Ashanti Harris's guest appearances

Ashanti Harris

Konch

Chats With Ashanti Harris

In the open

Live and Now

Lauren Gault

Duncan Marquiss

Margaret Salmon

Ursula K. Le Guin

Walt Whitman

Stephanie Smith

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Robert Burns

David Sherry

Tyler Perry

Emily Wilson

Chris Evans

Eileen Myles

Morgan Parker

Anne Carson

OwlTail

In this episode of Live and Now, Steve talks with multi-disciplinary artist, researcher and facilitator, Ashanti Harris. Working with dance, performance, sculpture and installation, Ashanti’s practice often focuses on recontextualising historical narratives – offering an exploration of the social, cultural and historical implications of the movement of people, ideas and things. Based in Scotland, Ashanti is co-director of the dance company Project X, lecturer in Contemporary Performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and co-facilitates the British Art Network research group The Re-Action of Black Performance alongside artist and curator, Sabrina Henry. In this excerpt from a longer interview recorded for the Live Art in Scotland project, we touch on the origins of Project X as an organisation platforming dance and performance from the African and Caribbean diaspora in Scotland, and explore the creative works which emerged from archival research into Les Ballet Nègres, known as the first British black dance company, as well as Ashanti’s wider explorations of diasporic knowledge and experience through performance. Episode transcriptDownload Full interviewDownload Contexts and documents: Ashanti’s website, AshantiHarris.comThe Re-Action of Black Performance, a research group exploring ‘how the state of being re-active is used as a theme in Black British performance art, not only as an act of agency and resistance but as a creative catalyst in the form, process, intention and legacy of the works created’.Project X,  a multi-disciplinary collectively run organisation working to platform dance of the African and Caribbean diaspora in Scotland and further afield.A conversation between Ashanti Harris and Dr Ranjana Thapalyal to accompany Dancing a Peripheral Quadrille, a new commission for the Edinburgh Art Festival 2022.Review of An Exercise in Exorcism, staged at Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA): ‘Built in 1778 for a tobacco merchant who made his fortune through the transatlantic slave trade, GoMA’s site is one of a number of neoclassical piles dispersed across the city that were constructed on the profits of the Caribbean plantations. […] An Exercise in Exorcism is one of a number of works devised by Harris on the theme of Guyanese Jumbies, malign ghosts that often inhabit particular locations’.

In this episode of Live and Now, Steve talks with multi-disciplinary artist, researcher and facilitator, Ashanti Harris. Working with dance, performance, sculpture and installation, Ashanti’s practice often focuses on recontextualising historical narratives – offering an exploration of the social, cultural and historical implications of the movement of people, ideas and things. Based in Scotland, Ashanti is co-director of the dance company Project X, lecturer in Contemporary Performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and co-facilitates the British Art Network research group The Re-Action of Black Performance alongside artist and curator, Sabrina Henry. In this excerpt from a longer interview recorded for the Live Art in Scotland project, we touch on the origins of Project X as an organisation platforming dance and performance from the African and Caribbean diaspora in Scotland, and explore the creative works which emerged from archival research into Les Ballet Nègres, known as the first British black dance company, as well as Ashanti’s wider explorations of diasporic knowledge and experience through performance. <a href="https://liveartscotland.org/wp-content/uploads/Ashanti-Harris-Live-and-Now.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Episode transcript</a><a href="https://liveartscotland.org/wp-content/uploads/Ashanti-Harris-Live-and-Now.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download</a> <a href="https://liveartscotland.org/wp-content/uploads/Ashanti-Harris-Live-Art-in-Scotland.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Full interview</a><a href="https://liveartscotland.org/wp-content/uploads/Ashanti-Harris-Live-Art-in-Scotland.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download</a> Contexts and documents: <ul><li>Ashanti’s website, <a href="https://www.ashantiharris.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">AshantiHarris.com</a></li><li><a href="https://britishartnetwork.org.uk/research/the-re-action-of-black-performance/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Re-Action of Black Performance</a>, a research group exploring ‘how the state of being re-active is used as a theme in Black British performance art, not only as an act of agency and resistance but as a creative catalyst in the form, process, intention and legacy of the works created’.</li><li><a href="https://www.projectxplatform.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Project X</a>,  a multi-disciplinary collectively run organisation working to platform dance of the African and Caribbean diaspora in Scotland and further afield.</li><li>A <a href="https://edinburghsculpture.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Ashanti-Harris-EAF22.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">conversation between Ashanti Harris and Dr Ranjana Thapalyal</a> to accompany Dancing a Peripheral Quadrille, a new commission for the Edinburgh Art Festival 2022.</li><li>Review of <a href="https://flemingcollection.com/scottish_art_news/news-press/jumbie-soundscape" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">An Exercise in Exorcism</a>, staged at Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA): ‘Built in 1778 for a tobacco merchant who made his fortune through the transatlantic slave trade, GoMA’s site is one of a number of neoclassical piles dispersed across the city that were constructed on the profits of the Caribbean plantations. […] An Exercise in Exorcism is one of a number of works devised by Harris on the theme of Guyanese Jumbies, malign ghosts that often inhabit particular locations’.</li></ul>

