(30 Aug 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dakar, Senegal – 14 August 2024
1. Various of beatmaker, Aminata Thiam, recording a beat in the recording studio at the House of Urban Culture
2. SOUNDBITE (French) Aminata "Myamy" Thiam, beatmaker: ++PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOT 3++
“There aren’t women beatmakers. We need to train more women so the ecosystem can be a little balanced, okay? We need composers, not just for music, but for audiovisual work, for cinema.”
3. Various of Thiam teaching a beatmaking class at Dakar’s House of Urban Culture, people working during class
4. SOUNDBITE (French) Amadou Fall Ba, cultural producer: ++PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOT 5++
“There aren’t many women in the hip hop industry, even though according to the last census with the National Agency of Statistics and Demography men and women in Senegal have more or less the same numbers. About 50% of the population each. So for me, in terms of the democratization of urban cultures, we have a lot of work to do to have young women start taking part in this culture, to not be scared.”
5. Various of women taking part in Aminata Thiam’s beatmaking class leaving Dakar’s House of Urban Culture
STORYLINE:
In a classroom at Senegal’s House of Urban Culture, tucked away in the narrow streets of Dakar’s Ouakam neighborhood, Aminata Thiam clapped her hands in time with a beat she created on her computer.
She is teaching a beatmaking class to five young women, each of them working intently on beats of their own on the computers in front of them.
Thiam, 31, is a beatmaker, and one of only a few women in Senegal who call themselves such.
Her stage name is “Myamy the Ay Girl,” a mix of English and Wolof that means “the girl who can”.
Beatmaking, she says, is the art of “making beats, making rhythms.”
An art form that started in the 70s and 80s in the U.S. hip hop scene, beatmaking has gained popularity in Senegal thanks to the proliferation of beatmaking software.
But women are severely underrepresented in beatmaking, as in all parts of the country’s hip hop scene.
This is why Thiam’s current beatmaking class here is only open to women, she says a necessity if there is to be any kind of equilibrium in the field.
“Not just for music, but for audiovisual work, for cinema,” she said, emphasizing that knowing how to make music on a computer isn’t just for hip hop.
The question of accessibility looms over much of the House of Urban Culture’s work in Senegal.
Amadou Fall Ba was the coordinator of the House of Urban Culture for ten years, and now works with the city of Dakar on an initiative to create more public spaces for young people in an aim to make urban culture more accessible.
He says hip hop came to Senegal through the country’s middle class, and eventually made its way to the masses.
He says that now, 80% of the stars in Senegal’s larger urban culture scene are from working class neighborhoods. Women are still severely underrepresented though, he said.
“For me, in terms of the democratization of urban cultures, we have a lot of work to do to have young women start taking part in this culture, to not be scared,” he said.
In Thiam’s beatmaking class, the room is silent, each student lost in a different world underneath noise canceling headphones.
After six weeks of classes they are now able to produce beats of their own.
As they continued working, Thiam stepped outside in the courtyard to speak about her own history.
===========================================================
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/1cd523ae22444ed8b3174a0de6de3e15
Author: AP Archive
Go to Source
News post in September 4, 2024, 3:04 pm.
Visit Our Sponsor’s:
News Post In – News
