Following the release of her landmark new album BLACK STAR, Amaarae brings The Black Star Experience to Knockdown Center. BLACK STAR was born, in true Amaarae fashion, on cross-continental trips to Miami, Los Angeles, Brazil, and Accra. As she experienced dance music culture in each locale, she noticed more connections than differences—especially in how Black people in each city share “a lot of our patterns, tempos,” Amaarae says. “The ways that we approach music are the same. There’s a sense of being untethered and free.” These observations fostered a newfound sense of pride in the forward-thinking genres from her native Ghana—azonto, asorkpor, hiplife, and highlife—and led her to ask: “What does being Ghanaian mean to me? What is my interpretation of my culture, identity, and my pride?” The answer to that question is the diaspora-hopping BLACK STAR, a futuristic statement of cultural pride through an ever-shifting palette of ghettotech, house, techno, baile funk, and African dance genres—stamped with Amaarae’s signature softness and hypnotic vocals. It recontextualizes Ghanaian and African music with pop and club sounds across time and space, connecting them with the roots of modern-day dance music, house and techno. Knockdown Center 18+