Practical: This talk will be held in English and online via Ancienne Belgique’s Facebook page. You can tune in live on Monday November 16th, 20:00. Afterwards you can watch the recorded talk on that same Facebook page.

In an ever-changing world and in a diverse city like Brussels with a melting pot of cultures music has the capacity to unite people. Through a series of talks AB, KU Leuven & Horst examine societal challenges and look for solutions through the lens of music and nightlife culture. 
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Techno may often be presented as a European phenomenon marked by hedonism these days, but its roots are steeped in black protest, as a reaction to the inner-city decay of Detroit and as a byproduct of African-American struggle.  

As far back as the early '90s, Detroit techno and Chicago house have been packaged and presented as the smiley-face music of Berlin, Manchester, and Belgium — the sound of Europeans and Ecstasy. Rather than Underground Resistance's revolutionary music, it was our own Technotronic's 'Pump Up The Jam' that indoctrinated generations. Already back then, techno's blunt force was being bleached. 

The recent wave of protests and the reckoning with anti-Black racism of some white actors in the music & nightlife scene generated a weighted debate. The various challenges and issues that surfaced remain very relevant. In addition a lot of actors became aware of the role and position they play in a fundamentally unbalanced system. How do we move forward from here?  

Program  
Digital keynote by DeForrest Brown Jr. who is a writer, curator, theorist and representative for the 'Make Techno Black Again' campaign based in New York. His book, Assembling a Black Counter Culture, which will be released later this year provides a general history of techno and adjacent electronic music with a focus on Black experiences in industrialized labor systems.  

Followed by a panel discussion with:  

• Zelda Fitzgerald (For All Queens)  
• Axmed Maxamed 
• DTM Funk 
• Zana Etambala (KU Leuven)  
• DeForrest Brown Jr. 
• Souria Cheurfi (Editor-in-chief VICE Belgium - moderator)