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ANANSI INITIAL INTRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVE // ONGOING 


MISSION

  1. Collectively produce art
  2. Establish a collective of artists
  3. Create community commons
  4. Generate documentation for other artist collectives to organize
  5. Generate income for artists and the maintenance of the collective


PROJECTS



PEOPLE



PRAXIS



PROTOCOL

  1. Membership Guidelines
  2. Voting Guidelines


SUPPORT

  +++  OPEN COLLECTIVE



[ARC001] ANANSI REVOLUTIONARY CATALYST





The ANANSI RADICAL CATALYST is the name for period of incubation that has elevated the ANANSI Revolutionary Collective from a loose collection of individuals, into a cohesive collective body. Over the course of this time, we have hosted online, in-person, and hybrid events; established a commons of resources, people-power, and equipment; began formalizing our governance protocol; and, most importantly, paid Black artists from around the world to create art together.

Originally conceived of as a distributed festival, designed to push the bounds of hybrid art events through explorations of tele-communication, tele-production and tele-performance, with the support of The Music Center, the project grew into something much greater. 

While originally conceptualizing the Anansi Revolutionary Catalyst: Musical Vanguard Prototype (ARC: MVP), the original intention was to bring together a group of artists that would collectively create the festival. The hypothesis was that by distributing power and responsibility (rather than working within the traditionally centralized structure of director and producer as benevolent dictators with consultants and performing artists as voiceless laborers) we would ultimately create greater resiliency in the case of unexpected obstacles in the human and relational realms. But with the freedom granted to us, we were able to move beyond creating one off experiences and temporary organizing committees, and instead establish a trans-disciplinary, trans-national community of artists all working together in truly decentralized ways.



FEATURED PROJECTS


While we have engaged in dozens of experiments in creative collaboration, consensus decision making, and collective governance since first receiving support from The Music Center, here are a few highlights that were directly made possible due to their generous support.


Reparational Funding

The catalyst officially began with a reparational funding exercise, that embodied this concept in two ways: first, it retroactively paid artists that were key in developing the ANANSI philosophy through leading collaborations that included consensus decision making and collective budgeting with various Black communities; secondly, it was the first time we included a “reparational bonus” into of collective budgeting that paid Black workers an additional 25% bonus to compensate for the wage gap between Black and white college educated workers in the United States.

From this exercise, we also produced a Notion template for collective budgeting.


Meet Me in the Living Room

This event included live performances from Ndung’u Mbithi and the chair kickers and ANANSI’s resident DJ: KJ, as well as a hybrid panel conversation about African mobility hosted by Emma Nzioka. The event was a collaboration between ANANSI, Meet Me, and Pass Pass. As the first collaborative event underneath the ANANSI Radical Catalyst banner, it was a chance for the “official” organizing committee to work together in a distributed manner without the brunt of organizing alone. ANANSI contributed to the event by providing the venue (the ANANSI Residential Compound), organizational and planning support, technical support staff, and funds to pay the artists.


Praxis and Protocol

From that initial “reparational funding” collective budgeting exercise, we have been explicitly defining our praxis and protocols. Our praxis is all geared towards distribution, decentralization, and Black empowerment. They are not explicit rules for how we engage, but the traditions and frameworks by which we interact with each other and build projects, all culminating in a collective that is truly community run. 

Our protocols are the harder “rules” that we’re putting in place to ensure that everyone’s voices are heard and to protect the community as a whole. While these conversations are still in their nascent phases, the ultimate goal is to create a protocol that explictly breaks up consolidation of power and resources, engaging with our guiding spirit of Anansi and the practice of Anansesem to always call truth to power, especially within ourselves.
ARC: Conflux

The ANANSI RADICAL CATALYST: CONFLUX was a hybrid happening built around musical tele-production. During ARC: CONFLUX, attendees existed together in physical and virtual space simultaneously. Many attendees participated from in-person at the Santuri Salon in Nairobi, while also joined online by artists from around the world, including from Zimbabwe, Indonesia, the U.S. and the U.K.

While the physical activation featured in-person facilitators and support staff as well as access to equipment, the locus of the event was the virtual gather.town space where artists were able to self organize into groups to create music and write lyrics. Artists used BandLab to produce music together, using two classic Conflux techniques, and a new Lyrical Conflux style was premiered during the event.

This event was a collaboration between ANANSI, Santuri, Meet Me, and SoulCirle.


Communal Computing

Beginning in February of 2023, ANANSI began investing in its decentralized technical infrastructure. Jabez King’ori has been experimenting with Raspberry Pis, Funkwhale, and Matrix to not only establish community tools for communication and resource sharing, but also developing tutorials for members of the collective to begin building for themselves. Most recently within this project, the collective voted to purchase a desktop computer to host our self-hosted servers from, rather than relying on centralized cloud computing services.



TIMELINE


This project has been over a year in the making, with many twists and turns. Here’s a quick run through of how things went down.

︎ FEB 2022 - Kadallah submitted a formal proposal to an open call from The Music Center asking for pitches for the institutions new Digital Innovation Initative.

