Baba Got BARS: The ABC of Hip Hop This performance is for pre-k to 2nd grade. Baba Bomani’s program uses rhythm, rhyme and repetition to embed early childhood reading and math concepts for young scholars in this Hip Hop party! Students have fun learning how to rap the alphabet backwards and count bars in music, as well as crucial active listening skills and Black history.

Baba Got BARS: The Writing Process This performance is for 3rd grade and up. Students are taken on a fun, multimedia trip through the world of creative writing where they learn the writing process (pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing). Students will rap along to original music created by Baba Bomani highlighting literacy and the power of rhythm, rhyme and repetition!

Baba Got BARS: The Frederick Douglass Writing Club This performance is for 3rd grade and up. Learn the power of literacy through this Hip Hop biography of the life and career of Frederick Douglass. From his humble beginning on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, to the cities of Baltimore, New York, London and DC, experience how Douglass uses literacy to become the catalyst for the abolition of slavery, and the most photographed American of the 19th century.

Artist Background

For 20 years, Baba Bomani has used his experience as a producer and MC to teach arts-integrated workshops, residencies, assemblies, and professional development with his curriculum, BARS. Baba Bomani uses his life experiences, mixed with his musical and poetic skills, to paint lyrical pictures of life as he sees it and the future as he envisions it. His videos have been featured on BET and MTV2, and he has hosted and performed everywhere from the Washington National Cathedral to the Fillmore in New York City. Bomani is a Kennedy Center for the Arts teaching artist and a roster artist with Young Audiences of Maryland, Young Audiences of New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania, United Arts Council of Raleigh & Wake County North Carolina, and Arlington County Virginia. Baba Bomani is the founder of Watermelon Day at Sankofa, a yearly celebration of community, art, education, and watermelon at Sankofa Video & Books Café. He is also the founder of a literacy and history club for students called the Frederick Douglass Writing Club.

Search Criteria

• Program Type: Performance
• Discipline: Literary, Multi-Disciplinary, Music
• Grade Level: Elementary, High, Middle
• Cultural Context: African, African-American
• Accepts bookings in Johnston County