The HQ

the HQ alternative Community space

Gibson Road, Stony Hill, St.Andrew Jamaica www.thesoulhqja.wordpress.com thesoulhqja@gmail.com tel:799-0102

Space creates space for space. Intellectual space. "Freedom starts in the head and alternatives start in imagination."

Norman Girvan

THE SO((U))L HQ is a community space for the discussion, exploration and discovery of the arts, culture, spirituality, music, creativity and the promotion of social justice, equality, self-reliance.

The HQ was opened in July 2011 The HQ is a small place we've identified in the hills of St. Andrew, just outside of Kingston at which we plan to host most of our events and activities. Though close to the city, this place is located in a beautiful and lush part of Jamaica. The type of place that we hope persons can feel safe exploring new ideas and challenged to discuss neglected social and cultural issues.

SO((U))L TEAM Co-founder/Creative Director– Afifa Aza

Co-founder—Georgia Love Zanj Racc - Zanj Radio April Anderson—Ear Audigy Uche Onobe– Artist

Events at the HQ 2011-2015 Reel Ideaz Inconvenient Gender

Audre Lorde Celebration Polyrhythmic Altar Meet the Artist

Audio Sex Seretse on Music and Life Orange Belly The Poetry and Song of Revolutionary Black Womyn The Courtney John Project The Tipping Point SO((U))L painting

Greetings Village. Tonight starting at 7pm at the Hq we will have a gathering we call ALTAR. Here is more. “What is your greatest fear? Or rather what prison have you locked yourself in?" These questions caused us to think of the terror that is palpable and pervasive throughout this island. Terror that hovers over the Blue Mountains, flows down riverbanks through our minds' pipelines ‌and for some of us creates heart crippling fear. .

Every Jamaican lives with varying levels of anger, confusion, and feelings of helplessness as we try to live "normal" lives. Processing daily stories of lost lives, personal violation, depravity and injustice. The reasons for the country’s state are complex, but surely when fear and safety become interchangeable it's difficult to see options for change or hope and that's why so often we may fail to seize opportunities for personal courage. We believe these conditions form the walls of our collective prison. But we all know change is necessary or destruction is guaranteed.

Altar is meant to be a public space created for collective spiritual healing. Drawing on afrocentred philosophies of honouring our spirits (living and otherwise), we will integrate music and various spiritual practices to create a shared public space that acknowledges collective loss/grief and includes activities that try to overcome fear and feelings of isolation

The SO((U))L mandate has always included harnessing the liberating power of music, art and culture to inspire people to claim personal agency, restore hope and reawaken spiritually. So from that mandate we invite you to join us as we alter our collective reality and perception of the possible by the creation of Altar.

November 3, 2012

Events 2011-2015 The Tipping Point SO((U))L painting

Who Am I I Man The Vanessa Kirkland Project The Agenda Conference The Garvey Aesthetic

Wake the Town and Tell the People Yoga Something is happening at the HQ SO((U))LHERVSER– conversations with women recording Sitting Low Sistah Sinema

MEET MAZOLA words by AKILAH WHITE Last night the SO((U))L HQ presented another chapter of its MEET the artist series. Host, Akilah White interviewed Mazola wa Mwashighadi, a mixed media artist from Kenya, to prompt him to share about his life and art in Kenya and how that journey led him to Jamaica. With questions from the audience, Mazola explored Kenya’s burgeoning days of independence as a questioning child of a military worker parent in a Christian household. Exposed to the multi-cultural influence of the many clans and tribes even under the name “Bantu”, and the multi-religious influences of Christian, Muslim and indigenous expressions, Mazola became a person and artist intensely individual yet focused on community.

“The

only thing I ever wanted was a vehicle to voice my personal philosophy of a fusion of the many world philosophies; to rebel against the socalled norms and in my own small way to cultivate change in this world we call home.”

A decades long interest in reggae music, which first inspired him to become a musician, led Mazola to Jamaica after he won the Commonwealth Art and Craft Fellowship Award in 1997. His paintings revealed an artist open to using any moment, whether a chance boat ride or a romantic encounter, as a chance to deconstruct and represent it in a style that was often a mix of impressionism, surrealism and abstractionism

January 28, 2013

And so we spoke bending time, our voices dubbed in bass logic. Rub-a-dub an easel languishing behind the canvased moon.

