Event Details
Mon, February 20, 2023
18:00 – 19:30
Art Studio Colletta
VILLA LA PIETRA
Via Bolognese, 120
50139 Firenze, Italia
rsvp: lapietra.events@nyu.edu
Two and a half billion years ago there was no oxygen or life forms on earth. Silence. But, silence is not the absence of sound. Silence is the presence of sounds that are difficult to hear. Slowly oxygen began to spread over the earth, gradually, and this phenomenon is called the Great Oxidation Event (GOE). New life forms have begun to be seen on earth.
For the VIII Edition of Black History Month Florence, NYU Florence presents griot, cultural mediator and musician Dudù Kouate for a performance that combines a video work and a sound performance into a rich and layered soundscape that seems to traverse the inner and outer realms of culture.
Followed by a conversation between the artist and Justin Randolph Thompson, Co-founder and Director of Black History Month
Featured Biographies
Dudù Kouate
GRIOT, CULTURAL MEDIATOR, AND MUSICIAN
Dudù Kouate is a multi-instrumentalist, disseminator and teacher of traditional African percussion and instruments. He plays afro-jazz, modern, traditional and contemporary music and collaborates on a permanent basis with the Chicago Art Ensemble of Roscoe Mitchell and Don Moye. Thanks to the research and use of new and original sounds, he manages to revive the African musical tradition in a modern and multicultural way, through the inclusion of percussion in diversified musical contexts. This performance was originally a part of a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community in Bergamo.