In 2022, We brought you a full day of workshops that range from sound healing journeys and herbalism panels to fashion shows and immersive storytelling. We Had a wicked lineup of performances from soulful singers to dirty dj sets to spice up your Sunday. As we provide a spectrum of experiences to reflect the range of spirituality there is to connect with. Feel seen, safe and supported here, for we are SPECTRA!
MAIN STAGE
Mikel Ameen
Mikel Ameen is an internationally recognised performance Artist and an electrifying Spiritual thought leader, who treats the recording and performance of his music as a sacred game play between him and his audience. a prolific performer with a voice of authority Mikel Ameens Music is like entering into a new world.
Teshay Makeda
Award-winning, South London native Teshay Makeda fuses Reggae, Soul & R'n'B, creating her own unique and dynamic genre dubbed ’Roots Soul'. In 2021, Makeda released her highly anticipated 8-track EP ‘Omega Mother Goddess’ and it was quickly featured on BBC 1Xtra, Capital Xtra, and was shortlisted for Reggaeville's "Album of the Year" award. The project explores the Roots and Soul of the 'Divine Feminine', providing a quirky introduction to Teshay Makeda’s Jamaican-influenced London twang.
Sophie Castillo
Sophie Castillo is a musician based from West London. Born to a Colombian mother and a Cuban father, her musical influences stretch across the Atlantic and all the way back to her place of birth, London, to produce an alternative pop/RnB sound with a Latin twist she makes her own. Embarking on a fusion of pop, alternative, indie, RnB and Latin music, she breaks the barriers of genre. Pairing her soft flowing vocals with catchy melodies and sensual rhythm, she echoes the romanticism of the Latin music she grew up with to create a cinematic, dreamy and glamorous sound. She combines her intercontinental inspirations, singing in both English and Spanish, tackling the topics of love, the self, and the spiritual.
CHEZA
Multi-talented Founder of Create Conscious Community. Soulful sound selector spinning songs spanning from st.vincent to south america, over to south africa and back to south london, reflecting the spectrum of influences that inspired CHEZA to be the person they are today. Playing for collectives and spaces like POPOLA, Queer Rave, Somerset House, Dona, Unorthodox dnb, ALTBLAX, Boxpark, Hootananny and more.
Natalya Moosa / DJ Afromuza
Natalya is a DJ and hair educator and who stands for the embodiment of our potential through embracing our natural selves. She's on a mission to librate beauty standards and celebrate the human experience.
Secret Luvvr
Confident and eclectic dj, playing dance music from around the world <3
Seen on stages like Adidas London, Keep Hush UK, Foundation FM, Airapita Social Club and counting ;)
RHYAN JORDAN
RHYAN influences range from Rihanna, Prince, Stevie Wonder, and Kanye West - which explains why his music is infectiously catchy, but soulful with a flavoursome twist. The new era of music is here - the RHYAN JORDAN era.
Solstice
Solstice is a Drum & Bass and Dubstep DJ originally from Wolverhampton but now based in Bristol. Her appreciation for electronic music started with garage, soon after she began attending raves at age 15 and fell deeply in love with Drum and Bass, Jungle and Dubstep music. As soon as she moved to Bristol, she threw herself into the nightlife scene and launched her own business/collective just Be, which focuses on creating opportunities for women in the industry, raising awareness, empowerment, events, and fundraising. After 1.5 years of running her business, she applied for the Saffron Records 8-week DJing course where she developed her skills in a non-judgmental environment. She then went on to play at Strange Brew and main room at Dare 2 club, Thekla and has plans to release guest Mixes for various labels and refine her mixing style.
Estela
Estela a cosmic singer, songwriter who expresses themes of the new earth , healing , fantasy and witchcraft through her music. Estella has just released her first album “THE GREAT SHIFT”. Estela produces most of her music, videos and creates visual art pieces.
DJ Ayebaitari
I am a DJ, performance artist, and I live for the RAVE!! I love expressing myself through intuitive movement, sharing music, high energy and positive vibrations in ceremony with other beautiful humans, experimenting with creativity, and facilitating memorable, fun and LIT experiences at my QTIBPOC Jungle/DnB nights: QUEER RAVE, which is a revolutionary collective/community/platform that celebrates and represents queer, trans, non-binary, femxle and genderqueer (Drum and Bass) DJs, and is a safe space for the LGBTQ+ QTIBPOC community to rave in peace and love. I see the rave as a sanctuary; it is a ritualistic and sacred spiritual experience for me; it is communion with my tribe. AṢẸ Ọ!!
