Day 1 : June 7th, 2021
As a pianist, poet, singer and songwriter, Qur'an has been exploring improvisation. In this piece, she's communicating her feelings and thoughts through her fingers while focusing on intention. With every note, she wanted there to be no control, detaching from her present consciousness and trying to reach something outside of the daily negative thoughts.
Reflection Questions
Qur'an’s piece invites us to be fully present so that we may rest in that spaciousness. What are the ways you practice radical rest? What allows you to feel and access the quality of presence that opens the door to radical rest?
Artist Q&A
Which activists and changemakers inform and inspire your practice?
My parents and my family. They are all change makers and they inspire me to continually strive to be my best self in many ways. My mother taught me the importance of unity between the mind, body, and spirit. My father taught me how to honor and love my people. And my grandmother taught me how to perfect the gift I was bless with. All has inspired my practice.
What are the ways you practice radical rest?
I like to be silent. Tend to my plants, animals, and make music.
How do you and your community honor and uplift the legacy of Juneteenth?
By continuing to grow, learn, and develop compassion.
Artist
Qur'an Shaheed
Pianist, Vocalist and Composer
Qur'an Shaheed (b. 1992, Pasadena, CA) is a pianist, poet, singer and songwriter based in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, CA. She has been playing piano since the age of four, trained extensively in classical music through the expertise of her mother Sharon Shaheed and grandmother Monique Simpson. Since 2012 she has been developing her practice as a songwriter alongside her solo piano and ensemble work. She released the album Process, with producer Jesse Justice and Preference Records, in 2020 and regularly performs in and around Los Angeles.
Her sound is innovative, highly personal and experimental, incorporating elements of improvisation as well as neo-classical and neo-soul techniques. Shaheed often collaborates with others and has worked with Koreatown Oddity, filmmaker Vashni Korin and the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (of which her father Nolan Shaheed is also a member). She is the keyboardist for Jimetta Rose’s gospel choir The Voices of Creation. In 2020 she was interviewed by KCRW for their Private Playlist series and featured in a special mixtape project by waltz for Gucci Shibuya Parco in Tokyo. Shaheed is also engaged in composing for moving image and film scoring, particularly drawn to projects that reflect on society, history and unifying acts.