DJ Lynnee Denise Returns From Europe to a US Base in Los Angeles

DJ Lynnée Denise returned to the United States after completing a two-month European Artist in Residency with CBK Gallery (BijlmAIR) in the Netherlands. She remained an additional two-months in Europe conducting preliminary research in Berlin and London for The Global 80s Project.

DJ lynnée denise landed in New York City where she was embraced by a crowd of hundreds as a featured performing artist for The Brooklyn Museum’s First Saturdays series. The theme, “International LGBTQ Pride,” was perfectly aligned with her work on house music in Post Apartheid South Africa and her ongoing global independent scholarship. Other artists included Zanele Muholi whose exhibition Isibonelo/Evidence “meshes her work in photography, video, and installation with human rights activism to create visibility for the black lesbian and transgender communities of South Africa.”   Brooklyn Boihood hosted a community forum on masculinity and readings from their upcoming anthology, Outside the XY. Political activists/performing artists Dark Matter were there as well.

Following Brooklyn, Lynnée Denise travelled to  the historically Black Annapolis, Maryland to provide music for the wedding celebrating Tonia Poteat and National Book Award recipient Nikky Finney. The wedding took place at the Benjamin Banneker Museum.

From Maryland Lynnée Denise landed in Los Angeles, where she will now be based. She is happy to announce her appointment as an adjunct faculty position Cal State University Los Angeles’ Pan African Studies Department. She began teaching the summer course “Literary explorations in Racism and Justice” in June and will teach full time in the fall.   While based in California, she will continue work as a DJ, panelist, and event curator around the country and internationally. 

DJ lynnee denise launches Afropean Spring Tour

DJ lynnee denise spent the winter in Amsterdam as an artist in residence conducting research on Amsterdam's Bijlmer community in the 1980s. Amsterdam was the first city to launch the 'Global 80s Project.' 'The Global 80s' is a multiple-city performative research project that will use film, DJ culture and a moderated panel discussion to explore, in the context of the project's European cities, the cultural and social experiences of immigrants of African descent living there between 1980-89. Three of the nine cities to be featured in the project are Amsterdam, London, Berlin, which inspired her "Afropean Tour." 

While in Europe lynnee denise has performed as a DJ in London and conducted preliminary research in the Brixton area, one of the communities of interest for 'The London 80s.' Recently she returned from a  two week investigative trip to Germany where for 'The Berlin 80s' she will use electronic music as a way to enter conversations about xenophobia and the legacies and impact of nationalism on Berlin's communities of color. In addition to the recent mission in Berlin, DJ Lynnee Denise recorded a series of four mixes called "The Berlin Sessions"  during an earlier trip to the city, which she plans to release over the next year. Part of the research in the selected cities included building a network of artists whom she can call on to participate and perform with as a part of the future project.

Lynnee Denise will also visit and conduct interviews for Europe's first Afropunk Festival to be held in Paris, France and from there will travel to attend  the NYU Black Portraitures: Imaging the Black Body and Restaging Histories conference in Florence, Italy at the end of May. 

lynnee denise in Amsterdam February 2015