Curator-in-residence Shirine Saad launched the first of her series of programming  w/ Lollise + Sabine Blaizin for a night of cosmic grooves taking us from Botswana to Haiti. Brooklyn’s own Lollise will premiere new tracks from the forthcoming EP Unborn, with her creative collaborator Morgan Greenstreet on percussion and electronics – a bold Afro-futurist pop sound, rich with analog synths, layers of percussion and gentle waves of ambient noise.

Legendary Global Soul DJ Sabine Blazin, who weaves together diasporic rhythms and vocals, will play a dance set rich with percussion and spiritual energy. Shirine will open with rare Disco, Funk and Psychedelic tracks from the African continent. We chatted with Shirine about her series of booking + what to expect on Sunday.

What is the theme or guiding ethos to your upcoming curator-in-residence series? Is there a particular style of music you’ll be highlighting? 

In my work I amplify and empower women, nonbinary and LGBTQ people from the global majority, radical voices defying commercial culture and the appropriation of traditions from around the world. I love creating cosmic connections between movements, genres and bodies, and I think the club has always been a powerful site of activation for new connections. So we begin with Botswana-born Lollise, premiering her new electric Afro-pop EP, and legendary Soul House DJ Sabine Blazin, who creates spiritual dance rituals infused with Caribbean beats and vocals. Then we debut the Hiya Live Sessions festival, bringing together bold new voices from the SWANA region, reinventing ancient modes from Maqam to Ragas and Sufi poetry. We have contemporary composers Bahar Royaee and Niloufar Nourbakhsh joining forces in a unique sonic exploration of Pianos and Live Electronics including a world premiere of a new collaboration, followed by a set by DJ Haram of Discwoman fame. We have composer-performers Ganavya and Rajna Swaminathan premiering ‘How to Curate a Ghost,’ interpreting the poems of Fariha Róisín. And Saadi will play a new set of synth-pop originals and Arabic covers played with an SP-404 sampler and live bass/synth bass and vocals, joined by Natalia Perlaza, a percussionist from Columbia. I will also play rare and experimental sets at each show.

What are you most looking forward to with this series?

I’m so excited to imagine new movements in club culture with some of the leading talents of experimental music. As a DJ, I love bringing together live acts and underground DJs, creating an immersive and liberating space that helps us find joy, movement, healing and love on the dancefloor.

What can we expect on Sunday night?

A pure celebration of music for music lovers, in an intimate setting where we will dance our hearts out!