It’s a symphonic celebration of one of the oldest musical institutions in town and how educator, emcee, and artist Kandace “DC” Lavender incorporates the five pillars of Hip-Hop – knowledge of self, dance, graffiti, rap, and DJing.
The collaboration, led by Lavender, with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra will bring dozens of performers representing a wide range of artistic disciplines to one stage at Kalamazoo Central High School on Feb. 7.
“Hip-hop and the symphony – polar opposites people might believe,” Lavender said, “and you can still come together and make something beautiful.”
The concept for this community-wide undertaking emerged after Lavender participated in a January 2024 Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra concert honoring Martin Luther King Jr., in which she presented a spoken word piece reflecting on Chicago-born pianist and composer Margaret Bonds’ “The Montgomery Variations.”
“It was such a beautiful collaboration,” Lavender said. “I learned so much more about my history, and history. But from that, the conductor and I met several times to really bring this piece to life and I really just enjoyed the partnership, the intentionality.”
For that program, Lavender created spoken word pieces that were interspersed with movement alongside a piece performed by the symphony and the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony, which was all about the Civil Rights Movement, KSO Conductor/Music Director Julian Kuerti said.
“It’s a very moving and very beautiful and powerful piece, and Kandace’s poetry really added to that,” he said. “And so we really hit it off. And I asked her if she’d like to collaborate again. She said, ‘Yeah, I’d love to, but my thing is really hip-hop.’ And I said, ‘Well, great … Let’s do some hip-hop.”
He also invited her to lead the project.
“Julian said, ‘DC, you know this year you’ve come in and done it on our terms. Why not next year, you have space to lead a collaboration,’ you know, which I thought was very unique for an organization to say that and to actually cash in on that,” Lavender said. “People say things all the time, you know, especially now in the time we’re in, but for people to follow through and say, ‘Here are the resources … What do you want to do with them?’ is just interesting and unique to me. That birthed trust to really lean in creatively as an artist. I was able to dream really big, to have the support and wisdom and the knowledge of the folks (at the KSO).”
What she wanted to do with those resources was dig into the impact of “capital H” Hip-Hop, she said, starting with its beginnings 52 years ago in the Bronx.
“KRS One would say the genre hip-hop is lowercase h-i-p, lowercase h-o-p, but the culture is capital H-i-p capital H-o-p, and that is what this event (is about). My goal is to expose the story of the culture of hip-hop, how it came to be, so that people are inspired to take better care of Hip-Hop, which is the culture and the people who are in it.”
In the greater Kalamazoo area, that’s a lot of folks. As Lavender began reaching out to Kalamazoo area hip-hop artists about partnering on the project, others began hearing about the show and interest snowballed. The program now includes 25 hip-hop performers and 20 symphony members (including the genre-bending cellist and Last Gasp Collective member Jordan Hamilton, who’s a bit of both, and who collaborated with Kuerti on an original piece for this program).
The participants range in age from their teens to their sixties and include singers, songwriters, emcees, poets, choreographers, DJs, dancers, educators, instrumentalists, composers, symphony members, and music directors.
“Every person in here is here for a reason because you’ve all impacted my artistry in some way,” said Lavender at a Feb. 3 rehearsal at the Northside Association for Community Development, the first rehearsal bringing together all the hip-hop artists collaborating on this project. “So it’s not by chance that you’re here. It’s by design. So thank you so much for giving the time and talent and your energy. I know everybody here — we’re all artists, so you know we have like six, seven, eight jobs, but this is the one that provides the most meaning for us.”
Everybody brings a slightly different perspective to the project, from the dancers to the DJs
It wasn’t accidental that the roster of performers includes such a wide range of ages and experiences. “If I could’ve found a grandmother that spits, she would be on that bill,” Lavender said. “As an educator and an advocate for young people, you’re not going to find too many shows I’m on where young people won’t be highlighted, where there won’t be shared space with the youth. I was very intentional to do that. There’s room for all walks of life. The uniqueness that these individuals bring, whether it’s their age, whether it’s their story, their style … that was intentional to be as diverse as possible.”
Heather Mitchell, Youth Enrichment Director for the health, arts, and culture organization Rootead, said it was exciting to work on “fine tuning all our individual puzzle pieces” in preparation for the week of the event, where all the performers finally rehearse the full program together and put the puzzle together.
