Ursula Rucker
As a poet and performance artist, Ursula Rucker has enchanted critics and fans across the globe with her diverse repertoire, captivating vocals and accessible poetic verse. Born and raised in Philadelphia, she began documenting her observations of the world when she was just a girl. A graduate of Temple University’s journalism program, Ursula made her debut in 1994 at Philadelphia’s Zanzibar Blue.
Producer King Britt invited her to create her first recording, the 1994 single, “Supernatural” (Ovum/Slip N Slide UK). Critics have compared Ursula to Sonia Sanchez and Nikki Giovanni. Coincidentally, when Shange was unable to provide The Roots with a spoken word contribution for their debut album Do You Want More?!!?!! (Geffen, 1994), they called on her to fit the bill. “The Unlocking”, which closed the album, introduced Ursula to the world of progressive hip-hop and led to subsequent invitations to close The Roots follow-up albums Iladelph Halflife (Geffen, 1996) and Things Fall Apart (MCA, 1999).
To date, Ursula has performed her work at an array of venues, universities, and festivals including Montreaux Jazz Festival, Winter Music Conference, Theater of the Living Arts, Painted Bride Art Center, World Café Live, and Drexel University. Ursula has toured with Jamaaladeen Tacuma, SYLK130, and 4 HERO in the United States and Europe. In 2001, her !K7 debut Supa Sista introduced Ursula as a solo artist with a strong lyrical voice. Her 2003 release, Silver and Lead further extended her exploration of self, race and femininity. With maat mama, Ursula once again showed a new level of maturity in her writing. Ursula is a proud mother of four and currently lives in northwest Philadelphia when she is not traveling the globe on tour.
Mystic
Mystic, from Oakland California currently residing in Los Angeles, released her debut album, Cuts for Luck and Scars for Freedom, in the summer of 2001 to critical acclaim and a dedicated fan base. She has toured with Digital Underground, Slum Village, Black Eyed Peas, Phife and Jarobi (Tribe Called Quest) as well as co-headlining a MTV2 tour with India Irie, which also included Heather B, Kelis, Goapele and others called The Women of Hip Hop and Soul Tour. Fans and the unknowing alike were exited and impressed with her personal shows, either with a DJ or with a live band. Through the support of many Mystic was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Rap Song Collaboration for the song 'W' featuring Planet Asia; as well as for Best Female Hip Hop artist at the 2002 BET Awards.
In the process of working her album, JCOR, the distributing label, folded and Mystic along with Goodvibe Recordings signed a new deal to re- release the album with Dreamworks Records. With everything in gear, including a first video shot, Dreamworks was bought by Universal Music which led to Mystic asking to be released from her contract. Though that music may never be heard, Mystic has spent the past few years putting together the new album, entitled "Beautiful Resistance". Working with The Beatminerz, Eligh (of Living Legends), Zinn, Adamatic, Sample 208, and Buccweet; Mystic has once again put together an album full of love, pain, struggle, hope, fear and honesty for the next chapter. She is an urban dream with a voice that tells no lies.
Having taken the time to attend school, live life and make the album she wanted; Mystic is piece by piece, show by show venturing back out and re-opening the amazing dialogue she has always had with her fans. For those who know.welcome back; for those who don't...welcome to a new day.
DJ Kuttin Kandi
Candice L. Custodio-Tan, Known as DJ Kuttin Kandi is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished female DJ's in the world. She is a member of DJ team champions 5th Platoon, Founder and DJ for the all female Hip-Hop group Anomolies, Cofounder of the famed NY monthly open mic nights “Guerrilla Words” and Founder of the coalition R.E.A.C.Hip-Hop (Representing Education, Activism & Community through Hip Hop. Djing for over 10 years, Kandi competed in over 20 DJ competitions such as ITF and Vibe. She is the NY Source Magazine DJ Champion and has been the only female DJ to make it to the DMC USA FINALs. Kuttin Kandi has been interviewed in numerous magazines and newspapers such as Source, Vibe, Vogue, YM, Rolling Stones, the New York Times, the Daily News and the Vibe Hip-Hop Diva’s book. Kandi has performed all around the world with artists such as Bob James, Kool Herc, Jay-Z, Gangstar, LL Cool J, Mya, MC Lyte, the Roots, Young Gunz, Dead Prez and BlackStar; just to name a few. Kandi has also deejayed at venues such as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Lincoln Center and at Madison Square Garden for WNBA’s NY Liberty. She also appears in Busta Rhymes Much Music Special Edition video and other notable documentaries such as “Scratch”, the soon to be released female DJ documentary called “Mixxtress X” and a PBS special on Filipino’s in New York called “Kababayan”. In addition to her DJ career, she is a committed Activist/ Community Organizer. She is a member of women’s organization Gabriela Network and supports various organizations such as Ugnayan, FAHSI, CAAAV, United for Peace & Justice and etc...
