BASS Festival – June 2010

BASS Festival (British Arts and Street Sounds) is the UK’s only month-long celebration of Black Music and Art, and it returns this June for a celebration of urban music and culture.

Taking place for the fifth consecutive year, the month-long festival will see a range of music and arts events in venues across Birmingham. This year, all events will fall under the theme of DNA, looking at both personal DNA and the heritage of music.

The full 2010 line-up is yet to be announced but here are a few highlights:

Protest: Fight the Power: Twenty Years of the Political Poster
2 – 26th June Devonshire House, Custard Factory
Now in the UK for the first time Protest is a startling exhibition of shock and awe by graphic designers from around the world. Over two decades of street-fighting struggles created these propaganda and protest masterpieces which have toured Africa and Asia in a British Council sponsored show.

Desert Boy
10 – 11 June @ Birmingham REP
An a cappella musical with story-telling and song, woven seamlessly together into an epic musical drama. With singing from across the ages from Mali to hip hop, from slave songs to rap, Desert Boy is a funny, fantastic and provoking new musical tale.

DNA of Hard Times
26 – 27 June @ The Drum
In a commission for Punch and The Drum, Martyn Glynn and a group of spoken word artists use the visual imagery of the DNA double-helix to represent both the spiral of economic recession and the ladder of artistic opportunity. This hard hitting theatre piece provides a vital comment on the economic recession and the Darwinian theme ‘survival of the fittest’.

Beyond the Ballroom feat. Snowboy
13 June @ mac
At its peak, Jazz Fusion involved thousands of utterly devoted young people, whose commitment and enthusiasm would have been the envy of the UK dance world, if only they knew about it. With Dick Jewell’s film The Jazz Room, book signing and a DJ set from Snowboy this night gets below the radar to find a remarkable part of our dance history.

Funky History - Funky Underground club night
19 June @ Sence Bar
Movers and shakers Felix and Jezta run Birmingham’s premier funky night Funky Underground. For one night only they will take us on a personal journey through their musical DNA. With a mix of local DJs and some special guests, Funky History will be a big party in the middle of this year’s BASS.

Genesis 9:25 by Kokumo
19 June @ Birmingham REP
In a new piece commissioned by Punch, Birmingham based artist Kokumo combines music, dance, spoken word to explore themes emerging from a recent trip to Brazil; where ever you travel the struggle for black people and people of colour takes the same path.

Rudi & Smash Bro’z
25th June @ mac
A double bill of work from US based artist and dancer Rudi and Birmingham based hip hop dance collective Smash Bro’z. Through reclaiming street culture for themselves, both artists will reconnect with their heritage that outside forces have tried to subvert from their DNA.

Last year’s African-themed festival saw over 20 events including an opening performance by award-winning Kenyan artist Opiyo Okach, The Shrine Synchro System performing live alongside vampire movie Nosferatu, UK beat-makers Louis Den Beat Cypher, and female DJ duo Mama Feel Good. The festival also hosted new commission ‘I Dream of Fela’ featuring Sway, Baby J and  Richard Olatunde Baker, in addition to securing the UK rights to ‘Art’s Own Kind’, an exhibition of the world-renowned album sleeve designer Ghariokwu Lemi and his work for African legend Fela Kuti.

BASS Festival is produced by Birmingham-based Punch Records, in association with music partners and artists. In 2010, the festival will work with mainstream and grassroots organisations to deliver a range of new commissions, live performances, art exhibitions, dance and theatre performances, film screenings, and master classes.

For more information on BASS Festival and line-up announcements, visit www.punch-records.co.uk.