Music
Word. Sound. Power. 2022
Single Tickets
AMYRA
Drew Drake
Dizzy SenZe
Freakquencee
Jade Charon
Directed and hosted by MC Baba Israel
w/ DJ Reborn
Ase! The power to be, and the power to create!
Pronounced “AH-SHAY”, this Yoruba philosophy weaves together BAM’s electrifying annual showcase of hip-hop and spoken word, hosted by MC Baba Israel and featuring choreographer Jade Charon. We welcome emcees Dizzy SenZe and Freakquencee, poet Drew Drake, and musician AMYRA to the stage, as they draw energy from one another for a night of collective power and music to leave you fired up.
Leadership support for BAM Access Programs
provided by the Jerome L. Greene Foundation
Major support for Word. Sound. Power. in the Classroom provided by The Emily Davie & Joseph S. Kornfeld Foundation
Additional support for captioning services provided by a grant from New York State Council on the Arts/Theater Development Fund TAP Plus
AMYRA is a musician, author, director, and Harlem native, seamlessly transcending genre and medium. A creative force with an unmatched range and ever-poetic lyricism, her power behind the mic is undeniable. Her work, often autobiographical, tends to generational trauma, Black liberation, and communal healing. In honoring the intricate terror and wonder of her own history, AMYRA invites us to reckon with our own. Dive into the work at amyraleon.com and follow her @amyraleon on all platforms!
South Bronx native Desiree “Dizzy SenZe” Williams is a teaching artist, audio engineer, emcee, and photographer. She has taught music production and raptivism at the Hip Hop Re:Education Project, Urban Art Beat, and Urban Word; engineered for powerhouse companies including Nickelodeon, Youtube, and Aftermath Records; done photography for artists and companies such as Dave Ea$t, KRS-One, and Sesame Street; and had freestyle competitions and shared stages with legendary artists Kendrick Lamar, Talib Kweli, Pharoahe Monch, and more.
Drew Drake is an actor, poet, and educator focused on creating art that facilitates healthy dialogue for people of color. His performance credits include the NYT Critics Pick TJ Loves Sally Forever at JACK and the indie film Privilege, and he released a hip-hop EP, Golden. Drew is currently the Poet-In-Residence and a teaching artist with Urban Word NYC and a professor at NYU. His teaching focuses on eliminating the elitism of eurocentric and white-centered art, and creating more accessibility to different mediums of art for POCs using hip-hop and Black culture. www.thedrewdrake.com.
Freakquencee is a hip-hop/funk/soul artist from Newark, New Jersey who has captured attention from Neo-Soul icon Jill Scott and platforms such as NPR, Vice/Noisey, MILK, Pick-up Music, AFROPUNK BOTB, and many more. With little attention from the media, Freakquencee gathered an audience of over 121,000 avid listeners and over 300,000 streams on her début single “Smile Again.” In 2020, she took the internet by storm with a series of live performances that garnered over 1.6 million streams. Freakquencee’s music is an open dialogue between mind, body, and spirit.
Sing and dance along with Ms. Mariella and her band as they magically transform jazz standards into hip-hop classics.
Come early to the Get Up, Stand Up! performance to start your groove with dancer and choreographer Adia Whitaker and learn the jazz roots of classic hip-hop dances.