Radio-Active

Brooklyn-based curator of contemporary art and producer of tuningbaghdad.net Regine Basha, presents the inaugural show of Clocktower Radio series Tuning Baghdad. In this episode, you will hear recordings of Salim Daoud, Abraham Salman, Salima Pasha, Naim Rejwan & Iman, and other Iraqi-Jewish musicians and singers.

Tuning Baghdad asks the question: can there be a musical citizenship? through Basha's explorations into the musical history of the Iraqi-Jewish diaspora. Each episode features home recordings of the last generation of Iraqi Jewish musicians of Baghdad still performing today and beloved arabic songs from Egypt and other countries that intersect with the ensemble instruments and musical scale of the Maqam. Additionally, Basha shares "mystery mixtapes" from her own family archives.

For the past 2 decades Regine Basha has curated exhibitions and public projects internationally, with a specific focus on sound installation and musical cultures. Basha grew up in Montreal, Los Angeles and New York where she attended Iraqi-Jewish gatherings throughout her childhood. She studied art history at NYU and Curatorial Studies at Bard College, graduating in 1996.

Episode one of Tuning Baghdad was produced with Jason Stilip at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation for the 2015 exhibition If a song could be freedom at Interference Archives.

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