SONGSTREETS app launch – with music by Indigenous Australian Jessie Lloyd

A new immersive audio walk through the streets and culture of Brixton – with music by Indigenous Australian Jessie Lloyd – launches this month.

The SONGSTREETS app is created by multi-media theatre company Border Crossings, with the launch event taking place in the heart of Brixton, Windrush Square. Following a short speech by a special guest, you will be able to set off and explore Brixton like never before. Please register for free via Eventbrite to join.

About SONGSTREETS:

Download SONGSTREETS via AswarmXR’s mobile app for the immersive audio walk through the streets and culture of Brixton. Encounter the characters, stories and songs that make Brixton resonate, in an intimate, moving and ultimately uplifting performance experience. Led by the knowledge of Black Brixtonites, you journey into the heart and fire of what empowers this unique place.

During October 2022, Indigenous Australian musician Jessie Lloyd undertook a residency in Brixton, working with the community to discover songs and stories from the 75 years that have passed since the Windrush brought the first post-war migrants to London from the Caribbean. Applying the methodology she evolved to work with Indigenous Elders in her MISSION SONGS project, and collaborating with Brixton-born artist Tony Cealy, Jessie explored the commonalities of experience between Indigenous Australians and Black Britons, using music to commemorate local heritage, within global histories of racism and emerging processes of reconciliation. Jessie’s grandfather Albie Geia was a leader in the 1957 Palm Island Strike, which, like the events in Brixton in 1981, were labelled ‘riots’, leading to Albie’s imprisonment.

Border Crossings’ ORIGINS Festival commissioned Brixton-based sound artist, Thor McIntyre-Burnie, and his public arts company Aswarm, to respond to Jessie’s residency; creating a site-specific, immersive experience that weaves the songs through the streets of Brixton and uncovers their extraordinary stories. The result is this immersive, interactive audio-walk, accessed through AswarmXR’s mobile app.