Special guest DJ Docta Deep takes over La Danza Poetica this month, with a mixtape exploring the DIY Hip Hop culture of India. Featuring rap crews and artists from Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Assam, representing the country’s various linguistic and religious groups, Docta Deep’s Hip Hop India takes us right into the present counter-culture of the country.

Mixed in a sultry summer in Budapest, La Danza Poetica #65 is a collection of sultry new sounds from South America, the States, France, Canada. And dedicated, with love, to the bright light of Australian poet and activist, Candy Royalle, who passed last month. Pure heart and spirit, within this music is the poetry of life, the continuum of tradition, the bright promise and healing that comes through music.

Made by Radio Continental Drift in collaboration with radio-makers at Zongwe FM and the women of Zubo Trust, A Radio Bridge Across the Zambezi includes tracks from more than 50 contributors, from 17 countries. It’s an energetic, spirited and spiritual journey created through a powerful spirit of unity and sharing.

Recent releases from Brome, J.Lamotta, Kuzich featuring Mei Saraswati, William Beale, Lido Pimienta, The Turbans, Besarabia, Anna Stereopoulou, Dat Garcia remixed by Space People, the Music Action Collective, DjClick, Lagartijeando remixed by Chancha Vía Circuito, and featuring Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet’s, “Landfall”, now released as an album.

Canada’s diverse and challenging storytelling flow. Stories told in a time of reckoning, rooted in cultural expression, social consciousness and Mother Earth connection. Featuring a new album from spoken word poet Brandon Wint, recent albums from poets M.L. Holton and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, a remarkable collaboration between poet Shane Koyczan, Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq and folk artist Kym Gouchie, another great Rise Ashen remix featuring Eivør Pálsdóttir, Native hip hop from Jb the First Lady, Wellspoke, Mob Bounce and the Mag 7 Standing Rock collective, orchestral electronics with deep roots, from Francois Couture, Ziibiwan, and Quantum Tangle.

A slow chorus. A slow driving mix of spoken word and hip hop and multi-voice harmony, music with many layers, complex melodies and harmonious fusions of electronica and folk origins. Musicians and poets from the United States, Spain, Colombia, Canada, and Guatemala. Big questions and big problems being addressed head-on. Stories being told from the heart, voices coming from deep in the chest. An energising way to start a new year!

Opening with the beautiful Song For Elijah (Wrap Our Arms Around You), dedicated to the memory of a young life tragically lost in Australia, and also a call for all to help the family in difficult times. La Danza Poetica #58 is “A Call To Arms”. As it’s the end of a tumultuous year, I’ve created a tumultuous mix featuring some favourite tracks of 2017 that I haven’t been able to include in the radio show so far. Covering a lot of ground, from wild upbeat global bass to Latin hip hop, Los Angeles and New York City poetry and rap, Native American fire, French orchestral beats, very intelligent downbeat soul, and songs for the end of everything.

Poesía y música, Española. A mix of all new music, joyful and uplifting, anchored by the voices of our “honoured ghosts”, poets of 20th Century Latin America, exploring the political and social importance of poetry, nature, and the nature of our desires.

Pieces of the Puzzle takes its title from a poem by English spoken word artist Salena Godden – the poem that closes the show. From Australia to Costa Rica, to Colombia, to Argentina, to Italy, Portugal, Germany, America, Chile, England, France, Japan, Ghana, Mozambique … all these pieces are part of our big, beautiful jigsaw puzzle of thought, emotion, word, and music. 

On La Danza Poetica this month, surfing the poetic radio waves: une fête de la musique et de la poésie! A smooth and cool mix of new French abstract hip hop, alt-rap, spoken word, trip hop and jazz. Downtempo melodic beats and spoken word. 

Diving deeper into the dancehall – mixing the poetry of MC Zulu, Chicago’s most profound dancehall vocalist and electro-reggae producer with conscious beats old and new. Concerned that we listen as we dance, learn as we excite, and have a real conversation with the music, Zulu has been presenting some of his lyrics in spoken word recitations. This month, we are seriously dancing to poetry! Are you listening?

Curated by Kwame Write Aidoo, and produced by Inkfluent, the Vocal Portraits albums feature many talented poets, storytellers and musicians from Africa, Europe and North America. 

This month, we travel light. Returning to Canada—because of course, at this moment in time, we had to. 

This month on La Danza Poetica, the spirit runs deep. Featuring the brilliant new album from Canada’s Tanya Evanson, debut EP from Australia’s Mirrah, and a poetic release from USA’s Solange. Alongside, the smooth spirituals of Canadian/American soul sisters: Cris Derksen and Jennifer Kreisberg, Marianne Verville, Sunni Patterson, Shauntay Grant, Queen Ka. And soulful brothers from Canada: Ivy, Ian Kamau, and Shane Koyczan collaborating with the inspirational sister of all activist poets, Ani Difranco.

This month’s mix opens with One Sixth’s fierce poem ‘Labyrinth’ - in which he calls for compassion, for understanding, and above all, for listening. So we listen. Hip hop is the voice as music, poetry as rhythm, storytelling with the drum beats of the heart. In the hands of these artists, hip hop gets closest to the truth. Featuring Xolisa (Canada), Akua Naru (USA), Omar Musa (Australia), A Tribe Called Red (Canada), Brandon Wint (Canada), FOKN Bois (Ghana), Mateo Kingman (Ecuador), Aja Monet (USA), GANGAMix (France), One Sixth (Australia).

A multi-layered mix of poetry, rhythm, melody en français, exploring the strong voices of la Négritude movement in France, a movement influenced by the Harlem Renaissance. Our honoured ghosts, Langston Hughes, and les trois pères (the three fathers) of la Négritude: Aime Cesare, Léon-Gontran Damas, and Léopold Sédar Senghor. Their eloquent descendants, Nikki Giovanni, Youssoupha, Sunni Patterson. Voices flow through a mix of deep electronic beats, abstract French hip hop and shimmering Haitian/American folk. Featuring Leyla McCalla, Caro C, Christine and the Queens (with Tunji Ige), Fauve, Odezenne, brome, Bleu éther. Très éclectique, très fort!

Paseo Mental - a walk through the mind, through the various voices in our heads, both our own and the voices of the honoured ghosts and ancestors who walk with us. Performance poetry from Segovia, Spain, from an installation by Andrés Sánchez, plus new tracks, collaborations and remixes out of South America, Mexico, USA, Algeria, and Europe.

In February La Danza Poetica crosses lines and walls, real and imagined, through the eastern Mediterranean and Levant, from Persia to Palestine, from ancient to modern. Rafeef Ziadah, Milagro Acustico Ensemble, Fawda, Abdalak, Katibeh Khamseh, A-Wa, La Mirza & Rayess Bek, Suheir Hammed, and readings of the poetry of Ashram Fayadh, on death row in Saudi Arabia over charges of apostasy. Dedicated to the silent poet.

For the Kulin Nation, Melbourne has always been an important meeting place. And it continues to be a place of connection for people from all around the world.

Collaborative poetic jazz, organic electronics. From New Orleans to New York; France to Brazil; Poland to Trinidad; Mali to Cape Town; Portugal to Suriname. Stretching and tensing, sincopando.