In conversation with:
Sanni Est
Sanni Est is a singer and transmedia artist who challenges notions of knowledge, reason, normativity, and beauty with her voice and presence. A classically trained singer and semiotician, and currently based in Berlin, Sanni’s multilayered artworks entangle etymological research with autobiography and collaborations with visual artists to question notions of humanity and unravel eurocentric gender-binary patterns. Sanni’s music combines unusual, exploratory vocal techniques with experimental synthesisers and Afro-Brazilian ritualistic drums. Her artworks make spaces of reflection and empowerment. We speak to Sanni about her newest project Photophobia.
Photophobia is Sanni Est’s second studio album. Here, she adopts the name of the medical condition experienced as an abnormal intolerance to the visual perception of light to incite a movement that metaphorically rejects ‘light’ related to European ‘enlightenment’. Photophobia examines notions of knowledge, reason, normativity, beauty and ultimately humanity, prising them away from the white, heteropatriarchal, Christian and colonial dictates from which they historically emerged.
Make sure you book your ticket for Photophobia, running from March 18th to 20th, here.
Queer Bcademy: What inspired Photophobia?
The first inspiration for PHOTOPHOBIA came a few years after being introduced to decolonial and anti-colonial theories. Back then, I was involved with white cis men a lot and did not have the means to fully understand why I felt so unimportant, underestimated, unseen by them. It was the realisation that structural oppression is not something we can grasp just by analysing modern society, but we must look back in history. And not just to colonisation, but myself. I was interested in etymological research and the historical implementation of the scientific method, and the academic notions of knowledge and truth.
Queer Bcademy: Can you share why you decided to include Virtual Reality(VR) in your work?
Fantasy has always been a big part of my inspiration to compose and perform. Music writing is something that happens outside of my body. It lands on me when I can access my most profound sense of (un)consciousness. So I have visions. I see colour when I compose. I leave my body when I sing.
I also grew up playing video games alone at home rather than being outside with the neighbour’s children. I built my own worlds outside of the physical realm, and I figure VR provides a sense of actually being inserted in a fantasy world, where you can't do anything else but surrender to the experience.
There is a complexity to the narrative(s) of PHOTOPHOBIA that explores the mangrove as fertile ground. I want people to look at the mangrove, to dive into it, to get familiar with it - and for those who don't know it, to research afterwards. The mangrove is a cradle of life, often overlooked by urban development plans in my hometown Recife. It has also been an inspiration for sociological analysis by Josué de Castro in the 1970s and later for an entire musical movement, called Mangue Beat, in the 1990s, which also consisted of social critic and mixing electronic with Afro-Brazilian rhythms.
These two generations of social analyses have made it possible to look at my roots and interpret a globalised musical crab-woman art. So I'm making it contemporary by mixing Afro-Brazilian chants with Trans* hyperpop and the newest media technology.
Queer Bcademy: What sort of emotions are you hoping to leave the audience?
I hope to make people reflect on culture and power structures. I want them to feel the tragedy and euphoria of being me and having my world views. Ultimately, I want to leave people of the global majority with a sense of hope and being understood.
Queer Bcademy: Can you name some of the artists you are looking forward to working with in future?
I am thrilled with the collaborations I have been able to make with PHOTOPHOBIA since I consider all of them superstars - the musicians AND the visual artists as well and I'm still completely immersed in this project.
As a next step, I plan to go to my hometown Recife and work with local Percussionists, one of my biggest motivations to make music. Still, I would also for sure enjoy collab'ing with names such as Holly Herndon, Sevdaliza and BADSISTA for producing/composing and singing together as well.
Since this is my first big project involving visual art, I'm already really grateful to have been able to work with the team, and I would be lucky to keep working with them and keep expanding my horizons with visionary visual and performance artists as well as fashion designers and make-up artists! They help me create the fantasy.
Queer Bcademy: Tell us about some of your favourite queer content (films, shows, podcasts, e.t.c.) that you've enjoyed in the last few months?