She also devotes her time teaching and mentoring the youth. For 3 years Kandi taught a Hip Hop/DJ Activism class and Poetry Classes at El Puente’s Leadership Center in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, as well as DJ courses at Jam Master Jay’s world famous DJ school the DJ Scratch Academy. She utilizes Hip Hop to educate, to build solidarity, create awareness and fight for social justice in the world. She is a known motivational speaker and has spoken on the college lecture circuit at universities such as NYU, Yale, Princeton, Harvard, UCSD, Stanford and etc. Presently, Kuttin Kandi has a new stage show combining her turntable wizardry and spoken word/poetry, accompanied by a newly formed female band. She is also writing a theatre play of her life story which is to be expected to be toured nationwide. By Fall 2008, Kuttin Kandi will release a mixtape album of her selected poetry and rhyme over mixed beats by various producers. She is also in the midst of writing an autobiography, a series of Hip Hop short stories and other writing projects. She is also working on several documentaries such as her recent trip back to the Philippines where she stayed in the Moro/Muslim communities in Davao.
In 2005, Kuttin Kandi received the “Women In the Game” Award and is also a 2007 Black Lily Music and Film Festival Recipient alongside Jill Scott and Toshi Reagan and received the Social Change in Music Award. She currently works at the Women’s Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and has also returned to college to obtain a double B.A. degree to an MFA and a PH.D. in Ethnic Studies. From modeling for Starter clothing, shooting commercials for BET’s Stop The Violence campaigns to writing cover stories for YRB Magazine to starting campaigns against Hot 97’s “Tsunami Song”, to keynote speaking across the country, DJ Kuttin Kandi has proven she is is not just a DJ who has inspired hundreds of people through her musical talent, but she is also a DJ with a lifestory that has inspired thousands to change the world.
http://www.5thplatoon.com/html/5th_platoon_kuttin_kandi.html
Sister Haero
From Kurdistan in Northern Iraq, Sister Haero and her family moved to the United States when she was only 11-months old. Growing up in Southern California, Haero's leadership abilities came to the forefront when she was a student at San Diego State University. She became very active in the SDSU Muslim Student Union, Muslim Women of San Diego, as well as other non-profit organizations. During her senior year at SDSU, she was elected President of the MSU and was instrumental in coordinating many successful educational programs and events for the general community. While Haero was a student at SDSU, she tapped into her interest in poetry writing.
Haero discovered her passion for the art of poetry writing, rapping and freestyling, but she wanted to use her talent for more than mere entertainment. Haero decided to use her poetry to introduce Islam to the San Diego Community. She has been invited to make many public appearances to read her poems and perform her work. Haero's spoken word poetry and rhymes have helped promote a better understanding of the role of women in Islam. Her message has reached the young and old, Muslim and non-Muslim. She continues to dispel the myths about women in Islam through her poetry and community service.
After graduating from SDSU with a B.A. in Journalism, Haero has remained active in many community affairs. She has provided leadership for elementary and middle school age children at local community centers. She was one of the founders of the Imam Jamil Coalition, San Diego Chapter, which was started in April 2002. Haero has been the featured artist and speaker at many seminars, political events and hip hop venues this year, as well as many years in the past. Haero currently resides in Los Angeles and is in the process of recording an album, as well as work on other artistic projects.
