Sounding Futures is the first live collaborative performance by Diasporas Now co-founders, RIEKO, Lulu Wang, and Paola Estrella. For this event they are joined by special guest artists Joshua Woolford, Furmaan Ahmed, and Abi Asisa.Â
Through experimental music, movement, set design and spoken word – featuring live looping, effects processors and gestural repetition – the evening will explore ritual as a form of resistance and renewal. It will culminate in a collective finale featuring set design by Furmaan Ahmed and a live cello score by Abi Asisa.
This multimedia performance reimagines what ‘diaspora’ means today. Drawing on ancestral knowledge from Asian, Latinx and Afro-Caribbean lineages, it envisions a diasporic futurism rooted in interconnectedness, embodied animism and non-linear time.
The evening will conclude with a panel discussion about the future of live art and the expanding praxis of Diasporas Now.
Presented as part of their yearlong residency at the ICA, this event is the live instalment of the Speaking Futures x Diasporas Now programme. Diasporas Now have collaborated with ICA on the first edition of Speaking Futures – our new annual flagship programme of talks, performances and workshops celebrating artists as catalysts for imagining and shaping the future.