Doors 6:30pm/Show 7:30pm
Join us on Fri, July 8 for a 2022 BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! concert featuring rapper and activist Vic Mensa with aja monet.
Vic Mensa is among the most socially conscious artists in hip hop – outspoken and engaged on issues ranging from gun violence to racial justice to mental health. He’s teaming up with his friend, the poet and musician aja monet, for a night celebrating the power of art to make sustainable change.
*Please Note: Chairs will not be available at this show but you are permitted to bring your own. For our d/Deaf and hard of hearing communities, we will have an ASL interpreter at the left side of the stage.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Vic Mensa rose to public awareness as a member of the eclectic hip-hop band Kids These Days and founder of the Chicago collective SAVEMONEY alongside Chance The Rapper and other local upstarts Joey Purp and Peter CottonTale. His solo debut mixtape INNANETAPE dropped in 2013, igniting immediate accolades (including a spot on the XXL Freshman cover in 2014), and a fortuitous introduction to Jay Z that led to a record deal with Roc Nation. Mensa went on to help Kanye West pen his esoteric song “Wolves” from The Life of Pablo, drop three critically acclaimed EPs (2016’s There’s A Lot Going On, 2018’s Hooligans, and 2020’s V TAPE) and his debut full length The Autobiography (2017), as well as furthering social causes in his hometown through his nonprofit SAVEMONEYSAVELIFE. In both music and his social activism, Vic challenges the American system responsible for a history of overcriminalization, racial injustice, and issues that affect the lives of people in underserved communities, while showcasing profound levels of consciousness and self-reflection.
aja monet is a surrealist blues poet, storyteller, and organizer born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. She won the legendary Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam poetry award title in 2007 and aja monet follows in the long legacy and tradition of poets participating and assembling in social movements. Her first full collection of poems is titled My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter on Haymarket Books. Her poems explore gender, race, migration, and spirituality. In 2018, she was nominated for a NAACP Literary Award for Poetry and in 2019 was awarded the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Award for Poetry for her cultural organizing work in South Florida. aja monet cofounded a political home for artists and organizers called Smoke Signals Studio. She facilitates “Voices: Poetry for the People,” a workshop and collective in collaboration with Community Justice Project and Dream Defenders. She is currently working on her next full collection of poems entitled Florida Water. aja Monet also serves as the new Artistic Creative Director for V-Day, a global movement to end violence against all women and girls.
Please note: RSVPs are encouraged but not required. Entry is first come first served, but RSVPs help you stay up-to-date on show information. See you at #CelebrateBrooklyn!