A contemplative dialogue and listening session
Produced by DJ Lynnée Denise, 2022 Sterling Brown Visiting Professor at Williams College (Africana Studies), Rhythm, Patterns, and Craft is a celebration of Black women and femmes who labor as DJs, promoters, dancers, and innovative participants grossly neglected in the dominant discourse of electronic music for the last 50 years. This event will highlight the Black and midwestern roots of house and techno music and the African and Caribbean cultural practices—from Jamaican sound systems to Haitian spiritual practices that shape hip-hop, electro-funk, dub, jungle, among other sub-genres and bass cultures.
FEATURED ARTISTS & DJs
KeiyaA is a singer-songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist based in NYC. Raised in Chicago’s South Side, KeiyaA synthesizes her jazz training, R&B sensibilities, and hip-hop upbringing to create new soul sounds inundated with her powerful, sultry voice and dense lyricism. She aims to center the narrative and intellect of the black woman in the late-stage capitalist world. KeiyaA’s debut album Forever, Ya Girl released on March 27, 2020. Forever, Ya Girl is a nu-soul landscape capturing the life of a Black woman. The project is primarily self-produced.
DJ Reborn has been moving audiences for more than a decade with her mellifluous blend of soul, hip-hop, reggae, house, Latin, electronic, and Afrobeat. She has worked alongside the Roots, Common, Talib Kweli, John Legend, and India Arie; appeared on BET’s Rap City; and served as the 2004—2005 international tour DJ for Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam. DJ Reborn is based in Brooklyn and is an educator with Urban Word NYC. DJ Reborn conceived, created and performed a theater piece about and featuring all women DJs. She the official tour DJ for Ms. Lauryn Hill and continues to build a unique and dynamic resume that sets her apart from many in her field.
Monday Blue is a Brooklyn-based DJ, fluent in digital and vinyl, with over seven years of experience spinning music that moves and motivates diverse crowds. The
2018 Pulitzer Prizes deejay, pre-pandemic Monday Blue could be found playing in venues in Brooklyn (House of Yes, Ode to Babel, Jupiter Disco) and Manhattan (Blind Barber, Paper Daisy). Founder and resident DJ of Doyennes of Disc, a monthly vinyl party featuring all women DJs held at Brooklyn’s premiere vinyl bar, BierWax, Monday Blue flows easily in the digital realm; however, her heart beats with vinyl. You can listen to her playing her favorite wax live every Wednesday from 6-8 pm EST on Follow Your Bliss With Monday Blue on The Face Radio ( thefaceradio.com ) and twitch.tv/DJMondayBlue.
DJ Sabine Blaizin's work focuses on the exposure and pleasures of African diasporic music. Brooklyn Mecca, Cumbancha, and Oyasound are a few of her creative projects. Over the years, Dj Sabine's mainstay and cultivation has been the monthly event Brooklyn Mecca which has been coined the home of "Grassroots Dance Culture".abine was also the featured Dj for the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art's 50th Anniversary. As an artivist, Sabine continuously gives back and serves her African diasporic community. In this capacity, she is the Director of Programs at Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy and volunteers as the NY Deputy Ambassador for Haiti's She Builds Initiative. Sabine ultimately seeks to create new scholarship through the African and Haitian diasporic lens of music, culture, and spirituality.