Songs of Solidarity : Elaha Soroor

What does it take to reclaim your voice when your country wants to silence it - and then take it on stage?

This is the second in our Songs of Solidarity series - conversations with artists, academics, writers and thinkers whose lives and work illuminate the themes at the heart of our new production: migration, displacement, survival, and the stories we tell to make sense of all three.

In this episode, Josephine Burton is joined by Elaha Soroor: singer, composer, and one of the most compelling artists to have emerged from the Afghan diaspora. Elaha began her career as a celebrated musician in Afghanistan. She was forced to leave. In London, she found her way back to music and used it to speak about the lives of Afghan women.

This is a raw and honest conversation: about survival, about what it costs to make art under threat, and about the particular power of music to say what other forms cannot. Elaha talks about the inspiration behind her latest album Our Freedoms Must Be Won, her ongoing collaboration with Kefaya - whose singular sound blends Afghan folk with synth-rock, post-punk and jazz psychedelia - and what resistance actually looks and feels like when it is lived rather than theorised.

Elaha's music: youtube.com/@elahasoroormusic

In this episode:

Josephine Burton - Artistic Director, Dash Arts

Elaha Soroor - Singer and Composer

Songs of Solidarity is a Projekt Utopia and Dash Arts co-production, currently in research and development, co-produced with the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities, in partnership with the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, the School of Advanced Study, Roundhouse London, Asylum Welcome and Unbound Philanthropy.

Find out more at:

www.projektutopia.org

www.dasharts.org.uk