Vice ?!
Vice?! is from East London. He likes to talk about aliens and shout. His birthday is also the same day as the festival :)
Cahooots
Cahoots is a collective rooted in the UK and its heritage, it’s a progressive, graphic led brand it takes its cues from nature, music, sociology, underground and counterculture movements, all the while growing in a spirit of DIY and energetic collaboration.
WORKSHOPS
TiaSunlight: Sound Healing Meditation Journey
Workshop
You will be taken on a relaxing meditative journey with high frequency healing instruments such as crystal & tibetan bowls, drums, gongs & more, affirmations & a guided meditation to support you in connecting with your heart and releasing negative energetic blockages within your mind body & spirit. You will leave feeling peaceful & calm.
Personal
I support people in connecting to their hearts, healing their nervous system and inner child & releasing negative energetic blockages held within the body. With the use of different healing modalities such as: Energy Healing, Sound Healing, Healing Ceremonies and group workshops, Soul Guidance intuitive readings & Ancestral Healing. I help people bring awareness to suppressed trauma & unconscious emotions from this lifetime, past lives and their ancestral lineages so that they can be transmuted into light and released.
Emma Marshall - Movement is Medicine
Workshop
Movement is Medicine combines science and ancient wisdom by using dance, music and somatic meditation as Medicine. Emma guided you through a somatic meditation focusing on vagal toning, nervous system regulation, pressure points and somatic experiencing to a specially curated playlist that guides us through the practice. Once in the body - we dance! Allowing the body to lead through ecstatic Movement we create free flow releasing anything that is no longer serving our mind or body.
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Emma is a teacher, dancer and creator of Movement is Medicine - teaching that uses dance, music and somatic meditation to connect mind and body.
Future Producers
Somerset House's Future Producers present Rising: A Manifesto, a new film in collaboration with Studios resident Seth Pimlott.
Rising: A Manifesto has been collaboratively shot, edited and soundtracked. In the wake of the pandemic, the film explores the political, ecological, and spiritual dimensions of the group's artistic practice in what is both a reckoning and a celebration. Rising: A Manifesto is an impressionistic portrait of these emerging artists and a statement of intent about how the group wants to live and work together as producers of the future.
Naala Lartey
My name is Naala Lartey. I am a poet, writer, artist and over all creative soul. My aim in life is heal the world one creative way at a time whilst staying true to what makes me happy and fulfilled. I am here to speak my truth and get creative!! I use body art and tribal heritage as a way to root humanity back to a simple way of living by expressing in raw natural forms of community, love and beauty. Allowing the best to be brought out in someone while keeping us all connected through history and art.
Birungi Kawooya
Workshop
A joint conscious collaboration that uses artistic meditation methods to create a large collage mural with Birungi Kawooya, Mindful African art practitioner.
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Birungi Kawooya is a collage artist and teacher inspired by nature, the beauty of all Black women and the ingenuity of dance from the African diaspora using batik, paper and paint. Her portraits celebrate Black womxnhood, elevating rest, joy and wellbeing. Nostalgia and family also inform her practice, from memories of kitchen discos with her siblings and Kiganda dancers at weddings. She leads Mindful African art classes and creates space for wellbeing of school children, young people, artists and beginners to express themselves using vibrant African textiles. With a focus on promoting mental well-being, Birungi is a mission to create relaxing environments to help people work through anxiety, stimulate their imagination and connect to vibrant African textile designs. Birungi has led online and in-person art workshops for The Royal Borough of Greenwich, Descendants, University of Arts London, Black Mind, Sheffield Maternity Cooperative, The Society of Authors and Peckham Platform.
Alexandra David
Alex will be offering in depth tarot readings at the festival. Feel free to ask any questions you may have or choose from a selection of spreads.
Desiree Diaz Garcia - Oracle readings with Sacred Wise Magick
Workshop
Find out what extra guidance and messages the Oracle and Tarot readings of Desiree (Sacred Wise Magick) have for you. Tarot and Oracle readings can help you get some extra clarity and direction in your life each reading is tailored specifically to your needs and queries.
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Desiree is a witch, oracle and tarot reader, shamanic practitioner, energy healer, women circle facilitator. In all her offerings she creates a sacred space for you to feel held and experience Magick. Her intuitive oracle readings help you bring guidance into areas in your life where you might feel stuck or need an extra help with.
