ConverSons (Let’s talk!)
by AMME – Association Marocaine de Musique Electronique (Morocco), Nuits Métis (France) et Assalamalekoum Cultures (Mauritania)
When and where?
All-Around Culture - ثقافة داير ما يدور is co-funded by the European Union and implemented by Culture Resource (Lebanon), L'Art Rue (Tunisia), MitOste.V. (Germany) and MMAG Foundation (Jordan).
Thoulathy is jointly implemented by L'Art Rue and MitOst.
ConverSons (Let’s talk!) is a collaborative project between partners from Morocco, Mauritania and France. It aims to support artists and musical production (with a focus on electro and hiphop), to archive and document our traditional/heritage music, to learn from peers and empower the three project partners.
We believe that one of the approaches to make this musical heritage look more appealing and to restore its image to the younger generations would be to rediscover it through a new perspective, in this case that of electronic and hip-hop music, and to integrate artists from the diaspora into the reflection and creation. Thus allowing both to promote innovative and daring artistic production, based on traditional and ancestral sounds, and to document and archive the heritage music with an aim of safeguarding it.
ConverSons will include several activities throughout the 15 months of the project implementation: capacity building workshops, a musical collaborative project, podcasts production, sound sampling, a printed publication and a short making-off film.
> About the organizations of ConverSons (Let’s talk!)
AMME - Association marocaine de musique électronique
AMME (Moroccan Association of Electronic Music) is an association registered in Casablanca in 2018. AMME supports, promotes and develops the electronic music sector in Morocco. Its mission is also to defend, promote and revalue the different currents of Amazigh music. Its activities and projects revolve around 4 main axes:
- Democratize access to electronic music in Morocco, by supporting its creation, all while encouraging an original and authentic production inspired from Moroccan ancestral music;
- Train young audiences in CAM creation methods to encourage artistic creation from early childhood;
- Disseminate and highlight the richness of Amazigh music;
- Forge a specific identity to the Moroccan electronic music scene.
The main objectives of AMME are to:
- Support, accompany and professionalize artists of Amazigh expression and electronic musicians
- Disseminate the Amazigh musical culture and promote its richness in Morocco and elsewhere
- Encourage the production of innovative electronic music rooted in the territory
- Contribute to the development of the music industry in Morocco
Nuits Métis is a French association based in Miramas, South of France. Its purpose is to promote cultural diversity through:
- organizing cultural events, festivals and concerts
- supporting artistic creation by promoting exchanges between artists from different continents,
- developing artistic practices through workshops open to all.
For 29 years, Nuits Métis has been working at the heart of the music industry, in the professional sector (Production, Distribution, Label, Creation), and in amateur practice (Awareness, Initiation, Improvement), in the Bouches du Rhône department (France). It develops projects combining professional artistic quality and free access for the public. Nuits Métis organizes the "Festival Nuits Métis" (29th edition in 2022), as well as various dissemination and cooperation projects (Cabaret Nomade, Take Your Flight), mobilizing various professional players in the contemporary music sector of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Nuits Métis has been developing cultural projects for the youth of priority neighborhoods, with social, educational, and cultural structures of the territory. These actions make it possible to work on citizenship, fight against racism and discrimination, for social diversity, intergenerational links and access to culture. Culture is one of the founding bases of the association's commitment. Its goal is to root artistic practices in the experience of the public, in order to build a new, sustainable and lasting cultural perspective.
Assalamalekoum Cultures (AC) is a non-profit Mauritanian association, created in July 2014 to build on the achievements of the Assalamalekoum Festival and contribute to the promotion of access to culture and local culture, to the safeguarding of heritage, to the promotion of the local economy, to the structuring of the culture sector and cultural production by 2027. Since its creation, AC has worked in consortium with ZAZA Productions, a Mauritanian music label, and founder of the Assalamalekoum festival in 2008. AC founded in 2019, the Women Independence Festival, 100% dedicated to the promotion of women and their professional and artistic support.
AC areas of intervention are: research, studies and reports on culture, production of live performances (music, dance, scenic expression) and other disciplines (visual arts, street arts, heritage) and training. AC actively participates in the promotion of artists and actors of urban cultures in Mauritania with youth, from Mauritania, Africa and beyond. Our commitment is part of the voice of African artistic emergence. Its main objective is to work in synergy to promote the creation of national, regional, continental and international circuits to contribute positively to the improvement of the working conditions of artists and creators of urban cultures and their products, and to facilitate their access to the market. AC aims to: promote hip hop and urban cultures, support the local economy, contribute to cultural development policy for the city of Nouakchott, promote innovation and creativity, support artists through a circuit of exchanges and participatory and inclusive collaborations, sharing experiences and best practices, capacity building, social cohesion and development of the local economy secondary cities in Africa through dynamic inter-regional cultural and artistic cooperation.