New Work Summary! Over the past year, I’ve been making a multi-episode radio-show/podcast called Dada Strain Radio. It's a survey of how rhythm and improvisation informs ideas of community, and how this intertwined tradition can potentially move us forward.
As someone who loves dance music, as well as the music often referred to as “jazz,” who sees how audiences, communities and cultures center sound in their lives—and how that sound politically and spiritually aligns its listeners—I wanted to make werk that creates musical *and* social connections, in historical *and* contemporary contexts. I also wanted to establish the underlying points that 1) free jazz is actually community dance music, 2) great DJ sets are actually improvised performances, and 3) the intentions of many of its most beloved practitioners transcend simple musical “entertainment” (without belittling notions of simple musical entertainment).
Each episode of Dada Strain is focused on a single topic, and features an extended, edited interview with one guest, intercut with music that illuminates the topic. The guests were DJ/producer King Britt (on improvisation in electronic music), poet Thulani Davis (on how words mix with improvised music), trumpeter/composer Wadada Leo Smith (on a life of creativity), poet/critic Harmony Holiday (on Sun Ra's influence in contemporary culture), producer Waajeed (on mentoring in Detroit music), singer Madison McFerrin (on the importance of community festivals), bassist/composer Luke Stewart (on punk jazz), journalist Atiyyah Khan (on South African jazz), djembefola Weedie Braimah (on African drumming in America), and numerous guests who came together to honor my friend, the late trumpeter jaimie branch, her music and community-organizing.
Dada Strain Radio was made with a team of incredibly talented people: editor/producer Hasan Moore (alongside me in slide 2), original music composer Luke Stewart and graphic artist/designer Justin Thomas Kay (together in 3), and Saidah Blount at Sonos Radio (4).
Links to and descriptions of the episodes can be found in the Dada LinkTree in the bio. Thank you for listening.
Sunday Read + Personal History + Free Download: 20 years ago, in July 2003, the New Museum in Manhattan opened what was, for its time, a most odd contemporary-art exhibit. "Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti," curated by Trevor Schoonmaker, was a group-show about the revolutionary Nigerian musician/bandleader, and the creator of the music known as Afrobeat. In retrospect, it was a landmark exhibit for its themes and the incredible visual artists of the African diaspora that it brought together. I was lucky enough to be involved, as co-curator of its music program. It was an experience that forever changed how I approach my work with music. I wrote a little something about the experience - and included a free download of the music program that Trevor and I compiled.
Link in the DadaTree in the bio. Thank you for reading, listening and following.
Happy birthday Trevor - and forever Thank You!
Printed Matter images: flyer 1 advertising “Black President” features the painting “Fela Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen…” by Barkley Hendricks, flyer 2 advertising “Black President” is an illustration based on a photo by David Corio
New Bklyn Sounds 5/14/2026—5/19/2026
This week's events include 'Dada Strain @ L&SD' with more eaze + A.B.E.L.A. + DJ Monk-One / 'Stevie: A Life in the Key of Songs' @ BAM / Matt Evans’ Aquatic House + Chris Ryan Williams @ Rolette / Asa Tone @ Public Records / NYC Dance Parade @ Manhattan / + 25 more
Please share these gig notices. Please subscribe to Dada Strain — or upgrade your subscription. And please support your local musicians and musickers, independent venues, arts organizations and community broadcasters. They/We need it now more than ever.
Link to Dada Strain and Bklyn Sounds in the bio. Thank you for reading, listening, following and supporting the work.
Thank you for reading, listening, following, and supporting the work; and thank you for living through this with me, and with each other.
Absolutely devastated to hear about the passing of my friend Maria McCloy in Johannesburg on Tuesday night.
I met Maria in 2017 while launching AFROPUNK Joburg, a project for which she was doing PR. But I quickly learned that publicity was the least of her skills. She was a cultural activist and scene historian, an excellent DJ, an artist manager, an all-around amazing musicker. She knew everybody and she knew their strengths and weaknesses. (We joyously exchanged information and tea, like gossiping spies in a neutral zone.)
