Annotations for Annotation: Translation

In the 1960s, renowned author James Baldwin returns from Europe to America to join the African American movement. Two decades later, in 1979, he embarked on a complex undertaking. To tell his own version of American history through the lives of three murdered friends.

Edgar Evers, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X. Baldwin's notes never exceeded 30 pages and were titled "Remember This House." His manuscript remained unfinished

This title and these notes became the inspiration for us, the Afro-Greeks, heroes of the project “the AfroGreeks" to tell the story today, musically, in our own way. To tell the history of the African Diaspora in Greece as part of the national narrative and as a chapter of the African Diaspora around the world.

The project “the AfroGreeks” began in 2009 as research that led from filming and documentation to the first public action in 2015 in Kypseli. This project is on-going up till today through its artistic practice of combing moving image with public actions on critical issues concerning the African Diaspora in Greece, creating dialogues which set in motion possible solutions.

Today our archive archive includes over 350 heroes, 111 films presented as video installations in art spaces and in unexpected settings in Athens and the rest of Europe, 65 public actions - with this one today 66 - and an audiovisual archive of the African Diaspora in Greece and the Mediterranean over the last four centuries, along with 200 interviews of Afro-Greeks which is a number that is increasing. We are Grace Nwoke and Xenia Dania

I am an anthropologist, and a performer and Xenia is an actress and everything else an artist who is constantly on display needs to be.

Today we will inaugurate this year's Black History Month in Greece with a celebration of the 101st anniversary of James Baldwin's birth, an ode to the Athens we love, a musical statement that we are here and we do not forget those who fought before us as promise that we will continue to claim our rights in a city we love and that tonight gave us its Municipal Theater. It is very important for all of us.

It gives us great joy and we welcome you to a musical adventure that includes songs, dance, films, stories, improvisation, and everything that brings us together and makes us feel present and ready to claim a better future. Esther Obediah came with Prince and their baby from Dublin for our concert. She will be accompanied by Steven Aderinto on piano.

He came especially for the concert from London where he works and writes his new songs and most of us also do other jobs so that we can be the artists we want to be. Together with Esther will be Rachel Noke who came from Manchester where she works as a MEA. Jessica Anosike who you will meet here with us today and we will all sing along with Esther.

Afro-Greeks, wherever we live, we declare that we are Greeks. Some of the songs that Esther will sing tonight are selected from Baldwins playlist of owned records. Esther will also be singing two other songs, one of which she wrote and produced and will be performing for the first time at this concert for us.

Baldwin loved music. He said he needed it to endure discrimination, abusive comments about his skin color and sexuality, and the difficulty of being an artist. He felt that black songs empowered him and became a unifying element that bridged African traditions with his life and passions today. He collected records of songs he loved. Songs that helped him write and live passionately, just as he wanted.

Angelos Angelou and his team, Filippos Fasoulas, Dimitris Tassenas, and Riad, took Deep in Love from Baldwin's list and made it part of a Greek folk musical tradition, which is not afraid of influences from the East.

All the acts performed in this event are inspired by James Baldwin’s playlist. They are moulded into new creations which carry a plethora of symbolic meanings.

Angelos was born in Atalanti, and from a young age he experienced discrimination and abusive behaviours due to the color of his skin and his sexual orientation. He studied classical music, played traditional music at festivals with his three brothers throughout Lokrida - region in Central Greece

He fell in love with demonstrations and public spaces in Athens during the economic crisis, as he freely wandered as a young musician having the chance to travel around and be part of several initiatives. He transformed public spaces into musical fields of experimentation and celebration. He plays his music in unexpected places throughout Greece and his collaborations with the project the Afro Greeks have been showcased in exhibitions and loved throughout Europe, from Geneva to London and Sofia.

Tonight, he wants to add one more musical piece to Baldwin's list. I'm sure Baldwin himself will listen to it wherever he is and will like it.

Mikel and Kofi are two dancers who have taken the AfroGreeks project to many countries, encouraging local street artists to participate actively in our public events. They work as delivery guys to make a living, but they have set up a dynamic art studio in the city center, where they teach hip hop and collaborate with other dancers.

And they organize dance battles all over Europe. Mikel is the one you said the term Afro Greek in the first video of the project and from there on the term began to be used widely in public.

Artist Mc Yinka mentioned the word AfroGreek in 2009 in his song Kerma. In the project the Afro-Greeks, some love the term, because it implies an assertive movement, others prefer to use their country of origin as a composite to Greek. Give an example.

