When spaces for cultural communities disappear, how can minority voices still be heard? In The Great Good Place (1989), sociologist Ray Oldenburg wrote about the importance of ‘third places’. Spaces within society that promote debate, civic engagement, cultural interchange and inclusiveness. In London, where small venues and meeting places are under threat of closure, curator Cường Minh Bá Phạm is working to create such spaces. Our Voices is a concert featuring ESEA (Eastern and South East Asian) artists from this scene in dialogue with Oslo’s east side music scene.
Cường Minh Bá Phạm curates a programme with four artists for whom lived experience is at the heart of their music. Jianbo is a Chinese/Vietnamese-British rapper who pairs mid-noughties grime with tales of a classic east Asian upbringing. British Hong Kong artist mui zyu constructs compositions blending phantasmagorical guitar and piano sounds with tape-mangled drum machines and traditional Chinese instruments. London born Lucinda Chua and searches through her songs, for renewed connections to her Chinese-Malaysian heritage. Nawaz moved from Pakistan to Norway when he was 12. He is an award-winning hiphop producer making beats with a melancholic vibe and Eastern influence.
This programme is presented in collaboration with SPOR Festival as a part of an open curator call to participants of the Sounds Now Curating Diversity Course held at Onassis Stegi, Athens (2021), Time of Music, Viitasaari (2022) and Ultima, Oslo (2023).
More Sounds Now at Ultima: check out Dancing into Fire