Live At the Dragon February 2021 Artists
Feb. 28th, 3pm PT on Crowdcast
Kevvy Kev “coolbreeze”
Kevvy Kev is a New York native: he was born in Brooklyn, raised in Queens, and went to high school in the Bronx. In 1982 Kev came to California to attend Stanford University, bringing a suitcase full of Hip-Hop with him. At the time, Stanford was hardly a haven for B-Boys, but Kev seeded the ground thoroughly. This created an environment that became ground zero for all forms of Hip-Hop, from on-campus parties, to clubs, to concerts, to the now-famous radio show, The Drum, at the campus radio station KZSU. Broadcasting for 27 years, The Drum is the World’s Longest-Running Hip-Hop radio show, with an impressive list of alums, from Kutmasta Kurt to Sway & Tech and beyond.
After graduating from Stanford, Kev continued to spread the gospel of Hip-Hop, expanding into the commercial radio arena as one of the founding members of the Sway & Tech Wake-Up Show. This led to a five-year stint at KMEL, where in addition to the Wake-Up Show, he worked as a weekend mix-show DJ and host of the 10 O’ Clock Bomb. This was followed by three years at Wild 94.9, where he did the groundbreaking Hip-Hop show The Danger Zone, with a roster of guest artists and DJs culled from the best and brightest on the planet. Through all this time, Kev continued to do The Drum at KZSU, creating a unique and incredible program that made an appearance there an industry-wide rite of passage for up and coming artists.
Most recently, Kev hosted the groundbreaking radio show Gold School, broadcast on Q102 in San Francisco. Focusing on classics as well as an inclusive expression of all facets of the Hip-Hop culture, Gold School was a major resource in the Bay Area and beyond. In addition, Kev has performed, hosted, and/or DJ’d at literally every club and venue in the San Francisco Bay Area, from the biggest and most elegant to the smallest and grimiest. Internationally, he has been a guest/headlining DJ in Canada; Austria, Germany, France, Japan, Scotland, England, and countless other markets. Kev has also been a guest DJ on Austria´s popular radio show “Tribe Vibes” on the national station FM4, as well as guest host on WRMS in Tours, France. And as the official tour DJ for RZA from the mighty Wu-Tang Clan, Kev has blazed stages from coast to coast as well as overseas. Today, he continues to expand his reach, making moves from terrestrial radio to the internet, satellite, and TV/Video.
Traci Bartlow
As an Oakland native Traci Bartlow has traveled the world as a performance and visual artist and returned hometo currently be the owner and operator of B-Love’s Guest House. She is a dancer, choreographer, poet, photographer, and cultural archivist who documents and preserves African American art and culture through dance and visual art.
As a dancer, Ms. Bartlow is proficient in many styles and has been a principal dancer and soloist in many dance companies, international theater and television productions. Growing up in Oakland, California she learned early Hip Hop dance styles from some of the originators. She has also have studied and performed traditional African dances. As a young adult she won a scholarship to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center which launched her career as a professional dancer. Ms. Bartlow’s passion as a dancer/choreographer is to document and preserve black dance and culture. To that end she teaches, lectures, performs, and curates themes based on the black experience.
Traci Bartlow’s choreography has been presented at the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, Collage de las Cultures African Dance Festival and, the Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival. Other highlights are The Sisyphus Syndrome-A JazzOpera by Amiri Baraka, and the Montreal Swing Riot. She has received commissions for her choreography from the Illadelph Legend Dance Festival in Philadelphia, City of Oakland Cultural Arts Department and, the Eastbay Community Foundation. In 2015 Starchild Dance Lindy Hop project was listed in the San Francisco Chronicle as one of the 10 Best Performances of 2015! Ms. Bartlow has choreographed for a host of recording artist such as Dessy Di Lauro, Martin Luther McCoy, The Coup, and S.I.L.K.E.
As a photographer Traci Bartlow owns an archive of thousands of images she shot in the Bay Area in the 1990’s. Her photos were featured in The Source, Vibe, Rap Pages, 4080, and Black Enterprise magazines. She also shot a host of portraiture, and publicity shots for local and national record labels. In 2020 she is premiering this archive of images in her home art gallery in Oakland, California.
Ms. Bartlow has a unique experience in developing cultural institutions in the Bay Area. She was a youth dancer, faculty member and then on the board of trustees at Citicenter Dance Theater at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts. She is also a founding member of one of the pillars of activism in the Bay Area, Eastside Arts Alliance and Eastside Cultural Center in Oakland. Here she developed and curated many cultural programs. With a longstanding career in arts and activism she continues her work of healing, empowering, and telling the vibrant and compelling stories of black people through performance and visual art.
Steven Garcia
Steven Garcia is a dancer, comedian, and comedy writer , hes been involved in the dance community for the last 20 years and he shares his love for housemusic and housedance culture with whom he meets. He’s also performed stand up comedy in NYC and Miami and continues to write comedy in his free time. His goal is to inspire people through the arts so that they themselves can inspire others.
David “Chocolate Sushi” Freeman
He goes by the name Chocolate sushi. He’s black and Japanese, born and raised in San Francisco. A product of the Fillmore and Japantown community. If it wasn’t for the dance scene or rave culture, we probably wouldn’t be seeing him today.
Jamar Earl Jamal Hopkins
Jamar Earl Jamal Hopkins (Resident Artist) is better known as Jamar Townshipsol or simply as “JAM”.
For 32 years, he has been contributing to HIP HOP CULTURE. From street dance to street art, the journey has blessed him with opportunities to see the world and share his Townshipsol mentality. Sharing his study in a mixture of urban dance styles, from Popping, Locking, Bboying, and House to martial arts and experimenting with traditional American dance forms, along with his natural sense to improve influences his ever-evolving “TOWNSHIPSOL” style. Whether it be a founding member of bay area dance crew BEATZ “N” PIECES, or member of Boston’s FLOORLORDS crew, Jamar has left his influence on urban dance culture and his unforgettable personality and knowledge of 32 years of hip hop history.
JAM has been featured in music videos, commercials, television shows, travelled the globe entertaining and teaching his signature style, and empowered youth with words of wisdom and cultural awareness.
He has continued to perform and showcase his dance and visual artistry. Now on another journey through painting and illustration, he combines street art and popular and hip hop culture with fine art education to create what he calls magic on canvas.