OOYH Records Second Mondays (6/8): Mankwe Ndosi Body Memori w/ Nicole Mitchell + JoVia Armstrong
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OOYH Second Mondays at Artspace is a very special show for June, with AACM artists Mankwe Ndosi, Nicole Mitchell, and JoVia Armstrong presenting a full night of music. This one is do not miss, please come support these incredible musicians!
OOYH Records Second Mondays @ Artspace
Monday June 8, 2026
2833-A Hathaway Rd, Richmond, VA 23225
Doors at 7:30pm, Music at 8:00pm
$20 cover
Beer + Wine available for purchase
Mankwe Ndosi’s Body Memori Tour 2026 deepens long-standing musical relationships and shares Ndosi’s Body Memori practice - sensory practices she is developing to reconnect us to intuition and life-giving wisdom drawn from her study of Somatics and the land. Each evening includes a solo set (voice/didj/mbira), a sensory practice invitation, and a set with resident music innovators using the senses as frames for composition / improvisation . The tour builds on her critically acclaimed 2021 album felt/not said with Body Memori, sensory practice in musical creation and performance.
Mankwe Ndosi:
Mankwe Ndosi is a Minneapolis based musician, composer, and producer. Her work draws from Diasporic legacies of Creative Music, Hip hop, Afro-indigenous sound traditions, liberation singing, performance art, and improvisation. She weaves the energies of Black Women’s Ritual performance with the liberatory sonic explorations of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), of which she is a member. She’s performed with Douglas Ewart, Nicole Mitchell, Atmosphere, Mike Ladd, and the Give Get Sistet, among many others. She’s created sound works for Maria Bauman Dance, Sharon Bridgforth/Pillsbury House & Theatre, Zeitgeist, Ananya Dance Theater, as well as for the garden, the zen center, and the street. Her unique sound blends genre-stretching vocal techniques with message and magic. Mankwe has produced a diverse range of artist based-series including ones celebrating Black Creative Music Legacies, and those fostering community relationship-building, ceremony and healing.
Nicole Mitchell:
Nicole Mitchell is an award-winning creative flutist, conceptualist and composer. Her first concern is creating projects where she combines her love for nature, liberation and music in effort to contribute towards the deepening of human consciousness.
Having emerged from Chicago’s creative music community in the 90’s, she is the former first woman president of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Born in Syracuse, NY, Nicole was nurtured by the forest near her home and inspired by her mother’s community work as an artist at the Folk Art Gallery of Syracuse, founded by Herb Williams. As a youth having been relocated to Orange County California, she was troubled by post-integration racial hostility and found solace in music and her parents’ creative vision of endless possibilities. After moving to Chicago in her early twenties, these early experiences influenced her to become a member of the AACM and a cultural daughter of Haki R. Madhubuti while working at Third World Press. Mitchell’s music celebrates contemporary African American culture with a creative process informed by the wonders of nature, literature, narrative and a special interest in science fiction. For over 20 years, Nicole has utilized her art to create alternative worlds that “bridge the familiar with the unknown.” Her primary artistic vehicle, Black Earth Ensemble, is named in honor of mother Earth and mama Afrika. Encompassing philosophy and a strong debt to the writings of Octavia E. Butler, Mitchell's music is centered in intercultural collaboration, with works including Mandorla Awakening, Xenogenesis Suite, EarthSeed (co-written with Lisa E. Harris) and Bamako Chicago Sound System. In 2025 she premiered Radical Transformation, a musical celebration of Angela Davis’ courage and resilience which amplifies Davis’ activist vision and concerns towards creating a better world. She also premiered her Gugenheim commissioned project Portraits of Sonic Freedom, which celebrates creative music and its contributions to jazz, the Black intellectual tradition, Afrofuturism and the expansion of human consciousness.
JoVia Armstrong:
JoVia Armstrong is a percussionist, composer, and educator whose work blends rhythm, technology, and experimental composition. Born in Detroit, Armstrong has performed with artists including El DeBarge, Nicole Mitchell, Isaiah Sharkey, Jeff Parker, and Malian musicians Ballaké Sissoko and Babani Koné. Her performance style bridges acoustic and electronic percussion, drawing influence from a diverse range of global traditions.
She leads the electroacoustic ensemble Eunoia Society, which explores sound as a healing tool through immersive audio and contemplative composition. Their albums The Antidote Suite (2022) and Inception (2023) received widespread acclaim in The New York Times, DownBeat, JazzTimes, and The Wire. JoVia is also a member of the Detroit-based group Musique Noire and formerly served as percussionist and tour manager for JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound.
An active educator and mentor for over two decades, she taught digital media and audio production and served youth in Chicago through YOUmedia and the Digital Youth Network. Armstrong earned her Ph.D. in Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology from UC Irvine. She now serves as Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Virginia, where she teaches composition and electronic music while researching the intersection of Black music, sonic healing, and urban space.