Des Johnson - Photography
Photobooth Offering
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Capturing nature and all of it's beauty
Nabila Nebula
Workshop
Immersive Story telling experience with Thempress
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Frequenting among the stars
This nebulous constellation of art
coalesces together
Nectar from the Goddai
Elemental magick of the planets
Honouring our great mother Earth
and her Niolotic ancestral lineage
She takes you on a journey inwards
Storytelling her chosen medium
Triggering healing transcendence
Voicing the call home to humanity in living practice
Afi SK
Henna & Mendi Artist
EARTH TO ROOTS stall
Anna-Nina Healing Herbalism Panelist
Workshop
Healing Herbalism Panel discussion with Laz the Plant scientist, Anna-Nina founder of Earth to Roots, Natalya Moosa founder of The Organic Afro , Louisa Hapgood from Spitalfields City farm and Host, Nina Alonso co-founder of Yellow days. Join us for a hour of Show and Tell demos of our plant based products used for healing and connecting to nature within ourselves and on this earth.
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I am the founder of EARTH TO ROOTS. A holistic wellbeing brand. We sell natural vegan products, from creams and oils to crystals and incense. We promote a natural and holistic approach to wellbeing as well as living in harmony within the wider ecosystem. I’ve been influenced by my fathers Ghanian traditions, my mothers Italian farming roots and encounters growing up in inner city London.
Laz the Plant Scientist- Healing Herbalism Panelist and Stall
Workshop
Healing Herbalism Panel discussion with Laz the Plant scientist, Anna-Nina founder of Earth to Roots, Natalya Moosa founder of The Organic Afro , Louisa Hapgood from Spitalfields City farm and Host, Nina Alonso co-founder of Yellow days. Join us for a hour of Show and Tell demos of our plant based products used for healing and connecting to nature within ourselves and on this earth.
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I am a medicinal plant scientist, educator and herbal formulator. Currently I research at Kew Gardens, am the co-editor for Herbal Reality, I teach pharmacology at Betonica school of herbalism. I am also the founder of Laz The Plant Scientist, where I offer herbal medicines, experiential healing events and education about natural healing.
Valeria Radcheko
Workshop
This workshop explores the effects of using the voice on the body and mind. Through breathing and vocal improvisation exercises, we will connect to ourselves and one another, and explore our musical intuition, finding what feels good. No experience with singing necessary, just a desire to use the voice and make sounds as part of a group.
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Valeria Radchenko is a multimedia artist and music producer. Working mainly with sound, video, performance and movement, they explore the micro/macro relationship between personal narratives and wider patterns and cycles of life. They are interested in how sound can be used to produce altered states of consciousness, and to facilitate connection and transformation. They are particularly interested in the emotional potential of electronic music - how it can make us feel things that can’t be felt otherwise, or that we didn’t know were within us.
Aliyah Rawat - THEMPRESS
Āliyah Husna aka THEMPRESS is a multidisciplinary creative; a DJ, performer, producer, writer, and educator. As a lover of telling stories and creating connections, their passion is communicated across dancefloors, stages, airwaves, digital scapes, and community spaces. Drawing on their experiences as queer non-binary person of colour, they see music and creativity as powerful tools to create transformative experiences and facilitate collective joy, healing, and empowerment. They centre the journeys sound can take us on while connecting the unifying points between genres. With a far-reaching and highly eclectic taste, you can find them drawing on electronica through to jazz; techno through to ambient; glitch through to bass; sounds from the ground through to sounds from the cosmos. Drawing parallels between sonic experiences and moon cycles as ways of embodying grounding forms of change, they see music as a moment which we can sink into as it washes over the past and situates us in the present moment. THEMPRESS regularly curates and hosts radio shows for their residencies at Netil Radio and at Voices Radio, where they also work as a radio producer. These span deep dives into music history and cultural stories through to building concept-driven ethereal soundscapes.
ARTISTS & TRADERS
Zita Abila - Mordi Studio
Accessories, Art and Homeware Offering
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‘The Nsibidi Collection’ by artist and writer Zita Abila explores a lost written language of West Africa. The idea for this collection came whilst studying a Masters in Literature and Culture where, with access to historical resources, Zita began to research the variety of indigenous literary traditions in Africa. Through studying surviving records of Nsibidi, she learned to write the language. This collection for Mordi Studio is a handmade treasure trove of modern artefacts, including sustainable fine jewellery, sculptures and prints bringing this West African writing culture to life.
Akua Ofusuhene - My Local Dressmaker
Clothes repair Offering
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Made to measure dressmaker and designer of clothes, jewellery and homewares
Tassie Touchè
Edible Girls Catwalk with Tassie Touch Accessories and Firelili Garms.