Maria was also a uniquely talented fashion designer — her hand-made sneakers remain my “dress shoes” of choice. (Slide2 - one night, Grace Jones complemented them, so you know I ain’t lying’...)
Maria and I remained in touch on the socials, and saw each other whenever she came to New York, which was every couple of years, often in support of the mighty Thandiswa Mazwai, who she worked with as long as I knew her. This photo was taken at globalFEST 2024, the last time we hung out.
Maria McCloy was an absolutely real one, only 50 years-old, and I can’t believe she’s gone. Rest in power sweetness - Hamba Kahle Sisi.
Bklyn Live Music PSA! Dada Strain returns to its favorite NYC arts loft, Light & Sound Design Studios (aka L&SD) in Greenpoint, for a presentation of rhythm-improvisation-community dance music, on Sunday, May 17th at 5p.
This late afternoon hang of global rhythms, live machines and expert selections will feature a rare solo electronic excursion by the mighty more eaze, a typically bonkers drum-machine-circle by the collective A.B.E.L.A. (Asociación de Bateristas ElektrónikXs de Latinoamerika), and a special “cosmic jazz dance set” by DJ Monk-One.
The evening is produced with the generous help of FourOneOne.
Dada Strain @ L&SD is a bi-monthly series of live performances by (primarily) local musicians, improvisers and DJs, that encompasses elements of deep listening and body movement.
Flyer by @okaymissalicia
Tix/RSVP at the link in the bio. More info on Dada Strain (also at link in the bio).
I look forward to seeing you there.
Thank you for reading, listening, following and supporting!
Bklyn Sounds 5/1/2026—5/6/2026
This week's events include Mark Leckey exerts the physics of mysticism @ Giorno Poetry Systems / Love Injection + Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy @ Good Room / 75 Dollar Bill @ Union Pool / Black Eyes + Nu Jazz + Leya @ Trans-Pecos / 'Long Play Festival' @ Bklyn / + 10 more
Please share these gig notices. Please subscribe to Dada Strain — or upgrade your subscription. And please support your local musicians and musickers, independent venues, arts organizations and community broadcasters. They/We need it now more than ever.
Link to Dada Strain and Bklyn Sounds in the bio. Thank you for reading, listening, following and supporting the work.
And thank you for living through this hellish moment in time with me, and with each other.
Friday Morning Radio PSA! Back on The Lot Radio in the morning to play a whole mess of new music, most of it by NYC homeys and homettes making some of the greatest (Bklyn) sounds around. Seriously, I feel immensely blessed and privileged to be in a community with so many musicians musickers at the tops of their games.
In fact, one of those people is my special guest this month: Miss Alicia Coleman. I first knew Miss Alicia as one of the DJs in the Sweet Kicks crew, playing weird psychedelic house music alongside Rose Kourts' tough techno on the early Karlala Sound System in the backyard of a Bushwick DIY space. Then I kept running into her on great dance-floors, and as producer Omar Ahmad's creative partner in the globally minded duo, Ūmboma; and then I became familiar with her graphic work gracing the album covers of various locals beloved by me, including Lollise and Prince of Queens. Which is to say that when I fell for Miss Alicia's vision, I fell for it in multiple mediums.
So when Alicia shared with me her concept for a potential hour on Dada Strain Radio, I was beyond sold. Join us if you can. Details on slide #2.
Flyer: @KateGlicksbergpphotgraphy
Art on flyer: Tom Lloyd
New Bklyn Sounds 4/23/2026—4/29/2026
+
"In Praise of Saint James Joy"
This week's events include Saint James Joy @ Saint James & Greene / Bliss Point showcase @ Public Records / Fay Victor @ Jazz Gallery + @ CloseUp / Oneohtrix Point Never @ Pioneer Works / Adam Schatz's Civil Engineering @ Loove Annex / Ridgewood Jazz Festival @ various locations / and 28 more
Also: wrote some words about the importance of the Saint James Joy party and the Vill family's cultural and social generosity, helping Bklyn dancers and musickers survive the pandemic.
