Additional Information
Sépopo Galley is Director of Programming at the Festival international Nuits d’Afrique. She can be proud to have taken on this responsibility, still too rarely attributed to women, and even less to Afro-descendant women. Before migrating to Canada, she lived in France, where she held administrative duties for a theatre company in Normandy, before which she held a relatively similar position in Avignon. Now firmly in the saddle at Nuits d’Afrique for a third year running, Sépopo explains to PAN M 360 how she works within an organization that has been active for almost four full decades.
PAN M 360: How did you become part of the Nuits d’Afrique organization?
Sépopo Galley: After arriving in Montreal three years ago, I started working in production at Nuits d’Afrique, then found myself in programming in 2021.
PAN M 360: Obviously, you’re familiar with the music that fits Nuit d’Afrique’s profiles, so you’ve developed your own knowledge.
Sépopo Galley: Yes, I’ve proven myself, and I’ve also discovered a lot of things, and we’re always discovering new things. It’s a constant process of discovery.
PAN M 360: What’s your angle? How do you see the artistic programming at Nuits d’Afrique?
Sépopo Galley: I see freshness, I see novelty. There’s so much new talent out there, I want to be able to showcase it. But we still need to keep the Nuits d’Afrique base, because we need a mix of generations. That’s what makes the program so rich, but I think we need to bring in a bit of freshness, either with music that still retains its roots, or with a more modern approach.
PAN M 360: You’re certainly aware of the general feel of Nuits d’Afrique and the type of programming put forward over the last 40 years now. How have you adapted to this vision? How do you see yourself implementing your own way of doing things, and your own artistic personality through your choices?
Sépopo Galley: You also have to be humble and try to listen to the advice of the people who have been there since the very beginning 38 years ago, and whose vision has led Nuits d’Afrique to become one of Montreal’s major festivals. So, to take what has been done, consolidate it and take it elsewhere without distorting the purpose.
PAN M 360: And what does “take it elsewhere” mean?
Sépopo Galley: In this program, there are artists from our label who are new. There are also artists I’ve discovered at festivals and specialized conventions. So, we’ve spotted artists who bring something new to the table, who make contemporary music like afrobeat. As for artists from elsewhere, we’re looking for Montreal artists with whom we haven’t had much opportunity to work, and who have a fresh touch to offer. There are also artists from abroad.
PAN M 360: If we put names to this, for example, what do you find refreshing about the Nuits d’Afrique 2023 program?
Sépopo Galley: Blick Bassy and Eliasse, who are playing on Thursday, are good examples. Spontaneously, I would add Yemi Alade, The Bongo Up, Sona Jobarteh, Kaleta & Super Yamba Band. Several international or local artists invited this year who have never come before. Several premieres on the program!
PAN M 360: So this programming is done in collegiality with the management of Nuits d’Afrique, in order to maintain this harmonious relationship between past and present.
Sépopo Galley: Exactly! I’m the one who does the initial work, I orientate a little according to what I’d like to propose, and then we get together in the programming committee and make the decisions together.
PAN M 360: Now, of course, the enigma for international festivals is Nigeria, whose cultural output has been exploding in recent years. Last year, Yemi Alade was the victim of Canadian customs delays and was able to perform in Montreal in November, before returning outdoors in a few days’ time at Nuits d’Afrique. This is not strictly a problem for Nuits d’Afrique, as we observed at the Santa-Teresa festival last May and at the Jazz Festival more recently. How do you explain this?
Sépopo Galley: I can’t explain it, I don’t know where the problem lies. Personally, I’d say that there’s also the matter of preparing the files and the time it takes to process them through Canadian customs. As you said, it’s a recurring problem, but we have no explanation.
PAN M 360: So why have you done so little afrobeat?
Sépopo Galley: We’re trying now. Maybe we didn’t jump on the bandwagon right away, but now it’s music that’s very well represented, much loved, that we have to promote because people ask for it. There’s quite a strong demand, and it’s good music. It’s the kind of music that a lot of people are listening to nowadays, and we’d like to continue in that vein as well, we’d like to continue, and we’ll be working further upstream.
PAN M 360: Is 2023 the real year of post-pandemic recovery?
Sépopo Galley: No, last year was similar. We got ready after COVID. In 2021, we ran an all-local festival, and now we’re back in full force with the opening of our two stages on L’Esplanade Tranquille. We have workshops, we’ve innovated with outdoor cabarets, our market has expanded, there’s lots of activities!
