It Was A Rebellion Mixtape, 2017-2020
IT WAS A REBELLION 2-SIDED MIXTAPE FREE DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE AT TINYURL.COM/ITWASAREBELLION
“A riot is the language of the unheard.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
From the days of the Civil Rights Era to Ferguson to Baltimore to downtown Chicago in wake of Laquan McDonald, the public expression of Black rage that escalates into physical confrontation or property damage is often framed as mindless barbarism by authority and mainstream media with the word “riot.” In this sonic exploration, DJ and sound artist Sadie Woods recuperates and challenges our notion of the riot and reframes it as legitimate, even loving, insurgency or rebellion.
It Was A Rebellion has been in development for three years. An early version was performed as a pirate radio broadcast at Homan Square, a former Chicago Police Department black site.
It Was A Rebellion mixes music from the Civil Rights Era and music of contemporary social movements, news reports and political speeches, and ephemeral and symbolic sounds to articulate public expressions of Black rage.
This sonic work was performed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s assassination and the Chicago riot of April 1968 as an act of rebellion, and to redeem King’s more radical impulses and invasions in the public space that are fundamentally expressions for hope and change.
It Was A Rebellion Mixtape was released on Juneteenth to the public to celebrate Black liberatory practices in the wake of continued state sponsored violence and global social unrest.
Lean Wit It, Riot Wit It, 2020
Screen Print
Lean Wit It, Riot Wit It draws from race protests and music of Black cultural expressions. This screen print engages with these compositions and gives a new visual reality to Black people today. Visuality, often used to mean all things seeable, here is meant to be able to imagine oneself in history. When Black history is repressed, our heroes are disappeared or sanitized and our contemporary culture is treated as a space to be commodified, co-opted and depoliticized. This work restores connections between then and now, and reminds us of political dimensions under the surface of Black popular culture.
