end of an era, baby! 🌅
Announcing the last Black Noise fuh Black August mixtape!...for now
📌 What’s Inside:
- The Last Black August mixtape drops AUGUST 31st!
- Invitation: Submit a track to the last mixtape!
- FREE MUMIA! - our mixtape muse
- Upcoming events and the smoldering horizon!
“[…] we need to look at the unsanctioned traditions that have truly advanced humanity this far. If there's to be a commemoration of any sort of holiday formation, my preference is Black August. If for no other reason than that the state can't stand Black August, or the politics associated with George Jackson and the Attica uprisings. The long Attica revolt, as Dr. Orisanmi Burton talks about, and the traditions of socialism, communism, radical pan-Africanism, radical black revolutionary nationalism, and arms struggle. All of those traditions that the state willfully suppresses at every turn” Dr. Jared Ball on “Juneteenth Corrected”
🏁 Black Noise for Black August: The last mixtape
When I realized in January that this years mixtape would be volume 7, I had a strong follow-up sense that it would also be the last volume. Perhaps my intuition was tapping into the knowledge-ways of mystical, earth-rooted traditions from all around the planet where 7 represents wholeness, completion, and transformation. I feel all of those things. This annual sonic ritual to Black August has evolved into a social practice and a personal healing that I cherish deeply. Every volume involves deep dives into the archives of diasporic Black American and African life, pulling up obscure scenes and sediment from Black August history. Like this Black August Hip Hop Project from Malcolm X Grassroots Movements and thee dream hampton.
Dr. Jared Ball’s quote above and this film describe a chunk of why Black August is an eternally rich site and source for beautiful trouble, Black creative expression and prison abolition/liberation praxis1. Black August is a lighthouse for chaotic times like these. It’s this prison-born, dignified, unsanctioned, growling, subversive tradition that continues to train my artistic instincts out of etiquette. This last one is extra special because it will feature new, talented, and underknown Black sound artists that need to be heard! So, while this beautiful Black sound series is ending, fear not, this collection of work will live forever (scroll to the bottom to find past volumes) and the spirit of Black August will continue to course through the veins of all my creative expressions and social practices. There will also be a final mixtape show. Stay tuned for more on that soon!
Listen to a snippet of what’s in store:
👨🏾🎤Invitation: Submit a track to the last mixtape!
For the first time, I am opening up mixtape submissions to the public! If you’re a Black sound artist with something sonic to say about Black August and all it’s rippling energy, submit a track or two.
The Last day to submit is JULY 22!
🌹 FREE MUMIA - The Embodied Spirit of Black August
“The spirit of Black August moves through centuries of Black, Indian and multi-cultural resistance. It is an emblem of the spirit of freedom. It is a long smoldering spark of the fire in the hearts of a people, hearts burning and yearning for freedom.”
-Mumia Abu Jamal
In 2003, Prison Radio2 released a recording of radical journalist and Black revolutionary Mumia Abu Jamal speaking on ‘the spirit of Black August’. In 2019, I heard it for the first time and something about the hypnotic divinity in his gentle, yet penetrating, baritone voice spurred me into creative action. For the last 7 years since listening, I’ve been producing an experimental mixtape of beats, soundscapes, poetry, and songs to raise funds for Black abolitionist work and provide an expressive vehicle for the Black diasporic stories embedded in the thick and sweltering tones of August. Today, Mumia continues to unjustly suffer behind bars for a crime he did not commit. At 77 years old, he is now the longest-serving prisoner in U.S history. That record was held by Indigenous social movement leader Leonard Peltier before he was pardoned by Biden in January 2025. It’s long been time for Mumia to be free! Learn about how to get directly involved in his case here.
🌞 the smoldering horizon
July 5th: Join me and Ajusher, a community band I sing in, as we offer songs to the Eno River as part of a closing ceremony for the land from the Eno River Festival.
I’ll be retiring my sound artist name ‘dynamism’ as I undergo a creative renaissance and release new works under a different pseudonym.
Also seeking aligned opportunities for paid artistic collaborations and residencies, holla at me!
ciao for now, folks <3
Past Volumes of BNBA!
Tip of the Spear by Dr. Orisanmi Burton
Black August 2023 by Mumia Abu Jamal on Prison Radio