Claim OwnershipNKATA: Dots of Thoughts
Subscribed: 2Played: 32
Subscribe
© 2024 NKATA: Dots of Thoughts
Description
I often wake up in the morning with thoughts reeling in my head. Thoughts inspired by a conversation with someone; something I read, heard, listened to (music/podcasts), a film I saw, a photograph I made, an essay/poem I wrote, or in broad terms, an impactful encounter. They exist as disjointed, scattered particles I often refer to as dots of thoughts.Thus, this podcast show is an attempt to articulate, to converse and to put in relation these floating thoughts. While it relies on random impulses, the podcast is structured by thought-prompts focusing on everyday issues across space, time and works of life. Though it is not a live podcast, it somewhat mimics this approach in that for every episode, the conversation, which begins as a monologue, evolves into a dialogue through a phone conversation with someone else in another part of the world (a friend, a colleague, relative, expert in a subject, creator of a work, originator of an idea). This ensures a broadening of the thematic and locational context of the conversation as a way of demystifying distances. It is a weekly show intended to be spontaneous (as much as technical requirements and logistics allow). Future episodes will feature intro/excerpts of new music tracks made by me. Other times, it will reference aural materials sourced from different corners of everyday life. It will be freshly served – nothing preserved in the freezer! Listeners are encouraged to join the conversation by leaving a comment on the episode in their preferred platform of listening. Selected comments will be addressed in a subsequent episode.Emeka Okereke (host)Available on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Stitcher, Overcast, etc.
22 Episodes
Reverse
In this episode, I discuss the book, "Photography and Political Aesthetics" with the author, art critic and professor, Jane Tormey. Our enlightening conversation traverses the landscape where artistry intersects with political fervour, dissecting how photographs can sway social movements and mould public opinion. We navigate the evolution of politically motivated photography, from its historical roots to contemporary schools of thought, probing the depth and breadth of visual politics. J...
This episode takes you on an auditory pilgrimage with the Berlin-based, musician, Batila, weaving the essence of his Congolese and Angolan heritage into a rich narrative that dances between the notes of his latest album, "Tatamana." As Batila unpacks his life's journey from Germany to the cultural depths of his upbringing, we discover how a childhood migration shaped not only his reality but also the very music that he breathes into existence.Batila's convictions resonate as he insists ...
During a three-week residency in Tangier, Morocco, my friend and colleague, anthropologist Mathangi Krishnamurthy, and I, Emeka Okereke, had the privilege of meeting Abdelmajid Hannoum, whose book "Living Tangier" served as a springboard for our research and thought processes during our residency in the city, organized and supported by The Minority Globe.In this episode of Dots of Thoughts, Professor Hannoum shares his intellectual and creative process of translating fieldwork experiences int...
This episode was inspired by my participation in the exhibition "Prussian Palaces. Colonial Histories", taking place at the Schloss Charlottenburg Berlin. My guest, Carolin Alff, one of the exhibition's curators, guides us through the thoughts that inform the exhibition's making. We discuss the mystery of two statues, their damaged state, a testament to the inaccessible vignette shrouding Germany's deplorable colonial past. The statue in question was the subject of my audiov...
If you've ever found yourself lost in the labyrinth of existence or pondering the multiverse and the many layers of our identity, my recent chat with the talented filmmaker and fashion model You Kim is sure to resonate with you. We venture into a reflective analysis of the film, Everything Everywhere All At Once - a cinematic marvel that masterfully addresses the complexities of subjectivity, truth, and the human tendency to deconstruct our world. It's a film that bears a striking relevance t...
In this episode of Dots of Thoughts, I am in conversation with Diana Mora. She is a ballet dancer. Her inclination to dance started from as early as the age of six, when she first watched Swan Lake. Supported by her mother, she studied and completed ballet dancing at the National Academy in her home country Bolivia. Dance became the incentive for her movement and consequent self-unravelling from then on. Finally, she moved to France to pursue her dreams as a ballet dancer. In the podcast, she...
In 2006, I remember photographing, in Paris, the protest against killings that then took place in Isreal and Palestine. In the photo, a father is clutching his little daughter on one hand, while with the other hand, waves a placard that reads “Le meme age que ma fille” (same age as my daughter). I remember feeling deeply struck by this double emphasis aimed at reiterating what should be so obvious: the trail and ensuing threads of human violence – like mitochondria – run and connect to us all...
Eric Gyamfi (1990, Ghana) is a visual artist working with and within photography. This podcast conversation was induced by the inclusion of his work in the book, Africa State of Mind: Contemporary Photography Re-imagines A Continent “by Ekow Eshun. Rightfully so, the conversation build’s on Eshun’s central premise of focusing on photographers/works that fall within the 21st-century timeframe. Eric Gyamfi’s work, although beautifully photogenic, accounts for processes outside and beyond the fr...
