An explosion of sound echoes through MoMA as Faustin Linyekula’s What Is Black Music Anyway…/Self-Portraits fills the atrium during the Some sweet day series. A thick mat rests on the floor and is completely surrounded by people sitting or standing on three of the four sides. In silence a long wiry man (Faustin Linyekula) in a large, thin red button-down and black pants walks down the side of the stage. He seems lost in his own world as his lips move silently and his body contorts itself into odd shapes on the ground. He moves as if he has no joints, only bones and muscles.

Hllengiwe Lushaba joins him on the stage and begins to sing and Flamme Kapaya comes out and immediately heads for the guitar. Lushaba’s voice pushes through the empty air of the vertical space. Its vibrations seems to spread out around the crowd and as she becomes louder and the guitar joins in, Linkyekula responds. He begins to grow taller, his movements pulling him from lying on the stage to on his knees and eventually, to his feet. At one point the fervor of the music is so much that it pushes him into a circular run around the edges of the stage.

The pieces of the performance draw together to present three very different self portraits. Lushaba expresses deep felt emotions through the resonance of her voice, an instrument so powerful her body has no choice to follow. She becomes a larger than life presence who commands the stage. Small sized with compact movements, Linyekula seems to speak and move in a world of his own, but pulls on the energy around him to express himself. At one point he lends his own voice to the mix and his wavering notes are pure and beautiful. Kapaya, while confined to the back corner, uses his guitar to express the same emotion and fervor that the others use their voice and bodies for. Together, the three self portraits of three forms of self expression are presented to give a taste of what black music really is.

Image source: New York Times