Progress Bar is a monthly club night dedicated to communal desire and collective joy. Every episode starts with a 90-minute talkshow with guests talking about their work in art, music and social action, and the material conditions that shape it. After the talks we move into the club, and, having spent time listening to the artists talk, dancing to their music will be even more magical.

For the first Progress Bar of the decade, there are two screenings as well as an interview with an artist performing later that night, Authentically Plastic.

I Hope I’m Loud When I’m Dead (2018, dir. Beatrice Gibson)
Named after a poem by CAConrad, I Hope I’m Loud When I’m Dead (2018) explores poetry and disobedience. Gibson made the first recordings on the eve of the 45th presidential inauguration in January 2017, as a portrait of two of the United States’ most important living poets, CAConrad and Eileen Myles. For the rest of that year, she continued filming in America and Western Europe, focusing on the mass refugee migration across the Mediterranean Sea, the Grenfell Tower fire in London, and the repercussions of political unrest and war. The words of CAConrad and Myles are interwoven with those of Audre Lorde, Alice Notely and Adrienne Rich, and with sensitive portraits of her own life and family. The film’s score, by world-renowned experimental musician and composer Pauline Oliveros, lends the film a remarkable sense of intimacy.

Roots for a Crown (2019, dir. Julianknxx)
Written and directed by Sierra Leonean via London poet Julianknxx, Roots for a Crown (2019) explores the negative perceptions and prejudice surrounding locked hair. In this imaginative docufiction, various storytellers delve into the symbolism and traditions behind their locs, and discuss how their hair has become an aesthetic marker of ancestral identity. Co-directed with British filmmaker Chris West, this short moves fluidly between poetry, music and visual art. Cowrie shells, traditional African dress and wax print fabrics amplify the cultural roots of locked hair, while Julianknxx’s rousing soundtrack speaks of community, shared lineage and pride. Originally commissioned by the Roundhouse, a performing arts space in London, Roots for a Crown is the latest project from the poet that draws heavily on his own biography—which commonly considers themes of masculinity, blackness and mental health.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBtlJqbTI6Y

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https://soundcloud.com/juju10v3

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https://soundcloud.com/nahshi

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https://soundcloud.com/thoo-m