︎ JUN 2022 - Kadallah began working with The Music Center on the pre-production for an LA based, distributed music festival

︎ SEP 2022 - The original distributed festival project was sunlit, and Kadallah was awarded $25,000 USD in unrestricted funds

︎ OCT 2022 - Six artists that had been involved in developing the ANANSI philosophy and working on The Music Center iteration collaborated on a collective budgeting exercise, the first project officially under the ANANSI name. In addition to retroactively paying artists for their work on ANANSI projects, pools of money are set aside to continue working towards the ideas from the original pitch and unallocated funds to form the basis of a financial commons.  

︎ DEC 2022 - Seven artists from various phases of the project came together for a virtual meeting in gather.town with the explicit goal of hanging out and getting to know each other, rather than “productive labor.” This can be considered the first ANANSI Regular Conversation.

︎ JAN 2023 - Kadallah and Emmaus move in together in Westlands, Nairobi, establishing the ANANSI Residential Compound.

︎ FEB 2023 - The ANANSI Residential Compound begins to host collective mythmaking sessions, open to all in the Nairobi creative scene. Jabez begins experimenting with the Computer Commons. Six artists come together to form the base organizing committee for the ANANSI Radical Catalyst distributed festival.

︎ MAR 2023 - The official voting protocol is approved, establishing the first item in our governance protocol. ANANSI, Meet Me, and Pass Pass collaborate on creating Meet Me in the Living Room at the ANANSI Residential Compound. ANANSI hosts The Kenyan Renaissance to film an episode of Redio Mapenduzi.

︎ APRIL 2023 - ARC: Conflux is hosted in collaboration with ANANSI, Meet Me, Santuri, and Soul Circle, successfully hosting a hybrid tele-production event and a final organizing team of 12 people distributed across 3 countries. 

︎ MAY 2023 - Membership Guidelines protocol is approved. Proposal to purchase a computer for collective use is approved. Organizing for a tele-performance event is officially begun. Weekly ANANSI Regular Conversations officially begun.


VISUAL DOCUMENTATION



Event organizers during the Meet Me in the Living Room event. Soulfud, one of the ANANSI Radical Catalyst organizers, during the Meet Me in the Living Room event. The chair kickers performing with Ndung'u Mbithi during the Meet Me in the Living Room event. A view of the ANANSI Residential Compound from above during the Pass Pass portion of the Meet Me in the Living Room event. Jean, one of the Meet Me organizers, during the Meet Me in the Living Room event. Jay Jay (an event facilitator) and Zippie collaborating during the ARC: CONFLUX. Kenia, an attendee, during the Meet Me in the Living Room event. KJ, the resident DJ for the ANANSI Residential Compound, performing during the Meet Me in the Living Room event. A view of the ANANSI Residential Compound from above during the Meet Me in the Living Room event. The ANANSI Residential Compound's white board in free use during the Meet Me in the Living Room event. Ndung'u Mbithi, a Conflux instructor, participating live from their phone at the Santuri Salon during the ARC: CONFLUX. Nabalayo, a Conflux instructor, participating live from the Santuri Salon during the ARC: CONFLUX. Members of the collective collaborating on music production during ARC: CONFLUX in person at the Santuri Salon. A digital collage made during a Visual Conflux leading up to the ARC: Conflux. A digital collage made during a Visual Conflux leading up to the ARC: Conflux. A digital collage made during a Visual Conflux leading up to the ARC: Conflux. A digital collage made during a Visual Conflux leading up to the ARC: Conflux. Ndung'u Mbithi performing during the Meet Me in the Living Room event. An attendee during the Meet Me in the Living Room event. Sinatra, an organizer of the ARC: CONFLUX, participating live from the Santuri Salon. Kadallah, the ANANSI catalyst, during the Meet Me in the Living Room event. A screenshot from within gather.town during the ARC: CONFLUX.



CREDITS


This project is the result of constant collaboration. Nothing was created alone, nothing was made in isolation. Special thanks to all of those that helped make this happen, from all of the key individuals and institutions listed below that contributed time, labor, and money, often without any expectations of receiving anything in return, to the countless others that made this possible due to emotional, conceptual, and spiritual support along the way.


Kadallah Burrowes - Project Catalyst

Nardja Owens - Core Organizer 

Emma Nzioka - Core Organizer

Emmaus Kimani - Core Organizer

Sue Mwangi - Core Organizer

Nabalayo - Core Organizer

ANANSI Revolutionary Collective - Core Organization


The Music Center - Partner

Meet Me - Event Collaborator

Pass Pass - Event Collaborator

Santuri Electronic Music Academy - Venue, Equipment, and Community Support

Soul Circle - Venue and Creative Development

Ndung’u Mbithi - Meet Me Organizer, Lyrical Conflux Facilitator

Sinatra Chuomo - Meet Me Organizer, ARC: CONFLUX In-Person Facilitator

Jay Jay - ARC: CONFLUX Hybrid Facilitator

Brian Tinoota - ARC: CONFLUX Online Facilitator

Sultan - Conflux QP Facilitator

James Ler - Santuri Facilitator

Jabez King’ori - Communal Computing Developer

[MONRHEA] - Reparational Funding Participant

Martin Pettis -  Reparational Funding Participant

Mia Imani Harrison - Reparational Funding Participant

Kamal Sinclair - Mentor, The Music Center DII Director

Jamie McMurry - Producer, The Music Center

Pola Dobrzynski - Pre-Production Producer