Decolonise Festival; not-so-white GOLD
How we gonna make the punk nation rise? AGITATE! EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!
How we gonna make poetic hearts and souls rise?
* Gonna have the best time at DECOLONISE *
2-4 June 2017 - a fresh excitement: DIY punk festival of live music, art, workshops and discussion brought to you by the D.I.Y. Diaspora Punx organised by and for people of colour happening at DIY Space For London - Appearing live; ART OF BURNING WATER, ART TRIP AND THE STATIC SOUND, BIG JOANIE, CARLOS MAURIZIO, DIVIDE AND DISSOLVE, LILITH AI, RAGANA, SABATTA, SACRED PAWS, SBSM, SCREAMING TOENAIL, SHABSI MANN, SKINNY GIRL DIET, THE TUTS, TONY YAP, VODUN - "Decolonising our past to decolonise our future". Scroll for an awe inspiring manifesto for the (necessarily) braver new world. DIY Space for London, 96-108 Ormside Street, SE15 1TF (Zone 2 inner London, 5-10 minutes walk/amble from the Old Kent Road and loads of 24 hour buses) facebook.com/decolonisefest/ tweet; @decolonisefest
Updates/Links/Pre-gig networking at the facebook event. Information on access to the venue, gender neutral toilets, viewing areas, and free tickets for personal assistants: https://diyspaceforlondon.org/access/
A HUGE a slice of rock rolling back; 'Bloodstone' by Vodun
The DecoloniseFest stars are a committee-chosen line up of truly recommended and highly acclaimed favourites. An ambitious, high calibre of live music and arts entertainments at an event with the potential to reach out to as many communities as possible. Something we can all be part of towards thwarting the tediously transparent (to some) divide and conquer operation of the cowardly new world disorder.
Next video: an earworm from Big Joanie: 'Dream Number Nine' from their debut, 'Sistah Punk EP'.
There's a history in punk's social collusion. A raw, anybody can do it culture of "rock n roll" (origin; Black, and itself a slang term for sex), being a punk involved all the outsiders originally. UK media made it about the fashion, filth, fury and favoured few until it had become a spike haired parody of itself for tourist postcards but the true spirit lives on. Women are born punky and anarchic, globally, in a patriarchal world. Yes to the petition asking Island to write off The Slits 40 Years of debt. Yes to I Am A Cliche, forthcoming film about Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex, by culture rebel film maker, Paul Sng.
Therefore, in your FACE, right wingers. The kind of interlopers who think that the Rude Boy culture is about being male with no manners. Conservatives posing as rebels, with no true concept of being an outsider, believe that "punk" is a hetrosexual white fashion uniform of clothes, hair and the right record collection. They are aghast that "coloured" people could be born feeling alien in a Western world. Fuck those "discoloured" types, I'm not gonna waste any more negative energy on part time punks like that, cos DIY positivity is pulsing with positive charges right now. Music having no colour, helps. Its how uniqulture began. Just up the road in Deptford.
Can guarantee fun. The Tuts are noisy fun joy-POWER personified. Video: '1982' from their wickedly cool (and nail-on-the-head titled) debut album, 'Update Your Brain'.
So put the first weekend of June in your diaries. Then tell your friends that wouldn't normally try such a gathering to feel the difference. I know for a fact that when I got back from Europe at the end of June, flying back to what suddenly felt like a slightly foreign land, after the fascist coup (I'm Dominican, not reptilian!) , that, a week later, my good humour and excited energy were restored by being at the DIY Space when DIY Diaspora Punx created DIY HOPE. It's not a po-faced affair. I'm a klutzy mad old bat (deluxe) , sometimes with the shy lack of social graces to match, but I went alone and was welcomed with friendship and nibbles.
Did the same again a week later at the same venue, and fell head over heels for for the addiction of The Tuts live show. November's DecoloniseFest was the boost that rounded off our picture story chapter, 'End Of Daze'.
TheZineUK is story telling. always think there's something a bit rebel base about South East London (i.e. the romantic imaginary county of Rocklands, over the river Thames from Docklands, and embracing all the "S.E. postcodes united). Its where aliens with a concept of time would land (check out how much of a sci fi location it is). TheZineUK was born there too. Feeling alienated? Come to #SELondon (pic, our own Jean Genie, mover shaker funshine maker)
Never mind my me me me burbling. Here's the real articulation. Decolonise Fest say:
We will celebrate all the brilliant punx descended (through one or both parents) from the original inhabitants of Africa, the Caribbean, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Australasia, North America, and the islands of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean.As we do this, we are rewriting the rules and challenging those labels. We are DIY Diaspora Punx. We are reasserting our place in punk and want to showcase the amazing, creative and talented contributions punx of colour have made to the punk scene since its inception. We are loud and proud and demand the space we deserve. We are uncompromising and strong and will dismantle the white supremacy and patriarchy that infests the punk scene. We will talk about racism but not in a way that centres whiteness or prioritises the feelings of white people. No white tears. We are truly putting the threat back into punk again. We will decolonise punk and make it a space for our siblings. We will not tolerate racism, ageism, sexism, transphobia, classism, ableism, homophobia or fatphobia. This is a celebratory event. White allies are welcome but remember this event will focus on people of colour. Decolonising our past to decolonise our future.
Gorra lorra love for Lilith Ai, especially since Loud Women Fest, this is 'RUDE GRRRL'
Bring on the summer a #NotSoWhite line up, welcoming everybody of peace, with a chance for the communities of the globe, represented in it's most shagged-to melting pot city.
50 years after the first Summer Of Love not being celebrated by the lamestream media, we deserve, nay, demand another. This will be a moment; be part of a people powered festival with a strong line in entertainment and a plethora of ideas. Decolonise will be a weekend to help make the world on the "news" seem a galaxy away.
At a supposedly peaceful time of writing this (Christian Easter weekend) the media and empire celebrate death, rabid over-greed, condoned apartheid, fascism, homophobia, violence, hate and third world war goading. Our unelected Pry Minister is publicly cock sucking a Nazi Oompaloompa chimp on crack. Redundant music charts are full of Ed Sheeran appropriations sound-tracking a world of climate change deniers and the unevolving, dumbed down to extremes. Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of when Insane robots are running the world. Into the ground. Especially since its been Halloween since last June. This is for all our futures. Even the baddies. Our collective tales. from DecoloniseFest outwards, are going to ripple like the best kind of potential from our tiny pond called Britain, to the world.
Oh Brexitannia, Up Yours.
Minxy McNaughty
With thanks to Jean Genie's Panda Power nights for introducing me to Art Trip And The Static Sound. On Planet Water, this video - 'Morons' would be the last story on an episod of 'The News Goes Up To Eleven'.