Shishani X Wendel Patrick
New work inspired by soul, hip hop, jazz and Namibian music
Vocalist, guitarist and singer-songwriter Shishani is one of the newer members of the Splendor collective. This immensely creative musician holds roots in Namibia and Belgium, but grew up mainly in The Netherlands. In her work, she is always searching for ways of bringing these worlds together: whether she's playing with her quartet Namibian Tales (for which she traveled to Namibia multiple times to learn from the San people in the Kalahari desert); her unique all-female group Miss Catharsis (centralising women of colour); her band Shakuar (combining live electronics with traditional instruments) or the group Sisterhood (consisting of 11 female artists highlighting a shared heritage between Indonesia and Namibia through the Dutch colonial past).
Armed with a mesmerising voice and guitar playing – both influenced by Afro-American and African music traditions – Shishani also carries a background in anthropology and musicology, enabling her to focus on socially engaged topics in her work as a powerfully activistic artist. She also initiatied several activistic art projects such as the multi-disciplinary stage Cinnamon Wednesdays (which was run by six young cross-cultural women) and ARTNAM (which aimed at promoting Namibian Arts nationally and internationally). And all of this is just the tip of iceberg of Shishani's activities, since she can also be found in a wide array of collaborations with artists from theater, dance and spoken word backgrounds. It's hard to keep up with Shishani's radiating initiatives, with which she performs nationally and internationally, and for which she was awarded multiple prizes and nominations, such as the Amsterdam Prize for the Arts in 2020.
Today, Shishani invites multi-instrumentalist, producer, pianist, turn-tableist and professor of music from Baltimore (US) Wendel Patrick to Splendor. He is classical pianist as well as a multidisciplinary artist, who – just like Shishani – is influenced by a variety of styles such as soul, jazz and hip hop. Wendel Patrick (the alter ego of the classical and jazz pianist Kevin Gift) feels equally at home performing on stage with his band, behind two turntables, beatboxing, improvising, or playing a Mozart Concerto with orchestra. Additionally his innovative work and research in the field of hip hop has made him a Nasir Jones Fellow (2021-2022) at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University.
Shishani and Wendel Patrick will be presenting new work with featuring artists such as Chicago-born rapper & historian Donnie Adams, a.k.a. Xception.
Shishani - vocals, guitar
Wendel Patrick - piano, electronics