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Tassie Touchè is a Performance Artiste, Choreographer, Accessory Stylist and Designer, Founder of Adornment Line 'Tassie Touch' est in 2016 and Entertainment Company 'aMUSEmENT' est in 2022.
Re_S_D
Reanna Donnegan is a visual artist exploring natural, built and digital worlds through playing with colour, shape and perspective. Considering dimension and abstraction, the works created are alternate versions of reality. Reanne likes to collaborate with musicians to create audio-visual experiences, allowing viewers to escape and exist in another space. Creating this art helps her feel at ease, excited and inspired by life. Reanne hopes the viewer feels different (better) after experiencing her work.
Aura Capsules
Herbal Supplements Offering
Vegan herbal medicine blends to get you glowing. 50% of our profits go towards The Unheard Refugees, a platform for black refugees and asylum seekers. Funds are sent directly through to people and help pay for lawyer fees, rent and everyday expenses. Seamoss and Bladderwrack for cleansing and nourishing Supergreen blend for healing and rejuvenating Breathe blend for cleansing and protection The Cleanse for healing and regeneration
Valeria Salinas Toro
Artist - Handmade Ceramics offering
Valeria Salinas Toro is a Creative Technologist and Creative Producer. Their interest lies in Afrofuturism, Sustainability, Community Engagement and Speculative Design.
Nisheeka Cruickshank-Ralph / the Journee of J'rissa
Handmade Accessories Offering
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I'm Nisheeka, originally from the island of St Vincent and a lover of all things bright and colourful.
Leeroy Zo-zo
Artist
I have become fascinated by wood and its uses in ancient spiritual carvings, to aspects of the material qualities of laminates in ply wood, where the skins of the wood can be seen as a metaphor and the colour of our skin. I am exploring how black women are traditionally and currently represented in popular culture and am considering ideas around status, objectification and the intersections of race, gender and class. Inspired by the people I have met and or seen, I am creating their image in paint on wood, allowing the lustre of the veneer to parallel a representation of the skin of the sitter.
Firelili : Edible Girls collection
I am a designer/seamstress.
Louisa Habgood : City Spitalfields Farm - Healing Herbalims panelist
Workshop/Trade
Presenting her miracle pain / traumatic Injury and bruising balm … This is an east meets west pain relief balm recipe. A beautiful blend of herbal strategies to disperse blood stagnation causing pain and inflammation, warming herbs to increase circulation. As well as selling other organically grown herbal medicines from City Spitalfields farm.
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Louisa is a holistic acupuncturist that uses Herbal medicine and Homeopathy in her practice . She treats clients for stress and various health issues to strengthen the body after illness. She advises on nutrition and meditation. Louisa has been in practice for 17 years, and lives in Bethnal green . She volunteers at Spitalfields City farm where she makes herbal preparations for the local community in a small apothecary called the Herbal Hide.
Adanech Walters
Queen of HeArt
Workshop/Trade
HeArtist Sharing a collection of Art prints and her own self published colouring book Illustrating Black Joy, Black beauty, Black love and most importantly Black Magic.
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I am blessed to know the transformative power of Art. I started this Art Journey under the Alias "Quiet Hunter". At the time I was the shadow of myself. Through following my heart and submitting to Art, I have
found peace. Art is not only a beautiful escape in which to tap into my imagination; Art is a meditative practice for me. Art is the tool that I use for healing. My Art is a raw and authentic expression of my perception of both my inner world and outer worlds.
The Queen of HeArt is born out of my personal evolution, it has a become an affirmation for me, a reminder to always follow my heart . Going forward, I will continue on my investigative journey with Art, exploring themes within my Jamaican culture and African Ancestry. I intend to create art which brings to light the beauty, the plights and the strength of the people in my community and the impact of our experiences.
There is no doubt that I will be forever using art as a Spiritual health tool; I hope to encourage others to do the same.
Critical Youth Soundsystem
Originating as a mobile 12V sound system amplifying protests and parties in Newcastle, Critical Youth Sound continues to grow here in the heart of empire/babylon, London. Music and sound are essential to our collective expression of love, rage, grief, celebration and resistance. The DIY sound system is rooted in a rich history of subversion and revolt that we seek to ground in and carry forwards with our communities of resistance. We reject the commodification and cooption of the sound system that has white-washed and depoliticised its practice. Whilst we take lessons from elders and those who have come before, we raise the flag for the youth, and the need to revitalise our movements. The joy and energy of sound system and parties are necessary in order for our liberation struggles to overcome… just as the lessons of liberation struggles are to sound system and parties.