I listen to music every day, several hours a day, and lately, I've been listening to Kick ii by Arca on loop. I've recently discovered the music by Ebow, which I very much enjoy as well. Some other names: Gueto Elegance by BADSISTA, Ventura Profana, Colin Self, Moses Sumney. I also absolutely love the youtube channel OraThiago and also I marathoned Euphoria twice last month... not precisely a queer production, but the main characters are queer?
Queer Bcademy: What sort of future do you envision for queer and trans artists?
I'm an overthinker. The way the world is does not allow me to say I envision a long-term future - it wouldn't be responsible. Instead, I would like to answer this question with a plea for everyone to prioritise the climate in all the decisions they have the power to make - most importantly when voting!
In conversation with:
Naomi Bah
Queer Bcademy: Can you share some challenges of being a BIPOC theatre-maker? What do you think could help overcome these?
My biggest challenge is finding the balance between being a political body, which I am as a Black Woman all the time, and being a neutral body which I want to be, for theatre purposes.
This challenge is mainly dominated by the general perception of the neutral, which in the case of the predominantly white society I live in, is represented by the cis, young, able-bodied white man who can play everything. That means we have to change our perception of the neutral so that I can play Juliet without it being political. So that I can play other characters that aren't necessarily Black, so that I can play whatever the F**k I want.
Queer Bcademy: What are you looking forward to at QBC 2022?
Sharing space with many other queer &/ Bi*PoC artists. Exchanging perspectives and artistic expressions. Expressing myself with my Solo.
Queer Bcademy: What emotions do you want to convey through your performance?
Touching, Joy, Uncertainty, Empathy
Queer Bcademy: What inspired your show?
My experience as a Black Woman in my university.
Queer Bcademy: Could you paint a picture of the world you would like to see "post-pandemic"?
I would like to see a world that has stopped chasing the old normality and adapting to a new normality – whatever it may look like. I would like to see a world that is accountable, responsible and acts reliably for all life on earth.
Naomi will present her solo performance “BEING A BLACK WOMAN” on Friday, March 18, 20:00 and again on Saturday, March 19th, at 19:30.
In conversation with:
BIPOC Film Society
Queer Bcademy: Can you share some challenges of being a BIPOC filmmaker?
Unfortunately, Germany is still missing the opportunity to create a space for QTBIPOC filmmakers that could help the industry to market themselves universally and economically.
Germany has so many talented BIPOC filmmakers with unique stories, yet all we see produced are the same movies by the same white filmmakers. We also see the token BIPOC filmmakers, who tell stories that reproduce stereotypes about us or stories that are more palatable to white people.
The industry loves filmmakers of color that are white-passing, middle-class and academics. Even now, looking at the Berlinale film selections, I noticed that many films that were selected under the umbrella of diversity are trauma porn and if not that, then the focus lies more on filmmakers of color from other countries.
Germany loves to deflect from their own racism by showcasing QTBIPOCS from other western countries and their experience of racism there to distract from the fact that QTBIPOCS experience the same things here. Since the conversation about race is not discussed from a German BIPOC perspective, German institutions (like film schools, production companies and other cultural institutions) feel like these problems don’t pertain to them and that they have no role in institutional racism.
Queer Bcademy: What are some of your proudest achievements as a collective?
Bringing people together, especially on our latest project Hundefreund
Queer Bcademy: Can you share some of your all-time favourite queer films and TV shows by BIPOC filmmakers?
We are lady parts (Nida Manzoor)
Pose (partly written and directed by BIPOCs)
Sort Of (Bilal Big)
Master of None (Lena Waithe)
One day at a time
Queer Bcademy: Unpopular opinion: what mainstream queer tv shows and films are overrated?
Sex Education
Call me by your name
Queer Bcademy: What films will you screen during the festival, and why have you picked them?
I picked all those films because each film is a personal story about queerness and because the directors are extremely talented.
Queer Bcademy: If you had a magic wand and could gift yourself as a BIPOC filmmaker one resource, what would it be?
Unlimited funding!
Queer Bcademy: What are you looking forward to at QBC 2022?
Meeting people and sharing our ideas and hopes for the future
Join BIPOC Film Collective during Queer Bcademy for a panel “How these stories are told” on Sunday, March 20th at 15:30, followed by a film screening at 17:00.
