For back2back: Up Ya Archives x Rendezvous Projects, writer and cultural producer Naz Hamdi, also known as NazfromNewham, sat down with Nia Archives and Katherine Green from Rendezvous Projects to discuss jungle as living history, the politics of archiving, East London music cultures and the communities shaping what comes next.
Naz Hamdi
Nia Archives made her debut in 2020 and has been waving the Junglist flag everywhere she goes ever since, helping bring the genre to a wider audience, particularly young people and pushing it towards the popularity it had during its inception, making Jungle feel massive every time she drops a tune or plays a set.
Nia’s done an amazing job too and her passion lies not only in the future of Jungle, but in its history as well — making sure people who engage with the music also understand where it’s come from and who are the originators. Through her love of crate digging and deep appreciation for the genre’s roots especially as young British-Jamaican woman, Nia has championed Jungle fervently and alongside her own music releases, she also runs an events series called Up Ya Archives, a platform that champions both new-gen junglists and original jungle sounds — a fun and educational project centred on music exploration.
Up Ya Archives is doing a back2back takeover is co-curated with Rendezvous Projects, an artist-led London-based CIC producing underrepresented social histories through creative projects. Their most recent project, Sound Waves: Music in Newham is a deep dive into 60 years of the borough’s music history—uncovered through venues, oral histories and archival materials. The project wrapped last year and was exhibited a short while after Newham’s 60th birthday celebrations.
On 16 May, Nia Archives and Rendezvous Projects will be bringing their shared skills and knowledge together to introduce attendees to the music histories, geographies, and future of Jungle through sets, workshops, screenings and more at the new Stratford-based V&A East where the iconic The Music is Black: A British Story exhibition has just launched.
To talk all things music, heritage and what this one-day event means to both Nia Archives and photographer, researcher and Rendezvous Projects co-director Katherine Green, fellow East Londoner and cultural writer Naz Hamdi better known as NazfromNewham sits down with them both for an in conversation.
Naz Hamdi:
The first question I have is related to your name, how did you come up with Nia Archives? It’s so apt, especially with the work you do across music.
Nia Archives:
I was at uni and doing a lot of video stuff. I was making a visual archive and then I started making music. I also made a sonic archive of my life and the people around me because I was studying music production at the time.
NH:
That is so sick and such a great example of world building. How did Rendezvous Projects find its name and become the organisation it is known to be today Katherine?
Katherine Green:
It was about bringing people together and meeting each other. Rendezvous Projects has been going for 10 years and we’re a group of artists and writers who have all got individual artistic practices. We are interested in underrepresented voices, featuring under-documented histories and sharing them in creative ways.
NH:
On that note, what would you say was your first introduction to archival practice? It doesn’t have to be super formal either, it could be your dad’s record collection or old photographs.
KG:
Coming from East London there’s a sort of narrative, storytelling history— an oral tradition. Maybe I’m just nosy too, I like digging into things and finding out why things happen, what makes things happen and what’s happened before. It’s just curiosity that I think I’ve always had and now I channel it into archiving.
NA:
I don’t know if it’s really archiving but I used to love collecting postcards everywhere I went, it was quite a weird hobby as a child. I had a huge, massive box of postcards from different places and that was my first experience collecting.
KG:
I just wanted to say you’ve reminded me that I’ve always collected postcards too, I had postcards all over my wall. Even now when I go on holiday I try to find really retro postcards. It is a lost art—you don’t really send them anymore either.
NH:
How would you say archival practice fits into your life and work now?
KG:
I suppose most of my work is archival now, it’s about collecting stories, mainly through oral history and documents. It is usually living history, social history and for me it’s important to put those stories into archives, especially public archives like local authority archives so that they are free and accessible and not gate kept.
NA:
Similar to Katherine, I guess I archive my life and my music with Up Ya Archives— I am trying to build and archive what’s going on in this generation of Jungle music, who the upcoming talent are and show that we’re doing things that at some point will be historic.
NH:
That sounds incredible! How did you both connect and work together on this project with the V&A?
NA:
I reached out to Rendezvous Projects because I really love their work and what they do. I’ve been a really big fan of their projects for a long time because my uni tutor Jason Warlock (DJ Warlock) who is a part of the programme, gave me one of their books, I think it was the Sweet Harmony one. I have been following them on social media for years too so when the opportunity came around I couldn’t think of anybody else that I would be better to do it with than Rendezvous Projects. They do amazing work in the community and have a really great understanding of Black British music so that’s how we connected.
KG:
I’ve been following Nia for quite a while too, we were mentioned in the same article about archiving Jungle by Lanre Bakare in The Guardian years ago, ever since then I’ve been following Nia and it was just really lovely to get that message and then to find out there was a connection with Jason Warlock. These kinds of links through our communities are really important, and it’s interesting that there’s awareness of the importance of archiving with your generation, which is really exciting.
