"Emkhawulweni" (On the Threshold)

Johannesburg-based composer and performance artist Thuthuka Sibisi, Lecturer in Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, Yale University, brings a new sound work to the isibaya (cattle enclosure) in the exhibition Nguni: Migrant Nations of Southeast Africa. Sibisi draws on ubungoma, or ritual chanting, and recitation of izibongo, the oral praise poetry through which Nguni histories are captured and carried across time and space. Here, he treats chant as a “sonic technology,” one that assigns equal reverence to the ancestral realm, bloodlines, and present-day audiences. Sibisi’s previous collaborations include William Kentridge’s The Head & The Load (Tate Modern, London) and Broken Chord with Gregory Maqoma (Brooklyn Academy of Music). Generously sponsored by the Martin A. Ryerson Lectureship Fund. Space is limited.