Sunn m'Cheaux via Matrix

Sunn m'Cheaux

VIA THE INTEGRATED GLOBAL
CREATIVE ECONOMY

inspired by
THE GRAPEVINE TELEGRAPH
of Pre-Civil War African-Americans

promulgated by
The Brazilian Ministry of Culture

fomented by
The Bahian Secretary of Culture

fomented by
The Palmares Foundation
for the promotion of Afro-Brazilian Culture

fomented by
The National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples

I CURATE

Network Node

Name: Sunn m'Cheaux
City/Place: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Country: United States
Hometown: Charleston, South Carolina

CURATION

from this node by: Matrix

Current News

What's Up? "m’Cheaux is the first and so far only instructor of Gullah at Harvard. He says he’s honored and humbled to be here, but knows he carries the responsibility of sharing the language and history of his people to a broader audience."
-The Harvard Gazette

"m’Cheaux, an artist, musician, performer, activist, and occasional rad skateboarder (check out his Instagram!), had “for years been using various platforms to teach the Gullah language and culture as a preservation effort.”
-Charleston Magazine

"Teaching Gullah at Harvard - it's an honor and a privilege because of the history that academia has had in Gullah/Geechee communities. We were not welcome in those spaces. A language that was, at one point in time, thought to be undeserving to be spoken in any classroom is being taught in the classrooms of such an esteemed institution of education."
-NPR: All Things Considered

Life & Work

Bio: Sunn m’Cheaux was born the middle child of a Pentecostal Holiness minister (father) and missionary (mother) in Charleston, South Carolina. A true Gullah/Geechee “binyah” (native), he was reared in rural Mt. Holly, South Carolina in a familial village established in the late 1850s. The rich Gullah language and culture he absorbed growing up on those sandy Low Country backroads is ever-present in his life as an artist, advocate, and educator.

Though an accomplished high school student, award-winning writer and champion wrestler, m’Cheaux’s passion was – and is – music, which he pursued professionally after graduation. To date, he has released five full-length studio albums, a myriad of singles and music videos, and has recorded a trove of yet to be released work. He has lived and travelled cross-country in the U.S. and ventured abroad as an independent recording artist and producer.

It was during m’Cheaux’s travels that his worldviews expanded, leading him to become more involved in public service for causes and communities for which his heightened profile as a performer granted him a platform to affect progress. His activism and advocacy have been featured on HBO Vice, BBC, CBS, and Al Jazeera Plus, to name a few. m’Cheaux considers media presence to be an integral component in his effort to draw attention to the oft-ignored social groups, particularly the Gullah/Geechee community.

m’Cheaux has cultivated a strong following online via social media with frequent viral content ranging from pop culture commentary, allegorical anecdotes, and entertainment, to serious discussions, advocacy, and philanthropy via crowdfunding. He uses this content to promote intellect, ethics, enlightenment, and education—the latter of which led him in 2017 to becoming the first and only Gullah language instructor at Harvard University. In this role, he teaches a curriculum based on extensive research and his own personal Gullah/Geechee knowledge and experience.

m’Cheaux has been fully embraced at Harvard University, having been invited to be a resident lecturer for Project Teach (Harvard’s Official College and Career Awareness Program) and to speak about his course at other universities and events nationally and in the Caribbean Islands–honored as guest lecturer at the 14th Anatol Rodgers Memorial Lecture and visiting scholar at the University of the Bahamas–and he has been featured in Harvard Crimson and Harvard Gazette.

In addition to academic endeavors, m’Cheaux has collaborated creatively in flim and television as an actor and, more recently, as a Gullah language and culture consultant. He is set to release an illustrated book of Gullah fables for kids. Moreover, m’Cheaux is completing his mixed media memoir that will incorporate his talents in storytelling, songwriting, spoken word, photography, and education.

“There’s a synchronicity between my various passions and pursuits now more than ever. To say I’ve come full-circle would be a misnomer… I’ve come to a place I’ve never been, nor expected to be, but it’s where I’m from that got me here,” he says.

