The ANANSI RADICAL CATALYST is the name for a period of incubation that has elevated the Collective from a loose collection of individuals into a cohesive body. Over this course of 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.
Growth & Change
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.
The hypothesis was that by distributing power and responsibility…we would ultimately create greater resiliency in the case of unexpected obstacles…
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.
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.
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
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.
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.