Heather Shershun
Heather Shershun (a.k.a. Ruby fuckin Ginger a.k.a. Stinky) focuses on empowering people to feel good about their bodies and in their bodies through fiery passionate movement. She started Hip Hop dancing at the age of 19 in Eugene, Oregon, and performed with Dance Northwest, Lane Community College, the EDGE, and Breakdown Dance Co. She began teaching Hip Hop dance to kids, teens, and adults for the University of Oregon's Enrichment Program in 2004. Heather moved to San Diego, CA in 2005 to study with and teach for Eveoke Dance Theatre, a company that believes in confronting sexualization, militarization, and misogyny in Hip Hop. Heather believes that women and queer people (of all shapes, colors, sizes, and gender identities) owning their sexuality is powerful, and under this belief founded Jiggle it! Bitch Hip Hop Burlesque. She is currently teaching kids Hip Hop dance at Eveoke and choreographing, directing, and performing with Jiggle it! Bitch.
Melanie Marsh
Melanie has been studying dance of all forms since the age of 3. She graduated from Florida State University with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Acting and a minor in Dance. Since 2005 Melanie has studied and performed with Eveoke Dance Theatre serving as a member of their performing group and as a teaching artist. She currenltly works in youth outreach with San Diego Youth and Community Services, teaching dance, facilitating performing arts group activities and coaching their in-house performance outreach group ELEVATE Teen Dance Troupe.
DJ PNUTZ
soul province, sun dialect, www.twelvez.com, sdti, mssd
Miss Pnutz spins an infinite number of musical styles, colors and flavors. put a little of this, a little of that, tied in with some low end and you have her album entitled, "NSFW". Reigning as one of the queens of the San Diego underground, DJ Pnutz's musical influences are broad. Funky, soulful and jazzy beats are laid down onto an array of colorful rhyme schemes, movie soundtracks, cartoon high jinx and whispers of random inspiration. A very impressive CD to say the least, Miss P puts forth a valiant effort and it has paid off, earning her a respectable place in the San Diego underground of sound. She began her journey in 1999 and within a year was traveling to places like LA and Colorado to showcase her talents. As of 2003 she has released numerous mixed CDs and scores of self-produced tracks. Between flying to Napa California for a New Years Bash; traveling to Tempe AZ to participate in the Rebirth festival, and opening up for such names as DEL the Funky Homosapien, Haiku D ' Etat feat. Aceyalone, Young M.C., Ab Rude & Mikah 9, Zion I, CMA, Typical Cats, The Grouch, NMS, Simply Jeff, ONE SELF with dj Vadim, Deep Fried Funk Brothers, and numerous others. Pnutz has been a busy girl. In July of 2004 she was asked to join SUN DIALECT RECORDINGS (www.sundialect.com) one of Southern California's hottest up-and-coming underground labels, and currently has residencies with Thrusters, The Downbeat, Soul Glo, and Earthbound Radio. In the fall of 2006 Pnutz also joined forces with Soul Province Recordings (www.soulprovince.com) headed by members of Jeshno, the Twelvez collective and Earthbound Radio. Her limitless talent will take her far in this business as it seems that there is nothing regarding music that this girl can't conquer. (by christine erice@ sdmusicmatters.com) As of 2006 Pnutz has been as an active teacher with the San Diego Turntable Institute, a subdivision of Eartbhound Radio (www.twelvez.com).
With the help of Pnutz, SDTI hosted a hands-on Dj instructional demonstration at the Museum of Contemporary Arts La Jolla in April of 2007 which was met with great enthusiasm by the staff as well as patrons both young and old. Beginning in January and ending in March of 2007 The World Beat Center in conjunction with Dj Artistic and Dj Pnutz hosted an after school program at Palm and Lemon Grove Middle Schools. The program focuses on teaching children in grade 6, 7, and 8 how to Dj using vinyl records and Cd's. Not only were the children taught the fundamental techniques used in Djing, including scratching and mixing vinyl records, but additionally focused on basic music theory and beginning digital recording while trying to incorporate the historical significance of Djing in music. This is the first after school program of its kind in the Lemon Grove school district and averaged 10-20 students per hour sessions (4 session per week). Most recently Dj Pnutz taught a class at M-Theory San Diego for National Vinyl Day that featured a guest set by world renowned Dj Z-Trip. For Dj class information please contact www.myspace.com/pnutz
DJ Lucha
Street photographer / mixed media artist + Dj + owner Besos Not Bombs
Andi Michele Brandenburg, Latina, Armenian American adopted into a German Jewish family raised on the border later to spend adult life living between SF and Asia. Growing up with a mixed race and cross-cultural background lead Andi to speak a language she calls "Jaspanglish," a combination of Japanese, English, and Spanish. Language plays an important role in her work. Andi grew up during the height of the hip hop and punk rock era influenced by street culture, graffiti, raw photos from glen e friedman and art from jean-michel basquiat. Subjects of her work range from identity, roots, race, genocide, and marginalized people struggles to the documentation of breakin, skateboarding , and underground street culture worldwide. She combines the street element with that of the village.
