Join us for a discussion with exhibiting artists Angel Nevarez & Valerie Tevere and legendary hip-hop artist La Roka (Rokafella). Presented in conjunction with the exhibition As far as the ear can hear, this program revisits the artists’ collaboration on Parley, one of four works in the exhibition that explores sound across the landscapes of the Bronx, New Orleans, and the Sonoran Desert.
Originally commissioned for the 2015 exhibition When You Cut Into the Present, the Future Leaks Out at the Old Bronx Borough Courthouse, Parley, performed by pioneering Bronx b-girl Rokafella (Ana Garcia) and MC Lady L (Lynn Saunders) draws on the sampling techniques and lyrical traditions of early hip-hop to reanimate questions of truth, justice, and hope. Using the musical framework of call and response to form a multilingual dialogue between two voices, Parley reflects Nevarez & Tevere’s ongoing interest in framing sound and listening as a transformative practice that connects fragmented histories and collective memory to open new forms of relation.