Take an afternoon drive. The music booms and you’re singing along to the immortal words: “keep on keeping on.” It was a drive like this that led Kemi Bennings to her “light switch” moment: a series of ideas that have allowed her to bridge the divide between art and music and realize her ministry.
“Ministers of Sound,” a collaborative photography exhibition celebrating disk jockeys and DJ culture, will be held at The Sound Table on Sunday, Feb. 24 from 5 to 8 p.m. Kemi Bennings, curator of Ministers of Sound, is also the founder of Evolve! Artists Live Inc., a non-profit organization that supports local artists.
Bennings said “Ministers of Sound” began as the first line in a poem about DJ several years ago. Since then it has evolved into an exhibition of photography, music and video celebrating Atlanta
DJ culture while simultaneously remembering her late father, Rev. Hardy S. Bennings, Jr.
“People will witness an installation of sorts – kind of a unique merging of a tribute to my father, a tribute to DJs,” Bennings said.“It will also be bringing forth a poignant question, charged to the
DJs, with reference to where we are as a human family. Where were in the community.”
Bennings teamed with musician/photographer Annette Brown on the project. Brown’s photography has appeared in Vogue, Blender and VIBE. Since 2008, Bennings and Brown have been working together meeting with DJs and documenting their lives, and exploring their impact on the community and music.
“Imagine life without music. Music is the life force of our being,” Brown said. “I am honored to be a part of Ministers of Sound; that I have the opportunity to document our Atlanta DJs and help
to bring awareness and recognition to their contributions to music and their originality in delivering music to our lives.”
DJ Tabone, a radio host, DJ and re-mixer, is one of several prominent DJs featured in the exhibition.
“What makes this concept so unique is the opportunity it affords each participant. It gives each of us a chance to express how music is our religion,” Tabone said.
Bennings created that very same parallel in Ministers of Sound. She explained that DJs are conducive to the development of the music industry, just are spiritual leaders are influential at the pulpit.
“From Wednesday to Sunday, those DJs and theologians are busy serving their congregations,” Bennings said. “A lot of what you will witness at the exhibit is a direct relationship between the DJ and their own individuality, as well as infusions of my father’s work.”
Bennings said she hopes Ministers of Sound will allow music to inspire the viewer and urge a thought process that allows them to question the importance of music in our everyday lives: how it can make us reflect on a moment in time or take us back to a special place.
“Music and words really do have the power to transform,” Brown said. “The timing of this project is incredibly important with the things that are going on in the world today. Music has a way to
send out a vibrational message to people and to influence people to be a certain way in their lives. When people come to the exhibit and view the photographs, I want it to provoke some thought about the message and the intention behind it.”