A completely untrained artist, she creates from the corazon. She has a love for anything Latin especially musicians such as willie colon y hector lavoe. She feels these are her true roots and something that has been with her since before time. She has a degree in cultural anthropology and Southeast Asian studies from UCSC where she completed her year long thesis while living in a village before the uprisings in Indonesia in the nineties. While living in Java, she documented ghost stories and their relation to contemporary Indonesian religion and played gamelon music with the village elders..
In the late nineties, she spent several years living in Tokyo writing about street fashion and underground Tokyo trends and working as a hip hop photographer for Tommy Boy Records, Tokyo with English photographer Andy Beezer. In addition, she worked as a VJ in a mix of Japanese hip hop and punk rock clubs for Kazenohito Bito, her crew in Tokyo. Due to illness, she returned to SD at a time when "Blackmarket" was a strong presence in the city and street art shows like "modest behaviour" were on the rize....
Shortly after, the war on Iraq broke out. Fighting illness, she continued to attend the local anti war protests. With no end in sight and discouraged by American conservatism, she left the country to live in the political Gracia District of Spain, where anti-war protests and anti-war sentiment filled the walls and streets. There, she spent several months creating a new body of work and the clothing line "besos not bombs."
" If the atmosphere of America is waging war on terrorism and feeding consumerism, the most direct way to get messages through to the average person is to make signs out of what it is people want to consume, cultural ammunition on cloth! The average person here is so blind to what is really going on in the world - they still think that el Salvador was Americans going in to save the people from communism, they don't realize that hundreds of women have been violently murdered at our borders for the past decade, and they think that the holocaust is the only genocide. What they don't see is that the current situation is all a mask for indigenous genocide so the man can get his cash. History just keeps repeating itself. Humanity has taken on this sense of helplessness and loss of hope. Those of us who have an opportunity have to use our voice "voz alta." Artists shouldn't just masturbate on canvas. They have a responsibility to the people to educate and reveal the secrets and the history the media hides. We can be our own media. History has always had this! Look at Frida, she wasn't this sickly macabre artist that she is often portrayed as, she was a revolutionary marching in the streets until the day she died. She expressed her pain, but she also felt a sense of responsibility for the people. Ok, So I have a bleeding heart, shoot me!" -andi
StreetSol
StreetSol is a spoken word collective of bad ass chicana poets Elena Velasquez and Eneri Rodriguez. Based in San Diego, Street Sol came together in the Summer of 2007 among the ebbs and flows that had been brewing since 2003. From the stage of the 3rd Word Open Mic to the mics of The Siren, from poetry slams to platicas, Elena and Eneri explore the politics of border crossings transcending physical spaces, the healing of the mind body spirit, the dimensions of sexuality and spirituality, and their roles as chicana women writers. ***************************************************************** Eneri Rodriguez is a Radical Educator in the Department of Women's Studies at San Diego State University. She is the Coordinator of “From Fucking to Feminism and Everything in Between,” at The Rubber Rose, San Diego's only queer friendly Sexuality Boutique and Art Gallery. She has been the feature at The Siren, San Diego's Women's Open Mic and at various festivals and events throughout Southern California. In the Summer of 2003 she had the opportunity to spend time with Saul Williams and the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA) in San Francisco. ****************************************************************** Elena Velasquez is a Substitute Teacher in the South Bay Region of San Diego where she feels empowered to work with a large Latino population. She has been influenced tremendously by her writing partner and best friend Eneri, and is inspiried through her engagement in diverse communities. She has been the feature at the San Diego Museum of the Living Artist, and won the CASA 0101 Theater's poetry slam (hosted by writer Josefina Lopez) in 2004 for the Erotica division. She has had the good fortune of working with Willie Perdomo and the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA) in San Francisco. ****************************************************************** Their publication “Street Soul 1” will be available August 2008. Bring Street Sol to a neighborhood near you! Drop us a shout out at streetsol@yahoo.com
