Dahlak Brathwaite (b. 1986) is a hip-hop-rooted performance artist,
spoken word poet, actor, musician, and writer. He has toured the
United States with his one-man show, Spiritrials, since 2015, first
gaining prominence when appearing twice on HBO's Russell Simmons
presents Def Poetry Jam. As a CalArts artist-in-residence he has
further developed Spiritrials with director Roberta Uno and
choreographer Toran Moore to create the project Try/Step/Trip which he
has performed at venues such as Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art,
San Francisco's CalArts Center for New Performance, and the American
Conservatory Theater. Since 2004, Brathwaite has toured over 200
colleges throughout the United States and Europe with the ill-Literacy
artists collective and been a featured performer at the Los Angeles
Get Down Festival. He has toured nationally and internationally with
the hip-hop theater production of Word Becomes Flesh and Scourge, both
under the direction of Marc Bamuthi Joseph. Additional collaborations
include a track with acclaimed Bay Area rapper George Watsky and
performances with Princess Cut. Brathwaite is a presenter through the
CalArts initiative ArtChangeUS: Arts in a Changing America and a U.S.
State Department International Exchange Fellowship's OneBeat Fellow,
through which he has performed for the State Department's hip-hop
diplomacy program, Next Level. The role, which placed him on Team
Uzbekistan, has taken him to Guatemala, Israel, Nigeria, the
Philippines, Turkey, and the Dominican Republic.Brathwaite is a
Sacramento native and currently resides in Long Beach,
California.Brathwaite was raised Catholic which segued into what he
describes as "a traditional Black church where folks, you know, catch
the Holy Ghost and run up to the altar and speak in tongues." This
experience caused him to "contextualize Christianity in the historical
sense," testing, and ultimately losing, his belief in the faith. It
was with his encounter with the law, having been racially profiled and
brought to court, that solidified his agnosticism, and that he was no
longer Christian; the experience reignited his troubled sensibility
over rituals that are never explained. Brathwaite has cited Judaism as
a religion that he believes does a better job at linking historical
and biblical events to religious practice. In an April 2019 Medium
article, Brathwaite describes his current spiritual practice:"On every
good day, on every day that I'm not rushed, I get on my floor and I
meditate for 15 to 20 minutes, sometimes longer. Then get on my knees
and stretch, and then pray. And sometimes when I do it so much, that
that's when the ritual has to be made new again.
spoken word poet, actor, musician, and writer. He has toured the
United States with his one-man show, Spiritrials, since 2015, first
gaining prominence when appearing twice on HBO's Russell Simmons
presents Def Poetry Jam. As a CalArts artist-in-residence he has
further developed Spiritrials with director Roberta Uno and
choreographer Toran Moore to create the project Try/Step/Trip which he
has performed at venues such as Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art,
San Francisco's CalArts Center for New Performance, and the American
Conservatory Theater. Since 2004, Brathwaite has toured over 200
colleges throughout the United States and Europe with the ill-Literacy
artists collective and been a featured performer at the Los Angeles
Get Down Festival. He has toured nationally and internationally with
the hip-hop theater production of Word Becomes Flesh and Scourge, both
under the direction of Marc Bamuthi Joseph. Additional collaborations
include a track with acclaimed Bay Area rapper George Watsky and
performances with Princess Cut. Brathwaite is a presenter through the
CalArts initiative ArtChangeUS: Arts in a Changing America and a U.S.
State Department International Exchange Fellowship's OneBeat Fellow,
through which he has performed for the State Department's hip-hop
diplomacy program, Next Level. The role, which placed him on Team
Uzbekistan, has taken him to Guatemala, Israel, Nigeria, the
Philippines, Turkey, and the Dominican Republic.Brathwaite is a
Sacramento native and currently resides in Long Beach,
California.Brathwaite was raised Catholic which segued into what he
describes as "a traditional Black church where folks, you know, catch
the Holy Ghost and run up to the altar and speak in tongues." This
experience caused him to "contextualize Christianity in the historical
sense," testing, and ultimately losing, his belief in the faith. It
was with his encounter with the law, having been racially profiled and
brought to court, that solidified his agnosticism, and that he was no
longer Christian; the experience reignited his troubled sensibility
over rituals that are never explained. Brathwaite has cited Judaism as
a religion that he believes does a better job at linking historical
and biblical events to religious practice. In an April 2019 Medium
article, Brathwaite describes his current spiritual practice:"On every
good day, on every day that I'm not rushed, I get on my floor and I
meditate for 15 to 20 minutes, sometimes longer. Then get on my knees
and stretch, and then pray. And sometimes when I do it so much, that
that's when the ritual has to be made new again.
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