On 19 September, the Port of Tazacorte will host Nathy Peluso, who will bring Club Grasa, her DJ set show, to La Palma as part of the Isla Bonita Love Festival’s tenth-anniversary programme. Nathy will be joined in the booth by Armana Khan, a Pakistani-American DJ, model and trans activist who has turned her public presence and artistic career into a platform to champion LGBTIQ+ visibility, cultural diversity and freedom of identity.
Born as an EP of electronic remixes of the album Grasa and later turned into a DJ set show, this project sees Nathy Peluso stage a travelling party in which guest artists and DJs join each stop of the tour, bringing their own signature to the session.
Peluso has explained that with these dates she aims to share the stage with artists she admires and to amplify different cultures and rhythms. For her stop at the Port of Tazacorte, the artist chosen to join her is Armana Khan.
A figure linked to trans and racialised representation
Armana Khan’s presence at the Isla Bonita Love Festival goes beyond music and reinforces the values the festival has upheld since its beginnings: freedom, diversity, visibility and the rights of the LGBTIQ+ community.
The DJ has publicly asserted her identity as a South Asian trans woman and her Pakistani heritage, making that representation a central part of her message and her activism.
Khan has shared on many occasions her pride at becoming the first South Asian trans woman to DJ on the main stage of NYC Pride, which she repeated for two consecutive years. In that story, the artist sums up much of her stance with an idea that connects with the message of the Isla Bonita Love Festival: “Shame is a prison. I will always choose to set myself free.”
The DJ also expresses her hope that her story can help other trans people “to stand up for themselves and speak out”, and concludes with another idea that runs through her activism: “I long for a world where we don’t have to conform to any standard. We are the standard.”
Her participation in Tazacorte thus brings to the line-up a voice that has made trans visibility, cultural representation and the freedom to live one’s own identity an essential part of her public work.
Khanistan and an international career
Armana Khan is also the founder of Khanistan, the party with which she has built her own community within New York’s music scene. Her sets blend her disco roots with global sounds and treat the dance floor as a meeting place for identities and cultures.
Her work has been featured at venues and platforms such as The Lot Radio in New York, Rinse France in Paris, Radio Rodina in Vienna, Antídoto Virtual in Madrid, FINO FLUX in Mexico City and HEDS corRADIO in Los Angeles. It has also been covered by media outlets such as Vogue.
A night led by women
Nathy Peluso and Armana Khan will share the booth at the Port of Tazacorte on a night that will also feature Laura Pausini, in a tenth edition of the Isla Bonita Love Festival whose music line-up is led by women.
Tickets for 19 September are available at Tomaticket.es: https://www.tomaticket.es/es-es/entradas-isla-bonita-love-festival-la-palma.
The Isla Bonita Love Festival is organised by Sodepal, a public company of the Cabildo de La Palma, and produced by El Time Eventos, with the collaboration of the Government of the Canary Islands, Islas Canarias Latitud de Vida and Tazacorte Town Council.