History sipped slow, its offerings journeying from the griots fire stealing amongst the smoke. (words by Jamel Hall)

ZANJ RADIO serves as an entry into a world of pure artistic and creative energies, all molded together to provide an educationally entertaining experience. Currently the station operates on the weekends (Fridays at 7pm to Mondays 2am) airing a wide variety of music ranging from Reggae, Jazz, Afro-beat, Dub, Electronic etc along with our documentaries and other alternative programs.

Zanj Radio streams live from the HQ on Friday and Saturday nights.

A history of the HQ 2011-2015 Before we started the Hq Georgia and I were hosting events in Kingston under the name Sounds of Life or (SOL). We used different venues we thought were cool and open. Bookophilia, Cafe Concheta(now closed), Girls Guide Headquarters, Country Farmhouse, Bob Marley Museum, and Emancipation Park and Studio 174. We would come up with an idea for an event and then find a venue we think would match it; Viva La Vinyl, Music 4 Reel, Kenako, Dj play something else, Dubconscious, Cous Cous – alternative food alternative music. It wasn’t always easy getting venues and some events we couldn't host because we couldn't negotiate the venue. Some venue owners were quite supportive and embraced the event idea. This is where we realized the importance of the event aligning with what the owner of the venue had in mind for activities at their venues.

We were upbeat about hosting an event at Bin 26, a newly opened wine bar at Devon House in Kingston. Georgia thought it would be cool to develop a culture around wine drinking, not wine drinking as something fancy and only for the elites. It was an event idea about wine tasting and music. Bin 26 turned us down by email. Cafe Blue is another place that turned us down. We proposed to them an idea called Kingston Jazz.

Coffee meets World music.

We soon learnt that there was a difference between small venues and the larger venues and we saw that no matter how good our idea was we couldn't guarantee that the venue owners would partner with us to host the event. Venue owners like Cafe concheta and Country Farmhouse took a chance on us and allowed us to host events with them.

We started with the HQ,after a year or so of navigating kingston trying to find venues to host the events and conversations we had in mind we figured that what was missing was really a place where people could go to consistently experience “alternative” events. Examples of Alice Yard in Trinidad, Marcus Garvey’s Liberty hall, and Billy and Cynthia Wilmot Jamnesia gave us the idea that we could create a place with an experience people would enjoy.

The hq was a studio apartment in an apartment I rented in Stony Hill.

At first I lived there, then moved into another apartment in the same complex when I had a vision that the studio apartment could be the space we were looking for. It was small and self-contained we could make it cozy and interesting. We have been in operation for 5 years now.

There are three clear periods which define the hq.

2011-2013 event space 2013-2014 community space 2014- 2016 community space, safe space, residential art space 2017-2020 ?

In the beginning we started off hosting events weekly we had a schedule and a mailing list through which we promoted our events. At the hq we hosted events like polyamory, polyrhythmic, audio sex, the osman sembeme festival, the Audrey lorde project, yoga, an inconvenient gender. We had major events which would happen once a month and we had regular weekly events that were just about “a happening�.

An example of an email for February and March SO((u))l schedule; As some of you may know SOUNDS OF LIFE started as a global music and events company. We have moved from the staging of events at different venues in Kingston to creating theSO((U))L HQ in Stony Hill a place and space where we re-create and re-discover life through music and art.

The HQ has The Ideaz Bar, The boutique and the Fuseum of Politics and Art (F.O.P.A).

WOMYN .BLACK. AFRICA.REVOLUTION is the theme for events at the SO((U))L HQ in February. Our events start on February 10 and run until Feb 26.

This is list of what is happening; POLYRYTHMIC -Feb.10 -IDEAZ BAR experimental fusion of djs and artist inspired by songs from the mama land REEL AFRICAN IDEAZ Feb 12,19,25-IDEAZ BAR Exploring the work of African Film Directors MY SILENCE WILL NOT PROTECT ME -FEB 18 - IDEAZ BAR remembering and celebrating the Life and work of audre lorde

THE WORDS AND LIFE OF REVOLUTIONARY BLACK WOMYN- FEB 26 (FUSEUM OF POLITICS AND ART) For REEL IDEAZ event there is limited space so we urge u to RSVP to thesoulhq@yahoo.comor call afifa @ 298-6251.

Attached is a flyer for February SO((U))L . Please share it with friends and those who you think will be interested.

