09/05/2026
Today 11am NYC/6pm Ramallah on Radio alHara راديو الحارة ❤️🔥
👂🏽🎧 📻 Listen to the recording of Christian Nyampeta’s live performance of 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒔, 𝑨 𝑹𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒐 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝑻𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝑨𝒄𝒕𝒔—what the artist calls a “multiform audio-social structure.” Originally composed in 2021, the radio play is an adaptation of writer Ali A. Mazrui’s 1971 novel 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐎𝐤𝐢𝐠𝐛𝐨, in which the late Nigerian poet Christopher Okigbo is put on trial upon his arrival in After-Africa, following his death on the battlefield of the Biafran war. Was the poet entitled to place his individual civic engagement above his universal duty as an artist? In this audio reimaging, Nyampeta builds a sound world for Mazrui’s concept of “After-Africa,” an imagined pan-African realm where people go when they die. The story that unfolds examines the role of the individual artist in collective struggle.
Nyampeta’s performance took the form of an intimate listening session in the artist’s studio, where he performed a remixed version of the radio play’s first act, stitching the original ensemble’s voices together with the live score. A brief conversation with Nyampeta and curator Alma Chaouachi precedes the 40-minute performance.
This event marked the first event of Brief Histories since the gallery’s move from its long-time location on the Bowery, and culminated a year-long reflection on radio as an alternative space and medium for artistic and cultural experimentation.
Image 1:
Obi Okigbo, The Twightlight Moment In The Wake Of A Dream, 2019, indian-ink & powder pigment on linen, 80 x 110cm.
Image 2:
Design by nadya m
Images 3-5:
Selections from Brief Histories x Ecole du Soir: A Listening Session of “The Africans,” Act 1 at École du soir Workroom
𝓫𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓯𝓱𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓸𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓼.𝓶𝓹3 is organized by Alma Chaouachi, Mike Curran, Devon Ma, and Truth Murray-Cole, in collaboration with Fawz Kabra and Isak Berbic of Brief Histories.
Caption continues in comments ✨✨✨✨
