In this very special event presented by Ars Nova Workshop, Angel Bat Dawid and Naima Nefertari explore selections from the pioneering catalog of Don and Moki Cherry as well as selections from their own album Journey to Nabta Playa. The duo will be joined in conversation by journalist Marcus J. Moore.
A powerful meditation on memory, mythology, and ancestral science, Dawid and Nefertari’s collaboration draws deep inspiration from the ancient astrological stone circle of Nabta Playa nestled in the remote deserts of Nubia. Their music blends spiritual jazz, celestial electronics, ancestral instrumentation, and storytelling to imagine futures grounded in ancient knowing.
Organized in conjunction with The Living Temple: The World of Moki Cherry.
Naima Nefertari—daughter of vocalist Neneh Cherry and granddaughter of artistic visionaries Don and Moki Cherry—is a multi-disciplinary artist and musician based in London. Her practice interweaves sonic and visual forms led by interests in repetition, improvisation, and the abstract relationships between language, symbol, image, and sound. Nefertari is part of the duo Exotic Sin with Kenichi Iwasa. She is an archivist and coordinator for the Estate of Moki Cherry and Cherry Archive.
For this special conversation, she’ll be joined by the composer, clarinetist, singer & spiritual jazz soothsayer Angel Bat Dawid. The potency, prowess, spirit and charisma of Dawid’s cosmic musical proselytizing has taken her from relatively unknown improviser to borderline ubiquitous performer in Chicago’s avant-garde in a relatively short span of time.
