Poetry Meets hip hop 'n blues

In the organizer's words:

Poetry Meets pres.

hip hop 'n blues edition w/ aja monet, Yarah Bravo, Layla Zami & Sami El-Ali

Guided by curator and host, Jumoke Adeyanju, Poetry Meets transcends borders, bringing together a global, multilingual community of artists from Berlin and beyond. This extraordinary event series features poets, short films, dancers, musicians, and lyrically endowed artists.
Prepare to be captivated by a lineup of extraordinary talent, where soulful wordsmiths, musicians, and storytellers unite. Leading the charge are the renowned poet aja monet and the brilliant rapper-poet Yarah Bravo. Joining them on this spellbinding journey are poet and saxophonist Layla Zami, as well as the virtuosic poet Sami El-Ali.
The evening's musical backdrop is provided by Poetry Meets' House Band, under musical direction of Johnny Kulo on guitar, accompanied by Sean Haefeli on keys and Brian D. Sauls on drums.

ACCESSIBILITY:
Event has part-live DGS & ISL interpretation of aja monet and Sami El-Ali's performances by Hany Abdi (ISL) & David Yusuf (DGS).
This event is partly accessible to Deaf people (International Sign Language + German Sign Language) and hard of hearing (E-Pub with lyrics + poems provided)
Communication Asst only available in DGS (German Sign Language)
The location is wheelchair-accessible with parking spots and designated toilets plus lift. For people with sight impairments, we can organize a guide for you. Please send an Email to booking@poetrymeets.com with the subject 'ACCESSIBILITY NOV 23', one week prior to the event.

main act: aja monet

aja monet is a surrealist blues poet and cultural worker. In 2007, she won the legendary Nuyorican Poet's Cafe Grand Slam Poetry award title. Her first full collection of poems entitled, my mother was a freedom fighter is a testament to all mothers, women, and girls who struggle to live, love, and move freely in the world.
aja monet's poems are a work of gravity. Her work moves, constantly, between origin and outcome, allowing them to exist in converse. On her debut album when the poems do what they do, we glimpse her indefatigable commitment to speak. Those thematic origins of this album at times center around Black resistance, love and the inexhaustible quest for joy.

As a community organizer, poet, and educator aja monet moves between mediums, each one an element to her writing. Organizing and activism manifest as part of a process toward liberation, with the poems, the music, and the art serving as the scribe of the time. Building off oratorical traditions, aja is the conduit for her predecessors to channel through. At any given time you'll find the revolutionary spirit of Audre Lorde and the Last Poets, you'll feel June Jordan, Amiri Baraka, Jayne Cortez and even the expressive ephemerality of a passing blue note.
www.ajamonet.com IG: https://www.instagram.com/ajamonet/

special guest: Yarah Bravo

Yarah Bravo is a singer-songwriter, rapper, poet, beatmaker. Bravo was born to a Chilean mother and a Brazilian father, who came to Sweden as political refugees. She sings and raps in English, Swedish and Spanish. She is most known for the song Bluebird with the group One Self and for her EPs Love Is The Movement and Good Girls Rarely Make History. Bravo was one of the MC's of the group One Self, alongside BluRum13. Their debut album was released in 2005 titled Children of Possibility on the record label Ninja Tune.

Poet & Musician: Layla Zami

Layla Zami is an interdisciplinary artist and academic. Her work orbits around the nexus of cultural memory, performance, diaspora, language, and spacetime. As Resident Artist with Oxana Chi Dance & Art, Zami creates and performs multi-instrumental music, sounds, spoken words and physical theater. This year, Zami created a commissioned composition for The Kitchen NYC and premiered her first play at the 14Y Theater in Manhattan.
Zami holds a PhD from Humboldt-University, a Master from Sciences Po Paris and a Diploma in Classical Saxophone from the Conservatoire de Musique du Mans, and studied with saxophonists Fuasi Abdul-Khaliq and Parageet. Dr. Zami is currently Postdoctoral Researcher in Performance Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. She spent several years in Brooklyn, NY where she taught in the fields of liberal arts and co-chaired Black Lives Matter at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY.
http://www.laylazami.net/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/chizami/

Poet: Sami El-Ali

Sami El-Ali is 32 years old and a 90s kid through and through. Born and raised in Berlin, where he also works as a street social worker in the Wedding neighborhood. In 2012, under the stage name, Sami El Poet ,he then started poetry slamming and won championship after championship for 6 years in a row.Those who hear Sami and his art for the first time will be fascinated by the emotions he can evoke by juggling words.
IG: https://www.instagram.com/sami_el_poet/

Screening: SCARS by Yemi Osokoya (Nigeria)
Yemi Osokoya is a choreographer, community inclusive organizer and filmmaker from Lagos, Nigeria. He will be present for the event as we collectively experience the screening of his short 'SCARS'. A seeker and visionary, Yemi's art forms transubstantiate with his environment. He is a founding member of WestsydeLifestyle and Afrocan.

Live Band: Johnny Kulo (MD/guitar), Sean Haefeli (keys), Brian d. Sauls (drums)
German Sign Language Communications Assistance: Dilay Sahleh
DGS Interpretation by David Yusuf | ISL Interpretation by Hany Abdi

Host + Curation: Jumoke Adeyanju

Price information:

12,00 €