Cultural action uplifting the spirit
Pushing the ceiling and raising the roof
Enter the zone of the brave new word
Upward gravitating, inner elevating,
David welcomes you to
ABRACADIA
The jazz philosopher’s culture factory of
writing, music and spoken word arts
The
Culture
Factory
Cultural Action: Sparking the conversations that transform reality.
Recovering sources of value and meaning. Exercising positive mission and agency.
Abracadia: The Story
The name Abracadia combines two words: ‘Abracadabra’, meaning: ‘As it is spoken, thus it is manifested’, and ‘Arcadia’, the Ancient Greek name for the earthly paradise to which we all aspire. So, bringing those two together, the word ‘Abracadia’ means: ‘As it is spoken, thus is manifested the earthly paradise to which we all aspire’. More simply: ‘Speaking and singing our dreams into being and chanting down wickedness’.
Founded by David in Jamaica, 2006, Abracadia was inspired by the discovery of his 9 x great grandfather who arrived in Jamaica as a griot with the Ashanti royal Naquan, and by the discovery of a Maroon minstrel grandfather who kept the family tradition going into the 20th century.
Over the past 18 years Abracadia has been the home of philosophical cultural action and urban griot edutainment, with musical performance, recording and traditional spoken-word storytelling all evoking the agency of the Ancestors according to ancient tradition.
In hosting the debut novel: ‘The Songtree: A Windrush Tale’, and the accompanying debut album: ‘Tree Songs’, Abracadia now occupies a unique and important niche that’s been long neglected and derelict since being looted and uprooted by colonialism. Abracadia: where literature, spoken word and music combine. Abracadia: home of the urban griot.
The Signifying Logo
Observe the obverse:
Reverse the slave curse!
Seal of the souljah, home of the heartstrong, Abracadia is the boundless form of the endless struggle for ultimate Ubuntu, for the victory of good over evil in our time.
Based in England, Jamaica and Africa, Abracadia takes the establishment’s golden triangle of old and flips it inside out to the obverse to reverse the outworn slavers’ curse.
In so doing, Abracadia amplifies the Ancestral spirit of the modern artist-griot worldwide, be they rapper, painter, poet, dancer or musician, announcing the power of creative cultural actors to overcome the serial genocide and global-menticide of inhuman elites and their no-talent sub-human servants.
‘Until the lion tells the story the hunter will always be the hero’.
(African proverb)
Hear the roar! Abracadia is the lion’s story!
More than any other field of human activity, the arts have a history of creatively resisting the cultural genocide of colonialism, presenting expressions of cultures with the holographic epigenetic imprint of our lost identity.
Jazz, Reggae, Soul and Hip-Hop have long been the last refuge of cultural, intellectual and spiritual integrity in the commercial (corporate dominated) music business, performing a much more profound role in society than mere popular entertainment.
From Woody Guthrie and Paul Robeson to Stevie Wonder and John Lennon; from Mahalia Jackson and Bessie Smith to Erykah Badu and Amy Winehouse … Generation after generation of dazzling mixed urbanites chanting down wicked babylon and chanting up the righteous spirit of justice and redemption.
Your heart was always right to want to fly with such dreams, they make us more human. And at last that day is here and now. Abracadia is proud to be a fractal particle of this holographic historical moment as the fearless lion of Africa uncaged steps out, free at last and ‘grooving high’. (Check Bird’s tune of that name to hear how that musical messenger painted this moment sublime.)
The odyssey begins. ‘Who no waan come can stay’. (Check The Wailing Souls tune to get the full sound of what that means.)
Solidly based in sound philosophical reasoning and bathed in the Ancestral griot spirit of cultural action through words and music, Abracadia beckons forth the rise of the righteous resistance and the renaissance of Ubuntu, inviting you to take part too along the way. The vibe is building …
From a whisper to a scream
A true revolution in style, content, strategy, vision and spirit, our mission is to bust fake negatives with real positives of art and culture.
Abracadia applies the culture factor to the equation of transforming reality: styling it this and defining it that.
Abracadia is of I and I for I and I: A people’s culture factory dedicated to cultural action: re-humanising our world though the spirit of Ubuntu.
Abracadia’s task is made easier by this universally recognised fact: The anti-human values we denounce represent a lack of moral fibre that spells the downfall of the system that sustains them.
Truth is a thing like wind and water and fire, it is elemental. Truth flows and it will always seek a way out through the portals of the human heart. Truth will out.
Our heartbeat carries the eternal flame of truth, every generation passes it on, Louis Armstrong to Bob Marley to David to YOU! One truth, one love, one heart in Ubuntu.
Join the spiritual battle: rage against the night, blaze a brighter light with Abracadia.
What Next?
An audacious debut novel and album are just the start for Abracadia. The door openers. What happens next, when we enter the arena?
Following the release of ‘The Songtree: A Windrush Tale’ and of the accompanying album, ‘Treesongs’, the Abracadia team will be setting up a little jazz bar in Africa in 2025. Set in stunning scenery, it will double as writing retreat and music studio too, with accommodation.
Meanwhile, David himself will release a new book of short-stories themed on Revelation, as well as recording the next album to accompany it (more African Ancestral roots reggae, dub, lover’s rock, hip-hop and jazz, all infused with a hint of bebop; all the sounds we cook come from that ital recipe book: fresh, hot, sweet, strong, rich, deep and lingering.)
Abracadia’s products speak for themselves. Read, listen, see for yourself. For anyone interested in cultural action for human progress, Abracadia may be the greatest show on earth - the only show where you get to witness and be part of an amazing and much needed transformation: bad-faith babylonian domination overcome by what Bob Marley called the natural mystic. The Ancestral spirit behind Abracadia never could fail or lose, sure as eggs is eggs and Karma is Karma.
It’s ‘Hallelujah Time’, just like Bunnny Wailer sang. (Check The Wailers.) Enjoy the show!