Equilibrium: Spoken Word at the Loft presents “Proletariat Bronze” with Oskar Ly and Linda Her, along with DJ Nak, March 27, 8:00 p.m., at the Loft, Open Book, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis.
Proletariat Bronze consists of three Filipino-American poets, Jason Bayani, Jaylee Alde, and Mesej1.Together, they have rocked sold out audiences from Manhattan to Los Angeles, and everywhere in between.
As individuals, each member of Proletariat Bronze has been a grand slam champion in the Bay Area. Jason Bayani was the Grand Slam Champion of Berkeley and San Francisco in 2003. Jaylee Alde was the Grand Slam Champion of Berkeley in 2005.
Mesej1 was the Grand Slam Champion of Oakland in 2006. Jaylee has also placed second as an individual in the 2004 national slam in St. Louis where he and Mesej performed on the finals stage members of team Berkeley.
Jason Bayani is in the process of completing his MFA at St Mary’s College and Mesej 1 holds a MA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State. Proletariat Bronze is still writing, workshopping, performing, paying bills, and existing in this ever-brutal global economy.
Linda Her is an Artist Activist. She is an emerging, multi-disciplined Artist in the forms of writing, spoken word, emceeing and filmmaking. As an Activist, she advocates for the Hmong LGBTQI community, feminism, equality, education, exploring and understanding identities of the self as well as self-empowerment.
Using her love for Art and passion for humanitarian work as pairing social changing tools, she creatively expresses and actively speaks out to evoke social awareness and changes. She is a member of RECLAIM’s board, bringing in a unique and diverse lens of outreach and focus to bridge Hmong Queer Youth and mental health awareness. She is also a recipient of PFund’s Racial Equity Initiative Scholarship, member of Shades of Yellow’s Leadership Team/Co-hort 2010 and Hmong Women Achieving Together Leadership Institute.
Oskar Ly is a textile artist and a singer/songwriter in the styles of Hip Hop, Folk and Soul. She uses these various art mediums to explore her identity, community and heritage as a Hmong-American female artist. She was a proud recipient of the MN Community Collaboration in Grant 2009. Through her work, she is dedicated to understanding and propelling community building, culture infusion and the arts.
Drinks with DJ Nak starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5/$3 for students and Loft members. Call 612-215-2585 or visit www.loft.org.
