NYC's dweller Festival Spotlights Black Artists

- The dweller festival was founded in 2019 by Frankie Decaiza Hutchinson, co-founder of the Discwoman collective, to address the lack of spaces for Black artists in dance music, a genre pioneered by Black musicians in cities like Chicago and Detroit. - The festival's name is a tribute to the influential Detroit electro-techno duo Drexciya and their Afrofuturist mythology of an underwater race descended from pregnant African slave women thrown overboard, as explored in their "Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller" series. - Historically, electronic genres like house and techno provided a sanctuary for Black, queer, and marginalized communities in the underground club scenes of the 1970s and '80s. - Featured artist Stacey "Hotwaxx" Hale, known as the "Godmother of House," was the first female DJ to play house music on the radio in Detroit and co-founded the Sheometry Festival to amplify female and non-binary artists. - François X is a key figure in the Paris techno scene who gained prominence as a resident at the legendary Concrete club and is a regular at Berlin's renowned Berghain. - Kilopatrah Jones is a Queens-raised DJ who channels the energy of classic New York clubbing into sets that blend house, techno, and jungle, and has played alongside icons like Todd Terry and Underground Resistance. - Beyond musical performances, the festival has previously partnered with The Criterion Channel to curate a collection of films that celebrate the Black roots of electronic music. - The festival's organizers describe their mission as being a "black lighthouse; a siren in the storm for those who know the isolating whitewaters of electronic all too well," aiming to redistribute equity and justice in the scene.