Trees of Life: A Playcast by Mikemetic for May's La Ceiba Festival
Mikemetic is a multi-instrumentalist, teacher, cultural curator, producer and DJ who “has spent over two decades actively building and positively contributing to the creative arts community in Richmond, Virginia, Philly, and other cities up and down the East Coast.”
He presents the following narrative for “Trees of Life” - a playcast he created in honor of May’s La Ceiba Festival.
“By engaging that traditional essence in the form of multi-talented Ghanaian Creative Healer Ria Boss, music and art are being centered under the festival tree and bringing elements of the Divine Feminine back to the forefront of our collective consciousness. ”
There is power in culture. Seemingly endless reserves of strength and resilience have been at the heart of the African experience for generations and have been expressed most vividly through the music and arts produced by the children of the Diaspora. However, the inherent artistic freedoms that should be free for all to enjoy have endured ongoing manipulation by various iterations of patriarchy that use force and manipulation to silence both the spiritual presence and literal voices of the feminine divine.
Gatherings of women, whether in the red tent, the warriors den, or the spaces in between have had their own purpose and definition outside of the context of men, while simultaneously often being in direct defiance of laws and traditions that oppress. Within indigenous populations of the Americas and West Africa, La Ceiba is a sacred tree that provides spiritually healing powers. By engaging that traditional essence in the form of multi-talented Ghanaian Creative Healer Ria Boss, music and art are being centered under the festival tree and bringing elements of the Divine Feminine back to the forefront of our collective consciousness.
As a collection of audio tracks, the Trees of Life playcast provides a cross-section of progressive sounds that are at the edge of expressing divinity through song. As a collection of artists, the women featured in this playcast represent the broad dynamic of resilience within sonic creations being manifest across the Diaspora. From Koffee in Jamaica to Angelica Garcia in Richmond to Ibeyi in Paris, the Feminine Divine is captured in a musical framework that reflects the global realignment that is taking place with women wielding audio art as their weapons against patriarchal oppression.
Ria Boss broadcasts live from Ghana on Thursdays during “Mother May” for La Ceiba Festival, leading the charge by fueling the flames and breathing life into the rising tide of the Feminine aesthetic.
We invite you to join these La Ceiba Events featuring Ria Boss:
The Living Room Session: Ria Boss Live in Performance on May 21st at 3pm PST/ 6pm EST/ 10pm GMT, sharing soulful songs across her discography via IofC USA’s Livestream.
Mark de Clive-Lowe: Live Remix Suite featuring the music of Ria Boss on Friday, May 22nd at 4pm EST/ 7pm EST/ 11pm GMT. Following this, join a Live Chat between Ria Boss and Mark de Clive-Lowe on Instagram via @theriaboss at 4:30pm PST/ 7:30pm EST/ 11:30pm GMT.
Casting Spells: A Songwriting Workshop on May 28th at 3pm PST/ 6pm EST/ 10pm GMT. This interactive workshop will ground budding songwriters with key tools to unearth the connection between memory, mood, motion and movement in the journey of creating song.