In this new experiment, Asher Gamedze and the Black Lungs will play some new material - open ended, airy and spacious - that is rooted in the practice of breathing together and invested in its importance. The ensemble will be made up of some of Chicago's finest improvisers from bands that Gamedze has an association with, such as Tha Brothahood and other characters.
Asher is a cultural worker based in Cape Town, South Africa working mainly as a musician, student, a writer, an organizer and an educator. His work as a musician is primarily as a drummer with various ensembles across and between musical traditions of improvised and free music, pop, rock and roll, hip-hop and soul music. He has performed across a number of countries on the African continent, as well as in USA and Europe. Some of the artists and ensembles he has played with include Xhanti Nokwali, Manny Walters, Nduduzo Makhathini, Angel Bat Dawid, volume 2, The Space Section and many others. His debut album as a bandleader, dialectic soul, came out in 2020. Out side work, his second release, with Xristian Espinoza and Alan Bishop, comes out in April 2022. As a writer and a researcher his interests include African history, histories of revolutionary thought and practice, Black cultural production, and radical pedagogy. His written work is published in a variety of online popular and news forums, academic journals and independent activist publications. He is part of The Interim which is an autonomous collective in Cape Town for radicalising cultural work – education work, political meetings and performance; they host The People’s Library and a variety of popular education sessions in collaboration with social movements, artists and radical scholars.
$Free$ - donations gratefully accepted. RSVP below, though you may still attend without RSVP.