Sounds Like Freedom - Freedom Day Edition

SOUNDS LIKE FREEDOM: Freedom Day Special Edition

Historically, South African music has always been a vessel of protest, liberation, and healing. Whether in the defiant harmonies of traditional chants, the jubilant rebellion street marches, or the soul-stirring jazz born in the townships, sound has carried our pain and our hope. It has fought for us when words failed. It has kept memory alive where history was distorted.

“Sounds Like Freedom” is a continued extract from the Archival Access and Collective Memory series by The Black power Station with access support by ILAM—a growing body of work dedicated to reimagining, and re-sounding the music of our past in ways that free the mind, awaken the spirit, and connect communities across generations.

This event explores the sonic legacy of our resistance—from the soundscape of our precolonial rituals, its influence through the struggle songs of apartheid, to the modern reinterpretations off jazz and indigenous music. We reflect on how these sounds, has been able to transmute to us the very data, information and messages across generations—the descendants of their spirit.Interrogating deeper understanding of freedom—not just as a political condition, but as a sonic, spiritual, and communal phenomenon.

Why This Matters:

Through access to the archives, artists and communities can now hear themselves again—hear their ancestors, their rhythms, their language structures, the cadences of place and time. This access is a form of liberation. It allows us to trace our social heritage, understand our cultural lineage, and revive stories and expressions nearly lost to distortion and colonial bias.

- How do we honor the spirit of the people recorded without falling into nostalgia or romanticism?

- How do we sonically resist today, just as they did then?

“Sounds Like Freedom” is not just a reflection; it is a call to creative action, a space where remembering becomes resistance, and where music becomes memory made live again.

What does freedom sound like, not just politically, but spiritually, sonically, and collectively?

How does music continue to free us—from amnesia, trauma, and silence?

What happens when we remix the past into our present spirit and intentions?

The archive is not just a historical vault—it is a living, breathing constellation of data, memory, emotion, and possibility. It offers us a mirror and a map. It lets us hear who we were, who we are, and who we may yet become.

LINEUP:

• Doors open at 5PM with a curated playlist by @thecommunionoffjazz

• 6PM – Panel conversation moderated by Unathi Koboka (RMR) with Xolile Madinda and Invited Guests Speakers

• 7PM – Live performance by the Kwantu Choir

• 7:50PM – Musical break

• 8PM –Live Performance by Jazz Afrika Collective

• 9PM till late – DJ sets by ACTS

TICKETS:

• Early Bird:

R50 (Students) | R80 (Adults)

• At the Door:

R70 (Students) | R100 (Adults)

Venue: The Black Power Station, Makhanda

Date: Sunday, 27 April 2025

Food and drinks available

#SoundsLikeFreedom #ArchivalAccess #CollectiveMemory #TheBlackPowerStation #FreedomDay #JazzIsResistance #SonicMemory #ILAMArchives #MakhandaCulture

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