Resounding Black Genealogies | Anguezomo & Rusnam

"Acoustic Erasures: Resounding Black Feminist Genealogies" is an immersive sonic excavation restoring the voices and legacies of Black female artists omitted from mainstream histories through analog archives. Through archival audio playbacks and conversational reflections, this episode introduces the core research methodologies of the project. Artists Anguezomo Nzé Mba Bikoro and Rusnam, authors of Ancextral Frequencies project, offer a sonic invocation through the voices of Aysha Al Marta (Kuwait), Auda al-Muhanna (Kuwait), Hasna El Bacharia (Morocco/Algeria), Umm Kalthoum (Egypt, UAE), Ziba Shirvan (Iran), Asmahan (Syria/Egypt), Safiye Ayla (Turkey), Esmeray (Turkey), Aisha Al-Falatiya (Sudan) and Siti Binti Saad (Tanzania). They weave their legacies to break historical silencing and erasure, braiding their ancestral roots with comparative studies and contemporary sonic invocations featuring guest artist Nora Amin. Together, they discover how ancestral roots begin through the voices of these women who reflected true practices of solidarity, resilience, and anti-colonial struggles. They honour their stories and map how the beginning of music as we know it today has always been historically Black. This episode delves deeply into their research process and practices at the intersections of sonic eco-acoustics, history, law, and justice.