OOYH Records Second Mondays @ Artspace
Monday June 8, 2026
2833-A Hathaway Rd, Richmond, VA 23225
Doors at 7:30pm, Music at 8:00pm
$20 cover
Beer + Wine available for purchase
Mankwe Ndosi’s Body Memori Tour 2026 deepens long-standing musical relationships and shares Ndosi’s Body Memori practice - sensory practices she is developing to reconnect us to intuition and life-giving wisdom drawn from her study of Somatics and the land. Each evening includes a solo set (voice/didj/mbira), a sensory practice invitation, and a set with resident music innovators using the senses as frames for composition / improvisation . The tour builds on her critically acclaimed 2021 album felt/not said with Body Memori, sensory practice in musical creation and performance.
Mankwe Ndosi:
Mankwe Ndosi is a Minneapolis based musician, composer, and producer. Her work draws from Diasporic legacies of Creative Music, Hip hop, Afro-indigenous sound traditions, liberation singing, performance art, and improvisation. She weaves the energies of Black Women’s Ritual performance with the liberatory sonic explorations of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), of which she is a member. She’s performed with Douglas Ewart, Nicole Mitchell, Atmosphere, Mike Ladd, and the Give Get Sistet, among many others. She’s created sound works for Maria Bauman Dance, Sharon Bridgforth/Pillsbury House & Theatre, Zeitgeist, Ananya Dance Theater, as well as for the garden, the zen center, and the street. Her unique sound blends genre-stretching vocal techniques with message and magic. Mankwe has produced a diverse range of artist based-series including ones celebrating Black Creative Music Legacies, and those fostering community relationship-building, ceremony and healing.
Nicole Mitchell:
Nicole Mitchell is an award-winning creative flutist, conceptualist and composer. Her first concern is creating projects where she combines her love for nature, liberation and music in effort to contribute towards the deepening of human consciousness.
Having emerged from Chicago’s creative music community in the 90’s, she is the former first woman president of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Born in Syracuse, NY, Nicole was nurtured by the forest near her home and inspired by her mother’s community work as an artist at the Folk Art Gallery of Syracuse, founded by Herb Williams. As a youth having been relocated to Orange County California, she was troubled by post-integration racial hostility and found solace in music and her parents’ creative vision of endless possibilities. After moving to Chicago in her early twenties, these early experiences influenced her to become a member of the AACM and a cultural daughter of Haki R. Madhubuti while working at Third World Press. Mitchell’s music celebrates contemporary African American culture with a creative process informed by the wonders of nature, literature, narrative and a special interest in science fiction. For over 20 years, Nicole has utilized her art to create alternative worlds that “bridge the familiar with the unknown.” Her primary artistic vehicle, Black Earth Ensemble, is named in honor of mother Earth and mama Afrika. Encompassing philosophy and a strong debt to the writings of Octavia E. Butler, Mitchell's music is centered in intercultural collaboration, with works including Mandorla Awakening, Xenogenesis Suite, EarthSeed (co-written with Lisa E. Harris) and Bamako Chicago Sound System. In 2025 she premiered Radical Transformation, a musical celebration of Angela Davis’ courage and resilience which amplifies Davis’ activist vision and concerns towards creating a better world. She also premiered her Gugenheim commissioned project Portraits of Sonic Freedom, which celebrates creative music and its contributions to jazz, the Black intellectual tradition, Afrofuturism and the expansion of human consciousness.
JoVia Armstrong:
JoVia Armstrong is a percussionist, composer, and educator whose work blends rhythm, technology, and experimental composition. Born in Detroit, Armstrong has performed with artists including El DeBarge, Nicole Mitchell, Isaiah Sharkey, Jeff Parker, and Malian musicians Ballaké Sissoko and Babani Koné. Her performance style bridges acoustic and electronic percussion, drawing influence from a diverse range of global traditions.
She leads the electroacoustic ensemble Eunoia Society, which explores sound as a healing tool through immersive audio and contemplative composition. Their albums The Antidote Suite (2022) and Inception (2023) received widespread acclaim in The New York Times, DownBeat, JazzTimes, and The Wire. JoVia is also a member of the Detroit-based group Musique Noire and formerly served as percussionist and tour manager for JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound.
An active educator and mentor for over two decades, she taught digital media and audio production and served youth in Chicago through YOUmedia and the Digital Youth Network. Armstrong earned her Ph.D. in Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology from UC Irvine. She now serves as Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Virginia, where she teaches composition and electronic music while researching the intersection of Black music, sonic healing, and urban space.
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Where is it happening?
2833-A Hathaway Rd., Richmond, VA, United States, Virginia 23225
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherArtspace Richmond
