Presented with Poetic Theater Productions and Rhyme Like a Girl in conjunction with Remembrance as Resistance: Preserving Black Narratives, Flux Projects’s upcoming work with Charmaine Minniefield.

Conceived by Toni Blackman

Juneteenth – June 19th in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives Weekend
Featuring MC’s rhyming from ATL, NY, Vegas, L.A., D.C., Mass., Dakar, Nairobi and Sydney including Hanifah Walida, Empress Kerisha Roi, Polaryss Atlas, Sincerity García, Mirrah, Dior Ashley Brown, Emoni Fela, Venus, MC Sharon​, and hosted by Toni Blackman!

This global cypher connects Black women artists from across the world in the spirit of the Ring Shout, a traditional African-American worship and gathering practice whose origins in West African ritual and ceremony predate slavery.

In her work, visual artist Charmaine Minniefield connects the traditional practice of the Ring Shout with contemporary forms of Black creative expression, including dance, music, and spoken word. As for Blackman’s participation in the project, Minniefield describes it as follows:

“Toni Blackman is not only the first US Hip Hop Ambassador but she is also a highly respected artist and social entrepreneur. Deeply rooted in cultural tradition, the connection between her work with the Cypher and my work with the Ring Shout makes absolute sense. The practice of gathering in the circle and improvising gives birth to a collective prayer whether its Hip Hop or the long-standing Black religious practice of the Ring Shout. This series of events will explore how both are coding much like messages of resistance within Freedom Quilts, which reaffirm Blackness, Ase (Power), and therefore Freedom.”