Broadcast live on Radio AlHara Thurs 8 July 2021 @ 1pm for Sawa, Sawa – a digital space curated and produced by Young Shubbak for Shubbak Festival 2021.
Listen again on YouTube, Soundcloud or Mixcloud.
Born during the early months of one of the world’s strictest lockdowns, IRAQ-A-FELLA Radio started as a way for Delhi-based label owner and boxout.fm co-founder DJ MoCity to cope with living alone and away from family by rediscovering his music roots.
Alongside a number of friends and frequent collaborators oceans apart, IRAQ-A-FELLA Radio came to life. With features from the likes of artist and writer Sundus Abdul Hadi, Iraqi-Canadian rapper, author, university instructor and director Narcy (who also coined the name of the show), Dubai- based creative zayelkenz and London-based creative director/producer Abdulisms. Each monthly episode explores a branch of sonic heritage for the artists in the form of guest mixes and radio specials.
Read our artist spotlight on Abdulisms
Sawa, Sawa was a digital space by and for 18-26 years old South West Asian and North African (SWANA) artists in the UK for Shubbak 2021. Conceived, curated and produced by Young Shubbak, a collective of 18-25 years old artists, curators and producers. The fourteen featured artists, selected from an open call, used their respective crafts to poignantly reflect the process of growth within lockdown. Sawa, Sawa celebrated a stopping of time, a moment to reflect as the artists turned towards their inner complexities. Through this growth, they fostered a newly found connection with community and what it means to exist in this new world within which we find ourselves.
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The show's back catalogue of episodes walk you through a rich and diverse heritage of Iraqi sound. From the earliest collections of traditional chobi music all the way to football anthems, classical love ballads and the current Iraqi Rap scene. It is the product of a cross generational and trans-national communal effort for Iraqi creatives to connect. At home and in the diaspora, collaborating and creating a representative and lasting legacy for their cultures and oral histories on the global scene.
IRAQ-A-FELLA Radio is made up of a global collective of Iraqi artists/curators with members dotted across timezones and continents spanning Montreal and New Delhi to London, Dubai and Baghdad.
DJ Mocity is an award-winning selector, promoter and co-founder of South Asia’s first online community radio - Boxout.fm. Born and raised in Baghdad and New Delhi, he spent his early days as a hip-hop loving teenager in India’s capital city. A global citizen, MoCity has consistently used his multicultural heritage to facilitate artistic exchange across countries and regions. The work he's done with pioneering crews such as the Reggae Rajahs (India), the 264 Cru (Dubai) and his award-winning podcast Motellacast, is a testament to his work ethic and philosophy. Along with the rest of the Reggae Rajahs, he has been instrumental in growing Goa Sunsplash into a globally reputed festival.
Since 2016, MoCity has been hard at work building South Asia's first online community radio - Boxout.fm, and its own record label called Boxout.fm Recordings, which, has become one of the key players in India's flourishing independent music movement. 2018 saw DJ MoCity invited to curate a monthly hip-hop focused residency called Off-Air at Auro in New Delhi, featuring urban sounds from around the globe alongside local talent.
Yassin 'Narcy' Alsalman, formerly known as the Narcicyst, is a musician, actor, professor and multi media artist based out of Montreal, Canada. Being a pioneer of the Arab Hip-Hop movement through his Iraqi trio Euphrates in the early 2000s, Yassin Alsalman, was a seminal member of a growing voice in the public sphere.
Currently teaching one of Canada's only Hip-Hop courses at Concordia University in Montreal, Narcy’s ethos has been to blend performance with education, media with literacy and creativity with cultural heritage. Yassin is also currently heading an international body of artists We Are The Medium, a family of independent creatives that come together for curation, performance, consultation and product based creation.
Sundus Abdul Hadi is an artist and writer of Iraqi origin and one of IRAQ-A-FELLA Radio’s first contributors. She was raised and educated in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, where she earned a BFA in Studio Arts and Art History and a MA in Media Studies. Articulated through her artistic practice, writing and curation, Sundus’ work is a sensitive reflection on trauma, struggle, and care. She is the author/illustrator of Shams, a children’s book about trauma, transformation and healing. Her latest book titled “Take Care of Your Self: The Art and Cultures of Care and Liberation” (Common Notions, November 2020) is a non-fiction book about care, curation and community. She is the cofounder of We Are The Medium, an artist collective and culture point.
Instagram @SundusAbdulHadi
Facebook @SundusAbdulHadi
Twitter @SundusAH
Abdulisms is a London based British born Iraqi/Irish creative director and digital content producer for IRAQ-A-FELLA. Growing up between London, Doha and Dublin his vision is informed by the contrasts of worlds, spaces and mother tongues he's long found himself alternating in.
Abdulisms’ work explores bridging underground music with themes of ancestral heritage in creative and diasporic community based projects. Releasing work across the mediums of live broadcast, documentary, Augmented reality, live shows, community radio and public installations.
Abdulisms’ portfolio boasts collaborations with the likes of Talib Kweli, Narcy, Steam Down, Girls of Grime, Ancestral Futures collective, Sofar Sounds and New Delhi based community radio Boxout FM to name a few.
Read our artist spotlight on Abdulisms
www.abdulisms.co.uk
Instagram @Abdulisms
Facebook @Abdulisms
Twitter @Abdulisms
Born in Baghdad, zayelkenz – also known as “mako kenz” – is a longtime music aficionado, who contributed to IRAQ-A-FELLA’s third transmission out of Bethlehem, Palestine on Radio Al Hara. Dropping a mix featuring an all-star lineup of legendary Iraqi songstresses from Soad Abduallah to Sajda Obaid.
When she’s not curating mixes and playlists, the jewellery designer behind Kenz also runs lifestyle brand Shabab Intl alongside her twin brother and best friend.
In addition, she has a monthly show with Dubai-based artist Maryam every second Tuesday on independent Tunis-based radio station Ma3azef. You can expect music from all over the region when you tune in.