Jean D’Amérique + Mohammad Reza Mortazavi

A shared Nomadic Night:

Jean D’Amérique, Rachida debout

Literary concert

With: Jean D’Amérique (text, vocals) and Lucas Prêleur (guitar)
Reading: excerpt from Rachida debout by Jean D’Amérique, Cheyne, 2022

“Open all windows and one’s entire being to the chaos of the world: this is the projectile-like project of a young poet born of the deafening harmonies of Port-au-Prince.” - RFI

“Speak of rage, write of one’s hope, describe the indescribable, talk of the Haitian people, scream with urgency, shout for lives and quickly, very quickly, build in the same gesture one’s own language, undone and restructured, a Creole-accented love of letters.” - Médiapart

Since the publication of his first poetry collection in 2015, Petite fleur du ghetto, the young Haitian poet, playwright, and novelist Jean D’Amérique has set the literary world ablaze, winning a plethora of prizes. His frenzied writing expresses itself across all genres, from poetry to theater (Cathédrale des cochons, Éditions Théâtrales, 2020), as well as fiction. His first novel, Soleil à coudre (Actes Sud, 2021), tells the story of Tête Fêlée, a daughter of the slums, in a nocturnal epic where day never breaks, as if night has fallen forever on the City of God. His books relentlessly explore the themes of confinement and desire, the acts of loving and writing, and aim straight for the heart.

“Being Haitian means to be born in blood, to grow up in blood—or, often, not to have the time to grow up—and to perish in a puddle of blood. Being Haitian means to wait [to] catch your own bullet. To wait for the bullet to devour your breath, whether you’re in the country or not. Being Haitian means to hasten your steps toward the grave. Being Haitian means to cry, to scream. We’ve been bleeding a long time. We’ve been crying a long time. Screaming too... Apparently blood isn't enough.” - Jean D’Amérique in Libération newspaper, July 2021

For this Nomadic Night, accompanied by musician Lucas Prêleur, Jean D’Amérique reads excerpts for the first time from Rachida debout, his new text, published in August 2022 by Éditions Cheyne.

Rachida debout is a song of wandering, the poetic odyssey of a girl who roams today’s world, defying stares and challenging certainties. Despite the wounds and shadows that surround her, she clings to hope and fights for beauty and light. Through this marginal figure, this long poem draws up a searing inventory of contemporary times. A voice-metaphor that incorporates the blows of its time, while welcoming tomorrow with great lucidity.

Excerpts from other texts will resonate with this journey.

Especially designed for the Nomadic Night event, this reading-performance marries the hip-hop-style voice of Jean D’Amérique with the blues and rock guitar of Lucas Prêleur.

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Mohammad Reza Mortazavi, Relief

Concert-performance

“Mortazavi creates trance-like polyrhythmic soundscapes, complete with melodies and exquisite phrasing.” - Sydney Opera House

Mohammad Reza Mortazavi is a Berlin-based composer and musician from Iran. The diverse sound of tombak and daf has fascinated Mortazavi since his childhood. It connects him with an understanding of music and movement that is as multifaceted as it is constantly evolving. His musical ideas transcend traditional techniques and ways of playing both instruments. Mortazavi describes finding a balance between concentration and letting go as the core element of his musical work: a constantly changing movement in which the boundaries of body and mind dissolve into one another. Mortazavi directs his focus exclusively on music, detached from the instrument and national-cultural narratives, in pursuit of the idea of a universal music in which something human connects in a profound way.

He has toured all over the world, performing at festivals and with philharmonic orchestras, where his melodies never fail to enchant the public.

« I came to believe that everything comes from within. I searched for happiness in my own being. Music became a vehicle to communicate everything that I could not say. I consider it my first language. » - Mohammad Reza Mortazavi

For this Nomadic Night, Mohammad Reza Mortazavi installs his percussions against the backdrop of the Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori exhibition. A memorable evening of trance and meditation guaranteed!

Biographies

Jean D’Amérique was born in Haiti in 1994. He is a poet, playwright, and novelist. He has published several poetry collections, notably with Cheyne: Nul chemin dans la peau que saignante étreinte (Vocation Prize), Atelier du silence (Apollinaire Discovery Prize), Rhapsodie Rouge (Fetkann! Maryse Condé Poetry Prize and the Académie Française Heredia Prize), as well as Rachida debout. He was the recipient of the Jean-Jacques Lerrant Prize from the Journées de Lyon des Auteurs de Théâtre for his play Cathédrale des cochons (Théâtrales, 2020) and the RFI Theater Prize for Opéra poussière (Théâtrales, 2022). In 2021, he published Soleil à coudre (Actes Sud), which earned him the Dubreuil SGDL Prize for a first novel and the Montluc Résistance et Liberté Prize.

Lucas Prêleur is a musician, arranger, composer, and multi-instrumentalist of string instruments like the guitar, oriental oud, and bass. He seeks to create bridges between different musical expressions, while going beyond accepted conventions. With various experiences in France, Portugal, and elsewhere, curiosity and a sense of detail are at the center of his musical journey. He toured for several years with Ceylon, a psychedelic rock band.

Mohammad Reza Mortazavi was born in 1979 in Isfahan, two months after the revolution in Iran. He has been living in Germany for twenty years as a musician and composer. In 2018, his album Focus was released on the Padre Himalaya label. In 2019, he was invited by the Sydney Opera House, Rewire, Minimal Music Festival, Berlin Atonal, among others. In October 2019, Paris-based label Latency released his album Ritme Jaavdanegi, which was named by Pitchfork as one of the best experimental albums in 2019. In 2020 he composed a new interpretation of the Credo based on Ludwig van Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, op. 123, which was premiered as part of the project The World To Come in collaboration with the Rundfunkchor Berlin. In February 2022, his new album Prisma was released on the flow.fish label. An album release on the Berlin label Tresor is planned.