Baba Brinkman Returns!

Rap artist and award-winning playwright Baba Brinkman

New York-based rap artist and former NIMBioS Songwriter-in-Residence Baba Brinkman returns in April to participate in a DySoC/NIMBioS workshop and premiere a new work, Rap Guide to Culture, in a free public performance.

Brinkman has been wowing audiences for ten years with his imaginative and award-winning “Rap Guide to…” series in which he takes ideas from science and philosophy and presents them in a unique platform: hip-hop.

When he returns to NIMBioS in April, he will premiere his new “Rap Guide to Culture” at 7:30 p.m. on April 23, 2019, in UT’s Student Union.

The series so far includes rap guides to Evolution, Human Nature, Business, Wilderness, Religion, Medicine, Climate Change, and Consciousness. His latest science/rap/comedy show, about the neuroscience of consciousness, recently concluded an eight-month run off-Broadway at the Soho Playhouse.

Called “astonishing and brilliant” by the New York Times, Baba is a Scotsman Fringe First Award winner and a two-time Drama Desk Award Nominee. He was featured on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” and at the Seattle Science Festival opening for Stephen Hawking. Baba is a winner of the National Center for Science Education’s “Friend of Darwin Award” for his efforts to improve public understanding of evolutionary biology.

In addition to his science rap, Baba is a pioneer in the genre of “lit-hop” or literary hip-hop, with rap adaptations of Beowulf, Gilgamesh, and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Baba tours and performs regularly and has spoken at several TEDx conferences and performed at the World Science Festival.

At NIMBioS, Baba will perform one of his signature “rap-ups” as a part of the DySoC/NIMBioS Investigative Workshop on Social Norms, April 23-25, 2019.

Baba was a Songwriter-in-Residence at NIMBioS in 2012. His original songs written while at NIMBioS include “Welcome to NIMBioS,” “Rising Up,” and “Mad Scientist.” “Welcome to NIMBioS” is a rap-up of the visit by the National Science Foundation during its site review of NIMBioS, which occurred while Baba was in residence in April 2012, and features “an intro” by NIMBioS Director Louis Gross. Listen to the raps at https://legacy.nimbios.org/songwriter.

Like all of Baba’s performances, his April show at UT cuts across a wide range of disciplines, from science to music to the arts. The interdisciplinary nature of the show is evident in the wide range of partners across the UT campus who are sponsoring Baba’s performance. We appreciate their support! Visit our webpage for updates: https://legacy.nimbios.org/bababrinkman

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