Nigerian - Greek

Exactly. Some others consider it a bridge that will lead to the acceptance that there are black Greeks. And others are hearing it for the first time. And that's where great conversations begin.

So, I chose a text by Baldwin about racism and the color black.

Texts woven together with poems written by James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, and Martin Luther King Jr. plays is narrated while Mikel and Kofi perform. On the projection in the background, you can see the live event organized in Geneva during the projects exhibition when Mikel and Kofi created a gathering which opened an alternative platform, shaped through art, hip hope battles and community. Through this event, they created space for connection, visibility, and collaboration with local Black artists in Geneva, offering a powerful reminder that community can be built even in places where it feels invisible. All this in a city where we questioned as Afro-Greeks whether a Black community exists.

Greece, do you love me or not? I wake up in the morning to go to school, but I sit at the back of the class and mess around because deep down I don't feel welcome.

Greece, do you love me or not? Returning home, I wait for the subway, get in and sit next to a woman, but she gets up and leaves. Showing me in an exemplary way that I am stink.

Greece, do you love me or not? I go to the office to get a document and a birth certificate. And even though I was born and raised here, they tell me to go to my country to get those

Greece, do you love me or not? The day comes for me to visit my girlfriend's parents and the first thing her father says to his daughter about me is, "Of all the men, you had to bring him."? Greece, do you love me or not?

And finally, I return home and see my mother exhausted from the three jobs she has to do to make ends meet, She is unhappy because she doesn't know if her son will ever make it in Greece In the end, she looks me in the eyes and says "Don't give up, we didn't make it today, but don't lose faith, there is hope for tomorrow."

Greece, do you love me or not? Thank you.

Baldwin based much of his work on his relationship with the church and religion since childhood. In his book Go tell it on the mountain, he describes the spiritual crisis that led him to become an artist rather than a preacher, as his family had planned.

In this book, he recounts the collective odyssey of Black Americans, their deep and complex relationship with religion and their relentless struggle against injustice, misogyny, and racism How one defines oneself. How free an African American could be in the 1930s and how much similar are the feelings we have, a century later.

Steven Anderinto was born in Athens. He loved and learned music in church, in Omonia – a neighbourhood in downtown Athens-, where his father is the pastor. My father is the pastor too. James Baldwin’s stepfather was also a pastor.

We are all fighting with the same demons. Steven now lives in London. He came especially for this concert and does not forget gospel music. The songs he writes attempt a modern approach to life through the eyes of an Afro-Greek, who, although born in Greece, would not be given citizenship.

And this hindered his life in every way. So, he decided, just as every Greek does when placed in a dead-end situation, to leave and seek better opportunities abroad. Steven chose from the list of songs that Baldwin loved, Mercy and Down by the River.

I am a child who has roots from Nigeria, was born in Greece. Meaning, I have always been in- between (in the middle). I live in a Greek society. BUT at home it is Nigeria. Outside the house it is Greece. If you say you're Greek and you go out and they show you that you're not, you'll start to stop believing it. So, the problem isn't just saying I'm Greek. Sometimes the problem is also saying that I am Nigerian to my people

Xenia selected two songs from Baldwin's list after rehearsing quite a few several times. She chose two songs that will not let you give up not hesitate to take action because change is gonna come.

Everything you dream of will come true. Your sins are your badges of honour. Will music save us? She paired her performance with some words Baldwin shared in a conversation he had with Dr. Clark in 1963. Xenia Dania will be accompanied by Steven Aderinto on the piano, and I hope you will join by clapping like you just did.

There are days—this is one of them—when you wonder what your role is in this country and what your future is in it. How, precisely, are you going to reconcile yourself to your situation here and how you are going to communicate to the vast, heedless, unthinking, cruel white majority, white majority of this place. I am terrified at the moral apathy, the death of the heart, which is happening in my country. These people have been deluded themselves for a long, they really don’t think I am human. I have to base this’ll on their conduct, not on what they say, and this means that they have become in themselves moral monsters. It’s a terrible indictment.

MC Yinka together with Alexandros Dermanis address Baldwin directly, who if he were with us today would agree that our stories and concerns have a lot of similarities with those of the heroes in his works.

As anyone who reads his books or listens to him on the internet can see that they are very similar. How much longer will we feel like strangers or foreigners and why? Is it that as long as we turn everything that affects us into art and music maybe then we can find a way out of this? Mc Yinka on the screen.

Well, this is a piece that has pretty much defined me, it was something I needed to communicate to the world. At that time. Well time flies and quite a a lot of people have embraced this song. I’d like you to raise your hands if you can. One hand up. Let's salute them with respect.

