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Music Performance
Yaya Bey Music Performance
Yaya Bey
MCC Theater
(Doors open at 7pm)
Yaya Bey is one of R&B’s most exciting storytellers. Using a combination of ancestral forces and her own self-actualization, the singer/songwriter seamlessly navigates life’s hardships and joyful moments through music. Bey’s new album, Remember Your North Star (out June 17), captures this emotional rollercoaster with a fusion of soul, jazz, reggae, Afrobeat, and hip-hop that feeds the soul. The artist’s knack for storytelling is best displayed in the album’s lead single, “keisha”. It’s an anthemic embodiment of fed-up women everywhere who have given their all in a relationship, yet their physical body nor spiritual mind could never be enough.
Bey’s ability to tap into the emotionally kaleidoscopic nature of women, specifically Black women, is the essence of the entire album. With themes of misogynoir, unpacking generational trauma, carefree romance, parental relationships, women empowerment, and self-love, Remember Your North Star proves that the road to healing isn’t a linear one – there are many lessons to gather along the journey.
“I saw a tweet that said, ‘Black women have never seen healthy love or have been loved in a healthy way.’ That’s a deep wound for us. Then I started to think about our responses to that as Black women,” Bey says of Remember Your North Star’s title inspiration, an entirely self-written project featuring key production from Bey herself, with assists from Phony Ppl’s Aja Grant and DJ Nativesun. “So this album is kind of my thesis. Even though we need to be all these different types of women, ultimately we do want love: love of self and love from our community. The album is a reminder of that goal.”
The artist’s raw, unfiltered approach threads Remember Your North Star. “big daddy ya” finds the artist tapping into her inner rapper, channeling the too-cool and confident factor that artists like Megan Thee Stallion and City Girls are well-known for. “reprise” captures women’s exhaustion everywhere, with its lyrical tug-of-war of bettering oneself while trying to cut yourself off from toxic relationships. There’s also “alright” (co-produced by Aja Grant), a soothing, jazz-inspired ditty that showcases Bey’s love for the genre’s icons like Billie Holiday, while the carefree “pour up” highlights the artist’s friendship with DJ Nativesun (the song’s producer) and will immediately rush hips to the dancefloor.
There is no fakeness when it comes to Bey’s music, and her authenticity can be partly attributed to her upbringing in Jamaica, Queens. Early childhood memories included watching her father (pioneering ‘90s rapper Grand Daddy I.U) record in his studio – which also doubled as Bey’s bedroom – and listening to records by soul legends Donny Hathaway and Ohio Players around the house. Beginning at age nine, the artist’s father would leave space for her to write hooks to his beats, using her favorite artists like Mary J. Blige and JAY-Z as inspirations.
Bey quickly grew out of New York City and moved to D.C. at age 18. Calling it her second home, the city further ignited the artist’s creativity as she worked at museums and libraries, as well as tapping into poetry and attending protests. Her first release ‘The Many Alter - Egos of Trill’eta Brown’ in 2016 that incorporated a digital collage and a book, was praised by FADER, Essence, and many more. Bey followed up with fellow critically acclaimed projects like 2020’s ‘Madison Tapes’ album and 2021’s ‘The Things I Can’t Take With Me’ EP – the first release on Big Dada’s relaunch as a label run by Black, POC and minority ethnic people for Black, POC and minority ethnic artists – that received support from Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, NPR, Harper’s Bazaar, FADER, HotNewHipHop, Dazed, Clash, FACT, Crack Magazine, The Line of Best Fit and Mixmag.
In 2021, Bey was also profiled by Rolling Stone for their print magazine, contributed to the publication’s The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, and curated a playlist for Document Journal. The artist’s “september 13th (DJ Nativesun Remix)” and “made this on the spot” singles received strong radio support from BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC 1 Xtra’s Jamz Supernova. Last May, Bey was interviewed on BBC 1Xtra and performed three tracks for Jamz Supernova’s “Festival Jamz” including The Things I Can’t Take With Me’s “fxck it then” and “september 13th” that December.
