NFF25:RA SOL — New Forms Media Society

ra / sol

Panel Discussion

ra / sol is a 2-spirit multi-disciplinary audio/visual artist, DJ, and researcher currently living in Tiohtia:ke (Montreal) and working between there and the unceded ancestral territories of the xwməθkwəy̓ əm {Musqueam}, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh {Squamish} and səlilwətaɬ {Tsleil-Waututh} nations, known as Vancouver. Born in Oghá P’o’ghe (Santa Fe, NM) and having grown up in Mohkhintis/Treaty 7 (Calgary), ra’s work is heavily informed by their journey reconnecting to their mixed Afro-Indigenous American roots: the inherent, complex loneliness that comes with being completely disconnected from the places you come from. The idea that our ancestors are with us wherever we go, prompting a richer connection to the world around us, is an ongoing theme that their work aims to explore.

ra has over 20 years of experience as a self-taught musician, producer, and DJ, with an underpinning of time spent as a classically trained rhythmic gymnast and dancer growing up. Their archival explorations have been featured on NTS Radio London, and they have performed and given talks at several events around Western Canada including Sled Island Festival, Bass Coast Festival, Vancouver Mural Fest, Public Disco, FemmeWave, Alberta Electronic Music Conference, Calgary Pride, Victoria Pride, Vancouver Pride, and Active/Passive Concerts.

In addition to their artistic practice under several aliases, ra is also a music journalist and has spent the last decade exploring a very deep inquiry into the history of underground dance music, DJ and club cultures. Currently building a multi-versal educational, radio and event platform called Dance Floor Pedagogy, their research is informed and guided by the mentorship of King Britt and his Blacktronika course at UCSD, and focuses on the roots of contemporary electronic music culture through lenses of Afrofuturism. Deep-dive exploration into the originating roots of electronic music and dance floor culture as a diasporic liberation-movement-turned-global-phenomenon is the quintessence of ra’s praxis.

Currently, ra’s focus is split between curatorial projects spun from their dedication to the dance floor and DJing as a form of didactic community resistance against oppression, and creating new works.