Carlos Niño (DJ set)
RIVA
2026
Quartyard
San Diego, CA
Far from being a static exercise, Shabaka’s latest album ‘Of The Earth’ live shows are inspired by hip-hop performances where the track booms through the system while the MC commands the stage. Playing both saxophone and flutes, Shabaka envisions a hybridlaboratory: stems dissected in real time, synthesizers and samplers manipulated onstage,improvisation layered over familiar frameworks. Often performing as a duo — withdrummer/producer pairing shifting as the tour evolves — he aims for elasticity. No two nights alike. Landmarks within the set, yes, but freedom inside them.
Carlos Niño refers to himself musically, and in many aspects of his life, as a "Communicator." Producing, playing and making music are facets of that to him. He considers his "presence, aura, energy field," his voice, and many collected instruments (a unique and colorful assortment of bells, chimes, cymbals, gongs, keyboards, shakers, shells, and more) among his essence, and hence his intrinsic means of expression and communication. What is he communicating? "Feelings, experiences, perspectives, journey reflections, state of being," he shares. "I am simply communicating, by being, offering, sharing… and mostly with sound."
2017
Firehouse 12 Studio
New Haven, CT
Mdou Moctar immediately stands out as one of the most innovative artists in contemporary Saharan music. His unconventional interpretations of Tuareg guitar have pushed him to the forefront of a crowded scene. Back home, he’s celebrated for his original compositions and verbose poetry, an original creator in a genre defined by cover bands. In the exterior, where Saharan rock has become one of the continents biggest musical exports, he’s earned a name for himself with his guitar moves. Mdou shreds with a relentless and frenetic energy that utterly sets him apart.
Mdou Moctar hails from a small village in central Niger in a remote region steeped in religious tradition. Growing up in an area where secular music was all but prohibited, he taught himself to play on a homemade guitar cobbled together out of wood. It was years before he found a “real” guitar and taught himself to play in secret. His immediately became a star amongst the village youth.
with Dao Strom & No No Boy
2023
Urban Arts Space
Columbus, OH 43215
Free and open to the public
Julian Saporiti is a musician and scholar whose interdisciplinary work bridges academic research, public humanities, and musical performance. He earned his Ph.D. in American Studies from Brown University, where his dissertation on Asian American history and transpacific cultural exchange evolved into No-No Boy, a multimedia song-based project that brings understudied histories to wide public audiences through performance, recording, and visual media. By transforming his doctoral research into accessible but nuanced folk songs, Saporiti has shared complicated stories of war, immigration, identity, empire and race with thousands of listeners. His work has been described by NPR Music as “one of the most insurgent pieces of music you’ll ever hear,” praised by No Depression as “reminiscent of Dylan,” and featured on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.
Dao Strom is a poet, musician, writer, and interdisciplinary artist who works with three “voices”—written, sung, visual—to explore hybridity and the intersection of personal and collective histories. Strom’s work encompasses both solo and collaborative art and writing projects, and has received support from the Spark Artist Award, Creative Capital Foundation, NEA, Oregon Community Foundation, and others. Born in Vietnam, Strom now lives in Portland, Oregon.
Formidable Black Feminist Sound & Vision in the Twenty-First Century
2025
Big Freedia
Kahlil Joseph
Yale University
New Haven, CT
Daphne A. Brooks is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of African American Studies, American Studies, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Music at Yale University. Born and raised in the vibrant cultural landscape of the San Francisco Bay Area, Daphne A. Brooks is a scholar, author, and music critic whose work bridges the worlds of academia and pop culture. She earned her BA in English from UC Berkeley and her PhD in English from UCLA and is the recipient of multiple honors and awards including an NYPL Cullman Center Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an ACLS Postdoctoral Fellowship, a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, a Harvard DuBois Institute Fellowship and a University of California Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Her Gen X “lower frequencies” education began in childhood during long, good hangs in the Bay Area’s beloved Tower Records and continued on during crate-digging expeditions at places like Berkeley’s Amoeba Records and Rasputin’s, and LA’s Rhino Records.
With Wadadda Leo Smith & Vijay Iyer
2021
Post-performance conversation with Anthony Davis
Firehouse 12 Studios
New Haven, CT
Described by The New York Times as a “social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway,” Vijay Iyer has carved out a unique path as an influential, prolific, shape-shifting presence in twenty-first-century music. A composer and pianist active and revered across multiple musical communities, Iyer has created a consistently innovative, emotionally resonant body of work over the last twenty-five years, earning him a place as one of the leading music-makers of his generation.
Wadada Leo Smith, trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser is one of the most acclaimed creative artists of his times, both for his music and his writings. For the last five decades, Mr. Smith has been a member of the historical and legendary AACM collective. He distinctly defines his music as “Creative Music.” Mr. Smith’s diverse discography reveals a recorded history centered around important issues that have impacted his world.