March SO((U))L is SEX FUNK AND 4PLAY at the SO((U))L HQ 27 GIBSON ROAD STONY HILL. This month sponsored by BEAUTIFUL EARTH NATURAL HAIR HAVEN Here is the listing of events. Please circulate and see you at the HQ! We tried to build a reputation for great events over this period. All our events were free we didn't want money to be a barrier for people to come to the hq and be a part of something interesting. We saw this model of reserving premium for people with more money in Kingston as very problematic and so offered our events free. We ran a bar at the hq which is where we tried to make money.

The hq became described as an “alternative community space” after our first “board meeting”. We never had a board before but after hosting events for about 2 years I thought it was time and a good idea to invite persons to contribute to the further growth of the HQ. I at least wanted to hear what people who came regularly to the HQ thought about what we were doing and where we were going. We had laid the foundation for what we wanted to create and we had invested heavily in our ideas.

SO(((U))L moved from being a music and events company to creating “alternative community spaces”, called Hqs the first of which was in Stony Hill, St.Andrew. It was the first time we said soul creates alternative community spaces. It is the first time that we saw the tensions in the internal and external dynamics of SO((U))L. Internally Georgia and I were starting to diverge on how to continue to build the HQ. The weekend event schedule was hectic we had other jobs.

Hosting an event usually meant getting the HQ clean and ready but before, mobilizing people to come to the event, promoting on facebook, emailing and calling.

The way I thought about it, the Hq location was ideal for events. It was ideal for something imaginative and soulful. It was outside

of Kingston, in the hills. Stony hill was about 30 mins from Half- way tree. As close as we thought it was people complained that it was far.

And we often picked people up in Manor Park or Liguanea to take them to the HQ. I reasoned that I wanted to help people to come and discover the HQ. Between organizing mobilizing and picking people up we needed more help on weekends than we had.

The “board meeting” raised important questions for me about the future of the HQ. Was it just something (I) Afifa wanted to create and own? Was it just a spot for me and my friends to hang out? Was the hq nothing more than a lyming spot. What was it? Did people understand it and how could they understand it more? Some people understood the vision but some people didn’t get it. Georgia highlighted the fact that we didn’t have the support we needed and by support not just people coming to the events. She felt that the survival of “this thing” couldn’t be about me and her. I felt that it anything like the hq had to initial depend on our investment for its survival.

Georgia introduced the idea of “pineapple slices” breaking down the idea further. We reasoned that the SO((U))L was creating places where people could gather and that the HQ was the first one.

Moving to an alternative community space we progressively moved away from regular weekly events and schedule the way we started out. We sent an open call for events so anyone who wanted to host an event could. We left the programming open and in April we made our first major friendship and partnership during this time with ZANJ RADIO. I met Zanj Racc the owner of and internet radio station called ZANJ Radio through Andre who I knew from University. Andre contacted me to do an interview for a programme he had on Zanj radio at the time called Academic entertainment I invited them to come to the HQ to record the interview and that was the beginning of a 2 years and counting relationship with ZANJ and ZANJ RADIO. Zanj had a great collection of African music, Jamaican music and music from all over the world. Zanj had a vision for a Radio station that reflected the diversity and power of Africa, a station that provided an alternative to what was available around us to listen to and station supported by a community of djs.

ZANJ RADIO was a regular feature at the HQ on the weekends we were streaming ZANJ RADIO from the HQ and inviting people to come up on a weekends. I started a programme on ZANJ RADIO called the ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION. On some weekends we would do artist talks and interviews and integrate other events ideas as they came.

During this time we put the HQ on Airbnb to see how we could generate income for the HQ as well as possible extend our connections with other artist from other places in the world who may come to the HQ as guest.

During the years which followed I developed a strong interest in community building and the idea of a community space we had already seen the possibilities from our early organizing as well as the gaps. We hosted an event called the Tipping point which raised the question of what could lead to transformation. The question came from Micheal Gladwells book by the same name. During this discussion Erna Brodber (writer) asked the question “was this a community?” Of all those gathered people who came regularly and some people coming for the first time no one answered the question yes.

I remember offering an answer but realizing that my answer was still only mine. The question pushed me to investigate the existence of community and the dynamics of community. We saw the HQ open up to becoming a residential art space, a weekend meeting place for djs , other artist or persons interested in art. Everybody would come up on a Friday night and find a place to sleep at the HQ or in the living room of my apartment which was in the same complex…

The reflections on the HQ continue and soon I will be writing a part two to this document.