Who Is This Music For? Asian Diaspora, Counterculture, and Access

A4 brings together Asian diasporic artists from experimental/countercultural music scenes and community leaders to discuss the lack of access Asian diasporic communities have to countercultural arts. Artists in the diaspora, especially those who work within experimental and countercultural scenes, often challenge traditional boundaries of genre and aesthetics. In doing so, they often look inward towards their own cultural roots, as well as practices from various other cultures. It is only natural then that Asian countercultural artists would wish to perform for an audience that would deeply understand the cultural implications of their transgressive work.

Yet in organizing around aesthetic ideologies, countercultural music scenes and audiences, especially in New York City, exhibit a widening class and racial divide. The dominance of white curatorial spaces often distances Asian diasporic communities from artists and venues. Further, who gets to be an artist within countercultures must also be critically examined. While arts movements often idealize working-class politics, the level of professionalization of music writ large necessitates capital investment (in the form of schooling, PR, marketing, agents/managers) to even consider becoming a working musician in any genre, including countercultural ones.

Who is countercultural music for? Who should countercultural music be for? How can we organize in a way that changes who this music scene is being developed by and for? Join us for a panel discussion on these questions, the current state of the problem, imagining better futures, and more.

Panelists include Che Chen, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and curator for Four One One; Amirtha Kidambi, musician, bandleader of Elder Ones, educator, and activist; Thanu Yakupitiyage, also known as DJ Ushka, who traverses genres across electronic club & bass music; and Shahana Hanif, City Council Member for New York City’s 39th District.

The discussion will be co-moderated by Ravish Momin, drummer, producer, and educator; and Leo Chang, musician, scholar of experimental arts, and operations associate at A4. The evening will begin with a short performance by panelists Che Chen and Amirtha Kidambi, followed by an hour of structured panel discussion. There will be time for Q&A and mingling following the panel.

The event is hosted by the Clemente, a Puerto Rican and Latinx cultural space rooted in the Lower East Side. This event is open to all, particularly performers, community and arts organizers, and cultural workers of all backgrounds.

This event is FREE and open to the public. We suggest a $5 donation to go towards keeping A4’s programs free.

Agenda:
6:30-7:00 pm (30 min) – Performance
7:00-8:00 pm (60 min) – Panel
8:00-8:15 pm (15 min) – Q&A
8:15-8:30 pm (15 min) – Mingling

Recording: The panel discussion will be recorded and published on A4’s YouTube channel after the event.

Accessibility: Due to renovations happening at the Clemente, the space is temporarily not ADA accessible. There are five steps leading up to the door of the theater and three flights of stairs to the bathroom. We apologize for the inconvenience.

If you need CART Transcription, ASL interpretation, large print, or any other accommodations for this event, please email programs@aaartsalliance.org at least one week before this event.

To keep everyone safe and healthy, if you are not feeling well, please stay at home. We will provide masks and hand sanitizer.

Bios

About Che Chen
Che Chen is an improviser, composer, bandleader, multi-instrumentalist and concert organizer based in Queens, NY. An energetic presence in New York City’s experimental underground since the early 2000s, he has tread an idiosyncratic path from noise-song duo True Primes to playing in groups led by drone minimalists and Japanese outsider artists, to studying guitar in Mauritania and improvising with veterans from NYC’s storied free jazz community. Organizing concerts has always been a parallel activity, stemming from a firm belief that music must take place in community: he currently curates for FourOneOne. Chen’s performances explore improvisation as an extension of listening, setting the spontaneous invention of his playing within electronic drones, noise, and an immersive sense of space.

About Amirtha Kidambi
Amirtha Kidambi is invested in the creation and performance of subversive, anti-hegemonic music, from free improvisation and avant-jazz, to Indian carnatic and devotional, experimental bands, electronic music, noise, and new music. She is an educator, activist, and organizer working to challenge systems of white supremacist, colonial, capitalist patriarchy, and is co-founder and co-organizer of South Asian Artists in Diaspora and Musicians Against Police Brutality. As a bandleader and composer, she is the creative force behind the incendiary protest group Elder Ones and has received critical praise for her albums Holy Science (2016) and From Untruth (2019) on Northern Spy records from the New York Times, Pitchfork, Wire Magazine and Downbeat among others.

About Thanu Yakupitiyage
Thanu Yakupitiyage (AKA DJ Ushka) is a queer, Sri Lankan-born, Thailand-raised, Brooklyn-based deejay traversing genres across electronic club & bass music. She deejays from the perspective of a dancer, blending a wide range of global club music. Ushka has been a staple in NYC’s queer nightlife, having run the iBomba party for six years and djing parties such as Papi Juice, Gush, Ragga, Bubble-T, Yellow Jackets Collective’s Lunar New Year, Basement Bhangra, Moonshine in Montreal, and more. She has performed across the US, Mexico, and Canada - including at institutions such as Brooklyn Museum, Lincoln Center, MoMA PS1, American Museum of Natural History, Rubin Museum, The Shed, Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre, Montreal’s Fondation Phi, and NYC’s SummerStage.

About Shahana Hanif
Council Member Shahana Hanif represents New York City’s 39th Council District, which includes parts of Kensington, Borough Park, Windsor Terrace, Park Slope, Gowanus, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, and the Columbia Waterfront. She is the first Bangladeshi and Muslim woman elected to the New York City Council and the first woman to represent the 39th District. Born and raised in the 39th District to Bangladeshi immigrant parents, Council Member Hanif has dedicated her career to advocating for working-class families and advancing a city built on care, equity, and safety. Her personal battle with Lupus, diagnosed at age 17, and her experiences with the challenging healthcare system and City services, inspired her commitment to public service.

About Ravish Momin
Ravish Momin is an Indian-born drummer, electronic music producer, and educator residing in New York City. Momin studied privately with US Jazz master-drummer Andrew Cyrille while he worked as an engineer in New York City in the late 1990s. A Structural/Civil Engineer by training, he quit his engineering practice in 2003 to become a professional musician. His current projects include duos with dragonchild (DA Mekonnen of Debo Band) and Faraway Ghost (Iranian singer/songwriter Kamyar Arsani.) As Sunken Cages, Momin plays electronic drums. While rooted in Indian and Black Music traditions, he is also influenced by the street sounds of underground dance music from Sao Paolo to Durban to Mumbai.

About Leo Chang
Leo Chang is a Korean improviser, composer, performer, and scholar of experimental music. Born in Seoul, Leo lived as an expat in Singapore, Taipei, and Shanghai, until moving to the United States in 2011. His art is an act of homemaking inspired by various musical and ideological movements that have sought to question power dynamics and imagine egalitarian possibilities. His primary methods are free improvisation, written text, graphical notation, and electronic processing. In the past six years, he has been focused on building electronic performance setups derived from Korean folk practices and instruments. Leo holds a PhD in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is also A4’s Operations Associate, where he manages grant reports and various administrative responsibilities.

About Clemente
The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center Inc. is a Puerto Rican/Latinx multi-arts cultural institution that has demonstrated a broad-minded cultural vision and inclusive philosophy rooted in NYC’s Lower East Side/Loisaida. While focused on the cultivation, presentation, and preservation of Puerto Rican and Latinx culture, they are equally committed to a multi-ethnic/international latitude, determined to operate in a polyphonic manner that provides affordable working space and venues to artists, small arts organizations, emergent and independent community producers that reflect the cultural diversity of the LES and the City.