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Kwame Daniels.
SOURCE: derryjournal.com
Kwame, a DJ, broadcaster and creative is more than well-known to Derry people and was an integral part of the music scene here.
He came to Derry from London in 1997 with just £400 and a bag of CDs and went on to have a hugely popular residency in Sandinos.
Now based in Belfast, he has just returned from a visit to 10 Downing St at the invitation of the Prime Minister for a Black History Month event.
He is also the founder and CEO of Bounce Culture, which was founded in Derry in 1999.
The not-for-profit organization uses creative digital technology to aid personal development and skills training, primarily assisting people and communities facing disadvantage.
Kwame has curated, produced, directed, and hosted events including projects with Radio 1, BBC Radio Ulster (Inna Rhythm) and MTV, impacting over 500,000 attendees across U.K, Ireland, USA and Europe. He has led a team on the design, and production of Bounce Afrika, using Hip Hop culture to engage groups across Senegal, West Africa.
Kwame’s most recent venture, Solab provides space for artists and producers from Africa and the diaspora to Connect, Create, collaborate with projects already connecting across the continent of Africa.
Solab is this week producing North Star, an immersive live music performance in The Belfast Telegraph Building, presented as part of Belfast International Arts Festival with support from Heritage Lottery Fund and Ulster University.
The ambitious live show will feature music and literature, all deeply rooted in Black music and cultures. Led by Grammy Award winner, Kaidi Tatham; award-winning poet, Nandi Jola, rising stars Leo Miyagee and Winnie Ama, with special commissions by acclaimed actor Colin Salmon and Ivor Novello Winner, Hannah Peel, it inspired by the historic speech given by orator, writer, and abolitionist, Frederick Douglass in Belfast in 1845.
Douglass, considered a fugitive slave at the time delivered a landmark speech in Belfast, declaring, “wherever else I feel myself to be a stranger, I will remember I have a home in Belfast.”
The personal works, which also include those from over 100 students across four schools in Belfast, are inspired by Douglass’s story, philosophy, and connection with Belfast and will be shared from multiple stages within the audience, with music and sounds of Belfast, circumnavigated around the audience through spatial audio, creating a tapestry of surround sound moments to further immerse the audience in a special show, rooted in Black cultures.
All will come together in an unforgettable experience, lasting 77 minutes, each minute representing a year of Douglass’s extraordinary life.
This groundbreaking show also features live performances from Arco String Quartet, Joseph Leighton, Ben Flavelle, Stephen Davis, Rick Swann, Thomas Annang, and PVN Gospel Choir led by Angela Ifonlaja with arrangements by Jennifer John.
Speaking to the Journal, Kwame said the event is very much ‘forward-facing’ and ‘timely’ and is about ‘bringing people together’.
He added how North Star celebrates a proud moment relating to Douglass that ‘a lot of people maybe weren’t aware of’.
He is hoping many people from Derry will go along and experience North Star on Thursday and Friday evening, October 24 and 25.
Kwame regularly returns from Belfast to both Derry and Donegal. He is married to a Derry woman so is ‘still up and down the road a lot!”
He came to Derry in 1997 to undertake a course in the Nerve Centre – ‘which would have cost me three grand a year to do in London.’ He intended to ‘give it a go for a year,’ but it would change the course of his life.
He was then asked to DJ in Sandinos and it turned into residency.
“It was a great night and a great bar. One bounced off the other and there was the small room downstairs and then we started upstairs as well, There was electronic, jazz, hip hop and we had the speakers outside as well. It was just a great time.”
North Star will be performed at The Belfast Telegraph Building 14 Little Donegall St, Belfast BT1 2JD on Thursday, October 24 and Friday, October 24.
Kwame added: ““I am beyond excited about bringing these powerhouses together, celebrating diversity, history, and the artistic brilliance embedded in the city’s soul, igniting a new dialogue, framed like no other.”
Kwame Daniels is the creative director behind an immersive, new live music performance, inspired by the historic speech given by orator, writer, and abolitionist, Frederick Douglass in Belfast in 1845, which is to be showcased this weekend.
Doors open at 7pm with a start time of 8pm. General admission is £20 and there will be a BSL Interpreted Performance on Thursday 24.
For more information and tickets please visit https://solab.one/north-star and https://belfastinternationalartsfestival.com/event/north-star/.