Now Grace and Rachel, with the help of McYinka, will attempt a different and creative approach to the songs Baldwin loved. A traditional Greek song that means a lot, along with a gospel song that raised generations, comforted the inconsolable, and accompanied Pasolini's radical film about divine passion. Their hope is that Baldwin will hear this version and add it to his playlists.

Well done! So, Zandi, the dancing queen from South Africa together with the Gumboot Foyo, Irene, who is a dancer and Eleni, who is an actress and whose choir the Pamoja Kanda Choir opened our event today and of course Jane, create music with their bodies (body percussion)

So, together with her, we all learned African traditional dance. Dances from our countries of origin which most of us have not even visited yet. So, dance creates an experiential connection with our roots.

Zandi uses this creative way to teaches us the history of apartheid, in the mines, where workers were forbidden to talk to each other. Their boots and the sounds of the dance you will see restored this communication creating a powerful form of solidarity and resistance to oppression. This dance is called Gamboot dance. Ladies, let's go!

I think we had a very good warm-up now with Gumboot, right? Adedeji, drawing on African traditions, writes contemporary songs that makes us want to move.

In a previous performance of the project, the audience took over and danced with us on the stage. There are no stairs here. I hope you don't jump on the stage. But no, do whatever you need in order to feel free, so dance.

Together with Yoel Soto and Carlos Menendez from Cuba and Jason Wastor from Athens, they will show the extensions and creative adaptation of musical traditions to the contemporary realities of our lives. Adedeji will be accompanied with Natalia Osawaru, Jessica Anosike as well as our dear Grace

I see you are all on your feet. Give them a big round of applause.

So, the project The Afro Greeks has been implementing public events of all kinds for many years, screenings, workshops, music events, just as today’s, and through these events we declare that we are here, present. While you catch your breath, which I can see you need to, we have prepared for you a video showcasing events we have done since 2019. Whether there were restrictions or not, Afro-Greeks always take over (always in brackets) the city musically, and we fight for freedom just as music does. If you wish, you can find all the public activities we have done and filmed, on our website. Enjoy!

I want to reveal to you that Grace is afraid of the masquerade. And I want you to tell us why you are afraid of it.

It's terrifying. I saw it walking down the hallway and I ran.

A church on Agathoupoleos Street in Kypseli, a group of teenagers who are building their lives in Greece and are constantly confronted with the difficulties caused by prejudice based on skin color and origin use music as an element that gives the freedom to pray in expressive ways freeing your movements, Baldwin, described the lives of Africans in the diaspora as they develop in places of worship. Today we showed you our artistic practices that empower us every day. This musical adventure leads us to our beloved ROYAL ACCORD CHOIR.

Many members who were with us when they first participated in the project four years ago are now abroad. This is because they found it difficult to define their identity in Greece and grow to their maximum potential due to the limitations in Greece. The presence of new members in the choir, conducted by John Jolayemi, is a promise that all this can change and that we will persevere artistically and, in every way, to be the Greeks we want to be and can be.

If you close your eyes, you will see us. If you listen carefully, you will learn about us. We are here as one and many together. We are here, first, second, and third generation, descendants of the beginning. Children of the same family. We rise and connect with one voice, our feet rooted in a common scene. We are here, Helen, Maria, Jane, Zandi, Mary Joyce, Maroua, Alim, Solomon, Karima, Dominic, Grace, Xenia, Mohammed, Hussein, Michalis, Daouda, Gioro, Bafouli, Dimitris, Kofi, Mikel, Charles, Jessica, Rachel, Precious, Esther, Mc Yinka, Angelos, Steven, Demoua, Nataly, Divine, Chelsea, Amouche, John, Angelos, Jessie, Deborah, Prosper, Divine, Great, Joshua, Victoria, Chukuma, Philip, Abraham, Chikamso, Ininie, we are here!

Thank you very much for being here with us today.You heard our names, and at this point we must thank the Municipality of Athens, the Olympia Theater, OΠΑΝΔΑ who gave us this venue for today's celebration

We want to thank Eleni Zontiriou from Kypseli, all the artists who were with us today, the Kypseli group Documantism, all our technicians who were with us.

Thank you to Menelaos, Iakovos, Stavros. All the people who worked tirelessly so that we can be here, and you can be with us. Thank you very much and of course don't leave because outside we will be continuing the party with DJ Tokyo. Thank you very, very much.

Thank you to all the Afro-Greeks.