Tickets: Free with RSVP
A Virtual Event
Genre: Arts & Ideas
Conversation, Education
The Apollo’s Live Wire series was created to spark deeper insight and consideration of the contribution of Black arts and culture to the broader American canon. These electrifying events feature discussion with impromptu performative elements that shed new light on the timely topics of today.
For this Live Wire event, two female-identifying panelists contemplate the future of Black life and the digital space. With an artistic manifesto rooted in the beliefs of the Black Femme Future, DJ Likwuid is an educator and music curator that utilizes hip hop fusion to empower women in the music and entertainment industry. Rock/jazz drummer and educator Frae-Frae: Daughter of Drexciya has artistic roots ranging from blues and spirituals to afro-diasporic futuristic soundscapes that explore time travel, prayer, meditation, and the African American ecstatic tradition.
Leadership support for the Apollo Education Programs is provided by BNY Mellon, Fund II, the Hearst Foundations, the Jerome L. Greene Arts Access Fund in the New York Community Trust, The Pinkerton Foundation, and public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with New York Council Members Ben Kallos and Bill Perkins.
Open captioning services are being provided in part by TDF TAP Plus and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
Panelists
DJ LiKWUiD
DJ LiKWUiD
Hip Hop Fusion artivist, DJ, songwriter, music curator and educator, LiKWUiD (Stylez), born Faybeo’n LaShanna Aja Mickens, is committed to using her gift of song to empower the portrayal of women in the entertainment industry. As an avid lover of the African American diaspora of music, LiKWUiD’s style of djing is based around blending beats together as one tapestry of sound. Afrobeats, Hip Hop, Rare Grooves, Reggae, House and live remixes are often incorporated in her live DJ sets.
She has performed nationally and internationally for organizations such as Google NextGen, Sony Music, Photoville, Summer Stage, Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival, Doku.Tech, The Apollo Theater, Super Fine Art Fest, Time Out Market and more. As a songwriter, her film credits include placements with HBO Latino Films, IFC Films, Oxygen Network, MTV and several indie projects.
LiKWUiD is fully committed to combining hip hop and education. She has performed, presented workshops, lectures and participated on panels at academic spaces such as Columbia University, BAM, the Eleanor Roosevelt School for Girls, the Hip Hop Culture Center, Uptown Vinyl Supreme, Flocabulary, Comic Con and more.
She most recently released her collaborative album and performance piece EllaMaeFlossie presents Tea Time, an audio-visual-movement journey via the lens of afrofuturism. The performance piece premiered at the East Village Planetarium, in partnership with the Lower Eastside Girls Club. The self-titled album was inspired by Gullah Gospel, Harlem Jazz, soulful hip hop with afrobeat undertones and was released by The Orchard, a division of Sony Music.
Frae-Frae: Daughter of Drexciya
Frae-Frae: Daughter of Drexciya
LaFrae Sci a.k.a Frae-Frae: Daughter of Drexciya is an award-winning and internationally acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, educator, composer and electro acoustic adventurer. Bedrock to her artistry is the roots and the fruits of the blues from spirituals to afro diasporic futuristic soundscapes that explore time travel, prayer, meditation, and the African American ecstatic tradition. As a composer, she writes for film, theater, and large and extended jazz and classical orchestras, and her creative range spans immersive and ambisonic music, blues, various ethnomusicological traditions, rock, pop, hip-hop, and her own brand of subaquatic deconstructed techno soul. To date, she has shared her intentional creativity in 38 countries. LaFrae is also the Executive Director/Dir of Artistic Programming at Willie Mae Future Sounds named after Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton. W.M.F.S. is a STEAM based, year round empowerment through music program that includes spiritual activism, Afro Diasporic futurism, critical thinking and leadership, including music technology through the lens of the blues tradition for girls and gender non conforming youth in New York City.