Movement

MUSIC AND MIGRATION, REMIXED

Movement is a multi-platform storytelling initiative that explores the intersection of migration and music. Through our live show, podcast, and radio broadcasts, we center the voices, stories and songs of immigrant, migrant and refugee musicians and claim public space for these artists to sing and speak their stories with complexity and nuance. We honor themes of joy, curiosity, pleasure, epiphany, and wisdom, even as we make space for the very real presence of trauma, difficulty and pain. Movement is a meditation on the large-scale forces at play in individual lives. Explorations of citizenship, gender identity, race, and border walls are communicated through intimate stories: two brothers sharing one guitar, a daughter trying on her father’s shoes, the lineage of a drum, the sacredness of water, the sounds of a grandmother’s backyard. Movement debuted in 2020 as a nationally syndicated broadcast on PRX’s The World, and we are now a regular feature on The World, airing to 2.5 million listeners with each episode.

Movement is hosted by Ethiopian-American singer-composer Meklit Hadero and was co-created by Meklit, sound designer/producer Ian Coss and editor/producer Julie Caine. Meklit is joined on stage and in our audio stories by a wide range of guest artists whose identities are grounded in an experience of migration: a classical composer who fled religious persecution in Iran, a formerly undocumented Mexican singer returning to perform in her home town for the first time, a Chamorro dancer reclaiming the language and chant of their ancestors, and many more.

Movement reclaims and reshapes narratives of migration. We recontextualize migrants as cultural innovators who push boundaries of creative expression in ways that are joyous, rhythmic, and offer shared spaces for reimagining belonging.

Photo: FREEK by Waleed Shah

2021 HIGHLIGHTS FROM PRX’s THE WORLD

The LIVE SHOW

UPCOMING SHOWS: October 5th @ ASU Gammage, Tempe, AZ AND October 28th @ The Nimoy Theater @ UCLA.

MOVEMENT Live is an evening-length performance experience, featuring Meklit and directed by acclaimed Indian theater director Sophiyaa Nayar. The show combines the energy of a concert with the intimacy of first-person storytelling, all supported by a rich sonic landscape featuring powerful songs and immersive sound design.

MOVEMENT Live is co-commissioned by Meany Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Washington (Seattle) and debuted there on May 7, 2022. The show is also co-commissioned by The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, where it was performed to critical acclaim in Sept 2022. Other co-commissioners include Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance, Stanford Live, and Cultural Arts Center at Montgomery College (Takoma Park/Silver Spring, MD) and Arizona State University, Gammage.

Each live show features multiple local guest artists, whose songs and stories bloom from a migration experience. Our selection process combines open calls with nominations, and we partner with community organizations, advocacy initiatives, radio stations, educational institutions, and presenters in our outreach efforts. Combined with diligent research and ever open ears, we are always seeking to learn about the new sounds that immigrant, migrant and refugee artists cook up. Once we have interviewed and selected artists, we kick off with a storytellers workshop, which culminates in a radio and podcast episode. From there, we craft each local show together with our featured guests, building community at every step of the way.

MOVEMENT LIVE HAS FEATURED:

Photo: Ghaliaa by Waleed Shah

TEAM

Meklit Hadero: Host/Co-Producer

Meklit Hadero is an Ethio-American vocalist, songwriter, composer and cultural activist, known for her electric stage presence and innovative take on Ethio-Jazz. Meklit has rocked stages from Addis Ababa (where she is a household name) to San Francisco (her beloved home-base), NYC, London, Montreal, Nairobi, Rome, Zurich, Helsinki, Rio, Cairo, and more. 

Meklit is Chief of Program at YBCA, as well as a National Geographic Explorer, a TED Senior Fellow and a former Artist-in-Residence at Harvard University. She is co-founder of the Nile Project, and a featured singer in the UN Women theme song. Her TED Talk has been watched by more than 1.2 million people, and her music videos air daily on Ethiopian National Television. 

Meklit’s work has been covered by the New York Times, BBC, CNN, NPR, Washington Post and many more.

"A visionary both on and off the bandstand..." - SAN FRANCISCO MAGAZINE

"To understand Meklit’s story, you must first place yourself in front of a map and open up your ears. It’s only then that her music can hit you with full force—and trust us, when it does, you’ll be happy you’re knocked off your feet." - DIG BOSTON

More about Meklit at www.meklitmusic.com

Ian Coss: Sound DEsigner/Producer

Ian Coss is an audio producer, composer and sound designer whose work spans the worlds of podcasting and performance. He has produced several critically acclaimed series with the Radiotopia network, including Ways of Hearing, The Great God of Depression, and Over the Road; and created the original score for ESPN’s Heavy Medals. His audio work has been reviewed by the New Yorker and the Guardian; featured on NPR, Al Jazeera and the BBC; and recognized with multiple Edward R. Murrow Awards, including ‘excellence in sound.’ Additionally, Ian has premiered live sound works at the Boston Museum of Science and Harvard Museums of Science and Culture, and collaborated on immersive audio installations for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Richmond ICA, and Atlanta Science Festival. Ian holds a PhD in ethnomusicology from Boston University, where he conducted research on Haitian radio broadcasting and Indonesian shadow-puppetry. He continues this work as musical director for The Brothers Čampur, an international puppetry collaborative that has performed at major festivals in Indonesia, and at universities throughout the eastern United States.

Ian’s latest podcast, Forever is a Long Time, was released to widespread critical acclaim and debuted as a special episode of Snap Judgement.

More about Ian @ www.iancoss.com

SOPHIYAA NAYAR: Director, Movement Live

Sophiyaa tells stories that grapple with experiences of (im)migrants and people of color. Having lived in New Delhi, India until she was 12 and then  traveling  through various communities and exploring performance practices from all over the world for the rest of her upbringing, she understands theatre as a hybrid. She is interested in creating interdisciplinary and genre-bending work that dismantles the status quo in which the white, cis, straight, able-bodied male is at the center of the narrative.    

Sophiyaa is a member of the Women's Project 2020-22 Lab, an ensemble member with Definition Theatre, a member of Chicago Director's Lab 2017, and a finalist for the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. Her production of EthiopianAmerica won a Jeff for Best Fight Choreography and Black Theatre Alliance awards for Best Play, Featured Actor and Actress. She was awarded the SDCF Observership with Soft Power by David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori, directed by Leigh Silverman at The Public (Off Broadway). Theatre companies she has worked with include  Steppenwolf,  American Players Theatre, Writers Theatre, Jackalope, Milwaukee Rep and MCC theatre. 

More about Sophiyaa at https://www.sophiyaanayar.net/

Contact

To book Movement Live:

Email Greg Kastelman of Unbound Artists at greg@unbound-artists.com

For General Inquiries + Artist Suggestions, please message info at meklitmusic dot com.