Mahlikah Awe:ri aka MC AngelHeart

I Am A SpokenVizionary because
I am an imprint, relentless,
unlimited capacity of my
ancestral legacy. I ignite my inner
eagle vision, enabling me to be a
messenger of conscious evolution
through words; Rhythm, I am my
mother’s daughter; a monarch on
a migration to a higher
destinations. I overstand that I
am interconnected to all things,
all things are interconnected
within me; so I must respect ALL
MY RELATIONS and continue to
protect our earth mother and the
waters which flow from her. I lift
7Gen as I rize to ensure the
culture; and teachings are passed
on; while recognizing children
and the youth are our greatest
teachers; so I will always
remain on a learning journey.
I would rather die standing,
then praying on wounded
knees. I am #IDLENOMORE
I am a SPOKENVIZIONARY

Mahlikah Aweri
Spoken Word Artist, Published Writer, Red
Slam MC and Musician, Community Urban
Arts Director and Activist of African-
American/Haudenosaunee Mohawk
(Kahnawá:ke) & Mi'kMaw (Bear River)
heritage based in Toronto, Canada.

photo taken by Skycave Media Inc

https://twitter.com/RedSlam
https://www.youtube.com/RedSlamCollective
http://www.neighbourhoodartsnetwork.org/members/
mahlikah-aweri
http://profiles.sonicbids.com/artists/mahlikahaweri
http://www.facebook.com/mahlikah - SpokenVizions Magazine issue 27

Mahlikah Awe:ri a drum talk poetic rapologist of African-Canadian/Mohawk (Kahnawá:ke) & Mi’kmaw (Bear River) heritage, with Nova Scotian roots, based in Toronto. Mahlikah is a founding member of Red Slam Collective a Hip Hop Fusion Band, of diverse indigenous artists who also deliver 4 Direction Urban arts based community engagement projects with youth across Ontario. In 2011 she released the EP Serpent’s Skin and 2 Dream In Colour was published in the 6th Edition of Diaspora Dialogues TKO. In 2012 Malikah was published in the International Festival of Poetry of Resistance anthology Resistance Poetry #2....click on url for interview. - BlackCoffeePoet

IAM editor Jack Lister with Mahlikah Awe:ri of Red Slam Collective about music, ancestors and community engagement.... - IAM eMagazine Vol 3

IAM editor Jack Lister with Mahlikah Awe:ri of Red Slam Collective about music, ancestors and community engagement.... - IAM eMagazine Vol 3

Front lady for Tdot’s Red Slam Collective, Mahlikah Awe:ri, speaks on growth of the group and the ways that they give back. Red Slam will be headlining Redwire’s upcoming show Sentinel Shores: A Group Show and Event Exploring Land Defense February 2nd at Rhizome Cafe, Coast Salish Territories.... - RPM

With an almost shy earnestness that contrasted her fiery performance of movement, music and spoken word, Mahlikah joked that her mixed race heritage entitles her to another month as June is National Aboriginal History Month..... - MayTree

With an almost shy earnestness that contrasted her fiery performance of movement, music and spoken word, Mahlikah joked that her mixed race heritage entitles her to another month as June is National Aboriginal History Month..... - MayTree

This Sunday at 2:30 p.m. join Mahlikah Awe:ri, Andrew Moodie and Donna-Michelle St Bernard at The Music Gallery on John St. for The Beat Goes On, part of Diaspora Dialogues' celebration of Black History Month. An afternoon of spoken word, music and drama will be followed by a lively moderated conversation with CBC’s Garvia Bailey.

Here, Mahlikah Awe:ri gives Open Book a preview of the event and talks about her work as a spoken word artist, her heritage and more.... - Open Book Toronto

This Sunday at 2:30 p.m. join Mahlikah Awe:ri, Andrew Moodie and Donna-Michelle St Bernard at The Music Gallery on John St. for The Beat Goes On, part of Diaspora Dialogues' celebration of Black History Month. An afternoon of spoken word, music and drama will be followed by a lively moderated conversation with CBC’s Garvia Bailey.

Here, Mahlikah Awe:ri gives Open Book a preview of the event and talks about her work as a spoken word artist, her heritage and more.... - Open Book Toronto

Mahlikah Awe:ri’s poem “2 Dream in Colour” is about the global devastation of our natural environment and the land as a direct result of the lack of accountability of our capitalistic government leaders and the greed and over-consumption of our natural resources. “When we deplete the life energies from the land, water and air it becomes sick…colourless. Affecting the connection between the people and the land, for First Nations People this loss of connection dishonors our guardianship of Turtle Island and we lose balance and harmony. ” Mahlikah is a drum talk poetic-rapologist, of African/Mohawk/Mik’maw heritage, with Nova Scotian roots. Mahlikah is Kiswahili for angel and Awe:ri is Mohawk for heart. She provides cultural arts programming for the Living Through the Arts Program with the Royal Conservatory of Music. Mahlikah is a founding member of Red Slam, a diverse collective of indigenous writers, musicians and performers who also develop community engagement projects based on warriorism arts. She was named to the Ontario Arts Council’s 2010–11 Roster of Aboriginal Artists in the Schools and is a Toronto District School Board Artist as a member of the Association for the Development of Native Performers and Visual Artists, and is offering “My Owena; My Okra,” an exploration of poetry and rap creations inspired by indigenous visual images, music and social activism, in its arts education workshop series. In March 2011, the AngelHeartRiverwalker Project released its debut recording, a seven-track EP entitled “Serpent’s Skin,” featuring Mahlikah on vocals and Isaac “Riverwalker” Llacuachaqui on guitar.

“I’m sure colour is a part of my poetic landscapes in general; but for this piece it was deliberate,” she said. “I really wanted the reader to miss and long for the colour of our natural green space as much as I do.

