Climbing Poetree Climbing PoeTree is the combined force of two boundary-breaking soul-sisters who have sharpened their art as a tool for popular education, community organizing, and personal transformation. Alixa and Naima interweave spoken word, hip hop, and award-winning multimedia theater to expose injustice, heal from violence, and make a better future visible, immediate, and irresistible. In fifteen self-organized tours over the past 10 years, Climbing PoeTree has blazed stages in more than 70 cities across the U.S.--including 11,000 miles travelled on a bus converted to run on recycled vegetable oil--and abroad from the UK to South Africa to Cuba. Their soul-stirring performance has been featured alongside power houses such as Erykah Badu, Alicia Keys, Danny Glover, Angela Davis, Alice Walker, Sonia Sanchez, Me’shell Ndegeocello, The Last Poets, and Dead Prez. Alixa and Naima are innovative educators who have lead workshops in institutions from Columbia University to Rikers Island Prison, and are currently developing a multimedia social justice curriculum based off of their latest production Hurricane Season, that uses a new pedagogy to examine “unnatural disasters” and builds new leadership essential for fundamental social change. Las Krudas Odaymara Cuesta and Olivia Prendes are Cuban Hip Hop emcees, independent musicians, poets, and theater performers representing the activism of womyn, immigrants, and queer people of color as a central part of world change. Formed in 1999, Las Krudas brought the female voice to a birthing genre in Cuba. They have earned international acclaim performing, recording, speaking, and touring in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean, bringing Cubensi hip hop, dance-hall, cumbia, old and new school beats from around the world laced with their extraordinary Afro-Caribbean rebel lyrics and indomitable voices to empower communities. Las Krudas have been featured at House of Blue Theatre (Chicago), and S.O.B.s (New York City), Antimili Sonoro Festival (Medellin, Colombia 2011), XI Encuentro Feminista Latinoamercano y del Caribe (Mexico City 2009), Festival Internacional de Hip Hop Cubano (La Habana, Cuba 1998-2004), Lula Lounge (Toronto 2012), collaborating and performing alongside the likes of Wanda Kruda and DJ Leydis, Mikey Flow, Sekou Sundiata, Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, Susana Baca, Quilombo, and many more. Invincible Detroit based Hip-Hop artist and activist Invincible began penning lyrics at the age of nine, shortly after moving to the Midwest from the Middle East and learning English by memorizing her favorite songs. She has performed on stages in clubs, community centers, campuses, pride celebrations, and festivals around the world for over a decade, both as a solo artist, and featured as part of the all female Hip-Hop collective ANOMOLIES. She started her own label and media company EMERGENCE and released her critically acclaimed debut album ShapeShifters in 2008. Several media projects accompanied ShapeShifters, including two docu-music-videos about resistance to gentrification in Detroit and colonization in Palestine ("Locusts" and "People Not Places") which have been featured in many film festivals including Media That Matters and South By Southwest. Her lyrics are deeply rooted in social justice work, reflected in a writing process that often involves community feedback, and interviews with community members. Her upcoming project will illuminate the connections between complex science, social movements, and Hip-Hop. $8.00 - $12.00