Arts activist Xolile ‘X’ Madinda – CEO and founder of The Black Power Station in Makhanda, South Africa - has been artist in virtual residence in the UVA music department this semester thanks to the generous support of the Mellon Indigenous Arts Program and the Ethnography Lab.
The two informal conversations this week from The Black Power Station will explore African philosophy, and the relationships between music, sound and the spirit.
Conversation 2: A Black Power Station Conversation with Onke Simandla & Xolile Madinda:
Isingqi Nenkolo Yakwantu: on Sounds, Music and the Spirits -- An illustrated discussion connecting music, traditional healing, and talking with the ancestors
Meeting ID: 962 3657 7721
Passcode: 958193
Onke Simandla (left) is an Igqirha (traditional Spiritual Healer/ Diviner) and is also known as Zanomhlola, which means ‘the revealer of the unseen and the unknown’. Zanomhlola is also his stage name as a musician and performer who works with Xhosa traditional sounds. Onke is a healing activist dedicated to protecting the medicines, plants and rhythms of the ancestors through oral education systems.
Xolile ‘X’ Madinda (right) is a hip hop arts activist and founder of multiple projects based in Makhanda, South Africa, including Fingo Festival, Around HipHop and Arts Beyond the Streets. X has previously visited the US for multiple arts residencies, mentoring UVA students and related ‘sister space’ projects, most recently in spring 2020 when an exhibition of work from ‘Arts Beyond the Streets’ was hosted by McGuffey Arts Centre. He is Founder and Director of The Black Power Station, an inter-generational arts education space based in Makhanda.