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
Adia is an experimental, independent and multi-disciplinary artist based in Atlanta, GA. Currently she is pursuing an interdisciplinary degree at Georgia State University as well as collaborations with the theatre department as a playwright & wardrobe assistant. She has performed in Ghana with Rakaba, a west African dance company, sung in numerous choirs, trained at John Robert Powers and performed, recorded and toured the US with artist Raury. Her unique vocals can be heard echoing through his hit song, and her first feature “Gods Whisper” and performances with him include Coachella 2017. Adia’s current works include experimental performances, plays that incorporate technology, nostalgia and texture.
Rafiana
Workshop: Friday, April 21, 2023, 6:00pm – 8:00pm
West Village Dining Commons
Room 175
532 8th St NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
Performance: Saturday, April 22, 2023, doors at 6:00pm, start at 7:00pm
West Village Dining Commons
Room 175
532 8th St NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
Rafiana is a multidisciplinary artist of Puerto Rican and American descent from Atlanta, Georgia producing works in the performing arts, music, film, and painting. They have shared the stages with Grammy nominated performers as well as self professed “non-performers.” Their work focuses on improvisation and the many ways in which that practice collides with elements of form. After graduating from GSU in which they explored several elements of poetic language, their work became largely based in an abstraction of poetry as it related to the body, the physical world, of movement and dance and music. Often, their works are based in a dreamlike poetry.The most recent live works they have produced have been large scale experimental theater pieces in which a live orchestra has been present scoring movements and actions that are loosely choreographed with an emphasis on the performer improvising through ‘moods’ created by the various elements in each scene. Their work has since begun to move into the realms of clowning as an abstraction and interruption to space with respect to live performance and bizarre theater. Rafiana designs many of the aesthetic elements of their theater world which involves creating costumes, props, object curation, painting, sound design, and lighting. The more recent themes of their work have been rooted in thoughts about exploitation of the self, exploring variations on the concept of clowning and experiments with abstraction of samples to environments and material to be played on the MIDI guitar.