Curious Sounds: A Dialogue in Three Movements

By Roger Mooking and Francesca Ekwuyasi

• Curious Sounds is a collaborative art book by two exceptionally talented, multi-hyphenate Black artists: celebrity chef and visual and recording artist Roger Mooking, and author and filmmaker francesca Ekwuyasi (who now spells her name all lower case).

• Roger is best known as the host of such TV cooking programs as Man Fire Food, Heat Seekers and Everyday Exotic (all broadcast on the Cooking Channel) and as a guest judge on such Food Network shows as Chopped and Guy’s Grocery Games.  francesca’s debut novel Butter Honey Pig Bread was an international bestseller, winner of the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ+ Emerging Writers and shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Award and Amazon Canada First Novel Award, and longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. It was also runner-up in the 2021 edition of CBC Television’s Canada Reads competition.

• Roger and francesca met in 2020 when Roger was a panelist on Canada Reads and chose Butter Honey Pig Bread to defend, almost winning the competition on the final day. Since then, they have become close friends and kindred spirits who both use different artistic mediums to explore social issues and themes such as identity and selfhood.

• Curious Sounds uses Roger’s art and stories as a focal point to find “beauty in the chaos.” It’s inspired by Roger’s ADHD diagnosis and the fact that the average human attention span lasts only 8.25 seconds. With this in mind, the book is a series of fleeting images and words that try to make sense of our time on this Earth. Comprising three sections that mimic the arc of a life, entitled “The Learning,” “The Living,” and “The Leaving,” the book also includes a series of essays and conversations between the two artists on how to find meaning in this chaotic world, especially from a Black perspective.

• Curious Sounds is a standalone book, but it is also part of a multimedia project by Roger that will include an interactive art exhibit (debuting in Hamilton, Canada this fall and likely to tour in the US in 2024) and an album of new songs, each of which inspired the stories that appear in the book. The book will include a free download link to the album.

• The audience for this book will be fans of Roger and francesca’s work, members of the Black community, and those who are impacted by attention deficit disorder.

• Publicity by Beth Parker PR.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press
• Release date: Oct 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9781551529301

Book preview

An abstracted background with bright colours in various-sized lines and rectangles that have been obscured through pointilized pixillation. Colours include red, magenta, yellow, gold, orange, green, royal blue, black, navy, and light blue. On top of the background is a simple rough light-blue outline of the top three-quarters of a figure. The artwork is an abstracted version of a piece by the author Roger Mooking. The title, “Curious Sounds,” is in white block letters on top of the image. The subtitle, “A Dialogue in Three Movements,” is in white, and the authors’ names, “Roger Mooking & francesca ekwuyasi,” are in yellow below.

CURIOUS

SOUNDS

A DIALOGUE IN

THREE MOVEMENTS

Roger Mooking &

francesca ekwuyasi

Logo: Arsenal Pulp Press

CURIOUS SOUNDS

Copyright © 2023 by Roger Mooking and francesca ekwuyasi

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any part by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechanical—without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may use brief excerpts in a review, or in the case of photocopying in Canada, a licence from Access Copyright.

ARSENAL PULP PRESS

Suite 202 – 211 East Georgia St.

Vancouver, BC V6A 1Z6

Canada

arsenalpulp.com

The publisher gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council for its publishing program and the Government of Canada and the Government of British Columbia (through the Book Publishing Tax Credit Program) for its publishing activities.

Logo: Government of British Columbia; British Columbia Arts Council, An agency of the Province of British Columbia; Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des Arts du Canada; Government of Canada.

Arsenal Pulp Press acknowledges the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, custodians of the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories where our office is located. We pay respect to their histories, traditions, and continuous living cultures and commit to accountability, respectful relations, and friendship.

Cover and text design by Jazmin Welch

Cover art by Roger Mooking, The Other Guy Returns (modified), 2022, acrylic on canvas and photography

All interior art © 2023 by Roger Mooking o/a SoundBites

Photo editing by Ian Kamau and Roger Mooking

Micro stories edited by francesca ekwuyasi

Essay and notes edited by Catharine Chen

Proofread by Jesmine Cham

Printed and bound in Canada

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication:

Title: Curious sounds : a dialogue in three movements / Roger Mooking & Francesca Ekwuyasi.

Names: Mooking, Roger, 1973- author. | Ekwuyasi, Francesca, 1990- author.

