We Have Been Believers

Our research project STANDING IN THE CRACKS OF MULTIPLE HISTORIES also visits the SAVVYZΛΛR airwaves with a growing constellation of stories and struggles pushing against the ongoing legacy of extractivism and colonialism by the United States. We are honored to welcome Savanna "Sweetwater" Morgan with her sound piece “We Have Been Believers” (inspired by the poem by Margaret Walker), accompanied by the musician David Mwenje Matayaunga. By creating a sonic weave as a medley, bridging a performative lecture with poetry and vocal practice, Sweetwater traces her connections to Geechee Gullah (Creole) musical traditions and their historical relationships to the American South and African spiritualities, as heavily carried by ancestral memory, acts of collective resistance, and oral transmissions.

Savanna "Sweetwater" Morgan i s a neo-folklorist, vocalist, bandleader and writer from East Texas. She came to Berlin in fall 2020 to earn a Master's in Performance Practice, and has since joined Archive Ensemble where she is an editor and performance-researcher. Sweetwater’s recent research and music practice invokes the blues, a centuries-old Afro-diasporic form of poetic storytelling, as a carrier of joys, sorrows, and knowledge – understanding music and rhythm as the only containers big enough to hold the vast complexity of Black histories. Her anti-disciplinary lecture, "Transbluesencies: a poetic you can see through", is an invitation to explore the intersections of blues lyricism and black feminism, as well as black linguistic folk traditions that question written texts/printed matter as a core modality of poetic expressions. Her debut EP SWEETWATER features her 5-part band The Lovers and was produced by Rabih Beaini/Morphine Records.

Her recent publications include debut poetry book, cow tripe (Hopscotch Editions, 2022), Parabolis Virtualis (Querverlag, 2023), and Togetherward (Archive Books, 2023). Her performances have been presented recently in New York and Berlin at Ford Foundation Gallery (Cantando Bajito, 2024), Whitney Museum (Roy Lichtenstein Studio, 2024), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (The Whole Life, 2022, O Quilombismo, 2023), Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Gropius Bau (GABAN, 2022) , ChertLuedde, VillaRomana Florenz, SAVVY Contemporary (Gardens in Transition, 2024), TanzFabrik, amongst other socio-cultural institutions. Blues for Mrs, a musical film written and performed by Savanna and directed by Dr, Anton Juan, recently had its Berlin premiere at Ballhaus Naunynstrasse in January 2024. Her work aims to foster conversations within the Black diaspora centering on its histories, triumphs, joy, and healing.
 

David Mwenje Matayaunga is an artist and musician from Zimbabwe. A multi-instrumentalist ranging from western instruments to traditional Shona instruments. David's work is very much rooted in love and Pan African decolonial reconstructive thought. With heavy influence from his own Kore Kore culture.