The 16-person gamelan ensemble of Gamelan Gita Asmara will take us on a journey down the many paths of gamelan. The evening will begin with a performance of classical Balinese gamelan, after which it will take an experimental turn and feature a special trio performance with members of the ensemble. Balot, an influential member of Indonesian gamelan community and visiting artist and scholar at UBC, leads the ensemble with remarkable energy and a depth of traditional knowledge. On this intimate evening in MOA’s Haida House, the audience will bear witness to what takes shape and what resounds when this ancient and community-based musical tradition from Indonesia finds new pathways in Vancouver.

Gamelan is the traditional ensemble music of Indonesia, made up of mostly percussive instruments consisting of bronze gongs, metal xylophones and drums. The music features an intricate layering of rhythmic patterns and improvisation that creates a mesmerizing and shimmering beauty.

I Putu Gede Sukaryana (Balot) is a musician and composer from the village of Beraban in Tabanan regency of Indonesia. Like most Balinese musicians with conservatory training his competence in gamelan music is broad. He is an active performer with proficiency in multiple gamelan repertoires as well as experience as a tablist. As a principal member of the established arts group (sanggar) Ceraken, he has both performed and composed new works that challenge the distinction between tradition (tradisi) and modern (moderen)—terms with distinct connotations in Bali. His versatility as a musician and interest in musics globally forms a wide sonic palette from which he draws inspiration in his own creativity.

Gamelan Gita Asmara is a Vancouver-based collective dedicated to performing Balinese gamelan and its many international offshoots. By engaging with the local community and collaborating with Canadian, Balinese, and other international artists, they provide opportunities for people to broaden their experiences with disparate musics and cultures.

SOLD OUT

This special performance by Tonye Aganaba is a part of MOA’s full evening program, Decolonizing Voices: A Celebration of Canadian Black HERstory, which strives to shine a light on the contributions of Black Womxn Canadians through academic and artistic performance. A ticket to the Tonye Aganaba performance at 8pm includes admission to the full Decolonizing Voices program, beginning at 6 pm. Witness the powerful words of Nya Lewis, Bertha Clarke and Chantal Gibson with readings and an artist panel—come early and enjoy the full evening!

Tonye’s debut performance at MOA draws from their new album, Something Comfortable—an intentional and devotional endeavour inspired by their battle with Multiple Sclerosis. The album serves as the score to ‘AfroScience’ an ongoing immersive performance and workshop series that fuses live music, dance, visual art/digital media and storytelling to stimulate conversation and action around identity, addiction, healing and expression. Tonye’s shows, workshops and classes are connected and intimate experiences, and evoke a kind of vulnerability that we all hunger for.

Praise for Tonye’s music: “… one of the best R&B recordings ever to come out of Vancouver, spanning decades of soul and funk touchstones, from Chaka Khan and Jody Watley to Brand New Heavies, Jill Scott and others.” ~ Westender

Full program of Decolonizing Voices: A Celebration of Canadian Black HERstory here.

MOA pays tribute to the contributions of Black Womxn Canadians with an evening of academic and artistic performances. The night (free with museum admission) features readings and artist talks from award-winning spoken word artist, Adelene da Soul Poet (Bertha Clark); artist, poet and award-winning educator, Chantal Gibson; and founder and director of BlackArt Gastown, Nya Lewis. Each of these womxn will explore how we can decolonize institutional prejudice and evaluate how colonialism has woven its way into our every day lives through their own unique perspectives and forms of artistic and intellectual expression.

Separate tickets ($15) are also available for a special performance at 8 pm in MOA’s Haida House with multidisciplinary artist, musician and arts facilitator Tonye Aganaba who offers a powerful performance that explores the shared experience and expression of Afro and Indigenous peoples.

Program schedule

Great Hall | 6 – 8 pm
Free with museum admission

Opening remarks and Musqueam welcome | 6 pm
Introduction by co-curator, Nya Lewis | 6:10 pm
Reading from Adelene da Soul Poet | 6:15 pm
How She Read: So what does it mean to decolonize your mind? Talk and book signing with Chantal Gibson | 6:30–7:30 pm

Haida House | 8 – 9:30 pm
$15 (Please note: tickets for this portion of the evening are sold separately and available here. A ticket to the 8 pm performance includes museum admission for the full program starting at 6 pm.)

Performance by Tonye Aganabe | 8 pm

Bios

Adelene da Soul Poet (Bertha Clark) was born in San Francisco and raised in Vancouver, where her family roots are. Clark’s direct descendants are the first of BC’s black pioneers, who settled on Salt Spring Island and Victoria in the mid-1800s. Her grandmother owned a famous restaurant back in the day called Vie’s Chicken and Steaks, a famous restaurant on Vancouver’s Union Street that operated from the early 1940s to the late 1970s.

“My writing reflects the wisdom, humour, positive spirit and the strong will of my mother. She always told me to share my words with the world. As an adult when I write, I feel a deep spiritual connection coming from a source before my time. I feel the spirit and soul of the people. I write under the name of Adelene in honor of my mother, and perform as Adelene da Soul Poet. I am a spoken word artist.”

Chantal Gibson is a/Historical In(ter)ventionist, an artist, award-winning educator and poet living in Vancouver with ancestral roots in Nova Scotia. Interested in the cultural production and consumption of knowledge, her creative work illuminates the spaces where literary art and visual art meet, to confront colonialism head on. She uses everyday objects to explore nuances of power and unpack hegemonic mechanisms of oppression persistent across readings, writings and representations of Blackness and Otherness in the Canadian cultural imagination.  

As an arts educator, her public talks, community arts projects and workshop activities encourage individual reflection and collaborative exploration of Identity, Otherness, Privilege and Belonging in this de/colonial moment.

Nanyamka Lewis is the founder and director of BlackArt Gastown—an art showcase that presents outdoor and indoor art installations that stand for social change. A writer committed to creating community, her work celebrates the strength and perseverance of Black Canadian culture, history and its diversity. Last year Lewis presented an installation titled “The Feels” that shed light on mental illness within the black community and created a safe community for black youth to heal, process, share and discuss mental and emotional health.