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Doors 8pm / Show 8:30pm
$17 adv / $20 door / free or discounted for members
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Decolonizing the dancefloor since 2011, DISCOSTAN returns to San Francisco for a special evening featuring Checkpoint 303, led by Tunisian producer SC Mocha. Joined by DJ ariB, and together with Arab.AMP, we present adiasporic discotheque which imagines past, present and future soundscapes. In step with community, this night’s DJs and sound artists raise awareness and inspire action on behalf of our liberation struggle and revolution.

Discostan is a diasporic discotheque which imagines past, present and future soundscapes from Beirut to Bangkok via Bombay. Over the last six years, this space has grown to be an interactive forum and space of convergence for QTPOC of the SWANA region. From presenting a vast archive of golden-age music to the most forward-thinking musical producers from our regions, performative collaborations with avante-garde artists outside of the white cube, to events raising awareness and galvanizing action for political engagement, Discostan is an ever-evolving space of possibility, imagination and liberation for immigrants and diaspora of South and West Asia and North Africa living in Los Angeles. Reconfiguring the nightclub and the dance floor as devotional spaces and radical sites of rewriting our histories and destinies, we explore narrative threads including migration, celebration, conflict, nostalgia, homeland, and borders, often within realms of Islamic influence, through lenses of traditional forms, experimental renderings, and kaleidoscopic reinventions of pop culture. Listen on NTS.

Checkpoint 303 is an avant-garde activist sound art project that creates experimental electronic music raising awareness about the struggle for liberation, justice and self-determination, and against settler-colonialism, occupation and apartheid. Using archives and field recordings predominantly from Palestine and various countries throughout the Arab world, Checkpoint 303 constructs soundscapes that weave cinematic audio with experimental sound processing, breakbeats and glitch. Checkpoint 303 is led by Tunisian producer SC Mocha and has numerous collaborations with Palestinian artists including Rim Banna, Jawaher Shofani, Ministry of Dubkey, Walaa Sbait and more. Checkpoint 303 has performed shows in Palestine, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Europe, Australia, USA, Canada, Japan, Chile, etc. Checkpoint 303 was also invited by the British trip-hop band Massive Attack as supporting act for several shows in the UK and France.

DJ ariB is a queer Iranian-American DJ, dancer, and musician whose eclectic sound blends high BPM club beats with influences from Dabke and Bandari, drawing on their Southern Iranian roots. Their performances across the Bay Area showcase genres like techno, footwork, and hip hop, and they also host The Art of Sound on Lower Grand Radio, celebrating electronic musicians from Iran and the SWANA region.

Directed by Leyya Mona Tawil, Arab.AMP is a platform for experimental live art, music and ideas by artists of the SWANA diaspora, the region, and our allied communities. The Arab.AMP 2025 season highlights practices of listening and action; through sound, performance and conversation. Arab.AMP receives lead support from the Hewlett Foundation and the California Arts Council.