Proud, yet humble about his achievements, m’Cheaux’s personal mantra in all his endeavors is “we outchea,” a celebratory Gullah/Geechee affirmation meaning “we are out here.” He attributes his personal ascension to the collective excellence of his culture and people overall. In that regard, m’Cheaux embodies “Muss tek kyeh de root fa heal de tree,” the Gullah proverb that means, “Must take care of the root to nourish the tree.”

Media | Markets

▶ Twitter: sunnmcheaux
▶ Instagram: sunnmcheaux
▶ TikTok http://www.tiktok.com/@sunnmcheaux
▶ Website: http://www.sunnmcheaux.com
▶ YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/sunnmcheaux

Clips (more may be added)

2:11
Hidden History: Speaking Gullah
By Sunn m'Cheaux

11 views

Sunn m'Cheaux Curated (bridges in)

What's Been Happening?

A category was added to Sunn m'Cheaux:

Photographer
- December 30, 2022
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Visual Artist
- December 30, 2022
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Writer
- December 30, 2022
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Storyteller
- December 30, 2022
A category was added to Sunn m'Cheaux:

Actor
- December 30, 2022
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Guitar
- December 30, 2022
A category was added to Sunn m'Cheaux:

Singer-Songwriter
- December 30, 2022
A category was added to Sunn m'Cheaux:

Harvard Faculty
- December 30, 2022
A category was added to Sunn m'Cheaux:

Binya
- December 30, 2022
A category was added to Sunn m'Cheaux:

Gullah Geechee
- December 30, 2022
A video was posted re Sunn m'Cheaux:

Hidden History: Speaking Gullah
WCBD Staff - Charleston, SC (WCBD) — From North Carolina to Florida, the Gullah Geechee corridor extends 12 thousand square miles, but the cultural influence extends far beyond. Thousands still speak the language today. It's even taught as a class at H...
- December 30, 2022
Sunn m'Cheaux is matrixed!
- December 30, 2022

English (Portuguese →)

ARE YOU MATRIXED?

"I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
✅—Susan Rogers
Personal recording engineer: Prince, Paisley Park
Director: Music Perception & Cognition Laboratory, Berklee College of Music
Author: This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You

The matrix was created in Salvador's Centro Histórico, where Bule Bule below, among magisterial colleagues for whom this matrix was originally built, sings "Chegou a hora dessa gente bronzeada mostrar seu valor... The time has come for these bronzed people to show their worth..."

Motivated in the first instance by the fact that in common with most cultures around our planet, the preponderance of Brazil's vast cultural treasure has been impossible to find from outside of circumscribed regions, including Brazil itself...

Music & lyrics (Brasil Pandeiro) by Assis Valente of Santo Amaro, Bahia, Brazil. Video by Betão Aguiar of Salvador.

Thus something new under the tropical sun: A means by which those above, those below, and EVERYBODY ELSE in the creative economy can be divulged EVERYWHERE.

Quincy Jones can curate Gilberto Gil, for example. And Gil can curate, writers, dancers, filmmakers, painters, record producers, set designers... He can curate Luê Soares of Belém do Pará behind the mic above. You get to Quincy, you can get to Luê. Direct line.

And by the mathematics of the small world phenomenon, everybody in the matrix will tend to proximity to everybody else, in the same way that most human beings are within some six or so steps of most others.

The difference being that in the matrix, these steps are along pathways that can be travelled. The creative world becomes a neighborhood. Quincy Jones is right up the street and Branford Marsalis around the corner. And the most far-flung genius you've never heard of is just a few doors down. Maybe even in Brazil. Laroyê!

"Matrixado!"

✅—Founding Member Darius Mans
Economist, PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
✅—Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
President of Brazil

The matrix is the ultimate evolution of a pathway which began in New York City decades ago per the "rescue" of unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Led Zeppelin, Philip Glass, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd of Kingston's Studio One (Bob Marley's producer), and others. A long and winding road that led inexorably to the necessity of a truly open arts universe, for there is more in Heaven and Earth...

