We are glad to announce AMPLIFY! Cultures and Technologies of Resistance in the Diaspora, taking place on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October 2026 at Schauspielhaus Bochum, Germany.

Hosted by Cute Community Radio (CCR) in collaboration with Sound System Outernational (SSO), and the Institut für Medienwissenschaft (IfM) at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, AMPLIFY! brings together grassroots community practice, academic research and institutional art to explore the role of sound system culture, community radio and other diasporic practices as spaces of resistance, creativity and knowledge production.

Across two days, the programme will feature keynotes by Prof Carolyn Cooper, Prof Julian Henriques and Dr Larisa Kingston Mann, a panel on Sound System Culture in the Diaspora, and a selection of Sound System Cultures Worldwide shorts films produced through the Sonic Street Technologies project. The programme will also include DJ sets, readings, discussions, record and book stalls, and sound system sessions featuring the likes of Aba Shanti-I, Daniella Dee, Chrom System, Baobab Intl. and local sounds.

Prof Carolyn Cooper will give a keynote lecture at Amplify!

The story of this collaboration began earlier this year, when Guy Dermosessian of CCR reached out to SSO, inspired by what we have been doing for more than ten years. He brought CCR’s own experience and practice to the table, opening up the possibility of a collaboration rooted in a shared commitment to sound system culture, community media and the creation of spaces for dialogue.

The collaboration took another important step in June, when Julian Henriques and Brian D’Aquino travelled to Bochum for a joint talk at the CCR headquarters. The visit fully revealed the potential of the partnership and also sparked a parallel research project led by Dr Thomas Zacharias, exploring the multidiasporic community that gravitates around CCR (see this blog).

British sound system legend Aba Shanti – I will perform on Saturday the 24th

Deeply rooted in sound system culture and community building, CCR approaches its practice as a deliberate act of claiming space. Through its weekly broadcasts, physical headquarters and public collaborations, it connects local communities with global audiences and fosters intergenerational dialogue across national and territorial borders.

For SSO, AMPLIFY! also marks a welcome return to continental Europe after SSO #5 in Naples, Italy, in 2019. More importantly, it opens a new chapter in our ongoing work of bringing practitioners, researchers and communities together around the knowledge, technologies and cultural practices that emerge from sound system culture. This is especially urgent in continental Europe, where the recent sound system boom has created a growing appetite for conversations that bridge practice and theory, helping to both preserve the culture and shape its future.

We warmly thank Guy Dermosessian and the whole CCR and IfM crews for creating such an amazing opportunity, and we look forward to being there!

The full programme is available on the CCR website.