Bey is also a critically acclaimed multidisciplinary artist and art curator, creating the artwork for her music through collages of intimate photos and self-portraits. In 2019, her work was featured in the District of Columbia Arts Center’s “Reparations Realized” exhibit and Brooklyn’s Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA)’s “Let the Circle Be Unbroken” exhibit. She also completed multiple fine art residencies with MoCADA, curating programs that reflect the same theme that drives her music: the Black woman’s experience.
‘Remember Your North Star’ continues Bey’s personal and artistic evolution as she strives to be a soundboard for Black women everywhere. “I feel empowered in music because I can transform anything that happens to me into something that is valuable. Music helps me to see the value in what’s going on in my life,” she explains. “There’s a spirit in music. It’s a culture and I’m in that community, contributing my story which keeps us connected.”
Co-Sponsors: Jackson Social Justice Legacy Scholarship / BWHC
The Jackson Social Justice Legacy Scholarship Interns Present: 10th Annual Social Justice Conference (SJCON)
MCC Theater
The MCC’s Jackson Social Justice Legacy Scholarship Interns Presents:
10th Annual Social Justice Conference 2023 (SJCON)
RESTORATION FOR REVOLUTION
February 25th & 26th, 2023
9:00am-3:30pm
Free workshops with guest artists, healers, scholars, food, and raffles.
RSVP: https://tinyurl.com/SJCON2023RSVP
Zoom RSVP available
As we find ourselves in the third year of the pandemic, continued state neglect has resulted in brutal recession conditions, widespread infrastructure failures, and immense loss of life. Although quarantine restrictions have lifted, rebuilding safe and resilient communities under our current vacillating reality has not been simple. In a world that encourages hyperindividualism and subjection to labor, more and more marginalized people recognize the value of rest, healing justice, and grieving as a necessary form of resistance.
With the intention to create a joyful and authentic space for repair, this year’s Social Justice Conference theme is “Restoration for Revolution.” For us, restoration means rebelling from oppressive ideologies and institutions that deny us of our right to dream, create, and be loved as we are. We intend to engage with critical thought to deepen our relationships with ourselves and each other -- outside of the realm of domination, shame, disposability, and the carceral state.
We hope to foster a space where curiosity is welcomed and encouraged as we learn/unlearn practices and ideologies that influence our attitudes towards well-being. Restoration facilitates a care-based lens where individuals and collectives can move forward in a world that encourages our self-neglect. Through Restoration for Revolution, we intend to develop means derived from sincerity and self-determination to achieve the ends of conscious resistance.
The Jackson Social Justice Legacy Scholarship Interns invite you to RSVP and take part in this community-centered educational space on the weekend of February 25th and 26th, 2023. SJCON 2023 will be hosted in person on the UCSB campus, with remote options, closed captioning, and ASL interpretation services provided by request.
Questions? jacksonsjlegacyscholarship@gmail.com
For latest updates, follow @jacksonsjinterns.
Open Mic
MCC Lounge
The MCC hosts a quarterly open mic for all to artistically express themselves using any creative outlet including spoken word, poetry, music, and dance. All are welcome to attend and participate!
DJ Darla Bea, a UCSB Alumni and local Santa Barbaran has become the go-to name in events around town. If you’ve been out and about over the last fifteen years, you probably danced to a DJ Darla Bea mix at least once at a corporate party, non-profit fundraiser, wedding, parade or community party.
She hosts the two-hour KCSB-FM 91.9 campus radio show “Rock It Properly” featuring a high-energy mix of nostalgic songs and rare tracks from a wide range of artists and genre themes from Afrobeat to Zydeco music every Sunday since 2007.
Last year, Santa Barbara residents voted Darla as Winner of the “Best Event DJ” Award in the Santa Barbara Independent’s Annual Readers’ Poll for the 7th year in a row – a happy honor for someone who loves her hometown and the many celebrations that populate its busy calendar. For more information visit www.DJDarlaBea.com.
Cup of Culture
Powerlands
MCC Theater
Directed by Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso, a young Navajo filmmaker, Powerlands investigates displacement of Indigenous people and devastation of the environment caused by the same chemical companies that have exploited the land where she was born. On this personal and political journey, she learns from Indigenous activists across three continents. Runtime: 1 hour 15 minutes