Live and Now: Ashanti Harris

Ashanti Harris’ ‘History Haunts the Body’ (2020) is a continuation of the artist’s research into the historical relationship between Guyana, where the artist was born, and Scotland, the artist’s home, taking in the ignored and forgotten legacies of a historical, female diaspora. Guyana was subject to British colonial rule for over two centuries, during which time the country’s sugar plantations in Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice were worked by enslaved African people and governed predominantly by wealthy Scots. This colonial control led to movement between the two countries; a history that remains largely unexplored, particularly the presence of Afro-Caribbean women across Scotland. ‘History Haunts the Body’ tells the stories of four Guyanese women who, along with their children, were part of Scottish society in the 18th and 19th centuries. Their complex histories are recounted by a single female voice, accompanied by outdoor rural and coastal soundscapes recorded in various locations where the women were known to have lived or visited. A soundscape recorded at Cromarty Harbour in the Black Isle provides a transportive undercurrent to the audio narration from beginning to end. A low mechanical hum – the sound of a ship approaching and passing by the harbour – grows in intensity throughout the duration of the work and acts as a kind of chronos, folding together the present with the past.The work is intended as a process of physically embodying and revivifying these histories as they literally enter into the body through the act of listening. A second voice guides the listener through a series of physical awareness and body-centring exercises as a way of holding, internalising and meditating on these women’s extraordinary lived experiences. This second voice acts as a calming presence, offering relaxation techniques and reminding listeners to "breathe", contrasting the often difficult and challenging facts of these women’s lives. The voice could also be heard as speaking directly to the women in the stories; providing notes of care, support and resilience as they face the violence of colonial rule and the punitive realities of Imperial society in Scotland and the Caribbean at this time. This work can be listened to at home but we recommend listening outdoors with headphones.With thanks to Adebusola Ramsay, David Alston and Jen Martin. Mastering by Stephan Mathieu / Schwebung Mastering.From the album 'In the open', track released August 28, 2020.© Ashanti HarrisAll rights reserved.

Ashanti Harris’ ‘History Haunts the Body’ (2020) is a continuation of the artist’s research into the historical relationship between Guyana, where the artist was born, and Scotland, the artist’s home, taking in the ignored and forgotten legacies of a historical, female diaspora. Guyana was subject to British colonial rule for over two centuries, during which time the country’s sugar plantations in Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice were worked by enslaved African people and governed predominantly by wealthy Scots. This colonial control led to movement between the two countries; a history that remains largely unexplored, particularly the presence of Afro-Caribbean women across Scotland.  ‘History Haunts the Body’ tells the stories of four Guyanese women who, along with their children, were part of Scottish society in the 18th and 19th centuries. Their complex histories are recounted by a single female voice, accompanied by outdoor rural and coastal soundscapes recorded in various locations where the women were known to have lived or visited. A soundscape recorded at Cromarty Harbour in the Black Isle provides a transportive undercurrent to the audio narration from beginning to end. A low mechanical hum – the sound of a ship approaching and passing by the harbour – grows in intensity throughout the duration of the work and acts as a kind of chronos, folding together the present with the past.The work is intended as a process of physically embodying and revivifying these histories as they literally enter into the body through the act of listening.  A second voice guides the listener through a series of physical awareness and body-centring exercises as a way of holding, internalising and meditating on these women’s extraordinary lived experiences. This second voice acts as a calming presence, offering relaxation techniques and reminding listeners to "breathe", contrasting the often difficult and challenging facts of these women’s lives. The voice could also be heard as speaking directly to the women in the stories; providing notes of care, support and resilience as they face the violence of colonial rule and the punitive realities of Imperial society in Scotland and the Caribbean at this time.  This work can be listened to at home but we recommend listening outdoors with headphones. With thanks to Adebusola Ramsay, David Alston and Jen Martin.  Mastering by Stephan Mathieu / Schwebung Mastering. From the album 'In the open', track released August 28, 2020. © Ashanti Harris All rights reserved.

Ashanti Harris – History Haunts the Body

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Chats With Ashanti Harris (Trailer)

Martin Carter

'To a Dead Slave' by Martin Carter read by Ashanti Harris. 'To a Dead Slave' was first published in 1951 and appears in the collection, 'University of Hunger' published by Bloodaxe Books in 2006. More from Ashanti Harris can be found at http://www.ashantiharris.com/

'To a Dead Slave' by Martin Carter read by Ashanti Harris. 'To a Dead Slave' was first published in 1951 and appears in the collection, 'University of Hunger' published by Bloodaxe Books in 2006. More from Ashanti Harris can be found at <a href="http://www.ashantiharris.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.ashantiharris.com/</a>