In the second episode of Dots of Thoughts Shorts, Emeka shares a few thoughts and impulses about what the inner voice means for him. Duration: 9:19 mins. Join the conversation and leave a comment on your preferred listening platform.Support the Show.Thank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com
This is the debut episode of the bonus series called Dots of Thoughts Shorts (DoTshorts). Emeka Okereke gives a glimpse of his thoughts regarding the notion of work, and what work has come to signify for him. The episode is backdropped by sonic “artefacts” made up of ambient sound and music. Listen in full at https://nkatapodcast.comAlso on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Deezer, Overcast and more. Support the Show.Thank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podc...
In the 12th Episode of Dots of Thoughts, Emeka Okereke reflects on the photographic work of Lebohang Kganye. Ke Lefa Laka: Her-story, was realised in 2013. It explores the relationship between Lebohang Kganye and her mother, who passed on three years earlier. She employs the techniques of double exposure and superimposition to “re-enter” the life of her mother and to seek out a space of communality between the living and the dead, between the past and the present wherein “she is me, I a...
In this episode of Dots of Thoughts Podcast, Emeka Okereke is joined by Ekow Eshun to reflect on the book, “Africa State of Mind” edited by Ekow Eshun and published by Thames & Hudson. The book brings together works from 52 contemporary photographers from Africa. Fundamental to the book is Ekow Eshun’s intention to “explore how contemporary photographers have presented Africanness and Africa as a physiological space as much as a physical space”.The conversation departs from the book’s per...
In this episode of "Time Does Not Pass. We, on the other hand, pass through it - and make forms of it", Emeka Okereke (Berlin) is in conversation with J. Redza (Kuala Lumpur). They reflect on the idea of Time in relation to age(ing). This episode can be best described as a "rumination between millennials". Emeka Okereke and J. Redza were born on the same year (1980, Kaduna Nigeria, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) - a coincidence that preceded their encounter in 2006 over the internet. Insofar as ...
"I am looking at Time as an element of art, an element of expression not as a clock or calendar. I am looking at the capacity you have as an individual to define a progression of your existence and your event."In this episode, which continues our reflection on Time, Emeka Okereke is in conversation with Jude Anogwih. It opens with Anogwih's proposition to think of Time as an element, an interactive material for expression and agency. From here on, the conversation takes the form of open-ended...
We often hear such expressions as "Time passes". "Don't waste time". "Buy time". "Spend time". But, is time quantifiable in the sense we use it? Isn't it a paradox, this inclination to contain what contains us? These are some of the thoughts (and more) foregrounding this reflection on and about time. This podcast is an introduction to a series of conversations aimed at fleshing out thoughts regarding our understanding/reading of time as a non-physical yet uncircumventable component our c...
Founded in 1927, Queen's College, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria is part of a formidable legacy addressing the gender disparities between male and female education in Nigeria spearheaded by a group of women who contributed to the founding of this country's first government-owned secondary school for girls.The six years I spent in Queen's College between 1993-1999 formed part of a lifelong lesson in feminism, ambition and mediating between individuals across class, social and cultural differences, in wh...
For 25 years, Madam Margaret Opambour-Adjei has run the Afroshop Tropical Markt, in Neukölln Berlin, where she sells foodstuffs, cosmetics and fabrics mainly from West Africa. Originally from Ghana, she migrated to Germany in 1988. In this episode, Emeka Okereke visited her shop during which they discussed various aspect of the movement of African food across borders. “We are quite conversant with the movement of bodies and people back and forth borders in the context of migration –...
In this Episode, Emeka Okereke (Berlin) connects, through a phone conversation, with Diwas Raja (Kathmandu) – writer, scholar and Lead Researcher at the Nepal Picture Library. Their discussion expands on the intentions and the operative premise of the photography book, "Dalit, A Quest For Dignity" of which Diwas is the editor. The book, which is a Nepal Picture Library Project, "came about as an attempt to create a visual archive of the Dalit experience in modern Nepal."The episode opens...
To dedicate a conversation to Tony Allen is to recall the rich history of African Music, unsurpassed wit and creative ingenuity, needful rebellion, activism and truly African artistic inventions and languages through that very melodious, harmonious, rhythmic, soul-soothing art form called music. Much of Africa's temperament, sense of community, sharing, family, humanity and spirituality has been captured and indeed preserved in music. But it didn't stay static. If anything, it travelled ...
In Episode 3 of Dots of Thoughts (DoT), Emeka Okereke reflects on a book which preoccupied him of late: Festac ‘77. This book, “decomposed, an-arranged and reproduced” by Chimurenga the Cape-Town based Pan African art space/publishers, is a compilation of the 2nd World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture which took place in Nigeria, in 1977. It was an epic event that Ntone Edjabe, founder of Chimurenga, placed on the same historical pedestal as the Great Pyramid. The Festival broug...
Comments
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States