INTERVIEWS
HANNABIELL SANDERS & YILIS DEL CARMEN SURIEL
CLAIRE DUPREE TALKS TO INSPIRATIONAL MUSICIANS HANNABIELL SANDERS AND YILIS DEL CARMEN SURIEL ABOUT THEIR ETHOS OF EMPOWERMENT, COLLABORATION AND INCLUSIVITY IMAGE BY AMELIA READ You’d be hard pressed to find people more generous of spirit and filled with as much relentless optimism as Hannabiell Sanders and Yilis del Carmen Suriel. The duo perform under various guises, including Ladies of Midnight Blue and Hannabiell & The Midnight Blue Collective, and their work doesn’t stop at being highly talented musicians – Hannabiell is a bass trombonist, they’re both African hand percussionists and Yilis also plays mbira – they are educators, artists, activists and inspirational and passionate speakers. In short, I’m a fan. June is a busy month for them both, as Hannabiell embarks on the final stages of her Sage Gateshead residency, which came at an important moment in the musician’s career. “The residency enabled me the space to experiment with new ideas, research and develop new work.” Further explaining she was able to explore
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narrative within her work, experiment with electronics and expand her skills as a soloist, she also worked with West African dance teacher Aida Diop to incorporating dance into their larger productions. Yilis, both as band member and visual director, plays an equally important role. “The bigger vision was inspired by Hannabiell, she was looking to create a larger production that allowed her to explore storytelling through music, dance and an element of theatre.” For the Sage Gateshead show on Thursday 16th June, where all of Hannabiell and Yilis’ various guises come together on one stage, Yilis utilises projections and lightboxes with images inspired by West African and Taíno symbols to enhance the narrative of the compositions. Hannabiell and Yilis’ sound is an embodiment of the women