"Many thanks for this - I am touched!"
✅—Julian Lloyd Webber
That most fabled cellist in the United Kingdom (and Brazilian music fan)

"I'm truly thankful... Sohlangana ngokuzayo :)"
✅—Nduduzo Makhathini
Blue Note recording artist)

"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
✅—Alicia Svigals
Founder of The Klezmatics

"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
✅—Clarice Assad
Compositions recorded by Yo Yo Ma and played by orchestras around the world

"Thank you"
(Banch Abegaze, manager)
✅—Kamasi Washington

Tap people, tap categories, tap curations... The matrix is a maze of tunnels within King Solomon's creative mines.

(← Inglês) Português

VOCÊ ESTÁ MATRIXADO?

"Fico muitíssimo feliz em receber seu e-mail! Obrigada por me incluir neste matrix maravilhoso."
✅—Susan Rogers
Engenheiro de gravação pessoal para Prince: Paisley Park
Diretora: Laboratório de Percepção e Cognição Musical, Berklee College of Music
Autora: This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You

O matrix foi criado no Centro Histórico de Salvador, onde Bule Bule abaixo, entre colegas magisteriais para quem este matrix foi originalmente construído, canta "Chegou a hora dessa gente bronzeada mostrar seu valor..."

Motivado na primeira instância pelo fato do que em comum com a maioria das culturas ao redor do nosso planeta, a preponderância do vasto tesouro cultural do Brasil tem sido impossível de encontrar de fora de regiões circunscritas, incluido o próprio Brasil...

Música & letras (Brasil Pandeiro) por Assis Valente de Santo Amaro, Bahia. Vídeo por Betão Aguiar de Salvador.

Assim algo novo sob o sol tropical: Um meio pelo qual os acima, os abaixo e TODOS OS OUTROS na economia criativa podem ser divulgados em TODOS OS LUGARES.

Quincy Jones pode indicar Gilberto Gil, por exemplo. Gil pode indicar escritores, dançarinos, cineastas, pintores, produtores de discos... Ele pode indicar Luê Soares de Belém do Pará atrás do microfone acima. Você chega em Quincy, pode chegar em Luê. Linha direta.

E pela matemática do fenômeno de mundo pequeno, todos no matrix tenderão a se aproximar de todos, da mesma forma que a maioria dos seres humanos estão dentro de cerca de seis passos da maioria dos outros.

Com a diferença que no matrix, estes passos estão ao longo de caminhos que podem ser percorridos. O mundo criativo se torna uma vizinhança. Quincy Jones está lá em cima e Branford Marsalis está ao virar da esquina. E o gênio distante que você nunca ouviu falar tá lá embaixo. Talvez até no Brasil. Laroyê!

"Matrixado!"

✅—Membro Fundador Darius Mans
Economista, doutorado, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
✅—Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Presidente do Brasil

O matrix é a evolução definitiva de um caminho que começou em Nova York há décadas atrás pelo "resgate" dos direitos autorais não pagos para Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Led Zeppelin, Philip Glass, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd do Studio One de Kingston (o produtor de Bob Marley), e outros. Um longo e sinuoso caminho que levou inexoravelmente à necessidade de um universo de artes verdadeiramente abertom pois há mais no Céu e na Terra...

"Muito obrigado por isso - estou tocado!"
✅—Julian Lloyd Webber
Estamos tocados também Sr. Webber!
Merecidamente o violoncelista mais lendário do Reino Unido (e fã da música brasileira)

"Estou realmente agradecido... Sohlangana ngokuzayo :)"
✅—Nduduzo Makhathini
Artista da Blue Note)

"Obrigada, esta é uma ideia brilhante!!"
✅—Alicia Svigals
Fundadora do The Klezmatics

"Este é um trabalho super impressionante! Parabéns! Obrigada por me incluir :)))"
✅—Clarice Assad
Composições gravadas por Yo Yo Ma e tocadas por orquestras ao redor do mundo

"Thank you"
(Banch Abegaze, empresário)
✅—Kamasi Washington

Toque em pessoas, toque em categorias, toque em curadoria... O matrix é um labirinto de túneis dentro das minas criativas do Rei Salomão.