Rita Ray

Biography

I am a club and radio DJ and founding member of a number of club events such as Mwalimu Express , an family African session, Cafe Oran , our North African, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean club excursion, the Movement of the People events where we celebrate new music of Europe and the Afrobeat inspired riot which is  The Shrine , a club night out of which came  The Shrine Synchrosystem , where Max Reinhardt and I invite rappers, musicians and dancers, to jam over our beats.  The Synchrosystem's current project is I Dream Of Accra With The Long Blonde 'Fro , an epic tale of Africa and Europe told with strings, visuals DJs, rappers and an award-winning novelist.




As for my ‘day job’, I programme international music festivals in London like Celebrating Sanctuary which is the refugee arts festival that launches Refugee Week and the Rise Festival , London's biggest free festival. Besides contributing to the Africa On Your Street website, you can hear my African review slot every month or so on  Weekend Network Africa on the BBC World Service and I am currently the chair of the jury for the BBC Awards for World Music . Max and I also run DJ soundscape workshops and are we are writing a book on Fela Kuti.