Baba Brinkman’s The Rap Guide to Evolution
At Williams '62 Center for Theatre and Dance Feb. 8 & 9
By: Williams - Jan 17, 2013
The ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance presents a novel species of theatre that combines the wit, poetry, and charisma of a great rapper with the accuracy and rigor of a scientific expert, Baba Brinkman’s The Rap Guide to Evolution uses hip-hop as a vehicle to communicate the facts of evolution while illuminating the origins and complexities of hip-hop culture with Darwin as the inspiration.
The performance is February 8th & 9th, 2012 at 8:00 PM on the ’62 Center’s Adams Memorial Theatre, located at 1000 Main Street, in Williamstown, MA. Tickets are $3 with valid student ID & $10 for all others.
A smash hit at the Edinburgh Fringe and around the world, The Rap Guide is at once provocative, hilarious, intelligent, and scientifically accurate. Brinkman performs his clever reworkings of popular rap singles as well as his own originals to illustrate Natural Selection, Sexual Selection, Evolutionary Psychology, and much more.
Brinkman undertook the project at the suggestion of Dr. Mark Pallen, author of The Rough Guide to Evolution. After seeing Brinkman’s internationally acclaimed Rap Canterbury Tales, Dr. Pallen challenged the polymath rapper to “do for Darwin what he had done for Chaucer.” In order to ensure scientific and historical accuracy, Brinkman consulted Pallen throughout the creative process, making The Rap Guide to Evolution the first peer-reviewed hip-hop show. Pallen has described Brinkman as having “swallowed the idea and turned it into a work of genius.”
This performance is made possible by the W. Ford Schumann ‘50 Endowment for the Arts and the Lipp Family Fund for Performing Artists.
As with all CenterSeries productions, the ’62 Center presents Integrated Programming to offer an academic context to Streb. All Integrated Programming events are FREE and open to the public.
Master Classes will be offered at Williams College and Mt. Greylock Regional High School. Please email Randal Fippinger at rfippinger@williams.edu and Kaatje White at Kaatje.W.White@williams.edu, respectively, for details.
On February 7th, Baba Brinkman will participate in a forum on danger.
On February 8thth, there will be a post-performance Q&A with Baba Brinkman.
February 9th, sees the return of Cocktails and Context at 6.30pm. Professor of Biology Wendy Raymond will discuss, “The Luck of the Draw.” There will free refreshments and a cash bar.
Images Cinema will host, on February 11th, a free screening of Revisionaries with a post screening discussion with director Scott Thurman.
Continuing its mission to contextualize arts within scholarly inquiry, the Center presents an impressive body of work that sets student work side-by side with that of professional artists. We strive to challenge traditional forms, engage with a larger political dialogue and allow our audiences to explore diverse modes of expression. Not content merely to present popular work, the Center’s professional performances, workshops and student productions are designed to invite the entire community to engage, debate, and celebrate the experience of both witnessing and creating live art.
For tickets, visit the Williams ’62 Center Box Office Tues-Sat, 1-5 pm or call (413) 597-2425. For more information, please visit http://62center.williams.edu