Seam Poets is a small clothing line made up "...of soul, fabric, ink,
graphic design, heart, raw talent,
experience and thread.." Michelle, Michael,
and Tabitha are re-thinking clothing as something more than a mass
produced, tangible item you wear and forget. These designers hand
screen paint
and sew their growing line of comfy cottons and tribal patterns. They
are making their fun and nature-inspired prints in the basement of
their Philly home.
The line has goods for men, women and children -with funky feather
prints and swooping V neck T's. The small staff of 3 or 4 does
everything from
adding colorful threads to the seams, painting and shipping orders. Green Owl is all about supporting these kinds
of unique underdogs; people who find contentment in creating art and running a business in the most non-destructive way.
Check out their "Indian Summer" line on Etsy and stay tuned for their fall duds.
Perez has been knocking down doors from Paris to Malawi. Gawker spotted him on Bedford Avenue. Word has it that Mwamwaya has been staying in an undisclosed Brooklyn bungalow, shacked up with an old Casio and a hardrive full of coupedecale beats. We sent our secret informant (me) to find Esau (aka the elusive African) for this Mugshot Monday exclusive. Catch The Very Best next week in LA, SAN FRAN, LA AND CHICAGO. In the meantime, here's an interview.
What's one of your favorite lyrics you've written? Kamphopo because it's about dreams that come true.
How do your skills as a drummer get expressed through your singing? It helps me create the structure of how my song will
sound or how I'm gonna sing it. When you are a drummer, you
are the driver of all sounds and instruments.
Who's your musical hero and why? Peter Tosh whose music has inspired me since i was
young, Phil Collins, Paul Simon and many more. However, my true heroes would be Johan and Etienne (aka Radioclit) cause they are
the ones who have helped me to push through.
Any thoughts on Obama's speech in Accra? Oh yeah! I liked it especially when he pointed out the need to
support democracy and fight corruption in African states and also the
need to stop human trafficking which most of the time targets innocent
young children.
What was the oddest job you had in London before meeting Johan and Etienne? I was a construction worker!
When and why did you first leave Malawi? I left in 1999 and the main reason was to search for greener pastures and also have a different life experience
When did you realize that your work with Radioclit would be something important? Since I did the first song and saw how excited Johan and Etienne were.
Tell us about your background in Malawi? What was it like
growing up where you grew up? I come from a family of ten children. We did not have much problems among ourselves because our
parents tried their best to teach us love and good manners. My parents
were not rich but they were not poor either cause we were just
comfortable.
What do you think the relationship is between your music and politics? I don't really like singing "poly-tricks" -- only that some times I may be obliged to do so.
What makes a great singer? Avoid drugs, binge drinking and mostly don't pretend to be somebody, just be yourself
What makes a great father? A father can never be great because anyone can father haha! but you have to be there for your kids and be called a daddy.
Where do you see yourself in the future? As long as I'm alive and in good health, I don't see anything hindering my success in whatever I do.
Obama's visit is a huge deal in Ghana. This is a country that's gone through some tremendous changes in the last few years. There's a new super-mall in Accra; Bono is saying "buy Ghanaian." Ghanaians, txt your questions to Obama here. Captalism, here we come. Akan roots in the stream.
The digital age visually fortifies what's around us; everything is high res. As visual references get over-perfected, we become simultaneously drawn to what's natural: the erosion of the digital, the ability to see the colorful accidents and dilapidations of time rendered on supposedly unchanging forms.
At 6:28 PM tonight, Esau Mwamwaya will touch down on US soil at the venerable Newark Airport. It's been a long flight from Copenhagen, and before that, Malawi. We'll follow E over the next month in the US as he brings the warm heart of Africa to shows, parties and barbeques near you! In the meantime, catch up with our man Eddie Statz at FADER Mag where he refixes The Very Best atop the newest Ghetto Palms mix. Find it here or stream it below.
The G8 summit began yesterday in Italy and Green Peace was out in full force (see above construction site / coal tower images; glacier is from last month in France). "“The G8 heads of state must break the deadlock in the climate
negotiations and stop blaming developing countries for their own
inadequate climate policies,” said Greenpeace USA Executive.
UPROOT ANDY just passed us the info on his new free party at APT (meatpacking district, NYC) in honor of the venerable Chief Boima (Ghetto Bassquake fame). If you missed the Dutty Artz boat party last Friday, don't miss this one on Thursday. Boima's Crisis mix (ftr Khady Black) in the stream below.
Biophilia is the idea that human beings are drawn to organic forms. Simple, right? But it's a bit mystical -- there's something magnetic that pulls us to nature, like when you're close to the woods or the sea. Here (above and below), is one way the biophilic inclination plays out in the design of a house. It's a bit Cocorossie / candlyand, but yo that's cool! Send other environarchitectures: wills@greenowl.com. We'll write about them.