In conversation with:
Sanni Est
Sanni Est is a singer and transmedia artist who challenges notions of knowledge, reason, normativity, and beauty with her voice and presence. A classically trained singer and semiotician, and currently based in Berlin, Sanni’s multilayered artworks entangle etymological research with autobiography and collaborations with visual artists to question notions of humanity and unravel eurocentric gender-binary patterns. Sanni’s music combines unusual, exploratory vocal techniques with experimental synthesisers and Afro-Brazilian ritualistic drums. Her artworks make spaces of reflection and empowerment. We speak to Sanni about her newest project Photophobia.
Photophobia is Sanni Est’s second studio album. Here, she adopts the name of the medical condition experienced as an abnormal intolerance to the visual perception of light to incite a movement that metaphorically rejects ‘light’ related to European ‘enlightenment’. Photophobia examines notions of knowledge, reason, normativity, beauty and ultimately humanity, prising them away from the white, heteropatriarchal, Christian and colonial dictates from which they historically emerged.
Make sure you book your ticket for Photophobia, running from March 18th to 20th, here.
Queer Bcademy: What inspired Photophobia?
The first inspiration for PHOTOPHOBIA came a few years after being introduced to decolonial and anti-colonial theories. Back then, I was involved with white cis men a lot and did not have the means to fully understand why I felt so unimportant, underestimated, unseen by them. It was the realisation that structural oppression is not something we can grasp just by analysing modern society, but we must look back in history. And not just to colonisation, but myself. I was interested in etymological research and the historical implementation of the scientific method, and the academic notions of knowledge and truth.
Queer Bcademy: Can you share why you decided to include Virtual Reality(VR) in your work?
Fantasy has always been a big part of my inspiration to compose and perform. Music writing is something that happens outside of my body. It lands on me when I can access my most profound sense of (un)consciousness. So I have visions. I see colour when I compose. I leave my body when I sing.
I also grew up playing video games alone at home rather than being outside with the neighbour’s children. I built my own worlds outside of the physical realm, and I figure VR provides a sense of actually being inserted in a fantasy world, where you can't do anything else but surrender to the experience.
There is a complexity to the narrative(s) of PHOTOPHOBIA that explores the mangrove as fertile ground. I want people to look at the mangrove, to dive into it, to get familiar with it - and for those who don't know it, to research afterwards. The mangrove is a cradle of life, often overlooked by urban development plans in my hometown Recife. It has also been an inspiration for sociological analysis by Josué de Castro in the 1970s and later for an entire musical movement, called Mangue Beat, in the 1990s, which also consisted of social critic and mixing electronic with Afro-Brazilian rhythms.
These two generations of social analyses have made it possible to look at my roots and interpret a globalised musical crab-woman art. So I'm making it contemporary by mixing Afro-Brazilian chants with Trans* hyperpop and the newest media technology.
Queer Bcademy: What sort of emotions are you hoping to leave the audience?
I hope to make people reflect on culture and power structures. I want them to feel the tragedy and euphoria of being me and having my world views. Ultimately, I want to leave people of the global majority with a sense of hope and being understood.
Queer Bcademy: Can you name some of the artists you are looking forward to working with in future?
I am thrilled with the collaborations I have been able to make with PHOTOPHOBIA since I consider all of them superstars - the musicians AND the visual artists as well and I'm still completely immersed in this project.
As a next step, I plan to go to my hometown Recife and work with local Percussionists, one of my biggest motivations to make music. Still, I would also for sure enjoy collab'ing with names such as Holly Herndon, Sevdaliza and BADSISTA for producing/composing and singing together as well.
Since this is my first big project involving visual art, I'm already really grateful to have been able to work with the team, and I would be lucky to keep working with them and keep expanding my horizons with visionary visual and performance artists as well as fashion designers and make-up artists! They help me create the fantasy.
Queer Bcademy: Tell us about some of your favourite queer content (films, shows, podcasts, e.t.c.) that you've enjoyed in the last few months?
