The Kitchen presents Vijay Iyer’s residency, The What of the World, for which he has assembled artists across musical disciplines to explore what he calls the “affective archaeology” of systemic racism. This multifaceted residency is an exploration, from many perspectives, of how racial oppression feels. Iyer’s residency features a series of evening performances, as well as Iyer’s new sound installation—titled How the Spotlight Sounds, with texts by Garnette Cadogan, author of “Walking While Black”—playing throughout the week.

PERFORMANCE DETAILS & SCHEDULE

MONDAY, JUNE 25

Sara Serpa: Recognition
7pm, FREE
Portuguese vocalist Sara Serpa presents Recognition, a haunting exploration of her own family’s colonial history in Angola, in a trio with saxophonist Mark Turner and pianist David Virelles, performing with a silent film directed  by Serpa and produced by Bruno Soares.

TUESDAY, JUNE 26

Vijay Iyer/Garnette Cadogan: How the Spotlight Sounds
12pm-5pm, FREE Installation

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27

Vijay Iyer/Garnette Cadogan: How the Spotlight Sounds
6-7:30pm, FREE installation

Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith / Ganavya  & Rajna
8pm, $25/$20 members
Iyer joins trumpeter-composer and creative music icon Wadada Leo Smith in a duo work, Deep Time: American Meditations, a series of musical tableaux memorializing the ongoing struggle for equality. Vocalist Ganavya Doraiswamy and percussionist Rajna Swaminathan present new work at the nexus of Indian musical traditions and creative music, reflecting “on whiteness and the various alchemies of power.”

THURSDAY, JUNE 28

Vijay Iyer/Garnette Cadogan: How the Spotlight Sounds
12pm-1:30pm, FREE

Mike Ladd: Blood Black and Blue / Imani Uzuri: WILD COTTON 
8pm, $25/$20 members
Poet/producer Mike Ladd joins Iyer, poet Ursula Rucker, producer/emcee Hprizm, vocalist Imani Uzuri, and musicians Marvin Sewell and Kassa Overall in Blood Black and Blue, “a contemporary story about encounters of police of color with victims of the same race,” based on dozens of interviews with African Americans in law enforcement. Vocalist-composer Imani Uzuri presents WILD COTTON, a meditation on “the undocumented soundscapes of enslaved Black-American ancestors that still haunt us today.”

FRIDAY, JUNE 29

Vijay Iyer/Garnette Cadogan: How the Spotlight Sounds
11am-3:15pm, FREE

Himanshu Suri: Kebab Uncle / Arooj Aftab: Bird Under Water / Latasha N. Nevada Diggs: Trix are for Kids
8pm, $25/$20 members
Queens indie rapper Himanshu Suri and Arooj Aftab collaborate with Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily, and Kassa Overall on Kebab Uncle, an incendiary memoir of being brown in post-9/11 New York. Pakistani American vocalist Aftab is joined by Iyer andIsmaily to perform excerpts from Bird Under Water, her latest album that undulates and scintillates with dark post-pop meets mystic muse. Poet and sound artist Latasha N. Nevada Diggs performs a solo set entitled Trix Are for Kids of “black and brown poetics that are never basic.”

This residency is presented as part of The Racial Imaginary Institute: On Whiteness. For more information about the exhibition and other programs please see our website.