Esau Mwamwaya (The Very Best) and Ezra Koenig (Vampire Weekend) have finally translated their new song, WARM HEART OF AFRICA (streaming below). Make your version here and listen to the original...
I first met artist Paul Tyree Francis (aka Paul Diddy) through his work at David Byrne's global music imprint, Luaka Bop. Paul has been designing for Luakabop.com for the last five years. More than just a visual referencer, he's a part of the label -- an artist on the same roster as groundbreakers Tom Ze and Shuggie Otis. Diddy recently moved to Berlin where he and wife, Jesi Kadivi, opened a new gallery, Golden Parachutes.
Talk to us about collaging. I'm focused on making specific references with my
collages, elucidating relationships between
contemporary technology and ancient history, sex and death, God
and reverence/seeking, capitalism and exploitation. I
seek to mirror the reconfiguring of the world that I believe will
transpire very shortly in the future. I often refer to a quote in
which William Burroughs (in referring to experiments made with the tape
recorder) states "when you cut into the present, the future leaks out."
What visual artist is most influential to you and how are you challenged to work with that influence? Robert Rauschenberg's dirty
pop art and color sensibilities have been hugely influential, but I'm
equally inspired by painters like Cy Twombly, Anselm Kiefer, Herbert
Bayer, Josef Albers, Mark Rothko, Frantisek Kupka, Per Kirkeby, Fred
Tomaselli, Mati Klarwein, Mark Tobey, Julie Mehretu and Ed Ruscha. I am also very much in
awe of whatever makes crop circles.
How is music a part of your work? I
make music because it's fun to make. Often I won't intend on fashioning
a complete work; the work arises out of the process of creation. I
haven't yet combed through the records that I have here in Berlin
for samples, so I'm certain I will create some type of musical overture
in the near future. Whatever I make, I think I would like what I make
next to feel like a ceremony of sorts. I have a few midi samplers that
I'm excited to work with, and would also love to dig into Max/MSP.
I know Sun Ra is a big influence. Tell us about it. Sun Ra taught me a lot about cosmic language. There's this one Sun Ra quote that really resonated with me from an interview that VH1 did with him in the 80's: "I realized that people got feelings, and I reached towards their
feelings and not their minds, because they've been brainwashed so why
should I try to reach something that's brainwashed? But their spirit
hasn't been brainwashed. And it's pure! Everyone I meet. I know that. I
know what they supposed to be. And I reach what they're supposed to be and
what they potentially will be, I'm not worried about what they are, I'm
not trying to reach that part of people."
Where do you feel closest to nature in Berlin? Berlin
is the greenest city in Germany, and has so many spectacular parks that
stretch for kilometers. Probably the most
natural areas around the city are the areas surrounding the lakes. I
just took a bike trip to the Grünewald, which is where the Teufelsberg (Devil's Mountain) is. This is where an American spy station was
located, built atop all this WWII rubble. The station has been
abandoned for years and is being reclaimed by a combination of nature,
anarchists, junkies and graffiti artists.
Geopolitics and art in three sentences. Go! Art
can bring people to ideas, but it can't make them think. Political
systems only allow people some access to some ideas. Art (Mark Lombardi comes to mind) wields the power to reconfigure not only
people's relationships to politics, power and the world, but also to
themselves.
Is it fucked up to love something you don't understand? It's much more fucked up to hate something that you don't understand.
I recall a Tesla quote that I have to fabricate as I can't find it
directly, but he said something like 'even for all of the time spent in
my laboratory working with electricity, it remains to me a mystery.'
How do you make money from your art? By selling it and through donations for my music. I also make websites for people and
organizations, which could be seen as art but is probably more akin to
psychic theater and engineering.
Though I would prefer to work as an artist full-time, making art
for me is not about making money. That doesn't mean that artists like Jeff Koons or
Olafur Eliasson who utilize a lot of people's talent and therefore a
lot of money make bad art because they sell their work for a lot of
money. It just means they have more options as to what is possible for
them to make (or eat or where to live). Access to more options doesn't
necessarily make life easier.
What's the most futuristic part of your life? Meditation.
What's the biggest environmental challenge facing artists today? The
necessity of fashioning objects of any sort to relate meaning, and the
demands of culture for an artist to be in many places in quick
succession, generally via air travel.
A friend recently
commented to me that I was 'keeping the internet warm', which disturbed
me to my core. I then (the next day) read an article in the NY Times
describing the central data facilities that various companies operate,
and the enormous amounts of power required to maintain their operation.
It's harrowing to realize that one's vacation photos posted on Facebook
or Flickr not only require space but perpetual power.