I listen to music every day, several hours a day, and lately, I've been listening to Kick ii by Arca on loop. I've recently discovered the music by Ebow, which I very much enjoy as well. Some other names: Gueto Elegance by BADSISTA, Ventura Profana, Colin Self, Moses Sumney. I also absolutely love the youtube channel OraThiago and also I marathoned Euphoria twice last month... not precisely a queer production, but the main characters are queer?
Queer Bcademy: What sort of future do you envision for queer and trans artists?
I'm an overthinker. The way the world is does not allow me to say I envision a long-term future - it wouldn't be responsible. Instead, I would like to answer this question with a plea for everyone to prioritise the climate in all the decisions they have the power to make - most importantly when voting!
Queer Bcademy: Can you share some challenges of being a BIPOC theatre-maker? What do you think could help overcome these?
My biggest challenge is finding the balance between being a political body, which I am as a Black Woman all the time, and being a neutral body which I want to be, for theatre purposes.
This challenge is mainly dominated by the general perception of the neutral, which in the case of the predominantly white society I live in, is represented by the cis, young, able-bodied white man who can play everything. That means we have to change our perception of the neutral so that I can play Juliet without it being political. So that I can play other characters that aren't necessarily Black, so that I can play whatever the F**k I want.
Queer Bcademy: What are you looking forward to at QBC 2022?
Sharing space with many other queer &/ Bi*PoC artists. Exchanging perspectives and artistic expressions. Expressing myself with my Solo.
Queer Bcademy: What emotions do you want to convey through your performance?
Touching, Joy, Uncertainty, Empathy
Queer Bcademy: What inspired your show?
My experience as a Black Woman in my university.
Queer Bcademy: Could you paint a picture of the world you would like to see "post-pandemic"?
I would like to see a world that has stopped chasing the old normality and adapting to a new normality – whatever it may look like. I would like to see a world that is accountable, responsible and acts reliably for all life on earth.
Naomi will present her solo performance “BEING A BLACK WOMAN” on Friday, March 18, 20:00 and again on Saturday, March 19th, at 19:30.
Queer Bcademy: Can you share some challenges of being a BIPOC filmmaker?
Unfortunately, Germany is still missing the opportunity to create a space for QTBIPOC filmmakers that could help the industry to market themselves universally and economically.
Germany has so many talented BIPOC filmmakers with unique stories, yet all we see produced are the same movies by the same white filmmakers. We also see the token BIPOC filmmakers, who tell stories that reproduce stereotypes about us or stories that are more palatable to white people.
The industry loves filmmakers of color that are white-passing, middle-class and academics. Even now, looking at the Berlinale film selections, I noticed that many films that were selected under the umbrella of diversity are trauma porn and if not that, then the focus lies more on filmmakers of color from other countries.
Germany loves to deflect from their own racism by showcasing QTBIPOCS from other western countries and their experience of racism there to distract from the fact that QTBIPOCS experience the same things here. Since the conversation about race is not discussed from a German BIPOC perspective, German institutions (like film schools, production companies and other cultural institutions) feel like these problems don’t pertain to them and that they have no role in institutional racism.
Queer Bcademy: What are some of your proudest achievements as a collective?
Bringing people together, especially on our latest project Hundefreund
Queer Bcademy: Can you share some of your all-time favourite queer films and TV shows by BIPOC filmmakers?
We are lady parts (Nida Manzoor)
Pose (partly written and directed by BIPOCs)
Sort Of (Bilal Big)
Master of None (Lena Waithe)
One day at a time
Queer Bcademy: Unpopular opinion: what mainstream queer tv shows and films are overrated?
Sex Education
Call me by your name
Queer Bcademy: What films will you screen during the festival, and why have you picked them?
I picked all those films because each film is a personal story about queerness and because the directors are extremely talented.
Queer Bcademy: If you had a magic wand and could gift yourself as a BIPOC filmmaker one resource, what would it be?
Unlimited funding!
Queer Bcademy: What are you looking forward to at QBC 2022?
Meeting people and sharing our ideas and hopes for the future
Join BIPOC Film Collective during Queer Bcademy for a panel “How these stories are told” on Sunday, March 20th at 15:30, followed by a film screening at 17:00.