Ayni is the room you can’t get into at a show.
No stage, no line, no load-out — instead, a shared meal, and an intimate circle of world-class artists from the Global Majority. Eat with them. Talk with them. Play music with them.

This is Ayni — a monthly gathering hosted by Remix ⟷ Culture (RC) in partnership with Barzakh Café: part dinner, part conversation, part jam. Each gathering, 30 people join in mutual appreciation for the vital work of RC's artist-led network and build solidarity, one communal dinner at a time.

The evening:

🍽️ A family-style dinner, served at 7:30 PM
💬 A facilitated discussion on communal music vs. concerts — led by RC founder Hatim Belyamani — your voice in the room, not just theirs. Learn about how music functions as ceremony rather than performance in many of the traditions RC works with — circles instead of stages, participants instead of audiences. Join a conversation around what we gain and lose in the concert model, and how we want to experience music together going forward.
🥁 A musical jam where you’re invited to play alongside the artists — all levels welcome, even a clap or a shaker

Everyone who joins is welcomed into the RC Collective community afterward, where the connections and conversations keep going.

🎟️ Only 30 seats.
Tickets close Friday, August 7 at 11:59 PM so our friends at Barzakh know exactly how many to cook for.

Come hungry. Come curious. Bring a musical instrument. Come ready to meet and exchange with people you’ll be glad you met.

Note: Barzakh's bar menu (including alcoholic beverages) will also be available for purchase throughout the private gathering. After the gathering ends at 10pm Barzakh will be open to the general public.

About Ayni
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Ayni is a series of intimate gatherings presented by Remix ⟷ Culture (RC) in partnership with Barzakh Café. Barzakh’s dedication to serving the Crown Heights community as a vital sanctuary for NYC’s rich and diverse musical traditions aligns with RC’s mission of countering cultural erasure through connecting underrepresented traditional musicians, remix artists, and storytellers to co-create collective experiences. Since 2012 we’ve worked with more than 247 artists across 20+ Global Majority and diaspora communities and produced 56+ live experiences. Ayni is where that community gathers around a table.

Ayni comes from Quechua, Aymara and other Indigenous communities in the Andean mountains. It loosely translates to "reciprocity," and serves as one of the guiding principles defining their way of life. We honor this principle and invite it into the RC Collective.

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COLLABORATORS

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COLLABORATORS