Families explore art forms that have been important expressions of social justice movements as they drum, dance, craft, color, and enjoy more creative activities throughout the day!

A Note from the BAMkids Parent Advisory Circle
Welcome to Courage Takes Creativity! We are honored to have co-curated this meaningful program for you. Our goal is to remember and reflect on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s messages of peace and unity. Each activity in today’s program was inspired by how Dr. King was a pursuer of dreams and needed a big imagination as a civil rights leader. Dr. King cared about community partnerships, so we wanted each activity to involve Brooklyn-based artists and organizations. He believed in equity and access,so we wanted to create spaces that welcome every neighbor. Our hope is that today’s experience will inspire you and your kids to have the courage to create positive change in the world.

Activities

Soul Energy Dance Experience
10:30am, 11:15am, 12:15pm, 1:15pm & 2:15pm
When we take up space and dance for liberation together in street dance activism, community organizer Shamell Bell argues that we lift up frequencies and vibrations that draw people in to hear our message. Join BAM teaching artists Enya-kalia Jordan and Okai Fleurimont as they lead us in dancing for liberation, teaching songs and steps from Guinea in West Africa and Haiti.

Chardi Kala: Music to Uplift & Ignite
10:45am, 11:45am, 12:45pm & 1:45pm
In Punjabi, Chardi Kala refers to a sense of eternal optimism, even in the darkest of times. In the Sikh community and around the world, music has been used to lift our spirits and inspire us to take action for justice and dignity. Join Sonny Singh and his band of dhol, drums, brass, and electric guitar for an experience of rhythmic solidarity and hope.

Beloved Community Circle
2:45—3pm
Dr. King said, “Love is creative and redemptive. Love builds up and unites; hate tears down and destroys… the aftermath of the love method is reconciliation and creation of the beloved community.” To close our program, we gather together to celebrate the creative power of love with music and movement in a powerful declaration of everyone working towards King’s beloved community.

Picture Yourself Making History
10:30am—2:30pm
In collaboration with BRIC, choose a photo of a civil right moment and put yourself in the picture in this hands-on activity!

Wave Your Flag
Ongoing
If there’s a protest, there’s usually a flag. A flag’s shape, colors, and symbols can visually help communicate our values and cause, and promote solidarity with others who feel the same way. Visual artist Lexy Ho-Tai leads an activity exploring our individual and collective ideas of home or world-building, creating our own flag using textiles.

Wear Your Values
Ongoing (while supplies last)
If you had the world’s attention, what would you say? What’s something you care about that you wish more people also cared about? Draw your answer on a BAMkids MLK Day t-shirt or tote and decorate it with the help of Hip Hop Closet. T-shirt design by BAMkids parent advisor Hectah Arias.

Activity Station
Sit down with a BAM activity sheet, coloring activity, or tote bag to design!

Meet the Organizations + Artists

BRIC
BRIC is a leading arts and media institution anchored in downtown Brooklyn whose work spans contemporary visual and performing arts, media, and civic action. For over forty years, the institution has shaped Brooklyn’s cultural and media landscape by presenting and incubating artists, creators, students, and media makers. As a creative catalyst for the community, BRIC ignites learning in people of all ages and centralizes diverse voices that take risks and drive culture forward. BRIC builds Brooklyn’s creative future.

Enya-kalia Jordan
Choreographer, researcher, scholar and teaching-artist from Brooklyn. She has a BA from SUNY Buffalo State, a MFA from Temple University, and in 2020 she began her doctoral studies at Texas Woman’s University, researching the decolonization of dance studies writing, Black embodiment, and Blackwomanhood. She is a teaching artist with Dancewave, Amanda Selwyn’s Notes in Motion Outreach Theatre, Abrons Arts Center, and BAM, and the Manager of Dancer Development & Diversity of MSG entertainment.

Okai Fleurimont
Okai is a vocalist, percussionist, and producer who embodies all the music of the African diaspora. Born in Brooklyn of Haitian descent, Okai’s ears became infected with the hard boom bap drum loops of hip-hop and roots music from the Caribbean. Those sounds led him on a musical path to rock, jazz, samba, salsa, rumba, and pretty much anything that involves percussion. Okai began performing on the trap set playing for various churches, played congas for his high school band, and then concentrated on the West African djembe for more than a decade.

Hip Hop Closet
Kyiesha Kelly is the co-founder and CEO of Hiphopcloset.com, an award-winning business and ecommerce site. One of the first websites of its kind, Hiphopcloset.com serves as a conduit between hip-hop consumers and the creators of bold fashion and lifestyle products that speak to the culture. Hip Hop Closet has been featured in Essence magazine, Black Enterprise, Howard Alumni Magazine, and on MTV. VH1 awarded Hip Hop Closet the “Best E-Commerce Site for Hip Hop” and in 2019 Kelly was awarded CAMBA’s “Entrepreneur of the Year.”

Lexy Ho-Tai
Lexy Ho-Tai’s (she/her) multi-disciplinary art and teaching practice explores imaginative and tangible world-building through craft and play. She believes that joy is an act of resistance, and that play forges a powerful space for audiences to envision and work towards alternative futures. Residencies include the Watermill Center, Flux Factory, ARoS Museum, Everglades National Park, Museum of Arts and Design, Art Farm and Elsewhere Museum.

Sonny Singh
For the last decade, Brooklyn-based Sonny Singh has brought his fiery trumpet and vocals to audiences around the world as an original member of the bhangra brass band Red Baraat. Sonny’s debut solo album is entitled Chardi Kala, the Sikh concept of revolutionary eternal optimism. His music is a reminder that hope, love, and devotion are crucial to our struggles and our collective survival.

Jonathan Goldberger
Guitarist Jonathan Goldberger studied with musical guru Art Lande and played with the cult spacey/bluesy Fat Mama before he found his way to Brooklyn in 2001, where he has worked extensively in both the music and film worlds. Goldberger composed and produced music for two award-winning feature films, Trans and The Hawk is Dying. He performs and tours with artists and bands including Red Baraat, Jim Black, John Zorn’s Bagatelles, and Joe Russo, among others. Recordings include with the acoustic collective Surface to Air, Red Baraat, and his own album Visitors (with JP Schlegelmilch and Jim Black), named one of Rolling Stone’s 20 Best Jazz Albums of 2018.

Rohin Khemani
Rohin Khemani is a drummer, percussionist, composer, producer, and educator based in New York City. Known as an extremely versatile and eclectic musician, Rohin was a founding member of Red Baraat, co-leads the band Surface to Air with guitarist Jonathan Goldberger and bassist Jonti Siman, and recently produced an EP for a collaborative project The Lore Dogs with songwriter D.B. Rielly. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Sauti Za Busara in Zanzibar, The Monterey Jazz Festival, The London 2012 Olympic Games, and Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD Festivals, among others.

Ernest Stuart
A versatile trombonist, Ernest Stuart earned a BA in Jazz Performance at Temple University in Philadelphia before moving to New York City, where he performed at clubs including the Village Vanguard, the Iridium, Smoke and the Blue Note. Stuart has shared the stage with legendary musicians such as The Duke Ellington Orchestra, Billy Paul, and Aretha Franklin, and played with The Roots, The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Seal, Macklemore, John Legend, and Red Baraat, among others. In 2012, Stuart founded the Center City Jazz Festival in Philadelphia.