Nkisi makes music to convey what engaging with racist, imperialist oppression in the 21st century feels like. Today, she's shared "The Cut Up Mix II," the latest mix in a series for Kahlon, The Agency Radio. It is menacing and ethereal all at once; her mutant electronic sounds move with the jagged start-stop force of a train derailing and becoming a smoldering pile of twisted metal.
Baltimore-based collective Kahlon commissioned "The Cut Up Mixes" as the musical companion to their new "The Cut Up Series" events, which feature only black and brown artists. The next Cut Up event—"Proximity to Dead Skin"—will be a one day visual and performance art exhibition on February 4th at E.M.P. Collective.
As a member of London's Endless crew and co-founder of NON, a collective of African artists who challenge racial discrimination with sound, Nkisi shares a similar ethos with the people behind Kahlon—Abdu Ali, Lawrence Burney, Chanel Cruz, and DJ Genie—about the way of music and art can effect change in racial politics. Ali and company created Kahlon to give a platform to artists of color, LGBTQ artists, and other marginalized groups. "Proximity to Dead Skin" is their latest attempt to fuse diversity, activism, and art.
"'Proximity to Dead Skin' is used to describe a daily existence of living as the other in corrupted and spoiled environments," wrote Kahlon in a statement about the event. "How does one react to such a circumstance?"
There is no definitive answer to this question, but Nkisi's "The Cut Up II" certainly provides the soundtrack for pondering, and fighting.
