Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Friday 15 September
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
Fela Kuti was a legend, a luminary, a dissident, a mystic, a Pan-Africanist and an activist. He pioneered the sound and the spirit of Afrobeat, a style of music that blended jazz and funk with provocative political lyrics and traditional African rhythms.
Fela’s irresistable music – and his often scathing lyrics, sung in Nigerian pidgin and Yoruba – made him a hero of the poor and a thorn in the side of successive Nigerian governments, who sought and failed to suppress him all his life.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Fela Kuti’s death. Hosted by PBS presenter Stani Goma, this discussion includes Lagos-based Lemi Ghariokwu, the designer of Fela’s most famous album covers, musician Zvi Belling, and multi-disciplinary artist Stéphanie Kabanyana Kanyandekwe. Join them as they discuss the life and complex legacy of this exceptional artist and activist.
This event will be Auslan interpreted.
Featuring
Stani Goma
Stani Goma is the presenter and producer of Flight 1067 to Africa on PBS FM every Sunday between 3pm–5pm. The programme features music from all over Africa, and takes the listener on a musical journey around the African continent to discover the rich and diverse sound of Africa.
Born and bred in the Congo, Stani grew up in Brazzaville, literally across the river from Kinshasa – the capital of African dance music. Growing up in such a musical environment undoubtedly instilled a deep passion and appreciation of African rhythm. Highly regarded as an experienced and knowledgeable presenter, Stani’s involvement in community radio started in 1990 soon after arriving in Australia.
Over the years, Stani has interviewed many African greats such as Hugh Masekela, Youssou Ndour, Angelique Kidjo, Baba Maal and Papa Wemba. He was the MC for the Miriam Makeba concert at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in 2006.
His other professional activities include clinical pharmacy, research and education.
Stéphanie Kabanyana Kanyandekwe
Stéphanie Kabanyana Kanyandekwe is a Rwandan-British composer and multidisciplinary storyteller and broadcaster working between Narrm/Melbourne, and Rwanda. Multiple forms of synaesthesia add a neurodiverse dimension to Stephanie’s identity as a third culture individual.
Stéphanie’s research-based practice explores the construction and archiving of culture through transcription into experiential narratives.
Stéphanie writes and presents Passenger, a weekly show on the ABC Classic radio station matching storytelling with the art music of different destinations and cultures across the world. Stéphanie has been commissioned to work with organisations such as NGV, Liquid Architecture, Arts Centre Melbourne, Musica Viva, MONA, ArtsHouse, ArtPlay, Next Wave Festival, Seventh Gallery, Noir Darkroom and Gaffa Gallery.
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Zvi Belling
Zvi Belling is the founder, director and bass player for the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra, Melbourne's premier Afrobeat ambassadors. He also works as a composer and arranger for South African jazz outfit The Royal Swazi Spa, and the live hip-hop project ZEDSIX. He has performed around the globe with music legends such as Gregory Porter, Johnny Clegg, Chet Faker, Femi Kuti, Hugh Masekela and Egypt 80, to name just a few.
Lemi Ghariokwu
Lemi Ghariokwu, is a self-taught Nigerian visual artist, graphic designer, illustrator and songwriter. He is most renowned for many of his original cover art for Nigerian music legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti. His work involves a variety of styles, often using vibrant colours and individuated typefaces of his own design. This serves a consciously integrated meta-textual function. One would say his art is rebellion, comical, political, even erotic, but most of all he is a genius in pictorial narration. Observer Music Magazine called him 'King of Covers' in 2004.
Ghariokwu's work has attracted much attention in the West and is the subject of various retrospective exhibitions. He is on Phaidon Press' list of 100 emerging and influential graphic designers in the world. His painting Anoda Sistem, created in 2002, is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA). He holds a dual lifetime membership of the museum. Lemi is also a member of Artists Rights Society, New York.
He is surely one of Africa's best-kept secrets. In June 2010, he successfully branded FELA-BUS, a marketing mural-on-wheels for the producers of the hit Broadway musical Fela! in New York. He also designed the poster for Finding Fela, a documentary which was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, 2014. He exhibits and holds workshops around the globe with the aim of leaving a lasting legacy in his own art style – branded ‘Afro art beat’.