Please share these gig notices. Please subscribe to Dada Strain — or upgrade your subscription. And please support your local musicians and musickers, independent venues, arts organizations and community broadcasters. They/We need it now more than ever.
Link to Dada Strain and Bklyn Sounds in the bio. Thank you for reading, listening, following and supporting the work.
And thank you for living through this hellish moment in time with me, and with each other.
New Bklyn Sounds 4/17/2026—4/22/2026
This week’s events include ‘8 Years of Coloring Lessons’ @ Good Room / Questlove x Prince DJ Set @ Brooklyn Bowl / Nexcyia @ Public Records @ ‘Copacetic’ @ Light & Sound Design / Jade Guterman @ Roulette / ‘Donuts 20’ @ BRIC House / Melvin Gibbs ‘Geechee Reclamation’ @ Public Records / + 30 more
This week’s newsletter is paywall-free.
Please share these gig notices. Please subscribe to Dada Strain — or upgrade your subscription. And please support your local musicians and musickers, independent venues, arts organizations and community broadcasters. They/We need it now more than ever.
Link to Dada Strain and Bklyn Sounds in the bio. Thank you for reading, listening, following and supporting the work.
And thank you for living through this hellish moment in time with me, and with each other.
New Bklyn Sounds 4/9/2026—4/15/2026
This week's events include Adam O'Farrill Elephant @ CloseUp / Wendy Eisenberg + more eaze + Mal Devisa @ TV Eye / Bobbito + DJ Tara @ Gabriella / Deerlady @ National Sawdust / 'Heavy Florals' @ Sisters / Miles Davis x Owsley Stanley x OJAS Audio @ Cooper-Hewitt Museum / + 31 more
Please share these gig notices. Please subscribe to Dada Strain — or upgrade your subscription. And please support your local musicians and musickers, independent venues, arts organizations and community broadcasters. They/We need it now more than ever.
Link to Dada Strain and Bklyn Sounds in the bio. Thank you for reading, listening, following and supporting the work.
And thank you for living through this hellish moment in time with me, and with each other.
New Bklyn Sounds 4/2/2026—4/8/2026
This week's events include Randy Weston Centennial Celebration @ Jazz at Lincoln Center / Ricardo Villalobos @ Refuge / gabby fluke-mogul birthday bashes @ 360 record Shop + @ Love Annex / Kassa Overall @ Schomburg Center / 'The Music of NOW' @ Nublu / 'Love from the Sun' @ Green Room / + 30 more
This week's newsletter is paywall-free.
Please share these gig notices. Please subscribe to Dada Strain — or upgrade your subscription. And please support your local musicians and musickers, independent venues, arts organizations and community broadcasters. They/We need it now more than ever.
Link to Dada Strain and Bklyn Sounds in the bio. Thank you for reading, listening, following and supporting.
New Dada Work | “How to Gentrify a Park: bidding farewell to Bklyn’s green DIY music destination”
Wrote a few words about the family-oriented make-over of Prospect Park’s Vale of Cashmere, a ground long-revered by gay men, birders and musickers, and how its loss is the latest example of the city absconding public third spaces that hosted culture.
In the wake of quarantine, the Vale of Cashmere was, alongside Saint James Joy and some street-corners in Red Hook, a lifeline for live music. A forever shout-out to the incredible events I saw there courtesy of Black Science Fiction, Public Service, Latinoise and Sweet Kicks, among others.
In-writing nods to Eric Dean Wilson’s excellent 2024 piece in The Baffler about cruising in Prospect Park, and to Samuel R Delany’s essential urban sociology jeremiad, ‘Times Square Red Times Square Blue.’
Link to Dada Strain in the bio. Thank you for reading, listening, following and supporting.
📸: @kateglicksbergphoto + @dadastrain
