Non-Event Support for Social Change – Boston Ujima Project
ONLINE FUNDRAISER FOR BOSTON UJIMA PROJECT
Non-Event Support for Social Change
Featuring performances & pieces by ABDUL H. SHERZAI, ALEC TOKU WHITING with MATTHEW OKUN, GREG KOWALSKI, AND SOHIN HWANG
Friday, January 29, 2021 at 8pm
a/v premiere | YouTube
LIVESTREAM LINK
The Support Series is an ongoing series of online fundraisers in support of social & racial justice organizations. For this edition of the series, we're urging people to donate to the Boston Ujima Project.
Taking its name from the Swahili Kwanzaa principle for “collective work and responsibility,” the Boston Ujima Project works to organize Greater Boston area neighbors, workers, business owners, and investors to create a community-controlled economy. Specific strategies it seeks to employ include the creation of a “Good Business and Real Estate” certification, a community controlled investment fund, a worker empowerment network, and an alternative local currency.
We encourage you to learn more about the wideranging initiatives of the Boston Ujima Projectand make a donation, if you can.
This is the eighth of our monthly online concerts to raise awareness and money for social change. Each event will raise money for a different organization working for social and racial justice in Boston and beyond.
About the artists
ABDUL H. SHERZAI creates sound and art in Worcester, Massachusetts. He’s made bedroom noise under various monikers since 2006, and has been booking local events since 2010. Some of his collaborative projects include Floating Shapes, Gnärds, and Linda, perform throughout New England. He has had releases on the Moss Archive, Ayurvedic Tapes, YDLMIER, and HEC Tapes.
ALEC TOKU WHITING is a composer, improviser, and multi-instrumentalist based in Somerville, Massachusetts. Primarily a koto player, his improvisatory approach is rooted in his experiences studying modern music for the instrument while growing up in Yokohama, Japan. His technique foregrounds the manipulation of timbre and its relationship to physical gesture. As a composer Alec’s work results from the investigation and synthesis of abstract formal processes and intuitive structures in pursuit of a multiplicitous musical event. He has collaborated with musicians including Mark Fell, the Mivos Quartet, Wendy Eisenberg, Ted Reichman, Jan Williams, and Alex Greffin-Klein.
MATTHEW OKUN is a guitarist, composer, and audio software engineer. He received his B.A. in guitar performance from NEC’s Contemporary Improvisation department, where he studied with Carla Kilshedt, Anthony Coleman, and Joe Morris.
GREG KOWALSKI is a digital media artist whose work lies at the intersection of theater and performance art. His performance pieces incorporate interactive video projection systems of his own design that use movement, light or sound to create live visuals. Greg has also projected for numerous sound artists using his systems. The ability to create images through performance is essential to his concept of live projection.
SOHIN HWANG is an artist and writer working on issues around art, technology, and society. Her recent project involves performance art and cybernetics in the mid 20th century with an attention to materiality, producer-audience relationship, and public formation. Her writing and artworks have been presented in research institutions and experimental journals. She recently finished a doctoral degree at the University of Oxford as a Clarendon Scholar. She enjoys imaginary gardening.
