Front lady for Tdot’s Red Slam Collective, Mahlikah Awe:ri, speaks on growth of the group and the ways that they give back. Red Slam will be headlining Redwire’s upcoming show Sentinel Shores: A Group Show and Event Exploring Land Defense February 2nd at Rhizome Cafe, Coast Salish Territories.
Marika Swan @ RPM: Wanna introduce yourself?
Mahlikah Awe:ri : My name is Mahlikah Awe:ri aka MC AngelHeart I am one of the four founding members of the Red Slam Collective. We also have other members that are a part of the collective now. We have four core members: we have a core drummer, a core bassist, we’ve added a saxophonist and then we mix it up with sometimes bringing in other emcees or a beatboxer or our B-boys.
MS: Who is making it out to Coast Salish Territories next week?
MA: So we’ll have MC 7th Son (Annishnaabe), Miles Turner (Six Nations, Mohawk), Isaac Llacuachaqui aka Riverwalker (Inca), myself (Mik’maw, Mohawk), Jav Bravo (Aztec), Will supporting us on bass and Paul our saxophonist cant make it but he’ll be there in spirit.
MS: How did the collective come together?
MA: In the fall of 2008 I was asked to do something at the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, which is our Friendship Centre, around spoken word. At that time I was getting back into slam poetry competitions and I noticed there was no other natives in the circuit. So I thought maybe I should expose some other people to this art form. A set of people came to the workshops and they were into hip hop and into music. I had met Isaak a year before at an open mic so I asked him to join in. So it was 7th Son and Miles and our former member Lena who were always going. The youth coordinator encouraged us to apply for a grant to take things to the next level and take some of these lyrics and turn them into actual songs…
