Juneteenth Jamboree & Freedom Walk

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Shammy dee

t.tara turk-haynes

clarence “Chazz” ross

Shammy Dee is a professional DJ, artist, producer, and personality from Los Angeles. Primarily known as a DJ, he’s played for some of the world's top brands such as Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Choo, Dior, Adidas, and Burberry, to name a few, as well as recognized celebrities such as Mary J. Blige, the Kardashians, and Michael Bublé. On top of touring the nation multiple times as the tour DJ for internet sensation Destorm Power, Shammy has also shared the stage with GRAMMY award-winning artists like Kendrick Lamar and Diplo. Shammy Dee always keeps the energy flowing with his contagious energy and infectious smile. When he hosts a party, you know it will be an experience to remember!

t.tara turk-haynes is a writer whose work has been featured in various stages and screens including Lower Depth Theatre, Rogue Machine, Company of Angels, the Hip Hop Theater Festival, the Actor's Studio, Ensemble Studio Theater, the Schomburg, and the Kennedy Center. She is a graduate of Lang College and Sarah Lawrence, receiving the Lipkin Playwrighting Award. She has been a Cycle of Violence Fellow at Lower Depth Ensemble, Van Lier Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop, a member of Cosby Screenwriting Program, the Producers Guild Diversity Workshop, the Underwood Theatre Writers Group with Julia Cho, Rinne Groff, and Theresa Rebeck, and Company of Angels Writers Group. Her screenplays range from shorts to full length. She won Best Screenplay at African American Women in Cinema and was an Urbanworld Screenplay Finalist. Also a producer, she has co-produced the webseries “Dinner at Lola” featuring Tracie Thoms, Yvette Nicole Brown, Bryan Fuller and Nelson Ellis among others. As a fiction writer, her shorts and novellas have been published in various publications. She was published in Signifyin Harlem, Obsidian Call & Response: Experiments in Joy, Reverie: Midwest American Literature, the international anthology “X:24”, African Voices and Stress magazine. She has just finished a novel and a TV pilot on the Harlem Renaissance. She is a founding member of the producing playwrights’ collective The Temblors and a member of the 2021 Geffen Writer’s Room.

 CHAZZ’s performance teaching reflects forty years of achievements in African music & dance,  Latin percussion, martial arts, stand-up comedy and acting. He plays amazing African and Latin instrument combos- with wondrous bursts of excitement! His mastery of exotic stick, hand and wind instruments, includes didgeridoo, djembe, congos, cajongos, cajon, bongos, kalimba, udo,  timbales, whistles,  flutes, temple blocks, singing-bowls and harmonica. 

Aside from regularly performing at the LA Opera, Aquarium of the Pacific, Skirball Cultural Center, Riverside Drum, Mask & Dance Festival, Juneteenth Celebration-Santa Monica, Honor Thy Father Awards, Burbank City Council, San Bernardino County Fair, Forest Lawn, Survivor TV Show, Wooli-Me Expo and The NAACP Awards, CHAZZ has shared stages with Al Jarreau, Chaka Khan, Phil Perry, Ruby Dee & Ossie Davis, Malcolm Jamal-Warner, Eddie Griffin, Ray Brooks, DangerMan, Liz Lomax, Tommie Davidson, Annie McKnight, Rahshad Muhammad, George Makinto, McTate Stroman, Shafeeq, HB Barnum, Marcus Johnson, Mykal Ali, Ella Joyce, Richard Gant, Peggi Blu, Mekiel Rueben, Louis Gossett Jr., Low Riders (War) and the Oba-Oba, Brazilian Dance Troupe.

CHAZZ is a DreamShaper, Skirball Docent Instructor, VIP Mentor, VAPA Certified Music Curriculum Integrator, SAG-AFTRA Fellow, Black-Belt MMA, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Brother and an honored  graduate of Boston University and Boston University and UCLA Law School.

SAM STEVENSON

Le ballet dembaya

Bradley Simmons

Sam Kofa is an Afro-Latino DJ and Recording Artist hailing from with over a decade behind the mic. Currently residing in San Diego, Sam Kofa is originally from Sacramento, CA where he first got his roots as a DJ, MC and traveling musician. Being a lifetime, self-taught student of music has helped him develop his own approach to DJing and production that tells a story through the artists, genres and sounds within his catalog. 

To follow along with Sam Kofa’s music, find him on Instagram @samkofa or contact him directly at the.samkofa@gmail.com.

Le Ballet Dembaya is a professional West African Drum and Dance Company based in Los Angeles, California. With Guinea being their primary country of study, they practice traditional percussive rhythms, typically played on djembe and dundun drums, accompanied by intricate, polyrhythmic dances from various regions throughout West Africa. In hopes of preserving a beautiful cultural tradition Dembaya’s members have dedicated themselves to studying and mastering this art, while exposing its powerful healing qualities. 

Though they have been an official group only since 2015, the members of Le Ballet Dembaya have been drumming and dancing together since early childhood. Their parents are all among some of the first generation of people in Los Angeles to study, practice and celebrate the traditions of djembe music. So the artists in this company were raised together as brothers and sisters in this Los Angeles drum and dance community, and often gathered to practice the West African rhythms and movement. Little did they know that they would grow together to form Le Ballet Dembaya (which means “family” in the Soussou language spoken in Guinea). This name was chosen to acknowledge the sibling-like bond between the company members, to acknowledge their parents and elders whose footsteps they are following in, and to pay homage to their ancestors whom they honor each time they practice or perform this beautiful art form. Le Ballet Dembaya hopes to use this as a tool for education, healing, and empowerment in greater Los Angeles and beyond.

Bradley Simmons, a native of New York City, began playing Afro-Cuban and African percussion when he was 9 years old. From that point on and through his teenage years, he traveled throughout the City seeking out percussion teachers from Haiti, Cuba and Africa in an effort to enhance his understanding of these rhythmic forms, styles and techniques. Bradley soon became a consistent and sought after Conguero and shekere player for community and religious events. Bradley not only developed as a percussionist; he became a knowledge base for that which had preceded him, by the transfer of knowledge through the Afro-Cuban and African oral traditions.Throughout these developmental stages, Bradley sought out Afro-Cuban and African percussion in it's true form; never deviating from the traditional ways in which the rhythms and instruments are presented and played.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Bradley was soon very busy doing on-Broadway plays including: "Timbuktu" with Eartha Kitt and Melba Moore; Billy Wilson's version of "Guys and Dolls" starring Robert Guillaume; and "Reggae" with Calvin Lockhart and Philip Michael Thomas. Bradley performed in nightclubs with Eartha Kitt, Gregory and Maurice Hines, Miles Jaye and Obba Babatundé. He has recorded and played with The Fatback Band and with drummer Norman Connors. Bradley has also appeared on Television including the Mike Douglas Show and the Cerebral Palsy Telethon. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