Programme

Expect a multisensory experience that will have the whole family laughing and shivering at the same time. A silent conversation about the power of creativity in the 21st century, disguised as a puppet show. Giant puppets, experimental dance, and group exercises come together to offer you a nonsensical story whose sole purpose is to navigate the complex labyrinth of the mind with a feather and tickle your soul. Accompanied and fused with Bartira's sound universe, she will use her ever-expanding sound bank to create an immersive sound environment live.

A collection of stories from diverse origins, told to broaden perspectives, open hearts, and bring souls closer together. All of these stories share a common thread: the presence of Afro-descendant people as protagonists. Brave, resilient, and joyful individuals who serve as mirrors for us to reflect on and imagine our own lives.

Top Manta proposes an afternoon of conversation, workshops and music to talk about the Mediterranean as a border, not as a tourist postcard. Based on the migrant experience, and from screen printing and sewing with recycled African fabrics, the proposal connects culture, anti-racism and social and solidarity economy to defend decent work and life without borders.

The show takes its title from a song by Ibrahim Hesnawi, a Libyan reggae pioneer who started a musical movement that suffered political violence after Gaddafi's "Cultural Revolution" in the 1970s, when music was produced exclusively to serve the ideological propaganda of the state. The collaboration between Libyan artists Tewa Barnosa and boo.m is a sonic quest to explore reggae as a site of resistance in a time when pan-African solidarity is eclipsed and punished by imperial systems.

Adrasha’s project mebrat / መብራት explores the figure of the lighthouse as a symbol of guidance and border, translating its pulses of light into rhythms. Through field recordings, visual poetry, and personal archives, she articulates soundscapes that address displacement, communication, and belonging from a political and sensory perspective.

NDOX AK NDOX is a sound performance based on the successive journeys of people from West and North Africa across the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, connecting paths that represent both hope and tragedy. PASAPORTEMAN treats these waters as a body in a coma. Through sound, and accompanied by the artists Nusmaïl (Jokkoo), opo (Jokkoo), and 3xOJ (Rahgoul), he seeks to honor and revive this body so that it can tell its stories.

Inspired by Nkisi’s ongoing research into the ethnographic music archives (1893 till present), ‘Serpent Songs’ invokes the serpentine movements of sound and the migratory paths of its vibrations. The musical composition delves into the psycho-acoustics inherited from ancient musical traditions. Here, music emerges as an enchanted consciousness; a vessel for its mythopoetic remembrance. Inspired by the primordial snake ancestors of these ancient traditions who shaped landscapes, rivers, and hills, ‘Serpent Songs' traces the trails of music they left behind.

The Mediterranean is often a hostile border, but also a point of cultural convergence between continents. 14 kilometers of Mediterranean Sea, at its narrowest point, separate the African continent from the European one. This musical session, structured as a story, explores the African musical genres that filtered into western homes and dance floors with sounds arriving from the south, often reinterpreted through an increasingly diverse and growing diaspora at the end of the last century and the beginning of this one.

La Bissaperie is a collective invocation of Frantz Fanon's memory through a shared reading of his texts and the preparation of bissap, a hibiscus flower drink. I propose a friendly and horizontal meeting place focused on the revolutionary ideas of the thinker and a platform for people to connect with their identity, heritage and community.

The proposal is entitled In the Depths and takes the form of a performative lecture. It begins with the real history of the Atlantic as a space of violence and memory: the slave trade, ports with a Black presence in Spain (Barcelona, Seville, Cadiz), and how this past has been silenced or fragmented. From there, it takes a creative leap into the realm of the imaginary: how artists such as Drexciya have paved the way for thinking about the ocean not only as a tomb, but also as an archive, as a place of possibilities and future.

Migritude is a powerful solo musical performance by Dudù Kouate that blends ancestral rhythms, voice, and found objects into a deeply moving ritual of sound and memory. Rooted in Kouate’s Griot heritage and shaped by his transnational journey between Senegal and Europe, the performance explores migration, identity, loss, and resilience. Migritude is an intimate yet universal experience: a living bridge between cultures, where the stage becomes a shared space of listening, reflection, and collective humanity.

El Shazly's new album, Laini Tani, exudes an intoxicating and exhilarating sense of excess, evoking a sensual haze of warm nights that stretch effortlessly into dawn, while the clubs continue to vibrate unaffected. Each track functions as a vignette, capturing fleeting but intense moments of introspection, defiance, or unbridled euphoria. Through subtle wordplay, layered metaphors, and personal symbols, El Shazly weaves a richly meaningful sonic and lyrical tapestry, where every note and every phrase suggests a more intimate narrative. The album plays on contrasts—between indulgence and contemplation, spontaneity and observation—inviting the listener to lose themselves in its mesmerizing rhythms while deciphering the deeper truths hidden within. The album's soundscape achieves a refined balance, creating a dynamic dialogue between classical Egyptian improvisation, vocal manipulation, and electronic rhythms. Nadah collaborates with 3Phaz as co-producer.