Black Revelry Quiet Storm

“There’s this moment at the end of ‘Can I’ where Eddie Kendricks says: ‘for once in my life, tomorrow came today.’ We are all so very stretched out, so worn, so isolated, and sometimes all we want is a gentle press against our torso. We want closeness. We want the intimacy of those we love, and we can’t always have it. So maybe with Quiet Storm, we figure out something new. We reach for each other differently so that the dispersal doesn’t feel like it’s too much.”

A three-part radio show that explores different modes of storytelling, placing poet-scholar Derrais Carter in the role of the late-night DJ. The show takes its inspiration from the inherently nocturnal ‘Quiet Storm’ radio format that originated in the 1970s and featured songs about romance and intimacy from the genres of jazz, soul, and R&B. With the broadcasts, Carter takes up the detail—or “the sample”—as a method for reading the iconic 1976 painting The Sugar Shack by Ernie Barnes, a painting that has circulated widely within Black popular culture (for example, as the cover art for Marvin Gaye’s album I Want You) across over four decades. Each show in the series focuses on a key term: gathering (December 2020), dispersal (January 2021), and frequency (February 2021). Thematically, these key terms set the stage for Carter’s close readings of Barnes’ painting, which unfold through song selections, commentary, and readings of Black critical theory.

Black Revelry Quiet Storm was broadcasted during the late night hours each month from Amsterdam at Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee⁠⁠(opens in a new tab)⁠, as well as with the Berlin-based independent radio station reboot.fm⁠⁠(opens in a new tab)⁠ and with the pioneering Los Angeles-based internet radio platform dublab⁠⁠(opens in a new tab)⁠.