The BBC will be in St Louis, Missouri, USA on Tuesday 10 September 2024 to record The Arts Hour on Tour.
The programme will feature live performance and star guest interviews with leading St Louis creatives who join BBC presenter Nikki Bedi on stage, along with a live audience, to discuss the themes of cultural life in St Louis right now.
Damon Davis is a ‘Post Disciplinary’ artist whose work embraces a wide range of mediums to explore ideas about power, myth and identity. Founder of the ‘FarFetched’ record label, he has exhibited photographs and sculpture at the St Louis Art Museum and co-directed the documentary film, ‘Whose Streets’, about the Ferguson Uprising.
His ‘Darker Gods’ project is an epic mythology of multiple black gods, whose stories are presented in a sensory world of visual imagery and soundscapes, and his opera ‘Ligeia Mare’ brings science fiction to the African American story.
Dail Chambers combines fine art with social art practice, focusing on healing, the environment and memory. Her ‘Coahoma Orchards’ in North St Louis, are micro farms bringing together plants and trees from both African and Native American traditions. Her interviews with people of St Louis bring tales of heritage and migration to listening and story-telling events.
There will be music from blues prodigy Dylan Triplett and his band, and from phenomenal singer-songwriter, poet and bassist Tonina Saputo, with a stand-up routine from St Louis comedian Tina Dybal.
Recorded in English for BBC World Service radio, The Arts Hour on Tour visits cities all over the world to explore their hottest trends and issues, by talking to the artists who live and work there.
The show will be broadcast on BBC World Service Radio, to millions of listeners worldwide.
