Hood Vibrations

Stationed behind a long table, on which were gathered laptops, a MIDI synth, microphones, and oodles of cables, VCR (initialism de guerre of Veronica Camille Ratliff) cradled her electric violin against her torso. Cody Perkins sat quietly at her side, waiting for a cue. “Close your eyes,” the former coaxed the sizable crowd, some slumped in beanbags, “and let yourselves begin this aural journey with sounds and voices washing over you.” The two sound artists then launched into what had been billed as a “riot” but turned out to be a series of gentle drones and delicate tonal shifts. VCR’s violin and synthesizer formed a layered sonic tapestry, while Perkins’s voice provided a perfect rhythmic accompaniment.

The forty-five-minute improvisatory performance, which drew on storytelling traditions, Southern gospel, and both classical and techno music, coincided with architect and educator J. Yolande Daniels’s solo exhibition To A Future Space-Time, at the California African American Museum’s Art + Practice (A+P) exhibition space. Her video installation 3 Meditations + Riot…