Red Clay Sound Haus is embarking on a multi-year collaboration with Audium. During May and June, Tossie Long and the RCSH Collective will delve into their project exploring The Sound of Black San Francisco. Body, architecture and desire feature in a collection of run-ins, synchronicities, memories and predictions poised for performance, unearthing a symphonic tapestry of sound.
Tossie & the RCSH crew are currently learning Audium’s system, designing sound & visual work for the building, and preparing for their work-in-progress shows, coming June 20-29, 2024.
Generational San Franciscan Tossie Long (she/her) is a multi-hyphenate Grammy nominated performing artist, producer and director that speaks to the intersections of music, culture and sociopolitical edges spanning from rock and roll vocals to afrofuturist immersive productions. Nicknamed “Bone Rattler,” Tossie is a practitioner of ceremonial music from around the world with a focus on diasporic cosmology. An ethnomusicologist; Tossie has voyaged to Ayiti, Cuba, Benin, Nigeria, Brazil and New Orleans tracing the migration of Vodou for a holistic investigation of the music in its cultural contexts. Tossie does not perform for the sake of performing, but to push her perceived limits.
Crystal (they/she/elle) is a Queer Trans non-binary biracial Xicanx at the forefront of advancing equity at a fundamental level. She leads with a unique perspective, vision, and a fierce drive to challenge entrenched ways of thinking to solve social and environmental injustices, striving for advancement towards collective liberation.
Crystal believes in harnessing the power of inspiration through artistic expression to create positive and impactful change. Drawing upon their lived experiences and diverse background, Crystal possesses the knowledge and expertise that underpin the foundation of a more just world and transcend outdated belief systems that regard environmental health, social justice, and reciprocal economies as mutually exclusive.
Miles Lassi (He/Him) is an interdisciplinary artist based out of Oakland, CA. As a musician, he has performed in over 150 cities throughout North America, Europe and Asia with many different ensembles ranging from the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall to national broadway tours like Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations and Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story on Stage.
M is an artist, cultural organizer, and visual storyteller in cinema. She has directed eight films, including her most recent feature, ELEPHANT, in San Francisco. She is a generational San Francisco committed to telling the often forgotten and omitted stories of the Black families who contributed to the cultural and economic magnificence of the City.
Directorial work by M includes short films Palm Trees Down 3rd St. (2008), Geraniums (2009), moonless (2012), spaced (2014), and the feature film Elephant (2022), which premiered at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. In 2021, M produced Neptune Frost (Cannes 2021), directed by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman.
This project is made possible in part through the generous support of the Gerbode Foundation.