NH:
When it comes to the back2back: Up Ya Archives x Rendezvous Projects takeover what are you looking forward to the most?
NA:
I want to partake in all of the workshops going on, I’m excited to get involved. There’s so many amazing people that are going to be a part of it so I’m just excited to see everybody, It is a free event so I can’t wait for people to come through, enjoy it and learn something new as well.
KG:
I really hope it’s an opportunity for older generations and younger generations to come together. I want it to be a really celebratory, interesting and engaging day and for there to be an opportunity where people feel part of a scene that is honouring people now and the people that came before us—hopefully a day celebrating unity, community and how we come together.
NH:
How does it feel that the V&A is facilitating this takeover in their new museum, especially in dialogue with their latest exhibition celebrating Black British music?
NA:
I feel very honoured to be a part of this because I’ve grown up going to the V&A coming down from Leeds so it’s a really cool moment and I’m super excited.
KG:
It’s really exciting that the V&A are thinking about these kinds of free opportunities. It’s on my doorstep so it is really nice to be able to celebrate a lot of the East London heritage that is around that area which is traditionally very working class. There’s a lot of incredibly important cultural locations like the Wax Club, EQ Club, Stratford Rex that all fit into that ecosystem of club culture. All of the estates that had incredible radio stations and producers living there. So it is really nice to be able to bring that in and I think it’s pretty incredible that the V&A being such an established institution is that open to that dialogue, it’s refreshing.
NH:
Are there any specific activities that you feel like people will be really interested in and that they may not have done before?
NA:
I’m personally excited about the cassette covers and the zine making but everything that’s going on is going to be really fun for a variety of people. Everyone is going to have the chance to be able to listen to music, go to the panels, be involved and hands-on.
KG:
I’m really excited to see Felt Sound System, they’ve been working with young people on a project called Each One Teach One, where they’ve been working with young people to build sound systems and then they take those off into the community and use themselves. That’s quite exciting to see and I haven’t worked with them before, so when Nia’s team introduced me I thought it sounded brilliant. I like the range of people hopefully visiting and the different aspects like archival practices, thinking about regeneration, reuse of software, data, sounds.
NH:
This is a Jungle focused all day event and as an artist who makes Jungle, why do you think it’s important to continue to champion it in the 2020s?
NA:
It’s music that has been the backbone of underground dance music in the UK for 30 plus years, it has always existed and it always will exist. It’s integral to Black British music and is promoting unity and you know the saying—all colours, one creed. That is one of the things I love about Jungle, it’s so inclusive and you could come from so many different walks of life and you’ll find yourself in that music. It is also about celebrating who has been here before and celebrating the younger people coming through and what they’re going to do for the next 20-30 years.
NH:
That is really lovely to hear Nia. Katherine, I’m sure with Rendezvous Projects you have been seeing a rise of loads of people engaging with heritage in different forms: oral histories, archival practice, so on and so forth. Why do you feel like this is an increasing and upcoming trend and how do you think we ensure that it stays that way?
KG:
I think it’s really exciting what’s happening at the moment. I am following so many people on Instagram that do amazing things with archival practices. I think it’s about a real recognition that many stories are missing from lots of archives, so it’s a reckoning of what it means to be included in history, who gets to decide and what it means to be part of history. There’s a lot of people taking control of their own history, saying this is us, this is me and having ownership of telling their stories and taking control, I think it’s really, really exciting times.
NH:
That’s really really great insight Katherine. On that point, do you see this take-over becoming an event that is reoccurring? And would you like to do this in other parts of the UK and maybe even the world?
NA:
I live in East London as well but I would love to do this up North, I think that would be my next goal just because it’s where I’m from and I feel like there’s not as much access to these kinds of things, a lot of people would be really appreciative of having these experiences too.
KG:
I hope that it inspires people to do their own archival work or see themselves as an important part of history, whatever people are doing in their community, in their lives, you are a part of history and you will leave a legacy and an impact on others. So getting people to recognise that and become more engaged with their communities—inspiring that sort of community pride. On a practical level, to inspire young people to go and make music.
There’s also a real recognition of women throughout the day and that has been traditionally missed from history. Women in music have been sidelined for many decades and just having that prominent female voice is very important. So I would love it if women walk away feeling inspired to make music or take part somehow. We definitely want it to be welcoming and safe for all people to come and sort of explore and experience.
NA:
I’m definitely going to voice what Katherine’s saying and highlight the woman-led aspect of it too.
Up Ya Archives
Rendezvous Projects
