Saturday, Hip Hop Canvas: Beats, Art & Fashion blended dance, singing, music, fashion, visual art and poetry into a celebration of Black History Month at 9 p.m. at The Lab at Ciné.
Montu Miller, a teacher at Cedar Shoals High School and the master of ceremonies for the night, is also a member of the event’s organizing group, ATHfactor-Liberty Entertainment, which typically puts on a performance for Black History Month each year.
“It’s not just an event, it’s an experience,” Miller said. “That experience is having a full body appreciation of Black culture.”
Maxim Watkins, a business partner at Nony’s Cheesecakes, was also in attendance. Watkins, a nine-year Athens resident, said he has supported the hip-hop community since he first moved here.
“Hip-hop culture is what it is, you know. It is freedom. It’s expression. It’s just a big part of life, especially in the Black community,” Watkins said.
Miller and DJ ChiefRocka guided attendees through the evening with dance performances by Devas Tigerettes and League of Step, live art by Broderick Flanigan, feature performances by LB, Frank Eagle, 96 Vision, Sho and It’s Izu, along with soulful singing by Stella Groove and IAMTIKICA.
In between performances, Miller asked the audience to introduce themselves to a stranger, emblematic of both hip-hop and the larger Athens area’s sense of community.
Tambra Joyner, a cosmetologist at Athens Braids & Beauty, frequently attends cultural events downtown.
“I love to know about other people’s culture, so I feel like it’s only right for us to give others a piece of our culture as well, and to invite them in,” Joyner said.
The night also featured a performance by hip-hop and reggae dancehall artist Farin, and poetry by Athens Poet Laureate, Mikhayla Robinson-Smith.
Robinson-Smith, a past English student at the University of Georgia, is the first Black woman Poet Laureate of Athens. Robinson-Smith read four poems during her performance.
“These are for you and the community,” Robinson-Smith said. “I’m just a vessel for all of our stories, for all of our voices.”
One poem, “The Day Hip-Hop Was Born,” told the history and significance of hip-hop.
“Cause somewhere in the Bronx on August 11, 1973, with two turntables and a rhythm, the day hip-hop was born, born with the boom bap in our chests, feel that beat when we breathe, feel that song in our hearts, need that melody like it’s medicine, it’s in our DNA. The day hip-hop was born, came me, came us,” Robinson-Smith said.
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