Friday 16 December 2022, 7pm
Following the successful series of poetry readings and sonic encounters, The 87 Press is proud to invite you to the pinnacle of its events this year presenting readings of 7 poets/writers in the company of 2 esteemed DJs.
Celebrating the launch of Kristine Ong Muslim's translation of Filipino writer Rogelio Braga's collection of short stories Is There Rush hour In A Third World Country? The book is the first-ever publication from Filipino to English of a single author short story collection as well as the first translation of a Muslim Filipino writer into English.
The event is set to bring together a carefully curated group of outspoken, radical and grassroots writers Rogelio Braga, Emma Gomis, Gareth Farmer. Luke Williams, Azad Ashim Sharma and Will Harris
We will also be joined by musical mood-setters, DJ Sueuga sharing their indigenous Mexican sounds alongside daytimers regular Nadi with her electronic club music and bouncy bass to ensure the night moves the body and the soul through word and sound.
Over the last four years, the87press’ bold and daring challenge to the failure of diversity and inclusion initiatives has been well received by a growing international grassroots readership. the87press focuses attention across spectrums of underrepresentation, featuring regular work from racialised, LGBTQ+, Neurodiverse, and working class writers across genres, forms, and contexts. This event marks the beginning of the fifth year of operations, against the backdrop of an increasingly hostile climate for the arts and humanities, your support for the growing partnership between Café Oto and the87press is much appreciated!
The Sonic Agent is the curated multifarious venture of Christina Hazboun; explorer of music in space, time and society through promotion, boutique PR, artist management, tour management, research, radio shows, mixes, film curation and podcasting. Her main sphere of activity focuses on increasing the appearance and audibility of new sounds and music from West Asia, North Africa and the global south sharing hybrid, diverse and powerful voices with those who come with an open ear.
Rogelio Braga is an exiled playwright, novelist, essayist, publisher, and human rights activist from the Philippines. They had published two novels, a collection of short stories, and a book of plays before leaving the archipelago in 2018. Braga was a fellow of the Asian Cultural Council in New York for research on political resistance in theatre and performance across Southeast Asia in 2016. Their works were read and performed at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila, Mercury Theatre in Colchester, National Theatre Studio, and Soho Theatre. Miss Philippines (New Earth Theatre) is their first play written entirely in the English language was recently awarded by the Writers' Guild of Great Britain in their inaugural New Play Commission Scheme. Braga currently lives and writes in London as a refugee under the Convention.
Kristine Ong Muslim is the author of nine books of fiction and poetry, including The Drone Outside (Eibonvale Press, 2017), Black Arcadia (University of the Philippines Press, 2017), Meditations of a Beast (Cornerstone Press, 2016), Butterfly Dream (Snuggly Books, 2016), Age of Blight (Unnamed Press, 2016), and Lifeboat (University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2015). She co-edited the British Fantasy Award-winning anthology People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction! (2016), Ulirát: Best Contemporary Stories in Translation from the Philippines (Gaudy Boy, 2021), Destination: SEA 2050 A.D. (Penguin Random House SEA, 2022), and several other forthcoming anthologies. She is also the translator of numerous books by Filipino authors Mesándel Virtusio Arguelles, Marlon Hacla, and Rogelio Braga. Widely anthologized, Muslim’s short stories were published in Conjunctions, Dazed, and World Literature Today and translated into six languages. She grew up and continues to live in a rural town in southern Philippines.
Gareth Farmer is an autistic writer and academic based in Shefford, UK. His academic work focuses on poetry, poetics and literary aesthetics and he has published a number of poetry chapbooks, pamphlets and books, most recently, Strategic Forms: or, 74 Questions; 92 Solutions (2021) and Diurnal Sweigh (2018).
Jesse Darling is an artist and poet based mainly in Berlin. A chapbook, VIRGINS, was published by monitor books in 2021.
Born in Sonora, Mexico, raised in Oakland, California, Sueuga began their career in music producing beats for the reggaetoneras of Neoperreo and vocalist La Favi. They released Grieta, their first solo EP on Terror Negro Records in 2019, which went on to receive acclaim on several platforms. Their signature style combines the grinding edge of sounds from doom metal and noise records with the percussion of traditional rhythms from across Latin America. With recent releases on Argentinian label Hiedrah Club De Baile, and Uruguayan label Salviatek, Sueuga’s tracks are continually on the cutting edge of where the club and experimental sound meets. Sueuga recently released on Soul Feeder their third collaboration with producer and vocalist Lila Tirando A Violeta, a two-track sonic experience at the intersection between cyberpunk and Latin tribal mysticism.
Nadī is a Bangladesh-born DJ, host and curator with an unparalleled passion for music. Dominating dancefloors with her genre-bending sets. Having become an essential part of the underground South Asian electronic music scene in the UK, Nadī is a dynamic selector and bubbling Producer of her own music.
For the London based DJ, her sets are all about creating a musical narrative, where she likes to combine different flavours, incorporating underground sounds from dub, UKG, dancehall, plus Eastern inspired D&B tunes and there's always one thing in common: ‘a bouncy bassline’.
As one of the minds behind DAYTIMERS, she’s featured alongside the collective in publications such as Crack, i-D, VICE, DJ Mag, Mixmag, Dazed and Vogue India.
Nadī has already played multiple sets at Glastonbury festival and has several sets in Europe, India and Japan under her belt.
