Second annual festival will bring global sounds to DC venues throughout October

Former Gwar metal band drummer and current do-it-yourself world music promoter Jim Thomson is bringing a Puerto Rican punk-turned-salsa band, a Colombian hip-hop group, a “Saharan acid western” movie, and more to multiple DC venues in October — all as part of his second annual world music festival.

In October 2017, Thomson’s booking company, Multiflora Productions, put together his first global music festival, a series of gigs throughout that month that he called “Search for Sanctuary.” This year, the celebration returns as “Flash of the Spirit — Worldwide Sound Festival 2018,” with the opening concert on Oct. 2 kicking off a four-week slate of performances, screenings and other events.

For the past six years, Virginia-raised Thomson has been booking international musicians, mostly singing in languages other than English, at small DC nightclubs like Tropicalia on U Street and Bossa in Adams Morgan. At those locations he is often working the door himself, checking IDs and offering friendly chatter to friends and strangers alike. Thomson, who drummed for the wildly costumed Gwar in the ‘80s and is currently a drummer for experimental rock band Time Is Fire, has also released records by a variety of groups on his Electric Cowbell label and booked U.S. tours for artists such as Niger’s Mdou Moctar.

The eclectically programmed “Flash of the Spirit” begins with Ethiopian traditional music and dance outfit Fendika at the Hill Center at Old Naval Hospital on Oct. 2 and continues with a series of concerts and movie showings throughout the area at locations including the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, Suns Cinema, Milkboy Arthouse, Anacostia Arts Center and Rhizome. A number of events will be at Tropicalia and Bossa.

Highlights include Cuban dance music from Septeto Santiaguero, Brazilian psychedelic pop from Sessa, bluesy guitar from Mali’s Mamadou Kelly, and Ecuadorian marimba-led folk-pop from Rio Mira. Some of the acts will be traveling from abroad, while others are based in the U.S.  

“I feel like my year-round hustle slash programming is like a yearlong festival,” said Thomson, a Mount Pleasant resident. “But I wanted to do something that condensed the work I do in DC into a time period that celebrated the programming and that would be diverse and give people the opportunity to see one or two events without it all being on one day or one weekend where weather could affect it or other events could affect the turnout.”

Thomson notes that his monthlong jubilee is inspired in part by the World Music Festival Chicago, a three-week Windy City-funded affair offering free indoor and outdoor concerts. While Thomson has some support from venues and other promoters, he is doing most of the work himself and has to charge for most of the events. Thomson has an online fundraising campaign going to help pay for this year’s event.

While some Indian, Pakistani, Latino and African acts play 1,500- to 8,000-capacity theaters and arenas in the DC area, Thomson works with groups that he describes as “emerging artists that aren’t established necessarily, or they’re established elsewhere but they’re not known in this market.”

Last year, Thomson joined a global music consortium of presenters created by the National Endowment for the Arts’ Michael Orlov, who started the Chicago festival 20 years ago. The organization helps groups get multiple U.S. gigs. Thomson notes that “current challenges are with getting artist visas and the IRS 30 percent withholding tax on income earned here by foreign artists. … The costs are getting more and more challenging. But a coalition of presenters helps route the groups through and bring costs down.”

Thomson has big dreams for the future of his event. “This festival is very DIY now, but if it grows I have a vision for expanding it,” he said. He wants to include educational outreach by having “groups visit schools to get it in underserved parts of the city” and to add more screenings of international films.

Thomson is pleased with Flash’s more-than-just-Northwest-DC geographic diversity and the makeup of the events, and he stresses the thought he puts into the schedule. “I put time into gender parity, special access (wheelchair, elevator), and being close to Metro,” he said.

He hopes that Southeast and non-Southeast residents alike will appreciate the matinee at the Anacostia Arts Center on Saturday, Oct. 20. Noting that he gets complaints from some that shows start too late, and from others that they start too early, he said, “I am trying to anticipate the complaints and the pushback.”

While Thomson expresses pleasure regarding all the events, he seems especially excited about a few programs.

On Oct. 12 at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, DC-based Syrian guest vocalist Lubana Al Quntar will accompany the New York City-based classical Arab music ensemble Takht Al-Nagham, led by violinist Samer Ali. After the show the musicians will head to musician/photographer Jason Hammecher’s Lost Origins Gallery in Mount Pleasant, where Hammecher will show photos he took in Allepo, Syria, before the civil war.

The gallery event will also offer traditional Syrian food provided by Foodhini, a DC multicultural caterer that employs immigrant cooks. “That’s kind of a perfect night for me,” Thompson said. “Everybody gets to eat, taste and smell Syrian food, and listen [to] and interact with Syrian refugees.”

Just two nights earlier, an Oct. 10 double bill at Topicalia will highlight Orquesta el Macabeo (the earlier mentioned Puerto Rican punks turned salseros) and China’s Zhou Family Band — a juxtaposition that Thomson relishes.

“There’s always some people who might think it’s weird to have Puerto Rican salsa and Chinese folk together,” he said. “But I have been to some of these folk festivals where they will do things like having the Sun Ra Horns play with the drummers of Burundi or something. and it’s great. It’s this lovely vision of collaboration and exchange and cultural ideas and vision. There’s always an intersection point, and I think there’s a value in those kinds of collaborations and showcases where you mix up bills and do the unexpected.”