Pan African Space Station (PASS)

Founded by Chimurenga in collaboration with musician and composer Neo Muyanga in 2008, the Pan African Space Station (PASS) is a pop-up live radio studio, performance and exhibition space, research platform, living archive, and ongoing internet radio station.

Working across disciplines and temporary spaces, PASS brings together sound, music, and words to create new forms of knowledge. Its slogan, “There are other worlds out there they never told you about,” borrowed from philosopher, composer, and bandleader Sun Ra, reflects its ambition to challenge dominant representations of Africa and explore questions of history, borders, technology, community, and the future.

Method
Combining the intimacy and unpredictability of live radio with the reach of the internet, PASS creates collaborations across time and space. Conversations, travelogues, discussions, performances, and archival materials come together around shared histories and ideas of community, utopia, oppression, and technology. Each event is simultaneously a space for creation, documentation, archiving, and broadcasting.

Curated by Chimurenga with local cultural producers and thinkers, PASS has traveled to Johannesburg, Paris, London, New York, Lagos, Amsterdam, Helsinki, Cairo, Dakar, Mexico City and Harare, featuring over 150 artists, musicians, writers, and activists. Its projects include the performance-lecture series “Stories About Music in Africa”, as well as live events featuring Floating Points, Ayetoro, Studio Kabako, Cindy Blackman, Anthony Joseph, Philip Tabane, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Toumani Diabate and Netsayi.