2 years ago
Co Creator: 
253
6
Posted On: November 26th 2024, 06:46 pm
Tagged Users:
Join us at CARA on Thursday, December 5 at 7pm for the joint launch of ‘If I Gather Here and Shout’ by Funto Omojola (@funtofuntofunto) and PALM WINE by YATTA (@yatta.sound). The evening will include an improvisational performance by both artists, followed by a conversation with writer and radio host Riel Bellow (@riiiireeee). RSVP at the link in bio.
In the words of Dawn Lundy Martin (@dawnlundy), “Omojola’s ‘If I Gather Here and Shout’ is a fierce debut that worms its way right under the skin.” ‘If I Gather Here and Shout’ summons Yoruba divinatory rituals into a hospital room. Incantatory verses accumulate alongside personal and historical “figures” of illness and death to illuminate the tensions between legibility and meaning-making that emerge when an ill Black body is processed through a Western medical context. With intimate knowledge of how ancestral memory aches and sings in the body, Funto Omojola invokes a lamenting chorus in the ceremony of survival.
YATTA’s PALM WINE is the product of years of travel, reckoning, and solitude alchemized into a joyful return to home, God, and clarity of mind. The record follows YATTA’s critically-acclaimed poetry album, WAHALA. PALM WINE, the album’s title, is at once a play on the traditional West African drink, the musical genre of the same name, and the folk music project, Iron & Wine. Through their research, YATTA learned that S.E. Rogie, a pioneer of the genre, was their granduncle. While PALM WINE is not a palm wine album in the conventional sense, it takes inspiration from the genre’s storytelling, lilting vocals, and slant towards levity, ease, and play. A departure from the poetic noise of YATTA’s previous releases, PALM WINE sustains an experimental spirit while delivering something new and expansive.
A special TY to Nightboat Books (@nightboat_books) and PTP (@ptp.vision)! Image credits in the comments.
In the words of Dawn Lundy Martin (@dawnlundy), “Omojola’s ‘If I Gather Here and Shout’ is a fierce debut that worms its way right under the skin.” ‘If I Gather Here and Shout’ summons Yoruba divinatory rituals into a hospital room. Incantatory verses accumulate alongside personal and historical “figures” of illness and death to illuminate the tensions between legibility and meaning-making that emerge when an ill Black body is processed through a Western medical context. With intimate knowledge of how ancestral memory aches and sings in the body, Funto Omojola invokes a lamenting chorus in the ceremony of survival.
YATTA’s PALM WINE is the product of years of travel, reckoning, and solitude alchemized into a joyful return to home, God, and clarity of mind. The record follows YATTA’s critically-acclaimed poetry album, WAHALA. PALM WINE, the album’s title, is at once a play on the traditional West African drink, the musical genre of the same name, and the folk music project, Iron & Wine. Through their research, YATTA learned that S.E. Rogie, a pioneer of the genre, was their granduncle. While PALM WINE is not a palm wine album in the conventional sense, it takes inspiration from the genre’s storytelling, lilting vocals, and slant towards levity, ease, and play. A departure from the poetic noise of YATTA’s previous releases, PALM WINE sustains an experimental spirit while delivering something new and expansive.
A special TY to Nightboat Books (@nightboat_books) and PTP (@ptp.vision)! Image credits in the comments.
Comments (6)
2 years agocara_the_org
[1] ‘it's an honor to be here, here i am an honor,’ Funto Omojola, 2024 [2] Funto Omojola. Photo: Joy Patchen [3] ‘If I Gather Here and Shout’ cover, courtesy Nightboat Books [4] PALM WINE cover, courtesy YATTA and Isaac Kariuki [5] Still from the music video for ‘MTV,’ lead single from PALM WINE. Set design & props: Ma Bedross (@link_in_biome), Assist: Devanté Melton (@devante.nyc), courtesy Mas Furniture Garden [6] Riel Bellow, courtesy the writer
More posts
