Elysia Crampton in Conversation

October 6, 2017 6:00 PM–1:00 AM

Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry,
CFA 111,
Carnegie Mellon University

Elysia Crampton is an Aymara-American experimental electronic musician and poet currently living in northern California. Her work is known for taking heavy detail in bringing light to survival and Latinx culture, queerness and its historical roots in Aymara history, naturalist themes, and frequent utilisation of samples and arrangements from varying sources.

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After the lecture, ELYSIA PERFORMS @ ACE HOTEL with touring artists TBA

18+ // $20 // 9:00pm – 1:00am

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Crampton’s 2015 debut record, American Drift, and 2016 sophomore release, Elysia Crampton presents Demon City, were released to critical acclaim. Her latest album Spots Y Escupitajo is out on The Vinyl Factory. She has cited many influences for her work, including noted Cuban-American queer theorist José Esteban Muñoz, pianist Margaret Bonds, Medieval studies professor Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, and queer performance artist, photographer and close friend Boychild. Her musical influences trace a wide range of styles from Southern hip hop/crunk, to Latin metal, North American psychedelic folk, neo-classical music, ragtime, early blues, and her family’s avant-garde records and collection of huayno and cumbia tapes. Collaborations include fellow artists Chino Amobi and Embaci (NON), Lexxi, Why Be, and Rabit.

She has toured extensively, performing and speaking at MOMA PS1, The Art School Glasgow, Unsound Festival, CTM Berlin, Moogfest, RBMA Festival, and her first appearance in Pittsburgh was presented by The Drift in 2015, a project supported by the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry.

In an Instagram post, she specifically noted that:

“my two main points are that my work be understood as a project of Aymara survival and resistance (despite myriad influences that might be heard or located within the work itself– there is no term in our language for stable “being”– which is why Aymara becoming appears multi-faceted, messy, and complex in my work)” – – – “and secondly, the necessity to omit the term “identity” which is a part of a history of individualism (marked by colonial law in relation to land ownership) as a project of genocidal regulation against Native American people in the Americas– this can be traced verbatim to the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a governmental project of extraction and control.”

Presented by Listening Spaces & VIA

This event is free and open to the public. Other Guests TBA.

This event is made possible in part by the Center for the Arts in Society, the Carnegie Mellon University Department of History, Department of English, Department of Modern Languages, and the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.