THE GET DOWN!!!!!! with CHA WA and SHAHEED and DJ SUPREME with a performance by the Firehouse Kids

October 22, 2023Avondale Park

We’re excited to have Cha Wa along with Shaheed & DJ Supreme + performances by students from the Firehouse Community Arts Center!

This event is completely FREE thanks to all of our incredible sponsors. Make sure you check them out!

CHA WA

New Orleans brass band-meets-Mardi Gras Indian outfit Cha Wa radiates the energy of the city’s street culture. “My People,” the band’s follow up to their Grammy-nominated album “Spyboy,” feels like pure joy, a distillation of generations of New Orleans expression. But it also never fails to remind us how hard-won that joy was and still is: not least in the tense, funky and explosive title track, with its declaration “My people, we’re still here.”

“Mardi Gras Indian songs are inherently songs about freedom,” the band’s drummer Joe Gelini says. “And that struggle is as relevant today as it’s ever been.” Popmatters describes the band as “a grand gumbo of singing, intoxicating rhythms, and deep funk grooves that are impossible to resist.”

SHAHEED and DJ SUPREME

At the roots of hip-hop—now a global phenomenon that speaks words of hope and compassion to people in their own language—are guardians of its precious gem of simplicity. Shaheed and DJ Supreme are two such sages, reminding future generations that all you need to tell your story are your rhymes and a rhythm to run it through.

The timeless duo from Birmingham, AL keeps it real, using hip-hop to spread wisdom through their multiple LPs and live performances alongside acts like Scarface, Jurassic 5, The Jungle Brothers, and more. Over the years, they’ve rep’d Alabama under the Communicating Vessels label while promoting community-based initiatives through their non-profit K.R.U. (Knowledge, Rhythm, and Understanding).