Join us as we celebrate Black Music Appreciation Month with a panel of black disabled musicians
About this event
Black Music Appreciation Month was inducted over 40 years ago and this year the U.S. President signed an official proclamation to encourage Americans to acknowledge the culture, influence, contributions, and history of Black Americans in music. Please join us as RAMPD & Diversability collaborates to have a powerful conversation around Elevating Culture with Black Disabled Musicians on Tuesday, June 21, 2022, from 7 PM - 8:30 PM EDT.
Our panel of stellar speakers includes:
Wawa Snipe - Award-winning Deaf rapper
Keith Jones - Emmy Winning Producer and Co-Founder of Krip Hop
James Ian - Actor, Musician, and Model
Sabeerah Nejee - Soulection DJ, Golden Voice consultant,
The event will be moderated by Lachi - Award Winning Recording Artist, Founder of RAMPD, and Arielle Dance, Ph.D., Author, and Disability Content Writer at Diversability.
Where: A Zoom link will be emailed to you 15 mins before the event begins.
This event will also be recorded and the recording will be shared with registered attendees after the event.
Sliding scale tickets
We are offering ticket fees on a sliding scale basis. This is to ensure that people are compensated for their time and effort. Please donate whatever you can, even if it’s only $1! Diversability is very appreciative of our community members, and thank you for your contribution! Members of the Diversability Leadership Collective get complimentary access to this event (and all of our events). Join us for a free week at http://diversability.mn.co.
Proceeds for this event will be donated to RAMPD
Accessibility
Attendees may keep their videos off for privacy or comfort, all are free to leave at any time. All sessions will be in English and ASL interpreters will be present. We will also use Zoom's auto-captioning feature. Please email Whitney Bailey at whitney@mydiversability.com for other accessibility needs and/or questions.
ASL interpreters provided by Interpreter Now
Meet the panelists
Keith Jones (he/him)
President and CEO of SoulTouchin’ Experiences LLC
Keith Jones is the President and CEO of SoulTouchin’ Experiences LLC,. It is an organization aimed at bringing a perspective to the issues of access inclusion and empowerment, which affect him as well as others who are persons with and without disabilities.
To achieve this multicultural, cross-disability education and outreach efforts he collaborates and conducts trainings with the purpose of strengthening efforts to provide services and information for people with disabilities. The issues he tackles are wide ranging from immigration, criminal justice reform, health care and environmental justice just to name a few.
Paralleling with his policy and social justice work Mr. Jones is a multi-talented artist who along with Leroy Moore and Rob Temple founded Krip Hop Nation which is an international collection of artists with disabilities. Krip Hop Nation is currently celebrating 13 years with the recent Emmy Award winning success of their title song for the Netflix documentary of the Paralympic Games, Rising Phoenix and its critical acclaimed sound track.
Follow Keith on social media:
https://www.twitter.com/Dasoultoucha
https://www.instagram.com/Dasoultoucha
https://tiktok.com/@Dasoultoucha
James Ian (he/him)
Musician
James is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist living with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 3, which is a degenerative neuromuscular disease. He advocates for authentic representation of disabled disabled people in all media, including music. James loves all aspects of creating music, and has played hundreds of live shows and events.
Follow James on social media:
https://www.twitter.com/jamesianmusic
https://www.instagram.com/jamesianmusic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLyRpDn9bTo
WARREN SNIPE (he/him)
CEO of Wawa’s World
Actor/rapper who is a proudly deaf super talent. With decades in the music game, Wawa is the founder of DIP HOP (Hip Hop thru Deaf Eyes) aimed to bring deaf culture to the music mainstream. He ‘s performed the National Anthem at Super Bowl LV and at the halftime show at Super Bowl LVI.
Follow Warren on social media:
https://www.facebook.com/Wawasworld
https://www.instagram.com/Wawasworld1
https://www.twitter.com/Diphopwawa
Sabeerah Najee (she/her)
DJ
Sabeerah Najee, a Long Beach native, has been surrounded by music since birth. During the 90s, Najee’s father was a security guard to many artists in the music industry. Her mother and grandmother filled the home with music by serenading their home and her grandfather has an impressive collection of every jazz record you could think of. Najee was born with Spina Bifida and requires the use of a wheelchair to get around. Despite these obstacles, her loved ones instilled in her that she can do anything she puts her mind to. Once she fell in love with DJing, her passion continued to be her driving force, as she is living out her dreams. Sabeerah has DJ’d the second annual Soulection Experience at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, has opened for legendary EDM producer Mr.Carmack on his tour, and recently DJ’d Coachella’s Mojave stage to name a few. She is also the Concept Producer for Goldenvoice’s accessibility initiative, Accessible+. Sabeerah is a firm believer in manifestation and that with the power of community, any dream is attainable.
Sabeerah has worked with several organizations that advocate for accessibility of all kinds in the music industry such as: Accessible Festivals, National Alliance of Melanin Disabled Advocates and All of Me.
Follow Sabeerah on social media:
https://www.facebook.com/Sabeerahnajee
https://www.instagram.com/sabeerahnajee