“This poem was one of five that I submitted with my application to participate in the DD mentorship last spring. It started as an oral piece which I created for two Red Slam Collective performances we had where the overriding themes were climate change and land rights. It went through about 4 revisions before it was selected for print with the guidance of my mentor in the program. So it evolved structurally a little different because I was writing for readers not listeners. The greatest challenge was not losing my oral tongue in the process.

“Nia:wen to my mentor Rishma Dunlop and Diaspora Dialogues for giving me the opportunity to enhance my writing skills and be in a position to share my words with new audiences.”

The stanza, “I am 10 million earthworms deep/In Stephen Harper’s fertilizer”, is very indicative of the voice she writes from. I asked Awe:ri what were the thoughts behind it, the spirit which prompted her to write it. “Simple. Steven Harper is full of (fertilizer). His Government dismantled so many agreements First Peoples had established with the Liberals. As a people our political sovereignty and land claim resolutions are spiraling backwards more than 50 years.”

I asked her how the “songs once strong now faint” get heard above the din of post-Modern Toronto? “Only through collective memory. That’s why I envisioned Red Slam and continue to build partnerships across the colours of the medicine wheel. Because we all need to raise our voices in order to be heard above the noise pollution.

I wondered how her inclusion in this book reflects Awe:ri’s vision of Toronto. “Tkaronto: “where there are trees standing in the water”, Haudenosaunee. So ironic because our trees are now condos; apartments; skyscrapers…for many of my fellow writers who were published in the anthology they are able to frame New Toronto with the Immigrant experience. For myself being an Onk:wehonwe woman there is a part of my essence that looks back wanting to reclaim the Toronto before first contact. Then I look forward, my “kicks hit da pavement like a ceremonial drum/youth tribal chantin’/when’s freedom gonna come??” Over 25,000 self identified First People’s in Toronto and almost half are 25 years or younger.

“I did my reading for the DD TKO Marketing Buzz in Kensington Market in the frigid cold while snowing for passers-by while being photographed.

“I am excited to be working on a short book of my poetry next.” - Patrick Connors: Toronto Newz4u.net

Mahlikah Awe:ri’s poem “2 Dream in Colour” is about the global devastation of our natural environment and the land as a direct result of the lack of accountability of our capitalistic government leaders and the greed and over-consumption of our natural resources. “When we deplete the life energies from the land, water and air it becomes sick…colourless. Affecting the connection between the people and the land, for First Nations People this loss of connection dishonors our guardianship of Turtle Island and we lose balance and harmony. ” Mahlikah is a drum talk poetic-rapologist, of African/Mohawk/Mik’maw heritage, with Nova Scotian roots. Mahlikah is Kiswahili for angel and Awe:ri is Mohawk for heart. She provides cultural arts programming for the Living Through the Arts Program with the Royal Conservatory of Music. Mahlikah is a founding member of Red Slam, a diverse collective of indigenous writers, musicians and performers who also develop community engagement projects based on warriorism arts. She was named to the Ontario Arts Council’s 2010–11 Roster of Aboriginal Artists in the Schools and is a Toronto District School Board Artist as a member of the Association for the Development of Native Performers and Visual Artists, and is offering “My Owena; My Okra,” an exploration of poetry and rap creations inspired by indigenous visual images, music and social activism, in its arts education workshop series. In March 2011, the AngelHeartRiverwalker Project released its debut recording, a seven-track EP entitled “Serpent’s Skin,” featuring Mahlikah on vocals and Isaac “Riverwalker” Llacuachaqui on guitar.

“I’m sure colour is a part of my poetic landscapes in general; but for this piece it was deliberate,” she said. “I really wanted the reader to miss and long for the colour of our natural green space as much as I do.

“This poem was one of five that I submitted with my application to participate in the DD mentorship last spring. It started as an oral piece which I created for two Red Slam Collective performances we had where the overriding themes were climate change and land rights. It went through about 4 revisions before it was selected for print with the guidance of my mentor in the program. So it evolved structurally a little different because I was writing for readers not listeners. The greatest challenge was not losing my oral tongue in the process.

“Nia:wen to my mentor Rishma Dunlop and Diaspora Dialogues for giving me the opportunity to enhance my writing skills and be in a position to share my words with new audiences.”

The stanza, “I am 10 million earthworms deep/In Stephen Harper’s fertilizer”, is very indicative of the voice she writes from. I asked Awe:ri what were the thoughts behind it, the spirit which prompted her to write it. “Simple. Steven Harper is full of (fertilizer). His Government dismantled so many agreements First Peoples had established with the Liberals. As a people our political sovereignty and land claim resolutions are spiraling backwards more than 50 years.”

I asked her how the “songs once strong now faint” get heard above the din of post-Modern Toronto? “Only through collective memory. That’s why I envisioned Red Slam and continue to build partnerships across the colours of the medicine wheel. Because we all need to raise our voices in order to be heard above the noise pollution.

I wondered how her inclusion in this book reflects Awe:ri’s vision of Toronto. “Tkaronto: “where there are trees standing in the water”, Haudenosaunee. So ironic because our trees are now condos; apartments; skyscrapers…for many of my fellow writers who were published in the anthology they are able to frame New Toronto with the Immigrant experience. For myself being an Onk:wehonwe woman there is a part of my essence that looks back wanting to reclaim the Toronto before first contact. Then I look forward, my “kicks hit da pavement like a ceremonial drum/youth tribal chantin’/when’s freedom gonna come??” Over 25,000 self identified First People’s in Toronto and almost half are 25 years or younger.

“I did my reading for the DD TKO Marketing Buzz in Kensington Market in the frigid cold while snowing for passers-by while being photographed.

“I am excited to be working on a short book of my poetry next.” - Patrick Connors: Toronto Newz4u.net