Featured Performer

DUMI RIGHT

Dumi RIGHT is an official hip hop ambassador, having been selected to complete a residency in Thailand teaching emceeing to youth in under-served communities as part of the Next Level cultural exchange initiative at the U.S. Department of State. The scope and scale of his work exhibits broad geographic and cultural diversity with collaborations with artists from across the globe as well as notable US hip-hop luminaries including the likes of Easy Mo Bee, Jungle Brothers, Stic Man (dead prez), Chubb Rock, Vast Aire, and many more.

Featured Performer

RAS

Riders Against the Storm (RAS) is a musical movement in Austin, TX that can only be described as 'historic.' As recent recipients of 'Band of the Year' honors at the 2014, 2015 and 2016 Austin Music Awards, Chaka and Qi Dada (husband and wife) represent a significant first in the 'Live Music Capital.' Over the past 32 years, hip hop has never received the top honor at the annual awards show. Winning the title twice in a row is an accomplishment shared by only a handful of bands, including: Spoon, and Los Lonely Boys.

Featured Performer

Pat G

Patrick Gamble, known by his stage name Pat G, is a rapper, football coach and motivational speaker from Temple, Texas. Pat G started rapping in January 2010 and dropped “The Demo” in 2012 to put out a compilation of the songs he had created up to that point. On his birthday in 2015, he dropped his first album entitled “A Different Perspective.” A month later, in July 2015, he won the Akademia award for “Best Rap EP.” Pat G is a practicing Christian and his faith influences the music he writes. God, faith, education, hard work, community and family are what are most important to him.

Featured Performer

SymmaTree

SymmaTree is a New Orleans native who got his start in the four-man hip hop crew DarkSyde Yakuza Republic before moving to San Marcos, TX where he performs as a solo artist and as a member of two live bands: Dangerous Animal (a rap/punk fusion band) and Autumn Improv (a hip hop/funk/reggae band).

Featured Performer

Mana

Rapping in both English and Farsi, Mana combines her Persian sounds with soulful singing and an enticing flow. She also has an international women’s collective entitled, Lipstick Revolt. In an interview with FemBot Magazine she explained, that 'Lipstick Revolt' is about “making a statement without the intention to." Through Lipstick Revolt, she empowers other women to express themselves as well as raise awareness about various political and social issues. She has shared mics with the likes of Talib Kweli, and KRS-One as well as performing at festivals such as Washington DC and Utah’s Pride Festival.

Featured Performer

Nita Jonez

Nita Jonez knew she wanted to be an MC when she wrote her first verse at five years old. She’s been chasing her dream ever since. The Houston transplant uprooted her life to Long Beach, California to get out of her comfort zone and works a grueling job to support her craft. But when she steps into the booth, she transforms into an unapologetic star. Spitting bars with slick confidence, she dreams about performing for a packed crowd and everyone knowing her lyrics by heart.

Featured DJ

DJ Eye Q

Eye Q is a resident disc jockey born in Austin, TX and has been in the music scene for 6 years now. She started learning how to spin vinyl at the local DJ/Production school, Dub Academy. Eye Q has performed for venues in multiple cities across the country, as well as internationally in the Toronto Music Festival. She is driven by her passion to give the audience a break from the realities of work and personal life. Eye Q’s ultimate goal is to give the audience good music and great memories to last a lifetime.

Special Guest / Commentator

A.D. Carson, Ph.D.

A.D. Carson is a performance artist and educator from Decatur, Illinois. He received a Ph.D. at Clemson University doing work that focuses on race, literature, history, and rhetorical performances. A 2016 recipient of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Award for Excellence in Service at Clemson, Carson worked with students, staff, faculty, and community members to raise awareness of historic, entrenched racism at the university through his See the Stripes campaign, which takes its name from his 2014 poem. His dissertation, “Owning My Masters: The Rhetorics of Rhymes & Revolutions,” is a digital archive that features a 34 track rap album and was recognized by the Graduate Student Government as the 2017 Outstanding Dissertation.