“I’m a West African diasporic dancer but I am also a Black American who grew up with hip-hop culture in my life and I started with hip-hop,” said Mitchell. “I always say hip-hop has West African grandparents. But it’s also more than just an art form. Hip-hop is a way of life for people, and there are so many components to it. Hip-hop also has this way of adapting to its environment. To bring it to a symphony seems so odd at first, right? But also, it feels very collaborative and innovative. I love the juxtaposition of two cultures that are seemingly very disconnected, finding a way to bridge or find a kind of theme or thread that connects them.”
iDance Fearless founder Shantese La’chy Robinson recruited Mitchell and fellow Rootead choreographer/dancers Carmen James and Damarion Johnson to the project, and was intentional about including several generations of dancers.
Planning the show has been “just magic” since Lavender first shared her vision for the project with her, Robinson said. “The journey of putting this together has helped me so much. Collaboration is so powerful and sometimes we get caught up in our artistry and we forget that being with someone that’s on the same level as you and in the same community as you is just beautiful. It’s a grateful feeling. It’s been a lot of hard work but we’re so grateful. I love that it’s going to be something that no one has ever seen and it’s going to open up a lot of doors. I definitely feel that.”
A project of multigenerational mentorship
Jahleel Fisher, a 15-year-old Kalamazoo Central High School student who has been performing locally as DJ Boogie since age 10, said Lavender was a catalyst for his music career when she brought a DJ to his school classroom for his 9th birthday party. Everyone in attendance got the opportunity to try scratching records.
“As soon as it was my turn, I knew it was what I wanted to do and I loved it,” he said. “I got my own board for my 10th birthday and I got good at it. I started playing out regularly when I was 11.”
He got involved in the KSO collaboration last August after bumping into Lavender, who told him to save the date for the concert. “I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m really excited. Can’t wait for it.’ Honestly, it’s a blessing. I’m fairly new to this world but to see someone who has years and years of experience and to see them in their craft, to see them own it, it’s just truly awesome.”
Fisher said he hopes to inspire his peers and younger generations to try new things and follow their passion. “If there’s anyone with that same little light bulb I had when I was 9 years old to DJ, I will be hands on (in helping them) for sure.”
While Lavender herself opened doors for many of the younger performers in the Symphonic Beats program, she also shares her own gratitude for those who inspired her passion for the genre, including hip-hop artists Skitzo and Ed Genesis, who is also the show’s narrator.
Skitzo recalls meeting Lavender around 2005 and being so impressed with her talent that he told her, “I’ve got a line of shows coming up. I’ll put you on all the shows.”
Roughly 20 years later, seeing Lavender inspire young artists, he said, “I mean … it’s what you hope for, right? Each one … teach one. You hope that the person you are talking to, who you’re trying to give some game to, they take it, run with it, add their own little sauce to it, and then do the same thing. You keep reaching back and we can pull all of us up.”
Genesis describes himself as “two years younger than hip-hop,” as he’s not quite 50 and hip-hop celebrated its 50th birthday in 2023. He credits Lavender with putting together a supergroup of top local talent for the project.
“Kandace is amazing for opening up the door for so many others,” Genesis said. “This doesn’t happen every day, something of this magnitude that will take such a great look not only at hip-hop as a culture but the collaborative piece. Just seeing the mentorship – the people that are supporting one another – that’s just been amazing to see.”
Genesis said narrating a project of this magnitude and scope has been inspiring. He was so excited to be sharing space with so many local talents he collected autographs at Monday’s rehearsal to commemorate the historic moment.
“This is something that the community has never seen anything like before. You have two genres of music coming together for one forceful program … There is something for everyone – for the youth, for the OGs, for the even older than OGs. You’ll be able to learn something. You’ll be entertained. We got the cypher going. We’ve got some original music. It’s just like a really good, cool vibe. I would say, ‘Bring out everybody – you don’t want to miss this.”
Tickets are priced at as little as $5 for name-your-own-price tickets, with the highest ticket price set at $20. Kalamazoo Central High School students will also have an opportunity to check out the dress rehearsal for free. The idea was to make the show as accessible to all as possible, Lavender said.
“You know we’re a little town but artistically mighty and there’s so many amazing artists that this is just an opportunity for other organizations to be inspired to collaborate genres,” Lavender said. “That’s the message that we want to send here. For folks to be inspired and to leave like … the sky’s the limit at this point.”
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