LA’s DJ Swan talks Festivals, Family Values and Role of Music in her Work
Annie Burks is a Producer, Turntablist and Archer.
We had a few questions for the busy California-based Dee Jay (DJ Swan) ahead of the festival she’s organizing next Sunday in Los Angeles.
Please tell us about the Mama Africa Community Festival.
The MAMA Africa Community Festival has passed and it was presented on Saturday, June 25, 2016.
We are now producing the Back-to-School International Day Festival 2016 for Sunday, August 14, 2016 from 11:11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. PST. The festival takes place in an area called the NOHO Arts District at the NOHO Farmer’s Market venue across the street from the Los Angeles Metro Orange and Red lines.
“NOHO” means North Hollywood, and the Festival is located in an extremely diverse Los Angeles community which is an empowered region of the City of Los Angeles to celebrate the wealth of global culture present, via music, food, art, and dance in our own backyards. Our goal is to make the transition from Summer 2016 vacation to Back-to-School a breeze with over fifty (50) vendors, a stage concert, food trucks, and more that help create a huge Festival day in the San Fernando Valley that offers economic empowerment, cultural education, and social development in the community.
We are working together with Broadway Financial Bank, an African Diaspora and Latino-owned financial institution to Brand and produce the Festival.
What has the local community’s reaction been to the festival?
The local community of Valley Village where the MAMA Africa Community Festival 2016 took place in June 2016 had a very light attendance, frankly, although the stage concert with Senegalese kora and sabar griots set the stage on fire with their highly soulful and spiritual music. The Valley Village community is 74% Caucasian yet is adjacent to the diverse population of the North Hollywood community, hence the reason we shifted locations for the Back-to-School International Day Festival 2016. We were saddened by the lack of interest in our initial efforts to bring cultural education and celebration to a community that resists this information heavily, which ultimately is a celebration of themselves and their roots, yet the experience reflects the past and times in which we live today.
You were born of an African American dad and mom from the Bahamas. What was life like growing up?
Ha! Thanks for asking. My family visited the South quite a bit growing up and as far back as I’m able to remember. I recall the South being a sweet and gentle place, super hot weather, yet the kindest people on the Planet were there. Southern Hospitality is a real phenomenon.
There is nothing like knowing your neighbors, showing kindness to “strangers”, growing fresh food and herbs in the garden, helping Grandma cook dinner, and hearing the adults roar with laughter after dessert. Walking barefoot around the grass was my favorite part of growing up with Southern roots.
Also, all of my siblings and I went to performing arts schools as early as 3rd grade, therefore we’ve been surrounded by dance, visual art, and theater our whole formative lives. Those years were sometimes tough on our parents as blue collar workers, running a household of six people, yet we managed by the grace of the Almighty Creator.
Values were instilled in us early on, especially self-care, education, respect for elders, and the ability to think for ourselves. Our parents wouldn’t have it any other way.
What role does music play in the work you do? How important is it to incorporate different types of music in your festivals?
Music plays a most vital role in the work I do because I’m a deejay! I’ve deejayed since 2011 and I learned to do so rather quickly. Perhaps being born on Jimi Hendrix’s birthday, and my background in arts education helped provide a strong sensibility towards sound, rhythm, and beats. Yet as an African born in America, the rhythm of music is in our roots and in the blood.
Incorporating different styles of music in our Festivals is very vital, from traditional African drum rhythms where hip-hop is born anyway, to contemporary sounds, music is very culturally-specific, respectively. This altruism is exemplified by the genius in classical jazz with African polyrhythms played on Western instruments i.e. the sounds and vibrations of Alice & John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, Charlie “Bird” Parker, Charles Mingus, and Ella Fitzgerald; or new sounds that speak to the evolution of music like Jill Scott, Les Nubians, M.I.A., D’Angelo, Young Paris, to Fela Kuti, Michael Jackson, and K-OS.
Music is endlessly empowering and ought to be infused to carry our legacy as a people forward. Eventually, I want to produce a documentary about the genius of Alice Coltrane’s life.
The First Annual Back-to-School International Day Festival 2016 is coming up on August 14. What should guests/participants look forward to?
Our events are well produced as our team is made up of professional producers of large-scale events and documentary TV by trade.
We expect a huge crowd at our next Festival in North Hollywood as this Festival once again speaks to the diverse community present in the area. Also, we had to receive 100 business signatures and 100 residential signatures for the street permit closure. While this sounds like tons of work, which is was, we had the opportunity to engage the community and local business owners from the area face-to-face. We are offering a Kemetic Yoga class with Jill Minard form Yoga House Houston, an Afro-Cuban dance class with Silfredo La O, a Capoeira class with Capoeira Los Angeles, and a Ivorian drum and dance class with Bli Bi Eric Gore from the Ivory Coast, West Africa.
We begin each of our events with a Gratitude and Libations ceremony to acknowledge our Ancestors as well as begin the festivities with a mindful meditation session. This process sets the intention for the space and to ensure that everyone’s experience is one in which they feel nurtured, celebrated, and encouraged.
What can readers expect from you and your team in coming months?
Readers can expect a documentary produced by our production company Electric Sensory Productions llc [ESP llc] about an evolving sport in Africa that features Rohan Marley of Marley Coffee and House of Marley. Without ruining the surprise, we are galvanizing five African nations in one host country, most likely Kenya or Malawi, to feature a sport and celebrity team competition that showcases the culture, people, and landscape of each country represented by the teams. Just think National Geographic meets the Travel Channel via ESPN. This dynamic TV presentation places the focus on the beauty of Africa and what makes the Motherland resilient, gorgeous, proud, intelligent, and strong. We look forward to the release of this documentary but first we have to find the right distributor that is open to presenting Africa and the Diaspora in an auspicious, progressive light, as we are.
FLYER
WEBSITE: www.djswanmusic.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/djswanmusic
Twitter: Twitter.com/djswanmusic
Originally published as Rocking a Back to School festival with DJ Swan in LA
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