Canadian Aboriginal Perspectives
Photo: Red Slam Collective
iAM: Who do you want to hear your music? I mean who are the audiences who you think will benefit most from, and connect most with your music?
Red Slam: I’m not really concerned with audiences hearing what I create. If someone likes it, that’s cool, but more importantly it’s just an expression of who I am and one of the many ways I try to make sense of the world around me. If anything I’d like for my ancestors to hear my music, those who came before me and those yet unborn, including my own children. I would want them to know I did the best I could to walk a good path and leave things a little bit better than what I was given.
iAM: Can you tell us a bit about Red Slam Collective’s community engagement work?
Red Slam: In 2010 Red Slam Collective received a Word of Mouth Travel Grant from the Ontario Arts Council.
As part of our DissemiNation Tour across Ontario we built in our first community arts engagement workshop series for children and youth called SLAM I AM. So every place we performed we would offer workshops in various urban arts disciplines grounded in the 4 Direction Teachings of the Medicine Wheel. Workshops in slam poetry, collective rap compositions and recording, graffiti arts and break dancing are provided to children, youth and intergenerational communities in both urban and rural settings. Since 2010 we have expanded the workshop delivery to year round with various projects in partnership with Art City, Art Starts, Toronto Libraries, The Toronto District School Board and Aboriginal Education Centre, and the arts councils. The goal of these projects is to empower participants to utilize creative expression to tell their stories and explore collective anti-colonial journeys. For more info visit the Neighbourhood Arts Network website.
iAM March 2012 5
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