Hey, everyone! Welcome back to another Culture Canvas.
The music collective Beats Rhymes Everything Detroit (BRED) is hosting its first Hip-Hop Theatre Festival Saturday at the Hilberry Gateway Theatre at Wayne State University.
It will feature one one-act plays inspired by popular hip-hop songs, such as “Ladies First” by Queen Latifah, “Tennessee” by Arrested Development, “Kick, Push” by Lupe Fiasco and “Good Ass Day” by the Detroit group Doughboyz Cashout. The two shows will run at noon and 7:30 p.m.
In between performances, audiences can participate in an improv game show and watch a dance battle featuring BAIRA/MVMNT PHLOSPHY and the Motor City Street Dance Academy.
Folks can also join a block party beginning at 3 p.m. which will feature local acts Brittney B. Hayden, Trey Grams and Malcolm X Elliott.
The festival is part of Elements Hip-Hop Weekend, a two-day event produced by BRED, BAIRA/MVMNT PHLOSPHY, Motor City Street Dance Academy and Wayne State. The events are free, but donations are welcome via Eventbrite.
I talked to BRED co-founder Alesyn “Al Wu” McCall, a hip-hop artist and actor, about how she organized the festival and what she hopes audiences take away from the event.
McCall comes from a family of musicians and performers and has been making beats and videos for years but said she got more serious about hip-hop performances in 2018. She founded BREAD with her brother, Richard “King Kvll” McCall, in 2011.
Editor’s note: This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
BridgeDetroit: How did the idea of the Hip-Hop Theatre Festival come together?
McCall: I was a part of a fellowship and the concept was to come up with our dream theater. As a hip-hop artist, I felt like the world of theater and hip-hop are really far away. Something that felt important to me was the stories that are already present in hip-hop. I wanted to give them life and allow Black storytellers to not have their stories forgotten and thrown away. How can we revisit those stories and continue the legacy of those stories?
BridgeDetroit: Why was it important to you to bridge hip-hop and theater?
McCall: Hip-hop just turned 50 and I think it’s great that we’re in a place where the genre has grown and still exists. But when you look at a lot of the artists and the people who made it what it is today, a lot of those names get lost and that’s where it felt really important, as a storyteller, to find new ways to breathe life into it.
When we think about theater in terms of a European aesthetic, the fact that Shakespeare is still the highest standard and we’re still telling these stories from hundreds and hundreds of years ago, but we can’t honor our storytellers for a decade?
BridgeDetroit: Did you and your brother select the four songs featured?
McCall: We have a small advisory board of folks to help select the songs. One of the things that felt important was to try to go through the decades, songs from the 80s to more modern songs. And it felt really important to include women’s voices because hip-hop is male dominated.
There are also so many songs that are huge, that are just American culture, part of global culture. People know these songs, but don’t necessarily know why. They might just know the fun and funky beat, but if you actually go and study what these people are talking about, you get more from it. That was the goal.
BridgeDetroit: What do you think of Detroit’s theater landscape with theater companies like Detroit Repertory Theatre, Detroit Public Theatre and Plowshares Theatre Company? Do you feel like more needs to be done to highlight the theater scene in the city?
McCall: It’s a really close-knit community, but unfortunately, I think that it’s difficult to make a livelihood in Detroit in theater. Every theater producer feels it’s like, ‘How can we continue to grow theater here, where artists don’t feel like they have to go to Chicago or LA or New York or someone else, where there’s a bigger scene for these shows?’ I think ultimately for me…it’s like, ‘How do we present the art to more people?’ Because when people see it, people dig it. A lot of folks don’t get the opportunity to see live theater at a professional level. It’s important to not make it inaccessible because of price.
BridgeDetroit: What do you hope audiences get out of the experience?
McCall: I hope that people get to experience the songs and their meanings in a new way that’s invigorating. And I hope people take away the value of hip-hop culture on a personal level and on a global level. People who really make hip-hop and do it, know that it’s not all of what the mainstream presents. It’s really timeless and beautiful stuff here. How do we show that to people?
Cheers,
Micah
