Made a Universe screening
Jan 28, 2024
North Garden Theater
Tickets: $10
Musician, artist, and filmmaker Tunde Olaniran’s debut short film Made a Universe combines science fiction and social realism, and tropes from horror movies and TikTok videos to comment on serious issues such as environmental injustice and the carceral state. The 30-minute film examines what it means to unlock your power in the face of fear and repression, and how one must unify various fragments of their psyche to connect with the world and themselves on a deeper level.
The film screening will be followed by a conversation with Olaniran about the intersection of art and climate justice.
Tunde Olaniran is an artist based in Flint, MI, whose work spans the worlds of music, dance, film, literature and performance art, exploring themes of Blackness, gender expression, class, agency, and psychic/emotional power.
Their debut and sophomore albums led to critical praise from The New York Times, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, NPR, The New Yorker and countless others. They have produced globally-impactful work in collaboration with many artists including Mona Haydar, adrienne maree brown, Nick Cave, Esperanza Spalding, and Yo-Yo Ma.
Olaniran is a 2017 Art Matters Fellow, 2019 United States Artist Fellow, and 2020 University of Michigan Artist-in-Residence. Tunde’s work for PBS won a 2021 Regional Emmy. In 2022, they created an experimental short film/exhibition entitled Made a Universe (as well as a companion performance installation entitled Everything is a Portal) in 2022, commissioned by Cranbrook Art Museum, with support from John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts. They were lead producer for Walk with Amal's 2023 activation in Flint, MI. Their third album, Chaotic Good, is due in early 2024.
Related event: Join Tunde Olaniran for a concert of genre-bending blend of pop, soul, and experimental electronic sounds Sat, Jan 27 at Amsterdam Bar & Hall. Learn more here.
This activity is supported, in part, by the City of Saint Paul Cultural Sales Tax Revitalization Program.
This program is funded in part with money from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund that was created with the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.