Bitter Fruits
Shara Lunon
Tuesday, November 14, 2023 // 8:00 pm (doors at 7:00 pm)
Roulette // 509 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Tickets: $25 advance/$30 door; $20 Student/Senior (w/ ID, Senior 65+)
Bitter Fruits is an electronic song cycle exploring survival techniques that have developed in response to oppression and injustice within our government, society, and communities. There are intentional injustices, and passive. Both have cultivated methods of coping so that marginalized people can function in their daily lives. Defined by Tina Campt in her “Quiet Soundings: The Grammar of Black Futurity” these everyday tools, or the quotidian, is what black and brown people need to survive. I define Bitter Fruits as the gains reaped by marginalized people in the United States. It examines ideas of erasure and displacement and engages with tokenism, code-switching, and other forms of quotidian survival techniques. I explore the feelings that emerge when these tools are put into action using a light-reactive custom synthesizer in the form of a 10-foot braided wig.
The braided wig represents the generational traditions of Black and Indigenous Americans. Historically, braids have mapped routes to freedom, held food and nourishment, and even defined societal classifications. In today’s culture, the lace front is now a symbol of expression, choice, and experimentation. In my piece, the braided wig holds tokens and rice to represent the past and the photocells hard-wired to it serve as a way to give voice to my ancestors. The photocells are connected to an Arduino Uno and have two sides–one of a buzzy oscillator representing the suffocating voice of being unheard or unable to fully express truth and honesty in my Black experience, and the other is a soft-toned Dorian mode that represents the strength of resilience, harmony in community, and belief in Black Futurity.
Shara’s Artist Statement
Sonic art is the foundation of understanding myself in the world and in my skin. I am the product of a culture deferred–a simultaneous mixture of erasure, mutation, and plurality. Being a Black Bi-racial American cultivates a complex perspective that is ever present in my approach to processing through sound. My work is the evolution of black cultural traditions- music, history, and poetry. The unpredictable nature of being Black in America parallels my focus on the music of the now with reaction, voice, and word as my foundation. I use improvisation to explore the lyrical and guttural sounds of my body, and to deconstruct text into sound components in order to convey attitudes, attributes, and connotations. In composition, I instruct the performer to find their most authentic self through their instruments. This process is conveyed through graphic, text-based, and notated scores, allowing the musician the autonomy to interpret how they perceive this subject. With words, I orate a narrative reflecting my unique perspective as a Black American, queer woman. I enhance all of these facets with electronics into a synthesized immersive soundscape. My sonic practice is created with the mindset of congregation and community; to share and expand a culture rebirthed; a culture healing.
Artist Bios
Shara Lunon
Shara Lunon is the product of the evolution of Black American musical traditions. As a poet, vocalist, composer, and improviser, her art finds the ethereal in the chaotic. With voice as the foundation, Shara’s music is an exploration of text and sound that seamlessly weaves through the ongoing relationship of struggle, resilience, and resolution. Her goal is to challenge lassitude and in its place, instill hope. Shara has performed with leading improvisers including Darius Jones, Ches Smith, Joy Guidry, and members of the International Contemporary Ensemble. Her work has been featured in The Gothamist, Metropolis Ensemble, and has won residency with Amanda + James production company, Audiofemme, and was a featured composer in the 2022 MATA Festival and Metropolis Ensemble BIOPHONY series. Currently, Shara is working with the Innova Recording Label to release a new project in 2023.