Here to Remember Live

A one-off event presenting new work by three commissioned artists Kai Chareunsy, Katherine Lee and Kyami Mitsui Russell.

Curated by multidisciplinary artist and composer Jasmin Kent Rodgman (Co-Artistic Director, Manchester Collective), the three artists will debut new music exploring their heritage and relationship to archives and memory.

The night will also feature discussions about the relationship between music and archives, and a special screening of the short film Midnight Rising by filmmaker and visual artist Aileen Ye.

Here to Remember Commissions

• Kai Chareunsy presents a live piece weaving khaen, field recordings, and family testimony to resurrect his feeling of exploring Laos as someone from the diaspora, but also highlighting the histories Laos refugees and giving voice to a silenced history
• Katherine Lee presents an immersive performance that transforms Hong Kong’s WWII-era Nam Koo Terrace ghost myth into a sonic ritual of bowls, rice, and live electronics, revealing how shared superstitions and heritage continue to shape East/Southeast Asian identity
• Kyami Mitsui Russell turns the untold love-story of their migrant parents into speculative fragments, using absence itself as material, to explore how missing family memories become the mythology that shapes ESEA identity. The music will be created alongside animation using AI to generate its movements

Find out more about the commissioned artists

Midnight Rising

The hidden world of East and Southeast Asian raves in London is uncovered, presenting a community of acceptance and joy.

In 2024, it was officially selected and screened at BFI LFF, Norwich Film Festival, Leeds IFF, Aesthetica, and Ann Arbor, and won Best International Short Documentary at Dublin International Film Festival. The producer, Kamila Serkebaeva, also was the executive producer for Kneecap (2024).

Aileen Ye is a filmmaker and visual artist from Dublin. Focusing on diasporic subcultures and movement, her practice is rooted in sociological inquiry and lived experience. Her work explores control and the body as a site of resistance, memory, and rhythm, interrogating how certain bodies are framed within dominant visual ideologies. Her films have screened at BAFTA and Academy-qualifying festivals including BFI London Film Festival, Aesthetica, and Ann Arbor. She was awarded Best International Short Documentary at the 2024 Dublin International Film Festival and received the EVCOM UK Focus Award in 2022 for her debut short. Her work has also been exhibited at the BFI, ICA, NOWNESS Asia, Barbican Centre, LUX, FACT Liverpool, Art Rotterdam, and esea Contemporary.

Tickets

Tickets are pay what you can. Suggested donation is £5, but you can still book for free.

Getting There

SOUP, 31-33 Spear St, Manchester M1 1DF

Google Maps

Manchester Piccadilly and Victoria train stations are both within 0.5 miles away. Manchester Piccadilly is within 0.2 miles away.

Credits

Here to Remember is produced by Brighter Sound and curated by Jasmin Kent Rodgman, in partnership with esea contemporary.

Supported by Arts Council England, Manchester City Council, Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), PRS Foundation as a Talent Development Partner (supported by PPL), and Garrick Charitable Trust.