INTERVIEW WITH KING KIMBIT
King Kimbit is an Ottawa based emcee (writer+poet), educator, and musician. She/they released their debut album, Life Lessons Poetically in 2017.
On politics and art, the thinker, teacher, and performer says: “Every time you express, it is a political act. If you glorify doing drugs in your track, you're regurgitating instruction from systems built to hold you back. The personal is political."
Personally, I first came across the multi-talented independent artist when she performed at the Beats Beat The Police event in 2016 and she performed there in 2018 as well. The events were organized to commemorate International Day Against Police Brutality.
King Kimbit says, “Pretty much all of the arts-related projects I do are (inevitably) political. I've lived my whole life under the poverty line, I am a neurodivergent racialized Muslim woman. My existence is an act of resistance, and my success is an even stronger piece.”
The wordsmith and organizer gives respect to those working to serve immigrants, working in housing, and in food. The project I wanted to ask King Kimbit about the most was Cap City Cypers, ‘a low-barrier freestyle rap space with priority put on respect and education.’
The main goals of Cap City Cyphers are to “hold safer spaces for creatives to share, foster, and develop skills related to Hip-Hop culture, mainly freestyle emceeing, beat-making, and live drawing, as well as to keep Hip-Hop culture alive by hosting freestyle rap sessions and presenting educational programming related to Hip-Hop.”
Cap City Cyphers’ mandate below goes on to further describe a position in the practice of inclusivity, anti-oppression, and accountability.
“The intention of our series is to unite all Hip-Hop enthusiasts such as rappers, producers, and visual artists, especially artists who are living in the margins of the Ottawa/Gatineau and surrounding areas to explore their creativity in an inclusive and safer space, so we encourage attendees to refrain from rapping or engaging in any hate speech including but not limited to misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and racism. Hip-Hop has been historically a marginalized genre of music, and within that lies further ostracizing of Hip-Hop artists who are racialized, womxn, and queer. While holding this awareness at the forefront, we will not censor or shun people who might be problematic because we also believe that ‘cancel culture’ can be just as harmful. Instead, our method of resolution to keep this a safer space for artists who are racialized, queer, and womxn as an organization is to hold people accountable for their Word by calling them into a discussion on its power.”
King Kimbit is tirelessly breaking ground in the Ottawa community with the art projects she is committed to. Her advice for artists and those with a voice is to choose words carefully, with intention, as they have great power.
Other projects in Ottawa that King Kimbit is connected with are vast, diverse, and super cool!
Speaking Vibrations is a 45-minute live show on diaspora, communication, and identity with King Kimbit (vocal poet), Jo-Anne Bryan (ASL poet), Carmelle Cachero (tap dancer), Jordan Samonas (contemporary dancer), and Jacqui-du-Toit (director). CRANIUM (Capital Region Association for Nurturing Industry of Urban Music) is a new Hip-Hop festival and conference that was held in November 2019, which included Cap City Cyphers in its programming. Cap City Cyphers also took part in the House of Paint Hip-Hop festival, which has been running for over ten years in Ottawa. In the summer of 2019, King was the coordinator of HoP's Seeds Tent and Knowledge Conference, as well as a host for the OG500 Poetry Slam.
YouthSpeak is a space for low-barrier drop-in writing and performance workshops for youth 22 and under including a poetry slam at the end of the month.
King Kimbit is also involved in mentoring through Pass The Vibes, a grassroots arts collective fostering an ecosystem of QTBIPOC creatives of marginalized gender. She is an alternate host on Spirit of Vietnam, Ottawa's only Vietnamese radio show on CKCU FM. She is involved in the Artistic Mentorship Program (Youth Ottawa), working in schools and communities to teach arts project planning. Currently, King is the producer for The Morning Shift, Ottawa/Gatineau's only daily morning Hip-Hop show, on CHUO FM.
