Taji Ra'oof Nahl is TR7

Field Trips, Faith, and Channel TR7

“This is not simply process but medium itself—a continuum from object to channel.”

For Philadelphia-based artist Taji Ra’oof Nahl (TR7), this is not just philosophy—it is practice. A Guggenheim Fellow in Fine Arts, Nahl builds entire ecosystems where sculpture, sound, moving image, pedagogy, and archive converge. His works are guided first by Qur’anic philosophy, then by the lineages of African American experimental thought, creating spaces where reverence for Allah and the pursuit of beneficial knowledge drive artistic invention.

From North Philly to Global Practice

Raised in North Philadelphia, Nahl forged an autodidact path across art, music, and faith. His journey includes becoming an Islamic chaplain, undertaking the Hajj in 2006, and developing a calling that merges spiritual discipline with artistic experimentation. His projects have been staged internationally—in Tangier Morocco & Accra Ghana —and across Philadelphia at institutions including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Franklin Institute, Icebox Project Space, Awbury Arboretum, and Broad & Lehigh Avenue.

The Field Trip Method

The cornerstone of his practice is the Field Trip to Staged Productions, launched in 2011. These are not excursions but immersive experiments that turn civic and cultural spaces into express vessels for poetry, film, and sound. Guided by his Seven-Phase Process—Concept → Image → Sculpture → Installation → Activation → Film Short → Full-Length Movie—the Field Trip transforms ideas into multi-scalar experiences.

From this foundation radiate his major constellations:

Calculating Banneker reimagines Benjamin Banneker as a futurist of science and faith.

Black Desk Continuum reframes histories of FBI surveillance into sites of resistance.

Adam Vocabulary Club builds participatory pedagogies through collective language.

Morphological Phases turns the human body into sculptural instrument.

Sonic Dojo / Crescendo Orchestra expands into large-scale sound environments.

Cross-Pollination and Broadcast

Pollination and hive metaphors run through TR7’s practice. His Hive Triptych Cell, a 40,000-square-foot multi-channel installation, transformed an industrial space into a living laboratory of sound, light, and community. For TR7, cross-pollination is not metaphor but method—a way of bringing disciplines, histories, and communities into fertile relation.

At the center of this work is Channel TR7, his living broadcast network. Part counter-broadcast, part archive, Channel TR7 situates him in the lineage of Sun Ra’s rowhouse, Terry Adkins’ Lone Wolf Recital Corps, and the experimental ethos of Fluxus, while insisting on its urgency for the digital age.

Dawah and the Ra’oof Invitationals

Equally central is pedagogy. Through 2Spiral Collective and the Adam Vocabulary Club, TR7 develops tools for transmitting knowledge across generations. His Ra’oof Invitationals—ongoing programs of performances, field trips, and staged productions—are his form of dawah: open invitations where art, dialogue, and faith converge as pathways to beneficial knowledge.

Recent Works

His recent Renaissance Report Live series (hosted by Jason Carr) blended performance, civic journalism, and music, while Gaslight TV interrogated surveillance capitalism through fractured broadcast aesthetics. Collaborations with George Lewis, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Hprizm, Theodore A. Harris, and Nsenga Knight extend his practice across art and music, always grounded in cross-pollination.

Art-Historical Placement

TR7 stands in continuity with Romare Bearden’s collages, Terry Adkins’ performative sculpture, and Fluxus’ experimental collectives, yet extends these lineages into a broadcast-era, XR ecology. His work insists art is not static object but channel to inhabit—a living, improvisational continuum rooted in reverence for Allah and the triumph of human existence.

“The Book Is For Sale, Not My Soul,” he reminds us. For TR7, art circulates as commodity only to spread knowledge, reverence, collective growth & art of beneficial knowledge.