Black House Radio / Michael Donte

Black House Radio is a sonic project rooted in house music, exploring its capacity to convey pleasure, trace lineage, and map movement across space and time. Launched in 2023, the platform emerged as both an archive and a call to gather, creating temporary “homes” through sound, vibration, and repetition. It treats house music as a fugitive practice of preservation, noting its roots within Black American queer culture, offering warmth and rhythm in moments of rupture. Through layered mixes, guest collaborations, and a commitment to collectivity, Black House Radio builds a frequency that is as much about feeling as it is about form. For Made in L.A. 2025, Black House Radio has constructed We Set the Table, a physical environment in which Black culture can be made, remembered, and renewed. An installation centered on sound is physically delineated by markers of domesticity such as rugs, tables, couches, and a church pew, which collectively speak to house music’s origins in devotional spirituals and its creation in homes and churches.

Michael Donte founded Black House Radio in 2023 in Los Angeles. Black House Radio is a live series spotlighting Black DJs specializing in house music and a YouTube streaming platform. It aims to harness the power of house music to celebrate Black culture and create a welcoming place for all who share a passion for the genre. Donte has directed and produced films and media projects, including The Spirit God Gave Us (2022). He is the recipient of the NewFest Emerging Black LGBTQ+ Filmmakers Award and an Urbanworld Film Festival Best Young Creator award (both 2022).