With Black Techno Matters, Bernard Farley Uses Music To Fuel Revolution
Photo subject: Bernard Farley. "I'm not afraid of you, what are you going to do?" how I felt "When I saw this picture, I changed because I saw something in myself that I definitely hadn't noticed before."
In the days that followed, Farley continued to march into DC, full of techno music by black musicians. He remembers one track in particular, Bonaventura's "Supremacy," with the sound waves of "Like a Beginning," metallic synths and samples of Sister Soulja jumping off buildings as protesters chanted "Black Lives Matter" and "Whose Streets." . . streets.
“That was the moment I realized [techno] was more than parties, you know? We want to change the way society works, especially how black people are seen and respected,” he said.
These intense moments in the summer of 2020 crystallized the mission Farley, a multi-talented artist who makes music and DJs under the names Outputmessage and B_X_R_N_X_R_D, was thinking about this before the protests, before the pandemic. The organization he founded, Black Techno Matters, was created after a Google search for black techno artists turned up little information about the artists who created the sound in the 1980s.
Black Techno Matters aims to reclaim techno as a manifestation of black self-expression both at the URL and in real space. For most of the start of the pandemic, the organization was forced to forgo in-person parties, using its Instagram account and Spotify playlists to showcase black techno artists from around the world. After the return of live events, the team held Techno in the Park events at Meridian Hill Park and planned a massive celebration on June 19, 2022.
In addition to DC, Black Techno Matters, which now has eight members, has held events in San Francisco and Los Angeles, with more cities planned for 2023. In the run-up to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, twin events are taking place in DC and San Francisco to continue King's work in a new way. a march into a future marked by decolonized communities and dance floors.
"I use this 'Black Fire' idea and I really see it that way," Farley said of the rise of the Black Techno Matters movement. "I just want her to feel out of control."
Performance on January 15 at 22:00 at a secret location announced at the time of ticket purchase. www.eventbrite.com . 30 dollars.
correction
In an earlier version of this story, Martin Luther King Jr. One of the two events of the day had the wrong location. The story has been corrected.