Description: Art, stories, and conversations.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20230225276 | Canadiana (ebook) 20230225314 | ISBN 9781551529295 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781551529301 (EPUB)

Classification: LCC PS8626.O592645 C87 2023 | DDC C818/.6—dc23

ARTWORK

SoundBites

Blank, 2023, acrylic on canvas / photography

Aquatic Inferno, 2023, acrylic on canvas / photography

Its My Birthday, 2023, acrylic on canvas / photography

Im An Adult, 2023, acrylics on canvasses

Francescas Reading Room, 2023, acrylic wood and glue on canvas

Pretty Penny, 2023, acrylic on canvas / photography of found objects

Listen To Granny, 2023, acrylic on canvas / photography / graphic design

Practice Daily, 2023, acrylic on canvas / food styling / photography

The Other Guy Returns, 2023, acrylics on canvasses

Stuck On Stoopid, 2023, acrylics and found objects on canvasses / photography

The City 2.0, 2023, acrylics on canvasses / photography

I Cant Stand It, 2023, acrylic on canvas / pen on paper / photography

Screwface Capital, 2023, acrylic and thread on canvas

Played Out, 2023, acrylic on canvas

Fearless, 2023, acrylic on canvas

When Words Fail, 2023, photography / video stills / acrylic on canvas

Imagine That, 2023, acrylic on canvas

Twice A Child, 2023, photography / acrylic on canvas

Black Death, 2023, photography

For my family, here and passed. And for my brothers, Nnamdi and I.K.

—fe

For my wife, kids, and family and to all the artists who stare at that empty thing and dare to fill it. Love Only Beyond This Point.

—RM

Album cover art for “SoundBites”

THE AUDIO INSPIRATION FOR CURIOUS SOUNDS

To enhance your reading experience, listen while you explore the book:

QR code

CONTENTS

AN INTRODUCTION TO CURIOSITY

by francesca ekwuyasi

SOUNDBITES

by Roger Mooking

MICRO STORIES

FIRST MOVEMENT: THE LEARNING

Peace

This Is the Time

Isn’t This Amazing

I’m the Boss

Based on a True Story

A Curious Mind

Trapped Between

Never Flinching

SECOND MOVEMENT: THE LIVING

Lost Souls

More Bad Decisions

Rodents and Pythons

The Method Is Madness

The Prettiest Light

I Made Out Okay

Say What the Hell You Want

THIRD MOVEMENT: THE LEAVING

The Silence Knows

A Shame, Really

Duality

Freedom

LYRICS

FIRST MOVEMENT: THE LEARNING

Blank

Aquatic Inferno

Its My Birthday

Im An Adult

Francescas Reading Room

Pretty Penny

Listen To Granny

Practice Daily

SECOND MOVEMENT: THE LIVING

The Other Guy Returns

Stuck On Stoopid

The City 2.0

I Cant Stand It

Screwface Capital

Played Out

Fearless

THIRD MOVEMENT: THE LEAVING

When Words Fail

Imagine That

Twice A Child

Black Death

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

AN INTRODUCTION TO CURIOSITY

by francesca ekwuyasi

I was at a cafe, writing or trying to write, or perhaps lamenting to a friend about taxes—taxes being a stand-in for any number of tasks I must but would rather not do—or my existential dread or climate chaos or my tiny interpersonal dramas. Essentially, I was moaning about one woe or another when I received a call from Roger.

Yo, francesca!

Hey, Roger!

I have an idea.

I met Roger in 2021 when he championed my debut novel, Butter Honey Pig Bread, in CBC’s battle of books, Canada Reads. Our first meeting was virtual, and we talked about themes in my book—death, food, love, madness, the malleability of time, and consciousness—via computer screens, emails, phone calls, and texts. Our conversations have stretched beyond the scope and time of Canada Reads, where Roger valiantly defended my novel to the final round—they have encompassed our practices as creators and storytellers, our value systems, shared and otherwise, and led to a camaraderie rooted in artistry, deep curiosity, and wonder at and reverence for the conundrums of being alive.

I knew Roger was working on something new because he is always working on something new. Roger is a vivid fire, endowed with a sharp and fluid energy that he directs through his many passions—music, food, visual art, and installations. Weeks before, he’d mentioned via text that he was working on some new music, an album titled SoundBites that was ignited by a 2015 Time magazine article, You Now Have a Shorter Attention Span Than a Goldfish. The article, by journalist Kevin McSpadden, explains that, according to a study conducted by Microsoft, people now generally lose concentration after eight seconds, highlighting the effects of an increasingly digitalized lifestyle on the brain.¹

Roger was eager to play with this idea of a shortened attention span through music. The album would be short—nineteen tracks with a run time of nineteen minutes. Yes, Roger has a predilection for numbers and their symbolism. I was excited about this work and had already shared my thoughts and speculations on death for some potential interludes on the album. So when I answered his call that day at the cafe, I was expecting to hear more about the music, but I also learned that it had evolved into the foundational element of a more involved creation.

I’m working on an interactive experience, something immersive. He explained that the album would direct the art, a sound-scape for the visual elements of the experience.

I’m also writing these micro stories for each track on the album.

"Sounds dope. How will the stories be