September 23, 2026 Spring 2026
After attending SFPC’s first graduation, Poetic Promenade, the day before this blog post was due, the focus of the blog post shifted a bit. Not much, but a little. Having an IRL SFPC experience reiterated one of the characteristic and very joyful aspects of my experience assisting DeForrest Brown Jr, with Rhythmanalytics. This is a real sense of connection and exchange.
As all SFPC classes, there’s a lot of permeability between the role of teacher and student. By that I mean, there is a very present and active awareness that we are all coming in with our own wealths of knowledge and we are there to exchange it. It’s the nature of an SFPC class, but with so many incredible and interesting people of various backgrounds coming together, it would be a shame to operate any other way.
In our pre and post class chats, DeForrest and I found a lot in common in our tastes, interests and how our brains work. The discussion explored value and attention in the streaming age. How does our relationship, our valuation of music change when nearly all of it in recorded history is at our fingertips and can be put on infinite loop? When the same samples are used in seemingly every DJ set? Do wear, compression, and degradation actually show affection and not a lack of care? These questions feel particularly relevant backdropped by the explosion of generative AI in music. There’s so much anxiety about a human touch and in an increasingly frictionless world you want something to push back on you. One participant, Nisal, took this idea we explored about digital wear by creating a plugin that correlates a piece of audio’s YouTube metadata, like upload date and number of views, to its sampling rate and bit depth.
Nisal showing us screenshots of how their plugin, “A Radio Culture Without Arrival” works. he document contains a screenshot from MAXMSP with an arrow pointing to an Ableton screenshot. This highly reciprocal, generative energy evolves the class in real time. For instance, the initial class structure was going to see half the class as producers and the other half as critics, with a dialogue between them. Some students really embodied both of those, like Srinhidi, who produced a track that went with a web project contrasting the embodied experience of music with the analytical metadata of music.
Srinidhi’s split column essay, “Present without Presence”. Screenshare of a webpage. The left half of the page is office background and black text. The right side is a black background with grey text. Music, of course, is a very physical, visceral and embodied experience,particularly electronic music and its culture. Naturally, in discussions of electronic music, parties, raves, and live sets came up. We discuss hardware vs. software, and how that shifts or re contextualizes the experience and production of electronic music over digital. Sim brought us into Dominican Chuchero car audio culture.
A frequent theme when discussing the more personal aspects of music was connection. Going to shows, immersing yourself into a scene and into a culture. DeForrest and a participant in the Wednesday section, Peggy, swapped stories about the electronic music scene in the hipster era of New York and Montreal. The discussion of these personal histories and the release of the film Mile End Kicks, capturing the Montreal indie music scene prompted Peggy to begin to construct a visual inventory of the time and accompanying track.
Peggy’s final presentation of her in-progress “Rhythmanayltical Historiography of Montreal’s Mile End Anglo Music Scene”. Screenshot of a photoshop window with a red timeline with white text. The timeline starts at the year 2000 and ends in 2016. In large text it reads Before Janet and After Janet.
Shanté’s playlist poem from 5 submitted songs reading, “Oh Sheila!/No Fear — Minneapolis Belongs to You/Olivio Verde Pearls”. Five youtube link and thumbnails are underneath with links to the songs: Oh Sheila by the Amuthans Annamalai, No Fear, Elite Gymnastics - Minneapolis Belongs to You, Olivio Verde, and Sade - Pearls.All of this is why I wanted to revise this and mention the SFPC Prom. Physical space was a huge running theme. Transferring these connections and expressions forged online or otherwise in a computer that can be experienced somatically. Another student, Shanté, connected us between sections by constructing a crowdsourced exquisite corpse playlist poem. Some weeks before the prom, while the class was still running, I volunteered for the Black Zine Fair, which is co-directed by Neta Bomani, SFPC’s co-director. It was my first time meeting Neta in person and I saw two Rhythmanalytics participants, Yazmarr and Saylem there too. I also saw the work of my good friend Cameron, who also teaches with and has worked for SFPC, there (he brought me on to be on the teaching side of SFPC for the first time last year). The setting of Cameron’s game is outside a warehouse party. And wouldn’t you know, whose book is a part of Cameron’s display? DeForrest’s! Assembling Black Counter Culture.
Cameron’s display of his game Sidechain at Black Zine Fair 2026 featuring DeForrest’s book, Assembling A Black Counter Culture. The TV is sitting on a red and white keffiyeh. On top of the TV the book by DeForrest Brown Jr, Assembling A Black Counter Culture.During the run of the class other students, Vishal and Austin, met up to jam. Students in another city, in two different sections, Kiyo and Peggy, met up as well. Kwanele and Andy were codeveloping thoughts on Qpom rhythms across thousands of miles. And then yesterday, at prom I saw Manuel, Jeanette and Sim from Rhythmanalytics. I always get such invigorating knowledge and stimulation from being a part of an SFPC class, but everything that happened over the course of this session really made me appreciative of the connection and community that I’m becoming a part of being involved with SFPC.
And for that I’m very grateful.