Watch a Detroit Afrofuturist Program Himself
Directed by Far Off Sounds
“If music isn’t entertainment, what is it?”
Episode 18 in the Far Off Sounds series features Onyx Ashanti, a Detroit-based Afrofuturist living in a basement with only an extension cord from a nearby unit. When Ashanti isn't traveling the world having sonic conversations about evolution and technology, he's using a homemade 3-D printer made from recycled electronics to work on wearable kinetic modular digital synthesizers.
The implicit story of music on earth is that of a shared destiny: a deeply-felt common bond that transcends space, time, and tribe, and helps to define us as a species. Onyx works in evolving rituals, from the ancient to the contemporary, forging new paths and passing down timeless practices.
Far Off Sounds, the ethnographic documentary and travelogue series, serves as a platform to connect the dots between the drumbeat of an African village and the pounding rhythm of Detroit techno.