Basmin Nadra + General Sisters, "Sonata for St. Louis"
Date: Sunday, June 11, 2023
Time: 3-5PM
Location: Intersect Arts Center, 3636 Texas Ave, St. Louis, MO 63118
Details:
Daughter of all relations, Basmin Nadra weaves songs to sing as blessing and transcendence from here to there, above and below, melodies that hold the memory of the ways generations of her family have lived in St. Louis, been up and down Jefferson Avenue, been firsts here; her songs locate ancestors both within and out of bloodlines whose knowledges of this place provide directions to share in the chorus for how to find what you are looking for but also how to find yourself, all while keeping the Mississippi River close.
In Movement Transmissions, General Sisters collaborators Ginger Brooks Takahashi and Dana Bishop-Root invite visitors to explore open pathways constructed of words that suggest, but do not designate, routes. These pathways were designated in collaboration with four artists active in St. Louis’s justice movements—Dail Chambers, Dustin Gibson, Basmin Nadra, and Xochi Plancarte—and repopulate public spaces along Jefferson Avenue with memories of people, buildings, and actions that are no longer present. General Sisters also considers the plants that occupy those places: plants that also have stories to tell. Together, plants and people highlighted in Movement Transmissions co-narrate histories of displacement, carcerality, and environmental racism as well as joys found in communities and solidarity-building.
Basmin Nadra’s piano performance is the third of three Movement Transmissions, formed in collaboration with General Sisters.
