Black Spaces Symposium: Black Space Jam

Independently Produced

by Afro Van Connect

Friday, July 24 | 7 to 8:30 PM

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Afro Van Connect presents the virtual Black Spaces Symposium to bring artists, professors, practitioners and scholars together to share experiences, wisdom and knowledge so they can explore new approaches of strengthening their capacity for community building and development using the Hip Hop culture approach.

This Symposium has been established to create opportunities for youth of African Descent to access equipment, education, training, networks and opportunities, empowering them to creatively and economically flourish; build on their unique gifts; and gain perspectives from their heritage and diaspora cultural experiences.

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BLACK SPACE JAM

 

The Black Space Jam will be held on the second day of Afro Van Connect’s Black Spaces Symposium. This virtual showcase will provide artists of African Descent with a platform to share their views on the current state of affairs through creative expression and celebrate and honour the Black Experience.

Featuring performances by Buni Kor of Afro Van Connect, DJ Clichy, Lennora Esi, Marisa Gold, Missy D, the Sinbirds and Zam Zam of NuZi Collective.

Free and open to all.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

 

Event host Buni Kor (aka Kor Kase) is an actor, artist, activist, designer, event coordinator, life coach and co-founder of Afro Van Connect. Born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Kor began his acting and music career in the 2010s, releasing music independently online, playing local shows across the Lower Mainland, and generating an underground following with local attention. As an actor, he has appeared on shows like Man in the High in the Castle, Izombie and See. He is consistently releasing original music, covers and remixes, including the release of multiple projects, singles and collaborations in 2020. It is his goal to promote messages of empowerment, love, unity and equality. As an artist, he hopes to be a voice for his community and believes in the important of using his platform to highlight injustices and inequities to create awareness and solutions.

In 2019, Kor co-founded the artist collective Afro Van Connect. The organization is focused on creating platforms for creatives of African descent to come together and express themselves. The intention of Afro Van Connect is to build community through creating safe spaces for healing, rooted conversations and the arts.

DJ Clichy
More information to come.

Lennora Esi was born in Filderstadt, Germany, in 1991. At the age of eleven, she was introduced to the world of musicals and instantly fell in love with the performing arts. Throughout her teenage years, she took singing and piano lessons, starred in musicals and theatre plays, all the while taking different dance classes. After high school, she moved to Berlin to study acting and graduated from the International School of Acting for Theater and Film in Munich in 2014. In 2012, Lennora was introduced to her first African Dance class and fell for it right away. Shortly after, she joined the Umoya Dance Company in Munich, and performed with dancers and drummers from South Africa and Ghana. In 2015, she joined an African Reggae Band called Kim Azas, and started teaching workshops and substituting dance classes. She began teaching regularly at her dance school in Munich in 2017, right before moving to Vancouver.

Marisa Gold is an empathetic dance artist and poet with a passion for all things soulful. With a BFA in dance from SFU and certificates of completion from The Ailey School Independent Study program and the Graham School Intensive in NYC, Marisa has trained in a wide variety of modern and contemporary styles. Her professional dance performance experience ranges from modern/contemporary concert dance to experimental street style performance, from musical theatre productions to film and TV work. In addition, she has had the opportunity to work as a choreographer with Theatrela Seizieme, an assistant choreographer on CW’s Riverdale, and as a writer, voice-over artist, actor, spoken-word poet, fashion designer and collaborator in direction. Marisa’s artistic influences are deeply rooted in the heart space of her ancestors. She feels powerful and expansive when she remembers all who have come before her in artistic and self-expression. Marisa feels honoured to live and work as a multidisciplinary artist and looks forward to diving deeper with love into the beautiful mystery of existence.

On March 20, 2020, Missy D dropped her second EP entitled Yes Mama, following her journey through grief, a topic very relevant to its debut launched during the COVID pandemic. After having to cancel the release party, Missy D dropped a music video for her song, Yes Mama, available on YouTube. In her music, you will hear the sounds of MC Solaar, Diams, Erykah Badu, India Arie, Missy Elliott and Lauryn Hill. Missy D’s Rap & Soul will have you catching too many feelings as she embraces diversity in instrumentals, music and, most of all, people!

Sinbirds is a dance crew based at the University of British Columbia. Established in 2016 by Clemet and Serge, the Birds set out to diversify the UBC dance scene (which was dominated by hip hop at the time) by adding dancehall from the Caribbean and afro-beats grooves from West Africa.

Zam Zam is a Somali Canadian singer, songwriter and DJ. She makes music for folks who find a thrill in the search and in the unknown. In 2017, Zam co-founded NuZi Collective, a project that provides space and a platform for Black, Indigenous, queer and trans women of colour.