APRIL 14 | 7:30-9:00 pm 1100 Grainger Hall

The globalization of hip hop and the connection between old school political movements and contemporary global arts movements, Charlotte O’Neal aka Mama C 

Charlotte O’Neal aka Mama C is a visual and spoken word artist, co-Director of United African Alliance Community. She has been performing professionally for more than twenty years and exhibiting her art work extensively since 1987. Her work is featured in several art books and numerous magazines, galleries, museums and traveling exhibitions. Mama C was greatly influenced in her early years by the jazz, blues and gospel that Kansas City is famous for and integrates elements of that experience in both her music and the rhythm of her poetry along with the African beats and vibe of her spirit.

She explores the reality of her life as a Diaspora born African who has lived most of her years in Tanzania, in many of her poems, one of the most famous being “I Almost Lost Myself”.

Her song writing and performing talents have been showcased on stage, television and radio in many cities in Africa and in America.  She launched her book of poetry, Warrior Woman of Peace in 2008 and plans to launch her second book of poetry titled Life Slices…a Taste of My Heaven in 2013.  Mama C debuted several of these poems during the Poetry Africa Tour 2010 to Cape Town, South Africa; Harare, Zimbabwe and Blantyre, Malawi and  the 14th Annual Poetry Africa Festival in Durban, South Africa, all sponsored by the Creative Arts Center at University of kwa Zulu Natal.  She recently completed her 4th music/spoken word album produced at Peace Power Productions studio at UAACC and she has directed and appeared in several music videos featuring East African artists.

Mama C was one of the East African based artists selected to participate in the MDGfive.com project initiated by Emmy Award winning film maker, Lisa Russell and Grammy award winning vocalist Maya Azucena in conjunction with the United Nations Maternal Health project.

Mama Charlotte was recently selected for an artist residency in Egypt for the Nile Project, a unique collaboration of artists and environmentalists from the Nile region.