Summary
The Work
Since 2022, Remix ⟷ Culture has been producing an annual residency program called “Tanfis.” The program is a series of multidisciplinary residencies facilitating collaborations between NY-based traditional musicians, storytellers, remix artists, and DJs each time focusing on a particular grouping of underrepresented and/or misrepresented communities. Tanfis I and Tanfis II programs centered Palestinian, Syrian, Lebanese, Iraqi, and other SWANA diaspora communities and included sold-out live premieres in New York as well as a multi-city benefit tour in California. Tanfis III builds on the successes and lessons learned from the previous residency programs, this time focused on NY-based artists who identify as Black and/or Indigenous to the ‘Americas’ — communities likewise facing systemic oppression, and historically under-served.
Tanfis III kicked off in September 2024 in Hudson Valley, NY, where we facilitated a 3-week residency with 7 artists-in-residence from African-American, Colombian, Gambian, Guinean, Peruvian, and Senegalese communities. While sharing meals and learning to co-exist under the same roof, these traditional musicians, remix artists, storytellers, and dancers creatively explored their individual and collective responses to the following existential questions: “Where do we come from? What have we become? Who do we want to be?”
The culmination of this communal, collaborative process was an entirely new live experience–co-designed and performed by the 7 artists-in-residence, alongside 7 featured guest artists–that premiered in Poughkeepsie, NY and took the audience on a “tanfis” journey through the seamless harmony of live acoustic music, remix, dance, storytelling, and video art.
Project Timeline:
May ‘24 - Open Call for Artists
June ‘24 - Selection of Artists and Planning
Sep ‘23 - Residency (Hurleyville, NY)
collectively defined the themes, music, stories, and approaches that best serve the project
collected, recorded, and filmed interviews and storytelling content
selected and created original arrangements of community-rooted songs
recorded and filmed beautiful performances of the community-rooted songs
edited and remixed the recordings and films of music and stories
co-designed a 3-hr live experience weaving in all of the creative explorations of the residency (in the form of acoustic music, electronic remixes, video projections, storytelling) into an immersive ‘tanfis’ journey
Sep 20, 2023 - Live Poughkeepsie premiere
Next Steps:
Jan 13th, 2025 - Save the date - The Tanfis III live event will premiere in NYC at the iconic Roulette Intermedium.
Spring 2025 - Digital release of all content produced as part of this program. Open invitation for new remixes to be created by remix artists worldwide, in accordance with our open-access and fair trade model.
Why Tanfis?
This series is centered on the theme of tanfis, an Arabic word that loosely translates as "catharsis," but is also understood as the journey of the nafs (self/soul) from the holding of breath to a liberating exhalation. Black and Indigenous to the ‘Americas’ communities and their histories endure, and have endured, continuous suffering and violence throughout the history of the US.
Tanfis invites artists to utilize their communities traditional musics - and complementary arts of dance, storytelling, cuisine, comedy, etc - to flip the script on the suppression of their traditions, reclaiming their cultures through transcendent revelry, collaboration, and remix. In doing so, we create space to collectively exhale in preparation for the next collective breath.
photos by Conrad Clifton and Darwensi Clark
Music Releases
Coming Early 2025
Tanfis III Live
On September 20, 2024, we premiered Tanfis III live at the Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center in Poughkeepsie, NY. Sacred chants, virtuosic West African drumming, stunning cinematography, honoring of ancestors and teachers, powerful spoken words and life-affirming storytelling, exquisite dance, masterful electronic music, live video remixing - these are just some of the incredible offerings that were part of this transformative live experience.
Below are photo highlights from the live experience.
Save the Date
Tanfis III live will have its NYC premiere on January 13th, 2025
September 20, 2024 – Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center (Poughkeepsie, NY)
photos by Darwensi Clark
Meet the Artists
Artist Bios
Join Us
We hope you were moved by the work we’ve presented here. There are several ways you can join us!
If you’re moved by our work and would like to support our mission, consider making a donation today. If you’d like to become a sponsor, please contact us here.
We are grateful to our institutional funders. Tanfis III was funded, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts.
We are also grateful for our community partner The Art Effect.
